Advice To Women-Owned Tech Startups: Nothing’s Ever As Good or Bad As It Seems
Just 17 percent of technology startups have at least one female founder, and last year only two percent of venture funds went to women founders.
Not long ago, the SAP.iO Foundry accelerator in New York City launched a four-month mentorship program to help women-owned tech companies change this abysmal gender inequity.
Nine brilliant women graduates took much-deserved center stage during the recent Demo Day in SAP’s New York office at Hudson Yards. I’ll profile some of these inspired startups in future blogs. For now, here’s the gist of that day’s opening fireside chat before the appreciative audience of investors, SAP executives, customers and mentors.
Applying different co-innovation formula
The SAP iO Foundries reflect a new approach to co-innovate with startups, creating new application ecosystems. SAP provides mentoring, introductions to customers and APIs to foster growth for these early-stage companies via Foundries worldwide. The accelerator in New York has also extended its initial mentorship program for women.
“We wanted to provide incredibly deep support for these women so that they learn how to scale, and get on the hockey stick of growth,” said Vanessa Liu, vice president at SAP.iO Foundry New York. “But it was also important for us to form a community. With the help of partners…we’ve launched a series of events…to inspire women to do more enterprise tech.”
Diversity done right
Jennifer Morgan, co-president, Global Customer Operations and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, credited her greatest successes to diversity.
“The times where I feel we have the most success and creativity ─ whether we’re talking strategy, execution, or operationalizing something ─ is when we have different perspectives,” she said. “Too often when we talk about diversity, we bring people with different backgrounds together, but we still tend to focus on what makes them similar. You learn the most when you’re in challenging times and…wrestling through problems with people you maybe didn’t think were part of the solution. It really opens your eyes.”
Morgan added that the SAP.iO Foundry program provided reverse mentorship for SAP, challenging the company to think differently about technology and new business models.
Customer-centricity, culture are differentiators
Turns out that having superior technology is table stakes for every startup. To Morgan, true differentiation depends on people sustaining the organization’s purposeful culture.
“I’m passionate about the role of people, culture, leadership. These are going to become the differentiators more and more for companies in the digital world,” she said. “If you don’t have an engaged workforce and leaders walking the talk, you can have the best strategy and technology in the world, but without that you won’t be successful…you want your leadership to be a reflection of the values and behaviors you hold dear.”
Be sure to include men
Fostering women-owned entrepreneurs doesn’t leave men out of the conversation. Morgan said all her career sponsors and mentors have been men. “I’ve learned about how men think, which is very different from how women think…We can learn so much from each other,” she said. “If we want to change the stats in an authentic way, you have to include men in the conversation…It’s not just on women to figure this out.”
Morgan’s closing advice for startup founders was that nothing is ever as good as it seems, and nothing is ever as bad as it seems. “We all go through tough times, whether personally or professionally…and as you gain experience…you realize this too shall pass…Figure out what you can learn from it,” she said. “When times are riding high we have tendency to take eye off the ball, let complacency sink in…you always have to stay humble when things are great, and when things are tough, you need to stay hungry and know it’s going to get better.”
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Image via Travis W Keyes Photography
