So I founded a tech startup in the cryptocurrency space (for those unfamiliar, Bitcoin = cryptocurrency, and in a nutshell we made our own version with different functionality). Needless to say, there are barely any female tech startup founders, let alone female *crypto* tech startup founders.
I recently relocated to a new city and had engaged some with a services company here that had been targeting crypto startups back when they had a lot of money in 2017ish. I was asked to be on a podcast they do, and would see some of their team members at industry events.
Eventually, I ended up proposing an idea for a panel talk at this event they were co-sponsoring (was about how my company's cryptocurrency can be used to help people who have been s e xually a s saulted, and the panel was on the day Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court), and I'm confident I was a huge part of what made the event a success because I was very candid and straightforward, and opened up the conversation in ways no one else came close to. This led to making friends with one of the women on the team after that, J. We sort of bonded in that we had both experienced s e xual a s sault.
J helped me a little pro bono, and so did her teammate, N (this basically involved one Skype call where we discussed some ideas, but nothing actionable came of it). The firm then laid off a bunch of people in 2019, and J ended up being one of them, but we've kept in touch.
Anyway, J had been the person at their firm who created a Meetup group for Women in Crypto in our city, but I guess because it was associated with her old work email and nobody else at the firm was on top of this, the group was on the verge of being disbanded.
Meetup sent out this email to all of the group members that was basically like, 'Hey this group will disappear forever at the end of the month, so if someone would like to take it over, please do.'
I saw a couple of these emails, realized nobody else was responding, and then figured, why not? So I paid for a 6 month subscription and "took over the group." This was like a week ago, and I haven't planned an event or anything yet, but was going to do so soon.
Today I get an email from one of their teammates, K, who I think I've met once briefly, with N and the company CEO (who I know a little bit) cc'd. K said 2 things:
1 - They're planning a big event for all Women in Crypto very soon in our city and would "love for me to attend."
I actually saw this event posted on Twitter today, and was weirded out to see that the like 5 women in crypto they have speaking are mostly not high quality choices IMO. Only one of them actually founded a startup. One is a cool developer doing stuff with women in the space, but the rest are later-stage employees, consultants, and/or just new to blockchain and not very knowledgable. The one woman on the panel who is a founder actually cold emailed me like a year ago to try and sell our company all of the cryptocurrency they created because their product basically wasn't working.
So yeah I thought it was strange that they either didn't think to ask me/didn't want to ask me?
2 - Then K is like, 'thank you for saving the Meetup group...could you add me as co-organizer so I can post about this event?'
So first, I paid a subscription to "save" this group, and these people "lost" it because they weren't on top of their shit. It's not cool for them to ask this without offering to at least split the cost.
Secondly, obviously I could just post this event for them if they asked. It isn't necessary for this woman to be a co-organizer to do that.
So this message seems disingenuous, like this is actually about regaining control of this group after they fucked up, and they're doing it in this kind of gross-feeling way.
And then on top of that, I'm just so confused that they didn't think to have me on this panel when my resume/experience and demonstrated performance is perfect for it, particularly when the other panelists aren't at that level.
Should I care? How should I handle this? I need to at least reply to K's email.
tl;dr - Dissed by a Woman in Crypto group when I am the Womaniest in Crypto....specifically not sure how to handle them trying to get me to compensate for their fuck-up/am generally not sure how to navigate the overall diss-ish tone.
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