of one of the most powerful network in silicon valley history which has come to be known as the paypal mafiagroup of influential people that all happened to the men. what is your take away from that? -- it's not unique. startup,cessful especially one that selects from drive and grit and entrepreneurialism tends to generate a wave of entrepreneurs that feed off of the capital of the network or the cachet that you establish with the company prior going forward. value nothing but great to have derived from the network we established. obviously, it would be even better if it had good representation of the other gender. the idea ofu think meritocracy is problematic in silicon valley? one of the things people told me was this belief that it was a meritocracy and they were hiring based on merit when you are hiring a lot of people that you knew. meritocracy in a vacuum is not a bad idea. the people that are here have earned their spot. it is a great motivator. the downside is if that is the only criteria, you select from people you know because if you don't know how to reach out into other groups, o

one of the most powerful networks in silicon valley history, which has come to be known as the paypal mafiaoup of influential people that all happened to the men. what is your take away from that? max: it's -- it's not unique. every successful startup, especially one that selects from drive and grit and entrepreneurialism tends to generate a wave of entrepreneurs that feed off of the capital of , the network, the cachet that you establish with the company prior going forward. nothing but great value to have derived from the network we had established. obviously, it would be even better if it had good representation of the other gender. emily: do you think the idea of meritocracy is problematic in silicon valley? because you know, one of the things that people who worked at paypal told me was that it was a meritocracy and they were hiring based on merit, when you were hiring a lot of people that you knew. max: meritocracy in a vacuum is not a bad idea. to be able to say honestly that the people that are here have earned their spot. it is a great motivator. is downside of meritocracy if that

as a result the paypal mafia became one of the most powerful networks in the world, all men. not a single woman. his next company he did the same thing and there is water drinking and he had to push out the brose, fire some people is a double down on culture by the time he got to his third company and not everybody has a chance to do three, a firm he was focused on hiring and promoting women. is willing to talk about it. stewart butterfield, the founder of flat entrance lack has made this his priority. by the way telling people you care about diversity matters to the people who care about diversity. he now has 43 and half% women at the company which is better than the industry average. twitter ceo at his latest company decided not to hire another man until he hired a woman. he knows that if you go too far or way too long when you're trying to focus on diversity then it's too late. in fact it might be slow in the beginning but as you go on you can move more quickly because you don't have to ask women on the street if you like their product. there are a lot of reasons this make

was a cofounder of paypal admitted to me early on that he -- only hired people he knew which were other male students from the university of illinois. and as a result, the papal mafiame this sort of literally one of the most powerful networks in the world all men like not a single woman. at his next company, he sort of did the same thing and then it became pretty broy with a lot of drinking and push out bros had to fire some people he had to like -- , you know, double down on culture. and then by the time he got to third company not everyone has a chance to do three which, you know, as we know men get more chances. a firm -- he's really focused on hiring and prioritizing and promoting women and willing to talk about this and i'm making mistake so stewart founder of slack, you know he's made this sort of his cause celeb and he'll tweet about it and every time he tweets he gets a spike in are from diverse candidates. so by the way, telling people you care about diversity, matters to the people who care about diversity. and you know, he -- he now has 43.5% women at the company which is far better be than the industry average that's not perfect. twitter ceo former twit