Networking is key to better funding outcomes for female entrepreneurs

New research by US venture capital firm Illuminate Ventures has reiterated the problems female entrepreneurs face compared to men in getting better access to capital to scale their businesses.

The report titled “Gender Differences in Entrepreneurship: Voices of Founders and Funders” surveyed around 600 entrepreneurs and 600 VC investors on their opinions about what attitudes make for a successful entrepreneur and what the most significant barriers are to entrepreneurial success. The research was conducted in partnership with the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business.

Some of the key findings of the research include:

• male and female founders shared more similarities in their attitudes toward success and barriers than is commonly assumed, especially by VC investors;
• many investors still had a stereotypical idea of what a  tech founder “looks like”; and
• access to funding and team talent remain significant issues for female tech founders.

Interestingly, both male and female entrepreneurs identified the same two factors as their main barriers to success, though in a reversed order. While 58% of women identified access to capital as their top barrier (versus 37% of men), 49% of men ranked financial security as their number one concern (versus 42% of women). Read more

Fi Bendall - SmartCompany - 9 August 2018