Brittany Laughlin to Speak at TFNW on How to Actually Do Something About Diversity

As a woman at a New York Venture Capital shop, Brittany Laughlin understands diversity. Or the lack of it. And she will be speaking at TechfestNW next week on how to actually do something about it

As the general manager of Union Square Ventures, 80 percent of Laughlin's time is spent working within the USV portfolio, helping teams not repeat mistakes.

"I leverage learning across our portfolio, like tools or lesson learned," Laughlin says, on the phone with us while eating lunch in San Francisco. "Problems that startups face are similar."

Brittany is a Navy brat, whose upbringing taught her how to move around well, which she used to co-found travel recommendation site Gtrot (later sold to Groupon).

Laughlin also helps veterans, founding Vets In Tech to help soldiers receive tech industry training. But nowadays she mostly travels and works with portfolio companies and close partners, sharing best practices while having candid conversations within a trusted network of people. Laughlin says that sharing more than just products or services across groups or industries can help highlight issues they may all be facing, something she knows personally as a woman in a male-dominated industry. She's not naive to the opportunities that await those ready and suited to take them.

"Being a female founder early on was new to people, that could be frustrating but there were advantages, because I was one of the few venture-backed women founders [while] in Chicago," Laughlin says. "I like to think the reason I kept getting asked back was because of the quality of my work."

At TechFestNW, she plans to share some of the work she's been doing around hiring practices, in particular showing how fast-growing companies are in excellent positions to focus on diversity early, which typically equates to a healthier work environment and hopefully financial success.

"Being on the VC side wasn't something I'd originally thought out, but I've always been involved in communities and bringing people together," Laughlin says.

Here's a video about Laughlin using her network skills to do what she loves:

WWeek 2015