We haven’t advanced over these past two decades when it comes to views on women and leadership.

By Kim Polese (Contributor, Forbes)

When I first read Eric Jackson‘s post Wednesday on FORBES entitled, “Sheryl Sandberg is the Valley’s It Girl – Just Like Kim Polese Once Was”, my immediate thought was – how sad. How sad that as an industry and a society we haven’t advanced over these past two decades when it comes to views on women and leadership.

As with all the past lazy, stereotype-ridden articles like this one, it gets the facts wrong. For example, writing about Marimba, the software company I co-founded and led as CEO, Jackson states that “after the bubble burst the company had no future and sold for twice its venture capital raised to BMC.”

Actually, after the bubble burst, Marimba weathered the storm far better than most because we had superior products and an enviable customer base of Fortune 500 companies. As a result, in 2004 Marimba was sold to BMC for $239 million – nearly 15 times its venture capital raised (see CNET, “BMC Snaps Up Marimba”).

Making that kind of return on capital is a home run. What’s more, Marimba was a pioneer in the now multi-billion dollar Internet systems management market and Marimba’s technology continues to be a core part of BMC’s product portfolio to this day.

» Read the full article on Forbes.