{"id":458,"date":"2014-09-12T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T18:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/?p=458"},"modified":"2025-09-18T00:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T07:37:23","slug":"microsoft-ventures-calls-startup-weekend-women-pointless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/microsoft-ventures-calls-startup-weekend-women-pointless\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Ventures calls Startup Weekend Women &#8220;pointless&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was shocked to hear this from the head of Microsoft Ventures, Rahul Sood:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>While I&#8217;m a huge advocate for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/diversity?src=hash\">#diversity<\/a> &amp; women entrepreneurs, having a startup weekend just for women is kinda <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/pointless?src=hash\">#pointless<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rahul Sood (@rahulsood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\/status\/510135575807262720\">September 11, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>He went on to apologize, sort of but not really, complain about being taken out of context, and brag:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\nI feel like being taken out of context kinda sucks. My apologies to anyone who misunderstood the point, I fight for entrepreneurs everyday. \u2014 Rahul Sood (@rahulsood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\/status\/510218947925651456\">September 12, 2014<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The context thing is\u00a0weird, \u00a0because I went looking for context in his previous tweets and could only find <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\/status\/509819647638523904\">complaints\u00a0about bad entrepreneurs<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\/status\/509487104200417280\">complaints about how busy he is<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\/status\/509756150862995456\">billion dollar startup ideas<\/a>. I went looking for some &#8220;context&#8221; to put this in, and could only find \u00a0this tweet. No idea if Rahul shares the sentiment, \u00a0but he did follow the guy immediately after he tweeted it.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rahulsood\">@rahulsood<\/a> As long as we draw attention to race\/gender separation it will continue to exist. Can&#8217;t believe ppl haven&#8217;t recognized that yet. \u2014 seangfuller (@seangfuller) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/seangfuller\/status\/510139431542861824\">September 11, 2014<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I have seen this perspective before: &#8220;If we ignore the problem, it will go away&#8221;. I think it would work for sexism as well as it does for Ebola.<\/p>\n<p>[[Updated]]<\/p>\n<p>Yes, this is exactly what he thinks. If we ignore our problems they will go away. From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geekwire.com\/2014\/microsoft-ventures-head-startup-weekends-women-pointless\/\">Geekwire<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"color: #231f1e;\">&#8220;WRT to my tweet \u2013 as long as we draw *<\/span><b style=\"color: #231f1e;\">extra<\/b><span style=\"color: #231f1e;\">* or even *exclusive* attention to race and gender separation it will continue to exist.&#8221; &#8211; Rahul Sood<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I think Wikipedia best explains the flaw in Rahul&#8217;s argument:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Object_permanence\"><b style=\"color: #252525;\">Object permanence<\/b><\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed (seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way). This is a fundamental concept studied in the field of\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Developmental psychology\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Developmental_psychology\">developmental psychology<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">, the subfield of\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Psychology\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Psychology\">psychology<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">\u00a0that addresses the development of\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"color: #0b0080;\" title=\"Infant\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Infant\">infants<\/a><span style=\"color: #252525;\">&#8216; and children&#8217;s social and mental capacities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of wonderful people who have worked very hard to make Startup Weekend a source of inspiration and creation for entrepreneurs of all stripes, men and women.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" lang=\"en\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/throwbackthursday?src=hash\">#throwbackthursday<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/tbt?src=hash\">#tbt<\/a> Where it all began for Zaarly <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/StartupWeekend\">@StartupWeekend<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/t.co\/4GfOgZwOQY\">pic.twitter.com\/4GfOgZwOQY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zaarly (@zaarly) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zaarly\/status\/484787827817717760\">July 3, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><span data-reactid=\".1.1:3:1:$comment10152361010528511_10152361683563511:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.$author\"><a id=\"js_6\" class=\"UFICommentActorName _5f0v\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #3b5998;\" tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adriana.moscatelli?fref=ufi\" data-hovercard=\"\/ajax\/hovercard\/hovercard.php?id=637470438&amp;extragetparams=%7B%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D\" data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;;&quot;}\" data-reactid=\".1.1:3:1:$comment10152361010528511_10152361683563511:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.$author.0\">Adriana Moscatelli<\/a>:<\/span><span data-reactid=\".1.1:3:1:$comment10152361010528511_10152361683563511:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-ft=\"{&quot;tn&quot;:&quot;K&quot;}\" data-reactid=\".1.1:3:1:$comment10152361010528511_10152361683563511:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body\">As I said several times now, I wouldn&#8217;t have started a company, had I not attended Startup Weekend Women&#8217;s Edition. There is good research out there supporting that same-sex role models are helpful in motivating women in STEM.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>A friend who&#8217;s participated\u00a0in Startup Weekend for years (but asked me not to use her name) said it better than I could:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Startup Weekend\u00a0had a partnership with women 2.0 for years and held joint events that always sold out. They weren&#8217;t\u00a0exclusive to women but were\u00a0around 60% women. The company Foodspotting came out of one of those events.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">It was incredibly positive and drew women to experience it that might not have before since they knew there would be other women there. We got great role models of women who were CEOs and CTO&#8217;s of startups who were passionate about being role models for women. Women who attend women specific events will often attend non-women specific events later which improves diversity for all events.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">If Startup Weekend helps people get towards the first step of entrepreneurship then that is exactly the place we should spend our efforts in increasing diversity. The funnel isn&#8217;t big enough. Ask the women who became entrepreneurs because of the many women specific events if they were &#8220;pointless&#8221;. I doubt it. And it is their opinion that matters here.<\/p>\n<p>There are many spectacular entrepreneurs, men and women alike, who give generously of their time to make entrepreneurship more accessable to everyone. Rahul&#8217;s comments on behalf of Microsoft Ventures\u00a0dishonor them all. As someone who worked at Microsoft for years, has many friends there, and still carry a lot of affection for the place, I&#8217;m deeply disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was shocked to hear this from the head of Microsoft Ventures, Rahul Sood: While I&#8217;m a huge advocate for #diversity &amp; women entrepreneurs, having a startup weekend just for women is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danshapiro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}