Why Female Founders Will Outlast the Men
Tracy Chou says being sexually harassed, threatened, and stalked has been her entrepreneurial endurance training
I recently hit an 11.5-mile rocky trail run through the desert, up 1,600 feet of elevation gain. As I traversed through unknown terrain, up rocky inclines and through dried-out river washes, my feet slipping through the sand and gravel, one thought kept drifting through my mind. A mile on this run is so much harder than a mile on one of those synthetic rubber tracks, but damn, am I feeling so much stronger and more powerful. It felt a lot like my experience building my startup.
It also reminded me of a cartoon I once saw in a diversity and inclusion workshop. Two runners are positioned at the starting line of a race. One is in his running uniform and cleats, sprint position, ready to tear down a smooth track lane. The other doesn’t have on proper athletic gear and is looking down a torn-up path, obstacles in her way.
Tell me, is it fair to compare their mile times?
I feel like I’m doing the miserably tough trail running version of the startup founder race. Of course, startups are always hard. But I’m a solo female founder, working on a problem that most of the gatekeepers of capital and power neither understand…
