When Nancy Lublin and Caterina Fake, both CEOs of tech startups, agreed to speak at Vanity Fair’s Founders Fair, they made a deal. If the moderator asked them about how they balance home life and work life, they’d walk off stage.
“I hate women’s conferences,” Lublin, CEO and founder of Crisis Text Line, said a few days before the one-day conference aimed at women entrepreneurs.
Founders Fair, which took place Thursday in Brooklyn, New York, is the latest event geared toward women in tech. As the tech industry laments how few women work in the field, let alone start businesses, these types of events have become a regular occurrence.
There’s debate about the effectiveness of women’s conferences, though. Some question what the impacts are once attendees walk out the door. Others argue there’s great merit in finding inspiration and even guidance in the stories of others. Regardless, women’s conferences might just be a stopgap until other conferences include a broader range of attendees and speakers.
The Vanity Fair event featured sessions on getting funding, building brand loyalty, engaging in serial entrepreneurship and more. The speakers included actress Reese Witherspoon, fashion designer Tory Burch, the co-chairs of the Women’s March on Washington, and Sasheer Zamata of “Saturday Night Live.”
Though the sessions focused on industry topics, every so often speakers dipped into gender talk. Witherspoon discussed her experience starting a production company to tell women’s stories and feeling like she wasn’t immediately taken seriously.
“You have to prove yourself twice as hard; it takes twice as long,” she said.
VC firm Aspect Ventures co-founder and managing partner Teresa Gouw talked about not only general funding advice but also how she’s noticed that women founders tend to undersell the potential of their companies.
The lineup and concept was enough to draw some 250 people. Lublin said she’d consider the event a success if attendees walked away with a new investment, a new idea or a new relationship.
Getting inspired
Lublin isn’t down on women’s conferences for the sake of it. She’s attended quite a few, but ultimately, she said, they run the risk of preaching to the choir.
“It’s the same people saying the same…