Christine Tsai Quotes

The change I want to see is a start-up environment where everyone, regardless of gender and background, feels welcome and safe; where sexual harassment or discrimination will not impede great talent from producing great impact.

- Christine Tsai

When you grow up in poverty, suffer from abuse, live in a violent neighborhood, come from a broken home, lack positive role models, are told you'll never amount to anything, etc, the challenges are enormous.

- Christine Tsai

Many people are allergic to process and structure because it causes traumatic flashbacks of working at BigCo and suffering through bureaucracy for bureaucracy's sake.

- Christine Tsai

I love the fact that Facebook offers equal leave for moms and dads. Consider that for your company.

- Christine Tsai

I mostly read online - tech/VC blogs. I also enjoy the 'NY Times', 'Atlantic', 'New Yorker'.

- Christine Tsai

Moms get their fair share of conflicting advice, with a heaping of unsolicited advice. Parents debate the pros/cons of different types of disposable diapers, whether the supposed carcinogens in Johnson & Johnson baby products hurt their kids who used it, which method of sleep training to use.

- Christine Tsai

As a society, we're failing. In so many ways. Such high incarceration rates of underrepresented minorities ultimately means we're missing out on great potential from black and Latino communities. Yes, there's immense talent brewing even within the most impoverished neighborhoods. Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.

- Christine Tsai

I was always really interested in startups and fascinated by what they were working on.

- Christine Tsai

Unfortunately, a lot of Silicon Valley venture capitalists are disconnected from African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color.

- Christine Tsai

Your role as a founder changes dramatically once your team hits 10, 20, 50, 100, and so on. Sometimes you forget how big you've grown and continue to act as if you're still 10 people.

- Christine Tsai

I can say without a doubt that being a mom is the ultimate test of my multi-tasking skills. I spend my day meeting startup after startup, helping our portfolio companies, bringing in speakers, and soon gearing up for Demo Day for our accelerator program.

- Christine Tsai

It was my first time in prison. I was there to volunteer with Defy Ventures, along with 500 teammates Tara Graham, Brian Wang, and Aerin Lim. While I didn't feel particularly scared about going to prison, I had no idea what to expect.

- Christine Tsai

There are huge pain points experienced by parents. It's hard to find good child care options in one place. It's hard figure out things to do with your kids on the weekends or after school. It's hard to find iPad apps for your kids that you are confident are helping them learn vs. just being entertained.

- Christine Tsai

At 500, our policy is 12 weeks of fully paid leave for all parents in the U.S. Parents can choose to take this leave consecutively or spread it out through the first 12 months after birth.

- Christine Tsai

There's a good amount of research out there that shows generous parental leave policies have a significant positive impact on employee retention and morale.

- Christine Tsai

Entrepreneurs don't have a regular 9-5 work day. They don't take vacations. They live and breathe their business 24/7 and wear many different hats.

- Christine Tsai

People will never stop having kids, and people will never stop spending money on them to make sure they're safe, healthy, and educated.

- Christine Tsai

Many of the problems that families face can be solved with great technology, design, and distribution.

- Christine Tsai

In order to have a meaningful impact, companies should value diversity and inclusion from Day One.

- Christine Tsai

You don't need to visit a prison to know that racial inequality exists. There's enough talk about it, especially in Silicon Valley, to know that there's a diversity problem.

- Christine Tsai

Values are the foundation of a company. Culture is the manifestation of values - the day to day actions and behavior. Adapt tactical cultural behavior that helps you execute on your values.

- Christine Tsai

If you invest the time earlier to create structure and process around communication, planning, and goal-setting, you can prevent missteps before they occur.

- Christine Tsai

Breaking down barriers is tough. Many companies make the mistake of dismissing diversity early on, only to realize later how foundational it is to their success or failure.

- Christine Tsai

In life, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate. So don't be afraid to ask - the worst you can hear is 'no.'

- Christine Tsai

I took on the role of CEO, which involves directing the Management Team and overall day-to-day operations of 500.

- Christine Tsai

Once your company grows past a certain point, upholding values becomes more and more difficult. This is where companies get into trouble. Thus, it's absolutely critical to take your company values seriously and practice it every day.

- Christine Tsai

While your intentions may be good, this is something every expectant working mom fears - being phased out. I'll put myself out there and admit this has been/is a fear of mine. Let her be the one to decide whether something's too much for her to handle or not.

- Christine Tsai

Be transparent about why the termination is happening. If you did things right, it shouldn't be a surprise to the person.

- Christine Tsai

I think kindness is actually under-rated. Especially with Silicon Valley - and probably in business in general - it's seen as being a pushover or ineffective as a leader.

- Christine Tsai

Be the person you want others to perceive you as. So if you want others to see you as a leader, then act like one. Don't expect things to be handed to you. You have to work for it.

- Christine Tsai

Offering unequal leaves just reinforces the longstanding notion that parenting responsibilities aren't equal, and that doesn't help anyone.

- Christine Tsai

It's really important for your team to be not just feel empowered but actually be empowered.

- Christine Tsai

Throughout the day, I'm always thinking about 500, the team, and how we can do things harder/better/faster/stronger.

- Christine Tsai

The best thing women in tech can do is to invest in other women.

- Christine Tsai

What many single male 23-year-old entrepreneurs don't realize is that family tech is a 'big freaking business'. As in, trillions of dollars.

- Christine Tsai

When it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best.

- Christine Tsai