Women-Led Startups Are Tearing Down The Boys' Club
It was a big week in tech. From Rent the Runway and Glossier being crowned with unicorn status for hitting $1B valuations, to Ellevest’s $33M new round of investment, to black women founded companies like Landit breaking fundraising records, women founders and investors had some big wins. Let’s dig in.
New Unicorns Could #ChangeTheRatio for Women Founders
Two women-led startups, Glossier (a cosmetics company founded by Emily Weiss), and Rent the Runway (a fashion rental retailer cofounded by Jenn Hyman and Jenny Fleiss), announced their $1 billion dollar valuations.
"Of the 22 companies whose valuations have passed the $1 billion mark so far this year, six of them were solely founded or co-founded by women.
That single-digit number might not sound like a great start for female founders working to close the gender gap in VC, but it is. Why? Because in 2018, roughly 11% of the total unicorns involved female founders, and as we wrap up the first quarter of 2019, that share has more than doubled to 27%, said," said Priyamvada Mathur of PitchBook.
Historically, so few women-led startups have rose to unicorn status, and it’s an important milestone to celebrate - not just for them personally but for the startup ecosystem.
Founders, investors, and early employees from other unicorn companies like Paypal and Ebay have accumulated significant personal wealth and launched funds to invest in startups. Unfortunately, since these investors often relied on pattern recognition to fund startups, it created a vicious cycle of men funding men and making the same circle of men rich, again.
More women-led startups achieving billion dollar valuations means there will be significant opportunities for these founders, investors, and early employees to fund more diverse startups. They understand the strong ROI for backing diverse founders as they’ve experienced it firsthand.