Mada Seghete’s Post

Think female founders receive 2% of VC funding? Wrong. Try 27%. One powerful stat that lives on in the wake of #MeToo is the headline that “Female founders receive less than 2% of venture funding.” It’s so enduring, I heard it repeated just a few months ago. And whenever I’ve heard the stat, it comes with a lot of fears: 😱 Being a woman puts us at a disadvantage for fundraising 😱 We aren’t the best stewards for our ideas because of our gender 😱 Because we’re viewed as the weaker sex, we can’t be CEO This story breaks my heart for so many reasons. At its core, it rejects the unique contributions that women offer to the often obtuse tech industry. Let’s start with this story that women only get 2% of financing. There is a big asterisk here – they (PitchBook) define female founders as “female founders only.” That means that mixed-gender teams (like myself and my male cofounder) are excluded from this 2%. I shot an email to Pitchbook a few months ago looking at their statistics, since they withheld the mixed-gender data. Instead they compared female founder only teams with male only teams, which made the story look dark. I never got a response back, but I checked back today and I was delighted to find an update as of two days ago to their data. What does the data show when we include mixed gender teams? 📊 As of 2024, female founder only teams received 1.5% of VC funding, but mixed gender teams received 26.1%. 📊 From 2020 to 2024, teams with at least one female founder receiving VC investment jumped from 15.3% to 27.6%. 📊 If you look at the percentage of female founders (only and mixed) by deal count, you’re looking at 24.7% of deals having a woman on the founding team In the last four years, female founder representation by VC capital raised nearly doubled! Let’s elevate the story for women. It’s time for us to soften the stories we have of being alone. 1 in 4 companies receiving investment in 2024 have a female founder. While that’s a far cry away from 50/50, it’s a huge milestone for women in tech. I can feel it. I sat at a beautiful female founder dinner hosted by the lovely Mada Seghete last week with 41 women on the list. Pear VC's Female Founder Retreat had almost 100 women in attendance. Female focused and managed VCs have popped up like Female Founders Fund, GingerBread Capital (who were Chewse investors!), and BBG Ventures. Of course, the journey of being a founder will always be plagued with hardships. I would never paint the rosy, perfect picture for a female founder. Fundraising will still be a rocky road, early stage pivots are gnarly, and building your first team can feel like a complete mystery. If you’re a female founder, I want to hear from you. What would you do differently if you knew being a woman was not a death blow to your company? How would your leadership or fundraising approach change? Data Source: Pitchbook #womanempowerment #feminineenergy #womenentrepreneurs #leadershipcoach

What were the most typical backgrounds of new unicorn founders in the US and UK between 2013 and 2023? At Defiance Capital we analysed the background of over 2,000 unicorn founders and we are excited to share the results with you today. For access to the full report (and soon our open sourced data set), please go to Defiancecapital.com or DM me here. Special thanks to Efe Uwaifo who did the heavy lifting on the analysis (while training for the Paris Olympics!) and to Idris Hedayat for his support. https://lnkd.in/ddH4H7-D

David Hornik organizes these amazing invite only events where investors and founders get together to learn to get better at their craft. This week I attended one of his event and boy was I impressed. Out of 220 attendees somehow I found 3!!! other Romanian woman 4 if you count me Our home country is small and we don’t expect to bump into each other at tech events and yet somehow this time around we did Mada Seghete (Romanian founder who built a $100M arr +) brought me to the event and taught me there’s no better path than just bring yourself to work fully . With all the lived experiences to make yourself a better person Oana O. one of the smartest VC in the AI space who has an unbelievable story of grit and determination . She made it to the Valley from a family from a poor village in Romania with no high school who didn’t afford her flight ticket to college Andreea Georgescu who I just met for the first time , daughter of Radu Georgescu the Romanian saas pioneer who sold Rav, first antivirus to Microsoft when I was in high school. Came full circle as one of my first college jobs was at the company he founded Leaving the event with a heart full of hope that there’s a lot more to build , a lot more to accomplish

“Board games are my passion” - Incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to share my story of designing Biome and founding Lioness Games with David Prosser. https://lnkd.in/gxeHt6pq Many factors came into play for me to get here, but one of the most important ones is the support of Rish Gupta and being inspired by his network of founders and entrepreneurs who are also following their passions. In light of #iwd2024 I'd like to thank the incredible women in my life for their relentless support and mentorship to make this dream a reality. Vera Becker, Lucie Barczi, Jordan Fessehaie, Tzahalla S., Shuchi Mittal Naidoo, Maria Dutton, Courtni Wong, Liz Wee and Mada Seghete to name a few. 🙏🏼 While at times it is intimidating to be a woman in an industry led by men, everyone in the board games industry couldn't have made it easier. I have never felt so welcomed and supported - thank you to all of you. Biome has two weeks left on Kickstarter - it would mean the world if you shared the KS link with your nature and game loving friends/colleagues/family. https://lnkd.in/gRBjumaE Thank you!!!

I’m thrilled to share that wildwonder has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine - ranking 14th fastest growing in the Pacific Region at a staggering 875% growth rate! What a testament to the incredible wildwonder team and the journey we've been on. From the early days of whipping up concoctions in my kitchen to churning out batches at my first co-packer, to landing our first shelves at legendary retailers like Berkeley Bowl Produce Inc. and Whole Foods Market, to navigating the curveballs of Covid wiping out our business, every milestone has been a collective triumph. This award represents countless late-night hustles and weekend sacrifices. It also symbolizes a movement for change - we're pushing boundaries and bringing diverse voices and flavors to the forefront. To every team member, customer, and supporter who's been a part of this wild ride - #thankyou. We are just getting started. Thank you Christine Lagorio-Chafkin for this feature story. Check out her amazing piece on how I did a 180 on strategy to bring my cultural brew to the masses. #drinkwildwonder #inc5000 #foodandbeverage #femaleowned #aapi #beverageinnovation #prebiotics #probiotics