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<p>No matter how successful you become, no matter where your career takes you, everyone starts somewhere. We asked six hugely successful tech CEOs to tell us about their humble beginnings.</p>
<p>We got some great stories, written by the CEOs themselves, about their first jobs and their oddest jobs.</p>
<p>These include tales of being held up at gunpoint, working at a nasty pollution control plant, measuring electricity output from manholes, and hauling people's belongings around for a moving company.</p>
<p>Read on ...</p>

<h3><strong><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/video/74612483-palo-alto-networks-ceo-on-hack-attacks.html">Bloomberg TV</a></p></div><p></p></div>Mark McLaughlin, </strong><strong><keyword id="456992" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Palo-Alto-Networks">Palo Alto Networks</keyword> CEO: flying Cobra helicopters at age 22</strong></h3>
<p><em>McLaughlin leads Palo Alto Networks, an IPO darling of 2012, currently valued at $3.3 billion. He is the former CEO of Verisign, which sold to Symantec in 2010 for $1.2 billion.</em></p>
<p><strong>What was the first job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>Many jobs. Mowed lawns starting at 12. Pumped gas at 15 (and got held up at gunpoint one night).</p>
<p>Worked 2 jobs at from 16 to 18. McDonald's after school during the week and bagged groceries at Acme on weekends. I grew up in Philadelphia, working class neighborhood, so this was not unusual.</p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?</strong></p>
<div>
<p>I started off my career flying Cobra helicopters because my first job was as an attack helicopter pilot for the US Army. I was 22 years old and was enlisted for two years, then heading off to law school. </p>
</div>
<p><em>Note: In his time in the US Army, Mark earned an Army Commendation Medal and Airborne Wings.</em></p>

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><keyword id="1754170" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="DataGravity">DataGravity</keyword></p></div><p></p></div><strong>Paula Long, CEO, DataGravity: Pickin' tobacco<br /></strong></h3>
<p><em>DataGravity is a storage startup still in stealth mode, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-paula-longs-new-42-million-startup-is-an-ingenius-way-to-do-big-data-2013-3">that's raised $42 million of investment.</a> Long previously co-founded EqualLogic, a storage company bought by Dell for $1.4 billion in 2008.</em></p>
<p><strong>What was the <span class="il">first</span> job you ever had?  </strong></p>
<p>Working on a shade tobacco farm in Connecticut (a tobacco grown under shade in the Connecticut River Valley, used primarily for binder and wrapper for<br /> premium cigars.). I was 14 and I did it for two summers. <br /> <strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had? </strong><strong></strong></p>
<p>[I worked on ] artificial intelligence and engineering robots. I learned [about] moving robot arms on an assembly line using gears, servo-motors and cables.</p>

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><keyword id="155272" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="CA-Technologies">CA Technologies</keyword></p></div><p></p></div><strong>CA Technologies CEO Mike Gregoire: A dirty job fighting pollution</strong></h3>
<p><em>CA Technologies is a 37-year-old <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> software company with $4.6 billion in revenue. Prior to CA, Gregoire was CEO of Taleo and sold it to Oracle in 2012 for $1.9 billion.</em></p>
<p><strong>What was the first job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>I delivered furniture for a furniture delivery service on Saturdays and sometimes after school. I was 15 and they went out of business after about a year.</p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had? <br /></strong></p>
<p>I was a general laborer at a pollution control plant. Lots of nasty stuff can happen at a place like that. It was a unionized shop and the other student that worked and I were only supposed to cut the grass and do outside work. But when there were really nasty things to clean, [we] students often got the privilege of a hard day's work.</p>
<p>I learned that I was not well suited to not having any control over my work product. I like things that are more creative and the day-in day-out. Where everything is the same sounds comforting, but just did not work for me.</p>

<h3><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidberlind/3328976161/">Flicker/dberlind</a></p></div><p></p></div><strong>Jayshree Ullal, </strong><strong><keyword id="356018" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arista-Networks">Arista Networks</keyword> CEO: working with manholes </strong></h3>
<p><em>Ullal is the "Marissa Mayer" of the enterprise network industry. Arista is a hot startup taking a bite out of Cisco and on track for a 2014 IPO with a $2.5 billion valuation. Prior to Arista, Ullal ran Cisco's bread-and-butter routing, switching business, leading it to $10B in annual revenue.</em><strong> <br /></strong></p>
<p><strong>What was the first job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>Cashier at Woolworths, also duplicating keys, catching fish from the tank and making pizzas! I was 16 and I did for three years as a student.</p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>I was an electrical engineer intern at PG&amp;E. My job was to measure and verify the power current and voltage ratings at every manhole to right size the electrical grid for the (then) new Moscone center in San Francisco.</p>
<p>The odd thing was, because it was unionized, I was escorted and driven from manhole to manhole every 100 yards in a PG&amp;E truck!</p>
<p>Then I would go down the steep ladder into the dingy manhole with my hard hat and flash light encountering cobwebs along the way.</p>
<p>I learned that engineers are free spirited and not as structured as 9-5 employees governed by unions.</p>

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:300px"><div class="image on-image"><p class="source">Business Insider/Julie Bort</p><p class="caption"><keyword id="593275" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Infor">Infor</keyword> CEO Charles Phillips</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<h3><strong>Charles Phillips, Infor CEO: Hauling refrigerators up stairs</strong></h3>
<p><em>Phillips runs Infor, an enterprise software company challenging SAP and Oracle with about $3 billion in revenue. Before that, he was the No. 2 guy to Larry Ellison at Oracle.</em></p>
<p><strong>What was the first job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>My  first job was at age 13 going door to door with my dad's lawn mower and cutting grass. My dad made me pay him back for the gas he bought for me to teach me about the cost of goods sold.</p>
<p>I finally figured out that most customers had their own lawn mowers with gas already paid for sitting inside of it.</p>
<p>So I would offer to use their lawn mower if they preferred which most did and that saved me the gas money and I didn't have the push the mower around town.</p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>Working for a moving company at 16 was my worst job. People tell you they have a few small things that could fit in half a truck and then you arrive and they have two refrigerators up two flights of stairs.</p>
<p>Or you'd drive 5 miles only to learn they changed their mind and want to move tomorrow or their roommate was claiming half their stuff and you can't figure out what to load until they work it out or not. </p>
<p>I learned to qualify prospective customers over the phone quickly and estimate how much stuff a family would have depending on how many kids, how many rooms, and where they lived. Early predictive analytics.</p>
<p>Then I got job at 17 to develop an application for printing debit memos for a retail branch of a bank. That was my first job in the computer industry.</p>
<p>But the most exciting and different job was of course the Marines.  It was the first job I had where every single person had an insanely intense focus on doing their job well mainly because they didn't want to endanger their teammates.</p>
<p>That's where I learned that getting people to inspire each and peer reinforcement is actually more powerful than one general barking commands.</p>

<div>
<h3><strong><strong><keyword id="183644" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jim-Whitehurst">Jim Whitehurst</keyword>, </strong><keyword id="183292" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Red-Hat">Red Hat</keyword> CEO: fixing an airline on 9/11</strong></h3>
<p><em>Whitehurst is running Linux software company Red Hat, which generated $1.3 billion in revenue last year on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/red-hat-is-still-on-target-to-hit-3-billion-in-revenues-by-2016-ceo-says-2013-3">track to be $3 billion by 2016.</a> Before Red Hat Whitehurst was COO of Delta Airlines.</em></p>
<p><strong>What was the first job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>Within months of getting my driver's license, I got my first job as a part-time computer programmer for a stockbroker.</p>
<p>It is easy to forget that in the 1980s, computers and programming were not nearly as pervasive (or popular) as they are today. I had been interested in computers for a couple of years by then.</p>
<p>My prized possession was my Kaypro II with 64K RAM and dual floppies. I was tasked with building a computer program that would perform contact management, tracking interactions with potential and current clients. I wish I understood the value of such a system back then. Good thing Marc Benioff did. (Thank you, Salesforce.com.)</p>
<p>I still keep in touch with my first boss, Murray Solomon.</p>
<p><strong>What was the strangest, oddest job you ever had?</strong></p>
<p>While not necessarily the strangest or oddest job, one worth mentioning would be becoming "Acting Treasurer" of Delta at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2084853484"><span class="aQJ">noon</span></span> on 9/11, when I was still a partner at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The CEO of Delta at the time called me and said "we need you now". That was definitely jumping into the deep end. I knew very little about treasury.</p>
<p>I remember going over to the Treasurer's office - which was empty because it was an open position at the time - pulling the dust cover off the desk, sitting down and thinking "what have I gotten myself into"?</p>
<p>My key lesson out of doing that over the next couple of months - I officially joined Delta in January - was that it's OK to admit that you don't know things. I said "I have no idea" almost daily. </p>
<p>Too many people worry that saying "I don't know" is a weakness. It's not - pretending you know when you don't is the weakness.</p>
<p>(Here's the full story of how <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-red-hats-ceo-owes-his-career-to-911-2012-2">Whitehurst changed his career on 9/11</a>)</p>
</div>

BEFORE THEY MADE IT BIG: Tech CEOs Tell Us About Their First And Strangest Jobs

<p><table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><p class="source">DataGravity</p><p class="caption">Paula Long, CEO and co-founder of DataGravity</p></td></tr></table>Paula Long is known in the <keyword id="6356323" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Enterprise">enterprise</keyword> tech world as the co-founder of EqualLogic, a storage company bought by Dell for $1.4 billion in 2008. Last year, she began working on a new startup, <keyword id="1754170" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="DataGravity">DataGravity</keyword>, still in stealth mode.</p>
<p>Long has been tight-lipped about DataGravity. But she just opened up about the company to Business Insider.</p>
<p>The New Hampshire-based start-up has been on Silicon Valley radars since January, when VC firm Andreessen Horowitz lead a $30 million investment round. That was on top of the $12 million Data Gravity nabbed out of the gate when it launched in June, lead by Charles River and General Catalyst, making $42 million total.</p>
<p>While most <keyword id="774829" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Big-Data">big data</keyword> systems today rely on complicated software, Long is creating a shortcut. She's getting the storage system itself — the actual disk drives that hold the files — to share what it knows about the company's business. This could make big data an affordable option for a lot of mid-sized companies.</p>
<p>Here's an edited transcript of what she told us.</p>
<p><strong>Business Insider: A lot of people are watching Data Gravity and you haven't said much about what you're working on. What can you tell us about the tech?</strong></p>
<p>Paula Long: It occurred to me that big data is great for companies who have lots of IT staff and programmers, but not so great for mid-sized business where they don't have a full-time data scientist. I started to ponder what the storage array itself could tell you. <em>[Note: Enterprise disk drive systems are called storage arrays.]</em></p>
<p>If you talk to a normal disk today it will tell you its name, rank and serial number. It will tell you 'I'm a Seagate drive and I'm this big.' But the operating system that works on that data knows quite a bit. It knows what's going on in your company. You just don't have the vocabulary and language to ask it. So we're working on a way to unearth the knowledge that your storage has.</p>
<p><strong>BI: You mean, you can learn a lot about the business by studying which files people are accessing?</strong></p>
<p>It's more than that. It can tell you things like who should be collaborating. Who is not happy. We're not talking about everything we're doing, but [our tech] can surface what's going on with customers. Patterns in the business. Who should be talking to who.</p>
<p>Today a storage array is just a container. It's not looking inside the container [and reading the data]. We're looking inside the container to [help you] make sense out of what's there.</p>

EXCLUSIVE: Paula Long's New $42 Million Startup Is An Ingenious Way To Do Big Data

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>DataGravity</span></p><p class="caption">Paula Long, CEO DataGravity </p></div><p></p></div></div>Despite exiting as a "unicorn,", or a company worth more than $1 billion, DataGravity CEO Paula Long now recommends companies aim for the IPO.</p><p>Long sold the first company she co-founded, EqualLogic, to Dell for $1.4 billion in 2008 - more than what Facebook paid for Instagram.</p><p>Even with such a large exit that garnered her company a real "unicorn" status, Long told Business Insider that her preference is actually a company going public.</p><p>"<span>You can control happy customers. You can somewhat control positioning yourself to be a public company," Long said. "You can't control being bought."</span></p><p>Dell had approached EqualLogic earlier, but the numbers "weren't interesting to us," Long said. She preferred keeping the company private.</p><p>By 2008, EqualLogic was ready to go public and had filed its IPO paperwork with the SEC. But then the numbers started getting bigger, Long said.</p><p>"When someone offers you a billion, I joke around that when someone offers you something with a B, you should listen," Long said.  </p><p>"We closed the deal Sunday night. The following Tuesday we would have been on the roadshow and going public. So we were two days away from going public, so we were very serious about that."</p><p>Long hadn't built the startup to be sold. Long was serious about going public and had the happy customers and revenues to support it.</p><p>Her new startup, <a href="http://datagravity.com/">DataGravity</a>, is set up to IPO because it's going after happy customers and differentiating itself, Long said. It <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-paula-longs-new-42-million-startup-is-an-ingenius-way-to-do-big-data-2013-3">analyzes data in companies</a> to tell if employees are copying files to Dropbox accounts or if there are files with sensitive data accidentally being hosted on a public server. </p><p>Once again, she insists, she didn't build this company just to sell it.</p><p>"If you build a startup to be bought, 90 percent of the time you'll fail. Because you'll take shortcuts or you'll start to focus on the wrong thing, you'll focus on hype because you want some company to buy you based on hype. Or you'll focus only on <em>their</em> customers because you'll figure that if you become a pain in the butt to them, they'll take you out," Long said.</p><p>It's the difference between looking for a way out in five years versus building a company to spend the next 20 years innovating on it - one that the public markets will value.</p><p>"A lot are going to do amazingly well. But if you have a short-term view, and I think a lot are maximizing their non-public value to customers, you're going to find yourself in a world of hurt in a few years," Long said. "My preference is public offering because that's the only one you can control and happy customers get you there."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/twitters-ipo-on-the-nyse-2013-11">What It Was Like On The Trading Floor During Twitter's IPO</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="phamt4ZzpxeEsH-ezdBXWahE3cdQ6_dg" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Paula Long sold her last startup for $1.4 billion, but insists it's better to go public

<p class="p1"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="DataGravity" title_caption="Paula Long, CEO DataGravity " class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/540123eaeab8ea6042bf4e03-960/paula-long-datagravity-1.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>DataGravity</span></p><p class="caption">Paula Long, CEO DataGravity </p></div><p></p></div></div>Some of the largest companies in Silicon Valley, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/08/12/apple-us-workforce-mirrors-other-tech-giants/">Apple,</a> released diversity statistics recently, revealing that only about <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sheryl-sandberg-women-in-tech-2014-8">30% of their workforce are female.</a></span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Gender inequality is a problem that's been discussed for years in the tech space. Although it's improving, many believe females are still underrepresented in this field.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Paula Long, who sold her first startup <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2007/11/05/dell-acquires-equallogic-for-14-billion/">EqualLogic to Dell for $1.4 billion</a> in 2008, is one of the more successful female entrepreneurs in the tech industry. She believes the best way to fix this problem is rather simple: better supply.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"What we need is lots of young women getting into tech, and then you'll see the number move up," Long told Business Insider. "If you don't have a good supply, then you won't see people elevating to the next levels." </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Long also had some sound advice for entrepreneurs looking to break into the tech industry, saying that it's important to remember that you're the one in control. </span></p>
<p class="p2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"Don't think there's something you can't do just because somebody else says you can't," she said. "It's your choice whether you do it or not. And remember, you don't have to do it if you don't like it. Just because you're good at something doesn't mean you have to do it."</span></span></p>
<p class="p4"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Long has moved on to her next startup called </span><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2014/08/19/equallogic-co-founder-paula-longs-latest-startup-datagravity-launches/">DataGravity,</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> which provides </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-paula-longs-new-42-million-startup-is-an-ingenius-way-to-do-big-data-2013-3">data-aware storage systems.</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> It basically offers data centers with software that has the ability to automatically analyze data in your storage.</span></p>
<p class="p4"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The company has raised $42 million so far, with funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River, and General Catalyst. </span></p>
<p class="p4"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">But most importantly, Long emphasized how crucial it is to prepare for failure as an entrepreneur. </span></p>
<p class="p4"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"Most startups don't succeed and technology is rough and tumble," she said. "It either works or doesn't, there's no softness about it. So if you want to start a company and succeed, you have to be willing to fail." </span></span></p>

This Woman Who Sold Her First Startup For $1.4 Billion Has Simple Advice For Future Female Entrepreneurs

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Tech companies hired like crazy coming into 2016. Now they're shedding employees as ambitious business growth expectations miss targets. </p><p>HR company Zenefits, which <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zenefits-cuts-17-of-its-workforce-2016-2">cut 250 employees on Friday</a>, is just one example of the rush to slim down that's sweeping the tech scene. </p><p>According to research prepared by <a href="http://www.datafox.com/">DataFox</a>, at least 18 tech, or tech-related, companies cut ties with employees in February, and those are just the ones that have been publicly reported. </p><p>Yahoo is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-yahoo-announces-first-round-of-layoffs-as-it-trims-15-percent-of-workforce-2016-2">reducing its staff by 15%</a>, or more than 1,500 jobs. BlackBerry <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-devices/blackberry-layoffs-leave-dark-cloud-over-handset-business/a/d-id/1324225">is trimming by 35%</a>, eliminating 200 positions. DataGravity <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/02/08/datagravity-cuts-jobs/">took the pre-emptive step to layoff</a> employees this month as well.</p><p>The staff reductions come <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-great-reset-vcs-startups-go-from-greed-to-fear-2016-2">at a time when the market is slowing and companies are taking a hard look</a> at their finances. Companies with great growth, money in the bank, and manageable burn rates will probably come out OK, but any company that has a weakness in any of those three areas could start looking at places to cut costs. </p><p>While February saw a host of companies slashing headcounts, the trend could continue as the market tightens. On Bloomberg West with Emily Chang, Khosla Ventures partner Keith Rabois said companies have too many employees for their own good.</p><p>"I think maybe technology companies have over-hired over the last four years," Rabois <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-02-13/khosla-s-rabois-seeing-a-sea-change-in-private-markets">told Bloomberg</a>. "I think the average technology company is between 25% and 50% bloated."</p><p>This isn't just a Silicon Valley startup problem. Companies around the country, big and small, are pulling back. Here's a recap from DataFox that shows which companies lost employees:</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.datafox.com/">DataFox</a></span></p><p class="caption">Known layoffs in February, as tracked by DataFox</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><em>Any layoffs we haven't heard of? Leave a comment below or email bcarson@businessinsider.com</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leonardo-dicaprio-invested-diamond-foundry-startup-diamond-industry-2015-11">This startup is trying to take down the diamond industry with Leonardo DiCaprio</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="trNGJ4eDrbXJMTxXUUnI1cchpKkwEK62" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

It's been a bad month for tech layoffs

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source">Business Insider</p><p class="caption">Paula Long (left), Debra Chrapaty (right)</p></div>Between <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sandberg-controversial-quotes-2013-3">the uproar over Sheryl Sandberg's new book</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/women-in-tech-2013-3">SendGrid's Donglegate</a> scandal, one thing is clear: It's not always easy for <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> working in the tech industry.</p>
<p>We recently spoke with two powerful women tech CEOs about <keyword id="6390075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sexism">sexism</keyword> and what they did to overcome it: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exclusive-paula-longs-new-42-million-startup-is-an-ingenius-way-to-do-big-data-2013-3">DataGravity cofounder <strong>Paula Long</strong></a><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">, known for her previous storage startup, EqualLogic, which Dell bought for $1.4 billion in 2008; and former Zynga CIO </span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/debra-chrapaty-zynga-nirvanix-2013-3"><strong>Debra Chrapaty,</strong> who just became CEO of Nirvanix.</a></p>
<p>Both of them tell Business Insider they have faced their share of sexism. Now they coach other young women how to get past it. Some of this is good advice for men, too.</p>
<p><strong>1. If you're the only woman in the room, jokingly make the room aware.</strong></p>
<p>"Some of the issues with [sexism] in tech is just the numbers," Chrapty says. "I've sat in rooms for most of my career where I'm the only woman. I make light of it. I intentionally put it out there."</p>
<p><strong>2. If your coworkers tend to yell at meetings, bring an empty coffee cup with you.</strong> Tap it on the table to cause the room to grow quiet before you speak. That's a tip Chrapaty learned from her mentor, former Microsoft CMO, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mich-mathews/26/873/436">Mich Mathews</a>.</p>
<p><strong>3. Being a risk-taker has nothing to do with being male or female</strong>. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The more your risks prove successful, the more willing you are to take risks. You have to be willing to take risks to advance your career, Long says.</p>
<p><strong>4. Don't be afraid of failing.</strong> You will learn more from failure than successes, says Chrapaty. She worked on a couple of <keyword id="6362513" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Startups">startups</keyword> that didn't pan out. That's when she learned how to be a leader. "It's easy to motivate people when the company is soaring," but it requires skill to motivate people when it's not doing well, she says.</p>
<p><strong>5. If you can't find a job you love, start your own company,</strong> Long says. "If you want to become a CEO of a big company, roll your own. You can build that big company."<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>6. Negotiate a fair wage.</strong> Talk to people and read salary reports to find out what the norms are, ask for something in the fair range, not too high, not too low, Long says. Expect to be fairly compensated and you will be.</p>
<p><strong>6. Always do the best work you can</strong>. "The best way to battle any bias is to be the best you can be in your field. Be the best. Make that your rallying cry," Chrapaty says.</p>
<p><strong>7. Have a thick skin if some of your male coworkers underestimate you</strong>. One stereotype for women techies is that they don't work on hard tech problems, Long says. Solving those hard problems will change their minds.</p>
<p><strong>8. Be a role model and mentor to other women.</strong> The sexism problem will diminish when more women are working in the field. Role models encourage girls to enter the field, both Long and Chrapaty say.</p>
<p><strong>9. Report sexual harassment</strong>. There's a difference between someone giving you a "prove it" attitude and someone threatening you.</p>
<p>"If it's a pure case of sexual harassment (and that's happened to me but I won't talk about it), you report it," Chrapaty says. "That's your obligation to the company and to other women. If it's a case of sexism, be the best you can be and continue to make your mark in industry." </p>

Two Women CEOs Explain How To Squash Sexism In The Tech Industry

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Randall Hill</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>If the terrible headlines and stock prices are to be read like tea leaves, then the tech industry is about to face a major reality check. </p><p>Investors have already labeled this period "The Great Reset." Why?</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">There wasn't a single IPO in January for the first time since September 2011.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">As the public market has slashed the value of tech companies like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/linkedin-earnings-q4-2016-2">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tableau-software-stock-plummets-50-2016-2">Tableau</a> almost in half, their private counterparts look oversize.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The industry is facing death (or at least pain) by a thousand cuts: Startups everywhere are laying off people, jettisoning businesses, and firing CEOs. Some of its biggest innovators have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/parker-conrad-is-out-as-zenefits-ceo-and-david-sacks-takes-over-2016-2">admitted breaking the rules</a>, and suddenly things aren't looking too rosy.</span></li></ul><p>At the Upfront Summit in Los Angeles last week, the shift was palpable. There was still plenty of cheerleading for companies, but there were also plenty of nervous conversations between sessions and even on stage.</p><p>No longer is it growth at all costs. "If you haven't built a real company, you're dead," one investor bluntly put it.</p><p>Here's what I learned from a week in Los Angeles talking not only to Silicon Valley investors, but also those doing deals across the US:</p><h2>Out with the 'unicorns,' in with the 'cockroaches'</h2><p>For the startups that are currently valued at more than $1 billion - the so-called unicorns - there's no doubt from investors that the public market will be painful.</p><p>Given their name, these companies are supposed to be rare, bordering on mythical. Yet in 2015 a whole herd of unicorns showed up. Fortune Magazine <a href="http://fortune.com/unicorns/">lists 174</a> on its site. Venture capital database CB Insights <a href="https://www.cbinsights.com/research-unicorn-companies">counts 152</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/roland/9239693879/">Roland Tanglao via Flickr</a></span></p><p class="caption">There are too many unicorns for the good of the industry.</p></div><p></p></div></div>There's no way they're all going to go public and meet their valuations. </p><p>"You would have to be blind to not see the disconnect between public and private multiples," said one early-stage VC. </p><p>Some investors are starting to split the unicorn camp into three buckets:</p><ul><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The ones that are still growing with strong numbers and can find investors. (Airbnb and Uber were cited in this camp.)</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Struggling unicorns that might need to go public to look for cash or face a down round - that is, a fundraising round that values the company at less than the previous round. A down round <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-down-rounds-do-to-startups-2013-2">isn't necessarily the kiss of death</a> - it's better than not raising money and going out of business - but it means founders and early shareholders probably aren't going to make as much money as they thought they would (and sometimes none at all), and it can be demoralizing for the entire company. It can also forestall later investments.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Never going to exit. These failures will likely be few and far between, investors think, but there will be at least a couple from the group that can't even manage to sell for pennies.</span></li></ul><p>As a result, the once cherished unicorn title is being replaced by a new one: "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/andreessen-horowitz-startups-market-downturn-2016-2">the cockroach</a>" - companies building sustainable businesses that can survive anything. Especially among the Los Angeles startups, revenue is talked about more openly (at least five local companies are hitting nine-figure revenues, according to Science Inc.'s Mike Jones) and investors, like Accel's Rich Wong, have admitted that they're asking different questions of the companies they meet.</p><p>"That fear of missing out on that next Facebook rocket ship is starting to be replaced by actual fear of losing money," Wong said <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/02/11/great-reset-tech-valuations-says-accels-rich-wong/79997140/">in an interview this week with USA Today</a>. "If I'm doing a deliver-vodka-to-the-office company, it's probably a different conversation to raise money than I was having two years ago."</p><h2>Dragged to the IPO altar</h2><p>For non-unicorns, going public might be the "cleanest" way to raise capital, said one investor. That's because so many late-stage investors are throwing in protections, <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/squares-s-1-of-ratchets-and-unicorn-valuations/">like ratchets</a>, in the face of sour public markets. If there's a sustainable business built, then going public is better than raising from growth funds like Fidelity that <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/11/12/fidelity-marks-down-tech-unicorns/">could mark startups down publicly too</a> (a favorite topic of conversation among the early-stage investors).</p><p>In fact, the struggling unicorns might find their only option is going public, according to investors. CB Insights founder Anand Sanwal <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-startups-that-will-be-have-to-be-dragged-to-an-ipo-2015-12">predicted several</a> companies, like Dropbox, Cloudera, and Jawbone, will have to be dragged across the finish line to avoid having to raise a down round - a round that's at lower value - or to find funding at all.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Rick Wilking </span></p><p class="caption">Hosain Rahman, CEO and cofounder of Jawbone.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>A lot of investors are complaining that companies are staying private too long.</p><p>Fred Wilson gave an <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fred-wilson-criticizes-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-for-waiting-to-ipo-2016-2">impassioned speech on why Uber should go public</a>, while Benchmark's Bill Gurley said "staying private longer" is the worst advice he's ever heard.</p><p>"We need to go back to looking at the IPO as the objective," Gurley <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gurley-says-startups-should-aim-for-ipo-2015-10">said in October 2015</a>. "Until you get liquid, you really haven't accomplished anything."</p><h2>Get ready for more second-market sales</h2><p>Which brings us to liquidity. Second markets are springing up for shares, and companies are trying to find a way to provide some liquidity to both their investors and their employees.</p><p>The most recent example is Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund. The two venture capital firms <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/andreessen-horowitz-sells-some-lyft-shares-to-prince-al-waleed-1455145074">sold some of their shares</a> of ride-hailing company Lyft for a small profit. Saudi Arabia's Prince al-Waleed bin Talal wanted more shares as part of Lyft's December Series D round, and wasn't able to get them from the company itself, according to a source familiar with the situation.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Lyft</span></p><p class="caption">Some of Lyft's investors have sold shares to take some money back to their LPs.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>This was the first time Andreessen Horowitz decided to sell a small number of shares and take some money off the table. Some took it as a lack of confidence in Lyft, but as Fortune's Dan Primack also pointed out, these VCs do have a fiduciary duty to return some money. It's sometimes a smart business move to take some money off the table when you can, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/palantir-and-investors-spar-over-how-to-cash-in-1451439352">as other firms have done in the past</a>.</p><p>Investors aren't feeling the pressure of returning funds to their investors, the limited partners, yet - most funds have a 10-year cycle - but secondary-market sales are something that will continue to increase anxiety unless M&amp;A activity picks up, some investors cautioned. </p><h2>Managing momentum versus cutting costs</h2><p>So where does that leave the startups going into 2016?</p><p>From here on, the stronger should get stronger, and the weak will start to show.</p><p>There's been a slew of layoffs as companies begin to trim the fat. Billion-dollar messaging app Tango <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/12/chat-app-tango-lay-offs/#67d303275d5e">cut 20%</a> of its staff on Friday. Earlier this week, data storage and analytics company DataGravity <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2016/02/09/preemptive-layoffs-needed-at-andreessen-backed-startup-says-ceo/">"preemptively"</a> dismissed staff to cut costs. Even widely considered IPO candidate Practice Fusion, an electronic health-records provider, has <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/3056322/startup-report/source-health-tech-startup-practice-fusion-to-layoff-75-people-ahead-of-possi">cut back.</a></p><p>While cutting costs is advised for startups in desperate need to buy themselves time, GGV partner Glenn Solomon recommended that founders really look at their metrics and not be influenced by outside trends as much. If they have the numbers and valuation to keep on only building, that should be their focus - not pulling back out of fear.</p><p>"CEOs have among their most important jobs is managing momentum," said Solomon.</p><p>That's momentum across every metric: hiring, growth of the business, morale, investor sentiment, and valuations.</p><p>Once startups start cutting costs, momentum is reversed. Morale sinks as headcount shrinks. At that point, it's time to reset your sights on what the endgame is and adjust, Solomon said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/meesterdickey/19249014839">Flickr / Ryan Dickey</a></span></p><p class="caption">It's hard to stop a chain of dominoes from falling if you've started cutting costs.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>In a later blog post, Solomon <a href="http://goinglongblog.com/momentum-builds-slowly-evaporates-quickly/?">summed it up neatly</a>:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span>At the conference I heard a bunch of people talk about the need to cut burn rates. Obviously, companies should never waste money. But, its VERY rare to see a company turn it around and create a huge outcome once it finds itself in a position where it must drastically cut burn to extend runway. Particularly for founders who've raised high priced, large financing rounds on the premise of rapid, yet expensive growth, in a down market, these folks are faced with a Gordian knot that will be very challenging to untangle. </span>On the other hand, for founders of high growth, highly valued startups who've smartly raised plenty of cash, <strong>I'd argue that NOW is the time to accelerate smartly</strong>. While the competition cuts burn to prolong runway, the strongest companies have a chance to gain ground, becoming the dominant player in their respective spaces.</p><h2>Always look on the bright side ...</h2><p>While there is a lot of doom and gloom, many see a bright side in all this.</p><p>For one, some expect round sizes to come down. Or as Joanne Wilson put it, "more egos in check."</p><p>That's what USV saw with Foursquare when it pivoted (or just realized) that its strength <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fred-wilson-foursquare-is-a-data-company-2016-2">was as a data company and it should be valued as such.</a> It's better for them to have a down round and get leaner and more focused than to raise too much money and squander it away working on an ill-defined or unrealistic goal. </p><p>Meanwhile, the limited partners who fund the VCs are still optimistic: Their funding of venture capital firms is back to prerecession levels, and, as Mark Suster from Upfront Ventures points out, it's expected to increase. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://upfront.com/">Mark Suster/Upfront Ventures</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>That means there will still be capital to fund the startups the deserve it. If anything, a more hostile market will reduce the noise of startups that are just going for fast cash versus those building sustainable businesses. For those startups raising, their next round <a href="https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/698366103295119361">might not quadruple their valuation</a>, but only double it - or not raise it all.</p><p>While there may be a "great reset" in terms of the valuations of companies funded and the rates at which they grow, the tech correction is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/this-time-its-different-no-really-2016-2">likely not going to be as bad 2001 or even 2009</a>. The tech industry is just hitting refresh.</p><p>"We can't be too paranoid. Bad markets bring opportunity," Suster says.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-founders-of-blade-the-helicopter-startup-2015-10">Meet the founders of Blade, the startup that's bringing helicopter rides to New York City's smart set</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Rhbm03eDrXJOFCfCnTEVh5kf4qcYf-gT" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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