Jennifer Fonstad, cofounder of Aspect Ventures and a seasoned venture capitalist, admits she’s more of an introvert than an extrovert. But when it comes to networking with Silicon Valley insiders, she’s a pro. Her advice: Don’t be afraid to ask.
Fonstad offered her advice at the Catalyst Conference in San Francisco this week in a fireside chat with Christina Passariello of the Wall Street Journal. The event was staged by Girls in Tech, a nonprofit group supporting women in tech.
It has more than 60,000 members across 60 chapters.Silicon Valley still has a problem with women. About 26 percent of professional computing positions in the U.S. workforce were held by women in 2016. About 5 percent of tech startups are owned by women, and 17 percent have a female founder. A survey found that 48 percent of women say that a lack of mentors is a barrier for them in the tech industry.
And networking is part of that problem, as the “good old boy network” is a self-perpetuating phenomenon. Fonstad noted that 130 men are promoted to management for every 100 women who are (according to a McKinsey report), and speculated that’s because the men networked better.
Fonstad worked in politics early in her career, and she said she often had to put on a brave face and introduce political candidates at networking events. That was a part of her job, and it forced her to be a better networker than she might have been otherwise. That role took the focus away from Fonstad herself and gave her a larger purpose that motivated her to network better.
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