the impact for the businesses
38% of female entrepreneurs were funded
with 25% of the applied for amount
62% of male entrepreneurs were funded
with 50% of the applied for amount
The 2017 & 2018 Studies
Recordings of VCs talking about investments shows why women founders have such a hard time
Quartz, May 2017
' It’s seldom that someone outside investors’ inner circle gets an unvarnished look at deliberations.
Researchers at Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology got that view. It’s not pretty. '
Solution: After awareness training, with the skills to notice what we're unintentionally doing, bring in reminder checks along the investment decision process. Challenge yourself, and agree to challenge each other, when you notice discussions veering to stereotypes. Write down your basis for investment decisions relating to the entrepreneur, compare with other investors, and against notes on other entrepreneurs.
When stereotypical gender notions see the light of day, will they burst? Venture capitalists' gender constructions versus venturing performance facts
2018
Malin Malmströma,⁎, Aija Voitkanea, Jeaneth Johanssona,b, Joakim Wincenta
a Department of Economics and Technology and Society, Luleå University of Technology and Hanken School of Economics, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden. Halmstad University, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden
' Although often discussed, there has been limited effort to match venture capitalists’ construction of gender notions with specific facts about the entrepreneurs’ venturing activities. This study shows how stereotypical gender notions of both men and women entrepreneurs are embedded in venture capitalists’ assessments and analyses as well as explores whether or not these notions have substance based on actual performance. Drawing on interview data and statistical analysis of objective key performance information from accounting reports, we identify four myths in the evaluations of 126 venture capital applications for governmental capital that do not have any significant empirical substance. We discuss these findings’ implications for the study of myths in women's entrepreneurship. '
Spoiler alert: All four gender myths were disproved by the actual statistical business performance.