Last Thursday evening, Gayle King looked out to an audience of 5,000 people in the San Francisco Moscone center and asked “Where are all the women in tech?” My colleague and I quickly sat up straight, waved our hands in the air, and shouted “We’re here.” A roar of applause followed her comment.

King was perhaps an unlikely choice for hosting the discussion as she is mostly known as a morning talk show host and isn’t really tied into the tech community. Her guests were Jessica Alba, CEO of the Honest Company, and CEO of Youtube Susan Wojcicki. But her candid interview style and sharp wit was a refreshing change to what can be a dry atmosphere. As a copywriter in this industry, I’m always looking for ways to make technology exciting. As I sat there with two friends, I was excited to see a panel of successful women sitting on stage -- and even more excited to see so many men leaning forward in their seats, eager to know their secrets.  

However, not everyone was won over by King’s antics. For instance, Lauren Hockenson of The Next Web was clearly offended by a series of questions fired off by King:

“Susan, you know something about babies,” King said during the panel. “This is what I love about Susan: she has five children.”

Wojcicki smiled, and confirmed King’s statement. When pressed, Wojcicki said that her eldest is turning 16, while her youngest is 8 months.

“By the same husband?” King inquired.

15 minutes into the panel, and Gayle King had asked one of the most powerful woman in Silicon Valley if all of her children have the same father.

What people who weren’t there might miss out on is King’s personable, wisecracking interview style. If you ask me, we need more people like King coming into SOMA to lift the serious veil off everyone’s eyes. Yes, we work in tech, but that doesn’t mean we’re stuffy and don’t know how to laugh. Susan didn’t seem offended by the question. In fact, she smiled a lot which tells me that King succeeded in helping her guest drop her guard.  

Why don’t you start a perfume line?

Jessica Alba had the “aha” moment for her company when she was pregnant with her first daughter. She had an allergic reaction to a laundry detergent and looked into what was in some of the products. She discovered that many of them contained unsafe ingredients. Instead of continuing to buy products from other countries which have stricter regulations for making products, she decided to take action.

“I’m gonna do something about it… I want my baby to grow up in a safer world.”

She told a story of how people reacted in Hollywood when she told them about wanting to start a business. They looked at her cross-eyed, telling her she should launch a perfume line. She ignored the doubters and went on to create her vision with a very employee-centered dynamic. After describing how the company has grown so quickly in the past couple of years, she proudly announced extending their 10 month maternity/paternity leave to 16 months!

“We’re a young company, making sacrifices. In the end, we invest in our culture and in our employees -- we know it will pay off!”

This is a big deal in a country where most women don’t have paid maternity leave, and feel pressured to get back to work as soon as possible. This leads many women to leave their jobs entirely, as Susan said she would quit if in the same circumstance.

Computers aren’t just for boys

King’s initial question on the lack of women in tech is well-founded. Only 18% of computer science graduates are women. Susan talked about getting her daughter interested after her daughter told her she didn’t like computers. Susan didn’t sit back or tell her daughter that was okay, but enrolled her in computer camp. Her daughter felt out of place because she was the only girl. The CEO of YouTube decided to call the director of the computer camp to find out why.

“My daughter doesn’t have to like it, but she has to be proficient. There should be a computer class in every school.”

You can guess where this is going. The camp director decided to create a second camp just for girls which Susan’s daughter attended. Her entire face radiated when she said that her daughter now likes computers.  

The big takeaway for me is we need more women in tech, but how do we do it? For starters, by attracting girls at a young age with computer classes and science-based learning to get them motivated about technology. Secondly, to empower women in the workforce with benefits like paid maternity leave so they will want to stick around. And last but not least, make it exciting -- the way these three women did! When asked about what she knows for sure, Alba said:

“I know for sure that you’ll never know if something will succeed if you don’t try it. Put yourself out there!”

It’s important as an entrepreneur to hear these stories and know you’re not alone. Here at Near Me we meet a lot of people starting their own business or looking to create a marketplace, so any opportunity to hear from entrepreneurs who are making it is really useful. Do you have an idea for a business, but aren’t sure if it’s a good one or which steps to take in order to make it happen? Your challenges might be different from these women, but you can learn a lot by studying how they got to where they are now.