Podcast Summary

Podcast: There Are No Girls on the Internet
Host: Bridget Todd (with guest Mike)
Episode: Tech Conference Faked Female Speakers to Look Diverse – BEST OF TANGOTI
Release Date: January 30, 2026

Main Theme

This episode explores the surreal and troubling scandal where the DevTurnity tech conference created fake female speakers, complete with AI-generated photos and bios, to project a falsely diverse lineup. Bridget Todd and her guest, Mike, dissect how this scandal not only exposes the tech industry’s superficial approach to diversity but also serves as a larger warning about fake personas proliferating on the internet, and the damage they cause to marginalized voices.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context: The DevTurnity Scandal

• Background: DevTurnity, a pricey developer conference run by Edward Sizoff since 2015, was outed in 2023 for having fake female speakers and even a co-founder, bolstered by AI-generated photos and fabricated bios.
• Why It Matters: The incident exemplifies how efforts to address diversity can devolve into empty, deceptive gestures—and how tech may be uniquely vulnerable to such “catfish” scams as AI-generated personas proliferate.

2. How the Scam Was Exposed

• Discovery: Software engineer Gergely Orosz (!), suspicious of the speaker list, realized two women listed as Coinbase employees didn’t exist anywhere else online ([05:01]).
  • Quoting his findings:

    “Imagine my surprise that two of those women are fake profiles. They do not exist. Nada.” — Bridget Todd recounting Gergely’s tweet ([05:51])

• Evidence: Gergely traced profiles back to earlier years, found they’d reused the same “This Person Does Not Exist” AI headshots, and exposed the ease with which anyone could verify the fraud by checking GitHub logs ([10:22]).

3. “Inclusion” as Surface-Level PR

• Superficial Diversity: The show analyzes how the fake women were added immediately after a Twitter call-out for the lack of diversity—mere hours after the complaint ([08:21]).
• Host Theory:
  • Bridget speculates people didn’t catch on earlier because organizers (and possibly attendees) “didn’t value” the women speakers—hence, few checked who they even were ([11:52]).

4. Conference Response & Excuses

• Edward Sizoff’s Response:
  • He deflects blame, attacks the whistle-blower as “seeking clout,” and uses incendiary language:

    “...damaging my life’s work and reputation…Nothing good, only harm.” ([16:42])
    “The amount of hate and lynching I keep receiving is as if I would have scammed or killed someone.” ([23:32])

• Absurd Defenses: He claims the fake profiles were “demo personas” meant to be replaced, but had no time for a “quick fix” ([19:46]), a contradiction, as the website was updated to remove the fakes within a day of being exposed ([22:43]).
• Deflection to Cancel Culture: Sizoff blames “cancel culture” for the fallout, painting himself as a victim ([23:31]).

5. Impact on Real Participants

• Legitimate Female Speakers: Some were indeed real, but their inclusion was used to shield the broader fraud ([20:26]).
• Male Allies React:
  • Scott Hanselman and others withdrew from the conference in protest—Hanselman, for example, insists on inclusive lineups and said he felt “duped” himself ([24:32]).
• Reputational Fallout: The scandal led to the conference's cancellation, highlighting how such frauds can backfire ([28:25]).

6. Julia Krishina / Coding Unicorn: The “Catfished” Co-Founder

• The Influencer Persona:
  • Julia’s “Coding Unicorn” Instagram amassed 120,000 followers with staged photos—coded as a tech-world "booth babe," often copying content from Sizoff’s own accounts ([30:21], [36:18]).
  • In 2020, Julia was featured in a “Women in Tech” blog, allegedly responding via email—never seen, only scripted by Sizoff ([31:25]).
• Persona Red Flags: Julia’s answers downplay gender bias (“men suffer from biases equal to women”) and always conveniently side with a male-supremacist mindset ([32:25]).
  • Bridget’s verdict:

    “Tell me that does not sound like a fantasy version of a woman working in tech… She reads like a woman invented by a man.” ([32:21])

• The Deeper Lie: Social media and site data show photos swapped over years, Sockpuppeting, and that not even the same model appeared throughout—a constructed identity ([36:18]).

7. Analyzing the Motivation

• Financial & Social Grift:
  • Julia/Coding Unicorn is used to hype Sizoff’s own events, boosting ticket sales and promoting paid masterclasses ([49:24]).
  • Yet, the hosts see a deeper driver: a desire for “clout,” status as a tech influencer, and the intoxicating feedback of a large (mostly male) fanbase ([49:55], [52:32]).
• Misogyny & Male Fantasy:
  • Julia’s persona caters to male fantasies of the tech “cool girl” who is competent, sexy, not a feminist, and never “makes things awkward” ([41:15], [44:52]).
  • The account, Bridget argues, “is for men,” not for actual uplift of women in tech ([44:52]).

8. Larger Implications

• Harm to Marginalized Communities:
  • Such scams reinforce skepticism toward all marginalized participants (especially trans and gender non-conforming folks), further entrenching barriers for actual diversity ([55:47]).
  • Programs meant for genuine inclusion get derailed, and bad actors weaponize the fallout to argue that diversity has “gone too far” ([57:32]).
• False Scarcity Narrative:
  • Sizoff claims “thousands of events chasing the same small subgroup of women,” but the hosts debunk this—real work to find marginalized voices isn’t that hard ([54:10]).
  • Quoting Valerie Phoenix (@valeriephoenix):

    “Every grifter and catfish story we push for engagement overshadows marginalized individuals’ real struggles and victories in tech.” ([54:05])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the superficiality of fake inclusion:

  “Maybe it didn’t even register to be looking at [the women speakers] all that closely because maybe they just didn’t value them in the same way.” — Bridget Todd ([11:52])

• Describing Julia, the fake influencer:

  “She’s not a feminist. She doesn’t think that women have any societal disadvantages because of their gender. She has a dirty mouth… She describes herself as a free thinker… No, it’s Joe Rogan, of course.” — Bridget Todd ([41:15]–[41:27])

• Summing up the scam’s insult to both women and men:

  “It is not only incredibly insulting to women, it is also incredibly insulting to men… Like, they are so stupid and horny that if you create a fictional version of their own fantasy… they will be invested and also believe that person actually exists.” — Bridget Todd ([48:59])

• Calling out the cynicism of “diversity” for show:

  “Somehow this elaborate catfish AI-generated scam to him was less work than just like widening your network of marginalized people.” — Bridget Todd ([54:10])

• Impact on real communities:

  “We already have to prove we belong… now prove that we exist, that we’re actually humans.” — Bridget Todd ([57:32])

Important Timestamps

• [03:31] – Introduction to the DevTurnity conference and the initial red flags.
• [05:51] – How Gergely Orosz uncovered the scam and started compiling evidence.
• [08:21] – Coincidence of fake women being added right after a public call-out for lack of diversity.
• [10:22] – Use of AI-generated headshots from "This Person Does Not Exist."
• [19:46] – Sizoff’s excuses about fake profiles being “demos.”
• [23:32] – Sizoff’s melodramatic cancel-culture defense.
• [24:32] – Responses of real speakers (Scott Hanselman’s and David Heinemeier Hansson’s withdrawal).
• [30:21] – Who is Julia “Coding Unicorn”? A fabricated influencer.
• [32:25] – “Julia’s” advice on gender bias betrays her invented perspective.
• [41:15] – Dissecting the fantasy: The male-engineered “cool girl” of tech.
• [44:52] – Bridget: The account “is for men,” not for representing women in tech.
• [48:59] – Analysis of the scam’s mutual insult: degrading both men and women.
• [54:10] – False scarcity, real consequences, Valerie Phoenix quote.
• [57:32] – The ever-rising bar for real marginalized people to be “proven real.”
• [59:26] – Final notes on fake branding vs. real building.
• [60:52] – Where are they now? DevTurnity and the “Julia” account go quiet.

Tone and Style

The episode’s tone is sharply critical, irreverent, and humorous—often dropping pop culture references and snappy one-liners, but always grounding the analysis in a genuine concern for marginalized people’s experiences in tech. Bridget and Mike bring a combination of insider knowledge, investigative curiosity, and candid frustration to the subject.

Conclusion

This episode skewers the shallowness, misogyny, and grifting possible in tech’s “diversity” theater. By faking female inclusion rather than investing in real marginalized voices, DevTurnity’s organizers not only scammed would-be attendees but devalued genuine efforts toward equity and representation. The story serves as a warning: true inclusion cannot be manufactured with AI, fake personas, or cynical branding. Building authentic, diverse communities requires real work—and respect for those long overlooked.

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