Maia Bittner on fixing STEM hiring culture

Parcel B investor and portfolio CEO, Maia Bittner was covered again this week in a feature-length interview by GirlTalkHQ. Maia built a successful and diverse engineering team at RocksBox and looking to do the same at her new venture with Michael Ducker, Pinch. In the interview, she talked about recruiting, company culture, and fostering a community of women entrepreneurs in the Valley. She talks about how more inclusive language in job listing and outreach can be more successful at attracting diverse candidates.

I say “Come build React Native with us!” instead of saying “React Native experience required”. “Come build ____ with us” is really inclusive and welcoming language. I’m also intentional about the skills required – you must be able to write React Native code, but I know that you don’t necessarily need to have used that specific framework before in order to be able to write it. There is a wide variety of experience that candidates could have had that would prepare them well for using React Native.

I’ve seen great results – 80% of my applications received from this post were from women! So I have little sympathy when others blame their lack of female applicants on the “pipeline” or other vague systemic issues. I think they’re avoiding taking responsibility for their own work, which is a habit you can’t get away with in startups.