An often used phrase to describe the advancement of women’s rights is “standing on the shoulders of others” that is attributed to the great scientist Isaac Newton. The phrase acknowledges that the opportunities that the women of today have are the result of the trials and efforts of the women who came before them.
While women continue to pursue gender parity, they are struggling in the entrepreneurial arena to have the critical resources that they need to succeed—for which male entrepreneurs have ready access.
On October 26th American Entrepreneurship Today® in partnership with Keiretsu Forum Mid-Atlantic is hosting a virtual panel at 11am ET that includes three highly successful women entrepreneurs who will discuss how they achieved their success, the challenges they overcame and how women-led startups can attract investors.
One of the goals of the panel is to change the entrepreneurial arena that will lead to more women entrepreneurs succeeding. It begins with establishing a dialog about the issues impacting women. That includes getting the word out about what is working and what is not working for them.
Those attending will gain insight about the entrepreneurial landscape in which they compete from seasoned women entrepreneurs who will share their experiences. That is just one of a number of great take-aways from the panel.
Jean Anne Booth, a serial entrepreneur who has raised over $100 million in venture capital, is one of the three women on the panel. She is ready to share with rising women entrepreneurs how she was able to achieve such a high level of success—so that aspiring women entrepreneurs may stand on her shoulders to succeed.
While preparing for the panel, Jean Anne shared the Harvard Business Review article, titled, “Male and Female Entrepreneurs Get Asked Different Questions by VCs — and It Affects How Much Funding They Get” and what it revealed about the challenges women entrepreneurs face in raising funds for their startups and early stage ventures.
“I look forward to discussing the hurdles that exist and specifically the skills that can be developed when the playing field is not level. In my experience, successful fundraising female entrepreneurs have learned the skill of turning prevention questions into promotion answers”.
Panelist Joy Marcus who is an entrepreneur, investor and lecturer at Princeton University gives her perspective from both the entrepreneur and investor sides. Joy feels women entrepreneurs still have a long way to go in reaching gender parity in funding—but investors are seeing opportunities.
“Women only teams get only 2% of venture capital, but multi gender teams get another 7%. The rest goes to all male teams,” explains Marcus. “Yet, women are still not being funded despite studies showing that women entrepreneurs outperform their male counterparts in many respects including speedier time to exit.” (Pitchbook: All in Female Founders and CEOs in the US VC Ecosystem 2020).
“There is a “pink tax” in venture and women are an undervalued asset class. This gives great opportunity to those who fund them. The smartest VCs will do just that in the coming years,” says Joy.
Panelist Kim LaLande is currently raising funds for her first startup Key that provides hospitality services for vacation homes. She has been successfully applying her business development skills to finding investors.
“Building businesses are hard at every stage, and you just have to keep going and solving challenges–even when you get thrown a few curveballs,” say Kim. “When it comes to fundraising, it’s no different than finding product/market fit. Find investors who are additive in helping you along the way. I’m happy to share my experience with building KEY.”
Other panelists include entrepreneur David Stengle of Board++ and Howard Lubert, founder of the angel group Keiretsu Forum-MidAtlantic.
Jeanne Gray, founder and publisher of American Entrepreneurship Today, and serial entrepreneur, will moderate the panel.
