Women in Tech

Lucy Heard, Marketing Assistant

Proximity Insight is a pretty great place to work. Not only do we have a fantastic product, but we have a brilliant team spread across the globe. I initially joined the company as a marketing intern in 2019, and one of the things that I first noticed was how 50% of the team was (and still is) female. There is nothing more empowering to a young, female graduate than being surrounded by a group of like-minded colleagues who share the same values and goals for Proximity Insight as myself, especially when the team is led by a fantastic female CEO, Cathy McCabe. I feel so lucky to have found such an excellent team to work with, especially in my first job post-graduation. After sharing an article on LinkedIn recently about the Top Women in Tech, I was inspired to collect thoughts from a few of my female co-workers on what it means to them to work in a well-balanced company within an industry which is traditionally more male dominated.

Mel Jensen, Product Manager

When I first started out in technology 20 years ago, I was often the only woman in the room (and once for a few weeks, the only woman in the building). Over the years the landscape has changed hugely; and I’ve seen the female to male ratio rise steadily.

Even so, Proximity Insight is the only company that I have worked at where the workforce is 50% women AND is female led, and perhaps because of that the dynamics are different to any other company I’ve worked with. I think the balance of men and women is extremely important, and that a female heavy workforce can skew a business environment as much as a male dominant organisation. At the end of the day, our customers and users are both male and female , and it’s important that our products have broad appeal – and that’s not easy to accomplish if your team isn’t inclusive.

It’s extremely exciting to be part of a team with so many inspiring, intelligent and accomplished women and men, not only because we work well together on interesting and innovative projects, but also because Cathy and the leadership team have fostered a people-first approach, family life and professional life feels integrated and that one isn’t at the expense of the other. This, coupled with the fact that we are developing exciting new digital products and working with some incredible brands on their digital transformation makes Proximity Insight the most inspirational and rewarding company that I’ve worked for.

Fran Mayller, Customer Success Manager

I had been thinking about moving from retail into technology for a while. However, it is really hard to transition into the technology sector when my experience was purely customer facing, luxury retail. The joy of joining Proximity Insight and working with the team is that I have had the opportunity to learn (such a steep learning curve!), apply my existing skill set and thrive in an industry I am fascinated by.

One of the greatest pleasures of my working life is to collaborate with my colleagues and to work in a company where 50% of the team are women as equality is extremely important to me. Having a female CEO leading Proximity Insight is very exciting especially in what is a traditionally male-dominated industry. Cathy is a role model and an indication of what can be achieved. She, alongside the rest of the team inspires me on a daily basis!

Amelia Curwen, Global Marketing Manager

I feel fortunate to work at Proximity Insight for many reasons:

1. The team is exceptionally talented as well as passionate about the success of the company, exposure to that kind of energy is motivational fuel.
2. Everyone is as kind as they are talented. Our CEO, Cathy, has cherry picked the team not only based on merit, but based on finding the right characters.
3. Equality is important to me and the gender diversity at Proximity Insight is impressive given the averages of the tech industry, and we’re by far the better team for that reason.
4. There is always space to bring in your own ideas and if you’re willing to put in the work PI will provide you with incredible opportunities.
5. ‘I work at a tech company’ sounds cool.

Cathy McCabe, CEO and Co-Founder

I am a first time CEO and therefore I don’t pretend to have all of the answers. If I don’t know something I will ask for help or guidance. In my role I am constantly learning and growing and I work closely with my co-founders, our team and with my external network to draw on experience and learnings. I have a very consultative approach and this underpins everything we do. We all work incredibly hard as a team but we work together and collaboration and freedom are important values which we stand by.

As the leader of a technology organisation the most important thing for me was to create a tech company that came from a very authentic place. A tech company that focuses on relationship building, on partnership and on adding value and as such we are very much human centred in our approach. I felt that it was important to build a company that puts purpose and people at the heart of the business. People are a key conduit and a good team needs to have balance. Diversity is a critical component of achieving balance and I am really proud that we have a great team and that it is 50% female. I receive a lot of compliments about our team members and the way that we work and our customers say that we really are a great partner. It makes me smile every time I hear this and I feel super proud of what the team has achieved. My aspiration as we continue on our growth journey is to ensure that we keep that balance and that we continue to provide opportunities for our team to grow with us regardless of gender, race or role. There are no half measures and we want everyone to love what they do and to be able to succeed as our company scales.