Meet Smart Girl Leanne Pittsford, Founder of ‘Lesbians Who Tech’
As their website accurately states, Lesbians Who Tech is a “Community of Queer Women in or around tech (and the people who love them).” Smart Girl Leanne Pittsford is the CEO and Founder and has been tirelessly spearheading new initiatives on a global level to increase visibility and improve representation among LGBTQ women in the tech sector. Somehow in between all the amazing programs and work Leanne is doing, she took a few moments to give us a little deeper insight into what Lesbians Who Tech is all about and what she sees for it in terms of growth and future plans.
SMART GIRLS: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?
Leanne Pittsford: I’m Leanne Pittsford, technologist, entrepreneur, thought leader and risk taker. I live my life and my work existing at the intersection of technology and diversity. I am the (very proud) founder of Lesbians Who Tech — a global community of over 25,000 queer women in or around tech (and the people who love them). I also recently launched The Tech Jobs Tour, which is a 50 city tour that aims to connect diverse and non-traditional talent to over 500,000 open tech jobs across America. And in conjunction with the Tech Jobs Tour, I am developing include.io, a recruiting and retention platform that is particularly targeted towards the validation of diverse and non-traditional tech talent. All of this is to say, I am super busy and in love with the work I do. Speaking of love, I am also heading to Berlin to get married on July 3rd.
SG: Can you tell us more about Lesbians Who Tech?
LP: Lesbians Who Tech is a global community of queer women in tech! Since its founding, with the help of my incredible team, advisors and friends, we’ve built a community of over 25,000 queer women in tech from all over the world. We’ve had thousands of events in 42 cities around the world. Our next big Lesbians Who Tech event is the 4th Annual Lesbians Who Tech New York Summit from September 7–9th and I’d love to have all of you join and see this incredible community for yourself firsthand.
SG: What has been the most rewarding thing for you from starting Lesbians Who Tech?
LP: I cannot put into words what it’s meant for people like Megan Smith, Kara Swisher, Patrisse Cullors, Tegan and Sara and Marc Benioff to show up for our community and speak on the various Lesbians Who Tech stages. Seeing visible and successful leaders show up in person for the community and make real time for the community sends a strong message. It says I believe in you, I am rooting for you and I want to make things better for queer women in technology.
SG: What does Lesbians Who Tech look like in 5–10 years?
LP: BuzzFeed said, “If tech were more like Lesbians Who Tech, tech would be a much better place.” That’s because our community is actually representative of the people who live in this country. At the heart of our Summits, you can see our deep commitment to supporting technologists and helping innovative companies build meaningful relationships with tech’s brightest, current and new leaders no matter their background or where they come from or who they love or what they look like. Because we believe that together, we can and will change the face of technology.
SG: What is a piece of advice that you would give your 12-year-old self?
LP: It’s really simple, because I always like for advice to be realistic, but allow the ability to dream big. Buy as many URLs as humanly possible, move to Madrid for a few years so you can really learn Spanish and study computer science in college. I was one of those young women who loved math, and I had no idea that was a potential path for me back then.
SG: Who are some of your role models?
LP: This is easy, three women who have been by my side for every step of this journey and are leaders in the queer and tech community — Megan Smith, Kara Swisher & Kate Kendell.
SG: What is your favorite book?
LP: The Fountainhead + anything by Margaret Atwood.
We at Smart Girls want to thank Leanne for all the incredible work she’s doing for better visibility and representation in tech and congratulate her on her upcoming wedding! Follow her on Twitter here!
