The Myth of Masculinity

According to a study by First Round Capital, companies with a woman on the founding team outperform their all-male peers by 63 percent. But when it comes to venture capital–often the necessary route to building a fast-growth company– Female CEOs get only 2.7 percent of all venture funding, while women of color get virtually none: 0.2 percent.

The Reality of Female Led Companies 

While women start companies at twice the rate of men, female-founded companies get only 13 percent of the total angel financing available. This represents a $7 billion funding gap between male-launched and female-launched start-ups, with even greater disparities in the tech space. Female CEOs only get 2.7 percent of all venture capital. That’s a dismally low amount of investment for building either sure and steady or fast-growth companies.

The Top 10 (of far too many to list in this post) Why Women-Led Startups and Companies Are So Important

1. “If we’re going to solve the toughest problems facing our communities nationally and globally, we must foster and invest in a culture of innovation from diverse perspectives. This means helping to fund startups led by diverse founders,” explains Allyson Kapin, Founder of Women Who Tech and the Women Startup Challenge, which just opened applications for their National Pitch Competition giving away $50,000.
2. Tech companies led by women are more capital-efficient, achieving 35% higher return on investment. (via Kauffman Foundation)
3. When venture-backed, women-led tech startups bring in 12% higher revenue than startups led by men. (via Kauffman Foundation)
4. If women business owners in the US formed a country, its GDP would rank 5th globally. (via American Express Open)
5. $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. This includes women’s equity in the startup world, folks. (via McKinsey)
6. Technology’s improved when women and girls have equal access. That’s pretty much common sense, since tech talent has no gender bias, and I’ve got over forty years working with women engineers and programmers that proves it. (We need a lot more, and in the U.S. we’re talking about a renewed emphasis on STEM — science, technology, engineering, and math — education.)
7. Women entrepreneurs bring in 20% more revenue with 50% less money invested than entrepreneurs who are men. (via Forbes)
8. There are 1.5 million businesses owned by Black women. These businesses generate over $44 billion a year in revenue. (via The #ProjectDiane Report)
9. Products can’t be developed for the masses when they’re only developed under the lens of one demographic.
10. Companies with a woman founder performed 63% better than First Round capital’s investments with all-male founding teams. (via First Round Capital)

How LDR Ventures Was Born

Several years ago, Drew Koven and his partners at Los Angeles based VC firm LDR Ventures noticed similar things. Few women were in leadership roles where they were executives, and the number of participants in the incubators and accelerators who were women were low. Given his partners’ backgrounds in fashion, retail, eCommerce and consumer products, members of the LDR team were usually paired up with female entrepreneurs and their start ups. As a result the idea for LDR Ventures was born with a purpose driven passion and personal conviction.

Koven and LDR Venture team members were mentors at accelerators including Launchpad LA for Parachute Home and Vow To Be Chic and Boulder, Colorado based Mergelane, a start-up accelerator for Women-led Companies. They have invested in, advised and currently work with several Female Founder, Female Co-Founder and CEO led companies including: Bow & Drape, Fame and Partners, The Beach People and Thrive Market. LDR has found that female leaders get to profitability faster than men, are stronger multi-taskers and are more capital efficient. Women’s fundraising options are very limited and based on just results alone, they should not be. LDR represents a team of investors who listen to and embrace female founders pitching business ideas designed to solve female problems.

Says Aubrie Pagano, Co-Founder and CEO of Bow & Drape about LDR Ventures:

“Truly awesome mentors. Amazing commitment and effort. Great experience, insight and resources to provide tactical guidance and support.”

We’re advancing a democratized approached to investing by providing a premier source of knowledge and financial capital to the under served market of women-led companies. We’re our own brand of VC that embraces women and diversity, ready to write checks and lend our experience to those we believe in regardless of gender, race or social orientation.

LDR is following the lead set by organizations and individuals including: SheEo, Mergelane, Women Who Tech, Belle Capital, Backstage Capital, Sheryl Sandberg, Oprah Winfrey, Sara Blakely, Barbara Corcoran, Suze Orman, Alison Brod, Barbara Walters and more.

Please reach out to LDR Ventures for more information at www.ldrventures.com