Women Entrepreneurs: Learn To Ask For The Money
Here are the facts:
Women own nearly half of all privately held companies - an increase of 20% compared to the overall total increaseof 9%. That's progress.
Men get 90% of the funds handed out by Angel investors. But before you label the Angels investment organizations sexist pigs, the research shows that only 8.9% of the applications come from women. Once the pitch is made, women do almost equally as well as men in securing funding (13.3% vs. 14.8%).
Lessons learned:
Pitching to Angel groups generates a low chance of getting funding, but pretty equally low for women and men. Get your pitch together, try to get recommended (and coached) by a member of the group and go for it. If you don't apply, you miss out on a 13% chance of getting funding.
Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive
Hat tip to Justin Ewers at US News and World Report
Comments
Certain businesses do not require the level of outside funding to get started that people go to angels for. Are those the types of businesses women are starting? For example, many women I know are starting services businesses, which do not appeal to outside investors.
Posted by: Julie Lenzer Kirk | August 17, 2007 7:17 AM