I wasn’t able to publish this post on International Women’s Day, as the AppMap team and I were spending the day offline at a company retreat. But it’s an important holiday (and month!) that I always want to publicly recognize and reflect on.
Last year, I wrote about the women I’ve had the honor of supporting in their entrepreneurial journeys. Because when women help other women, we all win.
This year, I’d like to write about the women who are supporting me in my entrepreneurial journey.
It’s a privilege to be a mother, investor, entrepreneur and CEO, but it can also be incredibly challenging! I’m so thankful for these women who I can always lean on for guidance, friendship and hard-won perspective:
- Lizzie McGlinchey, who is both my right and left hands and I would be lost without her.
- Julie Gunderson, who is a genius at building open source communities and has offered such valuable guidance on how to execute DevRel well.
- Meera Oak and Laura Rippy of GreenD Ventures, who believe in me and the AppMap team.
- Jessica Lin of Work-Bench who shouts from the rooftops on behalf of all women founders working in venture-backed startups, and demands equity for us all. I’m honored to be included in Work-Bench’s recent newsletter and glad to be growing AppMap with Jessica, Jon, Kelley and the rest of the Work-Bench team.
- Shayla Cataldo, who as an MBA student supported me in critical thinking work this year and who I was grateful to collaborate with (PS she is a rock star!)
- Tasha Kitty, whose insights about how to work together help me be a better leader and help AppMap work better together.
- Friends like Paula Long, and others who were willing to look at AppMap and offer their perspective or connect me with people willing to share feedback.
- Women like Kristel Kruustük and Jamie Langskov who helped me and AppMap at the outset of the crisis in Ukraine. Their support was so crucial as we navigated an unprecedented event that directly impacted many members of our team.
According to Pitchbook, women-founded startups in the US raised nearly $6.4 billion in venture funding last year – that’s 83% higher than the total raised in 2020. Despite these encouraging figures, women-founded companies received just 2% of dollars invested in VC-backed startups in 2021.
We’ve got A LOT more work to do to #BreaktheBias, and as a woman founder building a deeply technical B2B product, I’m so grateful to have other women – and supporters of women! – to lean on. Onward!
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