Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani spills business tea with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex

Summary

Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point. “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.” “I didn’t code,” Saujani continued. “I majored in polyscience, speech communications, and the only thing I’d ever built was a failed [congressional] campaign,” she said, referring to when she tried running for Congress and lost. (She was the first Indian-American to run for Congress back in 2010). Saujani’s lack of experience in coding didn’t stop her from launching what has become one of the most well-known coding camps in tech. Girls Who Code says it has helped train more than 670,000 young girls, women, and nonbinary individuals in STEM and, at one point, received support from high-profile names in the tech industry, including Jack Dorsey and Microsoft. (The organization still seems to be kicking, whereas other groups, like Girls in Tech and Women in Code, have faced the reverberating impacts of the anti-DEI sentiment sloshing through Silicon Valley.) Saujani chatted with Meghan about her early days of building the organization, while touching upon themes of motherhood and life after leaving Girls Who Code. Her interview illustrates the sacrifices many female founders make — and often conceal — while they focus on running a business. The conversation revealed Saujani’s drive as an entrepreneur to remain on the front lines pushing for change. “This conversation was such a full-circle moment for me,” Saujani told TechCrunch, adding that she first met Meghan when she expanded Girls Who Code to the UK in 2019. “Confessions of a Female Founder” promises to talk to important women and share lessons about building a business. The podcast, which launched last week, has had a successful beginning. It’s currently the No. 1-ranked business podcast on Apple, ahead of Scott Galloway’s “The Prof...