222 L.A. tech companies pledged to improve on diversity. Have they made any progress?

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A new report from PledgeLA shows local venture capital firms invest in women, Black and Latino start-up founders at double the rate of the industry at large.

A survey of 67 workers highlighted the issues faced by people of color, women and LGBTQ people in the tech industry.Only 65% of the companies and VC funds that have signed up for PledgeLA responded to the survey, and none were asked to provide comprehensive data on their own workforce, only on their policies and practices.

The people leading PledgeLA’s work note the program is still in its early days. “Sixty-five percent participation is incredible,” said Cinny Kennard, executive director of the Annenberg Foundation. “We’re following a model of signing the pledge, then data, then action, then impact.” Kennard described the foundation’s work on PledgeLA as an extension of its similar initiatives in other sectors, such as theThe reliance on self-reporting is a feature, not a bug, said Jasmine Hill, PledgeLA’s scholar-in-residence.“We’ve made a decision to lead with a carrot as opposed to a stick to make sure that people have the tools they need to move forward,” Hill said. “We were very intentional about that.

As a regional initiative with nonprofit backing, PledgeLA can serve as a sort of impartial United Nations for the typically competitive industry, according to one VC participating in the program, providing resources to companies and investors that want to change how they operate but don’t know where to start.

“As somebody who spends a fair amount of time thinking about these issues and wants to be on the side of progress and change, PledgeLA gives me a platform to continue to have those conversations, either internally or externally,” said Nick Kim, an investor at Crosscut Ventures. “People want to do the right thing, and they need someone who’s an expert to validate the efforts they’re putting out there.

 

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What they need is diversity of thought.

Just no.

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