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Elissa Shevinsky

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Elissa Shevinsky
Born
Elissa Beth Shevinsky

New York City, U.S.
Alma materWilliams College, CUNY Baruch College School of Business,
Occupation(s)Author, entrepreneur, cybersecurity expert
Years active1999–present

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.

Education

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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

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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] Shevinsky co-founded Glimpse, an encrypted photo and video-sharing app,[8] 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.[9][10] In 2015 Shevinsky was funded by MACH37 for JeKuDo Privacy Company,[11][12] co-organized information security conference SecretCon,[13] and edited Lean Out: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Tech and Start-up Culture.[13] In 2016, Shevinsky joined Brave as Head of Product.[14] As of 2019 Shevinsky was the CEO at Faster Than Light, a cybersecurity company.[15][16]

Shevinsky is also known for her actions standing up to sexism in the tech industry.[2][17] 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."[18] 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.[19] She has also spoken on sexism at Uber after Susan Fowler spoke about harassment there in 2017.[20] As a Press Lead for the 2018 HOPE conference in NYC, Shevinsky called for stronger enforcement of the Code of Conduct.[21]

Honors

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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.[22]

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.[23]

Selected publications

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  • 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.[24]

Film

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Shevinsky appears in the documentary CODE: Debugging the Gender Gap.[25] She is also a cast member in the documentary Silenced.[26]

References

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  1. ^ Morley, Edward W (October 20, 2015). "Shevinsky '01 on Williams". EphBlog for Williams College. Archived from the original on March 6, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d Miller, Claire Cain (April 5, 2014). "Technology's Man Problem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  3. ^ O'Brien, Sara Ashley (July 15, 2015). "I'm a lesbian. Now will you fund my startup?". CNN Money. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  4. ^ Shapiro, Dan (2015). Hot seat : the startup CEO guidebook. Sebastopol, CA : O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp. 3–7. ISBN 978-1-4493-6073-3.
  5. ^ Grinspan, Izzy. "Times Sues Neighborhoodies Over Same Logo Used by Rodarte". Racked New York. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  6. ^ Campbell, Andy (2010). "Holy Shirt!". The Brooklyn Paper. Vol. 33, no. 26. pp. 1, 11.
  7. ^ Macpherson, Robert (March 10, 2013). "Startups at SXSW in search of some better mousetraps". phys.org. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  8. ^ Lawler, Ryan (March 8, 2014). "With An Extra Focus On Security, Glimpse Joins The Ephemeral Messaging Battle". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  9. ^ Heim, Pat; Hughes, Tammy; Golant, Susan K. (March 31, 2015). Hardball for Women: Winning at the Game of Business: Third Edition. Penguin. pp. 67–68. ISBN 978-0-698-18329-2.
  10. ^ Dockterman, Eliana (May 29, 2014). "Imagine if Half of All Tech Inventions and Start-Ups Came From Women". TIME. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  11. ^ Kangarloo, Kasra (March 4, 2015). "Mach37 Announces Spring 2015 Class of Startups". Biz Journals. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  12. ^ "Will a New CyberSecurity Law Make Us Safer?". PBS Newshour. December 29, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  13. ^ a b Weiss, Suzannah (August 31, 2015). "8 Woman-Run Tech Companies You Should Know, Because These Leaders Are Combating Sexism In The Tech Industry". Bustle. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  14. ^ Novet, Jordan (January 20, 2016). "Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich's startup Brave launches Browser". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  15. ^ Murdock, Jason (July 30, 2019). "Was Capital One Hacked or Breached? How Did It Happen and Who Is to Blame?". Newsweek. Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  16. ^ "Application Security PodCast – Elissa Shevinsky — Static Analysis early and often". feeds.buzzsprout.com (Podcast). August 18, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
  17. ^ Ovide, Shira (September 9, 2013). "Among Techies, Rude Behavior Surfaces". The Wall Street Journal. ProQuest 1430930279.
  18. ^ Shevinsky, Elissa (January 21, 2015). "Trolling is Trolling even When It's Feminism". Medium. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  19. ^ "Google's New Diversity Chief Criticizes Employee's Memo On 'Women Unsuited For Tech Jobs'". Huffington Post. August 7, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2018.
  20. ^ Guynn, Jessica (February 23, 2017). "Uber allegations spotlight Silicon Valley sexism: CEOs must confront problem, experts say". USA TODAY ; McLean, Va. pp. A.1. ProQuest 1871154027.
  21. ^ "When hackers target a conference code of conduct". The Parallax View. July 24, 2018.
  22. ^ Haden, Jeff (December 21, 2015). "The 100 Best Business Books of 2015". Inc.com. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  23. ^ Pick, Nancy (Summer 2015). "Williams Women". Williams Magazine. Williams College. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  24. ^ Reviews of Lean Out
  25. ^ Li, Shirley (April 22, 2015). "When Women Code". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
  26. ^ "Cast / Crew | Elissa Shevinsky". Silenced. April 26, 2016. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
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