Elissa Shevinsky

Elissa Shevinsky is an American technology executive, entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert, public speaker, and author. She advocates for more women and diversity in tech to help counteract its misogynistic cultural tendencies, noting that women have always played a role in significant computer and internet advances.

Elissa Shevinsky
Born	Elissa Beth Shevinsky New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Williams College, CUNY Baruch College School of Business,
Occupation(s)	Author, entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert
Years active	1999–present

Education

Shevinsky attended Benjamin Cardozo High School, before studying for a Political Theory major at Williams College, where she also took classes in Computer Science,^[1] graduating in 2001.^[2]

Career

Shevinsky has served as cofounder of multiple start up companies,^[3] not all of which were successful.^[4] In 2010, Shevinsky defended her company against The New York Times, as co-owner of Neighborhoodies, over the use of the "New York Herald Tribune" logo on T-shirts. Shevinsky argued that the trademark had been abandoned.^[5][6] In 2012, she founded two NYC-focused dating sites, MakeOut Labs and JoinJspot.^[7][8] Shevinsky co-founded Glimpse, an encrypted photo and video-sharing app,^[9] with Pax Dickinson in 2013.^[2] At Glimpse, Shevinksy served as chief executive of the company.^[2] She left the company when Dickinson posted tweets about the Titstare app.^[10][11] In 2015 Shevinsky was funded by MACH37 for JeKuDo Privacy Company,^[12][13] co-organized information security conference SecretCon,^[14] and edited Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture.^[14] In 2016, Shevinsky joined Brave as Head of Product.^[15] As of 2019 Shevinsky was the CEO at Faster Than Light, a cybersecurity company.^[16][17]

Shevinsky is also known for her actions standing up to sexism in the tech industry.^[2][18] In a 2015 post on harassment and trolling in Silicon Valley, Shevinsky wrote: "I'd like to see less harassment. That's my position. Less harassment, for everyone. I do hope this isn't a controversial statement."^[19] When James Damore was fired by Google, Shevinsky was quoted saying that speech "questioning the technical qualifications of people based on race or gender" was potentially within the purview of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.^[20] She has also spoken on sexism at Uber after Susan Fowler spoke about harassment there in 2017.^[21] As a Press Lead for the 2018 HOPE conference in NYC, Shevinsky called for stronger enforcement of the Code of Conduct.^[22]

Honors

Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture was listed by Inc. Magazine as one of the 100 best business books of 2015.^[23]

In 2018, Shevinsky was named "Woman of the Decade" by her alma mater Williams College in a speech where she announced she wanted to lead the way for the development and protection of privacy for the following decade.^[24]

Selected publications

• Caslin, III, Michael J.; Maller, Joseph; Shevinsky, Elissa (2013). "Linking measurement to management and compensation". In Lyons, Thomas S. (ed.). Social Entrepreneurship: How Businesses Can Transform Society. Vol. 3. Praeger.
• Shevinsky, Elissa (July 23, 2015). "Why the US government must lose cryptowars 2.0". The Christian Science Monitor; Boston, Mass. ProQuest 1698203646.
• Shevinsky, Elissa, ed. (2015). Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture. OR Books.^[25]

Film

Shevinsky appears in the documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.^[26] She is also a cast member in the documentary Silenced.^[27]