Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reflections on Being a Female Founder

tracy.posthaven.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 311 posts

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#131

Post by xenadu02 »

ClassAndBurn wrote: post #20

Tracy was the best CEO I ever worked for. Hands down. She listened to everyone and made PlanGrid a place where everyone was empowered to make change. Her passion to solve problems was obvious and raw. She attracted people who were similarly passionate. I knew she had it harder than others when I saw one of our own VC's caller her a "little girl" while doing a fireside chat with her at PlanGrid. In spite of it all she…

Seconded. Tracy is a great CEO and worked incredibly hard to make PlanGrid what it was.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#132

Post by chillfox »

ameister14 wrote: post #49

I first truly understood how different it was for women when a friend came home from an investor pitch and casually complained to another woman we lived with that it had been another investor more interested in a date than an investment. It was then that I found out it was common to have potential investors take female founders out for dinner, ostensibly to talk over the potential investment but in reality as an atte…

Recruiters on LinkedIn are the same. They try to hook you with a nonexistent job opportunity as a ruse to get you on what's actually a date.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#133

Post by [deleted] »

ifokiedoke wrote: post #125
tialaramex wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that bugs me: Women I know who wrote software kept finding new roles where they'd be in management instead and then they moan that they liked writing code and miss it. Maybe that tells us that sexism in software development is prevalent and they wanted out, which is no fault of theirs, and maybe they just wanted more money - but it definitely sucks overall. I find blind technical interviewing easy because I…

My own personal experience as a female software developer is that there is pressure from all sides to go into management, and this pressure can come from both ill and good intent. Others have mentioned that it might be because of perceived superior communication skills (good?), or perceived lack of "good-enough" technical skills (bad?)... both of these add to the problem, but I've also experienced that diversity-awar…

[deleted]

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#134

Post by thelittlenag »

smabie wrote: post #130
umvi wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, when I hear that a woman (or man) with kids is running a startup, I think "that kid isn't going to have the full attention of that parent..." Especially when I read stuff like: > I pressured myself into proving that I was as dedicated to PlanGrid as I always have been. I interpret that phrase as "...at the expense of dedication to my kid". I personally think it's okay to "be less dedicated" to work in ord…

Kids don't actually demand that much time. It just turns out a lot of (Western) people spend tons of time with their kids, so we think they demand a lot of time. For example, I used to live in Africa and in the town where I lived, kids 2 and older were expected to look out after themselves. Regularly, a 4-year old would be asked to go get some bread from the store, or even cigarettes and beer. I think this is natural…

I wish I had more up votes to give.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#135

Post by britr »

umvi wrote: post #87
vmception wrote: post #66

> I think I was scared of what others might think of me as a new mother and CEO, maybe because of my own insecurities, maybe because of the societal norms ingrained in me. I see this so much from corporate career ladder focused women. People literally feeling guilty for wanting some aspect of motherhood, or going through some aspect of motherhood. (and then ironically apologizing about that, despite the core of their…

Personally, when I hear that a woman (or man) with kids is running a startup, I think "that kid isn't going to have the full attention of that parent..." Especially when I read stuff like: > I pressured myself into proving that I was as dedicated to PlanGrid as I always have been. I interpret that phrase as "...at the expense of dedication to my kid". I personally think it's okay to "be less dedicated" to work in ord…

How can you judge her capability as a mother based only on extrapolating from what she actually said?

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#136

Post by the_af »

smabie wrote: post #130
umvi wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, when I hear that a woman (or man) with kids is running a startup, I think "that kid isn't going to have the full attention of that parent..." Especially when I read stuff like: > I pressured myself into proving that I was as dedicated to PlanGrid as I always have been. I interpret that phrase as "...at the expense of dedication to my kid". I personally think it's okay to "be less dedicated" to work in ord…

Kids don't actually demand that much time. It just turns out a lot of (Western) people spend tons of time with their kids, so we think they demand a lot of time. For example, I used to live in Africa and in the town where I lived, kids 2 and older were expected to look out after themselves. Regularly, a 4-year old would be asked to go get some bread from the store, or even cigarettes and beer. I think this is natural…

Do you have kids? Are you speaking from experience? A kid of 2 is not able to look after him/herself. Kids that young need lots of attention. I am speaking from experience, by the way.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#137

Post by irjustin »

I was lucky enough to hear Tracy speak recently. Her persona oozed so much of what I wish I could be. Successful, confident.

There's always tougher, more human sides that we don't like to share because it allows us to be taken down. Like revealing the weak points of our fortress to the enemy. I can only guess what that feels like as a woman in the industry. I 100% loved this post.

Thanks Tracy for writing this! Count me as one of your fans and whatever you do next, motherhood, investing, founding, watching your children grow - I'm rooting for you.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#139

Post by _pzdn »

globular-toast wrote: post #54
_pzdn wrote: post #23

This was an interesting read. I found it well written and kind of sad, if optimistic and hopeful. Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. I am betting there is no significant difference in inherent potential talent between the two genders, so why are almost all coders I've worked with male?

> Personally, I would love to see a lot more female developers. See there you betray a rather sinister idea. If you had said that you want to see any unfair barriers to entry removed, or that you want to ensure equal exposure and opportunity across all people and all fields then I could support it. But instead you made your desires quite clear: you just want female developers. That means the gender, physical appearan…

there are many good reasons for wanting more women developers, IMO. are there any bad reasons for wanting such? this is not a flip comment. if it causes a laugh i dont see a problem with that but it is honestly not intended to denigrate anyone, but bring people into, well, software, which is probably the greatest thing in existence.

diversity is generally considered a good thing in evolution. i dont know if that applies to concepts like the tech industry, but maybe it does.

i am not against anyone and think the universe of software is a big one with a ton of room.

software is not created in a vacuum, nor is any other art or form. i want us all doing it, not just a bunch of people like me in every way.

Re: Reflections on Being a Female Founder

#140

Post by rdamico »

timsally wrote: post #11

Tracy, I haven't participated in HN for about two years. This article hit me so hard I had to log in to say thank you and express my sincere appreciation. I remember seeing an interview with you when you first started PlanGrid and it was clear you were going places. Telling this part of the story is deeply important and takes incredible courage.

Same here. This was such an inspirational read. Thank you for sharing this.
Post reply on HN