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Powered by StartOut. Written by David Duran.

In business, it’s not easy to be at the top of your game, or even be a trend setter, but one woman, Kathy Levinson, defied the odds stacked against her, not only as a woman, but as a woman who happens to also be a lesbian and Jewish.

Levinson doesn’t have just one coming out story, as she felt like she spent all her life coming out. During her early 20’s, she officially came out to friends and family, but wasn’t always out in the workplace. While working at Charles Schwab, Levinson met her then partner. When she became pregnant, coworkers automatically assumed the father was the person who ran the company because they believed that was the only way she would be able to be promoted as much as she was. This was her first real encounter of sexism in the workplace.

While at Schwab, Levinson found herself working in the same department as her partner. Her partner was her subordinate. “The head of Human Resources told me we couldn’t work in the same department,” she said. “HR opened the employee handbook to the section about married couples, but we weren’t married.” Levinson knew what the HR person was suggesting but in her first act of creating change, she quickly turned the employee handbook to the health benefits page and made her point very clear. If she and her partner were considered to be “married,” then she should have the opportunity to have the same health benefits as a married couple. As a result of her brave act, Charles Schwab became one of the first companies to offer domestic partner benefits in the workplace. “By doing it the way I did it, it was leading edge at the time and begun my shadow career of creating a workplace that was equal for woman as well as LGBT people,” she said.

Levinson stayed with Schwab for 14 years and held about 10 different high level positions. Her intent after departing was to focus on family and possibly non-profit. Before she could focus on her new life, Levinson received a call from a new company which at the time was called Trade Plus. She agreed to do some consulting work for the company in 1995 and in September of that year, she had her second child. But her starting role at Trade Plus didn’t come without hiccups. While being considered for her position, Levinson was questioned about her family and how she would be able to manage raising children and having an intense travel schedule. “This was another example where I could have laughed or been so offended that I didn’t end up working for them, but instead I took the time to explain to them why I shouldn’t have been asked the question in the first place,” she said. “It was done in a way where in the end, I was still offered the position.” In 1996, she went to work for them full time after a year of consulting and she helped morph the company into what is known today, E*Trade. She helped move the business model from phone trading to internet trading and served as President and COO of the company.

Near the end of her time with E*TRADE was right around the time when Proposition 22 was on the ballot in California. Prop 22 was a law enacted by California voters to restrict marriages to only those between opposite-sex couples. Levinson had been approached to take a leadership role in fighting Prop 22, but what she ultimately decided was to make a significant donation instead to the campaign due to responsibilities to employees and shareholders. The donation was to be kept under wraps until Levinson had time to speak to her CEO at E*TRADE as well as the Board of Directors, but unfortunately, her contribution had been leaked before that opportunity arose. After some major damage control, Levinson felt that it was still the right decision. “I think after that experience, what had been my shadow career was now really becoming my real career, and in the summer of 2000, I left E*TRADE with the intent to do what I had intended to do when I left Schwab,” she said. “My intent now was to focus on philanthropy and activism for women, the LGBT community and Jews.”

Levinson quickly found herself immersed within the Lesbian Equity Foundation, a foundation she helped create. “We spent a lot of time with the name, and the name itself was very strategic,” she said. Levinson is still involved with the foundation and she helps make a number of grants each year to women, the LGBT and Jewish communities. “Sometimes we give grants outside of that range if it’s for educational purposes,” she said. “Even though the organization itself isn’t LGBT centric, we use the opportunity to educate.”

Currently, Levinson is involved with Golden Seeds, an investing group that invests in woman owned or founded companies. As one of the Managing Directors, she seeks out companies that fall within the parameters of what Golden Seeds is looking for. She ultimately invests in some as well as sits on board seats of others. “Women get such a small percentage of venture capital and angel investor money, some 1-4% of the money,” she said. “Much like the corporate world, it just seems like women don’t have as much access to capital and my involvement with Golden Seeds seemed right in line with my personal mission of helping woman in business.”

Since her transition from the corporate world to the startup world, Levinson has actively taken an interest in helping entrepreneurs with funding and advising. Having had worked in big business, she knows and appreciates the major differences from working for someone else versus working for yourself. She hopes to continue to mentor young startups and potentially invest in some through her current position at Golden Seeds and at other organizations. “As a woman and out lesbian, with two decades of experience in the financial services industry, I have a keen understanding of the difficult road that entrepreneurs who are in the ‘other’ category can face in the world of raising capital or even in being treated on a level playing field,” she said. “Learning how to stand proud and confident, while still earning a seat at the proverbial tables of venture capitalists, angel investors, and other key constituents, can be a challenge, particularly for those in start-up mode.”

When it comes to transferable knowledge from her experience in a corporate structure to working with startups, Levinson explained that when you are really small, you don’t really think about the culture you are creating. “In my experience, it gets harder and harder to do the bigger you get, so be really clear about the environment and values you want to create.” She suggests hiring people who have the same values and lead with them. “It’s important to understand the significance of imbuing one’s company with core values very early on in the process, setting the tone for the expectations you have for those who work with, and for yourself.”

Levinson acknowledged her work within the LGBT community but doesn’t admit to feeling recognized. “I am a mom and a wife and I feel blessed that I did really well in my professional career in such that I was able to obtain the financial resources to be able to focus on my family and shadow career,” she said. “My job became my career and my career expanded to my shadow career. I’ve been lucky enough to have jobs that have been exciting, and I learned a lot about what fits with my values, and I have been able to parlay that into different communities that mattered to me.”

San Francisco, CA, May 3, 2013

A truly inspiring evening of celebration was held at the Hotel Nikko in San Francisco on April 19, 2013, recognizing business and community leaders for their accomplishments in both the entrepreneurial and LGBT communities. The evening was energetic and inspiring as our community came together to recognize its shared interests and fearless leaders. The compelling stories from the night’s honorees provided invaluable insight into the communities’ champions, innovators, and trailblazers.

The Entrepreneurship Awards serves as StartOut’s premiere annual event, drawing guests in the LGBT entrepreneurial community from around the country for an evening celebration and inspiration. Last year’s event recognized four amazing and inspiring individuals, including Peter Thiel (recipient of the JP Morgan Leadership Awards in Entrepreneurship), Ramona Pierson (recipient of the Google Innovator Award), Kathy Levinson (recipient of the Pillsbury Advocate Award) and Geoff Lewis (recipient of the Wells Fargo Next Generation Award).

Each award recognizes exceptional leaders for their vision, leadership and achievement in entrepreneurship, and for providing inspiration to the LGBT community. The honorees for the Second Annual Entrepreneurship Awards were four of the LGBT community’s prominent business and community leaders: Tim Gill (Founder, Quarck & Chairman, Gill Foundation), Heather Hiles (Founder & CEO, Pathbrite), Jordan Goldman (Founder & CEO, Unigo), Zoe Dunning (DADT Repeal Activist) who all spoke candidly about their individual experiences that contributed to their extraordinarily meaningful and successful careers.

Among the 275 guests gathered to recognize these exceptional individuals were young aspiring entrepreneurs, angel investors, seasoned and serial entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and relevant startup service providers from across the country.

StartOut’s Chairman of the Board, Chris Sinton, and Chair Emeritus, Lorenzo Thione, kicked-off the evening’s festivities with a general welcome and narrative of the organization’s evolution since 2009 and concluded by noting the organization’s strategic focus for 2013. StartOut premiered its updated video highlighting the milestones and successes that StartOut has achieved over the past year, including a substantial increase in programming, new chapter developments and a significant grant of $250,000 from the Kevin J. Mossier Foundation.

The first two honorees of the evening were Heather Hiles, recipient of the 2013 Pillsbury Winthrop Innovator Award, and Jordan Goldman, recipient of the 2013 Kevin J. Mossier Next Generation Award. Mike Sullivan, Chair of StartOut’s Board of Governors and a Partner at Pillsbury, presented the Innovator Award to Heather Hiles. Hiles spoke about her experience of being out in the workplace and how that has affected her work with Pathbrite. “Being out since 17 and now at 44 it’s important to be authentic and who I am. When I get to be my whole self at the job, then so does my team around me. For my team, being their fully expressed selves starts with the culture that gets set at a company,” Hiles remarked. In correlation with Pathbrite’s product, Hiles explained, “Pathbrite allows [college students] to showcase their whole set of capabilities, knowledge and experiences…It’s the future that we all get to be out and be happy and whole.”

Following the Innovator Award, Charlie Rounds, Trustee at the Kevin J. Mossier Foundation, presented the Next Generation Award to Jordan Goldman. Goldman explained his entrepreneurial journey, stating, “I never started out wanting to start a company, I just saw a process that was inefficient and thought if I worked really hard I can make it a little better.” From there Goldman described his involvement with StartOut mentioning that he met many friends and mentors through the organization. “Over and over and over again people from StartOut have made time for me which has been unbelievably important to our growth, so on a personal level, I don’t think I’d be where I am without StartOut and I know my company would not be where it is without StartOut.

“[StartOut] plays an incredibly important role in the startup ecosystem both in New York and San Francisco and increasingly all over the country,” Goldman added.

The evening continued with additional remarks from Chris Sinton and Lorenzo Thione, as they announced StartOut’s participation in Give OUT Day – the first national effort to support non-profit organizations that serve the diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community. They explained that Give OUT Day is helping LGBT organizations to mobilize thousands of people on a single day – May 9th 2013 – to raise awareness around issues and activities that matter to the LGBT community from sports to policy change, from entrepreneurship to families.

The second slate of award honorees was Zoe Dunning, recipient of the 2013 Morrison Foerster Advocate Award, and Tim Gill, recipient of the 2013 StartOut Leadership Award in Entrepreneurship. Ruth Borenstein, Partner at Morrison Foerster, presented the Advocate Award to Zoe Dunning. Dunning discussed her coming out story, attributing it to a spontaneous decision which she linked to entrepreneurship. “That’s the attitude you have to have as an entrepreneurs. If you have a startup idea you have to act on it quickly. You have to have the courage of your conviction, you have to believe in yourself and you have to take that belief and move it forward and make something out of it.” Dunning finished by giving three pieces of advice whether one is embarking on an advocacy or entrepreneurial venture, “Find a need and fill it, find those you want to give voice to and be a voice for them and follow your passion.”

The final award of the evening, the Leadership Award in Entrepreneurship, was presented by StartOut’s Chairman of the Board, Chris Sinton to entrepreneur and philanthropist Tim Gill. Gill gave brief remarks about StartOut stating, “I wish I had had this kind of community as a support community to make my journey easier. I would have made a lot fewer mistakes.”

Gill expanded on StartOut’s role in the broader community by explaining, “Every time you see an LGBT person in a new context, it changes perceptions and ultimately we win our freedom by changing perceptions and by making people realize that we’re part of their community and only can we succeed as a society if we accept everyone and we allow everyone to meet their full potential.”

Following Tim’s remarks, Thomas Roberts, MSNBC’s award-winning anchor, was invited on stage to moderate an exclusive keynote interview with Tim Gill, recipient of the 2013 Leadership Award in Entrepreneurship. To view the exclusive interview with Tim Gill, please visit StartOut’s website (startout.org) later in May.

About StartOut

StartOut, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering and developing entrepreneurship in the LGBT community, is growing at a rapid pace and expanding into new cities. In their first year, StartOut grew from an idea into a national organization with over 2,500 participants from coast to coast. They have managed to attract some of the greatest LGBT names in the entrepreneurial community to participate in their events. StartOut supporters benefit from a multitude of programs that are specifically designed address a broad variety of entrepreneurial issues and bring together resources needed to succeed. StartOut also helps the LGBT community by building equality through promoting the economic empowerment of the LGBT community, and combating discrimination by promoting the visibility of successful LGBT entrepreneurs, among other activities. More information can be found at startout.org.

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For media inquiries or for more information about StartOut or the Annual Entrepreneurship awards, please contact tony.moraga@StartOut.org.

StartOut is proud to participate in Give OUT Day to increase economic empowerment through entrepreneurship in the LGBT community. We’ve built an organization that last year held 32 events in 4 cities attended by over 3,500 people. That’s 70% more attendees than the previous year! StartOut is on a path to scale its efforts and reach even more LGBT entrepreneurs to have a greater societal impact, but we need your help.

We urge you to support StartOut on Give OUT Day and the days leading up to Give OUT Day by making a donation to our cause and sharing our story with others.

With your support we’ll continue to build the organization, with the addition of key resources, to improve programming and offer more events across the nation, develop ways to provide access to capital and deploy a new technology platform which will support an online community and online educational content.

Please mark your calendars and support LGBT entrepreneurs by making a donation to StartOut on May 9th and the days leading up to it. You have the opportunity to show your support for the StartOut community by helping us continue to build a strong foundation to move forward and realize our mission of educating, supporting, and inspiring LGBT entrepreneurs.

If you’re a startup owner and you want people to find you, then social media must be a solid part of your strategy for attracting and retaining customers. Think about it, how often do you use Google or another search engine to find a business? The more online presence your company has, the better chance you’ll have of attracting customers. Today’s environment is all about making it easy for the right customers to find you. For example, if you’re selling organic baby food, then making sure that you gain exposure to new moms and moms-to-be is key.

One option is to increase your web presence by building up your network on social media; when customers “Google” your company, they’ll be able to visit several places for information. Also, you’ll have more avenues to get feedback and connect to your customer base. While you can spend money on traditional advertising; if you have a small budget, it makes more sense to leverage social media and save the cost of having to run ad campaigns. To build up your “base” on your company’s Twitter page or Facebook fan page, reach out to bloggers in your industry and related associations to see if they want to try out your product. If they like it, “word of mouth” will spread and they’ll recommend it on social networks and their followers/members will also try out your product.

The following 10 steps will help get you going with social media for your startup. The good news is that as you learn more- you can always incorporate more social media elements into your overall business strategy. But for now, here’s your primer. Also check out Wicked Start’s social media whitepaper (PDF download) for more details:

1. Embrace social media: As a startup, you’re in a great position use social media into your business strategy from the get go. You’ll be able to build a customer centric culture that enables direct two-way interaction with your customers and prospects. Social media helps create transparency, thus building greater trust with the consumer.
2. Create a Facebook Fan Page: If you have a personal facebook account- great! However, for your business, you can also create a fan page. This ‘fan’ page will showcase your product/service and engage with your customers directly. It’s here that you want to upload your logo, a brief statement about your mission, and anything else that your prospective clients might find useful. For example, take a look at Wicked Start’s fan page
3. Create a Twitter Account: Head to Twitter and set up an account for your business. This will allow you to send out short messages- or tweets- of 140 characters or less to your followers. Tweet links to blog entries, press, a promotion, something cool or innovative that is happening at this very moment, also ‘re-tweet’ someone else’s tweets if it’s relevant and profound. For example, take a look at our Twitter page
4. Set up a YouTube Channel: Video is a great way to connect with customers, it significantly enhances your search ranking when potential customers try to find you on Google or Yahoo. Video creates a more personal connection with your customers and can demonstrate success stories or how your product works. You can create your own ‘channel’ for your business by simply going to YouTube to set it up. For example, take a look at our YouTube channel
5. Start a blog: We’re all familiar with blogs but now is the time to start a blog for your business. This is how you will solidify your credibility in the marketplace as an expert in your industry. No one has your voice or your authenticity- so you own that! Write about product attributes or experiences that show your expertise. Commit to writing 1 blog post a week, or more if you have more to say. Setting up a blog is easy- you can do it for free at Blogger or check with your web hosting service. For an example, look at our Wicked Start blogs (we use a Word Press plugin for blogging functionality)
6. Start a monthly newsletter: Starting a monthly newsletter with tips and inspiration or how-to stories can be a great way to connect with potential customers. Getting started is easy. There are several services out there that could be of value to you, however, I’ve been using Constant Contact for several years. They’re reputable, solid, and have an easy to use interface with templates to get you started. Once you have your newsletter in place, put a link on your homepage so website visitors can sign up to receive it. For a newsletter example, look at one of ours
7. Digg it: Drop in on “conversations” pertaining to your industry so you keep on top of what’s going on. You’ll hear what experts, consumers, and advocates have to say. Go and Digg!
8. Answer Community questions: Search the internet and keep a list of blogs and communities relevant to you industry. Then, answer questions to help consumers make a better decision or share an experience so someone can learn from you. If you find something really interesting for your users, you can post it in a blog, tweet it or post it on Facebook.
9. Set up Google Analytics: This is the ‘behind the scenes’ way to track web traffic- or visitors- coming to your website. For example, you had 1,000 visitors on your site yesterday and you see that 500 of them came from a blog entry that you wrote. Of those 500 visitors, 50 of them made a purchase on your website. This means that 5% of visitors who clicked over from your blog entry made a purchase. If you really want to get professional, optimize your website pages by tagging it with relevant terms that will help you get closer to a #1 Google search ranking.
10. Commit 1 Hour a Day! If you can commit an hour a day to your social media strategy, you’ll be able to get through these steps successfully. If you can do more, even better. Remember that this strategy takes time to develop. Be prepared to spend several months to get going.

Bryan Janeczko is a StartOut cofounder and founder of Wicked Start, the startup incubator with online tools to plan, fund and start a business.

StartOut Smart: The Founder Institute is a pilot program providing scholarships for LGBT entrepreneurs to participate in a proven accelerator program to kick-start their businesses. Through this pilot, StartOut expands its traditional programming delivering a curriculum and mentor-based approach to support entrepreneurs in developing their business ideas. This program aligns with StartOut’s mission by providing LGBT entrepreneurs with opportunities, resources and connections to support them in actualizing their entrepreneurial ventures.

In early 2013, applications were accepted and reviewed by a committee of serial entrepreneurs and investors. The committee awarded 11 qualified candidates with scholarships to the Spring 2013 semester of The Founder Institute – a startup accelerator that has helped launch over 675 technology companies worldwide.

StartOut is proud to announce this semester’s StartOut Smart Founders:

• - Andres Anton-Diaz, Los Angeles
• - Bryan Frank, New York
• - Jacki Trinh, New York
• - Sean Apparicio, New York
• - Aleksandar Vukasinovic, New York
• - Laura Teodosio, New York
• - Jasmine Burems, New York
• - Yann Metz-Pasquier, Silicon Valley
• - Larry Rich & Benny Shum, Silicon Valley
• - Brian Backus, Silicon Valley

During the course of the semester, the scholarship recipients, known as Founders, will receive training, advice and mentorship from a team of successful entrepreneurs and experts. The Founder Institute team provides Founders with knowledge and feedback to ensure that their companies are on the path to success. Founders are given a platform to mature their business idea, as well as exposure to potential investors at the culmination Demo Day event.

About StartOut
Founded in 2009 with chapters in New York City, San Francisco, and Austin StartOut is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to fostering and developing entrepreneurship in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) community. It helps aspiring entrepreneurs to start new companies, helps current entrepreneurs to grow and expand their businesses, and engages successful LGBT entrepreneurs as role models and mentors for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. StartOut’s’ goals are to educate, inspire, and assist members of the LGBT community around entrepreneurship. For more information, visit http://www.startout.org.

About The Founder Institute
The Founder Institute (http://fi.co) is an early-stage startup accelerator and global launch network that helps entrepreneurs create meaningful and enduring technology companies. Through a part-time four-month program, existing and prospective founders can launch their dream company with expert training, feedback, and support from experienced startup CEOs – while not being required to quit their day job. Their unique Graduate Liquidity Pool also enables graduates and mentors to share in the equity upside of each class, creating local, teamwork-based ecosystems where great new businesses can flourish.
In just over three years of operation, The Founder Institute has helped launch over 675 companies across 39 cities and 5 continents – making FI the world’s largest startup accelerator. Their goal is to “Globalize Silicon Valley” by launching 1,000 meaningful and enduring technology companies per.

Contact: Tony Moraga – tony.moraga@startout.org

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