StartUp Podcast: #19 Diversity Report

December 19, 2015 8:06 AM

If you were to walk into Gimlet HQ, there are a few things you'd probably notice right off the bat. First, it's crowded - like a grungy dorm room. Second, the lighting... it's not great. Not many windows. Third, it's white. Really white. 24 of Gimlet's 27 employees are white. In this episode, we look at diversity (or lack thereof) at Gimlet. And we try to figure out what diversity should mean for the company going forward.
posted by Zephyrial (6 comments total)

To me this episode is almost a perfect example of why StartUp is so much better at telling their own story, the story of Gimlet Media. I can't imagine any other company being comfortable digging into race/sexuality/religion/politics like this in such an honest way. It's not like they got to, "Oh we fixed it all now" by the end, but I found the conversations really gripping.
posted by Zephyrial at 8:07 AM on December 19, 2015 [4 favorites]

Zephyrial - I definitely agree with you. I'm torn about whether I'm going to bother listen to S3.

I thought the conversation about "tokenism vs targeting" was interesting, and how Lisa and Brittany had different opinions about it.
posted by radioamy at 9:48 AM on December 19, 2015

I mentioned the episode to a coworker who has listened to the show but not this episode, and he said something interesting. He said "do they count Asians as minorities" and I said "yes" and he said "well in Silicon Valley, you wouldn't count Asians" which I thought was really weird. I didn't get into it further (we were in a bar), but it stuck with me and I'm not sure what to make of it. I mean in Silicon Valley (where I live/work) there are certainly a lot of Asians statistically, and there are certainly a lot of tech companies run by Asians, but that doesn't mean that they're not a "minority". I am going to have to unpack that more with him, but I'm curious what you guys think?
posted by radioamy at 9:51 AM on December 19, 2015

I'm far from an expert on this stuff, but I think that might get into the distinction they mentioned on the show between "minorities" and "underrepresented minorities." I've been in tech for a decent chunk of my career, and my experience is that with zero effort put into diversity, a tech company would have very strong representation from at least China and India (I wouldn't generalize to say all of Asia). I don't think any tech company's diversity program is aimed at getting more Chinese or Indian people in the doors. Whether that means they are or aren't "a minority," I can't say, but I think the context matters.
posted by primethyme at 10:56 AM on December 19, 2015 [1 favorite]

WHAT ABOUT THE JEWS, ALEX. Feeling left out here, especially in the Christmas season.
posted by bq at 11:27 AM on December 22, 2015

That said, I did love this episode immensely, especially the segment where Eric came out.
posted by bq at 11:28 AM on December 22, 2015