Allison Byers’ Post

Here's a side-by-side of the tweet I posted on Wednesday and the post a man I don't know, Juan Carlos Hernandez, put on LinkedIn on Thursday.   I posted this data to bring attention to the near lack of funding to underrepresented founders. I have done this passionately for 3 years now. Juan partook in virtue signaling by posting about inequality while taking content from a woman and giving her no attribution.   His post has garnered a lot of engagement - far more than mine. He is now hooked into the algorithm that will show more and more people and he will be perceived as a thought leader for thoughts that originated with a woman. It's days later now. No edit to correct his post, no response to me, or to anyone else who has called him out. To add insult to injury, I had posted my original content in a reply, and today he deleted my response and the entire string of replies to my thread effectively silencing me. He has even blocked people who responded by calling him out. So, as the woman who had her content stolen, my choice is to say nothing or speak up and be perceived as a complainer.   As Samuel Lazarus pointed out in a response that Juan deleted, it would have been so easy for him to write “I was inspired by…” but he chose to steal the formatting word for word and trust that there would be no accountability. The sad part is he's right; he won't suffer any repercussions.   In the grand scheme of things, this isn't that big a deal. Except it is. When you combine it with all the other times this happens and the compound effects of social media visibility algorithms, it continues to push women down to complainers instead of thought leaders.   I catch a lot of heat for calling out bullshit and speaking my mind, and I probably will continue to for this also. But you know what? If you want things to change this has to happen. Over and over. By many people. Not calling it out is part of the problem.    My original post was about the extreme lack of parity in funding. Investors use social media engagement as signals of the character and reach of a founder. Copying my post may not seem like a big deal, but how does mine look against his? It unjustly skews perception.   Small things add up and turn into big things. If we don't call out the small instances of bad business ethics, they will turn into big ones.   My ask - call this shit out and hold people accountable. And, if you have done the shit, clean it up when you're called out, hold yourself accountable, and don't do it again.