Shelly Porges, Beyond the Billion
“When it comes to exits, having male allies and investors to support you, to scale, to share respect that everyone deserves in the work that we do, is critical. This is not just the right move as a gender advocate - this is the smart thing to do because the investors recognise that women are the most undervalued asset in the world. This is an important opportunity.”
Snapshot
Firm: tbc
Fund Name: tbc
Type: tbc
Funding Structure: TBC
Investment Thesis: TBC
Fund Size: TBC
Geographic Focus: tbc
Target Investees: TBC
Overview of Exit
???
How can investors stand behind the female founders and leadership team?
Personal example as an entrepreneur: Subsequent to my corporate career (50 years in business) - American Express, Bank of America - we turned the company around on the back of seven major initiatives I led with my group as Chief Product & Marketing Officer for the bank. What that taught me is the criticality of male allies that I had who saw my potential in the company. When I left the bank to start my first company in the Bay Area, I took that lesson with me, and I can’t emphasise that enough. As you build your network, it’s critical to involve men, to help each other move forward. We need male allies to push us forward. My first company, I self-funded and eventually had a female co-founder join me about two years in. After seven years, we sold the company to men who were my competitors - because they watched me take up more of the market share, our business was growing and they weren’t advancing as fast.
Eventually, I started two internet companies in the early days of the internet in the financial services space and had two good exits. All my investors were men - there weren't women out there at that point to invest. It never even occurred to me until decades later when I looked at the systemic issues that women were in fact challenged because I had male allies behind me.
What is a key learning you have from this exit process?
Look for the male allies and look for the funds that have committed already to deploying with an intentional gender lens. I am highlighting this as a lesson that I learnt, and one that we continue to see at Beyond the Billion.
While most of the funds in our consortium are not pure gender lens funds, they pledge a certain amount that they choose to deploy with a gender lens.
Through the Billion Dollar Fund, a total of over US$638 million was invested into almost 800 female-founded companies over the course of the two-year pledge period of 2018-2020. PitchBook found that a subset of these female founders (479) went on to raise a total of US$4 billion. This truly demonstrates the power of catalytic capital.
When it comes to exits, having male allies and investors to support you, to scale, to share respect that everyone deserves in the work that we do, is critical. This is not just the right move to make as a gender advocate - this is the smart thing to do because the investors recognize that women are the most undervalued asset in the world. This is an important opportunity.
What is your call to action for LPs and GPs with regards to Responsible Exits in Gender Lens Investing?
Be proactive and intentional about seeking out female founders, in bringing their voices into rooms they are not usually in.