On Thursday 13th October, held a Club Breakfast on closing the female funding gap with an incredible panel of guest speakers including our moderator @geetasidhurobb CEO of Geeta’s coaching and founder of @noshdetox, Elizabeth Cowper Founder of @we_are_ludo, Certified NLP Master Coach, @davidbhorne CEO of @fundingfocus Investment Trust plc and author of Funding Female Founders, and Triin Linamagi, Founding Partner of Sie Ventures backing early stage female-led companies.
Improving gender equality could create 10.5 million jobs by 2050 and boost the EU economy by between €1.95 and €3.15 trillion. Gender parity is not only good for inclusion it is good for business. Women-led companies attract more investment at later stages, yet at early stage women find it harder to secure funding. Today, we heard about the factors contributing to this and can be done to effect change.
Key takeaways included:
💸Diverse founding teams that have at least one woman or ethnic minority make 2.5x better returns than only male founded teams.
💸In a study that looked at every start-up deck in NYC for tech, they found no material differences between the pitch decks themselves but 67% of the questions asked to men were ‘promotion questions’. Comparatively, 66% of questions to women were ‘prevention questions.’
💸Where’s the incentive for VCs to change? We need to create the investment ecosystem that is female friendly.
💸Founder referrals are the strongest referrals- support each other.
💸Investment firms should sign up to the ‘Investing in Women Code.’
💸Open up your networks to women you know, give actionable feedback on pitch decks.
To name a few^. Thank you to the panel and those that joined us. It’s time for action.
Out Of This World Investor Lunch
May 16, 2023
