Astia - Searching for Supernovas. We're good at it.
Astia is a community of experts committed to leveling the playing field for women entrepreneurs by providing access to capital and networks for the companies they lead.
If last year’s We Own It Summit in New York was a dip of the toe in to the water to see if it was warm enough, then this year’s Summit in London was a dive in to the deep-end followed by a forceful free-style firmly charging to the finish line in 2020.
The Decade of the Woman Entrepreneur is upon us and the collaboration has firmly embraced the opportunity and the challenge this presents. The Summit participants have validated that the moment is now to propel women in to the high-growth, innovation economy – as entrepreneurs, investors, and ultimately beneficiaries of the wealth and influence created.
Our next steps have been identified in the goals below. It is now the responsibility of we, the collaborating organizations, to maintain the momentum and deliver on these shared commitments:
In 2011-12, we will:
Create and implement collaboration processes for research and training. • The annual research agenda will work to address 1-3 questions annually. This work is critical as the current dearth of data pertaining to women high-growth entrepreneurs is pronounced and does not allow us to measure our progress. • The training objectives ensure that women gain exposure to the opportunity of high-growth entrepreneurship, investment, and board participation. The goal this year is to create a shared curriculum - via the many that already exists within the collaboration - that provides access to networks and access to maps to success.
Communicate to the market the stories of successful women entrepreneurs and investors as well as clearly articulate the problem, issues and opportunities. This year, we will complete and publish: • 12 profiles each of female investors & entrepreneurs. • A statement of why women’s participation matters for key constituents (LPs, VCs, government, etc.)
Take action that we believe will create real and measurable change in the market. • A group, led by successful VCs, angels and LPs, has been created to raise an Astia Innovation Fund to invest in women-founded, women-led, high-growth start-ups. • Borrowing from the model used by the Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley a decade ago, we will work to get women to invest in women (as well as the men who love women entrepreneurs), thereby owning the solution for ourselves. • Where we have influence as industry leaders, LPs, Fund of Funds, family offices, VC firms, government funding agencies, etc. we will work to get women in to decision-making bodies.
The nearly 200 thought-leaders who participated in this year’s Summit have identified the above goals for the coming year as the deliverables that will lead us to the success in 2020.
And for those new to this race, the finish line has been mapped. Through this Summit and this collaboration – and any other means available to us - we will:
• Increase number of women investors. • Increase number of women high growth entrepreneurs. • Increase likelihood of success of these businesses. • Get more women on public and private boards.
Let’s start with some inspiring facts before we talk about the e-G8 technology forum which is preceding the main G8 summit this week. Ada Lovelace’s partnership with Charles Babbage in the 1840s led to the invention of the world’s first computer, the Difference Engine. Adele Goldberg’s collaboration with Alan Kay in the 1970s produced a programming language, smalltalk-80, which evolved into Objective-C. This language is what now runs 180+ million of Apple's innovations such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad; innovations that contribute to Apple's bottom line success and make it the world's #1 most valued brand. Meanwhile, Dame Wendy Hall’s contributions to the original WWW as well as its latest form, the Semantic Web, over the last 20 years alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee and others is what enables technologies to be increasingly intelligent, open and democratic for global society.
These are some examples of what’s achievable when both genders put their minds together and their hands to work in the tech sphere.
The importance of diversity, inclusion and collaboration to foster innovation, informed decision-making and economic opportunity is never more pertinent than today when technologists and political leaders from G8 countries are gathering for a two-day forum in the Tuileries Gardens of Paris, France. Under discussion will be a range of policy issues concerning the Web and mobile spaces, including: innovation, education, intellectual property, privacy and economic growth. The French President, Nicholas Sarkozy, and the advertising group, Publicis SA, are co-hosting the event, which promises to produce agenda items for the main G8 summit happening in Deauville on May 26 and 27.
What’s notable about the list of speakers and panelists at the first ever e-G8 is the sub-optimal ratio of male:female speakers and panelists (approximately 12:1) as well as the absence of representation by consumer groups and banking technologists. The latter’s omission is surprising because it would seem G8 leaders aren’t exploring ways in which technology and better quality data can be leveraged to reduce the likelihood of another global financial crisis:
Therefore, it would seem that e-G8 organizers are missing opportunities to gain more diverse perspectives as well as to tackle genuine challenges that affect ordinary citizens who use the Web and mobile Web. Moreover, women constitute a sizeable percentage of the $ spent online and the e-G8 is about economics. According to Comscore's 2010 report: "In the U.S., women make up slightly less than half the internet users but make up for it by spending 58% of the commerce dollars." Meanwhile, Nielsens reported that US mobile consumer behavior in Q4 2010 shows in an average month, women send and receive 717 SMS text messages, 30% more than the 552 sent and received by men. More information about women's purchasing power online can be read in this TechCrunch article by guest writer, Aileen Lee, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Interestingly, regarding the under-representation of women on the e-G8 panels, French parliamentarians passed a law on 13 January 2011 to increase the number of female board directors to 20% within the next three years and 40% within six years thereafter:
It would have been commendable and encouraging if the French e-G8 hosts had led the way in the implementation of this law and invited more leading women in the technology and policy sectors to contribute to the panels and propose agenda items for discussion. A number of key organizations, including Astia, Women2.org, Catalyst and Arianna Huffington’s WIE (Women Inspiration Enterprise), could have directed the e-G8 organizers towards these women and enabled them to “sit at the big table” --- in the way that Sheryl Sandberg described in her December 2010 TEDTalk:
There are women who aren't "leaving before we leave" and are available for consideration and invitation to participate on policy panels, operational boards and media interviews about the future of technology and global society. It's the responsibility of conference hosts and organisers such as e-G8 as much as of CEO executive search professionals to show initiative and seek those talented women out.
Interestingly, there’s an emerging wealth of research which shows that when women are involved at the board level they boost the diversity of decision-making, companies excel and outperform at the bottom line. For example, Catalyst Research report from 2008 shows Fortune500 companies with 3 or more female board members produced these results:
+ 73% return on sales + 83% return on equity + 112% return on invested capital
Obviously, the onus is also on female technologists to be proud of our achievements, to make others aware of our progress and to have the vision, initiative, drive and execution to earn those seats at the “big table”. It’s worth observing that, of the female panelists at the e-G8, Sheryl Sandberg is a rarity in that she has direct high-level operational experience at a technology company. More of her type is needed and should be fostered.
It’s vital that this and future generations of women are encouraged to pursue careers at the heart of business operations and where it impacts bottom line revenues: coding applications not only designing and marketing them; being responsible for P+L and not only in a supporting role; and, most importantly of all perhaps, making strategic revenue decisions as CEOs. In this way, when Web 3.0 happens journalists will be able to interview more female tech CEOs than they could in 2010:
For inspiration, please listen to this recent NYTimes podcast and appreciate some more how women have been at the forefront of technological innovations that have increased economic opportunities and growth for all. Whilst we're at it, let's admire the women at IBM, where they recently built the IBM Watson machine that won 'Jeopardy' and showed us the possibilities of more intelligent machines to filter through all the world's online data:
Clearly, female engagement is what makes the difference between innovation and economic potential versus stagnation and economic impasses.
James Brown’s 1966 soul standard does tell us a truth that’s worth bearing in mind as we take a moment to reflect on how far women have progressed and how much further we still have to go. Outstanding women including Oprah, Madonna and Arianna have walked those paths to show us that women are just as capable of becoming successful media and publishing titans as the Turners, the Rolling Stones and the Murdochs.
Yet there are still opportunities and “giant leaps” to be made, particularly in the technology and policy orbits and in light of the e-G8 forum. For 2012, a key mission statement should be that the ratio of male:female panelists at the “big table” of the e-G8 should be 50:50.
As a technologist, I’d like to close with this picture.
It shows how vision and innovation are what happen when both sides of our brains (50:50) work in synch.
We become.....Conscious!
‘It’s a Man’s World, but it would be nothing, NOTHING without a woman or a girl.’
--- Twain Liu is the founder of a mobile applications company. Her technology interests include: data structures, artificial intelligence and making sense (context) of content. Her career experiences include: technology consultancy; corporate finance; Strategic Investments (TMT) and corporate strategy, CEO-Chairman’s Office, Tier 1 bank; and Zephyr.com which was acquired by Bureau van Dijk.
By Lesa Mitchell, Vice President, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
This much is known: The next round of economic recovery and growth in the U.S. will be led by new companies. The statistical evidence on that point is clear. While big, established firms employ the most people, it's the high-growth startups -- the new firms on their way to becoming big -- that create the lion's share of new jobs, and become the anchors for new industries. So it has been through every wave of growth in the country's history, from the days of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford to the IT boom of the late twentieth century.
Now here is the lesser known fact: If we want a real recovery, the next cohort of high-growth entrepreneurs cannot just be people with names like Thomas and Henry, or Bill and Steve. We need the women to get involved. The American growth engine can no longer afford to run on half of its cylinders.
Yes, women are starting plenty of new businesses. However if you look closely at the picture, as we have done at the Kauffman Foundation, where I work, you find a vast amount of potential left on the table. In our demographic data, the overall rate of entrepreneurial activity among women is less than 2/3 the rate for men.
And, as other sources along with Kauffman have found, womens' startups under-perform on key measures of growth. Comparatively, few of them even grow to $1 million per year in revenues. Very few build or hire on the kind of scale that can boost a region's economy, let alone show up on the national radar screen.
Part of the disparity stems from the types of companies many women start, such as local retail shops or professional service firms and consultancies. Serious growth and value creation tend to come from innovative startups in science- and technology-based industries. But this is where the gender gap becomes blindingly apparent.
Can you name one woman founder or co-founder who has taken a tech-based company from inception to true global scale? Several already-big firms, such as Oracle and Xerox, have women as CEOs. Meg Whitman joined eBay when it was growing and led it the rest of the way to the top, which is the closest example I can think of.
About the guest blogger: Lesa Mitchell is a vice president with the Kauffman Foundation. She has been responsible for the Foundation’s frontier work in understanding the policy levers that influence the advancement of innovation from universities into the commercial market and the new relationships between disease philanthropy and for profit companies. Prior to joining Kauffman, Mitchell spent twenty years in global executive roles at Aventis, Quintiles, and Marion Laboratories. Follow her on Twitter at @lesamitchell.
This month, I have been thinking about what I have termed, the entrepreneur's paradox. Most simply stated, it is the importance of discomfort, juxtaposed with the need for comfort zones - both of which I believe, are fundamental to the success of the entrepreneur.
Get uncomfortable - it will make you grow.
I do my best thinking, listening, and learning when I am outside of my comfort zone. It seems true for most of us, that in strange places with new people we are better able to listen to the conversation before we put forward what we know - or what we think we know.
Get a community - the individual cannot do it alone.
And yet, I thrive when surrounded by an engaged community that lends thoughtful support, constructive input, validating energy, and positive reinforcement. A group of people provide an important source of strength and comfort for the isolated start-up.
I believe to succeed as entrepreneurs - we need both. And I believe that Astia - for the entrepreneur - can be both.
We need ample opportunity to feel challenged and stretched beyond what we thought we were capable of. I am reminded of the numerous Astia founders who had exceptional technical expertise, and who found Astia most challenging for them when they were confronted with owning the business elements like the financials, the go to market strategy, or the fundraising conversations. This stretch ensured they grew as leaders and as founders.
We also need ample moments when we are bolstered by those who align with us. I say it often, "The individual does not scale. High-growth entrepreneurship cannot be done alone." To be successful, the entrepreneur must be able to attract others to their vision. They must be able to inspire others to follow them to the "great unknown" of the entrepreneur's vision, idea, and purpose. And they need this cohort in order to succeed.
Astia is the space where the 'entrepreneur's paradox' can be resolved.
Astia is at the same time the platform for critical thinking - and - the community at the ready. I believe this is one of our greatest differentiators. We are a community that can both challenge and bolster the entrepreneur.
For the savvy entrepreneur, Astia maintains the space for both critical thinking leading to growth - and - supportive community aligned with your success. Food for thought for those of you wondering if Astia is right for you. We welcome the conversation - and accept applications year-round. Give us a call. Together, we may just change your world - as you always envisioned you would!
Wondering if Astia is right for you or an entrepreneur you know. give us a call or drop us an email to info@astia.org.
Sharon Vosmek is being interviewed for an www.ecosalon.com piece. Here are the questions she has addressed, we thought you might be interested in hearing what she had to say.
Are VCs focused enough on supporting women and minority entrepreneurs?
I don't see this as the work of VCs. Their job is to make investments that return the best IRR to their LPs. And what we know about this is that companies that have women in executive leadership, outperform those that do not. Therefore, what we expect to see is a greater number and percentage of investments going in to companies with women in those roles. Not because they need support, but because they outperform the market.
Should they be focused on groups, as such? Why delineate between the bearers of good ideas?
I think the first answer addresses this.
Is there biased against efforts spearheaded by women and/or minorities? Why?
No 1. In our society, men and women are still by-and-large in separate business networks. And no. 2, 95% of VCs and 85% of Angels are men. How this plays out is as follows. VC and Angel investment relies heavily on trusted business relationships - often for early stage investors, the only risk that can be mitigated is that of the individuals involved and if they are known to the investor. Trusted business relationships are always going to win in this scenario. Therefore if you take points 1 and 2, you can see how within the high-growth space, groups who are not naturally in each others' networks, will suffer as a result. Entrepreneurs will suffer because they will lack access to capital. Investors will suffer because they will lack access to the full compliment of deals. This is a societal issue, not one of VC or Angel per se.
Are women and minorities even stepping to plate to play as entrepreneurs anyway? If not, why not?
Yes they are.
What are the benefits of targeting investments in these groups? To society? To theeconomy? To investors?
The benefits are three fold as the question presumes. For investors - higher returns where women are in leadership with men. For society - half the population's talents can be fully realized (women are half of MBAs, half of PhDs, more than half of all college graduates - there is an abundant pool of talent at the ready). For the economy - it means jobs. If women had the same access to capital as their male counterparts we would see 6 million jobs added to the economy in 5 years, 2million in year one alone*. This is the economic recovery we all seek. Seems a simple solution.
If last year’s We Own It Summit in New York was a dip of the toe in to the water to see if it was warm enough, then this year’s Summit in London was a dive in to the deep-end followed by a forceful free-style firmly charging to the finish line in 2020.
