{"id":39785,"date":"2023-10-20T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/investors-mistook-the-chief-executive-of-this-multimillion-dollar-tech-company-for-an-assistant-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:04:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:04:27","slug":"investors-mistook-the-chief-executive-of-this-multimillion-dollar-tech-company-for-an-assistant-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/investors-mistook-the-chief-executive-of-this-multimillion-dollar-tech-company-for-an-assistant-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Investors mistook the chief executive of this multimillion-dollar tech company for an assistant – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"boardroom<\/div>\n

When the founder of this multimillion-dollar tech company was meeting investors for an initial public offering, they mistook her for\u00a0the assistant.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our IPO [initial public offering] road show, we flew into this private airport,\u201d Care.com chief executive Sheila Lirio Marcelo tells Inc<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The US-based platform Marcelo co-founded connects people with care providers and has 22 million members from 19 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went straight for the coffeepot. Our CTO [chief technology officer], a male, shook hands. Our CFO [chief financial officer], a male, shook hands. When I got there, I offered people coffee. They thought I was the assistant,” Marcelo says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in addition to building a global care service, Marcelo is now using her entrepreneurial journey to raise awareness about the unconscious biases that can affect many others like her.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy putting them on the spot in a polite, respectful way, it makes them say, \u2018Huh, the next time I look at a woman, I’m not going to assume she’s the assistant\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Marcelo says things like paid parental leave and care are not \u201csoft\u201d issues and are in fact crucial to the global economy.<\/p>\n

And when swimming in the male-dominated shark pool of investors<\/a>, she encourages female founders\u00a0to back themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen need to feel very confident in their numbers, and they need to feel solid about their business plans,” she says.<\/p>\n

“If you need to practice your pitches with friends, you should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0and iTunes<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the founder of this multimillion-dollar tech company was meeting investors for an initial public offering, they mistook her for\u00a0the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}