Auxilia: Connecting and growing women’s ideas for the future
One week ago I was angry-really angry. In preparing for some interviews for International Women’s Day I came across a statistic that I couldn’t stop thinking about:
In Europe (incl UK) during 2020 more than 85% of venture capital funding went to ALL MALE FOUNDING TEAMS!
For real!?!? No seriously, let’s just let that sit for a minute, repeat it to yourself for the full impact
I went to everyone I know in the industry to ask why this is still a statistic in 2020 and I came up with this answer from what I found:
Problem: The Investment world is made up of Homogenous Networks
As an Angel investor, I have many male founders send me pitch decks and when I explain that I only invest in teams with female founders/cofounders, they tell me they’ve tried really hard but haven’t been able to find one. When you advise, mentor, connect and fund the same type of people you will never expand your network in a way that makes it more diverse.
I believe the future needs diverse ideas. Our society must nurture innovation from a larger representation of society. With women making up ~50% (49.2% in 2017) of the world’s population, this is a great place to start.
Solution(s):
- Break up the homogenous networks that exist around startups and the funding of ideas by:
- breaking into existing networks
- building new powerful networks: Like Auxilia
2. Diversify investment teams
3. Make it easier to access under-represented founders
4. Spotlight role models: we can’t be what we can’t see!
As more women reach visible positions of power, it creates a virtuous cycle, normalising the association of women and leadership for future generations. The role-model effect is already visible: countries with higher levels of women in political power also tend to have higher levels of women in business leadership.
Together, we are the strongest tool available to us to lift other women up and change this statistic.
On February 27th 2021 I launched Auxilia- a network for female founders- in the leanest MVP I could, a LinkedIn group. Thinking I would get 20–30 ppl who empathised with my dream I was blown away when 430 women joined in the first week! On the other hand- I know that there are thousands and millions of women out there just looking for someone to reach out a helping hand (Auxilia in Latin) so they can unleash their talents on the world.
I know we are all living crazy busy lives and there are always other things we need to do, but I really think that doing nothing is not an option. The world is changing, diverse voices are yelling to be heard and we need to seize this momentum.
When women support each other, incredible things happen.
Our goal is that in 2021 that statistic changes and we are here to ensure that VC and early-stage funding goes to a broader representation of society-for a brighter future.
