| View this email in your browser. June 22, 2021
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! New Yorkers vote for mayor, the Olympic moments are starting, and an anti-bias software firm gets an all-star investor. Have a great Tuesday.
– Investing in equity tech. Pay equity is a top priority for business leaders these days, but deciphering a company’s gender and racial gaps—and how to close them—is a business unto itself.
One of the leading firm in the space is Syndio, led by CEO Maria Colacurcio. The software company, founded in 2017, counts Salesforce, Adobe, and PagerDuty as clients and says it’s analyzed the pay of 2.6 million employees so far. And Emma has the news this morning that Syndio has received a new $1 million investment from Penny Jar Capital, the early-stage investment firm led by NBA star Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
Colacurcio told Emma that Curry’s team was especially interested in Syndio’s ability to suss out pay gaps by race and gender and that the new investment will keep up Syndio’s “momentum as the first and the best equity tech platform.” The firm has raised $25 million to date.
Curry’s Penny Jar Capital only registered with the SEC in May; his advocacy for equal pay predates that. In 2018, he wrote an essay for the Players’ Tribune about his young daughter and how her career ambition—”a basketball player cook,” like her parents—refocused his attention on the gender pay gap.
Every day “the pay gap is affecting women,” he wrote, and it’s “sending the wrong message to women about who they are, and how they’re valued, and what they can or cannot become.”
In that essay, he urged readers to go beyond learning about women’s equality and to start actively supporting it—a challenge he fulfilled today.
Claire Zillman
[email protected]
@clairezillman
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
A note from Fortune Join Fortune's MPW Community Network with your peers at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen Virtual Summit June 23-24. Apply here. ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- California, here we come. The 2018 California law requiring female representation on boards of directors hasn't seen much objection in a while, but a federal appeals court ruled this week that an investor will be able to sue over the mandate. Creighton Meland Jr., a retired corporate attorney and investor in OSI Systems, sued with the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation; they're arguing that the law "unconstitutionally required shareholders to discriminate on the basis of sex when electing directors." Wall Street Journal
- NYC votes. New York City chooses the Democratic nominee for mayor today, and in the final hours of the campaign candidate Maya Wiley is seeing a late surge. As the progressive field collapsed over several weeks—with the implosion of Dianne Morales' campaign and sexual misconduct allegations against Scott Stringer (which he has denied or said he doesn't remember)—Wiley may be progressives' last, best hope. New York Magazine
- Olympic moments. The Olympics are almost here, and we already have a few major Olympic moments. Sha'Carri Richardson—the 21-year-old athlete with fiery red hair—won the women's 100 meter race at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials and delivered an emotional post-competition interview. New Zealand named Laurel Hubbard to its weightlifting team, making her the first openly transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics.
- Church doctrine. Will the Catholic Church ever ordain women as priests? This piece asks the question—and explores the answer through the eyes of women who say they're called to the priesthood, no matter the Church's doctrine. New Yorker
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: The Swiss private bank Banque Pictet & Sie SA promoted fund manager Elif Aktug to partner, making her the first woman to hold that role in the bank's 216-year history. Michelle Lee will step down as editor-in-chief of Allure to become VP of editorial and publishing at Netflix.
CONTENT FROM QLIK Take a unique journey through the Fortune 500 Fortune teams up with Qlik, the Official Analytics Partner of the Fortune 500, to bring to life the shifting fortunes of iconic companies and sectors in an interactive data visualization. Explore now.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Genetic test results. After 23andMe went public via a merger with Richard Branson's special purpose acquisition company VG Acquisition Corp. last week, genetic testing company cofounder and CEO Anne Wojcicki is a new self-made female billionaire. Her stake was worth $1.3 billion at a $13.40 share price. Forbes
- Claiming the tax credit. Yesterday was Child Tax Credit Awareness Day—a day created by the Biden administration to ensure parents know what to do to claim the tax credit expansion. Families that file income taxes don't need to do anything to receive a $300 check, but those that don't will need to apply through a new portal. The 19th*
- Japan Inc. Japanese companies are aiming to reach 30% female representation in management positions by 2030, but firms say it's unlikely they'll be able to reach that goal. Women currently hold less than 10% of management roles in Japan, and employees say that share won't increase without major changes to corporate cultures and benefits like childcare. Reuters
ON MY RADAR
Rachel Lindsay has no roses left to burn Vulture
Gates money management firm changes name after couple's divorce Bloomberg
Scrolling past my American dream The Riveter
PARTING WORDS
"We’ve never shared our stories in a way that we are sharing now."
-SuChin Pak, the former MTV anchor, on racism in the workplace
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