What’s it been like for women in entrepreneurship?
Nowadays, stories of successful women founders have been spreading widely in many different media platforms among continental communities across the globe. Hence, it stimulates and inspires entrepreneurship for the youth generation, and no matter what the gender is, they want to start up their own business striving for innovative and sustainable value shaping the future of the society.
Why should you read this Toolkit?
With this Toolkit, we have summarized the results of the survey about the fundraising process and experiences of the 110 female founders. It provides the reader with an overall picture of access to the fund-raising process with investors in the DATCH region and valuable suggestions for both investors and startups.
- Networking opportunities with investors
There are various networking opportunities with VCs through events, workshops, training courses, etc. The personal network is always important to meet potential investors. However, it is often difficult for women to access founder and investor networks that are predominantly male. Female founders find it more comfortable to talk to female investors or various investment teams. They assessed that female investor are often more open, helpful and understanding. The report also indicates that female founders with a migration background have some challenges in terms of reaching investors.
- .Investment Process
The biggest problems in the fundraising process are the lack of transparency, communication, ambiguity, and feedback in decision making. It is recommended that founders should share more knowledge and prepare for challenging funding rounds to avoid obstacles in this process. Here are other recommendations for VCs and investors to improve the funding process outcomes:
- Transformation processes in VCs: VCs should set clear goals within the organization and develop their own investment decision process to diversify the investments
- Investment Decision Process: Investors should conduct the decision-making process transparently and have clear expectations towards founders
- Investment Teams: VCs should hire and develop different investors on different levels such as junior and senior
- Mentoring Programs: VCs should support founders with pitch training and fundraising preparations.
Who is it for?
Surely only you can decide whether you fall into one of these groups…
- Motivated youth people wanting to launch their own business in the future
- Ambitious students being interested in Startups, Capital Funds, Investment topics
- Entrepreneurs seeking insights to add in checklists, and improve their operation strategies
- Investors gaining a better understanding of startups
About the author:
This article is published by Btov Partners and Grace Accelerate Female Entrepreneurship. Btov Partner is a venture capital firm concentrated on early-stage funding in digital and industrial technology companies, Grace Accelerate Female Entrepreneurship is an organization promoting female entrepreneurship in Germany.
Source:
Btov Partners and Grace – Accelerate Female Entrepreneurship, 2020. Female Founders Pulse Check – Understanding the fundraising process for female founders.