Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

By mlavoie on June 1, 2019

Reshma Saujani, as shown above, is a champion for girls and women. Reshma began her career as an attorney and activist, and founded Girls Who Code (GWC) after witnessing first-hand the gender gap in the field of Computer Science while running for US Congress (fun fact: Reshma was the first South Asian woman to run for Congress). She visited a lot of New York City schools during this time, and noticed that boys vastly outpaced girls when it came to learning how to code or become tech innovators. This was/is a problem, and so began Girls Who Code as a response to this issue. Below is an analysis of Reshma Saujani as an entrepreneur, as explored using five characteristics / lessons of successful entrepreneurs fro Investopedia’s “5 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs”:

  1. Start with an idea: Girls’ participation in computer science drops off drastically between the ages of 13-17. Reshma started GWC with the idea to place more opportunities and support for girls in schools in the form of coding clubs and a summer immersion program (including a stipend for those girls needing to work during the summer to fund their education).
  2. Take Risks. Don’t Waste Your Time Avoiding Failure: Reshma lost her US Congress race. Rather than focus on her political failure, she viewed it as a turning point and channeled her energy into GWC. It was a risk for Reshma because it forced her to look at her own scholastic journey and asked herself why she didn’t pursue STEM fields. She recalled childhood memories when her father would throw out math questions at the dinner table and since she couldn’t work out the answers on the spot, she decided that she wasn’t good at math. So, she turned to other subjects that were easier for her. She has also written multiple books, and one title, Women Who Don’t Wait in Line,  promotes female leadership that focuses on risk and failure. Here is one of her TED talks where she discusses the importance of taking risks.
  3. Be Persistent. Make Your Own Luck. Coming off of a loss in the political world, Reshma remained steadfast in staying true to her vision and life work in creating opportunities for underserved populations. With this persistence, Reshma has created her own luck in that she has created value in her company – people want to partner with her. GWC boasts many corporate sponsors, partners and friends.
  4. Whatever You Are Creating is Useless if it Doesn’t Find an Audience to Serve: To date, GWC has directly served 185,000 girls with their coding clubs and immersion programs, and GWC will be expanding to Canada this year.
  5. Never Stop Learning. Give Back: Reshma reflected on her own scholastic experience in that she gravitated toward English because Math didn’t come “easy” to her, when in reality, she just needed more time to work out problems. She uses her experience, relatable to many, and gives back to women and girls by providing a key service that will better their lives and future.

To learn more about Reshma, here is her website.

From the Girls Who Code website:

GWC is an international non-profit organization. It provides free clubs for girls ages 11-18, and their mission statement is to get girls excited about coding and computer science, and to change the way society perceives the “typical coder”. Clubs can run before, during or after-school, on weekends or over the summer. GWC Clubs encourage girls to impact their community in a positive way through code. Girls engage in fun and simple online coding tutorials, build community through interactive activities, and learn about inspiring role models in the technology industry. The girls then work together to design and complete a “Girls Who Code Project,” where they apply their new coding skills to solve a real-world problem they care about.

GWC was founded on December 7, 2011. In pre-seed funding in 2013, with a budget of $916, 658, GWC launched their Girls Who Code Clubs and served 600 girls. To expand on this vision, in its seed / angel round of funding, $1,000,000 was raised on January 20, 2016. According to Crunchbase, Girls Who Code has raised a total of $6.5M in funding over 5 rounds (4 of which were grant rounds). Their latest funding was raised on Mar 9, 2019 from a Grant round ($3M from Walmart). As per GWC’s annual financial reports available on their website, last year they procured $19,459,149 in total unrestricted revenue from unrestricted contributions, grants and in-kind donations.

 

References

Seth, S. (2019, March 12). 5 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/101014/10-characteristics-successful-entrepreneurs.asp

 

Rating
Average: 4.3/5 Stars
 
 
 
 
 
2 Thumbs Up!

Read More | No Comments

Loading...
1 Feb Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

Going over the numerous posts in the Founders Parade, the title of this submission stood out to me as it is something that I'm quite passionate about myself. The self-reflection of Reshma on why she didn't pursue a STEM fields hits the nail on the head as to one of the core reasons that we see disparity in representation of the genders. Male and Female brains do in fact process certain information such as spatial reasoning differently. Like Reshma notes, all she needed was a little more time to grasp her Mathematics and she would have felt more confident to pursue that field. Giving girls a secure environment where they can explore coding is a way to not only improve a skill set but it also bolsters their confidence and will hopefully create an informal community of practice where the girls can learn from one another. Great initiative which I believe has inspired many others to start similar boot camps.

1 Feb
0 Thumbs Up!
Carla Pretorius @cp101

Going over the numerous posts in the Founders Parade, the title of this submission stood out to me as it is something that I'm quite passionate about myself. The self-reflection of Reshma on why she didn't pursue a STEM fields hits the nail on the head as to one of the core reasons that we see disparity in representation of the genders. Male and Female brains do in fact process certain information such as spatial reasoning differently. Like Reshma notes, all she needed was a little more time to grasp her Mathematics and she would have felt more confident to pursue that field. Giving girls a secure environment where they can explore coding is a way to not only improve a skill set but it also bolsters their confidence and will hopefully create an informal community of practice where the girls can learn from one another. Great initiative which I believe has inspired many others to start similar boot camps.

2 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

As many others, I appreciate Reshma’s personal courage in the public spaces she has navigated, whether political or business-related. Something especially important about her leadership is her ability to keep the cause and the venture she founded in the public discourse. Not every educational venture is so socially aligned to the public’s and political current concerns as hers, but that does not mean that her job in this regard has been easy. As with several of the other founders we’ve seen this week, the combination of a deeply important cause, her personal experience and her skillset have been the core of the success of her venture.

2 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
Jiri Karas @jekaras

As many others, I appreciate Reshma’s personal courage in the public spaces she has navigated, whether political or business-related. Something especially important about her leadership is her ability to keep the cause and the venture she founded in the public discourse. Not every educational venture is so socially aligned to the public’s and political current concerns as hers, but that does not mean that her job in this regard has been easy. As with several of the other founders we’ve seen this week, the combination of a deeply important cause, her personal experience and her skillset have been the core of the success of her venture.

2 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

I have personally followed the Girls who code story for some time now and Reshma's story still inspires me to this day. The pivot she did after what should have been a career set-back that later turned into Girls who code is a hallmark of what great leadership should resemble. Yet it is also important to call out, not only did she notice the gap when running for Congress, it left such a mark on her that she returned to do something about it. That is what makes a great leader a great entrepreneur, noticing and taking action.

2 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
daniel thomas @dthomas0

I have personally followed the Girls who code story for some time now and Reshma's story still inspires me to this day. The pivot she did after what should have been a career set-back that later turned into Girls who code is a hallmark of what great leadership should resemble. Yet it is also important to call out, not only did she notice the gap when running for Congress, it left such a mark on her that she returned to do something about it. That is what makes a great leader a great entrepreneur, noticing and taking action.

2 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

Reshma, to me, is an ideal role model for an entrepreneur. Three of her characteristics that stand out to me are: her passion (she has clearly persued GWC for altruistic reasons), her resilience (the fact that she pulled herself up after losing in Congress and focusing her energy elsewhere), and her critical reflection. The fact that she took a step back and critically evaluated why she herself didn't go into STEM shows that she is okay being vulnerable and open to self-evaluation. I think that losing in Congress and then being able to pull herself up are also particularly impressive, because I think that "failing" at something while in the spotlight would be really challenging. Rather than let this experience bring her down, she used it to build! I think I will start following her on Twitter. :)

2 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
sarah mclean @smclea26

Reshma, to me, is an ideal role model for an entrepreneur. Three of her characteristics that stand out to me are: her passion (she has clearly persued GWC for altruistic reasons), her resilience (the fact that she pulled herself up after losing in Congress and focusing her energy elsewhere), and her critical reflection. The fact that she took a step back and critically evaluated why she herself didn't go into STEM shows that she is okay being vulnerable and open to self-evaluation. I think that losing in Congress and then being able to pull herself up are also particularly impressive, because I think that "failing" at something while in the spotlight would be really challenging. Rather than let this experience bring her down, she used it to build! I think I will start following her on Twitter. :)

2 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

I am impressed with Reshma Saujani's ability to balance a career as an attorney with activism, then incorporate a vision and desire to combat inequality with an entrepreneurial venture. I am most impressed with Saujani's resilience in bouncing back from a failed bid for U.S. Congress. As leader, this person is clearly not afraid to take risks and the amount of money raised by Girls Who Code speaks volumes about the ability of its leadership team to earn trust and gain confidence.

2 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
michael godwin @mgodwin

I am impressed with Reshma Saujani's ability to balance a career as an attorney with activism, then incorporate a vision and desire to combat inequality with an entrepreneurial venture. I am most impressed with Saujani's resilience in bouncing back from a failed bid for U.S. Congress. As leader, this person is clearly not afraid to take risks and the amount of money raised by Girls Who Code speaks volumes about the ability of its leadership team to earn trust and gain confidence.

1 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

Someone who can pivot from a career to an entrepreneurial venture in a different field really should stand as a role model for any wanna-be innovators! I really like the fact that she saw a problem and decided to respond to it directly, creating a venture that has 'economic' (in the sense of it being a running and funded NPO) and social impact in the long run. These show determination and great attributes that would be valued in any environment.

1 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
Jamie Ashton @jashton

Someone who can pivot from a career to an entrepreneurial venture in a different field really should stand as a role model for any wanna-be innovators! I really like the fact that she saw a problem and decided to respond to it directly, creating a venture that has 'economic' (in the sense of it being a running and funded NPO) and social impact in the long run. These show determination and great attributes that would be valued in any environment.

1 Jun Posted on Reshma Saujani: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code

I'm drawn toward these stories and leaders that are innovating and launching socially aligned endeavours. The ability to not only start Girls Who Code, but to continue to draw in funding and contributions is an impressive feat. I especially appreciate lesson number 2 above - and translate it to a phrase that I had heard elsewhere with the challenge of "Dare to suck." Being bound to a need / impression / desire that only accepts perfection is a path to heartache, frustration and limited impact. There is just so much we don't know (or don't know we don't know) that we need to be willing to be wrong, learn and try again (lessons 3, 4 and 5!). One thing I am curious about is whether Reshma has since learned to code?

1 Jun
0 Thumbs Up!
lee @leemet16

I'm drawn toward these stories and leaders that are innovating and launching socially aligned endeavours. The ability to not only start Girls Who Code, but to continue to draw in funding and contributions is an impressive feat. I especially appreciate lesson number 2 above - and translate it to a phrase that I had heard elsewhere with the challenge of "Dare to suck." Being bound to a need / impression / desire that only accepts perfection is a path to heartache, frustration and limited impact. There is just so much we don't know (or don't know we don't know) that we need to be willing to be wrong, learn and try again (lessons 3, 4 and 5!). One thing I am curious about is whether Reshma has since learned to code?

How to Begin

Custom Search

Tags

2014 2015 2016