Big Minds and Bold Hearts: Our sit-down with the female founders of Tech Bae

Spotlight on: Tech Bae

The second-up in our Women’s History Month Female Founders series is a group of female co-founders that has built a non-profit organization in the adtech industry, a first of its kind with an admirable mission. 

Ljs Advisory Founder and CEO, Lauren Burke, sat down with the founders of Tech Bae aka our “baes,” Brenda Salce-Garcia, Seema Patel, Christina Barlow-Villano, and Sarah Foss on the first business day of Women’s History Month. In our interview, the baes shared with us their “why,”  what it means to be a non-profit in a highly for-profit space, the value of community and how we can create a better industry for future leaders. 

We are pleased to report that our conversation was as bubbly as the champagne on the night that they crafted the concept of Tech Bae. 🥂

Read our article below and watch our video to witness the camaraderie between the group, the passion for what they have created, and the desire to do more good. Not just for women, this conversation can benefit anyone looking to build something from the ground up that has a wide and lasting impact.

Lauren Burke of Ljs Advisory sits down with TechBae for our Female Founders series

About our founders

In our interview, which we joked was “the wisest call we have ever been on,” the baes commented on the combined “110 years of experience” of the leaders on our call. At Tech Bae events, you literally have 1000s of years of experience in the room. Combine the leadership experience with the high vibes of a Tech Bae event, and you have a breeding ground for growth, empowerment, and positive change.

Our four founders are adtech natives with varying perspectives. Brenda has worked as a Customer Success leader at companies like Yahoo and Madhive, and just started a new role at NextRoll. Seema is a data strategy expert most recently at Televisa Univision. Sarah is CTO at Audacy in the booming audio advertising space. Christina’s vantage point comes from transformational customer operations which she does now for AMC Networks. 

Together, these women represent a unique cross-section of the adtech industry, making them well-poised to drive transformation both within and outside the walls of their organizations. Per the baes themselves, transformation within companies has a “ripple effect” across industries.

The vision and the mission

Tech Bae— you could call it a side hustle, the four female founders call it a mission-driven passion project because they are determined to create a better adtech industry for all. Born over a round of drinks, they bottled up their conversation and turned it into a tonic for women in the industry.

So, what exactly is Tech Bae? It is as versatile as its founder. It is a non-profit, a platform, a thought leader, but most importantly, it is a community.

Tech Bae’s motto is “working together, we are unstoppable,” because they have proven that when you combine forces, anything can be accomplished —even creating a purpose-driven organization in the midst of Covid while doing your day job and fighting for your sanity.

Without being crystal clear on the what and the how, they jumped headfirst into building a community. One thing that came easy? The name Tech Bae, because their mission was to “advance equality by creating meaningful connections and developing opportunities for women across all levels within the adtech & media landscape.” 

Christina commented, “we needed community back then, and we need this community now more than ever, given all the seismic shifts and changes that are happening all around us, whether it's in our personal lives and our professional lives, we've really found that we need each other.”

Seema added another layer to her “why” —  her two daughters. “The mission is very rooted in my hopes for the kind of world that I want my own daughters to step into,” she added. 

Events companies in the adtech and marketing space are everywhere, so we really wanted to understand what makes Tech Bae unique. While it was hard to boil it down to just one or two differentiators, the baes took their best shot. 

“One of the things that differentiates Tech Bae with other organizations is that we really do show up as ourselves,” Brenda comments. It’s fun too. "It brings an element of fun that I don't find exists in many other events and even webinars,” said Christina.

A few others come to mind: leadership experience, deep technical knowledge, and ultimately, authenticity. There is so much going on in the adtech industry. Sarah points out the “tumultuous tech” situation, “where is AI? Where is data, where's privacy,” then there is the “new political climate.” “This is also the first time that we have four generations in the workplace,” Sarah adds. “We touch on all of that in Tech Bae, plus we show up authentically, every time.”

How they work together

Working together as four women with “big minds, bold hearts, and strong opinions” has been productive. Although it’s not “always the easiest conversations,” said Christina, “it’s what’s needed.”

Alignment across the baes is key. Brenda added, “learning to collaborate in a way where there is clear communication and expectations, and enforcing a structured alignment” have been critical.

“We have to move fast because we're, you know, a pretty scrappy organization. But we want to make sure we're going far,” said Brenda, which is sound advice for any organization looking to scale.

On achieving balance

For the baes, they all agree that work-life balance today is about “finding a sense of harmony” and “staying in your power,” which Brenda explained.  Every day, it’s consciously focusing on the “glass balls” —i.e., the breakable ones — vs. the rubber ones.

Their proudest accomplishment: helping junior women

Out of all of their programs, the one that they are most proud of is their Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) mentorship program. In 2021, still in the height of Covid, the baes were trying to figure out how they can support each other while supporting the “rising stars,” young people that are experiencing huge social challenges that put them at a disadvantage in their early careers.

Although a small but mighty cohort, they had big aspirations. “We didn’t have the infrastructure,” but they had the idea and they had “the network” to connect aspiring media professionals with seasoned advertising leaders. 

So, they reached out to BBBS, aligned on the plan and went to work, setting up a first-of-its kind virtual mentorship program. BBS “facilitated the entire cohort and programing of it, and we helped each of these students not only up-level their skills, but also gave them immediate and accelerated access into our industry.”

“There are so few entry points for people that are not connected in our industry,”  said Seema. “This fostered not only paid internships, but also a great entry point into the adtech and media community.” She emphasized, “this was the only way for us to really, at the grassroots level, make an impact.”

What’s next

Three cohorts into the BBBS program, the baes are in the process of brainstorming and seeing where can we take this playbook and “actually bring it to more Big Brother Big Sister groups,” said Brenda. “We were essentially the incubator partner, and BBBS has been able to take this across different verticals nationally, which has been “wildly successful,” she added.

Final takeaways

The baes are a humble bunch, crediting their amazing partners that helped them make Tech Bae a force for good. They cited their consistent focus on “quality vs. scale” in their programming has ensured that they stay true to their mission.

To aspiring leaders looking to make an impact outside of their organizations, the baes suggest “getting involved, whether it's in your company ERGs or just activities that you're interested in or passionate about.” We all have a finite amount of time, but if you “carve out just a little bit” it will be worth it,” said Seema.

These baes really integrate community into all aspects of their lives. Seema emphasizes community service in her family as a means to “teach our kids to give back and become responsible citizens that care about their neighbors.”

Another recommendation is to “explore” — new ideas may “launch a pivot outside of a company.” And to “not be afraid to fail.”

With the baes, it’s not just about giving — the baes also receive so much from their efforts. It’s not just a lot of “woo woo,” said Christina. There are tangible benefits that leaders receive by putting in this work. Sarah credits Techbae with helping her “be a better leader.”

It was only fitting to end this conversation with a lesson on karma from bae Brenda: “what you put out there comes back to you, when you do something just for the sake of doing good, not to get anything in return. It comes right back to you.”

To sum up their female founder experience in two words: “utterly rewarding.”

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For Ljs Advisory, it was an utterly rewarding experience to interview these four inspiring women. For anyone looking for lessons on filling your cup and honing your leadership skills through purpose-driven initiatives, we encourage you to watch the full interview, because you will be motivated to move forward in some way.