At Limeade, you know it’s going to be a great day when you see “LESS Speaker” on the calendar. LESS — Limeade Expert Speaker Series — is a chance for LimeMates to hear from experts outside of Limeade. Over the past few years we’ve welcomed researchers from large institutions to executives at other fast-growing companies to share their stories and expertise with our employees.
On May 14, we hosted Jonathan Sposato, chairman and co-founder of Geekwire, PicMonkey and WeCount.org and an angel investor. Jonathan is committed to building greater gender equity and inclusion in the workplace, and in 2015, Jonathan made the decision to only invest in companies with at least one female founder. He’s also the author of the WSJ Bestseller, “Better Together: 8 Ways Working with Women Leads to Extraordinary Products and Profits.”
During a morning fireside chat complete with coffee and a fruit bar, LimeMates leaned into Jonathan’s story and gleaned insights from his rich experience in the tech industry and commitment to inclusive workplaces.
Here’s what we loved and learned from our fireside chat with Jonathan:
1. Jonathan modeled inclusion. When talking about an innovative approach, he attributed the idea back to his woman colleague who made the suggestion.
2. He emphasized the importance of making parental leave equal for all parents. We couldn’t agree more. Check out our recent blog post on our new parental leave policy.
3. His illustration of the power of organizational support for making workplaces equitable for parents. Specifically, he talked about making spaces for children to play while parents had to be in office briefly, while simultaneously making quiet spaces for employees who prefer fewer distractions during the day.
4. We resonated with his conviction of the importance of supporting and developing women in the workplace — see what we’re working on.
5. Overall, Jonathan was genuine, welcoming and truly brought his whole, authentic self to Limeade.
Thank you, Jonathan, for joining us at Limeade!