 From theCUBE Studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with thought leaders all around the world, this is a CUBE Conversation. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in our Palo Alto studios. The COVID crisis continues. Luckily, we've got the ability to interview guests from remote and so we're excited to have this next guest. There's a lot of activity going on around equality and gender diversity, Black Lives Matter, and it feels like it really does feel like there's kind of a step function in moving this along. And there's a lot of groups out there that are trying to take a very active role in one of the things they're trying to do is help women get on more corporate board seats, more representation. And we're really excited to have our next guest who's really taking a slightly different approach, a new approach to this, and we're happy to be joined by Rita Scroggen. She is the founder of FirstBoard.io, and she's also the practice director executive group at Triad Group. So Rita, great to see you. Thank you very much, Jeff, for having me. I'm super excited to be here and to share the story about FirstBoard.io, what we're doing and how hopefully that will change the world just a little bit. That's great. Well, so the way that this came about is I was on LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn all the time. And all of a sudden this big picture hit my feed and a ton of familiar faces. I think that's what it's four by eight. And I see Abby Kerns, Dale Jensen, Eva Mahler, Wendy Pirelli, Jocelyn is in there, Samla is in there. And I thought, wow, I know a bunch of these women and I'm always happy to promote the women in the CUBE alumni. And I reached out and I think it was Wendy said, hey, this is, she said, I'm a founding member of this thing called FirstBoard.io. And I wanted to learn more and she said, we got to talk to Rita. So it's great to meet you. And this is a new organization. I think you said you started at the very beginning of this year. So why, let's get kind of to the origin story. What gave you the idea? Why did you think that this was something that needed to be done? And what caused you to actually take the leap of faith and start FirstBoard? Yeah, very good question. So in the fall of 2019, I did an event in partnership with K&L Gates it was about how to get on board and it wasn't gender specific but I invited a lot of women from my network and through K&L Gates, there was a speaker on the panel Cheryl Bolton who is now a supporter of FirstBoard.io. And we spoke after the panel discussion. So I was the moderator and she said, do you place people or women specifically on company boards and private company boards? I said, I do now, let's have a conversation about that. So we talked some more and we kind of felt like there's really a need for companies to diversify their boards, particularly private tech companies. And so then I thought about more about the idea. I reached out to a few women in my network and I said, hey, I have this idea. I'm thinking about starting an initiative around this topic, which you'd be interested in being part of it. And a lot of the women who I reached out to said, I'd love the idea, would love to get involved. So that was really the origin. So then we met, we had a little sort of social get together in, I think it was early December in Palo Alto. And then we said, let's launch officially in January, which we did. So in January, we had our first and only in-person meeting. The idea initially was that we would meet every quarter in person. So it would be very localized to Silicon Valley. And then COVID happened and everything changed. And we are now meeting via Zoom every six to eight weeks. We have members who are in different locations. So most of our members on Silicon Valley, but we also have a member in New York, in Seattle, in Dallas, and I might forget a location, but so we're a little bit more distributed right now. And so that is where we are today. So you've done it a little bit different. You've got this group of women. It's 32 women in that picture, the founding members. And so you're taking almost like a cohort approach, a group approach. Why that approach? What did you see that wanted you to go that way versus doing individual searches for individual companies, looking for individual kind of board members? Why the group approach? What type of dynamic does that introduce? How do the women leverage one another inside of this structure? Yeah, that's a very good question. That's really the idea. The idea is that we work together collaboratively and that we leverage each other's network. So we raise each other's platform. So I might know 10 or 15 or whatever decision makers, let's say, we see CEOs, but the next member might know an equal number or more or less. So what I was thinking is if we leverage each other's network, we exponentially grow our network and we exponentially grow our visibility. So our focus right now is to really raise the profile of firstboard.io and the profile of each member of the group. So it's fundamentally different when we're working together, kind of almost like a company that can accelerator where if we have a success, it's everybody's success because it raises the profile of everybody else. So that's the idea, which is different than a network organization where you are an unknown member so we're trying to make this in a different way. Right, right. And is the goal within all the women that have joined the founding members for all of them to get on a board? I mean, is that all of them are qualified people to be a corporate board? I mean, that is the goal. That's the idea. We may not accomplish that in the first round because this is a problem that's been going on for a long time but we're getting close to our first board placement. So that's, I think, an initial great success. And we're working on a number of initiatives right now to raise the profile. We're doing a video interview with all our supporters. We are creating a campaign, how to reach out to CEOs and VCs. So we're working on a number of things right now behind the background to really target our audience. And our audience is specific to the tech world. So we're focusing really on private tech companies and we're focusing on our decision makers within those organizations. So whether it's the investor, the private equity, growth equity or venture capital community or the CEO or other board members for that matter who may be aware that there's an opening and we're trying to tap to those as well. Right, right. So you've mentioned Silicon Valley, VCs and private equity a couple of times. So is the focus more in kind of that ecosystem that we're familiar with here in Silicon Valley with more private kind of private and growth opportunities or are you also just fully looking for large regular public companies as well? I mean, we wouldn't turn down a public company opportunity but none of our members have been on a board so far. And I think it's probably more realistic that the first board position might be at a private company where the operating experience is particularly valuable. So that's our primary focus in terms of reaching actively out. But if a public company would come our way and say we absolutely would love to talk to some of your members, of course we wouldn't turn that down. But actively we're going after private tech companies and they can be located anywhere. So it's not specific just to Silicon Valley. This is of course a lot of tech companies are clustered there or here. But it could also be a company in New York or Boston or wherever, but the focus is really on tech versus a broader focus of any kind of company. Right, right. So when you're working with these women who've never been on a board, what do you find is kind of the biggest gap that they need to fill? Whether that's a real gap or a perceived gap in their either skill sets or experience or whatever to kind of make the jump and get into one of these board seats. Is it any particular skill, any particular kind of point of view? What are the types of things that you do as a group to help them be more better received, I guess, for the opportunities? Yeah, well, what we don't do is we don't really provide a training program or prepare women. There are other organizations who do that. I think we'll do a very, very good job. Some of our members are part of other organizations as well. So what we're thinking more is, the company oftentimes has, in a certain growth stage, has a gap in some form. And in looking at board opportunities, I think it's important to identify where is that gap. Maybe it's go to market or maybe it is certain technical expertise and match them up with the experience of our founding members. So we don't have a program to prepare women. We're more focused on, okay, we're assuming you're prepared and that might be various degrees. And we're just trying to match the operating expertise to the gap for an independent board member at any given company. Right, right. And I think we talked before we turned on the cameras, the three things you said you focused on really is operational expertise, scale experience, as well as domain expertise. And so you're really trying to kind of map against a gap that the company has against a skill set that one of the members has. Yeah, so what I've, so far I've sort of facilitated three different board opportunities. And two of them, what they had in common, that the company was looking for somebody who really had domain expertise with the audience they were looking at. And who understood the buyer and who had deep expertise in go-to-market strategies developing them. So that's one example, right? And the other company, the third one was looking for somebody who had connections in the space who really understood that particular domain. And so it all depends. And I think it also depends on what stage the company's in. And I think the further along the company is the more it's about governance and regulations. And earlier on, it's really filling a certain gap on the leadership team. And the private equity world is also very interesting to us because oftentimes there is, there's a plan exit, there's a timeline and there are certain growth objectives the company wants to reach. And that's a great opportunity I think for First Board to bring in a founding member with that particular operating expertise. Right, right. So I'm curious, that's a great segue into kind of the customer side, if you will, the people that are looking for boards, board members. Have you seen over the last several months or years, I'll open it up, kind of a shift in terms of people, A, just kind of accepting that there are gonna be more women and people of color on the board, but also more of kind of an active search and a more kind of progressive goal to make sure that they do increase the diversity on their boards, whether that be for women or people of color or whatever, just to bring more diversity. Have you seen a shift in your customer base in terms of the really focus and prioritization on that? Well, I think it's certainly on people's mind. And I think now more so than ever, with your recent changes and sort of uprising of Black Lives Matter. But I wouldn't say that has really transferred over into real meaningful diversity on board. So I think we still have a long, long way to go. And there's an organization him for her and I think was the Kellogg's Management Institute. And they did a study last year and they found that privately heavily funded companies, 60% of those don't have a single woman on the board. And I think women in general held about 7% of board seats at these companies. So it is, I think it's still a long way to go. But I think it's very important that in the future, a larger proportion of the population is reflected in the boards, right? So whether it's women, women of color, people of color. So everybody should be part of the leadership team on the board level and on the leadership level. And I think that has become certainly more of a topic, I think, especially for large companies. And I think startups are now recognizing that it's important for them too, especially if they want to be perceived as a company which has fair and equal values. Right, right. So given that kind of landscape, if you will, what are kind of the expectations that you have with this founding member group? And I presume there'll be other groups in the future once these people all find a great board seat and are doing their thing. Kind of, is it a really tough road ahead? Do you see that it's really not that tough maybe in the macro level, but on the micro level, there are some real opportunities. How are you as a group of 32 founding members trying to take this hill, if you will, against pretty tough odds, actually? Well, I think we're going to take it one step at a time. I mean, we already have, we had the press release, we have a website, we have some visibility on LinkedIn. And we already have been able to curate three different board conversations. So I think, step by step, I think we will make a, we'll become more visible. I think we will be more known. We will have more opportunities to introduce founding members, this current cohort and future cohorts. And through that, I think we will make progress. So I'm very optimistic that we can make a difference that we can get more women on boards. And once the founding members have joined a board, the plan is to launch a group where basically we create a peer group, which will then mentor and support the next cohort. And we also have an amazing group of supporters and partners already. We have Steve Singh from Adrona Ventures. We have Rohini from NGP Capital. And we're always looking for more partners and supporters. So I'm not going to list everybody right now, but I'm very proud about that we have partners and supporters who brought into the mission and who are helping us accomplish the mission. So I feel very optimistic that we will be able to move the needle, even, it might be at a slower pace, but it will still be making a difference. Right, right. Well, the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote is coming up here in a couple of weeks, right? And that took a long time to get done. So this stuff does not, it does not happen easily. It does not happen overnight. But I would think certainly too with the increasing number of women in BC roles as partners and are also getting on board seats that hopefully that the things are starting to fall in the right direction and hopefully with each progressive placement is a little bit easier than the one before. So Rita, it's great to meet you. Everyone I talked to about you is so excited about the work that you're doing and what you're doing with First Board. So I want to give you kind of the last word before we sign off. How should people learn more? How can people support the cause? How should people get involved so that they can move the needle? That's great, thank you. Get in touch with us. If you go to the website, FirstSport.io there's a way to partner with us. There's a link to partner with us. There's a link if you are interested in joining the future cohort, please contact me and I will respond. And we would love to talk to companies who are thinking about diversifying their board. Would love to talk to VCs for whom this is important. So please get in touch and we'll figure out how to change the world together. Right, and oh by the way, most studies show you get better business outcomes with diversity of opinion and diversity of points of view. So it's not only the right thing to do, it's also a very good business. And I think the next decade, we are ready for a change. I think the society I think is ready for a change and I think how companies run and are operated. I think people are ready for a change too. So I think the timing is really, really right and I think we can make it happen. Great, well Rita, thank you again for taking a few minutes and telling your story and joining us on theCUBE. Thank you very much, it was a pleasure, Jeff and I look forward to talk again. Yeah, maybe in person after we get through all this COVID madness. All right, well, thanks again, Rita. Thank you very much. All right, Rita, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE. Thanks for watching, we'll see you next time.