Early in Harini Gokul’s career as a new immigrant to the US, she was instructed to sit in the back row in customer-facing discussions—despite being the lead—simply because she did not “look the part.” As the first person of color on her city council, the first woman of color C-level executive at her company, and often the only woman on a panel of technical experts, Harini is all-too-familiar with the challenges of being the “first” in a room. Through her experience as an executive and an elected official, she fought hard to gain the same recognition and respect as her peers, and to feel like she belonged.

She channeled this same energy and passion into being an investor. Five years ago, while the startup ecosystem was booming, access and influence were concentrated in certain profiles of founders and funders—generally white and male.  This meant that only certain companies were getting funded, narrowing the products, services and solutions receiving the support and capital they needed to thrive.  And while study after study has shown that gender diverse teams produce stronger financial outcomes, they are still underfunded to this day. Determined to change this, Harini began trying to break in with the VC community.  Despite her experience, expertise, and financial resources, she sensed she wasn’t being taken seriously. Finally, her connection to a female VC (and fellow Athena member) opened up the floodgates. While it took many years to gain credibility as an investor, she is now a Limited Partner for multiple Venture Capital firms. Investing for her is not just about having impact on her finances but about changing the landscape of business.  “I use my seat at the table to advocate for investment in the people and problems that are underfunded,” says Harini, “80% of my investments are in female founders (such as Gennev dealing with Menopause, Advocat which is AI innovation for the Legal vertical, and our very own Athena Alliance), and female-led Venture Capital firms (such as Flying Fish, Pioneer Square Labs, and Glasswing Ventures).”

In parallel, Harini saw the importance of having more people like her who understand technology involved in making public policy, which inspired her to run for office in her local city government. “I have found in my life that in order to change the system, you have to be a part of the system and change it from within. You can advocate all you want on the outside, but change happens on the inside. It’s why I tell women to run and be a part of politics and policy-making. When you’re elected you have the power to go through legislation to make changes.” 

While she was canvassing, she rang the doorbells of more than 1,000 citizens in her community, and made a telling observation. When she canvassed on her own, many homes would assume she was soliciting for funds and the door would stay shut. However, when her husband (white and male) started accompanying her on the campaign, the doors started to open. “8 times out of 10, people would assume that my husband was the one running for office and would continue speaking with him even after we had explained that I was the one running for office.” 

Despite this, Harini went on to become the first Indian-American elected to office in her city, aligning public office with the shifting demographics of her community. “The previous elected officials had long histories of living in the community with deep roots. However, our community demographics were changing with an increase in minority and immigration representation. This was leading to friction creating an ‘us vs them’ mentality.” Harini saw being an elected official as an opportunity to build bridges and make the city’s local government better reflect the city’s diversity of people. In her role as a public servant, Harini continues to work on breaking down barriers between the older and newer members of the community by focusing on shared values and goals. She uses her experience shaping local government policy in her operating role, and vice versa, translating her operator scaling experience to benefit her local community.

While Harini admits that it has often been lonely to be the “first”, she believes the rewards outweigh the challenges. Her advice? “You have to show up. There is no silver bullet. At the end of the day, if you can continually show your value to the person consuming it, at some point they will stop caring that you look the way you do, that you don’t have the right last name, or the right connections.” She remains steadfast in her mission to accelerate systemic changes that will blow the doors wide open for all those who follow, so that even if she is the first, she won’t be the only. 

 As for her next chapter of impact, Harini would like to expand her board service by joining a private company board where she can leverage her expertise in cyber security, digital transformation, and cloud.  “When you work for two of the largest companies on the planet, you get a master class in scaling, whether that’s with people and culture, product or global reach,” says Harini whose executive career includes leadership roles at Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS).  “So I am now looking at how do I scale my own expertise to help grow organizations that can benefit from it?” 

We can all exercise our power by investing, serving on advisory boards, and leaning into our Portfolio of Impact and opening up new runways of possibilities. As women—if we don’t, who will?