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Meet the women behind some of India’s very successful startups

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Andreessen HorowitzBoris Wertz</div></div></div>As we all know by now, the tech industry is overwhelmingly male. And when it comes to women entrepreneurs running VC-backed startups, the numbers are even more abysmal.
While about half the small businesses in the U.S. are founded by women, in the tech industry women founders represent less than 7% of startups that get VC funding, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/12/4427">according to research from MIT.</a>
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sv-vcs-who-invest-in-female-founders-2014-5">Business Insider </a>recently looked at 26 of the top venture capital funds in Silicon Valley and found that the percentage of female-founded startups in their portfolios ranged from 19% to a paltry 4%.
That creates a spiral effect. With so few women-led startups, that means fewer women-led companies exit with a big acquisition or have a big IPO. VCs like to bet on experience and success. And that leaves fewer women with that kind of background ... and so the wheel turns.
But, just like we're seeing signs that more women are entering college to study computer science, math, and engineering, we could be on the cusp of a new age in VC funding of women-led startups.
So says early-stage tech investor Boris Wertz, a founding partner of Canadian Version One Ventures (Flurry, Indiegogo), board member of powerhouse Valley venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz, and founders of startup accelerator GrowLab.
Wertz says he's seeing a "drastic increase" in women-led startups, with half the companies he's invested in in 2014 led by women. To be fair, that big 50% number is a bit misleading. It's not a high absolute number: three out of six companies. Overall 25% of Version One's portfolio has a woman founder, which adds up to a mere five companies.
But he's convinced we're on the tip of a much bigger iceberg because of a couple of factors:
<ul>
<li> More women are pitching a broader range of startup ideas.</li>
<li>The costs of creating a startup are lower for everyone, giving women a better shot of getting their startups off the ground before they ask for investment.</li>
<li>Women are proving to be better at managing their investment money once they get it.</li>
</ul>
Business Insider: What are you seeing in the U.S. with female founders?
Boris Wertz: We, at Version One Ventures, have seen a pretty drastic increase in the number of female founders. Over seven years of investing in 50+ start-ups, the share of female founders in our portfolio has risen from 5-10% in the early years to 50% in 2014.
BI: What kinds of startups are women pitching and are they different then all-male founded startups?
BW: In the past, female CEOs were largely limited to those areas where they have a distinct advantage over their male counterparts, i.e. selling primarily to a female audience. But today we're seeing women building companies across all sectors and areas. Some of this trend might be due to the favorable environment for first-time entrepreneurs. The rise of the cloud computing and software-as-a-service has eliminated many of the upfront expenditures needed for a tech start-up, creating opportunities for a more diverse range of entrepreneurs, including women, to bring their ideas to market.
BI: Do the women tend to be coders/programmers/engineers ... the ones developing the products?
BW: We see an increasing amount of female founders that are engineers by background. Probably still fewer compared to their male counterparts but an encouraging trend. Having said that, you don't need to be an engineer to develop a good product and/or be a successful founder.
BI: Do you think we'll soon be at 50% women-led tech startups ... or what's the indication of how long this might take?
BW: I think it will take some time to get there (despite the encouraging data point of the Version One portfolio in 2014 with 50% female founders). This is a very positive development, as the broader the entrepreneurial base the better.
Gender diversity, as with diversity of any kind, results in a fuller range of ideas, perspectives, and approaches to problems. And an interesting study found that women-run private tech companies are more capital-efficient and bring in a 35% higher return on investment (and 12% higher when venture backed)

VC: Here's Why We Are Funding More Women Startup Founders

<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Insider Picks</a> writes about products and services to help you navigate when shopping online. Insider Inc. receives a commission from our affiliate partners when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://click.linksynergy.com/deeplink?id=EHFxW6yx8Uo&amp;mid=43603&amp;murl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.functionofbeauty.com%2F%3Fref%3Dsogal" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>Function of Beauty/InstagramFunction of Beauty, personalized haircare startup, is backed by SoGal Ventures.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>More and more <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/number-of-women-owned-businesses-growing-2-5-times-faster-than-national-average-1007300927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">women are becoming entrepreneurs</a>, but the venture capital world is still overwhelmingly dominated by men.</li><li>Just about <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">9% of VC investors are women</a>, all of whom are working hard to diversify the startup world and bring great ideas to the forefront.</li><li>To celebrate Women's History Month, we're taking a look at five inspiring female-led VC funds and the women-led startups they're backing like <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/billie-razors-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billie</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/best-soft-bed-sheets-parachute-review-2018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Parachute</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reformation-conscious-cashmere-review-2018-11" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Reformation</a>, and more.</li></ul>The faces of entrepreneurship are changing. In 2017, there were <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/number-of-women-owned-businesses-growing-2-5-times-faster-than-national-average-1007300927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">114% more women-owned businesses</a> than 20 years prior. Between 2016 and 2018, <a href="https://casefoundation.org/press_release/report-the-number-of-black-women-led-startups-has-more-than-doubled-since-2016-according-to-digitalundivideds-latest-research-projectdiane-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the number of black-women-led startups doubled</a>. Data from Lance Surety Bonds found <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/286574" target="_blank" rel="noopener">that immigrants are almost twice as likely to start their own business</a> as are their US-born counterparts.All of this makes sense. Diversity matters in the workplace, and not just for the reasons we already know, like having a greater pool of lived experiences to build from. According to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">McKinsey</a>, businesses with diverse workforces typically perform better financially, too. Still, the venture capital (VC) world is overwhelmingly male-dominated. According to a recent study by <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/321321" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Axios</a>, women account for just about 9% of investors across U.S. venture capital firms. And, while female entrepreneurship is growing at a rapid rate, women are still not getting as much VC funding as their male counterparts. A <a href="https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/why-women-owned-startups-are-better-bet.aspx?linkId=52657137&amp;redir=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BCG study</a> found that while enterprises founded by women were given about half the investment as those founded by men, the female-founded companies generated double the amount of revenue than their male equivalents. <figure id="img-394741" contenteditable="false" data-type="img" data-e2e-name="image-figure-image" data-media-container="image"><a href="https://fave.co/2VDlOTm" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a></figure>The gender investment gap is real, but it's clear that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/startups-founded-by-women-get-less-investment-but-make-more-revenue-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">female entrepreneurs are still succeeding despite this</a>. The good news - for investors and entrepreneurs, and alike - is there are plenty of women out there making it their job to get great female-founded businesses the funding they deserve. March is Women's History Month, so it feels particularly fitting to celebrate the intelligent women making waves in the VC industry.<h3>Keep reading to learn more about five female-founded VC firms and the cool startups they've invested in:</h3> <a href="http://e.businessinsider.com/join/ci/insider-picks">Subscribe to our newsletter.</a> Find all the best offers at our <a href="https://coupons.businessinsider.com/">Coupons page</a>. Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/insiderpicks">Insider Picks</a> team. We highlight products and services you might find interesting. If you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.

5 female-founded venture capital funds to know - and the popular women-led startups they've invested in

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://blackbox.vc/blackbox-connect-spring-2015/"></a></div></div>Blackbox, an intensive mentorship program for international startups, is trying something new: It chose only female-led companies for its next 12-startup, Google-sponsored, two-week residential course later this month.Why? There are a lot of good answers, drawn from research and observation, like the chronic under-representation of women in tech, or a <a href="http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/">report from Illuminate Ventures</a> that claims that women-led startups make better use of their cash and have 12% higher revenues than the average.But the one reason that stands paramount, says Blackbox founder Fadi Bishara, is that female founders care more. The best, most successful startups emerge when the founders are really passionate about the work they're doing."That comes from an emotional connection," Bishara says. "And it's more with women." The way the Blackbox program works hasn't changed much over the last four years it's been in operation. Take a bunch of startups from around the globe, pack them into a house in Palo Alto, California - the heart of Silicon Valley - for two weeks at a time, and give them training, tools, mentorships, and the critical introductions to valuable connections like recruiters and investors they'll need to succeed.Given that international focus, with companies drawn from more than 50 countries, Blackbox takes the inclusion of many viewpoints and cultures as a priority, says Bishara. "Typically, we make it as diverse as possible," he says.Half of all Blackbox participants have been women overall, Bishara says. But this so-called Blackbox Connect Female Founders Edition is the first program that will be entirely women. Thanks to the sponsorship of the Google for Entrepreneurs program, their Blackbox fees are all taken care of, plus they get a solid day of mentorship at Google's Mountain View headquarters. The actual startups are in pretty diverse fields, from art education to e-commerce to mental health to adtech. They come from places as far afield as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Lebanon, Poland, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States.One founder, Tatiana Birgisson, won Google's own startup Demo Day recently with her company <a href="http://www.matienergy.com/">Mati Energy</a>, which has a proprietary energy drink formula she came up with while suffering a bout of depression during her time as a student at Duke University. By living in that house together, Bishara says, the founders get to draw on each others' "rich knowledge" and become better businesspeople and leaders. From Bishara's standpoint, focusing on female founders is both a canny business move, since "'overlooked' is a great place to focus on," as well as a professionally fulfilling one."It's valuable to really see hungry and talented people getting great value," Bishara says.The Blackbox Connect Female Founders Edition will take place in Palo Alto from April 27 - May 8, 2015. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/cooper-hefner-relationships-dad-hugh-playboy-2015-1">Hugh Hefner's Son Has A Surprising And Inspiring Attitude Toward Women</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BmMzh3cjrW9Ou8EzED_1J8bz9F3L814q" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The simple reason one startup farm chose only female founders for its next class

<ul><li>Zone <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">Startups</keyword> India recently concluded the empoWer accelerator program saw 18 <keyword id="74945" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women-Entrepreneurs">women entrepreneurs</keyword> get seed funding for their business. </li><li>7 of them will go for a 1-week market access trip to Montreal by Government of Quebec.</li><li>The selected startups work on areas of Deep tech, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning among others.</li></ul>After a 6-month accelerator program, 18 female entrepreneurs got a seed funding of ₹5 lakh each at the concluding demo day of Zone Startups India empoWer accelerator program. An accelerator program is a cohort-based one which helps entrepreneurs find their way into the startup world through mentorship, networking and funding. The empoWer accelerator program’s 3rd cohort concluded on March 29 and saw women in <keyword id="6355118" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="technology">technology</keyword> take a leap in business. Over the course of 3 years, through three cohorts 24 women have got equity free seed funding from the program. "Till date we have invested just about INR 2 Crores through empoWer but, the 2 past cohorts have cumulatively raised in excess of INR 40 Crores and there have been 3 acquisitions. Being through such a program and getting grant funding, definitely puts theses entrepreneurs in good stead while pitching to other investors. It is also 'validation capital' from the program,” said Ajay Ramasubramaniam director India, Zone Startups. Of the 18 winners from the latest cohort, 7 were further awarded a 1-week market access trip to Montreal by Government of Quebec. Focusing on areas such as Deep Tech, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Enterprise Mobility, Search &amp; Feedback Engines, Enterprise Software, over the 6-month program, the founders were introduced to over 90 mentors and industry leaders. From startups that are working on a device that will analyse soil health to give a quantitative estimate of nutrients present in the soil to ones that focus on women health and hygiene and even a startup that simplifies manufacturing of steel alloys, aluminium alloys etc., there was a varied range of innovation seen as a part of the accelerator program. India is the world’s third largest startup ecosystem and still sees that <a href="https://scroll.in/article/887200/india-the-worlds-fastest-growing-startup-ecosystem-has-little-space-for-female-entrepreneurs">only 9%</a> of the startup founders in the country today are women. The Indian government has introduced several schemes like Mudra Yojana Scheme For Women which provides loans to women entrepreneurs. Recently, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had decided that from the government’s<a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/more-women-take-to-entrepreneurship-launch-businesses/article26636158.ece"> Fund of Funds</a> of ₹10,000 crore, one-third of the amount will be allocated for women-led startups. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-will-groom-these-10-indian-startups-that-use-ai-and-machine-learning/articleshow/68384856.cms">Google will groom these 10 Indian startups that use AI and machine learning</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/google-91springboard-launch-entrepreneurship-program-for-women-in-tier-ii-cities/articleshow/65337077.cms">Google, 91Springboard launch entrepreneurship program for women in tier-II cities</a>

18 Indian women just got funding for their technology startups

30 women in venture capital to watch in 2018

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Courtesy of CarrotTammy Sun</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;">Venture funding has been pouring into fertility treatment startups in the last 18 months, but a significant portion has gone to male-led or male-targeted startups.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Two of the highest valued startups in the space, Ro and Hims, are starting to chase the larger market opportunity in women's health, after exclusively offering men's health products at first.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">While the spotlight has been on female entrepreneurs and investors in the space, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/carrot-tammy-sun-interview-series-a-2019-4">multiple female founders</a> told Business Insider that fertility treatment has been difficult to sell male investors on.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;">Several female founders said the discrepancies in funding, while on par with venture capital funding as a whole, serves as a stark reminder that there is still a long way to go to get to funding parity even in a women-centric industry like fertility.</li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories</a>.</li></ul>Fertility is booming, and investors aren't leaving any man behind.Fertility startups have raked in an estimated $321 million in venture funding in 2019, as estimated by venture capital firm NEA. Still, the two most valuable fertility startups - Ro (valued at $500 million) and Hims ($1.1 billion) - target men, while the third-most valuable, fertility benefits provider Progyny, clocks in at a $123 million valuation.This checks out with the broader trends in the venture capital industry: In 2018, it was reported, <a href="https://fortune.com/2019/01/28/funding-female-founders-2018/">women-led startups only accounted for 2.2% of total VC dollars invested</a>. However, the irony of male-focused companies outraising their female-focused counterparts in the fertility industry, of all markets, has not gone unnoticed. "Even in femtech, guys are raising more money than women," NEA partner Vanessa Larco told Business Insider.The totals changed just this week, too, when Dadi, a startup that offers sperm freezing to men, announced $5 million in new funding, adding on to the $2 million seed round it first announced in January. By Larco's estimation, the fertility market overall is poised to explode: In her view, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nea-guidelines-investing-womens-health-startups-deck-2019-7">fertility is one of the few women's health issues that is felt by both parties</a> in a heterosexual relationship, and the strict guidelines for diagnosing and getting insurance coverage for infertility leave the space wide open for innovation.Still, many of the startups in the space are still very much in their early stages, Larco says, and it's no coincidence that Ro and Hims are the two largest fertility startups that have progressed past the seed stage. "If you think about the investing population, it's mostly men," NEA partner Vanessa Larco told Business Insider. "Investors invest in things they can relate to and [fertility] is more relatable to them for a majority of investors."Even then, though, some of the male-focused startups are starting to chase a larger opportunity: Ro launched Rory, its service for menopause, weeks after securing $85 million in Series B funding in March. Hims launched Hers, a line of birth control pills customers can order on the internet, in January, shortly before raising $100 million.Read More: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nea-guidelines-investing-womens-health-startups-deck-2019-7">Investors are pouring millions of dollars into fertility treatment startups. Here's how one of Silicon Valley's legendary venture firms is approaching investment in the buzzy industry</a>On the flip side, founders say that being focused on women's health can confound male investors, who don't grasp the issue as intuitively. Some fertility startups and founders tell us that they feel that pitching women-focused fertility solutions to male investors can make it that much harder to raise a round."In our initial fundraise, we met with a lot of investors that would say, 'Let me go home and ask my wife or partner or whatever and see what they think," Modern Fertility cofounder and CEO Afton Vechery said. "You're pitching more male investors than female investors just because that's venture capital, but that's changing now." Modern Fertility, for its part, is one of the faster-growing women's fertility startups, most recently announcing $11 million in funding in June that <a href="https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/184548-97/company/profile#comparisons">valued the female-led startup at $60 million, according to Pitchbook data.</a> The company provides at-home fertility testing.<h2>High risks, higher rewards</h2>By Larco's assessment, the fertility market in the United States is relatively small, but you wouldn't have guessed it based on interest from some of Silicon Valley's biggest venture firms. In her research on the industry, Larco found that about 200,000 couples seek fertility treatment annually in the United States."There is not as much supply as there is demand for a lot of reasons, but that means you can command expensive price tags for treatments," Larco said. "If you want to invest in high-margin industries, this is it. We know there are tailwinds."But according to some founders, the higher margins still haven't been enough to win over wary investors. Fertility startups for financing, hardware, and mobile apps have struggled to win over male venture investors, several founders told Business Insider. Many said that they had better luck when pitching female investors, but still struggled against perceptions that theirs was a niche product without a viable market."In 2016 I received largely questions about market size and the scalability of our solution," Future Family founder and CEO Claire Tomkins told Business Insider. "There's no doubt that female investors were on the forefront. Those that bought in early had the product intuition. It's an advantage of firms having women in prominent roles because the female investors got this trend much sooner." Future Family, a financing startup to help patients pay for fertility treatment, was most recently <a href="https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/53522-02/company/profile#comparisons">valued at $36 million, according to Pitchbook data.</a>Access and affordability came up often with potential investors, several founders said. Many insurance carriers define infertility very narrowly, which excludes same-sex couples and unmarried heterosexual couples. Unless an investor had an infertility experience of their own, or knew someone personally who had, fertility solutions and care were a tough sell.<h2>Women's health or human health?</h2>Part of that change is who is investing. George Arison, founder and co-CEO of car selling startup Shift, personally invested in <a href="https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/179959-15/company/profile#comparisons">Carrot Fertility, an employer-based fertility benefits provider valued at $38.5 million</a>, after attempting to navigate the world of IVF and surrogacy options. In September, he and his husband will have two children born via two separate surrogates."Our first investors were gay men, women, and people with adoption experience," Carrot cofounder and CEO Tammy Sun told Business Insider. "But our stance was always we are not building a female health company, we are building a human health company."By tying her startup to the world of health tech, Sun says that she's managed to avoid the more limiting label of "women's health tech," which has been especially useful as a female founder pitching mostly male investors. But her experience with early backers was not unusual, and having a diverse source of funding has helped Carrot Fertility get ahead of some of its notable competitors."In startup-land, when one or two companies start in one space, many more follow," Arison told Business Insider. "A lot of entrepreneurs are thinking about the company they want to do and will see other companies and go from there. It's just how the Valley works and that's the reality of it."For all the goodwill and dollars flowing into fertility startups, several founders said the contrast serves as a stark reminder that there is still a long way to go to get to funding parity both at the investor and founder levels."It's better than we were three years ago, but there's a lot more work to be done," Sun said. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intelligence/digital-health?IR=T&amp;itm_source=businessinsider&amp;itm_medium=ctgr_bii&amp;itm_term=ctgr_subscription&amp;itm_content=health&amp;itm_campaign=digital-health-2"></a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-galaxy-note-10-event-recap-everything-to-know-2019-8">Watch the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 event in 6 minutes</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Female founders say that amid the fertility tech boom, investors are still more willing to put money into male-focused health companies

Greycroft<ul class="summary-list"><li>The funding going to women-run startups remains stubbornly low, with startups led by all women getting less than 3% of the capital invested in US startups in 2019, according to PitchBook data.</li><li>Dana Settle, a founding partner at Greycroft Partners, said the inequality starts at the early funding stages because female founders often are more comfortable pitching to female investors, of whom there are fewer. </li><li>Settle said there's no silver bullet to closing the funding gap, but that funders and startups all play a part.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul>The share of startup funding going to women-run startups is stubbornly low, with all female-led startups getting <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/09/us-vc-investment-in-female-founders-hits-all-time-high/">just 2.8% of the capital</a> that was invested in US startups in 2019, according to PitchBook data. Eight percent went to mixed-gender teams while 89 percent went to all-male teams.The picture isn't great on the funding side, either. Only nine of the top 100 VCs are women, <a href="https://thenextweb.com/tech/2019/01/25/male-white-venture-capitalist-gender-diversity/">according to CB Insights</a>.Dana Settle, a founding partner at Greycroft Partners, is a rarity in her field. She said the funding for female founders is improving, however slowly. But she said that to close the gap, change needs to start at the bottom. Female founders are more likely to present their ideas to female investors, of whom there are relatively few, Settle said during a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-funds-greycroft-predicts-hot-trends-in-tech-media-2019-12">wide-ranging conversation</a> about themes and companies she's excited about heading into 2020.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/venture-capital-funds-greycroft-predicts-hot-trends-in-tech-media-2019-12">A partner at venture-capital fund Greycroft, which backed HuffPost and TheRealReal, predicts the hot trends in media and tech startups and says how women can close the startup funding gap</a>"It's a function of unconscious bias," she said. "It is a natural human thing to present to people you feel more comfortable with. If you look at the VC stack, there are more early stages that are women, and as you go up there are a lot fewer growth investors who are women."Greycroft is known for backing female-founded companies including Clique, Eloquii, and TheRealReal, and Ellie Wheeler, another Greycroft partner, has also been vocal on this topic. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/03/08/more-gender-diversity-healthy-for-the-tech-industry-says-female-founder-funds-duggal.html">In a recent interview on CNBC</a> she said most VC decision makers are men and that the funding gap with female-raised rounds smaller over time compared to their male counterparts.She also said there needs to be more mentorship of women and for VC firms to set the agenda from the top."It's a little bit of hand-to-hand combat and top down," Settle said. "There is no silver bullet."Settle also called on VCs to encourage female founders to take their companies public."The real change takes place when female founders build bigger, independent companies, like Stitchfix, TheRealReal," she said. "They're creating more wealth across their cap tables and the cap tables tend to be more diverse, so that gives more people opportunity to become an angel investor. If you look at the big outcomes, they've been largely founded by men, and the cap tables tend to be men." <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tornadoes-more-us-than-anywhere-else-world-2019-5">Each year, the US gets around 4 times as many twisters as the rest of the world combined - here's why</a></h3>

Greycroft's Dana Settle is one of the most powerful venture capitalists and one of the few women in her field. She reveals what needs to be done to close the startup funding gap if you're not a man.

If you live in New York City, you may have seen the ads earlier this year.On brightly lit kiosks, they were a call to action: "Women of New York: cover your a$$" emblazoned over a silhouette of President Donald Trump.It was trolling as advertisement, and Sallie Krawcheck's Ellevest, a money management start-up targeting young women, was behind it. Krawcheck is the former CEO of Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch wealth management and CFO of Citigroup.Some women posed in front of the ads in Manhattan's Flatiron neighborhood, posting selfies to&#xa0;Instagram. One person drew a swastika over Trump's head.&#xa0;The idea for the ads, which ran earlier this year, came during a boozy discussion last year after the election, Krawcheck told Business Insider at a&#xa0;recent meeting in her start-up's airy offices, also in Flatiron."Women were saying, 'Son of a gun, I need to take action. What can&#xa0;I do?'" Krawcheck said.Trolling Trump, at least in Manhattan, isn't as risky&#xa0;a business move as it would be in other parts of the country. The city <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/numbers/clinton-trump-president-vice-president-every-neighborhood-map-election-results-voting-general-primary-nyc">overwhelmingly voted for Hillary Clinton</a>, mourned in the days after the election, and has since hosted countless anti-Trump protests, including one of the country's largest women's marches, which Krawcheck's staff attended.Krawcheck also isn't worried that the ads may have offended the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/exit-polls-who-voted-for-trump-clinton-2016-11/#the-racial-divide-between-democratic-and-republican-voters-was-clear-3">42&#xa0;percent of women</a>, mostly white, who voted for Trump.&#xa0;"You can't be everything to everyone," she said.The company&#xa0;aims to sell itself to professional women ("Elle" in Ellevest's parlance) in their 20s and 30s who&#xa0;are trying to get a hold of their investments, an audience Krawcheck says has been badly served by Wall Street.&#xa0;One of Krawcheck's staffers, who helped create the ads, pointed out the moment was hard to miss.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>"We were a feminist brand before ... and we've always been pro-woman," said staffer Melissa Cullins. "That doesn't always resonate with everyone. It&#xa0;would be hard to be in the business we're in, speaking to these professional women ... without advocating very strongly for equality and equal rights."The neighborhood of choice was also no accident. Some of Ellevest's&#xa0;biggest adopters have been women in tech, financial services and consulting.&#xa0;Many of those women are working around the Flatiron neighborhood and thus were likely to see the ads."It really addresses the change in the environment," Krawcheck said, including "the issue of money being a form of protection for her at a time at which a lot is uncertain, without, of course, saying those words."It's not the first time that Trump has served as a backdrop for Ellevest. Last year, Krawcheck wrote a LinkedIn <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sallie-krawcheck-on-gender-bias-in-age-of-trump-2016-11">post that went viral</a>&#xa0;on being a working woman in the age of normalized locker room talk, for instance.Ellevest is one of the few brands targeting Trump, and to be sure, in many places around the country, this kind of <keyword id="35666" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="advertising">advertising</keyword> wouldn't work."A lot of companies, both startups and established companies, are reading everyday&#xa0;in the Wall Street Journal about do they avoid the topic, do they address the topic, how do they address the topic," Krawcheck said. "People are coming out with different decisions and being criticized for them&#xa0;in a way I've never seen in my career."Ellevest has received some pushback - emails expressing disagreement over participating in women's marches, for instance. But Krawcheck isn't bothered.&#xa0;"Every company is having to&#xa0;make the decision," she said. "We came to the decision that this has been an important event for Elle and that we are going to address it."<div> </div><div></div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kpmg-us-ceo-lynne-doughtie-mentors-vs-sponsors-for-promotion-2017-2">KPMG's US CEO Lynne Doughtie shares one major tip to get promoted at work</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A0bnlvOTE6dzvmZT2vLO1ELU0kXKq6hn" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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