91探花

If you鈥檙e a woman in business, you also have a responsibility to uplift other women as you go. It can very easily become every woman for themselves in a tech environment and I鈥檓 keen that鈥檚 not the case at HomeHero. Whether it鈥檚 through peer-to-peer mentoring or orchestrating open dialogues through forums, be proactive and form collectives to support and empower each other.
It鈥檚 no secret that Tech tends to be a male-dominated sphere, and it鈥檚 incredibly important to acknowledge the very different female experience and invest properly in paving the way for women in leadership roles. Money talks and even at our size I鈥檝e been encouraged to see how HomeHero invests proactively in diversity and inclusion, and enables us to push through initiatives very quickly. It鈥檚 quite unusual for a seed stage startup that is incredibly busy to still carve out this time and budget.

Here at HomeHero we have a monthly stipend for D&I initiatives, whether it鈥檚 a month of boosting job ads on platforms for underrepresented groups in tech, or inviting a speaker in to hold impact and influencer workshops for our female colleagues.

I鈥檓 really excited about a new initiative that I鈥檓 leading at HomeHero, Future Female Leaders. The network hosts forums for discussions and inspirational talks, we鈥檙e currently working with leadership and podcaster Carla Miller on a three-part series. Carla is an expert in empowering women in their careers, she supports women in tackling self doubt, becoming brilliant at influencing and making more of an impact at work. We鈥檙e excited to kick-off this series with Carla, with our first workshop, Tackling Imposter Feelings this month.

We also have an energy company under the HomeHero umbrella and that鈥檚 another notoriously male-dominated industry. However, through the Future Female Leaders network we are also pursuing mentor-matching opportunities for women in the energy operations team and luckily have a shining example of leadership with Sam Miles, the MD of our Colorado energy group.

We鈥檙e not totally there yet as it鈥檚 been harder hiring women into the engineering and product team. However, with recent female hires I鈥檝e made a point of partnering them up with mentors, either within the business or outside. For example, I paired a junior developer with a lead software developer. They have a standing meeting every Friday, where they go through any questions that might鈥檝e come up during the week. On some occasions he also walks her through a technology or process that鈥檚 new to her. Similarly, in our comms team I鈥檝e partnered up our PR executive with an external PR expert and then meet monthly for an hour.

Recruitment is where the challenge starts. During my time here I鈥檝e also sat on the People Team to lean into how we tackle making the hiring process accessible and inclusive. We partner with recruiters who specialise in diverse hires and continue to stress the importance of this throughout all the stages of the hiring process, also making sure that those being interviewed meet enough of the team to understand that we practice what we preach.

On that note, I鈥檓 always happy to give time to speak to women early on their career journey if I can be of value so feel free to reach out to me on .