Fund WomenSave the World
[Music]
i tell people
fund women save the world and i’ve had
some people say what fun women will save
the world
and i’m like no no no not fun women
although fun women probably will save
the world
what i said was fund with a d fund women
save the world in fact the dalai lama
says
that the western women will save the
world
but i ask you how are we going to do
that without funding
did you know that women get less than 3
percent of venture capital funding
and less than 15 of traditional funding
this means that men get 90
of all the investment monies they get
the lion’s share for their ideas
and inventions and businesses
one of the reasons is that more than 85
percent of venture capital companies
have no that’s zero
female decision makers zero
and most of the angel investors are men
too
so what is our takeaway from this we
need more female decision makers in the
funding world
period so how are we as fearless women
gonna change this well i have some ideas
and solutions to share with you today
for me this is personal because i’ve
always been a serial entrepreneur
since my 20s when i had several
businesses and
a full-time job that is until i left
corporate america
at the age of 40. do not ask when that
was
now i was a super successful account
executive in cable tv
advertising for 15 years top in the
country
but i decided i wanted to leave and help
make a difference in the world and i had
an opportunity to help start a gay cable
network
now i decided yeah i want to take my
abilities to generate advertising
dollars and put it toward that venture
and at the time
we had very little gay characters on
television if any
and definitely no gay cable network
and i thought wow if we could have gay
characters on tv
in a positive light that could really
affect the
confidence and boost the self-esteem of
young gay people
and then i called on these businesses to
advertise on this network and they would
say to me
well we don’t have any gay tv
advertising dollars
and i’d say well of course you don’t
there’s never been any gay programming
you’re gonna have to take it from your
regular tv budget and print budget
and move it over to this and thankfully
many of them did that
then after the network i thought the
next most important thing
for the lgbtq community was for us to
have
gay marriage i thought that would give
hope
to young people in that community that
one day they would have a
loving family unit like everybody else
so that’s when i decided to create my
very first documentary called
i can’t marry you about same-sex
marriage
and i asked ellen degeneres’s mom betty
a human rights campaign activist to
narrate it and thankfully she did
and so i envisioned this film on pbs
and right at the time i completed it we
were able to get married
in california and massachusetts and
fortunately they agreed to air it
because they had very little content on
this topic
you know i later read that getting your
documentary on television
was like winning the lottery one in a
million
who knew so i was just really glad that
i followed my insides and
did that film that impacted society in a
positive way
and still lives on in college libraries
and and online today and
and that i was the recipient of all of
that hard work because
now i’m married so that’s the best part
of it all
by now you can probably tell i’ve always
been a champion
for the underdog and so about
five years ago i decided to shift my
focus from producing lgbtq media
to empowering women all women
especially when i found out that in the
funding world
women were clearly the underdog so
i launched a multimedia platform to
empower women and as an
entrepreneur i thought i want to share
my connections and resources
and lessons i’ve learned with other
women
to help them soar and this platform
entailed
conferences workshops a podcast and a
book
and all of these things had one mission
in mind and that was to
inspire and mentor
and fund women that was the whole
purpose of it
now prior to this venture i had
you know garnered and raised money and
had partners but in this particular
venture i decided to invest in it myself
i was able to attract an amazing team
and an awesome advisory board to help us
grow it
now before i did these conferences and
workshops i really had no idea
how dramatically women
were underfunded and realized most
other people didn’t know either that’s
when i had an epiphany to create
a pitch fest to fund women and as a
filmmaker i decided to follow the
journeys of the women that were the
recipients
of the funding and mentorship
so we solicited submissions from women
that had
game changing ideas but they weren’t
able to get the funding
or the support to execute them i mean we
had incredible entries a couple come to
mind
one woman had invented a special cap
for chemotherapy patients it kept them
from losing their hair
i was like wow and then another one she
had a real estate solution
to the affordable housing problem i was
like
these are amazing entries and i thought
if we could reach women and educate them
around the world and the men that
support them
we could change this underfunding issue
and then these amazing ideas and
inventions
could come to fruition and help make the
world a better place
as we all know in order to solve a
problem we have to make people aware
that one exists
and then give them solutions of how to
change it
the problem became crystal clear to me
when i had a hard time
finding women investors to be on the
pitch fest panel to hear the incredible
ideas of these female founders
that is until i realize that there are
female angel investment groups out there
that existed
however these angel investor group women
explained to me that
while many women are great about giving
to charities which is
awesome not many understood the benefits
of
angel investing that’s why only 22
percent of angel investors
are women they also explain to me
another very important thing
that it is so important for women to be
at the funding table because people tend
to invest in people they
identify with that they relate to
that is why if the funding decision
makers are predominantly white men
that is who are the majority of the
recipients
women better understand and identify
with female founders and therefore that
is why we need more women
at the funding table you know
as we all know throughout history
so many fearless women have had
accomplishments that have helped change
the course of the world
think about it what if we didn’t have
women’s inventions like
two-time nobel prize winner madame curie
who discovered radium which led to
modern-day x-rays
and grace hopper who invented computer
programming
yes computer programming was invented by
a woman
and let’s not forget patricia bath
she invented the first cataract laser
device
and anna conley invented the first fire
escape
not to mention let’s see uh the car
heater
the electric refrigerator the
central heating these are all inventions
of women
just to name a few so many
creations and cures and solutions that
will help save the planet
rest in the hands of women and that’s
why i am so
passionate about us fixing this
underfunding issue
of course we want the men in our lives
to invest in their daughters and wives
and sisters and friends
but ultimately it’s about women getting
behind women
because waiting for men to invest in us
how’s that been working for us
and now that women control
more than 30 percent of all the wealth
which is trillions of dollars
and we impact more than 80 percent of
the buying decisions
we’re finally in a position to invest in
women’s ventures
it starts with you being fearless and
proactive
and what i mean by that is think about
it you could join
an angel investor group and i think of
this as the new book club
instead of reading a book you’re getting
to hear the
pitches of these amazing innovations
that are
breaking ground in science and
technology and education and health care
how exciting is that you know
like any investment there are risk but
those are mitigated
by the fact that these groups are run by
seasoned investors that teach logistics
that hedge those bets
and let’s not forget research shows
that women entrepreneurs
outperform their male counterparts
another reason to invest in them
together we can solve this underfunding
issue and level the playing field
we can create a movement that will
create
gender equity in funding let’s close
that gap
it is fulfilling and empowering
and gratifying to leave a legacy that
helps change the world and if you don’t
have that big idea
you can get behind somebody that does
you know we have plenty of female
founders
we need more female funders you know i
wonder how many lives will be changed
when all of you go home and you search
for that angel investment group near you
and you become the next angel investor
we need more female angel investors
period
imagine a world where women are funded
and you could be that person that gets
behind that next big great idea that
helps change the world
it could be your legacy and your purpose
on the planet
and really what could be more fun than
that
thank you