Marina Lee is a serial entrepreneur and tech start-up community builder. She is the founder of Women In Tech Network and Startups Edge—organizations that create dynamic platforms and promote technology growth. Through WIT Network, her mission is to provide forums to cultivate the tech start-up ecosystem between investors and entrepreneurs that will achieve more gender balance as well as attracting new funds for women ecosystems.
Marina’s background includes creating and producing a highly successful radio show that focuses on world-renowned thought leaders such as Sir Richard Branson, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Robert Kiyosaki (bestselling coauthor of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series), and Ken Blanchard (bestselling author of One Minute Manager).
Marina experienced success with her first business endeavor at age twenty-five. For the past ten years, she has worked on the service side of technology, assisting small to midsize companies with SAS. In addition, she is serving on the board of directors for C & Company and is a contributor to Entrepreneur magazine, Business Daily News, and The Glass Hammer.
Los Angeles has experienced an explosive growth in the tech industry in 2012 and 2013. According to Intuit’s Startup Ecosystem Report, LA’s digital start-ups aren’t just keeping pace with past performances, they are exceeding them: a total of over $1 billion was raised for the first time in 2013, a bump up from 2012, when $871 million was raised. Additionally, the twenty-five digital start-ups acquired in 2013 by other companies, including Verizon, Target, and Intuit, generated over $1.1 billion. The Walt Disney Company and Techstars have officially announced the Disney Accelerator to shine a spotlight on LA’s tech start-up community. In addition, Turner/Warner Bros Media Camp, a comprehensive accelerator, has been seeking content start-ups in Hollywood as well as Santa Monica.
As innovative and fast-growing as the technology industry often is, women are still a minority. According to one venture capitalist, “In the last two or three years, I’ve seen more women-run businesses or women-men cofounded businesses than I had seen in my entire career.” Investors estimate there are several dozen new tech companies created and run by women in Southern California. These include women-led start-ups that have raised $700,000 to $50+ million in the LA tech start-up ecosystem. There are women-led start-ups that have raised $5 to $25 million in their first rounds of funding and/or exited their companies for $50 to $800+ million in Silicon Valley. A few women-led US companies have more than $1 billion in valuation, including Care.com (Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder, chairman & CEO), Gilt Groupe (Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, cofounders), Eventbrite.com (Julia Hartz, cofounder), and LA-based OneKingsLane.com (Susan Feldman, cofounder). Two major accelerators that churn out $50 million to billion-dollar companies in Silicon Valley have also been taking steps toward supporting women. According to Tech Crunch, 500 Startups Accelerator is launching its first syndicate in 2014, just for female founders, and Y Combinator Launch Fest spotlighted Y Combinator’s first Female Founders Conference on March 1, 2014.
Initiatives like this are a start, but we have a long way to go. Less than 7 percent of the tech start-ups currently being funded belong to women. Therefore, LA tech leaders and a coalition of women in tech created a hub, the Women In Tech Network (WITNetwork.com), to give everyone who has an incredible idea a chance to get funded more than 7 percent of the time.
I don’t, personally, like to view myself as a woman in the industry but rather as someone who gets the job done. In this technology innovation-driven environment, we pride ourselves on being problem solvers. Solutions need to be extremely simple so the end users will adapt to them quickly. We are in it to make a contribution and to create solutions for our world’s problems. As the saying goes, “the bigger the problems, the bigger the solutions.”
However, as women, I believe we do think differently—for the better. Numerous studies have documented how having female C-level executives and/or members of the board of directors increases companies’ bottom lines. One study sponsored by the Chubb Corportation indicated that the correlation between gender diversity on boards and corporate performance can be found across most industries, from consumer discretionary to information technology. Women have great advantages if we are productive and connected.
I’ve seen interesting patterns in how women and men deal with their work, both during the day and after. The majority of men are more willing and ready to delegate. By contrast, I had a fear of delegating. I was always worried that if I delegated tasks or projects, the work wouldn’t be done properly. Instead, I micromanaged my team and that did not get me far. I have learned to build a loyal team so I can trust them with anything—that was my solution to my personal challenge.
Most men can leave their work after a full’s day work, but women tend to carry their work worries with them. I used to be a workaholic. Note that I used the past tense. I routinely worked more than twelve hours per day and it eventually affected my health. Due to a near-death experience two years ago, I have learned to balance my life. I am able to keep my work hours and time with my family separate for the most part. That’s a work in progress.
Working in technology sometimes feels like a thrill ride, and this is truly an exciting time in the technology field, as we see many women in leadership roles. With sufficient funding, competence, and some good luck, the sky is the limit for women who are interested in the technical, business, and marketing side of all tech and tech start-up-related fields.
I have two big tips and recommendations for success:
First, get support from other influential women and men. Yes, there are some women who won’t help. Some of them may just pay lip service toward “paying it forward” to other women. However, you can find those who are genuine if you are looking.
At WITNetwork.com, we have been fortunate to find incredible and amazing women who have helped us create and build the infrastructure and run all the moving parts of our organization. And we have been able to call upon our friends, influential women and men, to help us spread the word and provide us the contacts we need to prosper. In addition, we are also grateful for our key contributors and advisors, women and men who have been generous and gracious with their time. We appreciate each and every person who has been helping to build WIT Network to be a resounding success and beyond.
Second, have great role models. Most self-made powerful women inspire me! I believe Marissa Mayer, CEO at Yahoo!, and Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook, have been headliners over the recent years. Other women, like Carol Ann Bartz, the former president and CEO of Yahoo!, have paved the way for those of us who are traveling on the same road now.
Some other role models include:
• Wendy Lea, CEO of Get Satisfaction (a community platform that helps companies create engaging customer experiences by fostering online conversations about their products and services), is another role model of mine, and I was fortunate to hear her personal story in Santa Monica, California. I could relate to so much of who she is and what she’s experienced. Wendy said that the reason she doesn’t get the results she desires is usually not because she is a woman but because women are underfunded and not treated with the respect we deserve in the Los Angeles and San Francisco tech start-up ecosystem. Especially because of that, Wendy feels the need to help when she can, and I feel the same need.
• Mary Barra is the CEO at General Motors—the first female CEO of a major automotive manufacturer. Barra broke the glass ceiling and it was certainly a historic day.
• Sheila A. Penrose, the chairman of the board for Jones Lang LaSalle (and yes, she prefers the “Chairman” title).
• Three very high-profile women and leaders on the world stage: Christine Lagarde at the IMF, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization. They certainly aren’t alone on that world stage: President Obama’s choices of Janet Yellen as chairman of the Federal Reserve and Penny Pritzker as Commerce Secretary has put women in two prestigious and very visible positions. I also admire Dilma Vana Rousseff, the President of Brazil, and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the Prime Minister of Denmark.
At WITNetwork.com, we feature and enthusiastically advocate placing the spotlight on a myriad of amazing and incredible professional women who inspire us across all industries in national publications. We also propel and further brand women on major speaking platforms in United States and abroad.
It’s about time!
We are stronger together! We are doing great things together! Together, we are here to change the world!