Susan Jones is the COO and Co-founder of Wear+Care, a Pledge 1% Member company.  

Q1: What inspired you to work in this industry?

My father passed away from cancer 11 years ago and I always wanted to find a way to get involved in the community. Care+Wear was a passion project at first and was the first time I felt like I had found the right way for me to make an impact on the community.

Q2:  What would you tell women who are looking to work in tech? 

Any advice on how they can build their career? Do what interests you. I started out in the fashion industry and found a way to take what I loved from that and channel it into Care+Wear and my role here.

Q3:  Is your company a Pledge 1% member or do you personally give back to your community? If so, how do you give and to what cause?

Yes, we are a Pledge 1% member and have made giving back a part of our business.

Q4:  Do you serve as a mentor?  What does mentorship mean to you?

Mentorship means taking the time to teach and listen to team members. I try to always be available as a mentor, especially to our new team members who are still learning about the company and are new to their roles. It’s fun for me to explain concepts and see them learning.

Q5: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received to help you with your career?

Always care for everybody.

Q6: What’s the one piece of advice you would give to yourself 5 years ago?

Find a good mentor.

Q1:  What is your Name and Title?

Gemma Sole, Cofounder and COO/CMO of Nineteenth Amendment

Q2: How long have you been in your current position?

3 years (!). Before this I worked in Venture Capital and Strategy and Communications consulting.

Q3:  What inspired you to work in this industry?

I’ve always loved bringing beautiful things to life. I’m an artist on the side and was very into fashion growing up. I went from consulting to the startup space and Nineteenth Amendment allows me to combine things that I care about: 1) helping creative makers do what they love , 2) helping small businesses grow and scale, 3) building things that are awesome.

In terms of fashion tech, the fashion industry really hasn’t had much innovation aside from effects of globalization (good and bad). What out platform does is provide the first real process innovation in fashion that is a win-win for all players. There is nothing more exciting than creating a business where everyone can win and talent is the determining factor.

Q4:  What would you tell women who are looking to work in tech?  Any advice on how they can build their career?

My greatest piece of advice would be to have conversations with real people in the industry you want to go into. This applies to any industry, but especially startups. The startup environment, the tools people use, the players change so quickly. You will learn so much more in one hour of conversation than an entire week or research, and you’ll be networking to boot.

As a woman, you have the ability to connect with other women in the industry who often want to help. So take advantage of it, just don’t forget to get the coffee and send that thank you. It’s also important you ask what you can do for them to show that you are willing to help and understand the value of their time.

Q5:  Is your company a Pledge 1% member or do you personally give back to your community? If so, how do you give and to what cause?

Yes! Nineteenth Amendment is a Pledge 1% member initiated by my cofounder, Amanda. We mentor for Girls Who Code and personally do volunteer work for groups for disadvantaged children.

Q6:  Do you serve as a mentor?  What does mentorship mean to you?

Yes, I mentor a lot in my college alumni network. I love mentoring. I like to give mentees real world advice to hopefully save them time and effort as they begin the process. Mentorship is really about making the next generation a kinder, smarter generation so they can make the world better for everyone. Sounds wishy/washy but it’s true! If I can pass along lessons and examples of integrity and kindness in business and personal life, I feel like that’s building a better future for everyone.

Q7:  What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received to help you with your career?

Have faith in your ability to deliver. If you don’t understand something, speak up and ask about it. The worst thing you can do is just nod… Half of how you achieve in the long run is by trying something, understanding what you did well and what you didn’t, and suggesting ways to do it better next time….and then actually going and doing it (i.e. executing). What you quickly learn, as entrepreneurs or as employees, is that a lot of people have good ideas, but the best people actually do something about it.

Q8:  What’s the one piece of advice you would give to yourself 5 years ago?

Five years ago is actually when I met my cofounder and quit my first corporate job. I had a great consulting job, had been promoted early, but wasn’t feeling like it was right for me. At the time, I moved from DC to Boston to live with my parents and figure out what to do next. I was scared and it was a lot of work. I’m so glad I did. My advice would be lead with your head but follow your gut. Mitigate risk but follow your feelings – if you do both of those things, at the end of the day, you know you will have made the best decisions and won’t have regrets.

The rising philanthropy of the U.S. tech sector has come in waves.

In the first wave, the big winners from the early boom in computer hardware and software shifted billions of dollars into major foundations, creating the Hewlett, Packard, Moore and Gates foundations—all of which emerged as new powerhouses in American philanthropy around the end of the 20th century with global and national agendas. Other tech leaders who began ambitious giving in this first wave include Steve Case, Michael Dell, Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Skoll and Tim Gill.

In the second wave of tech philanthropy, starting around 2010, a new crop of tech leaders began to embrace giving. Philanthropists who emerged in this wave—or dramatically stepped things up—include Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff, Sean Parker, Dustin Moskovitz, Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Now, it feels like a third wave of tech philanthropy is underway. This one is less about high-profile billionaires turning to giving and more about the rapid spread of philanthropy norms through the world of tech startups and early stage companies. It’s about a culture of giving emerging throughout the younger provinces of the tech sector, with millennial entrepreneurs breaking down the divisions between business and philanthropy. It’s also far more local, with techies looking for ways to make a difference in their own communities.

While people like Bill Gates and Gordon Moore exemplified yesterday’s approach to tech giving—first, you make your pile over decades, then you give it away with plans to eliminate polio or save the Amazon—many younger tech leaders are looking to integrate philanthropy into their businesses early on, even before their companies go public. And quite a few are more likely to be interested in, say, helping a neighborhood tutoring effort than combating climate change.

Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, has been the leading figure preaching this approach in the tech world in recent years. When Benioff founded his company in 1999, he pledged to give away 1 percent of equity, 1 percent of product, and 1 percent of employee time. Benioff’s mantra is that “the business of business is to improve the state of the world.” And through the Salesforce Foundation, which was founded in 2000, his company has successfully executed the 1+1+1 model, channeling nearly $130 million in grants to nonprofits, as well as millions of dollars of software and over one million hours of employee volunteer time. Quite a bit of that largesse has been focused in San Francisco, where Salesforce has its global headquarters and is closely involved in helping the local public school district, and where Benioff has personally given over $200 million to build hospitals, as well as rallying tech leaders in the region behind new anti-poverty efforts.

Suzanne DiBianca was the first president of the Salesforce Foundation, and is now Salesforce’s chief philanthropy officer and executive vice president for community relations. In a recent interview, she said that she and Benioff were keen from the start to spread the 1+1+1 model throughout the tech community. The biggest early convert was Google. The co-founders Brin and Page pledged 1 percent of Google’s equity before its 2004 IPO—a move that resulted in some $1 billion set aside for philanthropy after the company went public.

A few years later, in 2008, DiBianca and a colleague from Google developed a campaign to get more pre-IPO tech startups to pledge 1 percent of equity, product and time. That first effort fizzled, but got back on track in 2013, with the help of two tech companies that had quietly embraced the 1 percent model. One was Atlassian, a cloud-based software firm based in Australia; the other was the Boulder-based Rally Software, which also made cloud-based software and went public in April 2013.

Rally was part of a group of four tech companies that had come together in 2007 to create the Entrepreneur’s Foundation of Colorado, which worked to get companies in that state’s thriving tech sector to pledge a portion of equity for charity or annual earnings for charity, pre-IPO. Over ensuing years, a number of Colorado startups joined this effort.

DiBianca recalls that around 2013—as a new tech scene surged and more companies went public—Salesforce started getting a “deluge” of requests from tech leaders interested in the 1+1+1 model. “Something shifted,” she said regarding the new momentum. “It became more acceptable to leverage your company for social change.”

One factor at work, here, surely, was the rising salience of philanthropy in the tech world, as Zuckerberg and other second-wave donors stepped forward. As well, DiBianca says the “new paradigm” of responsible business, embodied in the 1+1+1 model, meshed naturally with the worldview of millennials coming up in the tech world: These folks were far less likely than earlier generations to put business and social change into separate compartments.

In 2014, Salesforce, Atlassian and Rally launched Pledge 1 Percent as a global campaign to get young tech companies to commit to the 1+1+1 model. DiBianca saw it as a “grand experiment” and wasn’t sure what would happen. But the effort exploded, with five hundred tech companies joining the pledge in the first year. That number now stands at over 1500. Of these, around 70 percent have pledged equity and half have pledged the full trifecta of equity, product and time.

Pledge 1 Percent was originally housed at the Entrepreneur’s Foundation of Colorado, and since then, has moved to Tides in San Francisco. Three staff now coordinate the work. (EFOC has rebranded itself as Pledge 1 Percent Colorado.)

In another sign of the momentum in tech philanthropy, a few new local efforts have sprung up to get tech startups focused on giving. Last fall, Pledge 1 Percent Boston launched under the auspices of the Boston Foundation, which is incubating the effort. Tim Smith got this going after moving back to Boston from the Bay Area, where he had been director of the Full Circle Fund, a network of professionals engaged in giving and social change. In that job, he had collaborated with Salesforce and Suzanne DiBianca, and closely followed the Pledge 1 Percent effort.

Smith sees the Boston pledge as a critical next step in knitting tech firms into the nonprofit sector, by making local connections that are needed to develop these ties on a day-to-day basis. “There was a gap,” he said. “The gap was to make this more than a global movement and connect to local causes.” Pledge 1 Percent Boston, he said, is “really about connecting people at successful tech companies with what’s going on locally.” He says that the Boston Foundation is a strong platform for this work because it’s involved in so many causes throughout the city. It also has the capacity to handle the actual giving by tech firms, offering a cheaper alternative to creating a company foundation.

Since Pledge 1 Percent Boston launched in October, 30 local tech companies have joined. “There’s been a ton of interest,” Smith said. Even some VC firms are getting involved. The group’s initial programming is focused on helping tech leaders leverage their skills to bolster nonprofits by sitting on boards and such, while also helping them learn about social problems in the city like homelessness. Pledge 1 Percent Boston will be launching a drive later this year with the hope of doubling or tripling its membership.

Meanwhile, earlier in 2016, Pledge 1 Percent launched in the U.K., with 25 tech firms joining right off the bat. Pledge 1 Percent has also made some inroads in New York City’s tech scene, although there is not yet an official local campaign that’s recruiting companies in the city to join.

Most recently, an effort by the Annenberg Foundation to galvanize tech engagement in Los Angeles launched just this week. The initiative, dubbed AnnenbergTech, comes amid the explosive growth of L.A.’s tech scene, which is mostly clustered on the city’s west side, on “Silicon Beach.” As these companies have matured, most notably with Snap now preparing to go public in a multi-billion-dollar IPO, interest in philanthropy has also been growing.

Last month, we reported on the decision by Snap’s co-founders, Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, to donate 13 million Class A shares of Snap stock to the company’s foundation over the next 15 to 20 years. With Snap’s last private valuation at $25 billion, it could mean that hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into philanthropy in coming years.

Snap is part of the new Annenberg initiative, which grew out of a series of meetings with L.A. tech leaders who expressed interest in connecting to local nonprofits but needed help finding their way around. As well, in the last year, the Annenberg Foundation conducted a survey of nonprofits in L.A., finding that many of them wanted to make better use of technology to advance social change, but struggled to do so, facing challenges around capacity and know-how.

AnnenbergTech aims to connect some important dots here, linking together L.A.’s tech scene with the city’s nonprofit sector. It could also be a place to nurture some major new givers among a local tech elite that’s gotten much richer lately (both of Snap’s co-founders are billionaires). Wallis Annenberg, who leads the foundation, said, “The leaders of these companies today are our philanthropists of tomorrow, and we hope AnnenbergTech can serve as a hub for this next generation to convene and create new models of civic leadership that will lift up and inspire all Angelenos.”

The new initiative has a few moving parts, including leadership events and also capacity building to help nonprofits with their technology needs. If it succeeds, it could fuel a Southern California philanthropy scene that’s been surging lately, as we’ve reported.

So where does this burgeoning tech philanthropy movement go next? More local efforts like the ones in Colorado, Boston and L.A. seem likely—spreading to Seattle, Austin and elsewhere, as well as globally.

Suzanne DiBianca sees this kind of localization as all-important, since it creates ownership and is needed to forge ties with nonprofits in communities. But she is also hoping that new efforts will embrace the Pledge 1 Percent idea, saying “you need a brand to build a movement.” She adds: “You’re so much more powerful when you’re part of a movement.” Tim Smith suggests that offering local groups hands-on advice and support is critical to scaling tech philanthropy communities in more places, and hopes that Pledge 1 Percent at Tides could play that role, perhaps with a franchise-type approach.

However things unfold, it does feel like the tech world has turned a real corner lately in terms of waking up to its need to engage in local communities and use its resources—both financial and technical—to solve pressing social problems.

This awakening could hardly come soon enough, since concern has been rising in many places, starting with the Bay Area, that the wealth of the tech community is driving inequality upward and that the sector’s highly educated knowledge workers are pulling away from their fellow citizens. How to close this rising divide is a longer conversation. But one part of the solution, certainly, is for tech leaders to roll up their sleeves and open their checkbooks to really start helping their neighbors in need.

Q1: What is your Name and Title?
Alexandra Lindsay, Head of Marketing for hobbyDB.

Q2: How long have you been in your current position?
A year and a half.

Q3: What inspired you to work in this industry?
One of the best parts of the tech start-up industry is how fast paced and collaborative it can be. Working for a start-up gives me the opportunity and autonomy to influence the creation and development of a new entity. I feel very fortunate to be able to work with some of the best minds in tech to create solutions in the areas of genealogy (at Mocavo) and collectibles (at hobbyDB) used by millions of people.

Q4: What would you tell women who are looking to work in tech? Any advice on how they can build their career?

I’m very lucky to have come from a line of strong, working women. When I was talking with my Nana, (who was born in 1939) about this interview, the first thing she shouted when I asked her this question was “DO IT!” Our generation is so fortunate in that we have had many women who came before us who fought to open doors and opportunities that they never had as working women. Although there is still a long way to go in terms of full equality, we owe it to past and future generations to have the courage to push ourselves into male dominated industries such as tech, and into leadership positions where we really can make a positive difference. I would also encourage women to build up and support their women colleagues. The more we can work together to build strong female leaders, the more positive influence we will have.

Q5: Is your company a Pledge 1% member or do you personally give back to your community? If so, how do you give and to what cause?
I’m proud to say that every company that I’ve worked for in Colorado has been a Pledge 1% member. It is such a wonderful way for us to prioritize giving back to a community that continues to support Colorado start-ups.

Q6: Do you serve as a mentor? What does mentorship mean to you?
Throughout my life, I’ve had many important mentors who have helped mold me into the leader that I am today. Because of the positive influence they have had in my life, I knew that I also wanted to be a mentor. Luckily, there are many ways to become involved in your community as a mentor. During my time at the CU Boulder, I decided to take on the challenge of coaching a high school girls’ soccer team. Throughout the three years that I coached these young women, not only did I get to serve as a mentor for them as they prepared for their next adventures after high school, I learned more about myself than I ever expected. These young women gave me the courage to be myself, throw fear to the wind, and embrace vulnerability; all of which have helped me become a stronger leader in my career. That’s the best part about mentorship, that it truly can be a two-way street and you never know what you’re going to learn. I would encourage everyone to both find mentors to help you grow throughout your journey, and also find individuals that you can positively influence through mentorship.

Q7: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received to help you with your career?

One of the best pieces of advice that I’ve received is to show up and work hard. It’s as simple as that. I believe that responsibility is taken, not earned. The more you can be counted on to show up every day and do a great job when no one is looking, the further you will go in your career.

The other piece of great advice that I’ve received is to lead with vulnerability. What this means to me is to have the courage to put yourself out there and potentially fail, to learn from your mistakes, to have honest, compassionate conversations with your team members, and to always be open-minded and daring.

Q8: What’s the one piece of advice you would give to yourself 5 years ago?
Worrying is never productive. I’ve come to find that if I focus on setting myself up for success, and having a positive outlook, I am exponentially more successful than if I would have just worried. Realize that it’s okay if you don’t know everything and that you’re not ever going to be perfect. It’s always okay to ask for help and seek out the support of those who are rooting for you to succeed. One of the best parts of the journey is pushing yourself to learn and then applying that new knowledge to problems that you never thought you could solve.

Karen Lawson is the CEO of Slingshot.  She is an award winning business executive and leader in the digital industry. She has held executive positions within both global companies and joint ventures. With experience leading teams through change and motivating and developing cross functional teams to peak performance, Karen is extremely passionate about delivering great results and helping others achieve their true potential.

Karen is a prolific networker and an experienced media commentator and guest speaker, with appearances on TV, radio in print and digital, as well as industry forums.  

In 2016, Karen took the reins of Slingshot, a corporate accelerator focused on driving collaboration between Startups, Scaleups and corporates to lead the next wave of innovation. More than 50 Startups have participated in Slingshot’s programs, achieving a combined market capitalisation in excess of $60m and creating nearly 100 full time jobs.

Karen is leading the business through its next stage of growth, using her proven experience in driving reinvention and transformation to help Australia’s biggest businesses stay ahead of disruption.

Prior to her role at Slingshot, Karen served as CEO of CareerOne, a joint venture between News Limited and Monster Worldwide. With a remit to forge a new digital strategy, Karen restructured the business from a traditional job board, into a leading targeting and digital business offering media, employer branding, SaaS and sourcing solutions. CareerOne went on to be awarded a spot in the coveted BRW ‘Top 50 most innovative companies’ list for 2014.

BRW Magazine quoted this turnaround as follows: “CareerOne is no longer second to SEEK in the recruitment advertising market – not because it’s caught up, but because it has redefined the market it is in.”

Karen also served as General Manager – Business Development at Yahoo7! where she held full commercial and operational responsibility for data, advertising, publishing, technology, search, mobile and strategic partnerships, including the Microsoft Bing alliance.

Karen has a passion for driving innovation and has worked alongside a number of leading organisations as a consultant including Laureate International (the largest private educator in the world), Harris Farms and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. She was named UN ambassador for Womens Entrepeneurship Day, a Nominee for Telstra Woman of the year and the Australian Growth Company Awards 2015.

Karen is also a huge ‘foodie’ and has been a food and luxury travel journalist for over ten years, writing for a diverse range of publishers. She doesn’t have holidays, but has research and writing trips! To balance this out she is an avid runner having completed both New York and London Marathons, though these days she is more likely to be seen jogging around Blackwattle Bay at a much more sedate pace!