Ellen Pao Has A New Site to Push Greater Diversity in Tech

Project Include will take an open source approach toward advising startups on how to build diverse workforces.
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Ellen Pao's gender discrimination lawsuit against famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins made her one of the most prominent faces of Silicon Valley's diversity movement. Now she's teamed up with other major players on a new project meant to guide tech companies toward greater diversity and inclusion.

Project Include is designed as an online community that will take an open source approach toward advising startup founders and human resource departments on how to successfully recruit, hire, and retain a diverse workforce. It will also offer advice to venture capital firms, which hold so much sway over how startups evolve—including how they hire.

Pao says the project started as a dinner brainstorming session on how to make tech more diverse. Other participants include Slack engineer and ex-Googler Erica Baker, whose spreadsheet of Google salaries went viral, and Pinterest’s Tracy Chou, one of the earliest advocates of tracking diversity at tech companies.

Pao, a one-time partner at Silicon Valley VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, sued her former employer in 2012, alleging she had been passed over for promotions and terminated for complaining. She lost the case, but the high-profile jury trial stoked a broader discussion of diversity in the tech industry.

Pao also served as interim CEO of Reddit. She was instrumental in pushing stronger anti-harassment policies last year but stepped down after users revolted. Bethanye Blount, former chief engineer at Reddit who also resigned during that tumultuous period, has also joined Project Include.