The secret of pitching to male VCs: Helping female crypto founders blast off

Bridget Greenwood is the laminitis of The Bigger Pie, a U.K.-based networking enactment that supports women successful blockchain globally. She says that adjacent task capitalists with the champion intentions inactive extremity up backing antheral founders astatine disproportionate rates.

“I stumbled implicit the appalling statistic that of each VC backing [in the U.K.], lone 3% goes to pistillate founders, 8% goes to mixed teams, and the remainder goes to all-male teams,” she explains to Magazine.

“And that archetypal fig has gone down to 1.5% implicit the pandemic.”

“In much hard times, it seems that VCs are falling backmost connected what they cognize – which is to money antheral founders. This is doubly frustrating, arsenic probe looking astatine the interaction of COVID-19 points to the payment of feminine enactment during challenging times.”

According to information from Pitchbook, the inclination is international. Last twelvemonth successful the United States, startups with all-women teams received conscionable 1.9`%, oregon astir $4.5 billion, of the $238.3 cardinal successful allocated task capital. The 2022 fig was down from the 2.4% achieved the twelvemonth before. 

Seeking to actively alteration this reversal, Greenwood founded The 200Bn Club with Amber Ghaddar. The inaugural takes its sanction from a 2022 study connected pistillate entrepreneurs commissioned by the U.K. authorities and completed by Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest. A cardinal uncovering was that investing successful pistillate entrepreneurship would add betwixt 200 cardinal and 250 cardinal pounds to the country’s GDP.

Bridge Greenwood, laminitis of The Bigger Pie and co-founder of The 200bn Club.

Greenwood and Ghaddar embarked connected a three-month probe journey, during which they spoke with academics, investors and VCs. Ghaddar had already successfully raised wealth for her company, AllianceBlock, truthful she personally knew immoderate of the struggles.

As Greenwood summarizes, “We got 2 cardinal points from our research. The archetypal is that you request a lukewarm introduction. A batch of the VC satellite is each astir networking, and truthful we person gathered immoderate 200 VCs to beryllium portion of our web truthful we tin make these lukewarm introductions.”

“The 2nd constituent is harder to flooded and happens during the pitching process. As soon arsenic it becomes evident the laminitis is simply a woman, past the unconscious bias kicks in.”

Pitching stage

Research published successful Harvard Business Review singles out the pitching signifier arsenic a important obstruction for women. In essence, it says that men are asked promoted questions, whereas women are asked preventative questions – which absorption connected risks and enactment founders successful a antiaircraft position.

“Why is this important? Well, careless of whether you are a antheral oregon a woman, if you get asked preventative questions, you are 5 times little apt to rise money, period,” says Greenwood.

“However, the bully quality is that if you recognize and admit a preventative question, you tin past larn to reply successful a promotive mode truthful that you springiness yourself a overmuch amended accidental astatine success. But this needs to beryllium taught.”

At The 200Bn Club, pistillate founders are coached connected however to champion transportation to VCs, which besides includes the somewhat arguable conception of not pitching “like a woman.”

The abstract from “Don’t Pitch Like A Girl.” (SAGE Publicatications)

Now, that doesn’t dependable immoderate amended from a sex studies perspective, but from a applicable standpoint, it means pistillate founders tin enactment astir the contented by utilizing much masculine-stereotyped behaviors portion pitching.

“It turns retired that portion pistillate founders are blessed to speech astir their team, they are overmuch much self-effacing erstwhile it comes to speaking astir themselves. And since the VC wants to put successful the leader, this is simply a damning wont for pistillate founders,” Greenwood says. 

“We enactment with our pistillate founders to present the transportation with confidence, assurance and religion successful themselves. And we assistance them reply the preventative questions successful a promotive fashion.”

ConsenSys connected equality

Thessy Mehrain, co-founder and CEO of Liquality, has a inheritance that makes her uniquely positioned to recognize the strategy and however to disrupt it. She spent six years creating products astatine JPMorgan successful the U.S. and joined the Occupy question aft the fiscal crisis, and it was from determination that she discovered Ethereum.

“So, I wholly fell successful emotion with Web3, but I besides didn’t privation to beryllium portion of thing that creates exertion that repeats what we person successful the bequest world,” she tells Magazine.

While inactive moving astatine JPMorgan successful 2015, she heard Joseph Lubin, the laminitis of ConsenSys, talk astatine a fintech league and was blown distant by his vision. Shortly after, she jumped vessel to ConsenSys and began moving connected a task to research swapping betwixt Bitcoin and Ethereum successful a decentralized mode without a middleman. That task evolved successful clip into her startup, Liquality.

It was a large success! 🏆🌟

Our archetypal blockchain meetup for women successful Tel Aviv was a immense success, with a turnout of dedicated and funny participants. pic.twitter.com/qcot4Wyjwx

— StarkWare (@StarkWareLtd) December 17, 2022

In 2016, Mehrain besides created the New York-based Women successful Blockchain radical to assistance code sex inequality successful the sector. The radical present boasts 3,000 members.

Working astatine ConsenSys provided her with large support, entree to exertion and a co-founder — Harsh Vakharia, who besides antecedently founded the startup Etherbit. Coming retired of ConsenSys, Mehrain recognizes she had galore advantages implicit different unaffiliated projects.

Thessy Mehrain, co-founder of Liquality. (Photo supplied)

The brace successfully raised $7 cardinal successful 2021. When asked if she experienced antithetic attraction arsenic a pistillate founder, Mehrain replies: 

“How would I know? I was ne'er raised arsenic a man. However, coming retired of ConsenSys decidedly gave america an borderline and lukewarm introductions. It was astatine that point, during our raise, that I became alert of the dominance of men successful this space. At Liquality, we are focusing connected the Global South, truthful we knew from the get-go that we needed to person divers practice successful our funders. That changed our reasoning and our outreach.”

“We knew that diverseness makes products much sustainable – it’s not conscionable the close happening to do, it’s the close happening to bash successful concern terms. We needed to explicate that to our investors. But it’s much than having diverseness astatine the headdress table, it’s what you physique afterwards.”

Mehrain and her co-founder person assembled a squad that reflects the civilization successful which they privation to grow. “We enactment hard astatine this. It’s not an afterthought. For example, we person a pistillate engineering pb and a batch of beardown pistillate engineers — but that took work. 

“We are creating a bequest arsenic we go. It’s precise important truthful the adjacent procreation of women founders and leaders person relation models and supports to assistance them.”

Corporate backgrounds assistance

A beardown firm inheritance tin besides assistance pistillate founders navigate the stormy VC waters. Ayelen Denovitzer was antecedently with Bain and Revolut, and co-founding Solvo has been her archetypal startup role. She raised $3.5 cardinal led by Index Ventures implicit conscionable 3 weeks past year.

Denovitzer did not announcement immoderate limitations owed to being a woman, but she is besides blessed to debunk immoderate communal municipality myths.

Ayelen Denovitzer, co-founder of Solvo. (Photo supplied)

“There is this conception that pistillate leaders are much risk-averse and are much affectional erstwhile it comes to decision-making, but I deliberation that is mostly debunked. Of course, determination is unconscious bias, but we are making inroads connected those notions too,” she tells Magazine, noting that idiosyncratic differences are overmuch much salient.

“I judge it is much down to individuals – however we mix. I americium overmuch much methodical than my co-founder, which is simply a ‘me’ happening alternatively than needfully a pistillate thing.”

Like Mehrain with Liquality, it was important to her that the VCs astatine the headdress array reflected the project’s ambitions. Solvo is simply a retail-facing fiscal app that aims to bring the champion features of crypto without the complexities and jargon.

“So, we needed retail-facing VCs to travel onboard,” says Denovitzer.

Finding the close chap co-founders is different constituent much important than gender. Helena Gagern and Grace Wang, co-founders of Web3 messaging app Salsa, some agree.

“We had shared values — which was of apical value to america some – and akin vigor levels,” Gagern tells Magazine.

1/ We're SO excited to uncover Salsa. Here is the communicative of however a accidental brushwood successful Miami led america to physique the app wherever societal impervious meets web3 messaging. pic.twitter.com/2tbBdi61C9

— Salsa (@salsadotme) February 16, 2023

They bonded implicit a aviator task during 2 weeks successful Austria, wherever they learned astir passion, vigor and pragmatism. They knew they would enactment unneurotic connected a bigger project, which turned retired to beryllium Salsa, for which they raised $2 million.

“We were fundraising successful a carnivore marketplace and initially were looking for $500,000.” 

However, the co-founders rapidly realized that this magnitude was excessively small and jumped it up to $2 cardinal – which rather perchance ensured their success. 

Another constituent of their occurrence was that they had met their investors successful existent beingness astatine conferences implicit the past 2 years. Those lukewarm introductions went a agelong mode to creaseless the way to success.

“I didn’t consciousness being pistillate was a disadvantage, but I did powerfully consciousness the underrepresentation. This pushed america to attack pistillate VCs arsenic a priority,” says Gagern.

Benefits of being a pistillate founder

Wang tells Magazine that determination are a big of benefits to being a pistillate founder. “Once you get implicit the imposter syndrome issue, being a pistillate tin marque you basal retired successful a male-dominated space. All-female teams are rare, and truthful we pushed this to our advantage. And we besides scope retired to different pistillate founders – helping each other.”

From near to right: Helena Gagern and Grace Wang, co-founders of Salsa.

But wherefore the absorption connected pistillate entrepreneurship? Aside from offering sex equality, determination is information that points to pistillate founders achieving amended results. According to a study from the Boston Consulting Group, businesses founded by women produce doubly the gross from each dollar successful backing than men. Given that they besides person little than fractional the funding, that’s a amended bang for your VC buck.

Statistics compiled by Springboard, which helps accelerate the maturation of women-led companies, suggest that adjacent a small spot of sex diverseness helps and that startups with astatine slightest 1 pistillate laminitis outperformed all-male founding teams by 63%. 

Finally, Mehrain is pragmatic successful this gender-balancing crippled and says men often privation to assistance but conscionable don’t cognize how.

“You know, achromatic males are the champion allies. Right? Tell them what to do, archer them what is needed. Make them allies and truly person them recognize however important this is. Then it’s a win-win for all.”