Tracy Chou: A Relentless Force for Good in Tech

Meet Tracy Chou – a software Engineer, Diversity and Inclusion Activist and the Founder and CEO of Block Party. Her career is marked by significant contributions to both engineering and social advocacy, aiming to create a more inclusive tech environment – a desire rooted from personal experience. From calling out tech giants and pushing for diversity backed by data for the first time ever, to building tools that protect the vulnerable, Chou isn’t waiting for the world to change, Chou is not waiting for the world to change, instead she’s engineering it herself.

Where It All Began

Born and raised in the heart of Silicon Valley to immigrant parents from Taiwan, both of whom were software engineers, Chou was exposed to the world of technology from an early age. She attended Stanford University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in computer science, focusing on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

At Stanford, Chou noticed a persistent imbalance: women were starkly underrepresented in her advanced maths and computer science classes. This underrepresentation deeply troubled her throughout her university years.

“It wasn’t just about the numbers – it was about being taken seriously. About being seen. About belonging,”

– said Chou in an interview.

A Different Challenge in Career 

After graduating, Tracy quickly found herself on the inside of some of the most powerful tech companies in the world. She held early engineering roles at companies like Quora and Pinterest as the fifth and eighth employees of the companies respectively. Both were fast-paced with high-impact environments where she thrived technically, but began to feel the cultural costs of being a woman in tech.

It was not that she was alone, brilliant women surrounded her but they were often isolated and unseen. Their potential was muted by biased systems and subtle exclusions. 

In 2013, Tracy did something revolutionary: she asked a deceptively simple question – “Where are the numbers?” 

Her blog post of the same name in Medium ignited a wave of transparency across the tech industry. It challenged major companies to publish their diversity data publicly, forcing the industry to confront the hard truth about representation.

The Birth of Project Include

But Tracy didn’t stop at asking questions. She built solutions. In 2016, she co-founded Project Include, an organisation focused on giving tech startups concrete, actionable strategies to improve diversity and inclusion. Unlike the one-size-fits-all workshops approach, Project Include emphasised data-backed solutions, empathy, and long-term structural change to promote inclusion.

“It’s not just about getting more women into tech. It’s about making sure they stay – and thrive.”

The Creation of Block Party 

As an Asian-American woman outspoken on gender and racial equity, Chou also became a target of harassment, especially online. The emotional toll of persistent trolling and threats underscored a brutal reality: online platforms were not built with marginalised people in mind.

In 2018, Tracy turned her pain into purpose once again by founding Block Party, a startup that offers tools to manage and filter online harassment. Through features like “lockout zones” and curated block lists, Block Party helps users reclaim agency and safety in digital spaces.

Her goal wasn’t just to build another tech product – it was to build a better internet.

“We shouldn’t have to accept abuse as the cost of being online”,

-Chou opines. 

Legacy in Code and Courage

Chou’s work has been featured in Forbes, The New York Times, and Wired. She was named to TIME Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2022, and her advocacy has influenced hiring policies, workplace culture, and platform design across the industry.

But perhaps her most powerful legacy lies in her refusal to separate the personal from the professional. For Tracy, writing code and writing justice are intertwined, because systems, whether they’re software or social structures, are built by people. And people can choose to build better.

 – Written by Ahona Azad Choyti  for Spring ACT