Esther Wojcicki on Susan Wojcicki's Tech Leadership Journey at WECode 2025

WECode 2025 Mission & Opening

• 🎯 WECode 2025 is the largest student-run women in tech conference, aiming to cultivate the next generation of technical leaders and promote representation for marginalized groups.
• 💡 The conference, in its 11th year, is holding its first-ever event in Harvard Yard and Memorial Church, featuring visionary speakers from around the world.

Esther Wojcicki's Introduction & Philosophy

• 🔑 Esther Wojcicki, a leading American educator and journalist, delivered the opening keynote, sharing her philosophy of Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness (TRICK).
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 She is renowned for raising three highly successful daughters, including Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube, and for her work founding the media arts program at Palo Alto High School.

Susan Wojcicki's Groundbreaking Career

• 🚀 Susan Wojcicki's journey began with a history and literature degree from Harvard, demonstrating that tech success isn't limited to computer science backgrounds.
• 🏠 She famously rented her garage to Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, later becoming Google's 16th employee and its first marketing manager.
• 💡 Susan was the architect of AdSense, a platform that revolutionized digital advertising and became a cornerstone of Google's revenue.
• 📈 She championed Google's acquisition of YouTube and, as its CEO, nearly doubled its monthly user base to over two billion.

Advocacy and Impact

• ✅ Susan was a vocal advocate for women in tech, stating that men have no special skills for running tech companies, encouraging more women to pursue these careers.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 She was instrumental in shaping Google's family-friendly policies, pioneering 24 weeks of paid parental leave, setting an industry standard.
• 🏆 Her contributions earned her recognition on Time's 100 most influential people and Forbes' 100 most powerful women lists.

Key Advice for Women in Tech

• 🧠 Susan advised women to work smart, not just hard, emphasizing work-life balance and stopping work by 6:30 PM to prioritize family.
• 🗣️ She encouraged women to become their own advocates, ask for what they deserve, and speak up assertively when faced with bias or interruptions.
• 🌱 Women should pursue careers of meaning and impact in growing fields like technology, be flexible, humble, and willing to take on challenges.
• ⚠️ Embrace mistakes as learning opportunities and recognize that good opportunities are often messy, confusing, and risky.