Dear VCs, hire female Analyst !

As a founder, I am always in a semi-fundraise mode. At least 5-10% of my time is checking various Venture Capital funds across the world, seeing their investments, who is moving on Climate-Tech, who isn't. Whose blogs mention the words "sustainability", "environment", and who doesn't care. Who has built some thesis on this market, some understanding, and who is going to do that after 3-5 years ??.

I'd always check the team, see who's invested in what, what are they tweeting about, what did they study, and what might our common connections be. I think basic research about another person or firm before approaching them is basic respect. Personally, I hate when people approach me for working with Blue Sky or partnering with me (for advisory, etc), but don't know anything about me or my company. (#Do some homework people !)

A constant across global Venture Capital firms is the distorted gender ratio. 90%+ Partners are men, and worse even Principals, VPs, Associates, Analysts are majority men.

Now, for centuries, women have neither held wealth or been involved in transaction markets. Very few women are HNWI. So, some distortion at the Partner level, which is typically aged 50+, hence graduated in the 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s, makes sense. Few women were studying computer science or finance. Fewer women joined as Analysts or Associates, so fewer women are Partners. Got it.

But, what about 2010s out-of-college Analyst and Associates. A gender imbalance in that rank in 2020, will mean a gender imbalance in partner rank in 2040-2050. Now, it's not like male partners do not invest in female founders, but honestly, read "Thinking Fast & Slow", and there are countless subconscious biases that we have as humans that manifest in our decisions, sometimes gender-biased decisions.

There is a funny relationship between capitalist and entrepreneurs, both have capitals of different formats that need to be exchanged to create innovation, disruption, and build startups. And hence, there is an inherent relationship between people in those roles. Often, investors find a great idea and become entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs build great wealth or even great expertise and become investors. Often, the two groups meet over coffee and discuss capital allocation trends or new trends that capital can get allocated to.

My role as an Investment Associate was critical to my journey as a founder. I met many founders, saw more than 100s of pitches, maintained our deal flow, tracked the companies constantly, built thesis with the partners, saw the decision making process, executed the transactions, watched my boss (our managing partner) pacing through the hallways on the day of wirings, and understood the capital movement process at large.

Capital needs to be put to work. But Capital doesn't create work, ideas do. Ideas need to be thought. Which is what founders do. The relationship between capital and founders is codependent. Both bet on the future. Both build "thesis" of future, create, and bet on them, from two sides of the same table. Each needs the other to grow. And each has secluded 50% of the world's population from the table.

Few women witness this process of capital allocation, thesis analysis, and idea betting. Fewer women take the risk of building their own thesis, capital raising, and idea building. Female Analysts, Associates, Principals, Partners, and Female Founders and CEOs, are the different aspects of the same issue.

There are plenty of stories of how a male founder was drinking beer with a male VC and scribbled an idea on tissue paper, and the VC decided to fund it. Fewer stories of similar discussion in a hair salon where two women were discussing business and one wrote a $5 million cheque. And part of the reason is that women as a gender/ group/ community, aside from owning less capital are also greatly excluded from the process of exchanging equity for cash in the general capital market.

Quick Fix Silver-bullet Solution: A simple corrective action to solve this all is more active recruitment at the analyst and associate level. The gender ratio in Computer Science, Economics, or Business majors at the graduate level has almost leveled out. If more and more male partners, actively start hiring female analysts/associates; more and more girls at large will have an understanding of equity transactions. The more they will discuss with their friends, the more the entire gender will understand this process and the market. And ultimately, when one of us in the female gender will have an idea of our own, more other females will be there to brainstorm, discuss, tweak, support, bet and invest.

Honestly, it's not like, as a businesswoman, founder, and CEO, I don't like or am not skilled in interacting with the opposite gender on the above-mentioned topic. I went to a male college for undergraduate (IIT-BHU 2012 with a class of 35 girls and 700 boys) and am supremely experienced and comfortable walking in a room with men as a single female.

But, the present-day VC world gender-ratio is so off, that I once presumed a female name "Sheetal" as an Executive Assistant instead of a Partner (apologetically, I hadn't interacted with any female VC in more than 10 months at that point). Sheetal was the name of a man though. It is 2021, and I don't want CEOs in the 2030s to pitch to room with 90% men. But given the looks of analyst ranks in investment firms, the 10-years promotion schedule also looks too male-heavy. Even in 2020, women (remember 50% of the global population) led startups raised just 2.3% of VC funding, and honestly, this number ain't inching nearly towards 50% if we don't do some serious work.

Hence, a small requests from a female founder to male VCs here, give opportunities to young girls as analysts and associates and train them in this process of venture building and investment decisions.

Also to young girls, find the sector that interests you, find 10 partners who invest in that category, and bother them. Go work with them, learn the art of making decisions about large sums of capital. Our gender at large needs that ability. Working as an analyst or associates in Venture Funds might seem scary, but honestly is peanuts compared to more other complicated scary things that you are skilled and destined to do, like, take stabs at founding, building teams, raising capital, taking IPOs, taking another stab at founding or raising your own fund, maybe dreaming a political career, launching your campaigns, building colonies in Mars, exploring deep space, etc. Trust me, applying for the VC/PE analyst/associate jobs and getting them (however scary and difficult your school friends are making it sound) is going to be the easiest thing you will do.

Summary: Male VC Partners & Principles - Recently graduated or graduating Females looking for jobs. Talk to each other. Get a coffee. Work together. Observe. Learn. Dissolve the gender imbalance in equity and capital decisions, knowledge, community, etc.