Elissa Shevinsky

Elissa Shevinsky is an American technology executive, entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert, public speaker, and author.[1][2][3][4]

Elissa Shevinsky
Born
Elissa Beth Shevinsky

New York City, U.S.
Alma materWilliams College, CUNY Baruch College School of Business,
OccupationAuthor, Entrepreneur, Cybersecurity expert
Years active1999–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,[5] graduating in 2001.[6]

Early career

In 2010, Shevinsky defended her company against 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.[7][8][9] In 2012, she founded MakeOut Labs, a start-up known for casual Jewish online dating in NYC.[10]

Shevinsky co-founded Glimpse, an encrypted photo and video-sharing app,[11] with Pax Dickinson in 2013.[12] At Glimpse, Shevinksy served as chief executive of the company.[13] During her time at Glimpse, she experienced conflict with Dickinson over his defense of a pair of app developers accused of misogyny. He wrote on Twitter: "It is not misogyny to tell a sexist joke, or to fail to take a woman seriously, or to enjoy boobies". A few days afterwards, Shevinsky quit her job at Glimpse, citing the Twitter controversy as her reasoning. Shevinsky returned to Glimpse in December 2013, after Dickinson published an apology letter. In an agreement formed with Dickinson, Shevinsky would be the chief executive and public face of the company, would have to sign off on what he said in press conferences, and Glimpse would support women in technology.

After Glimpse, Shevinsky was funded by MACH37 for Jekudo Privacy Company.[14] In 2016, Shevinsky joined Brave as Head of Product.[15]

Current career

Shevinsky has spoken and written on enterprise security policy.[16][17] She spoke on the potential for social media to influence election outcomes at HOPE XI.[18] Shevinsky is the founder and organizer of SecretCon.[19]

As of 2018, Shevinsky is speaking on information security at universities and infosec conferences.[20][21][22] She is chief operating officer of SoHo Token Labs, building developer tools for smart contracts.[23]

Honors

In 2018, Shevinsky was named "Woman of the Decade" by 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]

Personal life

Shevinsky considered herself "a GamerGate neutral".[25] In a 2015 post, 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." [26] When James Damore was fired by Google, Shevinsky was widely 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.[27] As a Press Lead for the 2018 HOPE conference in NYC, Shevinsky called for stronger enforcement of the Code of Conduct.[28]

Bibliography
  • Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-Up Culture: OR Books, 2015.
  • Social Entrepreneurship: How Businesses Can Transform Society: Praeger, 2012.

Film

Shevinsky appears in the documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.[29] She is also a cast member in the documentary Silenced.[30]

References
  1. "I'm a lesbian. Now will you fund my startup?". CNN Money. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  2. "Will a New CyberSecurity Law Make Us Safer?". PBS Newshour. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  3. "Elissa Shevinsky: "Lean Out"". Talks at Google. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  4. "Lean Out". Amazon. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  5. Morley, Edward W (October 20, 2015). "Shevinsky '01 on Williams". EphBlog for Williams College. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  6. Miller, Claire Cain (April 5, 2014). "Technology's Man Problem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  7. "Times Sues Neighborhoodies Over Same Logo Used by Rodarte". NY Racked. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  8. "New York Times Sues Neighborhoodies Over Herald Tribune Logo". NBC New York. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  9. "Holy shirt! NY Times threatens DUMBO biz over logo". NY Post. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  10. "Brooklyn Cupid Wants to Hook Up the Borough". NY Daily News. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  11. "With An Extra Focus On Security, Glimpse Joins The Ephemeral Messaging Battle". Techcrunch. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  12. "Technology's Man Problem". New York Times. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  13. Miller, Claire Cain (April 5, 2014). "Technology's Man Problem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  14. "Mach37 Announces Spring 2015 Class of Startups". Biz Journals. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  15. "Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich's startup Brave launches Browser". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  16. "Securing Your Company's Data". Midwest.io. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  17. "I'm a CEO, and This Is What CISA Will Do to My Business". Mic. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  18. "The Eleventh HOPE Schedule". Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  19. "Infosec is good people". Errata Security. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  20. "Building Defenses Like You Mean It". ShakaCon. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  21. "Recap: Aptible January 2018 Quarterly Product Update Webinar". Medium. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  22. "Recap: LinkedIn". LinkedIn. Retrieved March 26, 2018.
  23. "Advancing Smart Contract Security". TokenDaily. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  24. "Shevinsky named Woman of the Decade". WilliamsCollege. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  25. "Bomb Threat Disrupts SPJ Airplay #GamerGate Debate". Reason. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  26. "Trolling is Trolling even When It's Feminism". Medium. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  27. "Google's New Diversity Chief Criticizes Employee's Memo On 'Women Unsuited For Tech Jobs'". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  28. "When hackers target a conference code of conduct". The Parallax. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  29. "When Women Code". Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  30. "Cast / Crew". Silenced. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
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