Leaders across technology are convinced that diversity in the workplace will be a non-issue within five years. The problem? Very few say they are doing anything to make that prediction come true.

This disconnect emerges in our second annual survey of venture capital and startup leaders. We received more than 500 responses from startup investors and founders across industries to share their experiences and opinions on the shortage of diversity in venture capital and startups. We then asked leaders driving the discussion on these issues like Melinda Gates and Black Girls CODE Founder Kimberly Bryant to help explain the numbers and provide possible solutions.

The results find that despite the seemingly daily revelations about sexual harassment in tech (Uber, Google, to name two), venture capital (from Dave McClure to Steve Jurvetson); and entertainment and politics, how both investors and founders are treating these issues is largely unchanged.

It’s also clear that while white men are optimistic that the industry’s treatment of the issue is changing, their female and non-white counterparts feel differently.

While the findings of our survey have changed year over year, our hope with sharing them remains the same: We want to hear from you. What do you see changing or not changing in your own industry or company? What do you think needs to be put in place? Join the series with an article, post or video that includes #TechTalksDiversity somewhere in the body.

Creating and investing in diverse teams remains a fringe issue for both investors and founders.

Less than 5% of investors surveyed by LinkedIn rated diversity as their “top concern” as compared to macroeconomic conditions, raising capital, hitting revenue targets, or hiring the right people. Only 13% of investors rate diversity as one of their top two concerns and nearly half of all white male investors surveyed ranked diversity as their last concern.

“Hiring people based on skin color or gender is idiotic. I only want the best working for me. If that means that my organization is all men, fine. If that means my organization is all white women, fine. If that means my organization is all black men, fine. I don’t care as long as they produce and keep their sensitivity at home,” one white male founder from Texas told Linkedin.

Despite increased media attention, most investors and founders have seen “little to no change” in how the industry treats discrimination and harassment in the past year.

More than 70% of investors and founders report seeing “little to no change” — either positive or negative — in how people at their companies treat gender/racial discrimination and harassment in the past year. The stat provides some sense of how little impact the media attention has had on day-to-day operations within firms and startups.

In fact, men and women increasingly believe that the media is spending too much time on this issue.

When we look at the survey results year over year, investors and founders are more likely to agree this year that this issue is being covered too much in the media. While in 2016, 11% of women believed this, in 2017, that metric jumped to 21%. As for men, year over year, the percentage who agreed with the statement rose to 41% from 37%. That said, several survey respondents indicated that they do hope that the media coverage will lead to positive change across the industry.

“I have not realized… any unacceptable situations in my workplace or with my partner,” a white male investor from Georgia wrote. “However, I believe with increased communication, legal implications and social media presence that inappropriate behavior will be easier to identify and correct.”

Some founders are still not addressing gender or racial discrimination at all in their official codes of conduct.

Despite the pressure on tech leaders to put policies in place that decrease the chances of misconduct occurring within their workplaces, 11% of founders reported that gender and racial discrimination is not expressly mentioned in the code of conduct. When asked if their startups are supporting any diversity initiatives for employees — such as hosting events for minority groups or actively recruiting from communities that are underrepresented — nearly 70% of founders said no. Several written responses to the survey indicate that many founders believe companies shouldn't address gender and race issues at all.

And on the investment side, more than half of VCs say they are not formally supporting any diversity initiatives.

Nearly 60% of investors say that their firms do not support any diversity initiatives for founders. That could limit the ability for underrepresented groups to discover paths for getting into startups or venture capital.

“There is a bias in the industry and as much as people say they want to help, there is a lack of action on the part of the venture industry to improve opportunities for underrepresented minorities,” a non-white male founder from Illinois said in response to the survey.

Despite a shortage of initiatives and policies to support diversity, investors and founders are optimistic about how diverse their teams will be in the next five to ten years.

In the next five years, founders predict they will hire at least seven times more female and non-white employees than they currently have. Similarly, investors predict that they will hire three times more female and racially diverse investment partners and that they will invest in five times more female and racially-diverse-led startup in the next five years as they invested in within the last year.

For those 3x projections to pan out, diversity hiring would have to massively accelerate. In 2016, 27.8% of new hires in the venture capital and private equity industry were female, according to LinkedIn data, which represents a 15.3% hiring change from 2008.





Female founders continue to work with venture capitalists that behave inappropriately.

Some 25% of female founders agreed with the following statement: "I have done business with venture capitalists who have acted inappropriately in the past with a founder or associate of the opposite gender, but never got caught.”

Investors continue to say the "pipeline problem" is the top obstacle they face to creating more diverse teams.

Similar to last year, more than 40% of investors say that the #1 obstacle preventing investment in diverse founders is that “there are too few diverse founders with startups.” Despite the slow-moving numbers, another 38% said that there is no obstacle at all.

Men remain more optimistic than women that the industry’s perspective on this issue is changing.

While 63% of investors believe that in future, “it will be more challenging for venture capitalists to act inappropriately with founders or associates of the opposite gender,” a chasm exists on who believes it. Some 65% of male investors agree that there will be more crackdowns in inappropriate behavior in the future compared with 47% of female investors. On the founder side, 56% of male founders agree that there will be a decrease in inappropriate behavior, compared with 35% of female founders.

Still, sentiment across the sexes remains relatively pessimistic about when we will see systemic change.

“While I do think awareness helps, I’m not sure it will make that much difference overall,” a white male investor from New York said. “I think bad actors will continue to exist and that much of what we’re seeing now in terms of action, is a little better than posturing… I don’t expect this problem to disappear overnight.”

Methodology: The LinkedIn Online survey was conducted September 25-November 6, 2017 among 319 investors at venture capital firms as well as private and angel investors. 338 founders or co-founders at startups spanning technical and non-technical industries with 200 or fewer employees were also surveyed. Respondents self-identified their gender and race and were invited at a random basis with no quota control on gender or racial background. “Non-white” refers to the following: American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Other Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Spanish origin or another race or origin besides white.]