Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

the value of diversity

7 Mar 2024 · 0 min

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In this brief talk, the speaker explains that diversity’s impact begins at the highest levels of a company. A female co‑founder can draw more women to the organization, and when women occupy a substantial share of management (about half) and board seats (around 40%), they serve as visible role models. This top‑down representation makes the workplace more attractive to other women, creating a reinforcing cycle of inclusion.

The interesting thing about diversity is it starts right from the beginning. If you have one co-founder who's a woman, she can attract a lot of good women into the company. And if you have half the managers are women, a lot more women feel like joining. And if you have half the board or 40% of the board who's women, you know, everyone's got role models to look up to. So I think that was one piece of learning I thought was quite valuable.