Why two female start-up owners invented a male business partner

Penelope Gazin and Kate Dwyer, entrepreneurial founders of the online art marketplace, Witchsy, worked remotely with a number of male designers and programmers and encountered what many women in tech fields have long learned comes with the territory. Some made wisecracks about women running the business. One developer allegedly threatened to take the site offline when Ms. Gazin refused to go on a date with him. The two women came up with a solution: communicating with their vendors using an email account of a fictitious male colleague, Keith Mann. “It would take me days to get a response,” said Ms. Dwyer, “but Keith could not only get a response and a status update, but could also be asked if he wanted anything else or if there was anything else that Keith needed help with.”