Business - Commentary
What I've Learned as a Black Female Founder in Silicon Valley By Shanea Leven, Founder and CEO, CODESEE, @SHANEALEVEN
"WHAT WOULD YOU DO if you had all of the time, money, and resources in the world?" This question was posed to me by long-time Googler, Colt McAnlis--and at the time it was striking. Since Colt and I started working together in Google Developer Relations, I've been grateful to call him a mentor. For days, I turned his question over and over in my mind. Growing up with a mindset of scarcity--believing there was never enough, and I was never enough-this single question shattered generations of engrained teachings. It seemed like such an absurd and even irrelevant question to my lived reality; he might as well have asked me what superpower I would choose. I struggled to conjure his hypothetical constraint-less state, let alone imagine what kind of impact I could have by taking it on. While my mind was filled with the weight of constraints and expectations, I continued to wonder, "What would I do?" As a Black woman in Silicon Valley, coming up with a response felt truly challenging. In my view, this is how the world works: There's one world for one kind of person and a different world for another. Silicon Valley is no different. In mid-August of this year, the U.S. Census Bureau released data showing the nation is more multiracial than ever. People of color represented 43% of the U.S. population in 2020--up from 34% in 2010. In two or three decades, experts project, white Americans will fall below half the population and lose majority status. There are nearly 22 million Black women in the U.S. It's a young and growing population, and so many are hungry for opportunity. Even rarer is a Black woman company founder -- fewer than 0.5% of Silicon Valley tech leadership positions are held by Black women, 22
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according to one study). I've always been one of those women hungry for opportunity. I want to help others--to make a positive impact and leave the world a little better than I found it. But, at every turn, most Black women are resource-constrained--running out of time and underfunded. The effort that most Black women must exert--their hunger to make a difference--is often clouded by long-standing stereotypes. Sometimes, even disdain. While the statistics suggest the rise of Black women could and should be encompassing, these social bounds remain a daily occurrence. I have felt all of this and more. I have made more mistakes than I can count. I have rubbed people the wrong way, or perhaps worse, spent hours mentally churning over the potential of having rubbed people the wrong way. I have fallen into the same traps so many women like me know--Black women--making the same devastating errors that others with more melanin in their skin have made. But, I've also done a few things right. Within that young, growing population of Black women and men, I count myself as one of the many Black women who have overcome a barrage of potentially defeating sociocultural challenges to thrive. Here's what I've learned:
1. You do what you need to do in order to achieve the things you want. Often, Black women are not afforded the same opportunities as our lighter counterparts. So, if you're a Black woman, you're going to need to seek them out; you're going to need to be bold and DAWN
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