The Need for Female Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs

This morning at the Democratic National Convention, Startup America hosted a panel titled“Creating Jobs: Female Founders”that underscored the growing opportunities (and lingering stereotypes) affording women in the entrepreneurial landscape, and I have to admit—although thrilled to see women representing, I found myself less-than-impressed.

The panelists, which included USA Network’s Kay Koplovitz, Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run and Change the Ratio lead Rachel Sklar, rattled stats on women graduating colleges more than ever before and shared the usual platitudes about the need for gender diversity (“we need to move the needle!” “the full participation of women’s talent in the marketplace”). I very nearly turned off the uStream video and went back to work.

And then I heard the question on brogrammers, one of the hot-button issues of women in tech for the past 12 months–and one I took an interest in after Millennial product manager Shanley Kane was attacked on Twitter for calling out a culture of oppressive sexism in Silicon Valley. Sklar, who acts as an adviser to a slew of young female entrepreneurs, was quick to address the issue.

“Listen,” she said, “Brogrammer culture isn’t new. We’ve seen this “bro” culture in every industry where there are bros.” At this the panelists laughed together; as executives in a variety of industries they know the unspoken truth of Sklar’s statement—that there isn’t an industry in existence that bros haven’t inhabited.

That there is a predominance of men in tech startups isn’t a singular phenomenon. Men outnumber women in finance, medicine and the legal arena. In those professions, but in them the “bro” culture issimply called sexism. That the young princes of the startup scene—think Facebook, Zynga and Instagram—who dominate business news coverage are twenty-something in hoodies, drinking beer and surrounding themselves with attractive young women is really nothing new (except for the hoodies). Instead, the brogrammer debate (“does it exist?” “is it as bad as it seems?”) is only the latest—and perhaps most public—look at workplace sexism in recent years.

“That we’re seeing a reactionary notion that it’s actually not the coolest workplace environment to drink beer and put your headphones on and code and have hot babes serve you beer is actually a real sign of progress,” Slar told her panelists this morning. “I’m used to seeing provocative, sexist comments being made all the time without backlash. This backlash is encouraging.”

She likens the online reaction to “brogrammers” to that against Rep. Todd Akin’s recent remarks about “legitimate rape.” Politicians regularly make statements that are less-than progressive, particularly about woman, their bodies and healthcare. But rather than going unrecognized, Akin’s comments caused a firestorm on social media that demanded the mainstream news outlets take note. This morning, a Google search on Akin returns over 62 million mentions, and according to Social Mention they’re overwhelmingly negative.

“In the context of programmers,” Sklar says, “It’s a backlash against sexism and a new awareness that this brogrammer stereotype isn’t indicative or representative of the startup culture as a whole. And that can only be considered a good thing.”

I’d go one step further than Sklar. The fact that startup culture and its young (albeit highly funded) entrepreneurs are the new demi-gods of the business world means that culture-watchers are paying attention. And the fact that the insudstry is so self-aware and present on social media is only compounding our interest. As a result, we’re looking to startups to set the bar for acceptable behavior—particularly when it comes to gender parity. And by “acceptable” we don’t just mean they accept women into the club—but a positive environment for both men and women to create.

Koplovitz chimed in with her own suggestion of what the new acceptable normal might look like—and I can only assume she was half-kidding. “Women don’t like the up all night, smelly armpits, chugging redbull coding nonstop environment,” she said. “Now if only we could make a coding event a little more like a spa.” (Cue my giant eye roll).

But the USA chief ended on a more realistic note for women, that’s indicative of what’s happening both in big business and entrepreneurship. “Look,” she said, “I just want to see parity for women; to have equal access and to be treated with respect in the workplace. And we’re getting there. It’s no secret that we’re late to the game, that we have work to do, that we have to prove ourselves… but we’re breaking through.”

The brogrammer conversation is indicative of real change. As Sklar would say, it’s a conversation that’s been not happening for more than a decade. A whisper would be progress. Debating the issue at what’s arguably the most important political convention of the year is a breakthrough on a whole new level. 
Women philanthropists have traditionally stood back from venture capital startups and angel investing; only 13% of angel investors in the U.S. are women. That's why Natalia Oberti Noguera, a 2005 Yale graduate, founded an angel-investing bootcamp for women.

Created to increase the ratio of women angel investors in the social good category, Oberti Noguera's Pipeline Fellowship is announcing a call for applications for women philanthropists who want to be angel investors in social ventures. The classes of 20 women in New York and 10 women in Boston start this year (applications can be found at the Pipeline Fellowship applications page). 

Oberti Noguera wants to take successful women from different industry areas and show them that they can boost the rise of venture creation by applying their passion for social change and their experience as philanthropists. Her Pipeline Fellowship will give them hands-on experience investing in women-led, for-profit social ventures.

The program is specifically designed for women who are first-time angel investors, and expects fellows from a variety of backgrounds, including law, finance, healthcare, the arts, and small business, among others--the common thread being that they want to learn to "invest for good." Pipeline will provide education on due diligence, term sheets, valuations, and board governance, and will match each participant with an experienced angel investor to serve as a role model. Participants will commit to invest in a woman-led for-profit social venture at the end of the training.

Oberti Noguera discovered through market research that the ratio of women to men in investing in social ventures and in operating and founding social ventures was way off. She and other women realized that talented professionals and philanthropists were leaving great potential female-led companies on the vine.

"The user pain that I felt especially in terms of the numbers of this network was how hard it was to secure funding for for-profit social ventures,” says Oberti Noguera. "There’s a bunch of women in the philanthropic community. But only 13% of women are angel investors. They can change the world by investing in women who do social ventures."

Oberti Noguera says that during this most recent round of applications, and before, she has had women tell her that they were most excited about the team aspects of the boot camp and in investing in ventures that other women found valuable and socially viable. When I asked her about what differentiated the program from other incubators or boot camps for investors, she said there was a different dynamic at play when women were involved in learning about investing and in carrying out the practice. 

"What was very striking was that candidates were saying they were attracted to this program because of the group dynamics and the learning peer-to-peer, and the fact that they all said they will respect the group’s decision," about which companies to invest in, Oberti Noguera said. 

There are many companies out there doing social good who are looking for the right kickstart investment to make them a viable for-profit.

"[These are] people who might have self-selectively taken themselves out of angel investing because they thought it was a, b, and c," says Oberti Noguera. "We are finding them when they are wearing their philanthropic hat. There are hybrid ventures out there that could change the world, and could also move the needle in terms of the issues that they care about."