What It’s Like To Be A Female Entrepreneur: 8 Founders And CEOs Share Their Stories
The job of an entrepreneur is not an easy one.
You’re fighting against hugely successful incumbents, trying to educate your customers, and fighting for every last dollar of revenue and every second of sleep you can get.
But that challenge is what keeps you going. Every “no” — whether it’s from a customer, a partner, or an investor — ignites the drive to succeed, because our greatest strengths come from the things we overcome.
Sadly, today’s world still seems to give some groups — including female entrepreneurs — an outsized number of “no’s” (or, let’s be honest, the kinds of “yes’s” nobody wants). It’s not easy, but that’s not the reason they or anyone else chooses to be an entrepreneur.
Their experiences teach us not only about the universal entrepreneurial struggle, but also inspire us to be better role models and show us how we can improve our community.
In celebration of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day (Nov. 19th), I spoke with eight early-stage entrepreneurs to get their take on diversity, how they’ve gotten to where they are today, and what other women can do to find success.
These incredible women are early-stage founders and CEOs through their hard work and determination to build their careers with lasting impact. They are disrupting not only industries, but also the status quo.
They are leaders in every sense of the word, and women that we at Kickstart Seed Fund are lucky enough to know and — to put our money where our mouths are — invest in.
Here’s what they had to say:
On women in leadership:
Women are 51% of the population. When we are 17% of Congress, that is not representation. When we are 10% of leadership, that is not equality. When female surgeons, in 2017, make 65 cents on the dollar in a comparative role to their male counterparts, we still have a long way to go.
We need to attack things like pay equity, and we need to attack these conceptions that, “Oh, if we have a handful of women doing this, we’ve fixed the problem.” If we’re going to change this, we absolutely cannot have this one-and-done mentality about having a woman in a leadership role or a woman on the board.
On average, companies with women in C-level roles and on the board outperform companies without women by 31 percent.
Women make the world and companies more successful. We need to start being very vocal about the fact that this isn’t affirmative action or diversity for diversity’s sake. Gender diversity, racial diversity — these things contribute to the bottom line in a very meaningful and measurable way.
— Mylea Charvat (@MyleaCharvat), CEO & Founder of Savonix (@SavonixInc)
On overcoming hiring bias:
In my last job, we had no women in the sales organization — and this was a big company.
I talked to the VP of Sales and we realized it was a problem with our process. Women typically under-represent themselves on their resumes, and our sorting process was to look at resumes.
We started bringing in every single woman who applied, whether they seemed qualified or not. But I didn’t put any quotas on them. I wanted them to hire the best candidate — no woman wants to get a job based on her gender.
Within six months, we had two more women in the sales organization. And the teams were better for it because they represented the customers better — we’re not selling to all men — and women have unique differences. They typically work better in a matrix organization. They are more generous listeners. They know how to build people. They know how to solve for really complex emotional problems. You want that.
— Carine Clark (@CarineClark), CEO of Banyan (@BanyanSocial)
On being strong:
One time, I called the person providing packaging for us in order to follow up, and he called my husband back to answer my questions. He wouldn’t even communicate with me.
I called him out on it, and he had some excuse why he called my husband. I’m like, “No. If I ask you a question, you respond to me.” Be very direct with people and let them know where you stand.
— Venessa Dobson, CEO & Cofounder of Pop Art Snacks (@PopArtSnacks)
On how to support women:
Give women exposure and promote them in every possible way. Have them give talks and presentations outside of their own company, and recommend each other for board positions.
Get them out — get them to conferences, invite them everywhere, and let them be seen. Bring them to meetings, even if it’s not their exact ballpark. Bring them so they can see and be mentored, and just feel like a part of the community.
— Vicki Farrar, CEO & Founder of Catheter Connections (@dualcap) (acq. by Merit Medical)
On hero-worship in startup culture:
In startup culture, you get this hero-worship of investors or people that work at certain companies. The danger of that is, if you presume that these people are somehow better or elevated, you can’t do anything if something bad happens.
Then you multiply that by a culture that’s somewhat biased against not just women, but also people of color and other minorities, and I think it creates something that isn’t welcoming to the best and brightest anymore. It’s only welcoming to the best and brightest white men.
— Lee Mayer (@ellemot), CEO & Founder of Havenly (@theHavenly)
On what she’s most proud of:
Seventy percent of our employees at Chatbooks are women, and 60 percent of our leadership positions are filled by women. It’s been awesome to be able to create not only a product that strengthens families, but also a culture that strengthens families. Family is a big part of my life, and I want to create opportunities for our employees to be able to meet the needs of their families and be excellent, amazing team members.
We have a family first policy here, so no questions asked if you have a family emergency or if there’s a school play that you need to be at. Those things take priority, and that’s part of the culture that we built here.
— Vanessa Quigley (@VanessaQuigley), Chatbooker-in-Chief & Cofounder of Chatbooks (@Chatbooks)
On using learning to combat imposter syndrome:
It’s easy to feel that other people are smarter or more capable than you, especially if they have years of experience or, for example, know how to code in a lot of languages. But that’s not necessarily true.
There’s a path of learning for the things they’ve achieved, and you’re just in a different part of the process. It doesn’t mean you can never be in that position. The most important thing is how fast you learn.
Learn new things everyday. Be confident and challenge yourself. If you’re learning and executing, you can achieve anything.
— Aydé Soto, CTO & Cofounder of SimpleCitizen (@SimpleCitizenUS)
On building confidence:
I pushed my way into a lot of groups that were male-oriented and may not necessarily have wanted me there. Early on, I came into HP and I was part of a chip development organization where I was the only woman. I put on one of the top designs for that division and you could tell from the body language and the words spoken that others weren’t happy about it.
That can be isolating. If people don’t have confidence in you or don’t want you on the team, it can be really challenging.
How I progressed was by proving myself and building up confidence by making contributions. Once you start to accomplish things, you build resilience about what people say and what people do. Show them that you are there for a reason, that you can accomplish things and contribute to the success of the business. You can continue to push forward, even when those around you may not be friendly or inclusive.
Most people will allow you in and they will have respect for you. Not everybody, but that’s just the nature of the world. It’s going to be tough, but stay strong, stay resilient, stay focused, and make sure that you’re contributing.
— Sash Sunkara, CEO & Founder of Rackware (@Rackware)
