COLUMN
HAS A GENDER PROBLEM 1
to deal with it
So, how do we do that? Here are a few ideas:
Personally invest in female-founded businesses on equity crowdfunding
sites like Crowdcube. Even a small amount can help that business reach its target. You’ll be supporting the next generation of tech leaders and will have a ‘stake in the game’ which could also give you good returns in the future. I’ve just raised more than £375,000 on the platform from a highly diverse investor base that will support my social planning app PlanSnap as it grows.
2 3
4
ONLY 10% OF INVESTOR FUNDING GOES TO WOMEN-LED VENTURES. YET, VC-BACKED WOMEN-LED TECH FIRMS BRING IN 12% HIGHER REVENUE THAN MALE-OWNED TECH COMPANIES
❝
founded by women entrepreneurs. Why? Because the odds are seriously stacked
www.smeweb.com
against them raising the funding needed even to get a business idea off the ground. Only 10% of investor funding goes to
women-led ventures. Yet, VC-backed women-led tech firms bring in 12% higher revenue than male-owned tech companies. And their ROI is a whopping 35% higher. It’s estimated that in the U.K. alone, if every single woman who wanted to start her own business had the support to make that possible, it would immediately produce 340,000 new businesses and support 425,000 new jobs. In other words, we need to increase
dramatically the number of female-led tech businesses.
SME 17
Mentor a female-led business. Or set up a company-wide mentoring
programme that supports women who are looking to start their own business.
Set up a corporate business accelerator to fund women from the
business you work in. AB InBev did this in partnership with Techstars in New York, a programme that I took part in. They looked inside and outside their business for innovative ideas to help them maintain a culture of innovation and an edge on talent.
Quit your job and become a female founder yourself!
I strongly believe that supporting more women into tech businesses will help grow the industry and begin to solve its diversity problem. Diversity doesn’t just mean hiring senior women, but that is the start of encouraging a culture of diversity in all its forms – ethnicity, socio-economic, age, sexuality and more.
Louise Doherty is founder of PlanSnap.
plansnap.com
DO YOU THINK LOUISE DOHERTY IS RIGHT? EMAIL US YOUR COMMENTS AT
EDITOR@PUBLICATIONSUK.CO.UK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
