4 ms·

The rise of the female founder

43 points by domino 12y ago

ps4fanboy 12y ago
I wonder what the success rate is now for Pitched and Funded vs just funded (Male/Female)
- bwertz 12y ago
  My (anecdotal) experience is that the success rate of female founders to convert a pitch to funding is significantly higher - might be due to the fact that only the most talented female founders have currently the courage to think about starting a company.
  - ps4fanboy 12y ago
    If there is really a stronger success rate it is more than likely a bias than a gender based attribute.
    - bwertz 12y ago
      Why do you think that? Compare it to the type of customers you attract at different stage of building a product: your first customers are always the most passionate, most valuable customers. As you broaden the customer base, you attract people that are way less into your product. Female founders are still a very small group, only the most passionate, most courageous, most talented ones are currently considering becoming entrepreneurs. Once being a female founder is the new normal, pitch to funding rates between males and females will be much closer again. Having said all that, this is just a theory based on anecdotal experience.
      - ps4fanboy 12y ago
        That would only be potentially true if more males in this industry are pitching as a percentage than females. I have not seen anything to suggest that this is the case.
bvanvugt 12y ago
Curious how the number of female founders in non-US portfolios compares.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
marincounty 12y ago
I'm all for more women in engineering and technology, but as I said to a customer recently,"I don't think I have ever hear a female say,"I reballed the faulty nvida chip with artic 5 in the a with a hair dryer at 3 a.m., didn't work and I spent the next 40 hrs. trying to fix it!". Actually, I'm kind of glad most women aren't interested in the stuff I'm interested in. As to power and money, most guy's-- if their honest became rich because they knew it attracted women? Of yea, a rich father always helps. The sad part is it all works in reverse for wealthy women. Wealthy women scare off most guys. I have a very good looking ex-girlfriend, blond, wealthy, etc. move to Silicon Valley hoping to lasso some guy--she is still single. I truly believe men are intimidated by her position in life. In all honesty--I was extremely attracted to her, but wanted someone with different values--yes--children, introspective--a Zooey, or Fran, but there's a part of me who wondered if she was struggling would I look at her differently? I look at the personal ads and almost 100% of the time the ad I want to say "It all works in reverse." Meaning what's desirable for women is not desirable for men. I hope this changes in the future.
- swombat 12y ago
  Ok, so, let me enlighten you as to why you're being downvoted. First, your post reads very rambly. That doesn't help much, though it probably actually does help a little, since the more what you're saying becomes clear, the more likely you are to get downvoted. Which brings me to the second point. Your post is highly misogynistic - read up about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogyny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogyny . At various points, you make the following arguments: - Women simply aren't into tech - You don't want women to be into tech - Because it doesn't fit your stereotype of what women should be like - Your view of what women should be like is they're there to help you with some aspects of your life, like having children, etc - Successful women are doomed to not be successful by your stereotype of what women should do - Successful women are scary These are very distasteful, anti-women points that peg you clearly as either someone who believes this stuff because he's an asshole, or someone who believes this stuff because he hasn't spent 5 minutes researching the topic and is running on stereotypes. The latter's only advantage is that maybe there's hope for you to get better over time. That's why you're being downvoted. You should really spend some time thinking about what kind of person the above beliefs make you, and start re-examining where they come from and how you can change them in yourself.

43 points by domino 12y ago

ps4fanboy 12y ago

I wonder what the success rate is now for Pitched and Funded vs just funded (Male/Female)

bwertz 12y ago
My (anecdotal) experience is that the success rate of female founders to convert a pitch to funding is significantly higher - might be due to the fact that only the most talented female founders have currently the courage to think about starting a company.
- ps4fanboy 12y ago
  If there is really a stronger success rate it is more than likely a bias than a gender based attribute.
  - bwertz 12y ago
    Why do you think that? Compare it to the type of customers you attract at different stage of building a product: your first customers are always the most passionate, most valuable customers. As you broaden the customer base, you attract people that are way less into your product. Female founders are still a very small group, only the most passionate, most courageous, most talented ones are currently considering becoming entrepreneurs. Once being a female founder is the new normal, pitch to funding rates between males and females will be much closer again. Having said all that, this is just a theory based on anecdotal experience.
    - ps4fanboy 12y ago
      That would only be potentially true if more males in this industry are pitching as a percentage than females. I have not seen anything to suggest that this is the case.

bvanvugt 12y ago

Curious how the number of female founders in non-US portfolios compares.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

marincounty 12y ago

I'm all for more women in engineering and technology, but as I said to a customer recently,"I don't think I have ever hear a female say,"I reballed the faulty nvida chip with artic 5 in the a with a hair dryer at 3 a.m., didn't work and I spent the next 40 hrs. trying to fix it!". Actually, I'm kind of glad most women aren't interested in the stuff I'm interested in. As to power and money, most guy's-- if their honest became rich because they knew it attracted women? Of yea, a rich father always helps. The sad part is it all works in reverse for wealthy women. Wealthy women scare off most guys. I have a very good looking ex-girlfriend, blond, wealthy, etc. move to Silicon Valley hoping to lasso some guy--she is still single. I truly believe men are intimidated by her position in life. In all honesty--I was extremely attracted to her, but wanted someone with different values--yes--children, introspective--a Zooey, or Fran, but there's a part of me who wondered if she was struggling would I look at her differently? I look at the personal ads and almost 100% of the time the ad I want to say "It all works in reverse." Meaning what's desirable for women is not desirable for men. I hope this changes in the future.

swombat 12y ago
Ok, so, let me enlighten you as to why you're being downvoted. First, your post reads very rambly. That doesn't help much, though it probably actually does help a little, since the more what you're saying becomes clear, the more likely you are to get downvoted. Which brings me to the second point. Your post is highly misogynistic - read up about it here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogyny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogyny . At various points, you make the following arguments: - Women simply aren't into tech - You don't want women to be into tech - Because it doesn't fit your stereotype of what women should be like - Your view of what women should be like is they're there to help you with some aspects of your life, like having children, etc - Successful women are doomed to not be successful by your stereotype of what women should do - Successful women are scary These are very distasteful, anti-women points that peg you clearly as either someone who believes this stuff because he's an asshole, or someone who believes this stuff because he hasn't spent 5 minutes researching the topic and is running on stereotypes. The latter's only advantage is that maybe there's hope for you to get better over time. That's why you're being downvoted. You should really spend some time thinking about what kind of person the above beliefs make you, and start re-examining where they come from and how you can change them in yourself.