As a lady founder and investor, I’ve thought lots about how finest to extend the variety of girls founders who elevate capital and scale companies.
Antler is uniquely positioned to influence the gender mixture of founders by advantage of our funding quantity and stage on the very high of the funnel as a day zero investor.
Whereas VCs aspire to spend money on extra girls founders, they are usually constrained by their top-of-funnel (the proportion of founding groups they see with a lady founder).
Positioned on the very high of the founder funnel, Antler can affect the gender mixture of founders who begin an entrepreneurial journey. We do that by headhunting and screening current and potential entrepreneurs into an Antler cohort, the place they will construct a co-founding crew and validate their enterprise mannequin on the trail to securing funding.
By scouting, investing in and supporting extra girls founders, we may help form a extra gender-diverse top-of-funnel for later-stage VCs and, collectively, shift the gender combine throughout the Australian startup ecosystem.
Antler by the numbers
Every year, Antler Australia selects greater than 200 founders to work with us, from ~ 2,000 candidates. We spend money on round 30 groups and 80% of those founding groups go on to lift exterior capital, typically inside 12 months of our preliminary funding.
Over time our cohorts have been 25% girls founders and 37% of investees in Antler Fund I’ve a minimum of one girl founder. These companies have accounted for 39% of Antler’s follow-on rounds however account for simply $24m of the $100m in exterior capital raised throughout the Fund I portfolio.
Why gender?
It’s now extensively accepted that range amongst founders and decision-makers isn’t solely fairer and extra equitable but in addition results in higher financial and funding outcomes.
The 2022 State of Australian Startup Funding reveals girls founders accounted for 23% of deal quantity however solely 10% of invested capital. The determine that sticks most in my thoughts is from the International Gender Hole Report launched by the World Financial Discussion board; on the present tempo of change, it should take 132 years to succeed in gender parity. This is just too gradual and clear proof that rather more must be performed.
Variety, in fact, goes far past gender and Antler’s Variety & Inclusion Coverage talks about a few of our ideas and strategy to broader range themes corresponding to ethnicity, nationality and LGBTQI+. The info reveals that whereas a lot stays to be performed, we are likely to carry out higher on different measures of range corresponding to nationality and ethnicity, whereas gender metrics lag. We anticipate that improved gender stability amongst leaders and decision-makers will positively influence range, fairness and inclusion throughout a broad vary of measures.
Antler’s strategy
We recognise that expertise is all over the place however alternative isn’t. And so, like our founders, we always check, be taught and quickly iterate on our strategy to help girls founders to launch game-changing corporations.
Listed here are 10 ideas which have helped inform our strategy.
1. Greatest Concept Wins
As a worldwide investor, Antler advantages from collective thought and experimentation throughout our 25 areas. I not too long ago spoke with some Nordic colleagues who, as in lots of areas of DE&I, are market-leading. In Australia, we leverage these insights and learnings in our Girls of Antler initiative.
We additionally hope that by sharing our strategy and welcoming enter, the trade of concepts and finest observe throughout the ecosystem will assist us all transfer sooner in direction of gender fairness.
2. Goal-Pushed
Particular, measurable aims present a signpost for evaluating competing priorities based mostly on influence.
For instance, we’ve thought of whether or not the Girls of Antler group ought to be for girls solely or open to all. Girls founders are in fact heterogeneous and Antler has noticed ranging views between those that worth a protected house for individuals who establish as girls and others who consider that if you happen to don’t actively embody males as a part of the method it defeats the aim of agitating for change.
In evaluating these paths, we’ve prioritised the target of attaining extra and sooner change and chosen to maintain classes open for all.
3. Function Fashions
The will to see what we could possibly be is highly effective. Whereas we now have an extended strategy to go, there was a substantial constructive change over the previous decade within the illustration of girls traders, together with on the Companion degree (Elicia McDonald, Jackie Vullinghs, Sam Wong, Rachel Yang, Andrea Gardiner), distinguished angel traders (Cheryl Mack) and profitable girls founders from Canva (Melanie Perkins) to Mr Yum (Kim Teo), Airwallex (Lucy Liu), Modibodi (Kristy Chong), Crimson Balloon (Naomi Simson), Adore Magnificence (Kate Morris) and plenty of others.
Antler Australia is proud to have invested in formidable girls founders corresponding to Skye Theodorou (Upcover), Helena (Stream of Work), Joyce Ong (Tax Nuggets Academy) and Cat Lengthy and Joanna Auburn (Hint).
In fact, it’s not sufficient although to showcase girls founders in women-focused classes, we must be conscious of an appropriately various illustration throughout our organisations normally. For Antler, this implies contemplating acceptable illustration throughout all touchpoints corresponding to founder interviews, masterclasses, teaching, concepts validation classes, funding committees, hearth chats (Felicity McVay, former International Head of Leisure at Tik Tok) and in our public and social media presence.
4. Instruments & Actionable Insights
Sensible solutions and examples assist present founders and crew members with a “how-to” information for navigating and overcoming obstacles. These embody:
- Recognising and responding to prevention questions: girls founders are sometimes requested prevention questions by a ratio of two to 1, in comparison with their male counterparts. Antler runs classes on methods to recognise, reframe, reposition and overcome these questions.
- Overcoming bias in fundraising – a workshop for underrepresented founders to beat bias facilitated by AWS startups
- Pitching to shoppers and traders. In some instances, girls are usually much less forthright in pitching themselves and their merchandise and companies which may be perceived as a insecurity or ambition. Pitching and training classes encourage girls founders to strike acceptable notes of ambition and potential when pitching and consciousness of tone, phrase alternative and physique language.
5. Recognising the Function of Males
Girls can’t and shouldn’t should be solely chargeable for making essential adjustments to realize gender fairness.
As a Board Member at not-for-profit Heads Over Heels (now Apropela), which empowers girls founders by way of game-changing connections, we all the time strived for a minimum of 40% male occasion attendance. This united attendees in a standard, sensible trigger, broadened the probabilities for high-impact introductions and gave weight to the significance of the initiative for everybody.
6. Language and Unintended Penalties
Sarcastically, typically the push for inclusiveness can inadvertently exclude. The absence of mal intent is inadequate as a result of even when unintended, language has the facility to hurt. Some fundamentals embody mindfulness when utilizing phrases corresponding to gender vs intercourse, feminine vs girls and male vs males and use of most popular pronouns. We will all critically consider our personal lexicon and whether or not it might do with a refresh and respectfully nudge these round us to do the identical when essential.
One instance is referring to feminine founders (quite than the popular girls founders), which can infer a organic view of gender quite than one linked to identification. In an analogous vein, we’ve questioned whether or not Girls of Antler ought to be Womxn of Antler or certainly People of Antler.
The tone can also be necessary. I not too long ago attended an occasion with a gaggle of extremely credentialed traders and wealth managers. I discovered myself bristling when incisive, authoritative panellist feedback had been described as “stunning” or “pretty” by the moderator (a lady) and when a senior member of a significant household workplace was known as “sweetie” when asking a probing, forthright query of the panel. It felt minimising. Though the intent was past reproach, the influence was nonetheless felt.
7. The On a regular basis issues
Excessive-minded coverage and intent don’t imply a lot if, in on a regular basis interactions, persons are made to really feel remoted and “othered”.
At a current occasion, after a number of break occasions spent as the one girl in a gaggle, I occurred to take a seat with a desk of girls over lunch. We noticed one after the other males consciously avoiding our desk as they veered off carrying their plates to different, typically empty, tables, both with an averted gaze or a “no method am I sitting there!” gag. Finally, a few males did be a part of us however the hit charge was woefully low and we had been all quite appalled. As one girl famous, “I’m always the one girl at a desk of males, I might by no means behave that method!”
In an Antler cohort context, we search to teach, inform and equip and crew and our founders to think about and navigate on a regular basis interactions. For instance, by way of obligatory unconscious bias coaching inside the Antler crew and considerate setup and guidelines of engagement for cohort design sprints which might typically be dominated by extra vocal and assertive individuals on the expense of others.
8. Gather and Share Knowledge
Antler Australia will develop and measure our progress towards key metrics corresponding to the proportion of girls founders in any respect levels in our software and funding funnel and the efficiency of girls founders post-investment. By capturing self-assigned founder knowledge on gender and different range measures on the very starting of our interplay (software stage) we may be more and more granular and correct in our methodology and reporting.
9. Equip founding groups
At Antler, a concentrate on ESG, range, fairness and inclusion is a elementary a part of our DNA and we attempt to authentically embed these ideas in all that we do, passing on this basis to the groups we spend money on. Even earlier than funding, we encourage groups to think about ESG dangers, alternatives and approaches for his or her companies together with equitable hiring and inclusive tradition.
10. Senior Purchase In
Variety and fairness initiatives received’t be efficient in the event that they’re not owned and championed by probably the most senior members of an organisation.
At Antler, our Variety & Inclusion Council consists of the CEO and a gender various group of leaders throughout operate and geography. Girls of Antler classes are prioritised and attended by each senior women and men throughout the crew together with the Companions.
- Cath Rogers is a associate at Antler Australia.