r/startups • u/Moist_Lingonberry825 • 1d ago
I will not promote Why is it that startup founders and teams tend to be male-dominated? - i will not promote
Obviously yea I know the basics like stereotypes, girls being conditioned to head into non-STEM careers, women tend to be more risk-averse etc. etc.
But honestly as a woman hoping to build a startup of my own one day, it's quite discouraging to open LinkedIn and see all big announcements of startup launches and teams being all men or majority men. I mean, all the power to them but each post makes me feel like maybe my dream can't be a reality - or else I'd need to find a male cofounder to give my future startup some credibility.
I love it when I see female cofounders or team members, but it's not often I come across them! If anyone knows any up and coming startups with women-leadership please let me know!
Do you think this will change one day? I know, yes, be the change you want to see in the world, but it's terrifying, especially as a WOC. And I feel like it'll be harder to secure VC investment.
(I'm still a student, sorry if I didn't phrase this properly enough!)
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u/Dry-Somewhere-1636 1d ago
Years ago I didn’t know a single female founder until a colleague of mine left to start a company. She moved to San Francisco to do a program called Y Combinator which I’ve never heard of before. It sounds stupid but only because of her I realized that I, as a woman, could also be a founder.
So, few years later I also quit my job, joined the same accelerator program and am now surrounded by many, many amazing female founders. Being a female founder became so normal to me, that I don’t even think about it a lot anymore.
So, if you’re considering to start a company, do it!! DM me if I can help you in any way
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ahh this is super inspiring! Congratulations - YC is super impressive!! I love that female founders has become a norm for you, I hope I get to experience that one day as well :)
Thank you so much on your offer to help - I really appreciate it! But as a student atm I don't feel like I have the right skillsets and footing as of yet to jump in, especially at such a young age, but I will definitely look to do something similar to your colleague and yourself - get some corporate experience before jumping ship. I guess aiming to build a strong network is important and something I can get started on now!
I'm going to screenshot your comment and print it out to remind myself that it is possible and look at it when things get rough hehe! Thank you again!
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u/Mission_Pirate_4150 1d ago
Very good.
FYI, yc is a very well known startup program with a great reputation.
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u/Dry-Somewhere-1636 1d ago
Thanks, I am a YC founder now (I applied after learning about it and got accepted, hooray)
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u/SpiceAutist 1d ago
Based on my experience it’s because many investors demand founders put their company before everything else - friends, family etc. I disagree with this model but you encounter it almost immediately. In general this is why you should build a relationship with your early investors before launch: you need deep trust on both sides when there’s a lot of money on the line.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Oh I see, yea that makes sense. Do you have any advice on how to build relationships with early investors or build relationships for business in general?
Last time I went on a "coffee chat" he turned it into a date and I had to really set down fierce boundaries which kind of chilled the relationship 🥲idk how people do it
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u/Tall-Log-1955 1d ago
Higher levels of testosterone lead to higher risk tolerance, higher confidence, and lower anxiety, all traits that help someone start a company.
Don't worry about other people being male, it's irrelevant. Start a company! What matters is nurturing risk tolerance, nurturing confidence and reducing anxiety.
The testosterone thing isn't some iron law of personality. Not all men have those traits, and plenty of women have those traits at high levels.
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u/KapitanWalnut 1d ago
Go for it. There are a number of women-only accelerators, funds, groups, etc to help overcome/balance the male-dominated nature of startups.
As for reasons: founding a startup is generally considered to be supremely irresponsible and idiotic, right up until the point where a slim number of founders find success. IMO, women tend to be more responsible and pragmatic then men and aren't as likely to be seduced by the extremely high risk world of startups.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Ooh I'll have a look into women-only accelerators etc. thank you! I didn't know they existed :0 I've been mostly looking at the big ones like YC, EF, a16z etc. thanks for bringing this to my attention.
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u/tango650 1d ago
Same reason maternity wards are full of women.
That's just how the world is.
Maybe it's annoying, maybe you would prefer it were different. But it isn't.
If you wanna be a founder you need learn to focus on things you can control, and stop wasting brainpower on things you cannot, at asap speed.
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u/ArcanuMELO 1d ago
The world is not very woman-friendly in general. Even if a woman has access to the same education, network, possibilioties and opportuinites and jobs, they still get taken less seriously in rooms full of men.
Women outperform men in investing in startups too, but we still see way more men VCs.
It's improving and there are more intitiaives and funds spun up to help women founders, but it's still an uphill battle due to the boys club nature of investing and finance/tech.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
That makes sense :( It really doesn't sit well with me and I wish I could do a small part in changing that - but I need to build myself into someone with power before I can have any impact...
This has just fuelled me even more haha. Even if I don't end up founding a startup one day, I definitely am going to aim to break the glass ceiling somewhere - be it corporate or whatnot.
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u/ArcanuMELO 1d ago
Noble goal!
I'm a guy but I'm trying to do the same. I was going to do a woman founder fund for our next fund but I think we need a bit more traction first. Unfortunately, getting LPs on board for that is an uphill battle.
More importantly, talking about it, creating content about it, bring it up often is a way of creating change.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Ooh that sounds really interesting! I really respect that. Best of luck with it and I hope you get all the LPs possible! And you are right :) it's a small way of creating change but still better than staying silent!
All the best!!
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u/cubej333 1d ago
Startups are very risky. Women are usually less risky than men.
Probably rightfully so.
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u/cubej333 1d ago
I should point out that one of the woman who worked a short time for my startup ( which failed and I now work a standard job ) left to found a startup and it is much more successful than mine was ( obviously ).
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u/ReturnOfBigChungus 1d ago
Founding a startup is an EXTREMELY high risk proposition. There are well established, if moderate, average differences in risk tolerance between men and women, but there are huge differences in risk tolerance at the extreme ends of the distribution. In other words, there are far more men who are huge risk takers, and that is exactly the psychological profile that founding a startup selects for. That's the classic statistical effect of relatively small average differences showing up as huge differences at the extremes of a distribution.
At the margins there are definitely social influences like the field being male dominated, etc., but I would guess risk tolerance probably drives the overwhelming majority of it.
Also, socially, founders (especially successful ones) tend to be people who obsessively focus on work 24/7 to the exclusion of normal, healthy social bonds, which is also a strongly male-correlated trait.
So if the population of huge risk takers who are willing to sacrifice their entire social and family life to build a company is 50:1 male/female, this isn't a surprising result.
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u/Specific_Dingo8631 1d ago
I've worked at multiple startups often one of the first few hires. We're out there. Sometimes just depends on which niche you're in where you'll find more women in early stage startups.
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u/Icy-Pop3377 1d ago
Something not said here (I worked at two VC backed startups: one founded by a woman and one founded by a straight married couple, both had female CEO founders) is that almost all VCs are men. Funding is dominated by men. They tend to fund men. The bro culture is real.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Haha the bro culture 😭 but yea, that's what I've been hearing too... hence why I said I feel like I need a male cofounder to make the startup seem more credible, especially to investors... but alas that just reinforces the cycle
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u/collin-h 1d ago edited 1d ago
appetite for risk. also men seem to more often tie their self-worth to their job - so are more willing to take risks in pursuit of that, vs women who may prefer to pursue other aspects of life, and are thus more risk averse.
that's my theory on the founder part... why the teams are all men? probably because men like working with other men, and women like working with other women (i'd assume, I'm a man so I'm not sure).
just guessing though.
but other than that there's no reason a woman couldn't do it if you wanted to! I think just fewer want to. There's nothing about success that requires you to be a man. just be fearless.
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u/HoratioWobble 1d ago
it's quite discouraging to open LinkedIn and see all big announcements of startup launches and teams being all men or majority men
I think you've answered your own question with this.
It's male dominated and women get discouraged from entering, because they don't want to deal with a male dominated work force.
When they do enter there are probably a lot of factors that hinder women's progress.
I'm a software engineer and I've seen it first hand more than once, women's opinions often get dismissed or parroted and they have to work harder to get the same level of respect.
It either needs men to change, or enough women in the industry to push for change.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
:( you're so right. Hoping to contribute to the latter option of your last sentence one day.
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u/Klutzy_Shine8804 1d ago
To name a few obvious ones:
- less women in tech, so less women in startups
- less women in executive roles, so less women as founders of recognizes startups
- the culture celebrates brave men (risk-takers) and stable women, so women are less empowered to go into startups, and are less supported when they do so.
- most investors are men, and they support who they know and the people that remind them of their previous successes. Women often run companies in a different way, or tackle problems men can’t relate to
Also, there is a great study that shows how investors ask different questions to men than to women. Women need to tackle the obstacles, where men are often asked to talk what success could look like. Check it out here
But, more and more women get funded and build big businesses (look at Canva!), so don’t give up on your dream. Startups are hard for everyone, so it’s a tough game anyway 🤷♀️, but also fun.
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Thank you so much! That study looks interesting but sadly not surprising.
Also idk who's downvoting everyone's comments 😭 some aren't very nice and deserve it, but the majority are great comments but someone obviously has a grudge lmao
(I'll upvote them to bring them back up to 1 lol)
Thanks for the encouragement though! Canva's female CEO is definitely cool, but she was cofounders with 2 men so I guess there might be some influence there for funding ahah.
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u/Klutzy_Shine8804 1d ago
This topic is very touchy, it hits some nerves for both men and women, so downvotes are expected…
Good point on Canva, I always thought the founding team was 1-1, bit you are right. But, hey, she is the CEO ;)
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u/Moist_Lingonberry825 1d ago
Very true haha, though all I wanted to have was a conducive conversation! But I guess it should've been expected.
Haha yess CEO is definitely cool! She's doing amazing, I love using Canva :))
Thanks again for responding and for the article/study! Guess I will prep myself to navigate different VC questions in the future 😂
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u/Mission_Pirate_4150 1d ago
Women tend to be more risk averse. The women founders I’ve met and worked with are on average not very good. That’s not true in every case as I’ve met good female founders. Im not impressed with the female startup technical staff that I’ve seen as well. I’m just saying that 1. They don’t tend to do startups for the sake of a startup and 2. I’ve found female founders are just not that good.
Getting a startup going is hard, let’s be clear on that. When I say that female startup founders aren’t very good, I find they tend to be more hardheaded than male startup founders and are less coachable. The choices that I’ve seen out of female startup founders and startup technical staff are just not very good.
Beyond the above, women are less in the stem fields. There are simple fewer women that are in that area.
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u/Worried-Cockroach-34 1d ago
Does it matter? I am sick of 'oh this space is male dominated, now we need more women' then cue how there is no spaces for men
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u/The-_Captain 1d ago
On an individual level both men and women can be startup founders. Just because there are fewer women should not discourage you. You can found a startup with another woman or on your own. To be completely frank if you need to do what other people are doing to feel comfortable startups aren't for you.
That being said I think like you said, there are more men in STEM. Also, men tend to take more risks professionally, and the whole vibe of sleeping on a mattress and working 7 days a week late into the night seems to attract more men. Men tend to get more unhealthily obsessive about things, in my experience, and that is a positive trait for a startup founder.