Wonder Woman Wednesday #9: Stephanie VanPutten
She's giving Black and Indigenous women a voice in the worlds of VC and tech.
Did you know that in 2016 there were only 12 Black women in the world that raised $1 million+ in venture capital?
Today, there are now 40 Black women in the world with more than $1M in venture capital raised, but this number is still infinitesimal.
Stephanie VanPutten has made it her life’s mission to change this harrowing statistic.
This week I sat down with Stephanie VanPutten,
CEO and Founder of Blendoor and the non-profit Visible Figures!
Blendoor is a a diversity analytics and hiring software company that mitigates unconscious bias. Their BlendScore rating is the standard for corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ratings used by over 470 companies today!
Visible Figures is the largest network of venture-backed Black women founders and investors on a mission to pluralize the archetype of genius.
Read my interview with Stephanie to learn all about her inspiring story ⬇️
Walk me through your childhood and early career. How did this foundation influence your entrepreneurial journey?
I was born in south east Washington DC to a single mom who at one point was homeless while pregnant with me. She later battled a drug addiction.
She moved to Washington DC to live with my aunt (my mom’s sister) who was a computer scientist in 1984 when only 1/3 of all CS degrees went to women!
I have been surrounded by incredibly strong women — my mom, aunt, grandmother, etc. — my entire life. They all left corporate America to start their own ventures/companies which sparked the entrepreneurial flame in me.
I truly believe this very matriarchal environment has hugely influenced my career and who I am today.
I started coding when I was a teenager, took AP computer science and was fortunate to graduate from Stanford with an engineering degree and technical internships at Fortune 500 companies.
Microsoft hired me full-time after graduation. I stayed there for ~5 years but realized there was very little growth potential so I quit to go to MIT.
I graduated from MIT with an MBA and 6 months later, I interviewed for an analytical lead role at Google. The interviews went super well but the recruiter came back and told me I wasn’t “technical enough” and that they’d “hold on to my resume in case some more marketing and sales positions opened up.”
I declined, but later realized that big tech companies like Google were ~30% female and 2% African American. The common narrative was it was a “pipeline problem.”
Other industries don’t seem to have as much of a challenge as hiring women and Black and Latinx candidates but for the first time in history, women are twice as likely as men to earn college degrees.
There has to be more to the story than this pipeline problem.
So despite Google’s assessment, I took my “non-technical” self and built Blendoor in 2015.
I locked myself in my mom’s basement for 2 months building the minimum viable product (MVP) of Blendoor — just an app at this time.
Since then, it has developed into a full enterprise software platform focused on anonymizing resumes and tracking the outcomes of the demographics of candidates throughout the entire hiring funnel.
Google is now one of our clients!
Can you speak more about your work and impact at Visible Figures? Where do you see the future of your nonprofit going?
Yes of course! Visible Figures started as a Google listerv and it has now grown to a powerful network of over 250 incredible, venture-backed Black women founders and venture capitalists.
Visible Figures has raised $2.1B in collective capital thus far.
My ultimate goal in my career is to help as many minorities as possible — beginning with Black and indigenous women because we are the lowest rung in so many different sectors of society from healthcare to business to politics, etc. etc.
Another goal of mine is to pluralize this archetype of genius.
We see throughout history this very cis, white, male archetype of genius: Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates etc.
In order to change this archetype of genius there must be capital and focus poured into non-traditional spaces and founders who are building incredible products. This is my goal with Blendoor and Visible Figures. Providing the proper capital, resources and voice to those who have been historically underrepresented and underserved.
If I can start working for equality from the bottom rung, then climbing this ladder will gradually get easier. There is tons of work to be done but if I can make even just a little impact, then I will be content.
What is your most valuable advice to the next generation of female entrepreneurs and investors, particularly women of color?
Be prepared to face a lot of injustices and obstacles but absolutely never be afraid of them. Buckle up, put your helmet on and continue forward and onward always.
A lot of the injustices and harassments I faced while working at tech companies like Microsoft have shaped who I am today and the work I am so hyper-focused on with Blendoor and Visible Figures. I learned a lot through these first-hand experiences and I think that was really important.
What are some of your favorite companies outside of Blendoor?
I like companies that have similar values to what I look for in people — this is companies that stick to their core mission and present themselves to the world in that way.
SAS enterprise — they have free health care and free child care centers on their campus 👶
Patagonia — they epitomize what it means to be a purpose-driven corporation. They are hyper-focused on their mission and prioritize sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) 🌳
Ben and Jerry’s — they are strong advocates of social activism, helping countless causes. They’re just overall a great and unique brand 🍦