Why venture capital firms need culture experts
When Susan Fowler's 2017 blog post shined a light on Uber's raucous culture, outlining rampant harassment and sexism, a debate erupted. What role do the deep-pocketed investors behind the company, those who allowed it to scale to monstrous proportions, have in developing and nurturing its culture? Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists themselves wondered aloud, how involved should a venture fund be in early-stage recruiting processes and ensuring a safe environment for employees? If a culture is bad, unsafe, damaging, is it the VC's fault?
Late-stage venture funds, for the most part, miss the opportunity to deeply impact their portfolio companies' cultures. When they invest, typically large sums of capital in companies with hundreds of employees and multiple offices, the company's culture is formed and, as Uber and others have proven, rebuilding culture a decade in is no easy challenge. Early-stage funds, however, the people that write the very first check in startups, have a front-row seat to decisions crucial to defining how a company operates and treats its employees in the long term. These people, if they care to, have the power to help determine key hires and establish company values, norms and behaviors from the get-go.
This week, San Francisco-based early-stage fund True Ventures hired its first-ever vice president of culture, a move that suggests VCs are taking concrete steps toward further involving themselves in the company-building process from a D&I and hiring perspective. Madeline Kolbe Saltzman joins the firm, which raised $635 million across two new funds last year, from Handshake, where she was the VP of people and talent.
"There's a responsibility to guide the company and the founder to being the best they can be, and that involves paying attention to who you're hiring and how people are being treated," Saltzman tells TechCrunch. "If we can come in and establish inclusive norms, my hope is that our companies will scale inclusively as well."
Most venture capitalists are in regular communication with active investments. Early-stage investors, particularly, are very involved with building businesses, facilitating hires and scaling. But as they seek to decrease cash-burn or find product-market fit, VCs are not often very concerned with issues of diversity and inclusion, something that's became increasingly important as companies are finally being held accountable for the diversity of their workforces.