‘The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.’ 

“I hear a lot these days about gender imbalance in male dominated industries, Venture Capital being one of them. You’d also have to live on Mars or have the compassion of a cyborg not to be touched and outraged by the #MeToo experiences that many women have faced in the workplace. If you are a feminist like I am, it is easy and convenient to smear this different ‘male species’ because of the few rotten ones amongst them.

However, failing to recognize great men who help women rise up is not only unfair, but is also hurts women’s advancement. As such I want to offer my story:

My lifelong love of science and discovery and problem solving, led me to pursue a PhD in physics at UPenn.

This happens to be a completely male-dominated field; most of my classmates and professors and advisors and colleagues were guys. The ratio of men to women was somewhere around 20:1. Shocking, right? Yet I found that, despite the gender imbalance, my world was never hostile. It was actually quite the opposite. At no point in time did anyone suggest that I couldn’t do something because I was a woman. I was simultaneously challenged and supported by both my peers and mentors. Even when I decided to pivot into the business world, ( I found the solitary life of a physicist a bit taxing on my extreme extroverted nature), I had a lot of support and encouragement from my PhD advisor even as I was entering the field that was completely foreign to him.

My next chapter was with McKinsey in New York. It combined the thrill of problem solving for some of top global companies with the even bigger thrill of always being part of a high performing team that tackled those problems shoulder to shoulder. Mentorship and feedback were part of the McKinsey DNA, and I loved every minute of it. While not as imbalanced as physics, there were still more men then women that advanced to the partner track. Again, I had great men and women mentor me, and invest in my development.

A few years after, I found myself in Chicago working at Motorola’s marketing department. This is where I met my most impactful male ally, my late mentor and friend Geoffrey Frost, a legendary CMO of Motorola.

Geoffrey used to quote William Gibson: ‘The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.’ With the passing of a few years, it is more clear to me now than ever that he lived this model in many ways, but the most unheralded one was promoting and supporting talent and diversity regardless of where it was coming from.

I was the most unusual fit for the marketing strategy position at Motorola. I was later told that Geoffrey was pushed to interview me, and he very reluctantly agreed. Everything on my resume — analytical and science-based — was the antithesis of what Geoffrey believed in and embodied. I was, after all, a physicist-turned-consultant, interviewing for a position in marketing.

What I remember from that interview is the most thrilling vision of how technology would become an extension of your personal potential, and how Motorola would become a leader in that charge. I knew when I walked out that I must be part of this transformation. I later learned that Geoffrey canceled his afternoon meetings, staying an extra 2 hours to continue interviewing me. He wanted to have me on the team despite striking differences in our backgrounds, and so I joined an international team of rebels, comprised mostly of women. We were on a mission to challenge how the personal technology /cell phone technology would integrate into peoples’ lives. Our big win was the legendary RAZR phone.

On this journey I learned a great deal from Geoffrey — his relentless pursuit to ‘outsmart, not outspend’ the competition, unending creativity, constant focus on putting humanity ahead of technology in engineering culture, and his unshaken belief that a small group of rebels can tackle the giant – all the while without preaching.

Here’s a personal example of Geoffrey’s forward-thinking leadership: three weeks after my daughter was born, I received a phone call from Geoffrey. He right away launched into the project he wanted me to lead, and the promotion that came with it. I was excited but honest with him about my need to be with my daughter.

His answer?

‘No problem, go home every day at 5, be with your daughter. Then come back online and finish what needs to be done, and spend more time with your team in China when they wake up. It will work out great.’ He instinctively knew that with a little flexibility and autonomy the right women would manage a baby and a promotion just fine. No big deal. I wish people would remember this simple lesson as they think about how to retain and promote women, as they become parents. We are not looking to work less, or less effectively. This flexibility and autonomy would do wonders in many corporations, but you have to have a level of trust.

Geoffrey is legendary in the world of advertising, and we could write a small book on what can be learned from him in that field. That is for another day.

Here are three defining lessons Geoffrey taught me in his support of working women: 1) Take a chance on a person that shares your vision but comes from a background dramatically different from your own 2) pursue talent without consideration of borders, gender or sexual orientation. “Casting is not the most important thing, it is the only thing” he used to say. Like Geoffrey, be willing to set the bar high, empower your team and let them fly 3) See opportunity where other people see walls, and uncover it. Where someone could have seen a barrier of me needing to leave at 5 pm, he saw the opportunity to spend more time with the China team.

Geoffrey passed away on November 17, 2005, but to this day I use the lessons and inspirations from him daily. Today I am the managing partner of two VC funds, and I always think of Geoffrey as forever the example of a true male ally.

‘The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed,’ he used to quote a lot and embodied it in many ways. He pushed for excellence but in the process promoted equity and balance, as he gave talented women a chance to succeed.  Geoffrey was pivotal in shaping me as a professional. Who is your male ally?”

Dr. Oksana Malysheva – CEO/Managing Partner Sputnik ATX
Austin, TX

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Dr. Oksana Malysheva is an investor, entrepreneur and business executive based in Austin, TX. She is the Managing Partner/CEO of Sputnik ATX, an accelerator that funds maker-founders with ideas to create positive change. She is also the Managing Partner/President of Linden Venture Fund.

Dr. Oksana Malysheva was born and raised in Soviet Union, Ukraine. Seeking educational opportunities, she moved to the United States with her husband and only $100 to their name. She earned her PhD in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, and soon after, pivoted her focus to business and marketing.

Dr. Malysheva previously held top strategic roles at McKinsey and Motorola. Trained as a PhD physicist, Dr. Malysheva brings scientific inquisitiveness, lateral thinking and mastery of insight through data to all of her business endeavors.