Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy

by Magdalena Yesil, Marc Benioff (Foreword by), Sara Grace (With)

Overview

With empowering insights to help women navigate the narrowest corridors of sexism, tech-industry pioneer Magdalena Yesil shares on-the-ground career advice that is as powerful as any MBA

Pioneering Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor Magdalena Yesil came to the United States in 1976 with two suitcases and $43, blind to the challenges she would face as a woman and immigrant in Silicon Valley. Today, she is best known as the first investor and a founding board member of Salesforce, the now-multibillion dollar company that ushered in the era of cloud-based computing.

In Power Up: How Smart Women Win in the New Economy, Yesil urges women to look beyond the alarming gender statistics of the workplace and feel confident entering tech or any field-but also to be prepared to deal with the challenges. She shares what she experienced as a woman in Silicon Valley with surprising candor and heart, relying not just on her insight but that of more than a dozen top women entrepreneurs to offer pragmatic takeaways on topics such as:

• Owning career choices while managing risk
• Getting credit for your work
• Managing sexual dynamics
• Recruiting allies in the movement toward a supportive workplace for everyone

Pragmatic, incisive, and full of highly actionable advice, Yesil prepares ambitious women to break glass ceilings and rise to the top in the New Silicon Valley — and beyond.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580056915
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Magdalena Yesil is a founder, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist of many of the world's top technology companies, including Salesforce, where she was the first investor and founding board member. Her investing career started at US Venture Partners. She is a founder of Broadway Angels, an angel group of female investors. A technology pioneer, Yesil cofounded three companies dedicated to commercializing Internet access, e-commerce infrastructure, and electronic payments. UUnet, CyberCash, and MarketPay earned her the Entrepreneur of the Year title from Red Herring magazine. Her current company, DriveInformed, uses technology to bring trust and transparency to the auto finance industry.

Table of Contents

Foreword Marc Benioff xi

Introduction: There's a Woman in the Men's Room xv

1 The Power to Flow 1

Audacity, or a Delicious Eff-You Attitude 9

Gratitude Keeps You Flowing 12

When It's Time to Shoot the Rapids 16

Toss Your Life Preserver 19

The Urgency and Fear of True Commitment 21

2 Be the Boss of Your Own Career 25

Be Prepared to Zig and Zag 27

The Case for Going Corporate 33

Intrapreneurship, or How to Move a Mountain 37

The Boss of Your Own Story 41

Earn a Boss's Paycheck 46

3 You Have More Power Than You Think 53

Developing Gravitas 58

Sexual Harassment Is a Crime 63

4 How to Get an a in Attitude and an F in Victim 69

Better a Bitch than a Victim 72

In the Room with Investors 77

Riding Out Business Lows 82

5 People Power 91

Your First Sponsor Is Your Boss 93

Seek Hyper-Local Sponsorship 96

The Place for Mentors 102

The Power of Other Women 105

Build Momentum with the Right Team 109

6 Entering the Men's Room 113

Become an Insider 116

Make Allies in Your Office 120

Join the Men's Club 125

Male-Female Networking Hacks 127

7 Guilt and Other Challenges of Working Parenthood 131

No More Mommy Guilt 136

Shaping Your Career and Your Parenting Together 139

Family Leave and the Co-Parenting Unicorn 147

When Parenthood Makes Entrepreneurs of Employees 152

8 Quitting, Failing, Reentry, and Rebirth 155

Breaks Are Not Blemishes 160

A Blueprint for ReEntry 162

Disaster Recovery 165

The Upside of Disaster 170

Quit or Stick It Out? 172

9 Power up the Organization 175

Guardrails Against Bias 177

Say No to Quotas 182

Take Your Values to Work 184

Epilogue: Starting from Scratch 189

About the Author 230

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a must-read for anyone in business. Power Up gives real, pragmatic advice on how to charter your own destiny, especially when the odds are stacked against you."
—Julie Wainwright, Founder and CEO of The RealReal


"Magdalena and I worked together in the early days of the Internet, introducing concepts that were completely revolutionary, such as the electronic wallet. She is a fearless entrepreneur who worked hard to help early online merchants get off the ground. Some of them went on to become giants, like Amazon. I urge women to be bold like Magdalena and follow their dreams."
—Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google and parent company Alphabet

"I wish I could have given Magdalena Yesil's book to my two daughters when they graduated from college. It's the perfect gift for any young woman navigating her career. I am definitely giving it to my two girls, and just as importantly, to their boyfriends, too.
—Steve Blank, entrepreneur, professor, and author of The Startup Owner's Manual and Four Steps to Epiphany


"My professional mission is to empower women through fashion. Power Up resonated strongly with me. I highly recommend its confident career guidance from an impressive roster of top women leaders."
—Karen Watkins, Chief Operating Officer of Christian Dior

"When I reached out to Magdalena in my early days of founding Pono, I benefited greatly from her wisdom and guidance. She is a pragmatic, down to earth person who helped me a lot."
—Neil Young, composer, musician, and Founder of digital music startup Pono

"Technology is changing how business is conducted in all industries. Women who seize technology related opportunities and put the advice offered in Power Up to work will confidently transform businesses and emerge as future leaders of the new economy."
—Ron Conway, Founder of SVAngel

"Magdalena Yesil offers powerful leadership lessons from her journey to becoming a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor. She drops the reader into vividly recounted, career-defining moments to help them navigate and overcome gender bias in their own lives."
—Caroline Simard, Senior Director of Research at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University

"This book should be required reading for anyone building a company or making a career as we head into the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The lessons Magdalena Yesil offers from her remarkable work pioneering the commercial Internet are more relevant than ever."
—Murat Sonmez, member of the World Economic Forum Managing Board

"Power Up offers the no-nonsense optimism and encouragement women need to persevere in technology, an industry where so much is stacked against them. It's crammed with sage advice and insider stories to enlighten the next-generation of women in tech."
—Adriana Gascoigne, Founder and CEO of Girls in Tech

From the Publisher