If you are a woman looking for venture capital as a female entrepreneur, then you already know: The gender gap in regards to investment money for women is huge. In 2017 alone, $85 billion in venture capital was invested in businesses of various kinds and most of them had male-only founder teams.
The Ugly Truth About Women’s Access to Venture Capital Revealed
Only 7 percent of those looking for funding had female founders, and they only received $1.9 billion out of the total—a measly 2.2 percent. Abysmal as the numbers are for white women, it’s much worse for women of color. In all the years investors have been funding startups, only 26 women of color—EVER—have been able to get funding over $1 million. Watch this video to get all the numbers.
So, Do Investors Have Gender Bias?
So the answer to “Do investors have gender bias?” is “Yes, they obviously do.” Ironically, when they refuse to step up with venture capital for female entrepreneurs, they’re just shooting themselves in the foot. Investing in women actually has a lower risk than investing in men. If they bothered to look at performance, they would see that female-led teams, or at least teams that include women, outperform male-only teams by 63 percent (Check out this Forbes article written by Carrie Kerpen).
Team intelligence goes up significantly when women are included. Listening to different points of view always leads to more creativity and a more well-rounded plan of attack. Watch this video to get all the numbers.
What Can We Do to Close the Venture Capital Gap?
So what are women to do? There might be an answer! I was contacted recently by the founder of RateMyInvestor.com, a website that lets startups review their experiences with different investors. It has the potential to streamline the process of finding venture capital for female entrepreneurs.
We can reward investors who support us, and tell our fellow women how to avoid those who don’t. With enough of us participating, more and more VCs will see the advantages of investing in women. Eventually, asking “Do investors have gender bias?” will become a thing of the past.
Let’s Grow,
Beate
Beate Chelette is the Founder of The Women’s Code and serves as the Programming Chair for the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO-LA). Once $135,000 in debt and a single mother, she successfully sold her business to Bill Gates in a multi-million dollar deal.
Beate’s supports Business Owners and organizations who want to reach them two-fold. As The Growth Architect she creates training, outreach and sponsorship programs through customized Entrepreneur skills training following the 5 Star Success Blueprint that shows step-by-step how to grow, build and scale businesses.
In addition Beate provides leadership development programs for organizations that want to implement the ROI of Balanced Leadership through The Women’s Code, her signature system that educates leaders and helps companies achieve gender equality. The Women’s Code creates and implements programs that improve organizational culture, foster productive work environments and help companies improve their people ROI.
Beate is a respected speaker and mentor and is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome”, a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.”
If you’d like to book Beate as a speaker on Leadership or Entrepreneurship for your next event please connect here.