International Women’s Day
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. This is a day that since early 1900s, annually on March 8, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements.
Women are critically important to the innovation economy.
- As a Resource: Women make up about half the population of the country, about half the labor force, and control about half the wealth. Women make up 25+ percent of computer mathematical occupations. In 2013, 39 percent of web developers were women.
- As Job Creators: Women have been starting businesses at a higher rate than men for the last 20 years. According to data from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), women will create over half of the 9.72 million new small business jobs expected to be created by 2018. (Talk about a hockey-stick growth—women created only 16 percent of the total US jobs that existed in 2010.)
- As Growth Creators: Research by Women 2.0, a media company devoted to women founders in the tech industry, reports that women-led private technology companies are more capital efficient, achieve a 35 percent higher ROI, and when venture backed, bring in 12 percent higher revenue than male-owned tech companies.
- As Board Directors: Fortune 500 companies with more women board directors outperformed those with the least in key financial measurements– Return on Equity by 53 percent; Return on Sales by42 percent, and Return on Invested Capital by 66 percent. (Source: The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards)
- As Seed Stage Investors: In 2012, women angels represented more than 21 percent of the angel market, a leap from the previous level of about 13 percent. Women-owned ventures accounted for 16 percent of entrepreneurs seeking angel capital. While 16 percent is low, of those 25 percent received angel investments, which bests the market yield rate (about 21 percent) by 4 percent. (Source: Center for Venture Research at UNH)
- As Role Models: Women hold top positions at HP, Yahoo, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, and PepsiCo. Janet Yellen is the first female chair of the Federal Reserve. We have our first four-star female admiral in US Navy history. There are 172 women on the 2014 Forbes billionaires list, up 60 percent. Of the 268 newcomers, 42 are female, including Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
- As Innovation Leaders in Central Ohio: At this time, TechColumbus’ fastest growing client was co-founded and is led by a woman. Columbus’ X Squared Angels is a female/male angel group founded and led by successful entrepreneur and angel investor Carol Clark. X Squared Angels was formed to find and invest in high growth startups founded or led by women. In a year, the group has 30 members, screened 39 companies, and committed to invest in five.
At TechColumbus, we are committed to identifying, advising, and funding entrepreneurs demonstrating the highest potential for success—especially women and minority entrepreneurs.
Nationally, women-led companies have received 3-4 percent of venture capital. At TechColumbus, including Pre-seed, OTAF and X Squared, our service history is at 14 percent.
We have more than $20 million in fresh investment capital. We have redesigned our programs to increase access to underserved entrepreneurs; we’ve added women and minority advisors and mentors.
We are actively looking for more women with great entrepreneurial ideas. Give us a call.
