Why Diversity and Inclusion matter to every SaaS business

In December of last year, we attended the first ever SaaS
E[quality] unconference, organised by the Women’s Work Institute
and held in Toronto, Canada. In a room of about 100 D&I
champions and leaders, we had a day of fascinating stories,
provocative ideas and discussions around Diversity and inclusion
challenges in SaaS. On the day after the conference, I sat down
for a chat with the founders of the Women’s Work Institute,
Kristen Liesch and Anna Dewar Gully to hear their thoughts from
all the interactions and to lay down some steps for pushing
diversity and inclusion forward. A conversation we are bringing
to this week's SaaS Revolution Show.


Without prior experience in SaaS, Anna and Kristen approached the
industry for two very specific reasons. One is that they believe
the intersection of services and tech is where the best results
can be achieved in terms of fixing diversity issues but also
because as they reached out to leaders in different spaces to see
if they would be interested in participating in a conference
aiming to address this, SaaS was where they saw incredible
uptake.


Both Anna and Kristen are equality champions but as business
strategists, they inherently believe that the topic of Diversity
and Inclusion is a business objective above all and it needs to
be approached as such. In that, every company should start with
Why.  


Listen on to learn:


What problems SaaS leaders experience when it comes to
D&I

Why diversity and inclusion remains an unsolved issue

How should each business get to a clear Why diversity matters
to our business? which will be more effective in bringing
improved results



Improving the diversity and Inclusion at both SaaStock and SaaS
is something we will be putting much more effort in 2019. By our
side, we have Zendesk, our Global Diversity and Inclusion
partner. We already have started the #TakingStockPledge, and look
forward to doing many more initiatives throughout the year so
stay tuned.


 


 


 


Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move
their business forward: 


SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/


SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: https://saastock-usa.com/


SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS
founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and
helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)


SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,
bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the
most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)