Q&A: Betatron's Erika Cheung

Q: What do you see as your most important contribution at Betatron?

A: I have worked in an operational role in start-ups, from very small companies with five or six people, to Theranos at a time when there were more than 300 people. I had seen where a lot of things could go wrong, and I wanted to try and not make the same mistakes made in this scandalous case. Also, there isn’t a lot of female tech talent in Hong Kong, just like there aren’t many female entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. It is good to add that perspective to the products that are being developed, since for a long time I was one of just two women who worked at Betatron.

Q: Why is it important for start-ups and founders to consider a woman’s perspective?

A: When you look at some of the most successful companies coming out of China, they’re things like an app for tracking a woman’s period, a social network for mothers to be, or Meitu, which is a photo editing app that’s mostly targeted toward women. When you’re a woman, you know these opportunities, because you see the adoption rates and you know that your friends will buy these products and services. That’s why we need to pay attention to diversity and inclusion – we have all these underserved markets that are now considered opportunities because we were building things for a very specific audience. People typically build things for themselves, because that’s what they know. The more perspectives you add to something, the more comprehensive your products and services can be.

Q: Why might women founders struggle more than their male peers to gain traction?

A: The biggest factor is a lack of role models. You have nobody to turn to and say that if this person did it, I can do it as well. This is starting to change, but the old boys’ club effect has been very strong, leading to homogeneous organizations. If you’re wondering how to get more women into tech, but you’re only recruiting people who are within your inner circle and your inner circle has no women, it’s just going to feed itself. As a woman it’s discouraging because you feel like an outsider, like there’s a limit to how high you can reach because you’re not part of that club.

Q: Before its fraud was exposed, Theranos was considered one of the key success stories for female entrepreneurs. What impact did its downfall have on the mainstream view of women founders?

A: I think we need to recognize that there have been plenty of scandals involving male leaders who did equally egregious things, and it’s not necessarily highlighted the same way. Nobody says, “There goes that lying male founder who did all these things that harmed people.” But with women founders, gender is always an issue, whether you’re talking about the good things or the bad things they’ve done. I think people are trying to compensate for the fact that we don’t have enough female entrepreneurs and we want to encourage more, but it can be tokenizing in a way. It goes to show that we still have some issues with sexism in the industry. When we reach a point of equality we won’t need to identify Elizabeth Holmes as a female founder who was lying to patients and investors and other people, and we won’t need to shame this whole population of people that’s already underrepresented and hasn’t been able to come into the spotlight.

Q: What other difficulties do women face in a start-up environment?

A: There’s an example I saw in Asia that was really bothering me. A woman was recruited into a start-up that had about six people at the time, and the founder, who was married and had kids, decided he was going to hit on her. He would call her and text her at all hours outside of work, and it got so bad that her boyfriend was asking why she kept getting random text messages from this man. When she finally raised the issue and the man’s co-founder said it needed to stop, he made her life miserable. He would constantly yell at her, he was very abusive, to make her pay for the fact that he couldn’t text her. And then he started doing it again anyway. She ended up quitting because she couldn’t deal it.

Q: How can start-ups avoid creating this kind of culture?

A: The key is paying attention to your unconscious biases. Ask yourself whether you’re making a decision based on an assumption about a person or group that may not be true. Realize that there’s a lot of value in diversity and in hearing different voices and perspectives. Allowing people to voice their opinion is just another way to make better investments. And be an ally if you see people in situations where these abusive acts going on. A lot of people will stay quiet when they see bad things happening, and there’s not a lot of incentive for them to come forward and report when things are going wrong, but that really makes a difference.

Q: What role do investors have in preventing these situations?

A: Investors do have a lot of power, when they’re able to come in and evaluate. Talk to the employees of the company, ask them how things are going, and see what the company’s culture really is. Due diligence doesn’t stop when you make the investment; you can still get updates on how the company is doing. We’re developing an assessment tool right now that VCs can use to interview employees, founders, and even the vendors to get a real granular look at whether this organization has an ethical culture. That’s especially important for board members, because they have liability – what happened at Theranos could have been stopped by a board member exercising proper oversight.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Technology
• Performance
• Hong Kong (China)
• ESG