Happy Tuesday!
In honor of International Women’s Day last week, Pitchbook has created the VC Female Founders Dashboard to bring more transparency to US investment trends for female founded companies since 2008. The article and dashboard can be found here.
Business Insider published a list of the 30 jobs with the biggest pay gaps for women. Unsurprisingly four of those jobs including financial specialists, mathematical science occupations, securities and financial service sales agents and financial clerks had the largest gaps. The full article can be found here.
A recent Bloomberg article noted that the private equity and venture capital asset classes are thriving with over $3 trillion in assets under management. The dark side to the story is that just 7% of those dollars get invested with portfolio companies run by women. An IFC report brought to light the fact that investors’ subconscious biases were the issue. At due diligence meetings, male founders were asked about vision, growth and expansion while women were quizzed on risk management and potential for losses. The full article can be found here.
The above articles underscore the need for more transparency to help our industry achieve its goals of more diversity which is why SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce deserves a big raspberry for her caution on the push for diversity disclosure. Her argument is that folks may not want to disclose information about their heritage or cultural background for personal reasons, but without disclosure and transparency, how can the industry be held accountable? The full article can be found here.
We have our 10th annual State of the Markets coming up on Thursday, April 25th, 2019 in Dallas. This year we are honored to have the legendary Alice Gould and CIO of the Year TJ Carlson joining us. With the recent market turmoil, you will not want to miss this event! Sponsorship packages are available. Please reach out to Bianca King at developmentdirector@txwsw.com to learn more.
YWPN is looking for summer internships for its students! These girls are accomplished and motivated and our member companies who have hosted them in the past repeat their participation in the program because these young women have made strong contributions. Details are at the bottom of this post or reach out to Katie Albritton, Director of Partnerships 214-824-1400 x210 (office) or 972-638-0391 (cell) | kalbritton@ywprep.org to learn more.
I would ask each of you to consider corporate sponsorship of TXWSW. Benefits include attendance at our flagship events and recognition for your firm. To learn more, you may find our sponsor information here. Additionally, we would be happy to create a custom sponsorship for you. Please contact Bianca King at developmentdirector@txwsw.com
Kind regards
Christine
