 | Gareth Price | Having recently endured my first fundraising cycle as part of a team that fielded a number of term sheets before deciding to remain on the path to bootstrapped, sustainable profitability, my (male) perspective shifted from thinking female-founder focused VC funds are probably a good idea to being convinced that they're essential, and - as the article backs up - an overlooked source of investment returns.
As an outsider, it was remarkable how much the early-stage fundraising environment is firmly oriented around rewarding macho behavior (I hold out hope that by later stages there's enough data that it gets at least a bit more quantified). My sense is that early-stage funding, with little data to rely on, gravitates towards founders who "fit the mold" of prior success in VCs' eyes (ie. male, white, bonus points for a hoodie or distressingly weird haircut) - and they want to hear you talk a massive game (sorry, "present a compelling vision") that is then not evaluated all that critically, as long as you give a sense that you just might pull off everything you over-promise in pursuit of the vast wealth you are craving to satiate your priapic ambition. These traits, at least in my experience, are all ones that are firmly over-represented on the #boyboss side of the scatterplot.
This will not likely change any time soon given how entrenched it seems to be. Hence the value of funds that are focused on evaluating female-founded companies - funds that build the skill of evaluating pitches that are likely not as wildly braggardly and grandiose as most funds seem to actively encourage, and funds that take the time to discover the leading indicators of success for female-led companies (which I hazard a guess there is not much research on).
I came out of the whole ordeal feeling that 1) The recurrent funding of founders who turn out to be delusional fraudsters isn't a bug, it's a feature, 2) The surest path to funding is to be an extremely over-confident white man who can fit in with the Patagonia vest crowd. Who knew? (Apart from everyone who's ever worked in tech, that is.) Message
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