LeanIn.org, the community website dedicated to women (and men) leaning into their ambitions, recently launched in conjunction with today’s release of Sheryl Sandberg’s conversation-sparking book Lean In. LeanIn.org co-founder Gina Bianchini, who is also the CEO of Mightybell and an advisor to the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, says her inspiration to start LeanIn.org along with Sandberg came from her personal desire to be a better entrepreneur and build better teams. And you know, LEAN IN.
Practical education around skills training for women and men together was missing, Bianchini says. “What if you could actually do something like what Khan Academy has done but with better teams and better dynamics in terms of being able to achieve innovation?”
Bianchini says that although there is still a long way to go to achieve gender equality at the top, there is a burgeoning focus on what women can do as opposed to what holds them back.
“I’ve grown very tired of the question, ‘Why aren’t there more women in technology?,'” she said.
Bianchini admits to leaning in so hard that she has at times fallen on her face, but she insists she learned just as much from her failures as her successes. With LeanIn.org, Bianchini and Sandberg want to create a community that will enable members to take those sorts of chances as they lean in with support from their peers.
Watch the entire interview above.