Female Entrepreneurs And Venture Capital
“If you are a woman building a company in Silicon Valley, you are statistically more likely to be hit by a venture capitalist than funded by one.”
Linda Hahner, president of San Francisco based Out of the Blue Design.
In 2006, 30% of all businesses were owned by women, female owned business the fastest growing economic trend, yet between 5 to 7% of venture capital is allocated to these businesses. 73% of female founded companies’ growth capital is instead sourced from individuals.
Why?
According to Carol Sands (at the time of the interview, a managing member of a group of professional angel investors), “The real reason why women lag behind men in attracting venture capital dollars is that fewer women actually ask.”
Why don’t we ask, especially since we are more likely than our male counterparts to seek professional advice?
Talking informally to some of my female entrepreneurial buddies, one of the reasons is a lack of understanding about the process. Venture Capital Funding is a mysterious black box right from where to find a venture capital firm (antiventurecapital.com ironically has a great listing ) to the exit strategies venture capital firms normally use.
Fortunately there are some organizations to assist with the funding process. Springboard Enterprises ( http://www.springboardenterprises.org/ ) is a non-profit organization connecting female entrepreneurs with equity capital.
on July 17th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Hi Kim -
see, I am capable of learning new things!
sort of.
I even figured out how to add more page elements to my blog. Woot! Now on to figuring out how to upload a picture!
In honour of your business blog I quoted Conrad Black in my ‘quote of the week’ section.