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In the Technology and Innovation sector, we are consistently confronted with the meritocratic ideal that dilligence, hard work, demonstrated history of accomplishment and brilliance are driving factors of this industry. But what if they are not? Or what if these opportunities just don't apply to you? Right now? In the future? How do you choose to confront this?
This morning, the first article on my Twitter stream asserted an understanding of "The One Thing VCs Could Do Immediately To Increase Returns" (Nilofer Merchant, Harvard Business Review). If you haven't had a chance to read it, I urge you to spare the few minutes to do so. The Cliffs Notes here are that it touches on the story told by numbers on the IMMEDIATE NEED to expand diversity and vision, based around current systemic perceptions and a sociocultural phenomenon called "Pattern Recognition" or watch our globally competitive advantage bottleneck. Try a quick Google on that phrase in context with VC or in the writings of academic innovation champion, Vivek Wadwha, if you are compelled to read more.
The story's most salient points illuminate this year's 3% investment in Women Founded companies, a 2% decrease from last year accounting for 40% loss of market share. And the following reality check: "So, basically, if you followed this limited logic… you’d hear that if you’re a woman, black, foreign, or old, you need not apply; you will not be seen. No matter how good your idea could be. No matter how many lives it could save, or new solutions you create, or how much revenue it could generate."
As someone who has encountered roadblock upon ceiling to my own achievements in this industry; having a few Ivy degrees, outstanding history of broad professional accomplishment, having founded the first Diversity and Inclusion focused incubator in the Midwest in the Pilsen Neighborhood and having been the first U.S. Latina to hold that role (something incredibly significant to have been from Chicago - a city that has also produced the finest academic and literary Latinas in the nation), having built a national and international ecosystemic network around that space - with a diverse array of local partners, hosting the White Hourse' National Day of Civic Hacking, regularly receiving delegations of foreign entrepreneurs from the US Dept of State with 173 local, national and international press pieces; previously having built projects from civic apps to digital communities to a pre-facebook comparable. I am constantly forced to evaluate where I fit into this ecosystem as an innovator and leader. If the timing just isn't right. If Chicago isn't the place. If there is a place at all. But, fortunately for me, I completely lack a sense of personal limitation and am incredibly stubborn.
It is in this state that we have the greatest opportunity to reject the polarized world of contrived dualisms, dichotomies and paradoxes; there is nothing but to choose to do better and do everything it takes to make that happen. Build companies. Build networks. Build ecosystems. Build pathways to capital access and drivers to other capital markets. Build.
With the MBDA having asserted that expansion within this sector represents a $2.5 trillion dollar income gap with the potential to create 12.5 million new jobs. We all need to work harder to bridge that outcomes gap. The space I'd founded was not a solution, but it was a start.
If you are reading this, looking at the above statistics while shaking your head that you are one of the few that this doesn't apply to, then fantastic! Your endurance and succcess in this space deserves to be celebrated, but in the national statistical narrative - it is an anomaly. Whether you choose to confront this succes with vertical ascension, holding that door open or working together with others directly; that existence alone is pioneering and is helping pave the path for a revolutionary and expansive paradigmatic shift.
If you haven't yet hit those achievements and milestones, please be stubborn and join the rest of us in pushing through and creating the future we want to see in Chicago as a globally competitive tech hub, driven by our ideas and the strength and diversity of it's human capital. We all have a part to play in growing together and moving that needle forward. Together, we can continue to strategically confront those issues and leverage a collective power to create our own successes. I know I will. Let's go.
