{"id":25548,"date":"2015-09-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T14:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=25548"},"modified":"2023-10-12T14:13:37","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T18:13:37","slug":"succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep. 04: Succeeding as a Woman in Tech &#8211; Shaan Kandawalla, Melody McCloskey, Amy Sheng"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-25548\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-25548\" class=\"sm2-25548 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover ;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"spp-player-background\"> <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#play\" class=\"sm2-inline-button play-pause\"><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"loader\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"eq\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-1\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-2\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-3\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"bar bar-4\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-inline-status progressbar\">\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"display:none;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch0\" style=\"display:none;\">0.75x<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch1\">1x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch2\" style=\"display:none;\">1.25x<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch3\" style=\"display:none;\">1.5x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"playerpitch4\" style=\"display:none;\">2x<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"display:none;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"secrewind\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist-target\"><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bd\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-track\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bar1\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-bar\"><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-progress-ball\"><div class=\"icon-overlay\"><\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-row timestamp timetext\"><div class=\"sm2-inline-time timestamp\">0:00<\/div><div class=\"sm2-inline-duration timestamp\">28:53<\/div><\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element sm2-volume\" style=\"0\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t   <div class=\"sm2-button-bd\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"sm2-inline-button sm2-volume-control volume-shade\"><\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#volume\" class=\"sm2-inline-button sm2-volume-control\" style=\"\"><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t   <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"bd sm2-playlist-drawer sm2-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-playlist-wrapper\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/TSE-Podcast_Women-In-Tech_FINAL.mp3\">Ep. 04: Succeeding as a Woman in Tech &#8211; Shaan Kandawalla, Melody McCloskey, Amy Sheng<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" class=\"webui-popover-content share-buttons\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04\/\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"facebook\"><i class=\"fa fa-facebook\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=Ep.+04%3A+Succeeding+as+a+Woman+in+Tech+%E2%80%93+Shaan+Kandawalla%2C+Melody+McCloskey%2C+Amy+Sheng -&url=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04\/\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"twitter\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><a class=\"button-sppreview\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/getpodcast.reviews\/id\/1036000689\">Leave a Review<\/a><a class=\"button-spplisten\" style=\"display:none !important;\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"javascript:window.open('http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/TSE-Podcast_Women-In-Tech_FINAL.mp3','','width=500,height=250')\">Listen in a New Window<\/a><a class=\"button-download\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/TSE-Podcast_Women-In-Tech_FINAL.mp3\">Download<\/a><a class=\"button-soundcloud\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">SoundCloud<\/a><a class=\"button-stitcher\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/s?fid=72717&refid=stpr\">Stitcher<\/a><a class=\"button-sppandroid\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/subscribeonandroid.com\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe on Android<\/a><a class=\"button-spprss\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe via RSS<\/a><a class=\"button-spotify\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom1\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.prx.org\/series\/34510-the-story-exchange\">PRX<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom2\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLaK2UyNCu2g2_preGI12R4z2iRXjIH3ah\">Youtube Music<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom3\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5lJgdFK8g9WWXLBYjWytyn\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom4\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/B094\">Pocket Casts<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom5\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom6\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_25543\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25543\" style=\"width: 980px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-25543 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2015\/09\/WomenInTech-Banner.jpg\" alt=\"Women in tech: Shaan Kandawalla of PlayDate Digital, Melody McCloskey of StyleSeat, Amy Sheng of CellScope\" width=\"980\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163902\/WomenInTech-Banner.jpg 980w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163902\/WomenInTech-Banner-525x268.jpg 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163902\/WomenInTech-Banner-100x51.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163902\/WomenInTech-Banner-862x440.jpg 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163902\/WomenInTech-Banner-846x432.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shaan Kandawalla, PlayDate Digital; Melody McCloskey, StyleSeat; Amy Sheng, CellScope<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If there were more women in tech, would women enjoy better tech products? We look for answers through three women who are succeeding in the tech industry with innovations that address female painpoints: Shaan Kandawalla of <a href=\"http:\/\/playdatedigital.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PlayDate Digital<\/a>, Melody McCloskey of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.styleseat.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">StyleSeat<\/a>, and Amy Sheng of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cellscope.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">CellScope<\/a>. This project is based on our <a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/care-women-tech\/\">3-part series<\/a> with The New York Times.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OphiraE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ophira Eisenberg<\/a> for the use of her comedy clip. The excerpt comes from a taping of the RISK! podcast, which people can find at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.RISK-show.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">www.RISK-show.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>Melody McCloskey: I have always loved computers. I've always loved tech. And it wasn\u2019t something that I ever thought that I could do. You know, no one turned to me and said, \u201cYou can be a software engineer if you want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Welcome to The Story Exchange, featuring the stories and strategies of entrepreneurial women around the world. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And I\u2019m Sue Williams<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Today, we are talking about women in tech. The numbers are pretty dismal\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: They are. Only about 3% of tech startups are founded by women. There are a lot of guys in Silicon Valley.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Which is exactly why we wanted to explore this issue. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Absolutely. Today we\u2019re going to share the stories of three different women who are bucking the trend and succeeding in the tech world. We produced video profiles of all three that you can watch on our site, TheStoryExchange.org. Today we\u2019re going to share snippets of  those conversations.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: You\u2019re going to hear about some challenges that these entrepreneurs faced -- but you\u2019ll probably also be struck by the uniquely female perspectives that they bring to tech. All three are making products or providing services that the average guy just might not think of\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: PlayDate Digital is a kids entertainment and education company.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: StyleSeat is a platform for entrepreneurs in the beauty space.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: Cellscope is for a parent at home who thinks their kid may have an ear infection. They can take our device and put it in their kid's ear.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: When you have more women in tech, you have more innovation -- different types of innovation -- because they naturally have female customers in mind, and they want to solve female pain points.  <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, like the breast pump for instance - lots of women complain that there\u2019s not a good one on the market. That\u2019s probably because we don\u2019t have a lot of female engineers designing good ones. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And if we do, it\u2019s hard for those women to find investors.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, most investors are men, who might be a little squeamish about a product like that.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Yep, so we have a ways to go. In today\u2019s show, we hope to raise awareness of the lack of women in tech. But at the same time, we also want to encourage women and girls to chase their startup dreams -- particularly if they\u2019ve got an idea for a new technology that can improve the lives of other women. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Our series begins with Shaan Kandawalla. She\u2019s actually not in Silicon Valley, but here in New York, which has its own flourishing tech scene.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I always knew I wanted to start my own business. I knew that I wanted to create something. I wanted to work on a product. I wanted to get into the nuts and bolts of a company.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Shaan runs a company called PlayDate Digital - she develops apps for kids that are based on popular characters from Hasbro, the famous toy company. She\u2019s on track to make a million dollars in annual revenue.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: We create book apps, for example, around My Little Pony. You bring the story to life through tappable interactions on the iPad. We\u2019re using these devices to bring the characters that kids love to life in an educational way. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Now, Shaan is from Pakistan originally - that\u2019s an important detail, because if you think about it\u2026there are perhaps some surprising similarities -- on a small level, at least --- between a place like Pakistan, which is male-dominated, and the U.S. tech scene, which is also famously populated almost exclusively by men. <\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I grew up in a country where there were so many restrictions placed on women. Some of my best friends had much more conservative upbringings than I did. You know, my parents were very supportive, were very open-minded and always encouraged us so I had that benefit.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Shaan learned to challenge gender norms at a very young age. As a teenageer in Karachi\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I was the captain of the national swimming team. I had the record for the 50-meter freestyle event. So I was selected to represent Pakistan in the \u201896 Olympic Games. Of course I was very excited. I didn\u2019t expect to win a medal at the Olympic games but just to be able to be there and to represent my country was exciting. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: But...it was not meant to be.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: Unfortunately I wasn\u2019t allowed to swim in the games. Because at the time, Pakistan didn\u2019t want a woman swimming in the Olympics. The fact that I would be swimming in a swimsuit in front of a male audience on a world scale wasn\u2019t in the cards at that time. Someone in the government basically withdrew my entry. Was it gut wrenching and was it disappointing. Of course it was. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Shaan handled the disappointment by throwing all her energy into school. First she went to Wellesley College in the States, and then Harvard Business School. She spent a few years working at Hasbro and also Nickolodeon. It was in 2012 that she decided to start PlayDate Digital\u2026here in the heart of New York City. But once again, just like in Pakistan, she found herself standing out as a woman.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: There\u2019s an interesting stat about how less than 5% of VC-funded companies are women-founded. So there\u2019s definitely a dearth - especially in my space, I\u2019d say there are more males than females.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: One study we found, by Appcelerator, which is a mobile-tech company, found that -- even though women purchase most apps -- 96 percent of all mobile-app developers are male, most between the ages of 20 and 29. Shaan stood out even further when -- a short while after launching her startup -- she became pregnant with her daugher. And that\u2019s when the tone of meetings with potential investors, partners, clients -- most of them male -- began to change. Many questioned her commitment. She got a lot of dismissive attitudes. That surprised her, as she comes from a long line of female entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: So my grandmother is 94 years old and you know, she\u2019s an amazing women. She got a degree in chemistry and geology. And she was the only woman in her department in India. She and my grandfather decided to start a business. Today it\u2019s a third-generation industrial chemical manufacturer. She was very much the driving force in the company. She still is, to this day.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Shaan relied on her experience crossing boundaries in Pakistan to deal with the questioning she got in New York\u2019s Silicon Alley. She would tell naysayers\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: My mother has always worked. And she worked in her family business. Business was, has always been part of our blood.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: In the end, Shaan lost a potential partner, a fellow Harvard graduate who she thought was going to manage PlayDate Digital\u2019s business side. He didn\u2019t believe a woman could do both things - be a mom, and focus on a startup.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: So we\u2019ve been looking at Shaan Kandawalla, and her story is remarkable.<br \/>\nSue Williams: Yeah, she is from Pakistan\u2019s elite Zoroastrian community...it\u2019s a very tiny community, but one where education is important, not just for men but for women. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, well, that explains how she got to Harvard. Let\u2019s take a look at how she started her business, as it really highlights how much she brings to the table. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Yeah, a lot of app developers -- the steroetypical guy wearing a hoodie -- don\u2019t have nearly the experience Shaan has. <\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: While I was at Harvard, I identified Hasbro as a company that I was interested in\u2026and I was fascinated by the family business that Hasbro was and how, you know, we all grew up with Hasbro brands. My Little Pony, GI Joe, Play-DOh, all the board games -- Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue. So I joined HASBRO right after HBS. I was a brand manager so we worked with the creative teams, and the packaging and marketing and licensing. So we really, it was a great job for me to be able to see kind of how the whole ecosystem worked. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: After two years, Shaan moved to New York to join Nickolodeon, managing its digital gaming business. <\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: While I was at Nickolodeon, I was also managing some of the mobile businesses for preschool. It was amazing to sit in focus groups with kids and just see how they were adopting this technology. These devices that didn\u2019t exist before opened up a whole new world of learning, of entertainment, of engagement. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: She was inspired by the fact that Nickolodeon worked with a lot of startup developers\u2026So in 2012, when she had an idea for digital story books, she decided: Why not start her own company.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: And I was very fortunate because I have a colleague at Nickelodeon who shared my vision. And it was a man by the name of Steve Grieder. He basically said, \u201cYou write a business plan and come back to me in a week.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Grieder liked her plan - he decided to invest $350,000 dollars in PlayDate Digital and he joined Shaan as her angel and her co-founder. The two spent about a year setting up the business, pitching investors and using connections at Hasbro to secure a licensing deal, allowing them to turn popular characters into storybook apps.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I think I was like eight and a half months pregnant when I did a final pitch at Hasbro. And right before Rhea was born, we were actually awarded the business.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: What I think is interesting is that being a mom -- far from being a disadvantage -- probably gives Shaan a leg up on the competition.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, exactly - she says the same thing. Let\u2019s listen.<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I mean my daughter, who\u2019s one and a half years old, is able to fully navigate my devices...which is scary and exciting at the same time. Starting a business like PlayDate digital -- it\u2019s a profession but it\u2019s also personal I\u2019m a mom and I care about what my kid is learning and how she\u2019s interacting with stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: I can tell you, as a journalist, I\u2019ve spent a lot of time at incubators and accelerators, even pitch competitions at places like SXSW -- and you don\u2019t see a lot of women. And you definitely don\u2019t see a lot of moms.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And that needs to change. So tell us, how is Shaan\u2019s company doing now?<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Very well - I recently asked her for an update -- she now has released 12 apps - they\u2019re all available on iTunes and Google Play. She has a team of developers working for her. And uh, she tells me that this year PlayDate Digital is focusing on becoming more global and customizing its apps for different languages and different countries. And on a personal note, she\u2019s pregnant with her second child. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Oh that\u2019s nice. And it sounds like she\u2019s doing amazingly well, and so hopefully we\u2019re going to see more woman making it in the tech world. People who didn\u2019t have to deal with such blatant discrimination, like Shaan did in Pakistan and even in New York. Here are some last thoughts from Shaan\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Shaan Kandawalla: I believe in change. I believe that women can be a catalyst for change. I\u2019ve been around women who have been pioneers in their respective spaces. You know, so that\u2019s exciting to me. I like to push boundaries where I can. It also can come back to bite me I\u2019m sure, but meanwhile, I\u2019m OK with it. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: We\u2019re back. The lack of women in tech has become part of the national conversation.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: A lot of people are talking about it. It\u2019s even made its way into comedy routines. Here\u2019s an excerpt from a performance by Ophira Eisenberg, who you may know as the host of NPR\u2019s Ask Me Another. <\/p>\n<p>Ophira Eisenberg (clip): I supported my volunteer comedy career, um, by working in IT. I would go to little offices, some of them were architecture firms or hedge fund companies or advertising agencies and, and fix their computers. Everything was basically like, I can\u2019t get my mail. Uh, but because I would walk in, and because I guess I was IT pretty, I wore a little bit of makeup, I had a pair of sequined flats that I enjoyed wearing at the time. When I walked in and they saw me, everyone was always very suspicious. They were like, uh, are you sure you\u2019re the computer person? Especially at the hedge fund companies...those guys did not want me near their computers. Sometimes they would ask me if I were the girlfriend or wife of the computer tech - that I guess I was coming there early because he forgot his lunch, like I don\u2019t even know why that makes sense that I was there. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: So she\u2019s keeping it light, but really, it\u2019s obvious she\u2019s dealt with the issues we\u2019re talking about<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Exactly. It\u2019s a funny, smart bit.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: So meanwhile, let\u2019s keep talking about women in tech. Did you know the very first computer programmer was a woman?<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: I did - Ada Lovelace.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: She wrote instructions for the first computer program way back in the 1800s. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Indeed - even the Pentagon has named its programming language \u201cAda\u201d after her. It was a good start for women in tech.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams:  Unfortunately, things went downhill.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah. In this segment we are going to take a look at some of the reasons why -- after such an auspicious start -- we see so few women in tech. And why -- when there ARE women in tech, as you just heard Ophira recount -- no one can believe it. Back in the 1970s, when computer science courses were first taught -- there was actually pretty good representation of women at first. But then the numbers started to slide around 1984\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: One theory is that when the personal computer came on the market, which was right about that time, it was heavily marketed to a male audience. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, exactly. Somehow computer science became a \u201cboy\u201d thing. Research shows that girls, even today, are subtly steered away from the \u201cmale fields\u201d like math or science and encouraged to study more \u201cfemale\u201d fields like arts and humanities.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And so by the time those girls go to college, they are far behind the boys who have already learned much more about programming or coding or even become \u201cwhiz kid\u201d computer scientists. And so these young women -- even if they have an interest in computer science -- are treated differently by faculty. Most don\u2019t pursue it at the college level at all.  <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: So that gets us to Melody McCloskey, who is a young tech entrepreneur that we profiled in the San Francisco Bay area. <\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: Building software - you have to be very precise and you have to really strive for an excellent product to make your customer happy. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Let me tell you a few things about Melody. She has raised $14 million dollars in venture capital for StyleSeat, which is an an online booking platform for beauty-salon professionals. She founded the company, along with Dan Levine, a developer, in 2011. It has grown quickly: some 300,000 stylists now use it, and the company has hired about 30 employees. <\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: We want to completely transform this industry. You know, we wanna be just what LinkedIn is for the business industry. We wanna be that for beauty professionals and for this space. And we\u2019re gonna make a lot of moves to position ourselves to be incredibly valuable, to be as big as we possibly can.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: We like her confidence. But, and this is important, Melody\u2019s career in tech was almost derailed by, of all things, AP Computer Science\u2026as in, the advanced placement course she took in high school, back in 2002, in suburban San Francisco. <\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I have always loved computers and I\u2019ve always loved tech. Most of my friends were software engineers growing up in middle school and in high school. I ended up taking a...AP computer science course. I was really excited about it. I actually loved the curriculum and the class, but I was the only woman in the class. And there was a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: We asked Melody to tell us a little bit more about the pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: There\u2019s a spotlight that was placed on me and the teacher was didn\u2019t how to treat me and the other boys were always crowding around and wanting to work with me and by my partner. And it was just too intense for me, especially when you\u2019re shy. It was a different dynamic than any of my other classes in biology, or math, or English or things like that. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: So Melody eventually dropped the course. Her story really illustrates how, even today, not enough is done to make girls feel welcome in computer science. It\u2019s not like overt sexism, necessarily, it\u2019s far more subtle than that. Keep in mind, we are talking about teenagers here, not adults who might be able to handle being different or standing out.  <\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I really wish that high schools today pushed math and science on women and made them feel more comfortable. It sounds odd to say that, but I do think that if the environment was a little bit different, I would have continued the class. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: The good news is that Melody ultimately wound up pursuing a career in tech.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, although it did take her a while to get there.  First she went to UC-Davis where a guidance counselor said, \u2018You\u2019re a girl - you have great social skills - you should try public relations.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Boy, she really didn\u2019t get any encouragement. It\u2019s amazing. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: No, she definitely did not. So after college -- she did try PR but didn\u2019t really like it. Finally, she took a job managing online content for a television channel. It was a technical job and she loved it. Here\u2019s what she said:<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I was tasked with taking these televisions shows, figuring out how they\u2019re gonna live on the Internet. I had engineers, I was helping to build all the backend CMS, like really nerdy stuff that was actually pretty complex. So it was really fun for me and I was working until 11 pm at night regularly, and loved my work, and loved the product.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: That got Melody thinking about starting her own company\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: The benefit of being in San Francisco is that you can\u2019t, throw a rock and not hit like five engineers and, and a founder. My friends were talking about raising money, building minimum viable product, how do I hire, or how do I get the best engineering talent, what are the technologies that you\u2019re using.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Her inspiration for StyleSeat came from a few bad haircuts.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I got three haircuts and color in a row. So ultimately I spent $1,000 and every time I just wasn\u2019t that happy with the result. And then I ended up going to someone who was amazing, and the difference in happiness from \u201cwell, when\u2019s my next appointment?\u201d you know, with someone else, to \u201cI feel like my best self. I feel confident.\u201d So I wanted to figure out a way where I could help more women feel that amazing feeling.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Melody imagined a website where consumers could search for stylists, read reviews and book appointments, something of a Yelp-meets-OpenTable for hair salons and spas. She asked her old colleague and software engineer Dan to help.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I said, \u201cI\u2019d love for you to be my co-founder. Here\u2019s my prototype. This is the vision. What do you think?\u201d And he said yes. And I was like, \u201cOkay, well, but you\u2019re gonna have to quit your job, and actually I can\u2019t pay you. I have no money, and this is going to be really hard and we\u2019ll probably have to bootstrap.\u201d And he said yes. And I was like, \u201cWell, maybe you should think about it a little bit. Like we might need some investment from you to get this going.\u201d And he\u2019s like. \u201cYes. I already said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: And with that, StyleSeat was born. They worked in the time-honored startup way.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: Dan and I were working seven days a week, did not take weekends off. We were working from nine or ten in the morning until two at night. We ended up bootstrapping for the first year and a half of the business. And that certainly wasn\u2019t because we didn\u2019t want to raise money. It was because raising money was a huge challenge for us. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Now, raising venture capital is really difficult for any entrepreneur.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: But Melody faced a double problem-- she was a woman in tech and she was running a startup aimed at women. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, let\u2019s listen.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: The vast majority of investors in the space are male. And so they see this woman come in with this lady app, or this app that\u2019s really focused on female entrepreneurs and needs of, you know, mostly women and they just don\u2019t get it. And so much feedback initially was, \u201cI don\u2019t think women really want this or need this.\u201d Plus about 20% of VC\u2019s in Silicon Valley are bald so they don\u2019t think about problems that arise with hair.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Well, she\u2019s right about the hair - or lack of it. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: She is, but in terms of male  investors not \u2018getting it\u2019 - I\u2019ve heard this from other female tech entrepreneurs. When Alexis Maybank of Gilt Groupe was pitching to VCs, they often told her \u201cLet me go home and ask my wife what she thinks of your concept.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Gosh, well it would be a lot easier if we had more female investors.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, exactly. In Melody\u2019s case, she was lucky in that she had a friend, Garrett Camp, who\u2019s the co-founder of Uber. He believed in her and gave her $10,000 dollars in seed money to get started. So, while she was still trying to raise money, she was also trying to get stylists to sign up for her service. So she hosted parties, where she would serve free Champagne, which of course is always a draw, and show PowerPoint presentations on how to use StyleSeat. She was able to triple her user base in just a year doing that. And that got some high-profile investors interested.<\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: Guy Oseary and Ashton Kutcher, who came in really early. The first second that I pitched it to them over the phone, they were like, \u2018Yes. Obviously this needs to exist.\u2019 And since then we\u2019ve brought on Sophia Bush as an investor.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Guy Oseary is the manager of Madonna and U2 and Ashton Kutcher and Sophia Bush, of course, are actors. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And to think, this might not have happened because of her AP Computer Science experience. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Yeah, exactly. So, today there are more organizations helping girls and women make progress in tech. Girls Who Code, Astia, Springboard Enterprises\u2026Melody believes, from her own experience, that groups like these are invaluable. <\/p>\n<p>Melody McCloskey: I think just having a community of women that were supportive of each other or just making it an issue would have been helpful. A lot of guys that I know early on were kind of pushed to do that. It was like, all the cool kids are software developers. That\u2019s what it was in my high school at least, but that wasn\u2019t necessarily the same for women. So I think the more we can help them feel comfortable, and excited, and thrilled, and understand the opportunity around them, the better it is.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: We\u2019ve been looking at women in tech, and the challenges they face. We\u2019re going to close today by looking at the promise and potential for innovation that arises when the female perspective is present. Sue, I know this topic is near and dear to your heart.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: It is. I wrote an OpEd for Inc Magazine last year, when Lego released a \u201crevolutionary\u201d new toy, which were figurines of female scientists. It didn\u2019t surprise me that they were designed by a woman, Dr. Ellen KOOOJman, a geochemist, who had played with Lego sets as a child and noticed there weren\u2019t any figures that looked like her.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: And of course, we\u2019re talking about toys there, but as you noted in your OpED, when we start to look at innovation in all the STEM fields, particularly medicine, it becomes way more serious when women aren\u2019t part of the picture.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Exactly. For instance\u2026for years, medical research was done almost exclusively on men, and that sometimes led to alarming and even fatal outcomes. Women\u2019s bodies can react differently to medicine than men\u2019s. The sleeping drug Ambien is a well-known example. The FDA now recommends that women take only half the dose, because we don\u2019t metabolize it as fast. Women were actually waking up and doing things like driving cars with the drug still in their system.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Wow, wow. Well, the good news is that we\u2019re seeing more female entrepreneurs designing medical devices and treatments with women in mind.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Yea, yeah, so we headed to San Francisco to speak with Amy Sheng, who is a Stanford-educated mechanical engineer and co-founder of a medical company called CellScope. And she\u2019s a mom. Listen to how that influenced her company\u2019s first product.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: I remember when my son had his first ear infection, taking a half day off of work, taking him into the doctor\u2019s office, you know sitting in the waiting room, finally getting in, the doctor takes a quick you know millisecond peek inside my kid\u2019s ear and then tells me, \u201coh yep, your kid has an ear infection,\u201d and I thought, wow, this could be addressed in such a better way.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Amy and her co-founder, Erik Douglas, came up with CellScope.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: Cellscope is a smartphone-enabled medical toolkit. A parent at home who thinks their kid may have an ear infection. All they need to do is take our device and attach it to their phone, put it in their kid\u2019s ear, and then using our app they can very, very quickly capture a video and then it gets sent to either their doctor or another doctor for a remote review. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Unlike many women, Amy was encouraged to pursue science when she was just a kid. <\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: I was always interested in math and science. A lot of it came from the home. Both of my parents studied physics and then they applied it in their career. My father made science really come alive for me. And my mom would be invited to present her scientific papers at various conferences and she would pull me out of school and we would go.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: After college, Amy worked for cutting edge bio-tech companies -- helping develop an artificial heart and automated microscopes. In 2009 she heard about a project at Berkeley, where bioengineers were building cell-phone-based microscopes for doing remote diagnosis for diseases like tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: We were doing these pilots in Vietnam or Uganda and it was really the tremendous response and feedback that we were getting from the field. I remember we were just having these discussions, saying, \u201cHow can we make an impact even closer to home?\u201d We really wanted to be able to get these products, you know, out of the lab and into the real world.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: With the support of Berkeley, Amy and her co-founder Erik launched Cellscope for U.S. consumers in 2011. They started with the smartphone otoscope as their first product.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: Ear infections are such a huge pain point for so many families.<br \/>\nThere\u2019s around 20 million ear infection related visits in the US alone each year. We would go out and talk to doctors, talk to parents get their feedback on the device and so we were constantly tweaking it and making improvements. We would do a lot of ear exams on each other. I think we probably have imaged our ears the most of anybody.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Amy\u2019s company is off to a great start, which I think is a really exciting because using mobile technology the way they are could really transform the medical industry. To date, they\u2019ve raised $5.6 million for Cellscope, and signed up 800 doctors to use it.<br \/>\nThe next challenge will be getting parents to sign up for it.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: How do you get a mom or dad who has never used an otoscope, doesn\u2019t even know what an otoscope is, to be able to do this from their home? And so there are a lot of things that our team has had to think about in terms of how can we make the system, both from hardware and software, to be as simple as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Amy\u2019s story is great -- it really demonstrates how a woman\u2019s life experience, especially as a mom, can influence innovation.  <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Exactly. It\u2019s not like a dad couldn\u2019t invent this, but women by and large are still the primary caretakers of their families. They\u2019re the ones who know first hand where there\u2019s gaps in the marketplace for certain products or devices. Here are some last thoughts from Amy about that.<\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: I was having young kids right around the time that my company was taking off. I think what I bring is a perspective of I\u2019m a real user, I\u2019m a customer. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And as a startup entrepreneur, Amy really believes being exposed to science as a young girl made all the difference. <\/p>\n<p>Amy Sheng: I can only speak for my own experience, and it really was being shown from such a young age that I can tinker and try things and learn about how things work. I just never questioned that I could do it, or that women could do it.<\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Our thanks to all the women -- Shaan Kandawalla, Melody McCloskey and Amy Sheng -- for sharing their stories <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: We especially thank them for being so candid about being women in tech. Sometimes it\u2019s not easy to talk about the challenges -- we appreciate that they did. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: And we appreciate you listening. I\u2019m Sue Williams.<\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: And I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise. <\/p>\n<p>Sue Williams: Join us next time to hear more stories about innovative and inspirational women doing the things you\u2019d never dream of. Or\u2026.maybe you would. This has been The Story Exchange. If you like what you\u2019ve heard, visit our website at TheStoryExchange.org, where you\u2019ll find news, videos and tips for women entrepreneurs. <\/p>\n<p>Colleen DeBaise: Thanks to Ophira Eisenberg for the use of her comedy clip. The excerpt comes from the a taping of the \u201cRisk\u201d podcast, which people can find at www.risk-show.com. Editing helped provided by Nusha Balyan. Production coordinator is Michelle Ciotta. Interview recorded by Sam Shinn. Executive producers are Sue Williams and Victoria Wang. <\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<br \/>\n<strong>Related article:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/care-women-tech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Why We Care About Women in Tech<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These three women are thriving in the technology industry by offering innovations that serve other women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":25542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[19683,19700,20028],"class_list":["post-25548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-innovation","tag-women-in-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ep. 04: Succeeding as a Woman in Tech - Shaan Kandawalla, Melody McCloskey, Amy Sheng<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These three women are thriving in the technology industry by offering innovations that serve other women.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ep. 04: Succeeding as a Woman in Tech - Shaan Kandawalla, Melody McCloskey, Amy Sheng\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These three women are thriving in the technology industry by offering innovations that serve other women.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/succeeding-woman-tech-shaan-kandawalla-melody-mccloskey-amy-sheng-ep-04\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Story Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-22T14:10:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-12T18:13:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/24163904\/TSE-Post-Thumb_WomenInTech.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheStoryXchange\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colleen DeBaise\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ep. 04: Succeeding as a Woman in Tech - 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