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Calling All Girl Bosses
“Number one, sit at the table.” Sheryl Sandberg, one of the most badass women in tech and beyond, gave this advice during her TED talk on why we have too few women leaders. She goes on to explain that women undermine themselves by downplaying their amazing skills and hard earned success.
Recently, there has been a ton of research conducted around the way VC’s (both men and women) view female founders. Overall, the conclusions draw that female founders are seen as “risky” while men pitching similarly are labeled as “visionary.” Many studies have cited that female founders are asked questions about potential barriers to entry while male founders are asked about future market growth. It’s clear that the VC’s playing this “old boys club” favorites game need to take a step back (and potentially a step down) to evaluate themselves and their actions but I don’t think it’s fair to put all of the blame on them.
As women we need to take responsibility for our own actions. How do you expect an investor to act when you pitch conservative estimates while someone else is painting a picture of the “next big thing”. Females tend to play it safe, males tend to shine the light on only the best metrics. Women are realistic about market size, growth, and speed- while men are optimistic in these same areas. As Sheryl goes on to say in her TED talk,
“don’t expect to get…
