Over the last 10 years, the technology community has been stuck in the "five men and a whiteboard syndrome," based on the success of technology companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

These companies have become the poster children for the successful start-up. This archetype has become so culturally ingrained that the popular HBO show "Silicon Valley" features a stereotypical start-up that employs only men. As an industry, we've too often become comfortable with this model, but in reality, the success of this structure is an outlier for successful start-up companies — not the blueprint. If you look past Facebook, Twitter and Google, you will see many successful technologies companies that had a diverse group of employees, which was part of the reason for their success.

Collectively, and at every layer, from universities to the venture-capital community, we need to break out of the five guys and a whiteboard syndrome. The following are three companies that have done so, and, as a result, built successful businesses while having policies that encourage women to join their workforce.