MicroConf is committed to creating an environment that promotes software entrepreneurship and champions its accessibility to any and all who can benefit from it, regardless of class, race, gender, or any category that may segregate populations.

We are not naive enough to believe that there are not barriers to software entrepreneurship as it stands today.

We do believe that we have identified pathways that can be traveled by many, and will continue to create resources and tools that democratize access to the industry and make it available to anyone who seeks this path.

MicroConf began efforts to foster a more diverse community a decade ago, and we have seen slow, yet positive change in % of underrepresented founders in the community.

We will both continue and expand these efforts to achieve our goal of promoting software entrepreneurship and championing its access to any and all who seek it.

Moving the needle on diversity is not a short-term pledge, but a commitment of years of effort and focus.

We recognize the challenge that we do not currently have sufficient reach within underrepresented communities to change the demographic composition of our event attendees, and we are taking steps to remedy that through efforts outlined below.

We are committed to investing our time and resources for as long as it takes to achieve the goals outlined herein.

Steps we are taking:

• Creating scholarship opportunities for under represented founders to allow them to access the resources we create at low or no cost.

• Creating a welcoming and safe environment for all who participate in our online and in-person community and events.

• Championing and sponsoring efforts to encourage diversity in software in the greater industry through platforms and organizations with missions tied to DEI efforts in tech.

• Surfacing and championing a roster of diverse speakers through our livestreams, podcast, virtual events, and in-person events.

• Establishing a minimum requirement of recruiting and hiring Keynote speakers that effectively represents a doubling of the diversity of our community (as measured by the State of Independent SaaS Survey).

• Advocating for diversity through our own media outlets, raising awareness of DEI among software entrepreneurs and the opportunity of software entrepreneurship .

• Reaching out to groups and organizations of underrepresented entrepreneurs to ensure they are aware of our offerings and events, both online and in-person.

What we need from our community:

• Continue to foster a welcoming and inviting space for everyone.

• Recommend MicroConf to any SaaS founder or aspiring founder you know, especially those who look, speak, and think differently than you, and invite them to join our events, share our content with them, and introduce them to other founders you have forged relationships with through our events and programming.

• Allow for thoughtful + meaningful conversations had in good faith, with a mutual intent to listen, learn, and expand intellectual understanding of the value of diversity, equity and inclusion.

The MicroConf Code of Conduct allows us to make determinations around the acceptability of speech within our space and we will enforce that code. Freedom of speech does not equal freedom from consequences of the words you choose.

To date, we have not spent as much time asking our speakers or surveying the community about their religious affiliation, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, or non-binary gender identity. We may decide to broaden our scope of surveying tools to include those categories, but the more critical action we can take today is to ensure that we are finding outreach opportunities to ensure that members of those populations know that we are committed to making MicroConf an inclusive community where they can find belonging.

Speaker Diversity

Each year, we survey hundreds of independent SaaS founders who encapsulate the demographic profile of our the industry. With this data in hand, we are able to track changes on a year to year basis.

We have decided to tie the thing we can control most, the representation of founders and speakers from diverse backgrounds asked to keynote our events, are guests on our podcast, and other content opportunities that we create, to the results of the State of Independent SaaS survey and by the % of underrepresented founders surveyed. We've established a minimum requirement of 2x'ing those values as a baseline for quantifying our speaker diversity efforts.

While we will continue to seek alignment with diverse composition of the general population, we understand that the industry itself has its own composition, and we will adjust these minimum thresholds as we see changes put forth in the State of Independent SaaS report.

Accessibility

MicroConf will take all measures to ensure that our events are accessible to all regardless of their bodily ability. Accommodations will be made to ensure that hearing, visual, and movement impairments are not a barrier for attendance at MicroConf digital and in person events.

Resources

Diversify Tech - They connect companies to candidates who are underrepresented in tech.

List of investors, accelerators, and resources supporting underrepresented founders and investors by Anna Phan

Backstage Capital - Capital Investment for underrepresented founders