Ravs Kaur, chief technology officer and co-founder of Uplevel. (Uplevel Photo)

In August 1990, 9-year-old Ravs Kaur and her family fled Kuwait City as it was invaded by Iraq, quickly leading to U.S. involvement and the Gulf War.

Her father led his family of four to India where they took refuge for about two years before returning to Kuwait. Her father’s actions during the harrowing experience showed Kaur facets of leadership from which she has drawn throughout her career, including her current role as chief technology officer for Uplevel, a Seattle tech startup.

“His actions made us believe it would be OK,” Kaur said. As the family was fleeing and her dad was focused on meeting their basic needs, he acknowledged that for his daughter, that included the comfort of favorite dolls and toys, and he brought them along, too.

“You think about that empathy as a leader. He was able to be in my shoes. He could get my fear and anxiety,” she said. “Not only did he acknowledge it, but he helped me through it.”

Ravs Kaur and her family enjoying Venice. (Photo courtesy of Kaur)

In addition to empathy and a belief in long-term success, Kaur internalized her dad’s willingness to take risks, manage uncertainty and act boldly.

“It’s not very different from how you lead teams,” she said. And they’re leadership skills that are coming in handy as a female CTO — a role not often held by women — at a startup during a global pandemic in a time of social upheaval.

Kaur is a co-founder at Uplevel, a platform to boost productivity for engineering and a Madrona Venture Labs spinout. The 16-person startup has raised $7.5 million and came out of stealth mode in January. Kaur was previously in director and senior roles at Tableau, where she worked nearly six years, and more than a decade at Microsoft. She came to the U.S. in 1999 to attend college, earning a degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan.

Over time, she has heard people’s slights, as they wonder whether she has landed leadership roles to meet diversity goals or because she earned them. Kaur has been told that she needs to be “more visible” in meetings. Initially, she took the comments personally, but eventually realized that she wasn’t alone.

“These challenges are not just individual, they are part of a big pattern of what women face,” she said, and added that other struggles for women include lagging self-confidence, networking difficulties, managing personal and professional lives, and societal expectations of women being a family’s primary caregiver.

Kaur has learned to navigate the hurdles, ignoring the digs and letting her talent speak for itself. She’s found her authentic voice, and advises other women that they don’t need to always share dazzling insights, that colleagues simply want their opinions and suggests that they can also follow up by email.

She’s flipped her minority status on its head, making it a strength instead of a weakness.

“There are advantages,” she said, “because you bring a unique perspective that no one else has.”

We caught up with Kaur for this installment of Working Geek, a regular GeekWire feature. Continue reading for her answers to our questionnaire.

Current location: Sammamish, Wash.

Computer types: Surface Laptop 2

Mobile devices: Pixel 3

Ravs Kaur, her husband Manu Vij, and their children. (Photo courtesy of Kaur)

Favorite apps, cloud services and software tools: For work: G Suite, Miro for remote brainstorming. For personal: Google Photos, Amazon, Alexa, Kindle, Google podcasts

Describe your workspace. Why does it work for you? I converted a bedroom in my house into an office. We have a bookshelf with all of our family board games. I have a sitting/stand desk. I have a huge monitor. And I always have music in the background. I love how much light is in the room and that my kids can pop into my meetings. They’ll make sure they recognize my colleagues before they interrupt. If it’s someone they don’t recognize, they’ll stay away until the end of the meeting.

Your best advice for managing everyday work and life? As I’m writing this, my daughter is trying to sit on my lap. For me, there is a recognition that everyone’s work and life are very mingled right now. I’m trying to embrace this as much as I can. I make sure that when I’m “done” with work that I have some sort of transition. Typically I’ll take a walk into our cul-de-sac and check-in on my kids and catch up on their day.

Your preferred social network? How do you use it for business/work? I’m not a huge fan of social media. I do use Facebook and LinkedIn, but I’m more just a lurker vs. a poster. I used LinkedIn to keep in touch with old colleagues and recruit for new open roles. My Facebook is really full of Instant Pot recipes and I use that for dinner inspiration.

Current number of unanswered emails in your inbox? 1,768 unread… but in my defense a lot of those are calendar invites and spam.

Number of appointments/meetings on your calendar this week? 40 meetings. Too many! A lot of my time is spent in 1:1s, leadership meetings, sprint ceremonies, customer meetings, and ad hoc meetings that come up.

Ravs Kaur and her family enjoying the snow near their home in Sammamish, Wash. (Photo courtesy of Kaur)

How do you run meetings? I typically like to start with context and goals of why we are there. I like to give space for open discussion and brainstorms, but try to keep to a certain time limit and use a parking lot for issues that need more time. When we are doing sprint retros, I like to use tools like Miro to do digital sticky note discussions so that everyone’s voice is heard — even if they don’t feel comfortable talking in front of the group. My best meetings are those where I give time back to people.

Everyday work uniform? T-shirts on the top and athletic bottoms. When I need to be more presentable, I’ll swap in a nice shirt.

How do you make time for family? I try to be really present with the time I have and keep my phone away. After work or on weekends, we try to get outside or do an activity together — or just hang out and talk. We are all night owls in our family, so our most interesting conversations happen late at night. A lot of times we are discussing cul-de-sac politics and resolving conflict between the kids.

Best stress reliever? How do you unplug? In the summer, it’s been going for a walk or chatting with friends. Love to unwind at night while binge watching TV shows. (Not so great ones these days since I’m all out of the good ones — always welcome recommendations.)

What are you listening to? Typically Bollywood songs, old and new.

Daily reads? Favorite sites and newsletters? GeekWire, of course. I like local news and international news. I keep up with news in India and Kuwait where my parents are living. I like Medium and the host of articles that Google figures out that I want to read.

Book on your nightstand (or e-reader)? I recently finished a great easy and short one: “Monday Morning Leadership” by David Cottrell. “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg is up next. Both are books that I’m reading to get inspired for our own product at Uplevel.

Night owl or early riser? Definitely a night owl.

Where do you get your best ideas? In the shower, driving, walking and sometimes when I’m doing dishes. The best ideas always come when I’m not at a screen and am doing an activity by myself. I’m old school and like to jot down ideas with paper and a pen.

Whose work style would you want to learn more about or emulate? I’m not sure there is one particular person. I like to read more about how different people approach their work, such as Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. I get inspired by different habits.

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