#GAReads | Dear VCs: COVID-19 isn't an excuse to backslide on gender equality
photo credit: You X Ventures, via Unsplash
“Dear VCs: COVID-19 isn't an excuse to backslide on gender equality”:
As CEO of All Raise, a two-year-old nonprofit formed to accelerate the success of female founders and funders, I have spent a lot of time over the last few days speaking with female founders in the network. My advice to them has been blunt: If you can, pause your fundraising efforts unless you are getting a fair deal. You have one shot of getting on the right footing with an investor. This is sound advice, but it still pains me to give it. Because I know the odds are already stacked against female founders when it comes to fundraising.
After two record-setting years of over $130B in U.S. venture capital deployed through investments, an embarrassingly paltry amount went to female-founded companies last year: 11.8%, an increase of only 0.5% since 2018. If this represents the bets venture is placing on female founders during a boom time, what’s going to happen during a recession?