The Funding Divide
The Funding Divide
Though we have known that women face additional challenges when pitching to investors, it became clear through new data from DocSend which shows that female founders face a clear bias in access to VC Funding. According to their pre-seed research, All Male teams raised 42% more than All Female teams in their pre-seed round. Further, All Female teams raised 30% less money after contacting 23% more investors than their male teams.
Watch the full webinar below:
To raise money, women entrepreneurs must do more outreach, have more meetings to raise less money than their male counterparts. However, with data comes power. Through this webinar, we dive in with Andrea Silvers, Director of Communications at DocSend to discuss what makes a company and founding team successful when raising money and how to use this data to get to a “Yes” (or to a “No” much more quickly to save yourself energy).
Further, we are joined by April and Nikki Dominguez, two minority women founders behind the Handsome App who have been (though hard work, grit and cold calls) successful at raising money. They share their journey and what tips and advice they have for female founders.
Sarah Friar, co-founder of Ladies Who Launch and CEO of Nextdoor, moderates the discussion and adds her own perspective raising money and what she learned through the process.
LADIES WHO LAUNCH: DOCSEND DISCOUNT
If you love this webinar, go check out DocSend and their hookup for the LWL Community. Securely share your pitch deck and fundraise with DocSend. Up to 90% off your annual DocSend plan if you're a startup. Sign up for your free trial below!
PANELISTS
Andrea Silvers, Director of Content and Communications, DocSend
Andrea Silvers is the Director of Content and Communications at DocSend, a service for securely sending and tracking documents that has over 14,000 customers including Gusto, One Medical and Airtable.
She’s worked in tech in the UK, Canada and New Zealand and has held roles at Electronic Arts, Xero and Veem.
April Dominguez, Founder and CEO, Handsome
April Dominguez is the CEO and Cofounder of Handsome, and has led the company to raising over $600K to launch the industry changing app. A graduate of The University of Texas, El Paso where she received a full ride scholarship for being a highly motivated minority individual with high potential. She spent six years as Vice President overseeing technology, operations & investments at an investment startup that raised and invested over $130M during her time there. April has been awarded Employee of the Year and was a winner of the IAmSoGal Pitch Competition, Austin. She’s committed her life to community enhancement, is an avid philanthropist, and has led multiple fundraises and teams across the finish line of the NYC Marathon and Dam that Cancer. Her mission is to motivate people to reach their truest potential, to act as a voice for and create highly impactful cultural and economic change for under-represented communities.
Nikki Dominguez, Founder and President, Handsome
Nikki Dominguez is the Cofounder and President of Handsome, and has led the app to becoming the go to resource for 10s of 1000s of beauty professionals. Nikki brings over a decade of experience in the beauty and salon industry. She’s built two beauty academies and one school licensed by the state of Colorado, management training strategies & corporate office structure while growing a team of 70 to a team of over 150 stylists. She spent six years building beauty and educator systems in New York City. Prior to joining the salon industry, Nikki studied Psychology at the University of Northern Colorado. She’s a mentor, educator, yogi and meditator. Nikki is passionate about creating change in an industry where their profession has often been labeled as a “last resort”. Nikki's life's work has been to challenge the norms in an archaic industry, so that beauty professionals feel empowered, inspired, and have the tools to chase the careers of their wildest dreams.