Mentor Spotlight: addy CEO Mike Stephenson explains how visibility creates empowerment

Article By: Jessica Galang, Content Editor at Georgian 

When Mike Stephenson, CEO of Vancouver-based addy, decided to come out at work, he was worried that he would lose friends and business. Instead, as he writes in a Fast Company op-ed, this has helped him create a culture where difference is respected: “Employees seek workplaces where being their whole selves won’t hurt their career development or personal lives.”

Mike has always felt his lens for empathy, based on his experience as a biracial and queer founder, has bled into his business philosophy — his startup is dedicated to helping more people invest and participate in the real estate market, which has increasingly become unaffordable for many.

As a mentor for Gradient Spaces’ Founder program in the new year, Mike is hoping to build up more leaders and create more representation for the LGBTQ+ community in tech. We caught up with Mike to get his thoughts on the value of visibility and why it can make an impact on businesses.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

In your article, you talk about how your decision to come out publicly was driven by a desire to create more representation. How does that visibility create empowerment?

One thing that many people in the queer community struggle with is a lack of reflection in ourselves in different areas of society — especially in tech, and especially in leadership in tech. 

What's happened since the article came out is that multiple founders in other countries, including Singapore [editor’s note: Mike lived in Singapore, where homosexuality is criminalized], reached out to me sharing how important the article was for them to recognize that they're not alone. In Singapore [and other places] they feel alone — even though they're out to their close friends and family, they're not out to their employees, their VCs or their teams. 

A lot of my personal shame comes from filtering myself — there are still meetings where I don’t correct myself because I don’t want to come out again. When I’m travelling in roadshows and people are like, ‘Oh, you're going to get back to Vancouver. Your wife must miss you.’ Like ‘Yeah, I missed Vancouver,’ has been my answer. 

It's hard enough being a founder and being a leader — to come out multiple times a week or in a day if you're on a roadshow, it’s sometimes just too overwhelming.

What type of action would you like to see more from VCs or funders who say they want to support the queer community and underestimated founders?

I'm always careful to speak for myself as an individual, not for the queer community, because everyone has different backgrounds.

It's sometimes nice to share a bit more about yourself, and while it doesn't define who you are, — like I’m not ‘queer Mike,’ I’m Mike — I think it's sometimes nice if you are in a leadership role to lean into that vulnerability, to provide inspiration for people who aren't yet comfortable to lean into the vulnerability themselves. 

It can also just be an act of starting small. I think sometimes I feel optimistic with a small, symbolic gesture, just seeing a pride flag on a door — it feels like it’s a safe space. It doesn’t mean you have to identify the sexuality of every employee, but if there are employees who wanted to be a resource and share their experiences and provide encouragement to let other people's know without having to ask, you could be your entire self in this workplace, I think is great.

What difference do you think an environment that invites vulnerability makes for employees?
Even if you just have one filter in place, it compounds and it starts filtering your ability to really live your entire self. [With an open environment], you've got so much more cognitive capacity to lean into what you're passionate about outwards, whether you're a coder or a copywriter.

Do you have advice for founders who are thinking about joining the Gradient Spaces Program?
I think Gradient Spaces is a great opportunity for people to be supported by people who reflect themselves, which I think is super important because you'll get to that level of power and creativity just because you're not filtering. Gradient Spaces can help people focus on that goal with the filters they have to worry about because of bias. 

What are you most excited about as a mentor joining Gradient spaces?

What I'm most passionate about are companies that operate like B corps with that triple bottom line of societal, environmental and economical. Because if there is no economical return, we can't persist and achieve our societal and environmental returns. I think the minimum standard of business today is at the triple bottom line.

Mike Stephenson will be a mentor in the first cohort of our Founder Program - Canada’s first equity-free incubator for queer founders. And guess what? The deadline to apply has been extended to January 20th. Apply today!