Ariel Ekblaw

How can we be responsible as we scale up?

I'm really lucky in this regard.

My mom was one of the first women to ever fly for the United States Air Force.

So she was in the second class of women pilots admitted into the Air Force.

She ultimately became an instructor pilot and taught the guys how to fly in her particular spot.

Oh, like in Top Gun.

Like in Top Gun.

Yes.

My parents met in pilot training, so they do have a bit of a ridiculously adorable Top Gun story.

My dad was a fighter pilot.

But my mom, being one of the first women ever allowed to fly, she really raised me with a sense of pride.

And she used to say things from the time I was really little, girls are good at math.

Just reinforce the fact that you have just as much right and opportunity and natural ability to go out and really succeed and try hard.

So I bring that with me in all the different things that I do.

It really helps to have had a role model.

And that's important, I think, that we now show women who would be coming up behind us that there are role models, amazing women like Gwen Shotwell, who runs SpaceX.

Am I allowed to say badass?

She's so badass.

And that's an example of young women can look at that, whether they're in middle school, high school, undergrad, graduate school, and say, oh, wow, there is a path for me in this industry.

I might be one of a very few number of women in my quantum physics class, but there's a