Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2: Today on the bright Side, author and entrepreneur Brooke Markovicis
Speaker 2: is here to show us what's missing from tech today
Speaker 2: and how women are going to transform it. It's Monday,
Speaker 2: May sixth. I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Speaker 1: Hello Sunshine. All Right, how was the weekend?
Speaker 2: It was amazing? Okay, you know how I've talked about
Speaker 2: my gaggle of GORP girls, the GGG. Yes, yes, So
Speaker 2: a founding member of the GGG was in town this
Speaker 2: weekend and she was staying at this really nice airbnb.
Speaker 2: I picked her up. We went to go get Margarita's
Speaker 2: and Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo. We had fun.
Speaker 2: We had a fun little Sunday.
Speaker 1: I feel like the GORP girls always have fun together always.
Speaker 2: That's the number one rule of gorping. Yeah, how was
Speaker 2: your weekend?
Speaker 1: I had a preparatory weekend because you and I are
Speaker 1: headed to New York for the podcast upfronts. And I
Speaker 1: got a massage, a facial, I did a manny petty
Speaker 1: damn girl. I haven't had like that kind of a
Speaker 1: prep weekend in a while. It was great. Now I'm
Speaker 1: ready to go to the East Coast with you.
Speaker 2: I see that fresh ballet slipper manny girl.
Speaker 1: Yes, you know I've been getting this color for the
Speaker 1: last ten years.
Speaker 2: You're a creature of habit Simona. Did you see that?
Speaker 1: Ava Mendez told people that she was so happy she
Speaker 1: waited to have kids until her forties.
Speaker 2: I am so glad that you brought this up, because
Speaker 2: I really want to talk about it.
Speaker 1: Me too, because you know I have anxiety around it,
Speaker 1: so this already.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I tell you to quell that anxiety, because you have
Speaker 2: plenty of time. You're only thirty three, and you can
Speaker 2: have a family.
Speaker 1: I like wake up from my sleep every morning and
Speaker 1: I think about coffee and the fact that I'm running
Speaker 1: out of time.
Speaker 2: Maybe you should chill on the coffee, maybe because maybe
Speaker 2: you'd feel like you're running out of time less.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the problem.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: What was interesting here is that she said she took
Speaker 1: a lot of heat for starting a family at forty
Speaker 1: that people were really brutal with her, especially when she
Speaker 1: got pregnant with her second child at forty two, and
Speaker 1: they told her that she would be too tired to
Speaker 1: have kids after forty That's a common thing.
Speaker 2: I hear every older parent, like every woman who becomes
Speaker 2: a mom later on in life, they all say it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: They all say it's great.
Speaker 1: Statistically they live longer.
Speaker 2: That's interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, I became a
Speaker 2: mom at thirty three, at your age, and I'm so
Speaker 2: glad that I waited. I can't imagine being a mom
Speaker 2: in my twenties.
Speaker 1: Would you have been ready?
Speaker 2: No, See, there's this saying like, oh, you'll never truly
Speaker 2: be ready, BS. I think you definitely reach a point
Speaker 2: where you're like, Okay, I'm ready, and you're also you
Speaker 2: can recognize when you're like, I am totally not ready.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like I have enough structure in my life,
Speaker 2: enough stability.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that age is different for everybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. But I think this is so cool that
Speaker 2: she's normalizing it, like she's doing things on her own time,
Speaker 2: on her own timeline, and I think that that's I
Speaker 2: think that's really refreshing, especially in an industry like Hollywood,
Speaker 2: you know, like we have this obsession with expiration dates
Speaker 2: for women, and I think we need to call BS
Speaker 2: on it.
Speaker 1: Also, I totally agree with you, and I love that
Speaker 1: she's talking about it because I heard Hoda say that
Speaker 1: she thought that she was too old to be a mom,
Speaker 1: and then she saw Sandra Bullock do it. So when
Speaker 1: we see and hear other people do things at ages
Speaker 1: that feel maybe past, like the median age of doing stuff,
Speaker 1: it feels like, oh I could do it too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally think about it. You have more money when
Speaker 2: you're older most of the time, hopefully hopefully, you probably
Speaker 2: have a partner that you trust.
Speaker 1: Hopefully hopefully ciss your fingers.
Speaker 2: But speaking of partners, I just I love talking about
Speaker 2: this family, Avia Mendez, Ryan Gosling. They are totally relationship goals.
Speaker 2: You know Ryan, can't you say he was your to
Speaker 2: hear me out? No? Now, No, Ryan is not to
Speaker 2: hear me out. Ryan is a straightforward crush.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't think so. I think he's a hear
Speaker 1: me out.
Speaker 2: Are you serious?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not for me. This is not the point.
Speaker 1: Oh we'll get back to this.
Speaker 2: Says the girl who's hear me out as Drake. Ye,
Speaker 2: your metrics are all off.
Speaker 1: Good point, good point. I cannot be trusted.
Speaker 2: Cannot be trusted anyway. So you know he's doing the
Speaker 2: rounds for his new movie, The Fall Guy.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: So he came out and talked about how he's actually
Speaker 2: been turning down roles where the character is like too
Speaker 2: psychologically distraught or wherever the role is like too dark.
Speaker 2: And this is a decision that he's come to alongside
Speaker 2: Ava as he's become a dad, because he just realizes,
Speaker 2: like he doesn't want to put his family through that
Speaker 2: distress that often comes with doing those really heavy weighty roles.
Speaker 2: And I just thought that was really cool, like again
Speaker 2: for a father now to be normalizing factoring his family
Speaker 2: into decisions in such a big way.
Speaker 1: I feel complicated about this because, on one hand, I
Speaker 1: fully agree with you. I think oftentimes we hear mothers
Speaker 1: talking about how they're going to pause at work or
Speaker 1: make decisions for their family. It's super refreshing to hear
Speaker 1: a father talk about it. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like a lot of people don't have these options, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like, it's definitely a privilege that
Speaker 1: he has to be able to say yes or no
Speaker 1: to work, and you know, sometimes it's hard to hear that.
Speaker 2: I think he's acknowledged the privilege, though he has acknowledged that,
Speaker 2: like I wouldn't be able to do what I do
Speaker 2: without my wife, Ava, who has made a lot of
Speaker 2: sacrifices as a mother and has decided to stay home
Speaker 2: and be more present with our family.
Speaker 1: He's such a good feminist. I remember when he won,
Speaker 1: was in an oscar a golden globe and he said
Speaker 1: this is for my wife, and he talked about how
Speaker 1: she had like a brutal moment when her brother passed,
Speaker 1: and he's just he's a really family oriented person. Okay,
Speaker 1: So before we dive into our interview with Brooke, which
Speaker 1: I'm really excited for because you know that I'm not
Speaker 1: such a but she makes all of this really digestible,
Speaker 1: I have to bring something else up that we saw.
Speaker 1: There's this trend that reminded me of our conversation with
Speaker 1: Courtney Quinn. You guys know her as color Me Courtney.
Speaker 1: It's called dopamine decor. So if you've been scrolling through
Speaker 1: TikTok or Pinterest lately, you've probably seen it popping up
Speaker 1: all over your feed. Basically, it's feel good decor. It's
Speaker 1: bringing back memories of carefree childhood bedrooms. So, like favorite
Speaker 1: celebrity posters playful signs, Lava lamps a deep sense of joy.
Speaker 2: Why are you shaking your head? This is this trend
Speaker 2: gives me anxiety. I mean, there's no taste involved here.
Speaker 2: If you're bringing knowledge is about if you're bringing a
Speaker 2: lava lamp into your homes as an older person, like
Speaker 2: as an adult. Oh my god, major red flag.
Speaker 1: All I wanted was a lava lamp when I was younger,
Speaker 1: and my parents would not get me one.
Speaker 2: The keyword in that phrase was all I wanted when
Speaker 2: I was younger.
Speaker 1: Have you seen hustle and flow?
Speaker 2: Of course, lava lamp doesn't belong in a house that's
Speaker 2: owned by an adult. I am a minimalist decorator. My
Speaker 2: house is all neutrals. It's very soothing. I cannot imagine
Speaker 2: being surrounded by all these colors, these loud colors and textures.
Speaker 2: I wear my colors. Did you have.
Speaker 1: Posters on your wall when you were growing up?
Speaker 2: Of course? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Who do you have?
Speaker 2: JTT? Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I finally we
Speaker 2: agree on Finally. I kissed him every night before bed.
Speaker 1: Is that how you learn how to make out?
Speaker 2: No, it was paper, It would have gotten too socy.
Speaker 2: I didn't try. But yeah, JTT, I mean Devin Sawah
Speaker 2: Backstreet boys. I didn't have any teenage hear me outs
Speaker 2: because they were all.
Speaker 1: No, when you're a teenager, you're allowed to crush on anyone.
Speaker 2: They were all tiger beats, every single one of them.
Speaker 1: No, for sure, when you're a teenager, you don't look
Speaker 1: at beauty in in like character or differences. You're just like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's the guy on the magazine that everyone else thinks
Speaker 1: is hot. That's who I think is hot.
Speaker 2: Well, I just liked pretty boys. I like these feminine
Speaker 2: pretty boys.
Speaker 1: They all did.
Speaker 2: They all had that like that, Like.
Speaker 1: Jesse McCarn Yeah, Jesse McCarthy was such a pretty boy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So wait, let me just get this straight. You
Speaker 2: loved pretty boys as a teenager, but not into Ryan Gosling.
Speaker 2: What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: No, I grew out of pretty boys. Now. I like
Speaker 1: character in the face.
Speaker 2: I like like.
Speaker 1: A bigger nose, or bushy eyebrows, or like something different.
Speaker 2: Just say you like an age gap, Daniell, Just say
Speaker 2: I like an age gap. That's the only way you
Speaker 2: get character in the face is time.
Speaker 1: No, you just start to look at people like I
Speaker 1: like like an energy, I like a confidence. I don't
Speaker 1: even care about what they look like that much anymore.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm learning so much. What do you think about
Speaker 2: dopamine decorating?
Speaker 1: You know what's funny? This is gonna sound strange because
Speaker 1: you know I like monochromatic everything. Yeah, I'm sort of
Speaker 1: for this.
Speaker 2: Well, you're you have that library at your house where
Speaker 2: it's all rainbow colored books. They're all arranged in rainbow.
Speaker 1: It makes me really happy. It's very home at it.
Speaker 1: I kind of love the idea of lava lamps, of
Speaker 1: candle holders, of tied I. I love tied I anything.
Speaker 1: I don't wear it a lot, but I really.
Speaker 2: Do love it tied I in a home.
Speaker 1: It's just so fun makes me happy. Maybe I need
Speaker 1: to have children and then they can decorate their rooms
Speaker 1: like that, and then I get both the best of
Speaker 1: both worlds.
Speaker 2: Next up, we're going from brighter decor to a brighter
Speaker 2: future with tech founder, entrepreneur and author Brooke Marcovicis. Stay
Speaker 2: with us, We're back, Danielle. We are talking about women
Speaker 2: in tech today, and I feel like I often have
Speaker 2: a i don't know, like a physical reaction to that
Speaker 2: phrase because it's typically followed by all the ways in
Speaker 2: which women are underrepresented in the tech space. But this
Speaker 2: is the bright side, So that means we're going to
Speaker 2: be focusing on the solutions. We are making a point
Speaker 2: of talking about solutions today and bringing you a vision
Speaker 2: of what tech in the world would look like if
Speaker 2: it were led by women.
Speaker 1: If it were led by women, all right.
Speaker 2: So.
Speaker 1: Brooke Marcovicis is an entrepreneur, startup founder, and the author
Speaker 1: of the Future Built by Women, Creating a Brighter Tomorrow
Speaker 1: through Tech and Innovation. Her book is actually inspired by
Speaker 1: her own journey from nonprofits to having her company Alabi acquired.
Speaker 1: And what I love about the book, Simone, is that
Speaker 1: Brooke not only talks about how women are just as
Speaker 1: capable as men I mean, duh, but that we actually
Speaker 1: have an advantage in the tech space because we see
Speaker 1: fundamentally different problems that need to be solved. So Brooke,
Speaker 1: welcome to the bright Side. Thank you.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 1: Your book even has a tagline with the word bright
Speaker 1: in it. You were meant to be here. Yeah, of course,
Speaker 1: the future built by Women. That's such a huge phrase.
Speaker 1: What does a future built by women look like?
Speaker 3: I think it's one where we're using our innate abilities
Speaker 3: as women with empathy and kind of our intrinsic problem
Speaker 3: solving abilities to create something that we don't have right now,
Speaker 3: something that's brighter that we want for our kids, for ourselves.
Speaker 3: We've leaned in, but I think now it's time to
Speaker 3: really build instead of just focusing on leading, how can
Speaker 3: we also get our hands a little dirty and start
Speaker 3: solving the problems in ways that women can kind of
Speaker 3: dive in a little bit deeper to Maybe we're going
Speaker 3: to bring more empathy to the table. Maybe we are
Speaker 3: going to bring problems that need solving with women's health
Speaker 3: that hasn't been addressed in a long time. I think
Speaker 3: that we want to dive into issues that men are
Speaker 3: not solving.
Speaker 2: Brooke, I want to rewind a little bit and talk
Speaker 2: about how you discovered your why So you actually had
Speaker 2: an entirely separate career working in nonprofits. How did that
Speaker 2: work lead you here?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So, I think that women oftentimes have these career pivots
Speaker 3: and jumps because we discover new things that we want
Speaker 3: to achieve, that we want different impact. For me, I
Speaker 3: was always fixing everybody's tech problems in our nonprofit, so
Speaker 3: I was always the one everybody would call and say, Brook,
Speaker 3: can you come to my office? My computer crash and
Speaker 3: I don't know what to do. But the thing that
Speaker 3: kind of flipped the switch for me is I was
Speaker 3: watching a video about how Microsoft was setting up tech
Speaker 3: centers and third world countries, and I was like, Wow,
Speaker 3: there's so much power in giving people the ability to
Speaker 3: use technology. It can allow them to increase their income,
Speaker 3: it can get them out of poverty, it can do
Speaker 3: so many really amazing things, and why are more people
Speaker 3: not using tech for good? And with that nonprofit background,
Speaker 3: I was like, there's a lot of problems that need
Speaker 3: to be solved.
Speaker 2: And so that's really.
Speaker 3: Where I decided to kind of take that leap into
Speaker 3: tech and found that it wasn't as hard as I
Speaker 3: thought it would be and that there was a lot
Speaker 3: of potential to do good with it.
Speaker 1: How did you take that leap? Because I think one
Speaker 1: of the barriers in people's minds to getting into tech,
Speaker 1: if they aren't already in it, is how do I
Speaker 1: even learn those skills?
Speaker 3: I think the first thing I did was kind of
Speaker 3: reframe it for myself. So I did go back up
Speaker 3: pretty traditional route, went and got my master's in computer
Speaker 3: information systems and dove in from there because I felt
Speaker 3: that I needed that education label to be able to
Speaker 3: step into tech. But what I would discover as I
Speaker 3: went through is there was a lot of things that
Speaker 3: I could learn and hack together as I was going
Speaker 3: just by purely focusing on solving a problem. And so
Speaker 3: I stuck with one programming language that I learned, focused
Speaker 3: on and taught myself called Rubyon rails. I saw that
Speaker 3: that was kind of the one that a lot of
Speaker 3: platforms were using to build fast. And they have a
Speaker 3: cool thing called gyms, which is pre programmed code that
Speaker 3: helps you build faster. So we always look for those
Speaker 3: little things that we can do to build faster, move faster,
Speaker 3: get our leg up in our career, and for me,
Speaker 3: I found that that would help me to build what
Speaker 3: I wanted to faster.
Speaker 1: Did you have moments of feeling discouraged along the way, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I definitely struggled a lot, especially in grad school. There
Speaker 3: were hardly any women there that were learning tech to
Speaker 3: begin with. I had all male professors except for one,
Speaker 3: and it was really easy to just want to throw
Speaker 3: the towel in. My husband's an engineer, and so I'd
Speaker 3: often be like, can you just help me with this assignment?
Speaker 3: He's like, no, you need to figure this out yourself. Wow,
Speaker 3: that's tough love, bro, It's tough love. But if he
Speaker 3: had just helped me, I never would have learned it.
Speaker 3: And so I am really appreciative that he kind of
Speaker 3: forced me into figuring it out myself. But I always
Speaker 3: was asking just where are the women? And it's because
Speaker 3: we didn't see it. We didn't see it as a
Speaker 3: path when we were younger.
Speaker 1: When I was younger, I think I was in fifth grade,
Speaker 1: my teacher had us do an exercise where we all
Speaker 1: had to draw a picture of a scientist, a business leader,
Speaker 1: an engineer, and everybody in the class drew a man.
Speaker 1: And I think we have this picture in our mind
Speaker 1: that men are business leaders, men are venture capitalists, men
Speaker 1: are engineers, And you are really trying to disrupt that
Speaker 1: by having us picture a world in which women are
Speaker 1: the people we imagine in those positions. What do you
Speaker 1: think makes women such great leaders?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So I am the same way. You know, growing up,
Speaker 3: I never saw that path to being a builder. Then,
Speaker 3: so what I hope that we can kind of see
Speaker 3: as women is that we have just as much ability
Speaker 3: as men to build and to learn how to code
Speaker 3: if we want to go that route, but we also
Speaker 3: have these abilities to take a problem, Like I see
Speaker 3: different founders right now, like Rushmasu Johnny, who is the
Speaker 3: founder of Girls Who Code. She saw a problem with
Speaker 3: paid leave and she worked to advocate for it and
Speaker 3: try to solve it in Congress, but that didn't happen yet,
Speaker 3: and so she took AI and started to build an
Speaker 3: AI platform to help with getting people paid parental leave
Speaker 3: in the New York State area. And so taking these
Speaker 3: small problems that we see that are facing our communities
Speaker 3: or facing our society on a daily basis and saying okay,
Speaker 3: I can use technology to make an impact right now,
Speaker 3: whereas maybe a male founded company would be like I
Speaker 3: want to get a burrito to your door faster, which
Speaker 3: I worked at Postmates, so I can say that. But
Speaker 3: we're the ones that you know are at pick up
Speaker 3: and drop off often, we're the ones that are helping
Speaker 3: in our commun unities and we see the issues that
Speaker 3: are being faced and we want to step in and
Speaker 3: try to solve them. I think that women have this
Speaker 3: innate ability to keep going. I know that for me
Speaker 3: becoming a mom. I always say that it was a
Speaker 3: superpower for me and helped me step into entrepreneurship because
Speaker 3: you just get it done as a mom that you
Speaker 3: just have to figure out a way to get it done.
Speaker 2: In a lot of ways, the Future Built by Women
Speaker 2: is a response to some of those hurdles that you
Speaker 2: faced launching your own company. Who did you write this
Speaker 2: book for?
Speaker 3: As I dove into really writing this book, I was like,
Speaker 3: what do I always share with people? And it always
Speaker 3: came back to these stories. It is hard out there.
Speaker 3: There aren't very many women that are building. There aren't
Speaker 3: that many women in tech. Less than twenty seven percent
Speaker 3: of women enter into STEM fields and so like less
Speaker 3: than that actually end up and doing that in their career.
Speaker 3: And so I really wrote it for the woman that
Speaker 3: is wanting to make an impact. Maybe she is looking
Speaker 3: to switch careers right now and she's trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what's next for her, or she's just jumping in
Speaker 3: after graduation, but she might be faced with a lot
Speaker 3: of problems. And so I really hope that as women
Speaker 3: dive into this book, they're able to see that there
Speaker 3: is a framework. There have been people that have led
Speaker 3: before us, that have been building and that it is
Speaker 3: possible to build a brighter future. We just really need
Speaker 3: to collectively kind of lean into each other for support
Speaker 3: and encouragement as we dive in.
Speaker 1: I really love that you focus on women's stories in
Speaker 1: this book, because, at least for me, tech sometimes feels unapproachable,
Speaker 1: and hearing how other people have done it feels really inspiring.
Speaker 1: There's this one case study that you talk about with
Speaker 1: a computer programmer. Her name's Ada Lovelace. Why did you
Speaker 1: profile her and can you share a little bit about
Speaker 1: her story.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So in the beginning of the book, I talk
Speaker 3: about several women that made an impact in tech that
Speaker 3: we don't often talk about. There's so many that actually
Speaker 3: led the way. And Aida was the original programmer in
Speaker 3: many ways. She was a mathematician by trade, and she
Speaker 3: this was, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago,
Speaker 3: but she led the way for all of us. And
Speaker 3: so Aida is kind of our like Queen Bee when
Speaker 3: it comes to programming, and she was the first one,
Speaker 3: but we don't really talk about that women were actually
Speaker 3: the first one of the first programmers. There's also a
Speaker 3: key study about the Eniac team, which was a team
Speaker 3: of former secretaries in World War Two. That are actually
Speaker 3: who developed the programming language for one of the first
Speaker 3: computers that we ever saw that came up in World
Speaker 3: War two, and their stories were kind of buried because
Speaker 3: the men took the credit for it. Yet they were
Speaker 3: the ones that wrote the code for why we probably
Speaker 3: won World Were two.
Speaker 2: I love that you brought up the history of programming
Speaker 2: because this is something that I nerd out about. Tell
Speaker 2: me if I get this right. I remember learning that
Speaker 2: women made up the majority of programmers in the beginning
Speaker 2: and STEM at that time, and then with the onset
Speaker 2: of the eighties, certain toys that were marketed as STEM
Speaker 2: toys were marketed directly to boys instead of girls, and
Speaker 2: that's where we started to get excluded from STEM.
Speaker 3: Yes, so STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math, And yes,
Speaker 3: you are correct, and honestly, as I researched so much
Speaker 3: for this book, I could have written a whole book
Speaker 3: on the history of why women were left out of STEM.
Speaker 3: It shifted significantly in the eighties, and the reason that
Speaker 3: it was prominent even during the World War two era
Speaker 3: was because women were brought back into work because men
Speaker 3: were fighting in the war, and we also had paid
Speaker 3: childcare which was a huge reason why women could go
Speaker 3: to work, and so, yeah, it definitely shifted significantly back
Speaker 3: in the eighties. We went back to more of the
Speaker 3: focus on the family unit as well, and so society
Speaker 3: really shifted and left women out, even though there were
Speaker 3: tons of women that had been working on STEM careers
Speaker 3: at that point.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a quick break and when we
Speaker 1: come back, we're talking about how we envision the future
Speaker 1: built by women and the incredible female entrepreneurs already paving
Speaker 1: the way.
Speaker 2: We're back, so brook thinking about the impact of those
Speaker 2: images in our society, in media, in advertising, movies. What
Speaker 2: needs to change in order for us to really realize
Speaker 2: a future built by women.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. We as women right now
Speaker 3: it could look really bleak. And I think that if
Speaker 3: we focus too much on trying to fit in to
Speaker 3: the way that tech is going, it's going to be
Speaker 3: hard for us. It's really hard to get venture funding.
Speaker 3: We get less than two percent of funding. I was
Speaker 3: one of the lucky ones that was able to raise funding,
Speaker 3: but then it hit a hard time when I couldn't
Speaker 3: raise funding.
Speaker 1: We really need.
Speaker 3: To lean into building bootstrapped companies as much as we
Speaker 3: can leading into working together to build because I've seen
Speaker 3: a lot of really great female founders shut down their
Speaker 3: companies because they focused too much on trying to raise
Speaker 3: funding and didn't have a focus on bootstrapping that company
Speaker 3: and building that product in another way, because it's just
Speaker 3: the money is not there for us. The system is
Speaker 3: not set up for us, so we need to figure
Speaker 3: out ways to build around it. And I think that
Speaker 3: we really can if we lean into building together.
Speaker 1: I think of all the tech founded by women that
Speaker 1: I utilize, I think the not comes to mind. All
Speaker 1: of my friends say that it revolutionized the way that
Speaker 1: they plan their weddings. Vote dot org was founded by
Speaker 1: Deborah Cleaver, which simplifies political engagement and uses technology to
Speaker 1: do so bumble like change the way women date. I
Speaker 1: didn't know this, but the founder of Canva, Melanie Perkins,
Speaker 1: which changed so many people's lives in terms of graphic design.
Speaker 1: There's so many of these examples. What tech founded by
Speaker 1: women do you utilize? What's changed your life?
Speaker 3: Well, Melanie's one of my favorite people, and I'm convinced
Speaker 3: that you could do anything if you have Canva. I
Speaker 3: can make presentations, I can completely market myself on a
Speaker 3: regular basis. And I also absolutely love event Bright and
Speaker 3: always have. I think Julia's genius for bringing that platform
Speaker 3: to life, but seeing that it stayed around even in
Speaker 3: this era of the pandemic, but also in all of
Speaker 3: these different platforms that came out, event Bright always kind
Speaker 3: of stuck there. They knew what they were building was
Speaker 3: solving a major problem. And all of those women have
Speaker 3: had such successful companies that lasted. They didn't just you know,
Speaker 3: hit unicorn status and fall apart. They've lasted the test
Speaker 3: of time and continue to be amazing companies.
Speaker 1: Will you quickly share what unicorn status is? I just
Speaker 1: learned about this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's a lot to unicorn status, but ultimately
Speaker 3: it's where they've hit this like multi billion dollar status,
Speaker 3: either through venture capital funding or through actual revenue. So
Speaker 3: like Serena Williams is known for investing in tons of
Speaker 3: unicorn status companies because she sees that potential. She knows
Speaker 3: what grit is and so she often invest in those
Speaker 3: gritty women.
Speaker 1: You have something in your book called the entrepreneurial equation.
Speaker 1: Can you explain that to us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it really is this passion and purpose plus
Speaker 3: technology really will equal that impact for you. So this
Speaker 3: can look different at different times. For me. As I
Speaker 3: dove in to building my company, my last company out
Speaker 3: would be I had this really big passion to solve
Speaker 3: flexible work for women. I did not see a platform
Speaker 3: out there. There were all kinds of different ones, but
Speaker 3: they weren't really hitting on the issues that women were facing.
Speaker 3: So we were leaving our nine to fives, oftentimes having kids,
Speaker 3: and we wanted to still stay in the workforce, but
Speaker 3: we wanted a place that added community plus flexibility to it.
Speaker 3: And so I wanted to solve for that problem. But
Speaker 3: I like to break that down in the book to
Speaker 3: remind us it doesn't have to be a complicated thing.
Speaker 3: That we could be working on a problem without even
Speaker 3: knowing that we're an entrepreneur. And so in the middle
Speaker 3: part of the book, I literally talk about how to
Speaker 3: build how to be just dangerous enough with technology, And
Speaker 3: so I really wanted women to be able to reframe
Speaker 3: that and see that. So there's a ton of ways
Speaker 3: that you can use that entrepreneurial equation.
Speaker 2: What did you mean by that when you said I
Speaker 2: want women to learn how to be just dangerous enough
Speaker 2: with technic That sounds really sexy. Can you elaborate on that? So?
Speaker 3: I think that technology is not as complex as people
Speaker 3: make it out to be, especially in this era of AI.
Speaker 3: You can literally ask it to code you just about
Speaker 3: anything that you want. You just need to go to
Speaker 3: it with the right question and problem that you want
Speaker 3: to solve. I think that if you know just enough,
Speaker 3: just enough of how programming works can help you solve
Speaker 3: a problem if you just note these core concepts.
Speaker 2: AI is one of those spaces that you mentioned that
Speaker 2: you want women to show up in more. I think
Speaker 2: a lot of us right now are so mystified by
Speaker 2: it or even fearful of it, but we need to
Speaker 2: change our attitude around it. Right what would you say
Speaker 2: is the attitude that we should be adopting around AI.
Speaker 3: So I've been using AI for over five years, way
Speaker 3: before Chad GPT came out in January of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3: But one thing that I want to encourage women is
Speaker 3: that we were not there when a lot of the
Speaker 3: era of technology took off with social media apps prior
Speaker 3: to that, which was generally the World Wide Web, and
Speaker 3: we've been left out. We've been left out in the data,
Speaker 3: we've been left out and how products have been built.
Speaker 3: And I don't want us to be left out in AI,
Speaker 3: because AI is going to completely change the way that
Speaker 3: we work our society, and if women's voices are not
Speaker 3: a part of it, and women's data is not a
Speaker 3: part of it, we're going to be in trouble in
Speaker 3: the next ten years. And so I encourage women to
Speaker 3: make it really simple. Open up chat GVT at least
Speaker 3: once a day and start asking it questions for things
Speaker 3: that you're stumped on. Maybe you're trying to write an
Speaker 3: email or an article, or you are trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what place to travel next. Just start using it
Speaker 3: and asking it questions. And one that's going to allow
Speaker 3: chat GPT to hear more women's thought processes and things
Speaker 3: that we're interested in and looking into because it keeps
Speaker 3: all of that data. But it also allows you to
Speaker 3: see how fast you can do things with AI and
Speaker 3: how much faster it can help you to move forward
Speaker 3: and save you time.
Speaker 2: Danielle, you know that experiment that you were talking about
Speaker 2: when you were in fifth grade and you had to
Speaker 2: draw what a leader looks like, Well, that is exactly
Speaker 2: what's happening with AI right now. The images that AI
Speaker 2: is producing of leaders are predominantly men. Even the prompt
Speaker 2: of a productive person, let's say, AI will generate a
Speaker 2: man and predominantly white men. So if women don't get involved,
Speaker 2: now we're going to get left behind with this technology
Speaker 2: as well, and we're not going to be able to
Speaker 2: implement the change that we need to see here.
Speaker 1: There's huge gender bias already. I mean, I think of
Speaker 1: autocorrect actually a lot, because that's AI, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: recognize certain words specifically, like names of people in minority groups.
Speaker 1: Like all of this technology is completely informed by the
Speaker 1: people creating it, And so I think we're so with you, Brooke,
Speaker 1: Like it's so important to use chat GPT so that
Speaker 1: it recognizes women's thought processes.
Speaker 2: I see the cover of your book, The Future Built
Speaker 2: by Women, and the pink It makes me think of Barbie.
Speaker 2: And when I think of Barbie, I think of the
Speaker 2: matriarchy that we saw represented in that film, and I
Speaker 2: honestly have never experienced a matriarchy in real life. We
Speaker 2: just have never had that in America. And I'm curious
Speaker 2: when you think about what a future built by women
Speaker 2: might look like, what are the images that come to
Speaker 2: mind for you, what do you envision.
Speaker 3: I envision that we look at women as the builders
Speaker 3: where we don't even have to do exercises. We're in
Speaker 3: the classroom for you, Danielle, that it's just an automatic
Speaker 3: thing that women can be what we want to be,
Speaker 3: and that we get the credit for what we're building.
Speaker 3: I think we need to continue all so to tell
Speaker 3: these stories. We need to talk about Julia and Melanie
Speaker 3: and all of these people and name drop the heck
Speaker 3: out of them so people can see that that is
Speaker 3: possible and that they can build these things.
Speaker 1: You know, there's this meme online that says, surround yourself
Speaker 1: with women who would speak your name in rooms where
Speaker 1: you're not, And I think about that all the time.
Speaker 1: It's so important to speak other women's names. You're doing
Speaker 1: that so well in your book, Brook, and you know
Speaker 1: you continue to do it in your work, so thank
Speaker 1: you so much.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a huge thing.
Speaker 3: I've been lucky that women have spoke my name in rooms,
Speaker 3: and I hope that we can continue to do that.
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of times we can put
Speaker 3: too much ego into it. As women, we try to
Speaker 3: like be too masculine in many ways, and I think
Speaker 3: one of our big traits is that empathy, but also
Speaker 3: that community building, and when we can lean in and
Speaker 3: pull each other together and help each other get to
Speaker 3: where we're going, I think it can be a really
Speaker 3: beautiful thing. Women want to support each other, and women
Speaker 3: want to see a future where we're all included and
Speaker 3: where we're talked about and where we're lifted up.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Brooke.
Speaker 3: Thank you, it was so great to be here.
Speaker 1: Brooke Marcovicis is a tech entrepreneur and author of the
Speaker 1: Future Built by Women, Creating a brighter Tomorrow through tech
Speaker 1: and innovation.
Speaker 2: That's it for today's show. Thank you to our partners
Speaker 2: at Airbnb, and tomorrow we're joined by Hollywood Royalty y'all, Oscar,
Speaker 2: Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Regina King and her
Speaker 2: Rockstar producing partner and sister Reina King.
Speaker 1: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
Speaker 2: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O
Speaker 1: B A. Y we'll see you tomorrow. Keep looking on
Speaker 1: the bright side.