Diversity=Profit

The current environment for women entrepreneurs, as you know, is pretty grim. Only a tiny percentage of women founders get funded. And most venture capitalists are male, so you are a rare breed. You've been both a female entrepreneur and you're now a venture capitalist. What are you doing in your current role at Fuel Capital to help empower women and address this inequity?

Well, the opportunity I see is that it's all about how the money flows, right? The reason why we don't see more female entrepreneurs getting funded is because there aren't enough female venture capitalists making decisions, and making decisions about who to give the money to. And then if you follow the money sort of up the chain further and you look at venture capital funds and who they get their money from, you look at the LP base. Are those limited partners, are they investing in venture capital firms that are diverse, that are bringing, you know, diverse perspectives, that are bringing women partners into their funds, so that they can have a broader approach to their portfolios. And certainly there is data, masses of data that says a diversity in perspectives, a broader approach in a portfolio drives profits. So really, if the limited partners want to make money, and the general partners want to make money, then it only makes sense to really diversify the portfolio and meet all kinds of different entrepreneurs. And you know, fund in particular more women.

I know that as a founder, when I walked into a room to pitch an investor, if I saw a woman at the table, I would immediately have a sense of relief. It was interesting. And it's not something I thought a lot about when I was an entrepreneur. But now I realize, I'd walk into a room, and I can picture right now walking into a room and being like, "Oh okay there's a female partner here, phew." That just made me feel more comfortable. It made me feel like maybe that person was going to understand my business in a different way, and have a different perspective. So I think that's the key, is just following the whole trail of money and the whole chain of money, and really ensuring that at every point there's a diversity and view in perspectives at the table.