- The speaker is the director of events at YC and plans public-facing events for the company.
- She initially planned to become an attorney but changed her mind and decided to plan tech events instead.
- She started by working at a law firm during the day and running a family club at night, until she found a job that allowed her to do events.
- She got her start at Frog Design and eventually ended up at YC.
- Making the decision to change career paths was scary but ultimately the best decision she made.
- She has always been interested in how things work and had a love for tech, which led her to tech events.
- The main difference between planning events for clubs and tech events is the target audience and the desired outcome.
- She is involved in outreach efforts to support black students and communities in tech, and has worked with organizations like Code2040 and Oakland Public School Districts.
- She believes in starting small and teaching people the basics of tech and startups before going into more advanced topics.
- She has also worked with role models and brought in the Raiders to invest in startups and teach others about investing.
- Common misconceptions include the belief that a specific tech background is required to work in tech and that there is a lack of diversity at YC, both of which she challenges.

- The speaker discusses two overlooked or misunderstood aspects in their work.
- They talk about their outreach tour at universities and the importance of providing access to information and diverse career opportunities in tech.
- They mention how YC has influenced their thinking, focusing on problem-solving and making a difference.
- The speaker reflects on the impact of their work, particularly in promoting diversity at events.
- They discuss the pressure to have a clear career plan and the importance of flexibility and exploration.
- The speaker expresses interest in startups and discusses their approach to balancing work and avoiding burnout.

- The speaker admits to being addicted to their phone and constantly checking for emails
- They find it satisfying to shut off their phone for a day
- During their shutdown time, they don't respond to messages as frequently
- The speaker encourages people to start pursuing their goals, no matter how small or big they may be
- Waiting and doubting oneself can prevent someone from becoming who they are meant to be
- The advice is to just start wherever one is comfortable, regardless of the size of the goal.

The speaker is the director of events at YC and plans public-facing events for the company. She initially planned to become an attorney but changed her mind and decided to plan tech events instead. She got her start at Frog Design and eventually ended up at YC. Making the decision to change career paths was scary but ultimately the best decision she made. She has always been interested in how things work and had a love for tech, which led her to tech events. She is involved in outreach efforts to support black students and communities in tech, and has worked with organizations like Code2040 and Oakland Public School Districts. She believes in starting small and teaching people the basics of tech and startups before going into more advanced topics. The speaker discusses two overlooked or misunderstood aspects in their work. They talk about their outreach tour at universities and the importance of providing access to information and diverse career opportunities in tech. They mention how YC has influenced their thinking, focusing on problem-solving and making a difference. The speaker reflects on the impact of their work, particularly in promoting diversity at events. They discuss the pressure to have a clear career plan and the importance of flexibility and exploration. The speaker expresses interest in startups and discusses their approach to balancing work and avoiding burnout. They find it satisfying to shut off their phone for a day. The speaker encourages people to start pursuing their goals, no matter how small or big they may be. Waiting and doubting oneself can prevent someone from becoming who they are meant to be. The advice is to just start wherever one is comfortable, regardless of the size of the goal.

Domonique Fines is the Director of Events at YC.

https://twitter.com/domoniquefines

Cadran Cowansage is the cofounder and CEO of Elpha. Elpha is a private online community for women in tech.

https://twitter.com/cadran_c
https://elpha.com/

***

Topics

00:05 - Dom’s intro

00:25 - How Dom started in events and her background

2:00 - Deciding to not go to law school

3:30 - Choosing to work on tech events

5:35 - Outreach to underrepresented founders

8:50 - Common misconceptions about getting into tech

10:10 - University outreach

11:20 - Identifying problems to fix and not being blocked

14:10 - Reflecting on accomplishments

15:05 - Dom’s career plans

16:40 - Will Dom do a startup?

17:10 - Avoiding burnout

20:20 - The importance of just getting started

Dom, tell us a few words about you, what you work on, etc.

I basically do all of our public-facing, large-scale events.

So anything from demo days, the Female Founders Conferences, our outreach tours, and then also just most recently work at a startup, and then several things in between.

So how did you get started in events and working at YC?

Was this sort of a planned path or have you been figuring it out as you go?

I would say I've been figuring it out as I go.

So originally I was planning to go to school to become an attorney.

And I would say like about a week before I was supposed to apply to law school, I definitely just changed my mind.

I was working at an entertainment law firm at the time and I just figured out that it just wasn't something that I wanted to do.

And I told myself that I wanted to plan tech events.

And at the time I had no clue what that even meant.

Like what does that mean, you want to plan tech events?

I just knew I wasn't going to law school.

I went to Clark Atlanta University and I moved back from Atlanta home to Oakland.

And from there I was just working at a law firm during the day from 9 to 5.

And then at lunchtime I would actually sleep in my car and then after work, I would go to my family's club, Me Lounge, and I would run that at nighttime.

And then I would do that same thing every day over and over and over until I found a job that allowed me to do events.

So I ended up at Frog Design as an office manager and they allowed me to do events at like South by Southwest and different hackathons.

So from there, I was able to create a portfolio and make sure that I was marketing myself as an events person.

I love that in that you sort of like hacked getting into it.

I want to jump back to your sort of deviation from going to law school for a second.

You said you changed your mind a week before you went.

How long did it take to make the final decision that you were gonna make that change?

Well, I would say it took me quite a while, of course, because I waited that late to go ahead and change my mind.

This was 1 thing that I knew like my entire life I wanted to do.

That's the only thing that everyone knew about me.

I was into fashion and also I wanted to be an attorney.

So for me to just have that feeling inside of me, just thinking like, wow, I just really, really don't want to do this, and I know that if I don't do it, I'm going to be disappointing so many people.

I was really, really hurt and afraid, and also I didn't know how to explain what I wanted to do at the time.

I basically just called my mom and I told her, I was like, hey, you know, like, I do not wanna be an attorney and I'm gonna move home and I'm gonna plan tech events.

And she's like, great, where are you gonna live?

And so that was a learning experience for me too.

But I would say that it was the best decision I ever made because if I didn't make that jump or take that step, then I would probably be ended up doing things that I'm not, like I have no enjoyment of.

And right now I'm like super passionate about events and I always will be.

And so how did you know it was tech events?

So when people would get dropped off at the mall, like in high school or junior high or whatever, I would get dropped off at Radio Shack.

And I, it's really weird, but I loved Radio Shack.

And then at some point I started to like walk around the store and act as if I was working there, which was weird at first, but then like the manager wanted to hire me, so I've always just been interested in how things work, and so I knew that that was always a part of tech, but I had no idea that tech would blow like this.

And so, did it feel, like making that transition, did it feel super scary or you just sort of went for it or how did you sort of get your start?

Yeah, It felt very scary, especially because my entire background had nothing to do with events, but also it had everything to do with events.

So my professional background didn't have any event planning experience, but my personal background was I was always the 1 bringing everyone together.

I was the 1 doing the events for my sorority in college, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated Sigma Chapter.

And I've just always been a part of events and I've always loved the little details of it.

So, and on 1 side of my brain, people are left-sided and right-sided, and I would say that I'm both.

Like I'm fairly serious about the details, but also like the creative side is what drives me.

So is, like, what are the big differences for creating an event for like in a club context versus a tech context?

I mean, I think we can think of some obvious ones, but are there any sort of funny, interesting ones?

Let's see, I would say the main thing is the target audience, of course.

For clubs, you kind of just want anybody there.

Like you want someone to show up, You need that number.

And for YC and for tech events, it's all about the quality and who we have coming to the events and then the outcome of it.

And the outcome of the club is just like, how much money did we make?

So that sort of leads me into my next question, which is about outreach.

So, I know that you think a lot about who is actually attending these events and you have sort of taken on supporting YC's outreach efforts, particularly with black students and in the black communities.

And I'd love to hear more about sort of how you think about that and also the work you're doing.

so I would say, well, right now, or in the past couple of years, I've worked with Code2040.

I've given scholarships with Team Arsenal, Bay Area Seminoles, and then also my church, New Life Community Membership Church.

And basically, what I've done is try to think about things that I've learned at YC that I had no idea about and that I could have known just from being in the area.

So what's happening right now in Silicon Valley is there's all these different companies and all this different information and all these different people coming out of this space.

When right in the backyard is Oakland and there's people that have no idea what's going on, and not that they're not brilliant people or that they can't do those things, but they just have no access to it and they don't know.

So the things that I've been learning, I've just been learning to start pretty small, and that's just basically teaching people exactly like, oh, well, what is Silicon Valley?

What's a startup versus a small business?

You know, how can I get involved in that?

And I think that starting small is something that you need to do in order to go larger.

So I've worked with Oakland Public School Districts and doing like different like career weeks and teaching them all about YC and startups.

And then also, I've also worked with big brothers and big sisters of the Bay Area, kind of just ushering them into this space.

And then 1 thing that I was super proud about that I was very passionate about was bringing in the Raiders.

So I met with them and I got them to come to some of our startup schools to learn how to invest in companies and then also got them to come to our demo day so they can invest in companies themselves.

And I feel like you have to start small but also you have to use those people that are role models, like teach them first, and then they can like branch out and teach others as well.

Have the role models been really receptive to the work you're doing or how have they

And also I think they feel very comfortable with talking to me because I let them know and I'm very upfront about this with everyone that I had no idea what YC was or what it did or like anything about the startup space And I kind of just dug into it and figured it out.

And of course, I learned a lot from YC as well.

But sometimes it's very intimidating when you're in this space and you feel like everyone knows so much and you don't know anything.

So you tend to just like be shy or like kind of just like stand back or like stand in the shadows and not wanting to ask those kind of questions that could make you look or feel like you're less than.

So I feel like they feel very comfortable with talking to me about things like that and it makes me feel good as well.

I'm like, hey, if they ask me something that I don't know, I'm like, You know, I really don't know.

Yeah, being comfortable saying when you don't know something is really hard, especially in a work context.

Yeah, I relate and understand completely.

And so are there any common misconceptions that pop up over and over with students or when you're meeting with people who don't really know about tech that you want to just get out there, get people over?

I think that the most common 1 is everyone thinks that you have to have like a particular background or like they have this background that's like, oh, well you went to, you had to go to MIT or did you go to Harvard or, you know, like what's your tech background?

And honestly, I do not have a tech background.

I created a space for myself based off of the things that I was interested in.

And I think if people just follow their own dreams and goals versus trying to follow a path that others have created, then it'll work out.

And then also this misconception of there are no women at YC, there are no black people at YC, there's all these things.

And it's like when I'm working around with all these different people, it's definitely very diverse and we're doing everything that we can to possibly bring more people in.

But I think it's also very important that I do things like this so people know that, you know, I am here and I am a voice and I'm helping out a lot.

And those are the 2 things that I think are the things that are like definitely overlooked or misconceptions for sure.

And you work with your university as well.

So basically during the outreach tour We go to a bunch of different stops, Domestic, International, and we host office hours, we do different talks.

And most recently I did an outreach tour at Morehouse College, which is basically right across the street from Clark Atlanta.

So we did office hours there, and then we did a talk there and I'm planning to go back in 2019 to do like an entire AUC tour.

I think it's very important that everyone has access to all the information that there is this space and that there's other jobs that they can apply for.

Just everything is not all about being a doctor or a lawyer or a dentist and, you know, engineer at this point.

You can be in tech and not be an engineer or not have a tech background.

And so, 1 of the things that I've been super impressed by, you know, as we've gotten to know each other at YC, is just the way you sort of proactively identify holes or problems that you see and they have nothing necessarily to do with your job, but you then just go tackle them.

Is that something that you have sort of, you've built up the muscle for over time or you've thought about actively or tell me a little bit more about that.

I'll say that My total frame of thinking is totally different ever since I started at YC.

So now when I go about things, I'm always thinking about what's the problem I'm trying to fix here.

When I first started I would work on things and be like… just working on it for so long.

And then he'd be like, I'm sorry, but what are you trying to fix here?

So now I try to make sure when I am working on things or I'm looking for things that are broken to find those ways that I can fix them.

And how do you avoid feeling blocked by them?

Like as an employee I think sometimes people feel like, oh, there's a problem in my organization but I'm just 1 person.

You know, I'm not a leader in the classic

How do you go about sort of doing the things that you know are the right things to do and you know can help sort of fix problems and avoiding that?

I would say it's still very nerve-wracking and that's like a normal thing to feel, I think, in any role.

But instead of thinking like, oh, I'm just 1 person, I think to myself, I am the person.

So there has to always be 1 person to step out and do it for others to follow.

Just like sometimes people ask like, oh, well, how many black people are at this company or how many black people are at that company?

And all the time, you're not gonna always get the answer that you want, but how about you be that person?

Do you feel like you've started to see the work you're doing make a difference in terms of like, you know, folks you've talked to going and trying out tech or like applying to YC or things like that or how has that been going?

I feel like, so last year, this past year, I did 3 female founders conferences, 1 in New York, 1 in Seattle, and 1 in San Francisco.

I remember Jessica came up to me and she was like, wow, Dom, she was like, look at all these different kinds of people here.

And I was just standing back And I was looking at the room and I was like, wow, I really did that.

You know, it's like you work on things for so long and you're always thinking about the future, what's your next step?

But you never kind of like sit there and like kind of flourish and just realize what you're doing and what you're working on now and how the outcome has affected people.

Do you take time to sort of stop and reflect and think about how things are going or How do you incorporate that into your life?

So I just keep, I kind of just like keep going and going and going and going.

Of course I know like when my stopping point is.

Like I know when it's time for self-care, I know when it's time to just like kind of fall back and take a break.

But it wasn't until recently, like I just listed out all of the events that I've done at YC and the people that I've worked with.

So I've just recently started to do that and I think I'll do it more.

Yeah, I think making those very positive lists about the things that you've accomplished is really, I find also really useful because I don't do it naturally either.

And so do you have a plan for your career about where you wanna go and what you wanna do or are you sort

I'm sort of, I'm just figuring it out because this was my like end goal.

Like I wanted to be like an event planner like for the top tech company.

I'm gonna be an event planner for the top tech company.

And now I just feel like, you know, I'm there and I'm definitely making a difference in doing things.

And there's only, there's so many like ways of creativity that I can change my role here.

I think that the only clear option here is to work for Beyonce.

Because I don't know what else will come after this.

And so do you put any pressure on yourself to have like know those things or, you know, sort of play it by ear?

That was a huge thing for me in college and even before college, like in high school, like being pressured to figure out like, figure out what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Pick a major right now, get these scholarships.

I think it's about figuring out as you go.

And I've learned that I've accomplished a lot more without putting those certain constraints on my career.

Because at that time, I was just only going and moving towards that specific direction.

But now there's all these different areas, directions.

I can just literally do, you can do whatever you want to do.

And I don't want to limit myself to just 1 different area or like where to go.

That's why I'm not interested in grad school.

And do you think you'll ever do a startup?

would before YC when I find myself like creating all types of startups in my mind.

And if there was a startup that could create startups, then I would go to that startup to make my startup.

Startup that creates startups, I think you're there.

And so I, you know, talking a little bit more about like, you're obviously super busy and you've taken on a lot.

I think that, well, it also helps that I create the YC calendar, the events calendar.

That helps like kind of spacing things out.

It's important to know like when you can't do anymore.

I feel like when you continue to work and you're burnt out, you're not offering the best of the work that you can do, and then the outcome of it is not the best.

So what I do is, after each event, I do a staycation or I go to town, like everyone knows I love traveling, so like that's my thing.

But I can do anything from, oh, I'm away, I'm staying in a tree house.

Like, oh, now I'm staying in a yurt or now I'm gonna be sleeping on the beach.

But it's good to just like get away and shut off and just kind of like just refresh and replenish because you can never be successful while you're like running on the go, go, go, go, go and burnt out.

And that's 1 thing that I really appreciate about YC is like, you know, they respect like how I work and like they know like that's the way that I can do it and that's the only way that things are gonna get done.

Do you like when you're on those trips, when you're reflecting and refreshing, Are you reflecting also on the work you've been doing or do you like put that somewhere else for later?

Yeah, I don't think about work at all while I'm there.

So the things that I'm thinking about are, okay, where do I see myself in 10 years?

Or maybe I wanna learn how to do aerial dancing.

Maybe I should just join Cirque du Soleil.

But like, so I'm thinking about all the things that I never get a chance to think about while I'm working.

Because I don't think that people understand or realize we run a like really small close-knit team, and I appreciate that about YC, but I think that people feel like or think like we have this entire events team, and they don't realize that I am the team.

So a lot of my brain is dedicated to events and it rarely shuts off.

So when I do go away and I am not working, it's kind of difficult to shut it off.

It can never just go away, but I would say while I'm out, I think about it less.

And when you're on these trips, are you checking email?

I would say, and my friends would tell you, I never totally cut off.

I'm like 75, 80% cut off, but there's always that moment when my phone goes off and I have an instinct to just grab it because I need to know who's emailing me.

But it's a really good feeling when I do finally just shut it off.

Like I can go a day maybe, I feel like I can't go longer than a day without just shutting off.

But I would say I don't respond as frequently as I would during my shutdown time.

See all Y Combinator transcripts on Youtube

YC's Director of Events Domonique Fines with Elpha CEO Cadran Cowansage