Photos of Millionaire BBTV’s CEO Shahrzad Rafati in Vancouver

For smaller startups worried about not hitting every single “impact” metric, Rafati advised startup leaders not to force a fit, but instead to lay the foundation with an eye toward the future. Continuing the gender parity example, Rafati said it may not be reasonable to find an even gender split on a 10 person team. However, Rafati said there’s still a lot a small startup can do to set the foundation: Ensure there’s no gender pay gap so women in the company make the same pay for the same work. Implement non-discrimination policies and equitable hiring practices for all roles when you’re small, so they will scale with your company as you grow. Set up a good talent pipeline with multiple, diverse candidate pools that will help you get to gender parity when you’re scaling up to 25 or 50 employees and beyond.

August 30, 2021 | 12:10 am