If you've spent any time in the technology realm - and even if you haven't - you're probably aware of the murky alphabet soup that pervades much of geekdom. So when I sat down to contemplate my inaugural contribution to BitchBuzz I found myself amused to recall a particular acronym that relates quite well to this site - and frankly to the very nature of what I think it means to be a woman in the ever-so-testosterone laden realm that is Silicon Valley.
It's about that word. Bitch. And what that means as a woman in Silicon Valley.
Don't get me wrong, the gender ratio is a hell of a lot better now than it was when I took my first tech-related job back in the early 90s, but to say that things are balanced ... well ... it's just not true. My dear friend Christine Herron, an accomplished business woman turned VC, has for some years now made it a practice to count the number of women in the room at any given event or conference. Based on her relatively strong statistical analysis for an array of major technology industry confabs, it would seem that we women have hovered at about an 11 percent participation at such gatherings for several years now.
I've heard word that investors are specifically seeking female entrepreneurs yet of the hundreds they meet in any given year, only about 2 percent are women.
Why?
t's a good question, and it's one that I intend to try and tackle as part of my contribution to the BitchBuzz Nation. No doubt I'll have some tongue-welded-firmly-in-cheek stories to tell along the way ... so with that I'll invite you to take a listen to my initial post, and learn about my favorite acronym.
About Cathy Brooks:
Her first grade report card said it all. "Cathy likes to participate in any project, so long as she gets to talk." That hasn't changed. For the last two decades this sassy raconteur has toiled in and around media and communications and currently leads the charge on business development for a very exciting venture – Seesmic. The fifth company of French entrepreneur Loic Le Meur, Seesmic is an online media platform that enables global conversation using video as the conduit. When not using her moxie in business, Cathy gambols around San Francisco, spending time training dogs and cooking.