Women own 40 percent of US businesses but almost none of venture-backed tech

Evidence

No less than 40 percent of privately held businesses in the United States are owned by women. And despite the attribution of entrepreneurial traits to men, studies have shown no significant differences between women and men who start companies in terms of education, technical background, or motivation. In fact, by some metrics, women-owned companies outperform the average: women owners, on average, are more conservative about spending money, and are more likely to survive the transition from startup to established company. Despite this, women are virtually absent from the upper echelons of technology. While venture-backed technology companies do not represent the majority of U.S. companies, they are given the highest status in Silicon Valley and are overwhelmingly run and funded by men. Only 8 percent of venture-backed startups are founded by women, and only 14 percent of venture capitalists are women; at the top technology venture-capital firms, only 8 percent of investment professionals are women. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 691

Categorization

• QUESTION: The gap between women’s overall business success and their near-absence from venture capital suggests venture culture itself, not capability, is the barrier — worth chasing the mechanisms.
• CANDY: 40 percent of US businesses are women-owned yet only 8 percent of venture-backed startups are — a punchy disparity for elevator conversation.
• XREF: connects to: Minority- and women-owned firms manage only 1.1 percent of US asset management dollars — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax…, 455; Venture capitalists who see women as emotionally immature are less likely to fund them — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 705

Broader Connections

• Venture capitalists who see women as emotionally immature are less likely to fund them #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 705
• Minority- and women-owned firms manage only 1.1 percent of US asset management dollars #corroborates (0.75) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 455