{"id":232170,"date":"2026-04-02T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/diverse-teams-start-with-diverse-vcs-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T13:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T13:45:00","slug":"diverse-teams-start-with-diverse-vcs-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/02\/diverse-teams-start-with-diverse-vcs-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Diverse teams start with diverse VCs | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\" class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Startups are often quick to say they value diversity but are slow to implement hiring practices that reflect that. It is the path of least resistance for a growth-stage company to hire from the familiar Silicon Valley pipelines, but if a founder wants a diverse team, that value has to be put into practice from the very first hire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"tcembed-iframe tcembed--megaphone wp-block-tc23-podcast-player__embed\" height=\"200px\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=TCML4185109297\"><\/iframe>\n\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leah Solivan, the founder of Taskrabbit and founder and managing director of <a href=\"http:\/\/precedent.vc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Precedent.VC<\/a>, joined Isabelle Johannessen on <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/podcasts\/build-mode\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Build Mode<\/a> to discuss how she thought about hiring while leading Taskrabbit. As the company scaled from being bootstrapped on Solivan\u2019s personal credit cards to becoming one of the defining platforms of the gig economy, the leadership team intentionally sought out diverse talent for each role. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Diversity doesn\u2019t happen by accident. Solivan and their team built it into every aspect of their recruiting and hiring process. \u201cBut if you do that from the beginning, then it becomes easier, because the culture that\u2019s built, the team that\u2019s built, the network that you\u2019ve built as a company, is more diverse, and it feeds itself. It becomes an ecosystem. It\u2019s too late if you wait until you\u2019ve scaled and it\u2019s at the end,\u201d said Solivan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every startup has a network of talent with the founder at its center, and it stands to reason that the network will reflect the founder\u2019s community. So a more diverse tech industry, in many ways, begins with who is investing in these founders. As an early-stage investor, Solivan has seen the flow of money from both sides of the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you follow the money through the system, it comes from limited partners, and they\u2019re the ones that decide who to give the money to, venture capitalists. And from there, then the venture capitalists choose which founders they\u2019re going to invest in,\u201c said Solivan. \u201cThe money is there, but it\u2019s being controlled by people that have different biases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, a founder or the VCs backing them don\u2019t have to be underrepresented to intentionally hire from a diverse talent pool. Solivan suggests setting the goal of seeing two r\u00e9sum\u00e9s from female candidates for every one male r\u00e9sum\u00e9, tapping into a wider range of networks, and promoting people from different backgrounds into leadership roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou\u2019re asking someone to walk off the edge of a cliff \u2014 let\u2019s build a net for them to jump into,\u201d said Solivan<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-techcrunch-inline-cta\">\n<div class=\"inline-cta__wrapper\">\n<p>Techcrunch event<\/p>\n<div class=\"inline-cta__content\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__location\">San Francisco, CA<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__separator\">|<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"inline-cta__date\">October 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/apply\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Apply to Startup Battlefield:<\/strong><\/a> We are looking for early-stage companies that have an MVP. So nominate a founder (or yourself). Be sure to say you heard about Startup Battlefield from the Build Mode podcast. <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/startup-battlefield\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Apply here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/events\/tc-disrupt-2026\/?utm_source=buildmode&amp;utm_medium=Podca%5b%E2%80%A6%5dpt2026&amp;utm_content=ticketsales&amp;promo=buildmode15&amp;display=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>TechCrunch Disrupt 2026:<\/strong><\/a> We\u2019re back for TechCrunch Disrupt on October 13 to 15 in San Francisco, where the Startup Battlefield 200 takes the stage. So if you want to cheer them on, or just network with thousands of founders, VCs, and tech enthusiasts, then <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/events\/tc-disrupt-2026\/?utm_source=buildmode&amp;utm_medium=Podca%5b%E2%80%A6%5dpt2026&amp;utm_content=ticketsales&amp;promo=buildmode15&amp;display=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">grab your tickets<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em\/><em>New episodes of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/podcasts\/build-mode\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Build Mode<\/em><\/a><em> drop every Thursday. Hosted by Isabelle Johannessen. Produced and edited by Maggie Nye. Audience development led by Morgan Little. Special thanks to the Foundry and Cheddar video teams.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/04\/02\/diverse-teams-start-with-diverse-vcs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Startups are often quick to say they value diversity but are slow to implement hiring practices that reflect that. It is the path of least resistance for a growth-stage company to hire from the familiar Silicon Valley pipelines, but if a founder wants a diverse team, that value has to be put into practice from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-232170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}