says. “They wanted to help, but there didn’t seem to be enough hours in the day.”
In general, men have an easier time finding mentors at work, Hamilton says. Things can be especially difficult for women at companies where they are vastly outnumbered by male peers, she explains. “We don’t have to be besties; it’s unfair pressure,” she says. “We don’t expect that from guys.”
And the women on WatchHerWork don’t have to form a consensus, she adds. “There’s no purity test,” Hamilton says. “I have people on my site that widely disagree with each other.”
To that end, Hamilton says her main objective is to ensure that the site is diverse, not solely by race, age, and professional experience, but also factors like demeanor and even height.
“I’m talking about real diversity, not just black, white, Asian. Your work life is just so different if you’re tall or short or shy,” she says. “I’m 5’11”, outgoing, and have a booming voice. It’s easy for me to say you need to do this. But a soft-spoken woman, or someone who’s short, may not be able to pull that off, so my advice ends up discouraging her further.”
Hamilton bootstrapped and “cobbled together” WatchHerWork since its founding two years ago, she says, largely relying on her existing professional network of women (and their networks) to upload advice videos. “I looked for technical co-founders but it was a tough sell,” she says. “But I wasn’t going to let the fact that guys in the coding space didn’t care about it [hold me back].”
The content on WatchHerWork is currently free. Hamilton says she’s developing video packages around topics such as pregnancy, your first job, or making use of FMLA without jeopardizing your career prospects. She plans to have them available by the end of the year; content is available for free for three days and then the site charges $6.99 a month or $75 a year.
“I’m hiring film crews in five other major cities because I think regional accents and attitudes are different and it’s important to have that,” she says.
WatchHerWork is also considering working with organizations like Digital Ocean to host a women-in-tech conference. Hamilton says she’s met with HBO about working on a project about women running for public office.
To help fuel that growth, Hamilton says she’s now looking to raise outside investment.
“I’d love to have 25,000 videos by the end of the year,” she says. “I want to give people 500 new ‘friends’ that will help people the way that they need help.”
