On June 5, Fenwick teamed up with the Female Founder Collective and AmplifyHer Ventures at a16z’s New York Tech Week for a discussion about empowering, educating, and connecting female entrepreneurs.
We had several seasoned founders and savvy funders share their venture capital insights to help other women founders and investors chart their own entrepreneurial path, and these were their tips for success:
- Community support is key. Women-led groups like Female Founder Collective provide invaluable support through networking, mentorship, and transparent conversations where founders can learn from each other. Building solid connections with other founders can lead to unanticipated funding opportunities, valuable partnerships, and shared wisdom to tackle challenges.
- Fundraising is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t feel pressured to raise capital at certain stages. It's important to only raise capital when you have clear opportunities for growth that require fuel. Focus on building strong investor relationships and understanding their perspectives to have successful negotiations.
- Ownership is valuable. Make decisions that help you keep your hands firmly on the wheel of your venture. While funding is necessary for growth, giving up too much equity too soon can compromise your long-term control and vision. Have experienced advisors help navigate term sheets to find win-win solutions.
- Prioritize growth over vanity metrics. Investors care most about real growth metrics like repeat customers and retention, not just vanity metrics like users or pageviews. Tell your growth story with the right qualitative and quantitative data points to demonstrate product-market fit and potential for future expansion.
- Transparency builds trust. Investors appreciate founders who are honest about challenges and engage them as partners. Transparent updates help investors understand a founder's perspective for better negotiations and support through different stages. Overall, focus on sustainable growth through community support.
Special thanks to Ali Wyatt, Deepica Mutyala, Meghan Cross, Nell Diamond, and Brooke Baldwin for lending their voices to the conversation about amplifying female-led innovation.