About a year ago I was on an investor panel with hundreds of women founders in the audience. A woman stood up and asked “What do you recommend to us women who are about to fundraise given the odds are against us?” As this question was asked, the women around the room looked like deer in headlights. What have we investors and the media done? While raising awareness of a very serious issue (in case you haven’t heard, the vast majority of venture capital has gone to male founded companies v. female founded), we have helped perpetuate the exact cycles we mean to call out and squash. Fundraising is challenging enough but if you are deflated before you begin, it is guaranteed to be brutal.
Image: Caren Maio, founder and CEO of Nestio, a portfolio company of mine, and me. (Courtesy of Jenny Lefcourt)
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