Elena Brandt didn’t think twice about taking her six-month-old baby to a corporate conference: it was about building a business while being a mother.
But the businesswoman was stunned when she was… She was asked to leave a talk about pregnancy and growing a business after her baby cooed.
The mother of four, who co-founded behavioral research startup Besample, said she was asked to leave Y Combinator’s Female Founders Conference event for bringing her baby.
“I expected babies to be not only welcomed but celebrated, but that wasn’t the case for me,” Brandt told Business Insider.
The talk was hosted by founder Tracy Young, who talked about being a mother while starting a business, Brandt recalled.
Elena Brandt was asked to leave a business conference for bringing her six-month-old baby
“Darwin (Brandt’s baby) was in a stroller and I was rocking him back and forth to get him to sleep. When he started babbling and cooing, I went to the back of the room,” she said.
‘At that point someone came up to me and said, “Would you like to take your baby outside? I want people to enjoy this conference as much as possible.”
‘I later found out that she was one of the partners at Y Combinator.’
“Being asked to leave with a quietly babbling baby during a talk that was explicitly about the challenges of being a mother and founder was shocking.”
Brandt said she experienced firsthand the tension between being a mother and a business owner, but the pandemic and the rise of flexible working had shown her it is possible to do both.
“Others want to keep the status quo of business and babies as something completely separate,” she explained.
Y Combinator, the host of the event, has not commented on the alleged incident.
Brandt co-founded Besample and is studying for his PhD in psychology.
Brandt said women should not have to separate their business ambitions and motherhood.
“To me, that’s ridiculous… I realized then that the monster of systemic barriers for female entrepreneurs who are also mothers is bigger than I ever imagined.”
Brandt said he later received a private apology from the woman who asked him to leave, but he has not heard back from Y Combinator.
“If you really want to make a difference for parents, offer childcare services in the workplace. Change the narrative that tells us that children are a distraction,” she argued.
“That would be the kind of meaningful change that would make a real difference for women entrepreneurs.”
Y Combinator did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
