- Kadren Cowansage is a software engineer at Y Combinator and the founder of Leap, an online community for women in tech
- She created Leap because she wanted a place online where women could have open conversations without the risk of escalating arguments
- The core culture and product decisions of Leap are made by women
- The idea for Leap came from attending a female founders conference and realizing the number of smart, driven women in the tech industry
- Leap initially started as a place for Kadren and her colleagues to share ideas, but it has now grown to include a network of female founders, friends, and organizations supporting women in tech
- Leap encourages the use of real identities to foster authentic conversations and relationships
- The community discusses various topics, including career development, company issues, relationships, and personal interests
- Leap currently has around 2,000 members and has already facilitated connections for co-founders and job opportunities
- Interested individuals can join Leap at leap.ycombinator.com

Cadran Cowansage is a software engineer at YC - https://twitter.com/cadran_c

She announced Lead at the Seattle Female Founders Conference. Leap is "where women in tech can talk about whatever we want." https://leap.ycombinator.com/

If you'd like to attend a future Female Founders Conference, you can learn more here: http://www.femalefoundersconference.org/

Next you're going to meet Kadren Cowansage, who I have the pleasure of working with at YC.

She's a software engineer at Y Combinator, and she's the founder of Leap, an online community that I'll let her tell you more about right now.

As you heard, I'm a software engineer at YC and the creator of Leap.

It's a private online network for women in tech to talk about whatever we want.

And I'm so excited to be here and to tell you about it.

So I first started working on Leap because I didn't feel like I had a place online where I could talk openly.

I felt like conversations online often escalate quickly to shouting matches and people opt out, especially women.

And I wondered what would happen if I created a community where the core culture was set by women and the product and software decisions were also made by women.

I couldn't think of a community like that, but I wanted to be part of 1.

So the idea for LEAP actually first started at the first female founders conference.

I'd flown in from New York where I lived at the time, and I was sitting in the audience and was struck by the number of smart, driven women all in 1 room.

And it was strange because in my day to day life I had a handful of female friends who worked in tech, but it felt like there were very few of us.

But when I looked around the room at the conference, I realized how many of us there actually were.

How many strong technical experts with so many great ideas, so many connections, and so much power.

So when I started working at YC, Leap started as a place where me and my colleagues could just kind of talk and get to know more about our ideas and what we were thinking about.

And once I validated that we actually wanted to use the product, I unfixed some bugs.

We started sharing Leap with the network of female founders at YC, our friends and former colleagues, and organizations that support women of color and organizations that support women in engineering.

So another part about LEAP is that we use our real identities on there.

And that is, you know, the idea behind that is that in my life the relationships that have been the strongest are the ones that are based on these social and professional interactions.

And so my hypothesis was that if we created a network that was a hybrid social and professional community that it would foster you know civil discourse and authentic conversations.

And the idea is that those kind of relationships can help propel us in the industry.

On Leap, you can go talk about your favorite book with another member, and then a few days later, or whatever it is, that other woman can help you find your next job or your next investment.

I've already heard stories from members about finding co-founders and finding new jobs.

So we are at this point about 2,000 members strong.

We are software engineers, founders, VCs, designers, writers.

So we talk about all sorts of things too.

You know, 1 day it's conversations about career development and the next we're talking about tactical issues we're having with our companies.

We talk about everything from relationships with our partners to raising kids, our favorite books and our favorite podcasts, you know, all sorts of stuff.

So if you think that Leap sounds interesting, you can go to leap.ycombinator.com.

You may see it over there in blue in a few minutes.

So looking forward to getting to know you on Leap.


Speaker 0: Next you're going to meet Kadren Cowansage, who I have the pleasure of working with at YC. She's a software engineer at Y Combinator, and she's the founder of Leap, an online community that I'll let her tell you more about right now.

Speaker 1: Hi. I'm Kadren. As you heard, I'm a software engineer at YC and the creator of Leap. It's a private online network for women in tech to talk about whatever we want. And I'm so excited to be here and to tell you about it.

So I first started working on Leap because I didn't feel like I had a place online where I could talk openly. I felt like conversations online often escalate quickly to shouting matches and people opt out, especially women. And I wondered what would happen if I created a community where the core culture was set by women and the product and software decisions were also made by women. I couldn't think of a community like that, but I wanted to be part of 1. So the idea for LEAP actually first started at the first female founders conference.

I'd flown in from New York where I lived at the time, and I was sitting in the audience and was struck by the number of smart, driven women all in 1 room. And it was strange because in my day to day life I had a handful of female friends who worked in tech, but it felt like there were very few of us. But when I looked around the room at the conference, I realized how many of us there actually were. How many strong technical experts with so many great ideas, so many connections, and so much power. So when I started working at YC, Leap started as a place where me and my colleagues could just kind of talk and get to know more about our ideas and what we were thinking about.

And once I validated that we actually wanted to use the product, I unfixed some bugs. We started sharing Leap with the network of female founders at YC, our friends and former colleagues, and organizations that support women of color and organizations that support women in engineering. So another part about LEAP is that we use our real identities on there. And that is, you know, the idea behind that is that in my life the relationships that have been the strongest are the ones that are based on these social and professional interactions. And so my hypothesis was that if we created a network that was a hybrid social and professional community that it would foster you know civil discourse and authentic conversations.

And so that was the core of LEAP. And the idea is that those kind of relationships can help propel us in the industry. On Leap, you can go talk about your favorite book with another member, and then a few days later, or whatever it is, that other woman can help you find your next job or your next investment. I've already heard stories from members about finding co-founders and finding new jobs. So that's super exciting to me.

So we are at this point about 2,000 members strong. We are software engineers, founders, VCs, designers, writers. We work in sales and operations. The list goes on. So we talk about all sorts of things too.

You know, 1 day it's conversations about career development and the next we're talking about tactical issues we're having with our companies. We talk about everything from relationships with our partners to raising kids, our favorite books and our favorite podcasts, you know, all sorts of stuff. So if you think that Leap sounds interesting, you can go to leap.ycombinator.com. So that's Leap. You may see it over there in blue in a few minutes.

It's leap.ycombinator.com. And we'd love to have you join. So looking forward to getting to know you on Leap. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. You

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Cadran Cowansage Announces Leap at the Seattle Female Founders Conference