Ada’s List: from start-up to scale up
Starting in September I’m going to start running Ada’s List full time.
Since we launched Ada’s List on Ada Lovelace Day 6 years ago, we’ve gone from 4 co-founders to over 7000 women in digital globally, 4500 of those in the UK alone. Each day our community members support each other with advice, relevant events, industry news, finding a new job or hiring a new teammate, and more — our members pour their energy into help other Ada’s Listers be more successful.
And now it’s my time to join the community, full time.
You might not be aware, but for the last 5+ years, we have been volunteer run by an insanely dedicated, talented group of women. We have a team of volunteers that have helped run coffees, the conference, and community management. For the past 2 years, Anjali has really been managing much of it on her own, with a job and family. It’s not sustainable, and frankly, we think that our community could be so much better and have an even greater impact on the industry if we created the space and capacity to help it thrive.
Over the next few months I am going to work on bringing in funding to support Ada’s List, going from a volunteer-led organization to one that’s more sustainable with a small team (although we’ll definitely still need volunteers to help!), and look at expanding into consulting or other platforms that will help us achieve our agenda:
We want to create change at scale — change in existing, patriarchal and racist power structures — whether these structures are a part of the culture of a company, a more overt policy, or work processes that consciously or unconsciously sideline women.
Ada’s List is intersectional. We aim to provide a platform for a holistic approach to addressing issues surrounding the under-representation of women in tech; this includes tackling any implicit or explicit bias around gender, race, disability or sexual orientation.
We are all about changing communities, our workplaces, and the industry for the better.
We want to partner with those who will help us achieve this. We want to build new futures instead of recreating past structures.
Right. Nothing like a good challenge to keep me focused. :) Short-term, here’s what I would love some support with:
- Potential funding partners; if you know an organisation or foundation with resources and passion to fund diversity and inclusion in tech, let me know.
- Partners who strive to achieve the same mission and want to join us, specifically groups or fellowships that are supporting women of color in tech, business, consulting, etc. Let’s talk. Did you study organizational change and diversity and inclusion? Let’s talk. Are you into stats about gender and racial equality in different sectors? Let’s talk.
- A̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶k̶ ̶-̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶e̶,̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶q̶u̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶s̶c̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶7̶0̶+̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶F̶j̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶-̶ ̶s̶o̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶E̶n̶t̶r̶e̶p̶r̶e̶n̶e̶u̶r̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶R̶e̶s̶i̶d̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶i̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶e̶x̶t̶r̶a̶ ̶d̶e̶s̶k̶s̶,̶ ̶p̶l̶e̶a̶s̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶.̶
- Ideas on how we can achieve this! I have some but I bet yours are better. Let’s talk.
- Join us! Adaslist.co/join
I’m grateful for my Fjord colleagues, who have been a fun, crazy crew to work with over the past 4 years. You are an insanely talented team of designers and I will miss you guys.
So, let’s do this. You in?
