Closing the data gap: Why we need to learn more about queer founders
Our survey on LGBTIQ+ founders
As early-stage investors, we work closely with our startups. The founders come to us with all kinds of questions. From the search for additional investors, to media training, to the correct way to address their target group. At APX, we see ourselves as mentors, sparring partners, and comforters. Because being a founder — as anyone who has ever tried it knows — often consists of one challenge after the next.
To be able to adequately and constructively support all of our founders in their respective life situations, we need to be aware of the different environments founders can be in. At a certain point, we reach our limits: Fortunately, there is a lot of data about startups and founders in general, but still far too little statistical material about marginalized groups, for example, queer founders.
We have made it our task to close this knowledge gap. Because we are sure that diverse teams get the best results. In a previous article, we wrote about why we must look at the specific challenges of people in the LGBTIQ+ community. For example, in the studies cited there, it was clear that queer founders locate their startups where they feel safe. So one task for us is to create more of these safe spaces. We also showed that few investors have openly queer founders in their portfolios. So we have to ask ourselves, are queer founders and their ideas less likely to have us invest in them?
Empowering queer founders helps improve their products
But knowing more about queer founders is not just about empowering them. It’s also about the impact that diversity, in general, can have on developing and improving products. We now know that we all have blind spots and unconscious bias. As a result, we also bring this into our ideas and product development. Numerous examples show that only a diverse team can anticipate the characteristics of all populations.
One prominent example is artificial intelligence. Google tagged two people of color as “gorillas” back in 2015. And Facebook’s algorithm also asked people who saw a video of a PoC couple if “they’d like to see more videos of primates.” Sometimes artificial intelligence also discriminates on gender. The women-only app Giggle uses AI to screen a user’s gender — but they forgot to think about trans*women. And even the U.S. Federal Trade Commission warned in April 2021 that AI tools used to make decisions about credit, housing or jobs had shown troubling racial and gender biases that violated the Consumer Protection Act.
There are plenty of examples that show the importance of diverse teams and their diverse perspectives. After all, startups have the opportunity to build their structures and workforce to accommodate a diverse environment from the start. For this reason, we have started a study on European entrepreneurs with different sexual orientations and gender identities. The goal is to fill some of the existing data gap on the topic of queer entrepreneurs in Europe.
In the study, socio-demographic data is requested on the one hand. On the other hand, open questions are asked, for example, how founders deal with their sexual orientation or how it has influenced their business and decisions. The study started in November 2021 and our goal at APX is to get at least 1000 responses, of which at least 500 are from LGBTIQ+ founders. If you’re a founder — regardless of your sexuality and gender identity — please fill out our survey, and share it with your network.
For all non-founders, please share this survey as Europe-wide as you can:
