Heather Cabot’s women-centered tech book may have the word “geek” in it, but she hopes to dispel the narrative that all women working in the field are aloof outcasts. “There’s a breadth and a depth to the types of women working in these jobs,” she says of the diverse cast of female tech characters one might find in Silicon Valley.
Keynote speaker and co-author of Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking up Tech, Cabot looks at the women who are disturbing business-as-usual in the technology sphere, whether that’s through building their own companies, investing in female networks, or creating channels to inspire the next generation of tech girls.
If you’re a tech girl on the rise, here are some suggestions from inside the sisterhood:
Join a women’s tech society.
“It’s all about networks,” said Cabot about how women can help other women get ahead. “Success often comes down to who you know.”
She became a member of a group of women entrepreneurs, tech specialists, and investors. “It was kind of like this secret-handshake society,” she said. “I realized that there was this incredible energy going on with these women who were trying to help each other.”
Support systems are a way women can come together to counter what some in the tech world call the “brotopia” culture.
Become a tech angel investor.
“There are not enough women sharks out there,” said Cabot of how women often see the value in many rising tech firms that men may miss. “It’s really disturbing to me to think that one kind of person, one point of view, one type of pedigree, that those are the type of people that are building these things.”
She has become an angel investor by finding other women who have scalable ideas and then helping those ideas grow by building a team of other capable women founders around them.
Women who are accredited investors should check out programs where they can be trained to evaluate proposals and then how to make an investment in appropriate companies.
Start your own tech company.
“What I’m really hearted by is that companies being started by women and diverse teams are trying to address these ideas from the beginning,” she said. “They are creating a culture that recognizes that it not about beer pong and kegerators.”
Cabot says that women should build their own technologies and build their own narratives around their inventions, designs and business ideas because female-led companies are one of the most important factors for changing the culture.
Develop your tech leadership skills.
“There is a visibility gap,” said Cabot of how the extraordinary accomplishments of women tech leaders tend to be less acknowledged. She says that one of the key skills the many tech women lack is demanding attention. “Public speaking is the multivitamin for your career,” she said. “It’s raising your hand and putting yourself out there.”
She also suggests if you want to get ahead it’s not enough to be great on the tech skills alone; you have to work extra hard to cultivate your leadership style. For Cabot, it’s all about grooming yourself to ultimately go into those senior roles.
Carolina Starin is a reporter, storyteller, and television, radio and podcast producer. Her varied work has been seen on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Medium, KCRW and The Moscow Times. She holds a master’s in international business policy from Columbia University.
