Women Found to Be High Performance Entrepreneurs

Written by Innovate New Albany@InnovateNA13 years ago

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Our friends at TechColumbus recently posted an interesting article on the strength of women entrepreneurs. Here it is in its entirety:

Although large gender gaps still exist when it comes to things such as the number of women pursuing science and technology degrees, the number of high-tech companies with women founders, and the amount of venture capital that is invested in female-founded companies, a new study suggests that women possess critical skills and performance attributes to be highly successful entrepreneurs.

A Whitepaper recently published by Illuminate Ventures, based on research out of Stanford University, suggests that women are high performance entrepreneurs. Some of the results the Whitepaper reported include:

• Highly Efficient – High-tech companies women build are more capital-efficient than the norm. The average venture-backed company run by a woman achieved early-year revenues comparable to male counterparts, but using an average of one-third less committed capital.

• Fewer Failures – Despite often being capital-constrained, women-owned businesses are more likely to survive the transition from raw startup to established company than the average.

• Growing Influence in Tech – Women-owned or led firms are the fastest growing sector of new venture creation in the US, growing at five times the rate of all new firms between 1997 and 2006 – now representing nearly 50 percent of all privately held businesses.

•  Venture-level Returns – In the past 10 years more than 125 companies with over 200 women co-founders or officers have achieved IPOs or M&A exits of greater than $50 million in the US high tech sector.

• Diversity Improves Performance: Organizations that are the most inclusive of women in top management achieve 35 percent higher return on equity (ROE) and 34 percent better total return to shareholders versus their peers – and research shows gender diversity to be particularly valuable where innovation is key.

TechColumbus has launched a Women in Technology & Science group that meets regularly to provide female high tech entrepreneurs the opportunity to network and learn about the resources available to help them launch and build high tech startups. If you would like more information about this group, contact Laura Coffee lcoffee@techcolumbus.org

For an update on Central Ohio women in the high tech field, see the recent news segment from WBNS-10 TV:

http://www.10tv.com/live/content/video/10tv.html?videoUrl=/sites/10tv/videos/2011/06/06/sharing-ideas.xml

And for more information on the study regarding Women as High Performance Entrepreneurs, visit: http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/

Innovate New Albany, the city’s incubator for technology startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses, features 16,000 square feet of space within the New Albany Business Park’s Signature Office Building, 8000 Walton Parkway.