“The risks of not taking this seriously are profound: lawsuits, stupid products that can’t scale because they’re designed from a myopic point of view…and a one-note culture.” ­

Imagine Cabrera’s surprise in 2014, when, while researching his 300-person company’s sales data, he found that his female employees closed deals 3 percent more often than their male colleagues and yet, on average, were paid less. It turned out that his hiring managers were being rewarded for bringing in new employees for as little as possible, which worked against women, who are less likely to aggressively negotiate their own salaries, even for positions that require savvy negotiating skills. “Most gender bias isn’t nefarious, or some global conspiracy against women,” says Cabrera. “But it creeps in, in all these subtle ways.” Cabrera raised pay to reach gender parity, and launched a training program for hiring managers to better match salary offers to a job’s skills.