Tech Uncensored: Defying Investment Odds and VC Bias for Underestimated Female Founders
Altitude Accelerator
Scaling to new heights. Formerly RIC Centre. Support + Incubator space for Peel Region startups + mature tech companies.
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The problem: For women entrepreneurs, the #1 structural barrier is attracting investment. If you’ve been paying attention, the recent $350Million investment to Adam Neumann, a white male founder, well networked in the VC community, and former founder of failed IPO, WeWork, sent ripples across a startup community that has long been accustomed to disproportionate investment funding.
These stats continue to be echoed time and time again: less than 3% of female-led founders and less than 1% of female minority founders receive venture funding.
Dominic-Madori Davis of TechCrunch encapsulated the plight of the underrepresented founders– the women, the visible minority founders who have journey through a relentless search for equity, and who have personally experienced this regression from being unable to break this glass ceiling – to now an impenetrable concrete one:
“One cannot out-educate, out-network and out-assimilate the systemic barriers designed to discriminate against them.”
In this episode we spoke to 2 Underestimated founders, Stephanie Lipp , Founder of MycoFutures (a company a next gen materials cleantech startup, developing a durable textile using mycelium, the root system of fungi) and Azar Azad , Founder of A.I. VALI INC. , a startup developing AI-powered GI endoscopy video image analysis and speech recognition services for the clinical space. Both Azad and Lipp are passionate in their pursuit to disrupt the clinical space and the fashion industry.
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We also spoke to Bryan Duarte of BlackTech Capital and Giselle Melo , GP at Matr (matter) Ventures , who are building equity in a system that has done little to support emerging female founders.
What keeps these founders up at night and how do they overcome their challenges? For emerging fund managers, is it possible to disrupt a system that has seemingly worked for years, and change the “hearts and minds” of the majority and make way for a necessary change?
At Altitude Accelerator we have experts to help you succeed. We are now accepting applications for our Winter Cohort: Incubator 19 and Investor Readiness. Interested? Please join us!
Incubator 19:?Apply here!
Investor Readiness:?Apply here!
Powering systems of the future ::: Deep Tech Founder w 1 exit // Investor | Edge computing, Applied AI, Semiconductor solutions // EIR // Forbes Thought Leader
2 年I appreciate you, Hessie. And it's a pleasure to support and celebrate excellence with you, Bryan Duarte Stephanie Lipp and Azar Azad keep building. You got this. ????????????
Chief Executive Officer
2 年Thank you, Hessie Jones, Bryan Duarte, and the Altitude Accelerator team!
Senior Reporter at TechCrunch
2 年Thank you for the shoutout!!
INTERSECTING SOCIAL EQUITY AND CLIMATE RESPONSIBILITY | Social Venturist | Co-Founding GP, BlackTech Capital | Founder & CEO Enliten
2 年It was a pleasure and honour to be on this panel promoting the great work of #femaleentrepreneurs like Stephanie Lipp and Azar Azad alongside a fellow #bipoc investor, Giselle Melo. Thanks Hessie Jones for hosting us.