Sophia Viklund

It started with one conversation

Los Angeles, 2011. A tech event. A woman named Audrey Roy shares a vision. Everything that follows begins here.

How did PyLadies get started for you?

It started with one conversation, and one extraordinary person.

I met Audrey Roy at a tech event in Los Angeles in 2011. She shared her vision of wanting to make a real difference for women in tech — telling us about being one of very few women at MIT, and how she wanted the next generation of women to feel genuinely included. A vision that was immediately magnetic.

Audrey became the gravitational centre of everything that followed. With her extraordinary competence as a programmer, her infectious energy, and a heart that genuinely wants to help people, she drew together a remarkable band of women who all worked in tech — and somehow turned us into something much bigger than the sum of our parts.

Looking back, it was one of the most wonderful chapters of my life. I got to actively learn, build, and participate in a community project that taught children Python — and in the process developed community building skills that I later used to co-found the Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group and other tech initiatives.

One thing that often goes unsaid — PyLadies has always attracted amazing, supportive men. They showed up to every seminar, every community event, every conference, rolling up their sleeves to help. It truly took a village. And I am deeply grateful to every member of the Los Angeles software engineering community, the Python Software Foundation, and our early sponsors who believed in PyLadies and helped put us on the map.

What was the feeling after those first workshops?

The feeling was joy. Pure, uncomplicated joy. And the outcome told us immediately that we had stumbled upon something real.

PyLadies had emerged at a genuine watershed moment — we were among the very first organisations specifically dedicated to teaching women and children to programme, at a time when almost nothing like this existed. We were teaching children, young adults, and women how to code in Python while simultaneously creating a space where women could launch and grow their careers in tech. Nobody else was doing both at once, and the response from the community made that gap impossible to ignore.

What I remember most, though, is the energy in the room. Children, teenagers, parents, women and men in tech all coming together to learn, to teach, to mentor — and then staying late to celebrate together afterward. There was a feeling of something important being built, and everyone present could feel it.

I remember those early events with real love. They remind me why community, when it is done right, is one of the most powerful forces in the world.

Was there a specific moment when you knew it was working?

It was never one single moment — it was an accumulation of them.

It was the faces. Children and adults alike, completely absorbed in learning Python, lit up with that particular excitement that only comes when someone discovers they can do something they never believed they could. That expression — I saw it again and again, across different events, different people, different backgrounds — and each time it told me that what we were doing genuinely mattered.

Underneath that was something equally powerful — the feeling of the community itself. The enthusiasm of my fellow PyLadies. The warmth and generosity of the Los Angeles tech community surrounding us, showing up not because they had to, but because they believed in what we were building.

Together, those moments told me we had created something real. Not just an educational seminar — a real, strong, living community. And those memories are ones I will carry and cherish for the rest of my life.

How do you feel now that it grew far beyond where you started?

Profound pride, deep gratitude, and honestly — pure wonder. Those three things, in equal measure.

When we started in Los Angeles in 2011, we were a small band of women who loved Python and wanted to make a difference. The idea that this would one day grow into a worldwide movement with communities on every continent was simply beyond anything we imagined sitting in that first room together.

And yet here we are. Every local PyLadies community is led by someone who chose to give their time, energy, and passion to advocate for Python education — reaching children, young adults, and women who would otherwise never have had that opportunity. That is not a small thing. That is a life-changing thing, multiplied hundreds of times over, across the world.

I am tremendously grateful to every single PyLadies organiser and member. To my original co-founders in Los Angeles. To the entire global community that took something we started in a room together and carried it further than we ever dreamed possible.

That is the most any founder can hope for — that what you build outlives the room where it began.

Do you think gender inequality in tech is different now?

A caveat before I answer — I can only speak to what I know directly. For the past decade, that has been Silicon Valley, which may be its own particular universe.

My honest observation is that in Silicon Valley’s startup ecosystem, it has become less about whether you are a man or a woman, and more about what you are made of. The competition here is extraordinary — a concentration of talent unlike anywhere else on earth. In that kind of arena, what ultimately matters is the value each individual brings to the table.

That environment demands the strongest possible character. The losses, the rejection, the hardship on the road to building something meaningful — it is brutal for everyone.

Which is why I have the deepest respect for every founder who steps into that arena and keeps going. Men and women alike. To me, building powerful new things that bring genuine value to humanity is the meaning and joy of my life.

Sophia Viklund is one of the seven original co-founders of PyLadies. She’s a serial entrepreneur and Python/Django developer — co-founded BackCode (game development and data visualization) and New Sun Technologies. Angel investor at Golden Seeds, backing women-owned companies. Speaker for the US State Department on women entrepreneurs. Co-founded the Silicon Valley Deep Learning Group. Forbes featured.