| | MARCH 20208EXPERTS TALKThe State of Women Leaders in TechIt is almost axiomatic at this point that women are coming from behind in the technology race. Though we are making headway, the road is steep. The stats tell the tale of the challenges in this male-dominated arena. Fortune reported in 2018 that the average venture capital investment in male-lead companies was $17.3 million, compared to $5.9 mil-lion in female-led companies. A study by BCG uncovered a surprising counter-statistic that startups founded and co-found-ed by women actually performed better over time, generating 10 percent more in cumulative rev-enue over a five-year period. Many theorists have specu-lated about this difference in initial VC funding, suggesting that as the majority of investors are male, they are more likely to fund male-led companies. Sil-icon Valley Bank's 2019 Startup Outlook Survey interviewed the players - female founders, men-tors, and the investors - and dis-covered another side that the investor pitch is harder for women. Women who pitched their ideas to investors re-ported feeling more `pushback' than their male counter-parts to prove FEMALE FOUNDERS: THE FUTURE OF TECHBy Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck An alumnus of UC Berkeley, Caroline leads a program that hosts over one hundred companies per year at SkyDeck. Prior to SkyDeck, she was a serial entrepreneur and co-founded the NeuroFocus company.THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
< Page 7 | Page 9 >