When it comes to Silicon Valley diversity figures, the focus has been on the large companies, the giants who define this tech era.
But what about the Googles and Facebooks of the future?
In a recent column, I said Silicon Valley can be thought of as one company with a Facebook division, Google department and of course, a startup wing.
Tracy Chou, a Pinterest engineer, has called on tech workers to report the demographics of their firms’ engineers, which she is continually updating here.
So far, women make up on average 16 percent of engineers at the 170 firms, many of them startups, that Chou has gathered data on.
Today, Polyvore, a Mountain View-based online retail startup with 113 employees, released its workforce demographics.
Run by Jess Lee, a former Google product manager (pictured above), Polyvore has some interesting stats:
Women make up 26 percent of the engineering staff, 39 percent of the product and engineering workers and 67 percent of the firm’s leadership.
In a blog post, Lee says something that many readers have told me. As important it is for companies and outside observers to look at the number of women and minorities hired, it’s equally important to look at what happens once they are in the door:
Many companies focus on increasing diversity at the front of the hiring pipeline. I think it’s equally important to think about what happens people join a company. I believe one of the best ways to cultivate diversity in tech is to cultivate meritocracy. Simply put, people should be rewarded based on the merit of their work, regardless of their gender, race, age or tenure.
Above: Jess Lee, co founder and chief executive of Polyvore.
