Girls In Tech

…Or so says a recent TechCrunch posting, and we tend to agree.  As the article’s author Vivek Wadhwa states, although the Silicon Valley is one of the most diverse in the nation, it still falls behind as far as female entrepreneurs go.  “People in technology businesses are drawn to places known for diversity of thought and open-mindedness,” states Professor Richard Florida.  And, it is the wish that the owning and running of businesses reflects that when it comes to gender representation. 

As Wadhwa observed, even at the recent Crunchie awards, the only woman CEO who graced the stage was TechCrunch’s leader Heather Harde.  Recent Dunn and Bradstreet data shows that of the 237,843 firms founded in 2004, only 19% of them had women as primary owners.   Also, only 3% of tech firms and 1% of high-tech firms (ie. Silicon Valley) were founded by women.   The same holds true for the VC firms – mainly male dominated.   He hypothesizes on several potential reasons for this, including drive, motivation, education and women’s participation in business and MBA programs. 

 However, as he points out that Shaherose Charania  of Women 2.0 believes:  it is because women have fewer female role models and mentors going into this space.  Additionally, it is harder for women to gain funding than men.  She cites that historically, women-owned companies received fewer than 9% of venture capital investment dollars in 2007. 

However, Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia (a venture accelerator), thinks that there is not an outward bias against women, but simply it is the way the VC industry operates.  So, there are some hidden biases, she claims, that affect the funding women (and all) start-ups receive.  They include:   1) VCs hold clear stereotypes of what successful CEOs look like; 2) VCs invest in people they know; 3) VCs wish to invest in serial entrepreneurs; and 4) the VC community is very obviously male dominated.  She expands upon these ideas; and the article hints at a future publication that will show how women can overcome them.

So, watch TechCrunch for a future post by Wadhwa, in conjunction with NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) CEO Lucinda Sanders, Charania and Vosmek, who have all given their suggestions on starting to shrink this gap. 

To read the full article, click here: http://tcrn.ch/9XJvOw.

(source: “Silicon Valley: You and Some of Your VCs Have a Gender Problem,” by Vivek Wadhwa)