FLIK Female Founder Survey: 72% of Early-Stage Female Founders Face Fundraising Struggles
Frederick Daso
MBA Candidate at Harvard Business School | Senior Investor & Head of Platform at GC Venture Fellows
Looking for a job with the hottest startups delivered to your inbox three times per week? Subscribe to my newsletter, Founder to Founder (F2F): f2f.substack.com. Check out my latest F2F story: Startup Spotlight #49: Finary.
The Female Laboratory of Innovative Knowledge (FLIK) surveyed 289 founders in order to gain insight into the future of womxn-owned businesses. Respondents were asked about how their fundraising activities have been affected by the events of 2020, their perceptions on the impacts that the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has had on their businesses, predictions for 2021, and what they see for the future of the female founder community.
FLIK partnered with Emma Kirst, Lolita Taub, Jessica Tan, Genevieve Jurveston, Janelle Hinds, Kate Brodock, Komal Minhas, and Gesche Haas for expert insights across the community from venture capitalists to non-profit organizers. In addition, FLIK collaborated with the following organizations to increase the awareness and reach of the survey to founders internationally: The51, League of Innovators, Herstory, brAIMS, Canadian Women's Chamber of Commerce, Women in Tech World, Afrohub, Connection Silicon Valley, Human Capital, Btchcoin, Chronically Capable, Tease Tea Founders Fund, Forum For Women Entrepreneurs, ELLA Accelerator for Women Entrepreneurs, and Dreamers & Doers.
Download the report here.
Some Key Findings Include:
- Pre-seed and seed-stage womxn founders had a tougher time meeting their initial 2020 fundraising goal than founders who are at later stages. Of the womxn founders fundraising this year, 28% of seed-stage founders were able to meet their fundraising goal and 28% of the pre-seed stage founders were able to meet their fundraising goal.
- Founders think the increased social consciousness surrounding Black Lives Matter has brought about temporary change in the world of VC and fundraising for Black founders, but these changes will not be long-term or systemic in nature. 50% of all respondents believe that an increase in funding available to Black founders resulting from the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement will be short-term.
- Womxn founders did not see themselves represented within the role models they had growing up. 81% of the surveyed womxn of color revealed that growing up, they did not have role models in the founder community that looked like them. Further, 75% of womxn from all racial groups reported that growing up, they did not have role models within the founder community who identified the same as them.
- Accessibility of funding and exposure to entrepreneurship will be crucial in increasing equity for female founders. Respondents identified that building a more equitable future for female founders will require increased funding for female founders (24%) and earlier exposure to entrepreneurship for young womxn (21%).
Looking for a job with the hottest startups delivered to your inbox three times per week? Subscribe to my newsletter, Founder to Founder (F2F): f2f.substack.com. Check out my latest F2F story: Startup Spotlight #49: Finary.
If you enjoyed this article, feel free to check out my other work on LinkedIn and my personal website, frederickdaso.com. Follow me on Twitter @fredsoda, on Medium @fredsoda, and on Instagram @fred_soda.
Actress | Writer | Director/Producer | Communication coach at @The Modern theatre
4 年Thanx for that survey. Interesting but not surprising and also a little bit encouraging! I never believed so much in that it really was differences in treatment between gender. But coming in to the tech-startups was a wake up call. For me, coming in working with VR just in the start of the latest era in Sweden (2014) and seeing loads of guys talking and bragging about their (non-existing) products, getting money and producing NOTHING of it! Just spending the money. And then my self, getting YES from loads of people that wanted to collaborate with me on my in IRL, utterly well working conflict-resolution...to transform it into VR. These people were basically most men around the age of 25 to 40. So they didn't sit on the money but on knowledge and passion. ... And then just get NO over and over again from the men with the finances, aged around 40-60 years... Apparently because I didn′t talk "the talk" as well AND they could not mirror themselves in me being a woman. (I must underline I always had good relations with these men, I mean we talked well together... just not the same language.)
Investor @ Draper VC | MBA @ Columbia Business School | Co-Founder @ FLIK (Acquired by Rumor)
4 年Thank you for sharing Frederick Daso. This report only amplifies the many struggles female founders have had over the years and how COVID has now magnified those struggles more. Hopefully this data can help accelerate more female focused initiatives, funding opportunities, and resources. If anyone is interested in downloading the full report, check it out here: weareflik.com/2020report
Process Consultant Engineer @ Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd. | Professional Scrum Master | Agile SM
4 年Great
--
4 年Well done sir, I think it's a easily to accessible through you.
Startup Founder | Certified Industrial Engineer | Operations Management | Program & Project Management | Customer Success | Business Development | 100 Inspiring Women of the Philippines 2013 | Kaizen & Six Sigma Oriented
4 年For the female role model, I grew up with my mom being a hustler. I learned entrepreneurship a lot from her. However, the organizing part and doing it systematically is where female entreps don't have so much resources and leads.