It’s the row that has got the tech world talking.
At the centre of the dispute is a politician, an investigative journalist and one of the leading voices in the European tech scene.
Step forward Samantha Niblett MP, Sifted journalist Freya Pratty and Seb Johnson, founder of Scaling Europe, who updates his 96k followers on LinkedIn on all things European tech.
The increasingly public row has polarised opinion and dragged in some senior figures in the world of tech, including Harry Stebbings, best known as the founder of The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) podcast. More about him later.
The origins of the war of words between Niblett and Johnson was a punchy article last month by Freya Pratty, a respected reporter and investigations lead at the Financial Times-backed Sifted.
The article was headlined: ‘Europe’s tech bro renaissance is upon us’ and lamented the return of tech bro culture.
She wrote: “Ecosystem podcasts go months without interviewing a woman. And hackathons are back, big time, but female participants remain in the minority.”
That probably would have been the end of the matter had Johnson not intervened.
A proud father of three daughters, he’s built an impressive community at Scaling Europe, regularly interviewing Europe’s top founders and investors. He also likes writing in CAPITAL LETTERS.
He reposted Pratty’s original article and wrote: “The hypocrisy in this article is truly ASTOUNDING.
“Freya Pratty of Sifted has just published an article in which she criticises Harry Stebbings for a lack of female guests on his show.
“And yet, I have just scrolled through Sifted’s ‘Startup Fundraise’ page and of the last 20 companies written about only ONE has a female co-founder.
“That’s one out of over 40 founders mentioned – a significantly lower ratio than Harry’s.”
For the record, Stebbings does interview a staggeringly low number of female founders on his podcast and was criticised by Debbie Wosskow, co-chair of the UK’s Invest in Women Workforce, for the lack of females in his latest initiative Project Europe.
It was at this point that South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett waded into the row and took it to a whole new level.
She’s also the founder of a group called ‘Labour: Women in Tech’, which aims to encourage more women into tech.
MP Samantha Niblett
Niblett took to LinkedIn to accuse Johnson’s post of being ‘tasteless, bombastic, and boyish’ and said it made him look like he was ‘part of the problem’.
She added: “Instead of offering to help to try and solve the issue, you opted for deflection, whataboutery, and attack. I wonder why?”
The MP even added the hashtag #boyswillbeboys.
After a short lull in hostilities, Niblett and Johnson had another skirmish this week.
It was sparked this time by a LinkedIn post from Johnson celebrating the fact that Britain is great.
Unfortunately, neither the post nor the attached video mentioned a single female.
Britain is great – but where are the women?
He wrote: “Britain has always been great. The telescope, jet engine and world wide web were all invented here.
“And now a new generation is rising with entrepreneurs like: Victor Riparbelli of Synthesia; Barney Hussey-Yeo of Cleo; Mati Staniszewski of ElevenLabs; and James Dacombe of OLIX, who are building the technologies of the future from right here.
“There’s more to be done and there’s more to be built, but I love this country and I love seeing it trying to solve the hardest problems in the world. LET’S GO.”
Niblett’s response followed soon after.
“Britain is indeed great,” she replied. “And it has women in it, not that you’d know that in your post. Where are the women in your version of Britain?”
She added: “Seb, can you see yet why many women feel invisible in the tech world? You couldn’t even mention a single woman in your praise of how Britain has always been great.
“Not a single mention of a female tech innovator from history or today.
“And that was ‘after’ a heated exchange on women being invisible.
“It now looks like you’re doing it on purpose for reach and/or rage bait because that is the only way I can think you’d write this post and not realise women appear to be invisible to you.”
Ceasefire?
The good news is it looks like a ceasefire could be on the cards.
Johnson struck a conciliatory tone in his response, saying he appreciated the feedback.
“A healthy ecosystem is one where tough conversations can be had,” he said. “You’re right to call the video out. The omission was an oversight, certainly not rage bait.
“If you ever want to chat more I’d love to grab a coffee. I’m sure we want the same thing for the ecosystem and the more people working together the better.”