At LinkedIn’s female-led Top Startups, a new image of leadership emerges

This is Working Together, a weekly series on the changing face of U.S. business. If you like what you’re reading, send to friends, have them subscribe using the button above and share using #WorkingTogether. Let’s dive right in.

When Emma Grede thought about the culture she wanted to grow at retail upstart Good American, heading home at 5 p.m. most days to spend time with her kids was a priority. When Steph Korey first started growing her team at travel startup Away, hiring a chief people officer was a top priority. And after announcing she will have her first child in November, Whitney Wolfe Herd is reimagining paternity benefits at Bumble to be more expansive. 

“I believe intrinsically that your life outside of work is really important,” Grede told me in an interview in August. “If those things aren't right and you aren't paying enough attention to those, you're never going to be successful professionally.” 

Grede, Korey and Wolfe Herd are three of the eight female CEOs leading one of the 50 companies on this year’s LinkedIn Top Startups. Up from 14% in 2018 to 16% in 2019, the number of Top Startups with female CEOs is more than three times that in the Fortune 500. The growing number of women-led companies on the list are modeling a different approach to what executive leadership can look like for their employees. 

While only about 1,000 employees work at all of their startups combined, that number is growing quickly, which could be an early indicator that the next generation of big businesses will have more inclusive leadership. 

“We don’t want to underestimate the role model effect of this,” Ellevest co-founder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck said. “Younger women can look up now and said I want to be Steph [Korey] I want to be Whitney [Wolfe Herd.] When I started on Wall Street, there was no one I wanted to be.” 

From conversations with several of the female CEOs on this year’s list, it’s clear that the way they are thinking about growing their businesses stands apart from their male peers. Krawcheck, for example, recently updated Ellevest’s paternity policy to give equal time off for both new mothers and fathers. The co-founder said this was important to level the playing field and ensure that no employee was “mommy tracked” for tacking their full leave. 

It’s decisions like these that are helping Ellevest recruit not just top talent, but a diverse group of employees: More that two-thirds of the team is women, the engineering team is more than half female and overall the startup employees 45% people of color. 

“I think startups are going to save us,” Krawcheck added. “Despite the overwhelming research of the performance and power of diversity, corporations have not meaningful moved over a number of years.” 

JOIN US LIVE: I’m going live at 12 p.m, ET today to discuss more trends on this year’s Top Startups list, including sitting down with Away co-founder and CEO Steph Korey to hear more about how she is thinking about growing the business. Join us here.

What’s Working

Wage gap narrows. While American women overall earn 85 cents on the dollar compared with men, among workers ages 25 to 34, women’s earnings were 89% those of men. The gap is narrowing if you look at median hourly wages across both full and part-time workers, but studies show that around the time women start to have children, the gap widens again. [Pew]

Be what you see.  The share of top movies with women playing leading roles is up to 61% from 42% in 2015. In related news, the number of films with female directors doubled over the same time period as well. [WSJ]

What Needs Work

Inclusive, but independent. A study on how Black and Hispanic women feel about their workplaces discovered that while inclusive environments help both groups, minority women who don’t have to rely on their coworkers too much feel more supported at work. What does this mean? As work becomes more collaborative, companies need to consider if individuals can still get ahead for strong individual performance. [HBR] 

Who’s Pushing Us Forward

What mentorship really looks like. If you missed it over the long weekend, it’s worth watching the end of the U.S. Open match between Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff. After defeating 15-year-old Gauff, Osaka pulled Gauff aside and ask her to join the post-match interview. The exchange is the perfect example of strong women supporting each other at work. [NYT]