funding 2% of girls’ dreams
At present, women receive a meager 2% of U.S. venture funding despite being 51% of the population. Pre-pandemic, was the zenith where we were given a whopping 4% of VC dollars. Those were the halcyon days to be sure.
Since then things have gone from bad to worse. And it’s hurting everyone - not just women.
Some people see this discrepancy and jump to the false conclusion (which they tend to voice loudly & proudly): well, maybe it’s because women don’t have good ideas or can’t cut it as entrepreneurs. Seriously, I cannot tell you how many men (and some women) believe this blatant lie.
So, let’s just talk about (and celebrate!) women innovators for a minute.
Women successfully launch, lead, & innovate
We have women to thank for computer programming languages. The very first programming language was written by a woman, Ada Lovelace. The Ada programming language is still used today - in fact, it’s what they use at the Pentagon. Ada was an English mathematician who has been called the first computer programmer. She wrote the first algorithm, or a set of operating instructions, for the early computing machine. Her process for having a machine repeat a series of instructions, called “looping,” remains a staple of computer programming today. Not only that, the first computer programmers who cracked the Enigma code were women, working alongside Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.
We can also thank women for giving us treatments for cancer, duct tape, white out, life rafts, bras, the Murphy bed, dishwashers, car heater, Kevlar, home security systems, ice cream, call waiting, non-glare eye glasses, caller ID, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, windshield wipers, aquariums, malaria treatment, coffee filters, space station power systems. Who says women don’t have good ideas?
Despite these accomplishments, the popular conceptualization of an entrepreneur has always been gendered and considered to be masculine. Entrepreneurship is masculine-coded, and feminine qualities are considered antithetical to entrepreneurship. This reinforces a startup ecosystem characterized by a “bro culture” of “alpha males,” in which behaviors and characteristics that are stereotypically masculine are the ones that are welcomed, encouraged, and rewarded.
Women-led ventures enjoy strong returns
But many women do succeed in entrepreneurship. Female founding teams produce more than 2x the revenue and go on to hire 2.5x more women executives and employees than all-male founding teams. Women-led ventures also perform better over time, generating 10% more in cumulative revenue over a five-year period. For every dollar of funding, female-owned start-ups generate seventy-eight cents, compared to male-owned start-ups which generate thirty-one cents. In other words, women-led ventures generate 10% more in cumulative revenue.
Even though female founders get a paltry (and frankly embarrassing!) amount of venture funding, women-founded businesses generate better revenues than male-founded businesses:
Women are more likely to create ventures for social good
And let’s not forget that women are more likely to create social innovation ventures that have a positive impact on their communities and the world. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Global Report 2019/2020, women start more purpose-driven businesses than men; women state their reason for starting a business is “to make the world a better place” versus men’s desire to “build great wealth or very high income.”
Even with all this positive data, the current venture capital and high-tech startup ecosystems reinforce the belief that the driving force of human invention is somehow linked to a drive to dominate the world around us and that behaviors and characteristics that are stereotypically “masculine” are the ones to encourage, validate, and reward. A myth has grown around the violent father of invention bringing new things into the world through conflict, competition, and the scaling up of ideas at the expense of everything and everyone around them.
Let’s flip the stereotypes
But couldn’t innovation just as well “repair” as “crush” or “defeat”?
Couldn’t new inventions and new ventures “help”?
Couldn’t they “contribute” to the market ecosystem instead of “dominating” it?
What price are we asking people to pay for innovation in a violent, winner-take-all scenario?
Why must improvements for women cause men to be worse off?
Can’t women’s lives and men’s lives be improved together? Why must it be either/or? Why not both/and?
Why do we perpetuate the dysfunctional belief that if someone wins someone else MUST lose?
What does this mindset get us besides anger, resentment, violence, and a rapid race to the bottom? Leaving women with only 2% of funding for their dreams…
Entrepreneurship and innovation are not finite. To succeed as an entrepreneur, no one else must lose. That’s not how entrepreneurship works.
Let’s write everyone into the story of entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is positive sum; it is additive. Which means entrepreneurial resources do not need to be rationed or hoarded. The more high-quality businesses that startup and scaleup means more jobs, wealth, and security for all. Entrepreneurship and innovation are the fuel for economic development. Innovators and entrepreneurs build businesses that create jobs, strengthen market competition, and increase productivity.
When we write everyone into the story of entrepreneurship, we gift everyone with potential, possibility, and prosperity.
