Hype, Cons & Toxic Sexism
Welcome to The Chief Brief. Every Sunday, I spotlight global, diverse, and innovative female leaders impacting the world around them. I curate and break down stories from across the world that caught my eye and help you connect with the women you should know, if you don’t already! Welcome to my passion project of building a globally aware and connected community of women leaders.
Happy Sunday, I’m trying out a new format this week. Let me know what you think.
In the meantime, I wanted to rage a little about a company called OZY Media. If you hadn’t heard about it, don’t feel bad - turns out it may have been a total scam. OZY shuttered this week after a New York Times article alleged its co-founders had impersonated a Google executive (what!?), fooled Goldman Sachs (how?), and pulled wool over the eyes of investors (not so surprising!) and some very experienced journalists that the 2013 founded company had hired — like former BBC star Katty Kay (she quit the day after the NYT story broke) (woah!).
All this would have been just another story of a company built on pure hype, not backed by performance that finally blew up. Another Quibi perhaps? But what sticks out for me is the consequence of the con that Carlos Watson and Samir Rao pulled. Two co-founders, two diverse men, that rare breed —a black and south Asian duo who managed to attract investors like Laurene Powell Jobs, Mike Moe, Louise Rogers, Dan Rosensweig, Larry Sonsini, David Drummond, Ron Conway and others like Axel Springer. They were a signal that a real turning point in the funding and scale up of diverse founders and their start-ups was coming — in an industry that loves to talk about diversity, but in reality, does nothing about it.
Diverse founders have a higher bar to clear to raise funds. They tend to be asked more questions, their skills and abilities are viewed with scepticism, their business plans scrutinised far more than others — and more often than not, they are dismissed. All that, if they can even get a foot in the door of investors who tend to not be from the same circles, nor are people they know.
We’ve all been inundated by the reports of the massive gap in funding for diverse founders. We know the numbers are even worse when you’re a diverse female founder.
Let’s pick up the U.K. as an example: between 2009-2019 all-ethnic teams received an average of just 1.7% of the VC investments made at seed, early and late stage. And while pretty much every ethnic group was underfunded, the number of black founders who actually got some dosh was even more abysmal. 38. Yes, you read that right. 2020 also saw a 48% drop in VC funding to women founders (derived from what is largely a U.S. data set). But the numbers are just as awful (probably even more so) in Europe and the U.K.
What Carlos and Samir have possibly done is to set diverse founders back further than they were in 2009. With the shuttering of OZY, Investors are also out an estimated $70 million. If someone like Carlos, as high profile as he was (Board of NPR, CNN Contributor, MSNBC Anchor) could have turned out to be a con - every investor is going to have an active red flag when it comes to hearing pitches from people who don’t look/sound like them or they don’t have any common connections with. Remember that really high bar for diverse founders I mentioned? Well, it just may have gone into the Stratosphere.
If we want to ensure that OZY doesn’t have that effect, perhaps instead it can be a reckoning for tech investors. In other industries investors create comprehensive deal rooms — due diligence is critical, hype is not. A business plans no matter the target is microscopically analysed, and a management team’s expertise is central to all deal flow. In a PE deal for example, hype has no place (although connections often help bring the deal discussion itself to the table).
Frankly this is a warning shot to us in the media too. Too many of us play along with the hype building, without digging deeper. That juicy, easy, viewer friendly story tempts far too many of us from doing our due diligence. If we did, we wouldn’t have others in the industry having to expose the cons that are companies like Theranos and OZY.
As a friend of mine (who knows the tech world better than most) pointed out — perhaps it is also time to stop shedding crocodile tears for tech investors who haven’t looked beyond the hype — and who invest based on ‘relationships.’ They are not the victims losing pot loads of money, they are the enablers. Just weeks ago, Carlos Watson appointed Marc Lasry as Chairman of OZY. Watson met Lasry met playing ping-pong two and a half years ago. If Marc’s name sounds familiar, he is a billionaire hedge fund manager, co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and most infamous for being a buddy and board member of the Weinstein company — yes THAT Weinstein! Marc became an investor in OZY, then a board member, and said when he became Chairman that he ‘wanted to help the company strike deals that will help it grow.’ When the NYT story broke, he washed his hands off the whole thing, resigned and said OZY needed someone with crisis management skills.
The OZY story has two endings in my view - One, where the microscopic gains made by diverse founders (female or male) is reversed — which would be dismal for people like me. And the other — Tech investors take a long hard look at their hype driven investment approach that creates bubbles — and potentially another OZY.
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News you should know
In business & tech
1. Facebook’s in hot water (again).
a. Instagram & kids
It’s had to pump the brakes on its ‘Instagram kids,’ months after U.S. attorneys general asked Mark Zuckerberg to abandon the idea, arguing that 13 was too young to deal with the massive challenge of targeted ads and internet trolls.
It turns out Facebook actually already knew and was going to push ahead anyway. The company’s internal research showed it seems that Instagram made body image issues worse for one in three teen girls and called Instagram “toxic.” Then followed the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) investigation highlighting that Facebook knew about the negative impact. In a blog post rebutting the WSJ investigation, Facebook’s Head of Research Pratiti Raychoudhury pushed back, saying that its platforms were not toxic. ((Connect with Pratiti))
Distracting matters during the course of the week was also the usual barrage of questioning in a U.S. Senate hearing: "Will you commit to ending 'finsta'?" Senator Richard Blumenthal (D) asked a Facebook executive during a Senate hearing on social media safety.
Facebook Head of Global Safety Antigone Davis got to respond by explaining what finsta exactly is ((if you don’t know this may help)). That clip went predictably viral. Turns out, what the viral clip missed (as did I, briefly) was that — while it played into the narrative of reform being attempted by people who didn’t understand technology — turns out (watch the whole thing) Sen. Blumenthal knew exactly what he was talking about. ((Connect with Antigone))
b. Facebook, polarisation & whistle-blowers
On Friday FB’s PR boss Nick Clegg had to send out an internal memo to employees in a pre-emptive strike to ward off the damage that is ahead from the information a whistleblower is set to release. What’s this one about? The U.S. Capitol Hill riot. ‘She’ (the whistle-blower) will reveal her identity today on CBS’s 60 Minutes, and accuse the tech giant of contributing to polarisation in the U.S.
I for one can’t wait to find out who ‘she’ is!
‘She’ claims she can "prove Facebook is lying to the public and investors about the effectiveness of its campaigns to eradicate hate, violence and misinformation from its platforms," per CBS.
Nick Clegg’s argument in the Friday memo?
"What evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarisation. Polarising content and misinformation are also present on platforms that have no algorithmic ranking whatsoever, including private messaging apps like iMessage and WhatsApp."
2. It’s pretty damning when almost two dozen current and former employees write openly that your company is full of sexist creeps. But it’s an indictment of something far worse for Jeff Bezos when they write an essay to categorically say Blue Origin is not only a sexist, toxic organisation but that it cares more about beating fellow billionaires than actual flight safety. From dismissing, and demeaning women for raising safety concerns to the outright harassment of female employees, and far worse - Blue Origin’s employees are questioning whether the company is set to repeat much of the irresponsible decision making that caused NASA’s Challenger explosion. U.S. aviation regulators say they are now reviewing the letter.
This suppression of dissent (by women) brings us to the matter of safety, which for many of us is the driving force for coming forward with this essay. At Blue Origin, a common question during high-level meetings was, “When will Elon [Musk] or [Richard] Branson fly?” Competing with other billionaires—and “making progress for Jeff”—seemed to take precedence over safety concerns that would have slowed down the schedule.
3. In China Wei Sun Christianson is eponymous with Morgan Stanley. After all, twenty years is an extraordinarily long time to be boss of an organisation like Morgan Stanley during China’s banking evolution. After an epic run as China boss and Asia ex-Japan co-CEO, she is now retiring, leaving Gokul Laroia in sole charge of its regional operations. The Wall Street firm isn’t replacing her mainland role either and will rely on business heads in a market that has matured over the years and one where the firm has become powerful. This year Morgan Stanley beat Goldman Sachs as the top foreign earner in China, just months after it took 90% ownership of its mainland investment banking JV. ((Connect with Wei Sun))
In government & policy
1. Nicola Sturgeon and her ministers decided to decline using the England and Wales NHS Covid vaccine passport app before deciding to make their own for Scotland. But that Scotting app is glitch heaven. ((Follow Nicola))
2. Poland’s pushing back asylum seekers on its borders with Belarus. And the country’s actions have been deemed illegal. But despite her best efforts, European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has failed to convince the Polish government to act per EU law. In the meantime Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the exiled leader of Belarus’ opposition says the Belarus government is using migrants to blackmail Europe. ((Connect with Ylva & Follow Sviatlana))
“All those groups of people that come to the borders, they are coming with KGB people, with Belarusian (secret police). They are followed by people from the system. This is why they are “organised groups” - Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
3. Aung San Suu Kyi’s corruption trial began this week. But going by the public support for her, the Myanmar military government’s show trial in unlikely to dim her legendary status amongst her people. A Special Court in the country’s capital Naypyitaw is hearing four corruption cases against Aung San, each of which carries a penalty of up to 15 years. To kick off the trial a former ally testified he had handed her large amounts of cash and gold. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since the February coup by Myanmar’s military junta.
4. Caught up in a plagiarism scandal she had to resign in May from the German cabinet where held the post of Family Minister. But Franziska Giffey has made a comeback and how! She is all set to become Berlin’s first female mayor after historic electoral gains for her party the Social Democrats. The 43 year old seems to have public backing for now and was described by one supporter as someone who gets things done. ((Follow Franzikja))
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Other stories that caught my eye
1. I’d love to meet Kim Yo Jong. If nothing else but to find out how the heck she’s managed to solidify her position in Pyongyang's circles of power. It’s not like her brother is famous for sibling or familial love that could have kept her alive, prospering and safe in North Korea. She has long been amongst Kim Jong Un's closest lieutenants and this week she was promoted from her relatively junior position as vice department director (whatever that means) to member of the State Affairs Commission, the country’s top governing body. Experts think that’s a sign she’s being groomed to succeed her brother (whose health has been topic du jour amongst diplomatic circles)
2. 80 women and girls were secretly filmed at a local festival in the Spanish town of Cervo as they urinated in a side street because of a lack of facilities. The videos then ended up being posted on porn websites. When some of the women went to court asking for an investigation, the Spanish judge in charge shelved the case saying — because the videos were recorded in a public place, they cannot be deemed criminal. His decision has triggered an appeal led by the Women for Equality Burela (Bumei) association.
3. For the first time in the 116 year history of The Magic Circle a woman has been elected President. 28 year old Megan Swann is now the president of the organisation, which leads British magicians, and she’s also its youngest. And she is planning to take the organisation and the profession down a slightly different path to the illusionist glamour of David Blaine and Dynamo. Her focus is to make climate change understandable using what she describes as "environmental magic."
Must Watch
Environmental magic by Megan Swann, President of The Magic Circle ((Follow Megan))
Keeping tabs on Afghan Women
1. Kabul University is facing a brain drain having lost almost half its faculty. With uncertainty and ever-changing rules around the role of women in Afghan society and economy under the Taliban, professors are quitting or attempting to leave the country.
Two weeks ago, the Taliban began replacing the leadership at Afghanistan’s major universities. Their choice at Kabul University was Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat, a 34-year-old Taliban devotee who was widely criticized in both academic circles and on social media as being unqualified and holding troubling views on women’s rights. That outrage intensified this week, when a post on a Twitter account saying it was Mr. Ghairat’s official outlet said that women would not be allowed to return to Kabul University until a “real Islamic environment” could be established. The veracity of that account and post are now under question.
2. Following last week’s launch of efforts to repatriate Afghan female judges out of the country, it is now estimated by a BBC investigation that 220 are in hiding. Most judges do not believe the Taliban promise of amnesty for government workers. They are also hiding from the drug traffickers, murderers and mafia members they convicted and sentenced over the years. These criminals were let loose during the mass release of prisoners when the Taliban came to power in August.
The artsy stuff
The claim? That ‘Superfine’ is the world’s most diverse and inclusive art fair. Set up by founders Alex Mitow and James Miille Superfine addresses what they saw as systemic problems in art fairs - the back room deals, the lack of price tags and pricing based on who you know. Superfine focuses on contemporary art and prides itself on its inclusivity, boasting an outsized representation of artists of colour and LGBTQ+ and female artists. The idea? To create a fairer platform with transparency about everything from booth fees to artwork prices and ticket costs. Since launching at Art Basel in 2015, its generated $9 million in sales
Under the Superfine umbrella, three concurrent art fairs featuring 130 artists will for five days share the space of a full city block in midtown Manhattan. The Superfine Art Fair will run from September 30 to October 3 at Center 415 (415 5th Ave) in Manhattan. Let me know what you think if you’re headed there!
Have you met
Rihan Hanna Ayoub, The MP who wants to mediate for all Iraqis
Rihan Hanna Ayoub was elected in Kirkuk (northern Iraq) as one of five Christian Members of Parliament (out of 329) in 2018. The 37 year old Iraqi Member of Parliament was born and raised in Zakho, Iraqi Kurdistan. She got her Law degree from the University of Dohuk in 2006 and was a practicing lawyer until her election.
As Iraq goes to the polls on October 10th, Rihan is in a unique position to drive change. She is one of the handful of young women in the Iraqi Parliament and believes that in a country divided along the Sunni-Shia and other tribal lines Christians like her can mediate between Erbil and Baghdad, the government and various political parties.
On my reading list
Lady Brenda Hale also known as the Rt Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE’s new memoir, Spider Woman. I can’t wait to dive into the cases she dealt with, and the institutional sexism she faced to become the first female President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
The reviews may be disappointed that Spider Woman is light on the personal aspects of Lady Hale’s life, but who cares? This is a woman to be emulated and has so much to teach us all.
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