Indiegogo, a pioneer of the crowdfunding movement, became the first startup on Thursday to release the demographic breakdown of its workforce, as tech companies face a heightened scrutiny on the diversity — or lack thereof — of the people they hire and put in power.
“While startups haven’t been a part of the dialogue to date, we thought we would do our part to contribute to what I believe is a very important conversation that all tech companies, large and small, should engage in as leaders,” Indiegogo Co-founder Danae Ringelmann wrote in a company blog post.
Indiegogo, the largest website for crowdfunding — where people ask for money to support a new company, charitable effort, organization or project — looks very much like other valley tech companies: mostly white and mostly male. But unlike the other tech companies that, beginning in May, have reported their workforce demographics, a response to diversity advocates calling for such information, Indiegogo has a lot of women working in tech — 33 percent. By comparison, 15 percent of Yahoo’s tech workforce are female, and Twitter’s is just 10 percent.
And 43 percent of Indiegogo’s leadership is female, far eclipsing women representation at the top ranks of big tech companies.
“At its core, Indiegogo exists to promote equality of opportunity,” Ringelmann said. “And so far, we’re on track to achieve this vision.”
Indiegogo’s workforce data also revealed a slightly more diverse cohort than tech giants such as Google and LinkedIn — all it too is far from a melting pot. The San Francisco-based startup is 8 percent Hispanic and 2 percent African-American — other tech companies that have reported thus far, with the exception of Apple, are about 3 percent Hispanic and 1 percent African-American.
Among just tech workers, however, the African-American population disappears and the Hispanic group shrinks to 6 percent, while Asians increase 6 percentage points to 29 percent. Whites are 59 percent of the tech workforce, and 64 percent of the overall company.
Indiegogo’s overall workforce is 45 percent female, and make up a slightly higher percentage in the non-tech category, which is consistent with the other tech companies.
