Kate Cochran and Rachna Chandrashekhar
In January, Upaya selected and launched a cohort of nine women-led businesses for a special accelerator in collaboration with MIT D-Lab. The focus of this program is to take a holistic approach to build capacity for investment readiness — as we always do, but this accelerator also addresses the unique barriers faced by women entrepreneurs in their fundraising journey. While the content of our workshops and learning labs will cover a range of topics, one of the program’s desired outcomes will be woven through everything: we are actively building a network of female founders who can provide support and advice for each other well after the accelerator is over.
Why focus on accelerator for female founders only?
There is enough evidence to show that women entrepreneurs do not raise the same amount of capital as their male counterparts (Only 11% of equity capital goes to women-led businesses post acceleration according to this IFC report). Despite an increasing number of women entrepreneurs, along with schemes and programs dedicated to their support , it’s surprising to see the stark difference in data. This pushes us to explore why the gap exists and the subtle dynamics that contribute to this gap.
It is well-known that business growth and fundraising is as much about building relationships as about building strong business models that scale. Now think about where these relationships are built — conferences, events, and other such spaces for networking. There is research that suggests women are under-represented at such networking events and even when present, a number of factors stop them from gaining the required visibility because they are not “as aggressive” in their networking approach. In addition, these relationships are nurtured in informal settings that arise out of such events.
People tend to assume that connections can only be made over drinks, lunch, dinner, or smokes, and while I would be open to conversations in such settings, it does not happen, and we tend to get left out of these conversations. — Sumeet Kaur, 2021 Cohort member and founder of Spudnik Farms
On the other hand, another cohort member, Vandana Suri, founder of Taxshe, talks about how she goes the contrarian way and confidently speaks up in a crowd to introduce herself at conferences and events. She said that she goes to “loads of events” where women don’t speak up. She speculates that this is because of patriarchal conditioning where women are generally “taught to listen” and not attract attention to themselves.
Upaya is creating a space where women can speak up — and feel safe doing so.
In the selection process for the 2021 Scale-Ups program, when we asked applicants what they expected out of the gender-focus program, most applicants stated needs or challenges around funding, access to experts and investor networks, business strategy, and — in the context of the pandemic — business survival, and rightly so. These are fundamental to any early-stage business. But they also recognised the need and importance of a space that addresses their unique challenges in the process.
I enrolled for this program as I feel that the accelerator program is best suited for me because it is designed specifically for women entrepreneurs. So the content of the program is expected to be very specific to my day to day business challenges. Also, this will give me an opportunity to interact and engage with other women entrepreneurs and learn from their experiences. — Geetika Anand Gupta, founder of MOPP Foods
All early stage businesses, irrespective of being led by women or male entrepreneurs, require key external resources such as funding, access to business partnerships and the right networks. In addition to this, women entrepreneurs need to navigate an additional layer of challenges, which arise from socio-cultural factors and societal perceptions (despite data showing that women entrepreneurs give higher returns to investors).
Through this joint program, we aim to explore and address such barriers faced by women entrepreneurs by focusing on technical as well as interpersonal skills. In the process, we are also building a network of women entrepreneurs that will undertake this journey together. This is important to us as we strongly believe that this peer community of entrepreneurs, who understand each other’s experiences, can come together and continue to support each other as they grow their businesses, even post the program. Research into challenges faced by women entrepreneurs is guiding our program design, for example:
Building relationships: Many investors and key decision-makers in business tend to be male. In this context, women entrepreneurs end up having to navigate societal biases their male peers do not. This does have an impact on the extent to which women are able to network. In addition, women also tend to fall victim to self-imposed barriers. Thus, we recognise that women entrepreneurs need to navigate both internal and external biases, and this affects their confidence and how they seek required support in terms of capital, knowledge, and connections.
Creation of a safe space: Women tend to be under-represented in programs and events and might have to work harder in building networks and connections. Some of the entrepreneurs we spoke to also cited unpleasant experiences (at work or otherwise), which they cannot always share openly. We think there is value in creating spaces specifically designed for women entrepreneurs where they can feel surrounded by peers who are sharing their experiences and unique challenges.
Lack of ‘how to’ knowledge: This isn’t just about the technical and business skills that entrepreneurs need. The additional layer of challenges faced by women entrepreneurs does act as a barrier to business growth. Focused support on these areas and how they can work through them is also required.
Our overall approach to delivering this program seeks to address the above challenges by creating a safe, empathetic, non-judgemental space for women entrepreneurs to share experiences, navigate similar challenges and learn from each other.
With other programs, participants tend to view each other as competitors, but here it seems to be more collaborative, and the general attitude seems to be that of ‘we’re in this together’. — Sumeet Kaur, Spudnik Farms
As part of this program, MIT D-Lab is conducting sessions to work with the cohort to address some of the self-imposed barriers and navigate the socio-cultural challenges that they face. We’re also working with them on building technical capacity for fundraising. Both these aspects put together, we hope, will lead to increased confidence levels among the entrepreneurs and carve out a space for them to thrive.
At Upaya, we have tried to be conscious about having a gender balanced portfolio. This program is a step towards making proactive choices to maintain that balance. While this cohort is a small community of women entrepreneurs, our core intent is to encourage the ecosystem to work toward bridging the funding gap and increase investment opportunities for women-led businesses. Building networks of women entrepreneurs that support each other is a start in that direction.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
