Valerie Alexander’s Post

Important reading. Systematic approaches to VC (using AI) can help to mitigate bias, unconscious or otherwise.

Just came across this from @pinksaltventures. I applaud the team who did the research, and entirely agree. Female founders deserve better, but what’s new? As a female founder who has lived this for the best part of 8 years… I can say that of course female founders are treated differently, and no, they’re not securing the funding they need to build their companies. That’s fact. But those companies, like mine, will still get built, even if they do grow slower, because female founders are gritty ‘AF’, and do what they need to do. So the companies of tomorrow which will stand the test of time, will be female-led, they will be less diluted, they will make an enormous difference to the world as we know it. They will have liquidation events 💰and the current mainstream VC ecosystem won’t benefit from them one bit, because… what? They can’t imagine a world in which women can uncover multi-billion dollar problems, with the capability to solve them? Or they don’t care enough about those problems, or they can’t imagine what it’s like to not invest in businesses without a man like themselves at the helm? Or they don’t have the curiosity, time or inclination to do due diligence on understanding female focused markets, beyond ‘let me ask my wife’? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m bored of talking about the obvious. It’s simple. VCs and the LPs/family offices/and deep male pockets behind the scenes who back them (a part of the puzzle I don’t think is spoken about enough), need to write cheques to women, INCLUDING the women who want to back women. It doesn’t take an MBA, or an Oxbridge/Ivy League education to figure that out. They need to take a chance on female-led businesses, just like they take risks with male-led businesses, and all the research, and data says they’ll be better off for it as women drive higher returns. Because women, cannot afford to fail. VCs with capital to deploy, put your money where you marketing campaign is (because no VC wants to be branded sexist even though their numbers do all the talking) and write cheques to female founders. Then proudly publish where you deploy your capital. Let’s see the stats go up so the 1% of funding going to female teams turns into 10% (let’s start somewhere) and then cheers to that as your returns go up. Then we can FINALLY, put this shameless, overt, archaic bias in the HIS-story books, where it well and truly, belongs.

It‘s widely acknowledged that investing is a “boys club” on both sides of the equation. In 2020, female founders received only 2.3% of VC funding, and only 22% of angel investors are women. Backbone Angels is ready to flip that script. They are a collective of women angels investing primarily in Black, Indigenous and women of color led startups. Arati Sharma and nine colleagues banded together to do what they believe is one of the most impactful things they can do for women starting a business — write that first check. https://lnkd.in/gKhBWdH8 #venturecapital #vcfunding #investinwomen #femalefounder #femalefunded

According to an analysis of Crunchbase data, white women have received 79% of seed-stage funding categorized as deployed to diverse founders, and all in all, white women received 64% of diversity investment deals by deal count, while women of color received less than 10% of diversity investment checks by deal count.  Yet we're seeing litigation being brought against Fearless Fund for supporting Black women founders who receive less than 1% of venture funding. Please make it make sense! https://lnkd.in/eMRdaWUr

Recent reports continue to shed light on the alarming disparity in venture capital investments for women-led startups, particularly for black female founders, who face an even more challenging landscape. This inequity is further compounded by the historical wealth disparities in black communities compared to their white counterparts. With black female founders often finding themselves in the position of being the pillar of stability in their families, burdened with the responsibility of supporting their immediate family. Therefore they do not have the luxury to build products without working a job to support their financial responsibilities. On top of this during the crucial pre-seed fundraising stage, these founders are expected to develop their products with limited resources, while their white male peers can secure funding based solely on a business plan. In 1998, David Cheriton provided Larry Page and Sergey Brin with a $100,000 check to support the inception of their company, Google. His intention was to enable them to concentrate solely on building the company. Similarly, female founders are seeking the necessary resources to focus and build their ventures without unnecessary hurdles or barriers. If you are an early stage investor, it’s important you take the time to educate yourself on the problems faced by female founders. It’s exhausting the number of women founders who tell me when raising funding they are told to replicate pitch decks from successful companies founded by white men or attend courses that try to replicate their approaches. Rather than being given financial support to develop their ideas! In my opinion their is a billion $ market waiting to be unlocked once we address the disparity of funding allocated to female led businesses.

"Black founders are over-mentored and underfunded," says TANTV's CEO Adedayo Fashanu. In a conversation with the co-founder of Fundr (@fundr.ai) Lauren Washington, both founders discussed some of the struggles Black female founders face in successfully fundraising. Lauren Washington also sheds light on how founders can tap into Fundr, a platform that automates seed investing by creating portfolios of vetted startups for angel investors. Fundr fosters innovation, diversity, and equity within the tech industry. The funding gap between Black women founders and their white counterparts in the tech industry is staggering. According to a project Diane Report from 2016, out of the 10,238 venture deals minted between 2012 and 2014, only 24 of them had Black women founders. Check out tantvstudios to watch the full conversation. https://lnkd.in/e9E9yvQG

Venture capital is a powerful force behind innovation, economic growth, and the creation of generational wealth. Yet, the lack of diversity in startup funding persists, as many venture capitalists tend to invest in founders with backgrounds similar to their own. To counter this trend, funds have been launched by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as women, aiming to level the playing field for underrepresented groups. These funds often support ideas that can spawn new markets and industries. However, a recent lawsuit filed by the American Alliance for Equal Rights against Fearless Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on funding only women founders of color, accuses them of racial discrimination in their grant program for Black female founders. Should the AAER win this case, it could establish a lasting precedent that might affect the entire startup ecosystem and potentially impede ongoing efforts to rectify disparities within venture capital. #VC #Equality

Black female founders in the US face many challenges, but one of the most detrimental is the lack of funding granted to them. Before 2021, only 93 Black female founders had raised $1 million or more in #venturecapital, and prior to 2018 just 34 had done so, according to the most recent findings by #ProjectDiane, a biennial report on the state of Black and Latinx women founders by the organization #DigitalUndivided. What's more, companies led by Black women typically receive less than 1% of all venture capital funding, according to data from #Crunchbase.  Below is a list of the Black female founders who have raised $1 million or more in VC since 2021, listed in order of their most recent funding amount. #YesWeLaunch #YesWeGrow #YesWeScale #YesWeWin

The #startup #ecosystem can and should do better for #femalefounders, #blackfounders, and everyone. The benefits of access to innovation, expertise, and capital need to be better shared. - Scott Fox 🦊

This should be applauded and widely publicized. Congratulations to all of the successful women highlighted in this piece. Getting adequate funding in critical moments of the life of your enterprise can be the difference between big success and failure. We must actively seek great professionals in our pursuit of entrepreneurship. The right attorney or CPA is critical as is the right mentor or coach. Coming soon my platform Goodgamechanger! Empowerment of individuals to transform their lives through personalized coaching and mentorship ! Having the right tools is half the journey knowing how to use them is the other half!