Many argue, and many whom I’ve heard argue this are women, that in the world of entrepreneurship we should not segment men and women. Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. A new study on venture funding suggests that this may not always be the case in high growth, high potential ventures.
Jeffrey Sohl addressed the recent NC Council for Entrepreneurial Development on angel investing trends about the results of a study he co-authored with and John Becker-Blease to be published in the July 2007 issue of the Journal of Business Venturing titled, “Do women-owned businesses have equal access to angel capital?”
From TechJournal South:
The results suggest that women seek angel financing at rates substantially lower than that of men, but have an equal probability of receiving investment. The authors also found that women are more likely to seek, and to a lesser extent receive, financing from women angels.
Why does this difference exist? The authors speculate, but there is no compelling evidence as to why these differences were observed. It may be inherent bias in the private equity markets, it may be social behaviors, or it may just be the nature of the choices women entrepreneurs make in terms of deals to pursue. Most likely, evidence for all of these explanations can be observed, depending on the specific situation. I have noticed that any angel investment or venture capital gathering I have been to tends to be made up mostly of male entrepreneurs and male investors. While this study confirms my observation it begs the more interesting question: Why?
(Thanks to Jim Stefansic for passing this along).
Thanks for sharing this one. I do not agree, however, with the thought that we should not segment men and women. Entrepreneurs are NOT entrepreneurs. I do not understand why the world consistently wants to consider the sexes equal. Women and men inherently have different strengths and weaknesses.
I think that a lot of this difference has to do with, as you said, “the nature of the choices women entrepreneurs make in terms of deals to pursue”. I believe that we choose different deals because we are entirely different creatures with different motivators, different strengths, and usually different goals.
choices made does affect the result. Recent stats show that more women are being hired for CEO or President positions. And with current Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton leading her party opponent, women are still moving up as is their pay scale to men.