Building a tech sector in Houston’s image
Houston has worked for a long time to build a technology sector and innovation culture, albeit with mixed success. Recently, signs have appeared — including a big jump in venture capital — that suggest the city is finally making progress. A good reason for that may be the legion of women who are founding companies, running startup assistance programs and investment groups, and building new organizations that connect female entrepreneurs.
In this week’s Texas Inc., reporter Andrea Leinfelder explores the leading roles women are taking to nurture the tech sector and finds they are helping to shape a distinctly Houston startup scene to reflects the city’s diversity. Houston has a greater share of female founders than all but four major tech ecosystems in the world, according to the Innovation policy group Startup Genome. About 20 percent of Houston founders are women, compared with 16 percent in Silicon Valley.
“Our inclusivity is one of our strengths,” Gaby Rowe, CEO of startup hub Station Houston, told Leinfelder. “And if we don’t build on it, then we’re not setting ourselves up for success as best as we possibly could.”
Women face the same challenges as all entrepreneurs when it comes to translating an idea into a product and getting a company off the ground. But, as in other fields, the hurdles are higher.
Take money, for example. The venture capitalists who decide which companies get funded are overwhelmingly male, and unsurprisingly, women received just 2.3 percent of capital invested in venture-backed startups last year, according to financial data and software company PitchBook. In many cases, female entrepreneurs pitch products aimed at women and male-dominated investment committees just don’t get them. The questions they ask often betray their biases.
Chris Tomlinson examines how the language in help-wanted listings and job descriptions can reveal the culture of workplace and the implicit biases of management teams. A job posting seeking a “hard-charging” sales person is almost certainly a tipoff that preferred candidates will be male, just as a company asking for an empathetic professional who can build lasting relationships is signaling that women may have a leg-up.
In either case, Tomlinson writes, the employers are probably reducing the field of applicants and possibly losing out on talent. Companies and managers need to consider language carefully not only in job postings, but also in the questions they ask during interviews. Again, if potential hires sense implicit biases, they might find another employer for which to work, regardless of how well the job might fit their skills and interests.
It all comes down to building a diverse workforce for the simple reason that it’s good business. Studies show that diverse companies outperform market averages.
Robin Russell knows that. Russell, the deputy managing partner of the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, tells our contributor Ilene Bassler that a diverse team of lawyers will ultimately will give better advice to clients. Hunton Andrews Kurth was formed last year by the merger of the Houston firm Andrews Kurth Kenyon and Virginia-based Hunton & Williams.
Russell, who as the managing partner of the Houston office of Andrews Kurth Kenyon, has worked over the past year to integrate the two firms. Through it, she has kept in mind that bringing diverse experiences to the table with clients provides them the best service.
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