27 May Bloomberg: Female Tech Entrepreneurs Still Struggle for Venture Money

A new analysis done by Bloomberg tells us what many have been saying for a long time. Female entrepreneurs simply don’t get their fair share of venture capital dollars, at least in the tech world where they did their research. On average they got 77% as much as men. Bloomberg points out this is slightly worse than the national pay gap of 79 cents earned by women for every dollar men earn. Bloomberg’s study was of 2000 US based tech founders who raised at least $20 million. Sadly among the founders studied only 7% were women. Seven. Percent. This is pretty sucky.

What they don’t get into in the article is why this is the case. Many believe that venture firms simply don’t want to risk investing in a woman of child bearing years who might take off for a long period to have kids or who might leave the company altogether. This is simply hogwash. As I indicated in my latest book, The Entrepreneur’s Growth Startup Handbook, there are many easily implemented strategies to give an investor comfort of continuity of management following childbirth. Others believe that the white male dominated venture firms also still view women as not to be taken seriously and who don’t have what it takes to make the 24/7/365 commitment to building a company. Of course this is ridiculous.

Are you getting that this whole thing annoys me tremendously? With my strongest appeal I urge my fellow white males who are leading the vc world to turn the corner and provide the same opportunity for female tech entrepreneurs as they provide to men. Then maybe 7% gets to the 50% where it belongs.