Inclusion is at the Heart of DataGPT, from Product Development to Company Culture

Our First Step in Diversity Equity & Inclusion Begins with Women in Tech

DataGPT's mission is to democratize data – to empower every person, in every role, across all industries, to use data to make important decisions. We believe data should be inclusive, and so should our company. Inclusion drives everything at DataGPT, from our product development, to our hiring strategy, to our culture.

We are proud to report that 57% or leadership team is represented by women, and this is just a first step towards building a company representative of the diverse society we live in.

Refusing to Let our Female Colleagues Become Another Statistic

Tech, and tech startups in particular, have a long way to go with gender diversity. Many tech companies cite a lack of talent as the key reason for tech startups lagging behind other industries when it comes to hiring women. But, that is simply not true. Attrition has easily dispelled that argument. More than half of women leave the tech industry.1 Why? Women get less support from managers, less opportunity for advancement, and are paid less than their male counterparts for equal work. For those that remain in the workforce, representation in leadership roles is increasingly disparate:

37% of entry level jobs in tech are held by women - significantly lower than the 47% for other industries

And, that percentage shrinks as the positions get more prestigious:

- only 30% of managerial positions in tech are held by women
- 25% of the senior manager or director roles
- 20% of the vice president titles, and
-  Just 15% of roles in the c-suite.2

This is why DataGPT is not only focused on bringing more women into our engineering and product team, but also ensuring we have strong female representation in leadership to ensure equity and advancement at every level of our organization.

It Is Never Too Early!

While companies of all sizes will make the similar excuses for their lack of women in tech roles, startups have found a unique excuse...we are too early, we just need to survive, we will tackle diversity when we are bigger and we have more resources.

DataGPT is a 20-person tech startup that launched less than a year ago, and we have made diversity a priority. Change is drastically needed in the startup community. How? First, just take some steps forward! There are some easy things you can do to start:
1. Establish executive level support in diversity sourcing and hiring initiatives
2. Set a tangible and achievable goal to get started, for example:
  - Hire your first female, disabled, or person of color to your executive team
  - Make our first female hire on the engineering team
  - Set a benchmark for people of color in manager and above roles
3. Look for diverse talent. It’s that simple. Partner with Work180 and other diversity hiring organizations to tap into talent outside of your own limited network.

From the very beginning, focusing on building a company rooted in diverse perspectives and talent is critical. It cannot wait. Some of the best advice I received from mentors was when it comes to building a startup, be careful not to build a house of cards. What they meant was from the very earliest days, stay focused on solving customers' problems, on providing the best customer experience, and putting in place the product, process, and core foundations to set ourselves up for scale. Revenue will not only follow, but sustainable and scalable revenue will follow. The same applies to company culture. If you grow too much without diversity as a focus, you build a company culture on a house of cards. Course correction can be a mighty, if not impossible, hill to climb.

Endorsement and Partnership with Work180

In one of our first major diversity partnerships, we have been endorsed by Work180 and are leveraging their ecosystem to attract and hire more women to our open positions. Endorsement from Work180 requires a standard of inclusivity and policies that enable the success of women in the workplace that only 50% of organizations achieve. Work180 is helping us to highlight the commitments we are making for women in the workplace, including:

• Equal female representation in our leadership team
• 18 weeks paid parental leave for primary carers and 4 weeks paid parental leave for secondary carers
• Flexible working options for employees
• Pay equity
• Comprehensive health insurance and 401k program

This Is Just the Beginning for DataGPT

Although we are proud of our progress in gender diversity and inclusion, this is just one of many priorities we have for DataGPT. We will continue invest in inclusion of people of all genders, races, religions, sexual orientations, and disabilities. Not only as a matter of company benefit, but as a matter of social responsibility.

Interested in joining DataGPT? Check out our open roles.