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