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Carri Bugbee

Sexism in Silicon Valley is holding women founders back - 0 views

www.usatoday.com/...469470001

silicon valley startups entreprenuers VCs venture capitalists

shared by Carri Bugbee on 13 Jul 17 - No Cached
  • A small but growing number of women are forming women-only investment networks, or raising starter capital in other ways.
  • With venture capital's big money bro-culture behavior coming to light, there’s a new fear, mingled with the relief: That, in reaction, male financiers will avoid women founders altogether. There’s talk of some men following the "Mike Pence rule," referring to the vice president's comment years ago that he does not eat alone with any women other than his wife. 
  • Lisa Curtis, founder and CEO of food start-up Kuli Kuli, says she has already heard of investors canceling meetings with female founders and she's worried. "I think that's the wrong reaction," Curtis says. 
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  • Even as women — and women of color — scale corporate ranks, the number of female investing partners at venture capital firms is shrinking. In 1999, 10% of the partners were women. By 2014, it was 6%.
  • Last year male entrepreneurs received $58.2 billion in venture capital. Women received $1.5 billion, or just 2.5%, according to PitchBook.
  • companies with at least one female founder performed 63% better than the all-male founder teams.
  • Melinda Epler, founder and CEO of Change Catalyst, a group that promotes diversity in the tech industry, says she scrapped her plans to open an accelerator for women-led companies shortly after meeting with a potential investor and diversity ally at a coffee shop. 
  • Research shows that women seeking funding are asked very different questions than men (about risks versus prospects) and are held to higher standards (judged on what they have already achieved versus what they have the potential to achieve), both of which affect how much, if any, capital they receive. A study in Sweden found that venture capitalists describe male entrepreneurs as "young and promising" and female entrepreneurs as "young and inexperienced." 
  • If they are pitching a product targeted at women, female founders frequently get told: "I'll check with my wife." 
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