Is The Gender Gap In Women Funded Startups Closing?

We talk about women entrepreneurs and startup founders a lot here at nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else. Last month at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013, Sequoia’s Aaref Hilaly said that the number one reason for such a big gender gap is that their aren’t enough women engineers.

Dave Tisch on the other hand said that women aren’t treated seriously in VC meetings, saying that this was the biggest bullshit.

Pemo Theodore the founder of Ezebis prepared the infographic below highlighting where women stand in the startup space.. Some of it is still very disturbing.

For instance, their infographic below says that 41.1% of women founders relied on outsider debt to start a business. The data also says that 21% of women entrepreneurs sought angel capital in 2009 and of those only 9.4% were successful. Also in 2009 only 11% of companies that received venture backing, had a female CEO or founder. Perhaps one of the most disturbing thing AlleyWatch found was that only 3% of all people accepted (total) in all of the Y Combinator classes, have been women.

The good news is that since he 1997 census women owned businesses have gone up 50%. In 2011 8.1 million businesses led by women have generated nearly $13 trillion dollars in revenue.

Check out the infographic below:

This accelerator in Memphis Tennessee, specifically for women founders, extends application deadline through June.

David Tisch On The Biggest Bullshit VC’s Tell Women Founders & Entrepreneurs

Alexia Tstotis sat down with a pretty powerful VC panel at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC 2013 on Tuesday morning. The panelists were Mike Abbott (Kleiner), Aaref Hilaly (Sequoia), Naval Ravikant (AngelList) and David Tisch (Box Group, former Techstars NY). Tstotis asked some great questions of the panelists and overall the panel shed a lot of light on the world of VC, especially for young entrepreneurs and startups.

Tstotsis final question revolved around women in technology, startups and entrepreneurship. Everyone wants to know what will help even out the amount of venture capital going to women founders, as their male counterparts.

Overall the number of women involved in VC and angel backed startups has been increasing. Lot’s of attention lately, has been focused on women run, and founded startups. We even feature a “Bad Ass Start Up Chick” on a regular basis here at nibletz.

At the panel though David Tisch, who’s known for speaking his mind and off the cuff, got applause from the audience when he talked about one of the biggest problems women face when in the meeting, pitching the VC.

“VC’s that tell a woman founder, let me ask my wife…It’s total bullshit” and he’s right. For years there have been women led companies, women focused brands, and women focused technologies, this is nothing new. Tisch felt it was off-putting and a total cop out for VC’s to say this, but as he points out, it happens all the time.

Check out the video clip from this morning’s panel below.

Check out more of our TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 coverage here.

Cleveland’s Bad Girl Ventures Announces New Class Session And $25,000 Contest

Women in tech and women in startups are quickly becoming a big thing across the country. Everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, is featuring a panel called “Kick Ass Female Founders From Everywhere Else”. Women’s entrepreneurial initiatives are popping up all over the place as well, like Memphis’ Upstart Memphis. Even young women are seeing more opportunities with things like Black Girls Code.

In Cleveland Ohio, Bad Girl Ventures is offering an educational series targeted to women and the opportunity to win a $25,000 low interest business loan. While some may gawk at the word “loan”, if you’ve been through the fundraising process, loans can actually be a better way to get early stage funding rather than giving up equity that can prove costly down the road.

Bad Girl Ventures, based in Cleveland, is taking applications for their next educational session, through next week. The application deadline is January 31st.

Bad Girl Ventures is a micro-lending organization that selects 10 entrepreneurs to participate in a nine week business course every spring and fall at no charge. The course offers mentorship, and curriculum which includes how to run a business, create a business plan, pitch and more. It’s put on in conjunction with Cleveland State University and CSU students, faculty and alumni serve as mentors, coaches and facilitators.

“Past participants say networking is one of the most valuable takeaways from the course,” said Reka Barabas, Director of Bad Girl Ventures Cleveland said in a statement. “In addition to education and possibly funding, our participants walk away with a business plan and 50 to 100-plus connections. This helps prepare them for growth whether they’re awarded the loan or not.”

“We select women entrepreneurs across a range of industries who demonstrate strong leadership capabilities,” said Barabas. “We encourage all applicants to research their business ideas and share details about the target audience, competitive edge and likelihood for success of their products/services.”

Women owned startups less than five years old are eligible to win the $25,000 low interest loan and free tuition for the course, although anyone is able to register for the course at $35 a session and $225 for the entire course.

Bad Girl Ventures has helped over 200 entrepreneurs and facilitated $115,000 in loans since 2011.

For more info visit badgirlventures.com

See the Kick Ass Female Founders from everywhere else panel and more at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, for more click here.