All the Ladies are in the house….and they are here to stay

What a year it has been.  The fork in the road is quite clear, there is no going back and it is about time.

There have been challenges for women in every single industry as long as there has been an industry.  Technology, as much as I believed back in the day that this particular industry would change all that, has been one of the worst.  The good news is that things are changing.  Yesterday, one of the top female VC’s told me that when they are investing in a really solid female founder and are looking for others to fill out the round, they only show the deal to other female VC’s to give it a first look.  That is powerful.  It means that female VC’s are holding the cards on the women founders.  There is a lot of proof in the pudding in pure data that female founders have higher ROI’s so we are going to see females rising to the top on the top of the charts.  That is a bonus for everyone particularly the next generation of women coming up the ranks as you can’t be it if you can’t see it.

As someone who has been touting this for over a decade, it is about time.  The band of female investors are organizing together vs the past (my generation) where sharp elbows were everywhere.  The first initiative is Female Founders Hours. It is happening on both coasts and hopefully will extend to other cities.  It is about women helping women.  The concept is that female investors will have 30-minute slots for a few hours, hopefully, every month, where female founders can get a 1-1 with a female investor to talk about their business.  There will be great advice, communities built and perhaps some game-changing businesses will get funded.

I am not a VC but an angel and I am honored to be part of the incredible group of female VC’s who are leading this charge.  I must admit, it makes me feel that my mission is being accomplished.

Comments (Archived):

  1. P.K. Fields

    Joanne, you took the first step before many and you have always focused on women founders, thank you.As a women entrepreneur this is incredibly exciting. For most of us on this journey we reach out to family and friends, we boot strapp and we pitch to angels before we talk to VC’s.Without sounding sappy~ without active angels like you who believe, write checks, sit in on numerous meetings, make introductions, help founders navigate through difficult decisions, etc…we would not get the opportunity to sit in a VC’s office to pitch for that next round. Thank you.Disclosure: Joanne is not one of our investors but she has been available for discussions and honest answers.

  2. disqus_WqD34itRxt

    Something about female VCs only sending deals to other females makes me sad. I understand that the pendelum needs to swing away from the male dominated dealflow side, but if the pendelum goes all the way to the other side its the same problem just different sides. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Men just get a look after a short period of time

  3. Stuart Willson

    Love this.

  4. LE

    when they are investing in a really solid female founder and are looking for others to fill out the round, they only show the deal to other female VC’s to give it a first look.This is actually a really really good gimmick and angle. And I mean that in a positive way not pejorative. It is similar perhaps to pocket listings in real estate or anytime something fresh goes on the market and as such is viewed as more of an opportunity than if it was generally offered for sale and abundant.The only downside is if for some reason other female founders don’t sign up my guess is the men might be less likely to do so as a result of the signal that is sent. So it’s probably a benefit to cloak the money trail a bit to prevent this from happening.

    1. Gotham Gal

      great analogy of a pocket listing. when people don’t bite, it just means it isn’t for them there will already be one female vc at the table so it actually works.

  5. pointsnfigures

    What’s totally weird is we didn’t focus on women founders yet 2/3 of our portfolio is just that. 2/3 of our portfolio have Hispanic co-founders. Just happened that way. But, they are building awesome companies and I think they will do really really well.