I took on the role of CEO, which involves directing the Management Team and overall day-to-day operations of 500.

Christine Tsai

Categorized in : CEO Management Team Operations

The change I want to see is a start-up environment where everyone, regardless of gender and background, feels welcome and safe; where sexual harassment or discrimination will not impede great talent from producing great impact.

great welcome talent change

I think kindness is actually under-rated. Especially with Silicon Valley - and probably in business in general - it's seen as being a pushover or ineffective as a leader.

think leader business kindness

As a society, we're failing. In so many ways. Such high incarceration rates of underrepresented minorities ultimately means we're missing out on great potential from black and Latino communities. Yes, there's immense talent brewing even within the most impoverished neighborhoods. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.

great black society opportunity

There's a good amount of research out there that shows generous parental leave policies have a significant positive impact on employee retention and morale.

leave good research positive

It's really important for your team to be not just feel empowered but actually be empowered.

your feel team important

If you invest the time earlier to create structure and process around communication, planning, and goal-setting, you can prevent missteps before they occur.

you communication process time

Unfortunately, a lot of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are disconnected from African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color.

unfortunately valley color people

Be transparent about why the termination is happening. If you did things right, it shouldn't be a surprise to the person.

person things you surprise

Values are the foundation of a company. Culture is the manifestation of values - the day to day actions and behavior. Adapt tactical cultural behavior that helps you execute on your values.

day you behavior culture

In order to have a meaningful impact, companies should value diversity and inclusion from Day One.

value day inclusion diversity

It was my first time in prison. I was there to volunteer with Defy Ventures, along with 500 teammates Tara Graham, Brian Wang, and Aerin Lim. While I didn't feel particularly scared about going to prison, I had no idea what to expect.

feel prison first-time time

When you grow up in poverty, suffer from abuse, live in a violent neighborhood, come from a broken home, lack positive role models, are told you'll never amount to anything, etc, the challenges are enormous.

you broken home positive

You don't need to visit a prison to know that racial inequality exists. There's enough talk about it, especially in Silicon Valley, to know that there's a diversity problem.

you diversity prison problem

While your intentions may be good, this is something every expectant working mom fears - being phased out. I'll put myself out there and admit this has been/is a fear of mine. Let her be the one to decide whether something's too much for her to handle or not.

good myself mom fear

I love the fact that Facebook offers equal leave for moms and dads. Consider that for your company.

leave your company love

Offering unequal leaves just reinforces the longstanding notion that parenting responsibilities aren't equal, and that doesn't help anyone.

help just equal parenting

The best thing women in tech can do is to invest in other women.

invest thing best women

Entrepreneurs don't have a regular 9-5 work day. They don't take vacations. They live and breathe their business 24/7 and wear many different hats.

live day business work

Moms get their fair share of conflicting advice, with a heaping of unsolicited advice. Parents debate the pros/cons of different types of disposable diapers, whether the supposed carcinogens in Johnson & Johnson baby products hurt their kids who used it, which method of sleep training to use.

parents training hurt sleep

I can say without a doubt that being a mom is the ultimate test of my multi-tasking skills. I spend my day meeting startup after startup, helping our portfolio companies, bringing in speakers, and soon gearing up for Demo Day for our accelerator program.

meeting day i-can mom