4 ms·

Despite the sex-baiting in the title, really good article with tons of actionable, non-obvious advice! I like that the founder/writer is so technically oriented

by tomp 5y ago

Despite the sex-baiting in the title, really good article with tons of actionable, non-obvious advice! I like that the founder/writer is so technically oriented, she clearly strategizes & structures her thoughts very well and I think that probably helped her with such an amazing deal (well, it looks amazing, given her starting point - though I don’t know how much of her company she gave up for that...)

MyHypatia 5y ago
The title isn't sex-baiting. The fact that the founder is female is extremely relevant to raising money. I wish that weren't the case. The problem ranges from light sexism (skepticism over whether she can "lead" and "be tough") to blatant misogyny (trying to exchange money for sex and blackballing her from deals if she refuses or talks about it). Those are things that men mostly do not have to deal with when raising money.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > blatant misogyny (trying to exchange money for sex and blackballing her from deals if she refuses or talks about it). Those are things that men mostly do not have to deal with when raising money. True that that's something men mostly don't have to deal with when raising money, but it's also something that makes it easier, not harder, for women to raise money compared to men. It's also a weird thing to describe as "misogyny"; it sounds more like a problem with liking women than disliking them.
  - shkkmo 5y ago
    I find this a very repugnant thing to say. In what way is facing sexual extortion an advantage?
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      It gives you an option for getting money that is not open to men. If your goal is raising money, it's an advantage.
  - tyrust 5y ago
    > makes it easier, not harder, for women to raise money compared to men. Do you have a citation for that? Because the article links a blog (that links a paper) that seems to say otherwise: https://medium.com/janeventurecapital/female-founders-you-deserve-your-fair-share-2b0752d99061 https://medium.com/janeventurecapital/female-founders-you-de...
dunnof 5y ago
Would you point out that a founder can "strategize and structure his thoughts very well" if it was a man writing?
- tomp 5y ago
  Only if a man did that. Things like systematically schedule 150 VC interviews in 4 weeks and analyse their reactions to specific words/phrases. Very geeky, very appropriate for HN. Only a true nerd would do that. But I really don’t see why sex would have anything to do with it.
  - beckman466 5y ago
    > But I really don’t see why sex would have anything to do with it. “Crunchbase data show that not only did total funding to female-led startups fall this year, but the proportion of dollars to female-only founders also declined, to 2.3 percent, compared to 2.8 percent in 2019.” Source: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/global-vc-funding-to-female-founders/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/global-vc-funding-to-female...
klyrs 5y ago
If you consider mention of her gender to be "bait", why did you stoop to pick it up?
dang 5y ago
> Despite the sex-baiting in the title, You've done the very thing you're complaining about, guaranteeing a flamewar. That breaks the site guidelines. Please don't do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- tomp 5y ago
  I believe bad things should be called out.
  - dang 5y ago
    If you can't respond to bad things in a good way, please don't respond at all; adding more badness only makes things worse. "Good" in this context refers to the expected value of the subthread the comment leads to, as described here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22expected%20value%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... We're particularly trying to avoid the internet callout/shaming culture here because it leads to more bad things; please don't practice that here.

by tomp 5y ago

MyHypatia 5y ago

The title isn't sex-baiting. The fact that the founder is female is extremely relevant to raising money. I wish that weren't the case. The problem ranges from light sexism (skepticism over whether she can "lead" and "be tough") to blatant misogyny (trying to exchange money for sex and blackballing her from deals if she refuses or talks about it). Those are things that men mostly do not have to deal with when raising money.

thaumasiotes 5y ago
> blatant misogyny (trying to exchange money for sex and blackballing her from deals if she refuses or talks about it). Those are things that men mostly do not have to deal with when raising money. True that that's something men mostly don't have to deal with when raising money, but it's also something that makes it easier, not harder, for women to raise money compared to men. It's also a weird thing to describe as "misogyny"; it sounds more like a problem with liking women than disliking them.
- shkkmo 5y ago
  I find this a very repugnant thing to say. In what way is facing sexual extortion an advantage?
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    It gives you an option for getting money that is not open to men. If your goal is raising money, it's an advantage.
- tyrust 5y ago
  > makes it easier, not harder, for women to raise money compared to men. Do you have a citation for that? Because the article links a blog (that links a paper) that seems to say otherwise: https://medium.com/janeventurecapital/female-founders-you-deserve-your-fair-share-2b0752d99061 https://medium.com/janeventurecapital/female-founders-you-de...

dunnof 5y ago

Would you point out that a founder can "strategize and structure his thoughts very well" if it was a man writing?

tomp 5y ago
Only if a man did that. Things like systematically schedule 150 VC interviews in 4 weeks and analyse their reactions to specific words/phrases. Very geeky, very appropriate for HN. Only a true nerd would do that. But I really don’t see why sex would have anything to do with it.
- beckman466 5y ago
  > But I really don’t see why sex would have anything to do with it. “Crunchbase data show that not only did total funding to female-led startups fall this year, but the proportion of dollars to female-only founders also declined, to 2.3 percent, compared to 2.8 percent in 2019.” Source: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/global-vc-funding-to-female-founders/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/global-vc-funding-to-female...

klyrs 5y ago

If you consider mention of her gender to be "bait", why did you stoop to pick it up?

dang 5y ago

> Despite the sex-baiting in the title, You've done the very thing you're complaining about, guaranteeing a flamewar. That breaks the site guidelines. Please don't do that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomp 5y ago
I believe bad things should be called out.
- dang 5y ago
  If you can't respond to bad things in a good way, please don't respond at all; adding more badness only makes things worse. "Good" in this context refers to the expected value of the subthread the comment leads to, as described here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22expected%20value%22%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... We're particularly trying to avoid the internet callout/shaming culture here because it leads to more bad things; please don't practice that here.