technical women Archives - The Grassy Road

Equality as an ingredient for peace: from Gaza to Ramallah to Tel Aviv

It’s hard to know if you can make a difference. Small actions, personal actions, can they in some small way change the path to peace? Who knows, but why not do them anyway just in case? Here’s the story of our efforts; the story of WE2, women for economic equality, and our mentoring mission in January 2018. Early this year I led a delegation of Silicon Valley executive women to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank to mentor women entrepreneurs. As I posted before we left: “I am more deeply [...]

By Penny Herscher|2019-01-04T10:05:05-08:00February 7, 2018|Equality|Comments Off

Would you be intimidated being alone in a crowded room?

Imagine you are a successful business professional. You are invited to many events after work to network, create useful contacts and learn about new areas impacting your work. You go to such an event one evening and, as you walk into the room, you quickly scan to see if there is anyone there like you. And event, after event, you are the only one of your kind in the room. There may be 100 people in the room and you are still the only one. This is the experience of [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-12T18:40:53-08:00April 24, 2014|Equality|0 Comments

Feeling like a failure every day – and overcoming it

I doubt myself every single day. As a CEO it's the dark secret none of us are supposed to talk about, but it's real, and so it was marvelous for me to listen to Maria Klawe yesterday say that she wakes up feeling like a failure every day. Now Maria is one of the most successful people in academia. She's president of Harvey Mudd College, educating the next generation of brilliant computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists, she sits on the board of Microsoft and she's a much admired water color [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T09:52:05-08:00October 3, 2013|Career Advice, Equality|0 Comments

Being CEO is your last job

I often end up in the same conversation with ambitious entrepreneurs. They want to run their own business... they have an idea, or are frustrated with their current position, they are building a plan to get to being CEO of their own company and they want advice. Thursday evening I was in just such a conversation with a talented pending entrepreneur - and it's a coaching moment. Before you get too wedded to the idea it's important to think through how long you plan to be CEO for. 2 years, [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T16:50:12-08:00February 11, 2013|Leadership|0 Comments

Dressing for success as a woman in Silicon Valley

There's a new class of perfect female executive in technology today. She wears short skirts, fitted tops, maybe a jacket or a small cardigan and heels. Always legs and heels. Her hair is perfect, her makeup light and she never forgets her lipstick. These women were all over Dreamforce in San Francisco a few weeks ago. As I walked around the show I was struck by how much the uniformity of their look is the female equivalent of the buff, white sales guy of my early career who worked out [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T16:53:08-08:00October 15, 2012|Equality|2 Comments

Girl, stop crying and talk like a man

The same issue comes up every time. "I offer an idea at a meeting, no one listens to me and then a man says the same thing and everyone listens". This is what I hear again and again from women in tech. Often they are the only woman on a team and so the only woman in the room. Often they are smart, nerdy and not very assertive. Sometimes, not always, they are very polite too. Their ideas get overlooked and it upsets them. And they ask me for advice. [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:37-08:00April 13, 2012|Equality|0 Comments

Girls and 1000 tech jobs in Nashville

We have a real problem with jobs in tech. We have more jobs than qualified people.This is not in the news today because for much of the US population there are not enough jobs. Not enough jobs that people are trained for. And yet in Silicon Valley we have 1 tech position open for every 2 that are filled. Hiring great technical staff is tough and increasingly expensive.But this is not just a California problem. At the Nashville Technology Council’s annual meeting last week the theme was Diversity – and [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:01:10-08:00February 3, 2012|Equality|1 Comment

Yahoo panel: There’s no such thing as work-life balance

Oh the irony of posting on this right after my post on the Iron Lady! She had no balance too.For a while now I have been outspoken that I think balance is a myth and we are unfair to young women coming up to spin the myth that they can have it all. They can't any more than men can. Business is just too competitive.So it was fun for me last week to be on a panel at Yahoo on Breakthrough Leadership Lessons and to be asked about work-life balance. [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:38-08:00January 24, 2012|Equality|0 Comments

5 leadership keys for women

Do women lead differently than men? Yes, usually. Do women face more barriers than men? Frequently. But do women often hold themselves back ? Yes.I gave a leadership talk and Q&A, at a tech company in Silicon Valley a couple of weeks ago where I was meeting with female leaders in a hardcore semiconductor company. Because it's hardcore it was a small group, and because I grew up (professionally) in a hardcore technical environment like that I spoke to the things I have seen women do that hold them back [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:41-08:00September 16, 2011|Equality|0 Comments

Part deux – tips on VCs and raising money

Here's the second half of Pemo Theodore's interview with me on tips for raising money from VCs... how to tell if they are interested in what you are saying, what's happening to the venture capital industry and insights into the special challenges that face women entrepreneurs.

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T17:13:49-08:00September 14, 2010|Leadership|0 Comments