It’s harder to raise capital if you’re a female founder
Based on the experience I’ve had so far, I want to share a different insight — perhaps a more encouraging one.
My goal is to encourage everyone out there who wants to get started to take the first step. Don’t be discouraged by those blogs you can find all over the internet.
The first myth and perhaps the most common one — it’s harder to raise capital if you’re a female founder.
Capital raising is hard and time consuming, full stop. The amount of effort and time required to raise capital should never be underestimated.
To be honest, I don’t believe it’s gender related.
There are many factors that will contribute to a successful fundraising:
- Have you found product market fit? (Problem, solution & traction)
- How big is your market?
- Are your customers retaining?
- Will your team be able to optimally execute against your opportunity?
- And an important, but selfish factor — can the people you’re pitching to relate to the problem you’re trying to solve?

I came across this quote from an Australian female entrepreneur:
“I think it’s an undertone of sexism to be honest, if you’re a young woman who doesn’t have coding experience trying to pitch an idea, you’re going to have a lot more trouble than a guy in a sweatshirt with coding experience.” said Jessica Wilson, the co-founder of fashion app Stashd.
Before this statement discourages you from moving forward, please understand that whether an angel investor decides to back your idea has little to do with whether you’re a ‘young woman’ or a ‘guy in a sweatshirt’. It has a lot to do with the ‘coding experience’.
Let’s say you are a first time entrepreneur. You have little experience in business and are not technical. Regardless of gender, it will be head against the wall for you if you don’t have the skills, passion and dedication to set the industry on fire.
Making sure you’ve reached product market fit before seeking external investment is also important.
Startups used to figure stuff out and then ask for money. Today, they ask for money to figure things out. That is not right.
Once you’ve proven that there are people lining up to use your product and paying you for it, investors will find you.
Although, this is easier said than done. This means we must create something that will first give enough value to our customers to an extend that they’ll use their hard-earned money to continuously pay for it; and then take that to investors and show them we are “the one” to make the plan a reality.
Some great articles on product market fit:
- The Only Thing That Matters, by Marc Andreessen https://pmarchive.com/guide_to_startups_part4.html
- The Real Product Market Fit, by Michael Seibel: https://blog.ycombinator.com/the-real-product-market-fit/
