The Connection Newsletter 85 - The Problem With Women Founders

Hello!

This is edition #85 of The Connection, the weekly email I send family, friends, and future friends (hello!) Glad you're here.

Lately, you can’t scroll Twitter without coming across one of the following:

• COVID-19 updates 

• COVID-19 memes

• A profile about the “implosion” of a hot startup

The first and second are terrifying and hilarious, respectively. What makes the third interesting is this trend of profiles covers companies founded or run by women.

Jessica Lessin brought this up in The Information newsletter last week:

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Let’s look at some examples:

1. How Outdoor Voices Imploded 

Many reasons, but CEO Tyler Haney is obviously at fault for the strenuous demands she placed on her team:

The CEO of a company that’s built on the back of social media wants her social media team to be uber responsive on social media? What a witch.

2. How WeWork Collapsed

Apparently, Rebekah Neumann fueled it.

I’ve read this twice and I’m still not sure how, but she did:

Neumann’s crime seems to be her devotion to her husband and family. And being born into money. Here’s a quote from a former WeWork employee:

...wait what? What's that have to do with anything?

3. How Away Created a Toxic Work Environment

CEO Steph Korey’s created it, obvi.

This literally is a non-event. If you’re a man, you’re practicing “radical candor.” If you’re a woman, you’re bullying.

4. How Marto Capital Collapsed

CEO Katina Stefanova’s fault. She completely misrepresented her time at Bridgewater to launch her company. Look at her bio (parenthesis mine):

In other words, she slightly embellished her role as an investor during her time at Bridgewater. It’s a good thing no man has ever embellished his contributesion on his resume, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Tinder, About.Me, Myspace, Friendster, or Xanga, ever.

Stefanova’s “crimes” were losing money and being early on crypto (still TBD). Both non-events for men.

5. How The Wing Imploded (it’s my fault) 

The Wing’s CEO Audrey Gelman took it upon herself to write her own takedown article. Which, in one way, is brilliant: if you know it’s coming, might as well shape the narrative and keep the SEO juice for yourself, amirite?

Here’s one of her self-criticisms:

“Undefined career paths and growth opportunities” at a fast-growing startup is a feature, not a bug.

Of course employees are going to ask about career paths at your company. Yes, they want to have clearly defined steps to promotion. Every CEO should try to provide this.

But is it a character flaw if they don’t have this structure in place after four years? A man certainly wouldn’t think so. Neither should a woman.

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What’s going on here? Is this the fallout after the meteoric rise and incredible trainwreck of Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes? Is what we’re seeing in the media the Holmes effect?

Critical pieces about companies failing or mistreating employees need to be written. It’s certainly still news. However, we need to write and read with a critical eye. We have to ask ourselves, “if the CEO was a man, would the story be the same?”

Related: What’s Really Holding Women Back?

This was a fascinating study done by the Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, on why women failed to advance at a consulting firm.

After they delivered their findings to the consulting firm, the firm rejected the feedback, and the study ended. Summary:

Next week: In #86, we’ll look at the effects of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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