It’s unlikely that the gender wage gap will close before 2057. And that’s a conservative estimate. I can’t help but think about how countries, specifically, the U.S., need to do a better job tackling wage equality. Only six countries give women the same legal rights as men, and the U.S. is far from being one of them. In 2018, the U.S. didn’t place in the top 10, or even top 50, in the World Economic Forum’s ranking of 149 countries based on gender equality.
A Team Building Talk with Vestwell’s Aaron Schumm
Earlier this year, retirement platform Vestwell signed a deal with BNY Mellon to bring a tech-forward approach to state-led retirement programs. The partnership effectively allows Vestwell to become part of the BNY family – as an affiliate of the firm – where Vestwell will be putting together a BNY retirement platform that will be offered […]
Family Matters: How to Institute Family-Friendly Policies at Your Early Stage Startup
The startup world is growing up! Ten years ago, the average age of a startup hire was around 25 (remember when Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that “young people are just smarter”?). But today, tech is a maturing industry – not just for the post-college set; especially since the financial crisis, it’s attracting the eye of experienced professionals who in years […]
Startup Foundations, Step 2: Team-Based Team-Building
If you’re reading this series in sequence, you’ve made it through the difficult first step of defining the needs of your foundational team, looking objectively at your existing team, and thinking strategically about the types of skill sets you need to meet your upcoming business milestones. Without those fundamentals in place, it will be difficult to hire […]
Check Yourself: How To Get The Most From Back-Channel References
It’s hard to overstate the inherent risks and cost associated with hiring, especially for early-stage companies. One wrong hire on a very small foundational team can delay product launches, sales execution or throw off the chemistry of a once well-oiled machine. So when you’re faced with a candidate who checks all the boxes on paper […]
Startup Foundations, Step 1: Start at the Forest and the Trees Will Follow
For most startups, the path from Seed to Series A is rarely characterized as a smooth journey. As early-stage investors, we believe that two distinct challenges come up for every business as they’re getting off the ground, generally centered around establishing traction at some reasonable scale and establishing the right foundational team to help you […]