Sue Schneider, Paris Smith and Kelly Kehn have been in plenty of meetings where they were the exception, not the rule. Specifically with startups, the majority of attendees in a room are usually male, and mostly white.
“The three of us have done a lot of stuff with startups, and they all pretty much look the same,” Schneider said during an interview with CDC Gaming at the recent Global Gaming Expo.
“We wanted to try to create something for people who are not getting a seat at the table,” Schneider adds.
Defy the Odds is a startup launchpad that aims to help underserved entrepreneurs connect their ideas to opportunities in the gaming industry. With more than 80 years of experience, Schneider says the women have been in gaming “long enough to know there are some gaps.”
Smith says the trio brings different strengths to the company. Schneider has great networking skills. Kehn has an operational background, runs a diversity project, and is savvy enough to “know where those gaps truly lie,” said Smith, who has been a CEO for Pinnacle Sports and as business advisor and independent consultant.
“For so long, I was the only woman,” Smith says. “I would go to conferences and be the only person who looked like me.”
Smith says after Defy the Odds launched, literally two days later there were queries that now number in the hundreds. There were questions about what the new company was offering, requests to look at plans, interest the trio didn’t really expect.
The plan is to formalize the services Defy the Odds will make available.
“There so much area to cover between what people know and what they don’t know,” Smith says. “I don’t think there’s any company that can do this work.”
“And our intentions are to build this for everybody,” Schneider says.
Schneider adds that part of the trio’s plan is to reach women (and other minority communities) who may be hesitant to put forward an idea, to “stimulate” innovation.
“We want to work with the various incubators, we want to work with universities,” Schneider says.
“We want to let them know it’s not only is good idea and it is pertinent to us, but we support them,” Schneider adds. “’Hey, I could I could be a founder, and I have a good idea, but I don’t know anyone.’
“So, that’s the intent, to build a support network around that, to be able to shore that up.”
