"Kindness, I've decided, is all that matters, in business or in anything."

Do you have a guiding role model that exemplifies your work today?

I grew up in the sweat shops of LA, so I learned early on what hard work and long hours looked like. But hard work is not the same as justice or compassion, and those I learned from my mother in the 80's during the height of the AIDS epidemic. My mother handled the cash register for a business in Los Angeles and I distinctly remember her coming home one day and telling me that no one at the company was willing to serve customers with visible signs of the disease. No one but her, that is. I remember my heart breaking as she described the gratitude she received from the people she served. I was at once saddened at the thought of the cruelty of others, and proud that people like my mother existed in the world.

What age did you become an adult?

My parents would say roughly seven, but I would say twenty-three, when I found myself running a multinational in 20+ countries and lying about my age because my employees were all older than me. So it's debatable. In any case I've been actively regressing back into childhood ever since, and only very occasionally catch myself adulting these days.

You’ve given talks where you mention that you may have pushed people, and yourself, too hard at times. Talk about that realization and how it has shaped you.

I'd so thoroughly bought into the "win by whatever means" culture that is so prevalent in tech, that I lost my way, and a little of my own humanity in the process. That's not how I was raised, nor was it a reflection of who I am, at my core. I think it's why it still stings a little to remember. I think I tell that story, difficult as it is to revisit, to remind myself of my true north. And because it happened over a dozen years ago, I also tell it to share with anyone who will listen, that it's possible to be successful, and even relentlessly ambitious, while still being kind and generous of spirit. Kindness, I've decided, is all that matters, in business or in anything.

You comment often on bro culture in today's tech world. How has that changed from your early days in tech? Do you see positive strides being taken?

No. In fact, it's decidedly worse. The huge economic success of a handful of brogrammer-led businesses combined with the mass exodus of women from tech over the last 20 years has emboldened what were a set of occasionally toxic corporate cultures into what is now an industry-wide epidemic. It affects not just women, but also people of color, the LGBT community and those with disabilities. Shortly after I attempted to leave tech in 2011, I found myself advising students at Barnard who wanted to follow in my footsteps and go into tech, which I found troubling. I realized I'd spent my entire adult life inside a broken culture and left it no better than I'd found it. So my amazing students, and in general the next generation of women in tech, are the reason I have returned to the speaker circuit and even stepped in to advise women-owned tech startups. So, no, I don't think inclusion in tech is any better, but I'm committed to doing my small part to ensure it improves.

How did you launch the Athena Center at Barnard?

Kitty Kolbert, my co-founder at Entrepreneurs@Athena and the Director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard, was introduced to me by a faculty member at Columbia. She successfully argued the landmark supreme court case Planned Parenthood v Casey in 1992 and is credited with saving Roe v. Wade. Initially we met regularly for what she called "business therapy sessions," which were meetings where I'd advise her on strategy for the center. It was in those sessions that we had the idea to create a project to level the playing field for women entrepreneurs.