Getting Investment Dollars to Female-owned Startups

Here's another story on the challenges women have in getting investment dollars for their startups. The numbers for 2007 state that only 3% of startups that receive funding are headed up by women. This is seriously sad.

Astia is a non-profit organization that tries to introduce women who are looking for funding to potential investors, and also advisers and coaches that can help them in their quest to get their companies moving. Astia has a good track record of supporting women but Sharon Vosmerk wants to figure out a way to scale that support. Earlier this month the organization held a summit to review this question: are there different characteristics between women who start companies and men, with the belief that it was older women starting up companies looking for better work/life balance. However what they found were the characteristics were the same. They did find a difference though that showed women look for relationships more (such as seeking out mentors, morale supporters, finance partners) whereas men need less encouragement to get started.

I love the fact the article closes on - if female start ups received the same funding that male startups currently receive they would add 6 million jobs to the market place in less than 5 years. See - this is why it matters that women get the support they need.