Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High-Growth Businesses

CHAPTER 10 • NETWORKING FOR VENTURE CAPITAL 231

Do They Know You?

Because the venture capital industry is overwhelmingly male and

because men report that their networks are predominantly male, it is

unlikely that women entrepreneurs’ networks will have many points of

overlap with those of equity investors. The result is that women will

lack information about how to submit their business plans, who to con-

tact, or how to gain attention for their deal. It also means that even if

the plan makes its way into the right hands, the entrepreneur will still

be an unknown quantity to the investor and thus a higher risk. This dis-

connect between women entrepreneurs and investors presents a huge

challenge for women with high-growth aspirations, but it is also ...