Programs for Women Founders Programs for Women Founders
How to design a program and its mentoring for women who start and grow companies.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
How many women start
Women start almost as often as men
In 2025, 12% of women ran a new business, against 14% of men.
- Men 14%14%
- Women 12%12%
Where the gap opens
The gap opens as companies grow
Women lead many promising startups, but fewer reach the established stage.
What investors ask
Investors ask women about risk
At TechCrunch Disrupt, investors asked men about gains and women about losses.
- Men hear questions about gains growth, upside, ambition
- Women hear questions about losses risk, safety, what could fail
Answering risk questions
Coach founders to answer with growth
Answering a risk question with a growth answer raised funding in an experiment.
- A question about risk what could go wrong?
- An answer about growth the market, the plan, the upside
- More funding in the study’s experiment
Bias in the pitch
The same pitch gets a different verdict
Investors preferred pitches presented by men, even when the content was identical.
- Presented by a man preferred by investors
- Presented by a woman same words, less support
Who sits on the investor side
Bring women investors into the room
On AngelList, women investors showed more interest in women founders than men did.
- Male investors less interest in women founders
- Female investors more interest in women founders
- Their men-led picks did worse than their women-led picks
Peers and role models
Women follow women into business
Women learn from women peers, and peer groups explain about half the early-career gap.
- Neighbours who runs a business nearby
- Family a parent or relative who started
- Schoolmates classmates who took the step
What mentoring does
Local mentors beat a business class
In Kenya, mentoring by a local entrepreneur raised profits, while a class did not.
Keeping pairs together
Keep the mentor pairs meeting
The profit gains faded as mentor pairs stopped meeting, so watch for quiet pairs.
- A meeting rhythm agreed at the start
- A check-in when a pair goes quiet
- A fast rematch when a pair stops
Designing around caregiving
Build the program around real lives
Women were 55% more likely than men to exit a business for family or personal reasons.
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2026) GEM 2025/2026 Women’s Entrepreneurship Report: How Metrics Shape the Narrative Global Entrepreneurship Research Association, London Business School
- Kanze, D., Huang, L., Conley, M. A. & Higgins, E. T. (2018) We ask men to win and women not to lose: Closing the gender gap in startup funding Academy of Management Journal, 61(2), 586-614
- Brooks, A. W., Huang, L., Kearney, S. W. & Murray, F. E. (2014) Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(12), 4427-4431
- Ewens, M. & Townsend, R. R. (2020) Are early stage investors biased against women? Journal of Financial Economics, 135(3), 653-677
- Markussen, S. & Røed, K. (2017) The gender gap in entrepreneurship: The role of peer effects Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 134, 356-373
- Brooks, W., Donovan, K. & Johnson, T. R. (2018) Mentors or teachers? Microenterprise training in Kenya American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 10(4), 196-221
Close the gap after the start
Coach the pitch, change who invests and keep mentors meeting as companies grow.