DataGravity is the brainchild of EqualLogic co-founder Paula Long and John Joseph, who served as the storage vendor’s head of products and marketing for several years. The startup first made a splash in June of 2012 when it raised $12 million from General Catalyst and Charles River Ventures, an early backer of EqualLogic. Then in January of this past year, DataGravity Raises $30M to Make Magic of NetApp, EMC + EqualLogic Smarts. Needless to say a lot of smart money is being put behind DataGravity.

SiliconANGLE’s CIO Editor, Bert Latamore recently did an interview with DataGravity CEO Paula Long. Speaking specifically on her experience as a woman in the tech industry, Long offers perspective on a topic that’s hotly debated in her field. Below is an excerpt from that interview:

• When did you first realize that your interests lay in math and technology?

I’ve always been interested in problem solving using analytical and logical processes on which math and technology are based. While expressing myself in writing didn’t come naturally, it was second nature for me to do so within software languages. In practice, great writing and great software are similar. They both have purpose and structure – and are most compelling when simple and concise.

• What was your inspiration? Did you for instance have a teacher or parent or other relative who encouraged you?

My path really wasn’t clear to me after high school. My father was the one who encouraged me to major in computer science. Of course, this was after I changed majors a bunch of times and he could see I was bit lost as to what I was going to do next.

• How did your friends and schoolmates react to your math and tech abilities? Did you feel social pressure to hide this part of your life while you were a pre-teen and teen?

Being good in math and science didn’t define me as a high school student; it was just a fact. It didn’t stop me from hanging out with folks whose academic interests laid elsewhere. I don’t remember deep conversations with friends in high school about academic pursuits. They were all of course impressed that I knew how many cups are in a pint and how to divide that up…

• Where did you take your degree(s)?

I graduated from Westfield State College with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.

• As a woman in tech, were you part of a minority in classes full of young men?

One of my first jobs out of college was as a civilian employee of the Naval Weapons Center. The U.S. government hired hundreds of new graduates in science and engineering and dropped us in Virginia to work on the defense system. Probably about 99 percent of my peers were male, and most of the population on the base was males. I don’t remember feeling different than my peers. I had always felt I needed to prove I was capable. Looking back, I think this had to do with my own insecurities rather than my gender. At some point you need to work past that or it will drive you nuts.

• What has your career experience been? Have you had to overcome discrimination at times and if so how did you handle it?

Early in my career a few things became clear:

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1. I had a knack for looking at complex problems and crafting simple solutions.

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2. I could recognize the difference between what could be built and what should be built. So I quickly straddled the line between developer and inventor.

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3. I was really good at motivating a team to get things done.

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So, in my 20s I led an effort to put a graphics subsystem into a real-time operation system. This allowed customers to build monitoring into their real-time applications thus making their products more valuable. Then I worked with another engineering team, the terminals group, to embed our product. So it was always technology with purpose or a mission for me.

• In the last few months I have read several reports about a “bro” culture in Silicon Valley with young men denigrating young women and creating hostile workplace situations. Did you see any of that?

I don’t see any of this; if I did it would be stopped immediately. I want to be clear, when people join a company; they become part of the culture. The culture should be open, honest and respectful. So any type of personal harassment, or discrimination should not be tolerated regardless of what motivates it. Anyone who behaved in this manner would not be working at company I was at for very long. That said, you can’t expect a culture in an engineering group to change to accommodate you. So if the language is loose in the group you join, don’t expect it to become pristine now that you’ve arrived. You add your flavor to the culture and shift things, but you can’t expect fundamental changes.

• Do you think things are changing and that young women will have an easier time pursuing math and tech based careers?

Yes. Technology itself has helped this along, since the range of things one can do in tech has grown a zillion (perhaps a bit of a stretch) times from when I started out in tech. Some people shied away from tech because they wanted a job that was more social or interactive. Ten years ago, this would have been the exception, now it’s pretty common in jobs. Today’s agile development processes, and team focused design sprints allow people to work more closely together. Add to this, things like hackathons and the work of software became more social. Also, the tech success stories are real and led by “non-technical” people. This makes it seem attainable to other young people.

• What would like to see change to encourage girls and young women with the talent and interests to pursue careers in technology?

Technology for technology sake isn’t going to motivate most people to dive in (except for the challenged few like me). So as you expose people to technology, do it in a way where the results aren’t an abstract answer but the answer to a real world problem. This can be building a web site or game to share things with your friends, or calculating how much loam you’d need for your garden. Also make sure people are aware of the careers and choices that open up if they pursue a career in technology. A smart someone once said being able to code in today’s world is as important as being able to write.