Alpha girls : the women upstarts who took on Silicon Valley's male culture and made the deals of a lifetime
(Book)

Includes index.

"An unforgettable story of four women who came to California to try to make it in a world stacked against them. Through grit and ingenuity, the women became stars in cutthroat, high-stakes, male dominated Silicon Valley and helped build some of the most important companies of our day. They were written out of history - until now. In Alpha Girls, award-winning journalist Julian Guthrie takes readers behind the closed doors of venture capital, an industry that transforms economies and shapes how we live. We follow the lives and careers of Magdalena Yesil, a fiercely focused emigre from Turkey who, after getting her electrical engineering degree from Stanford, endured tech conferences that featured naked women as entertainment; Mary Jane Hanna, who made her way from the corn fields of Terre Haute to the storied venture capital firm IVP on Sand Hill Road, only to be pulled back from the glass ceiling by expectations at home; Theresia Gouw, a first generation Asian American from a working class town who was so determined to integrate into American life that she refused to eat ethnic food, and who competed with the venture capital guys even on the football field; and Sonja Hoel, a cheerful blue-eyed Southerner who moved to Silicon Valley to join Menlo Ventures after getting her MBA from Harvard, landed hot Internet deals, and was transformed by a personal crisis. All had to navigate a world run by men, push for equal pay, and deflect sexist attitudes and clients who made passes or mistook them for secretaries. They won and lost startup deals ranging from Google and Facebook to Salesforce and Skype. Granted unparalleled access to the secretive VC universe, Guthrie intimately details the women's victories and defeats, their struggles to juggle work and family, and the broadsides they suffered when they least expected it. Despite the setbacks, they would rise again to rewrite the rules for an industry they love. In Alpha Girls, Guthrie reveals their untold stories"--,Provided by publisher.

"Alpha Girls is reporter Julian Guthrie's powerful account of five women pioneers in the field of venture capital who bucked the system and found ways to survive and thrive in the cutthroat, high-stakes, male-dominated world of Silicon Valley. The closed-doors investment decisions made by venture capitalists have the power to fund new startups and shape our economy, our technology, and our world. They have enabled the very existence of many of the world's most profitable companies. Known for their risk-taking and prescient investments, the VC community has reaped tens of billions of dollars and has become the envy of Wall Street. Yet thanks to the "bro-grammer culture" that rules the VC world, it is a cabal that is almost a foreign country for women. A mere 6 percent of general partners at VC firms are women; roughly 80 percent of VC firms have never had a woman general partner. But there are a few. Armed with unprecedented access to the secretive VC universe, Guthrie uncovers one of the great untold stories of the digital era. Against all odds, a small cadre of women--pioneers who Guthrie calls the "alpha girls"--have determinedly made their way despite harassment, second-class citizenship, and men stealing the credit and the rewards, to become powerhouses of the finance world. Through their grit and smarts and determination, they helped to launch the IPOs of some of the biggest tech firms. In Alpha Girls, Guthrie tells their story"--,Provided by publisher.