“Exceptional” Not “Exceptions”

Julia Boorstin’s seminal book, When Women Lead, provides a compelling look at female leaders. At Alumni Ventures, especially through our Women’s Fund, we are committed to supporting and celebrating these transformative leaders.

When Women Lead is packed with statistics and stories that shed light on how female leaders stand out. Julia Boorstin is the award-winning CNBC journalist who created the famed Disruptor 50 while covering technology leaders. She tapped her network of female CEOs like Gina Bartasi of Kindbody and Sallie Krawcheck Ellevest (both Alumni Ventures portfolio company CEOs) and many rising stars to form her analysis.

Takeaways From When Women Lead

Personally, I was energized to see fresh patterns Boorstin identified from her research. Boorstin flips the narrative.

For instance, female leaders are often perceived as more empathetic and inclusive leaders. Boorstin’s analysis takes that trait and juxtaposes it with the challenges that startup CEOs face, to show how female leaders succeed:

• Understanding Customers. Every startup needs to find product market fit. It is the work of iterating and listening. Boorstin shows multiple examples where female CEOs used skills of empathy to create new businesses and refine products. For example, the founder of Rent the Runway envisioned an entirely new business model of renting clothes by seeing a customer problem (affordably dressing for major events) in a new way. The founder of Bumble understood the gap missing in dating apps by listening to an overlooked population (women). Empathy is a superpower in this case, by driving customer insight.

• Managing in Crisis. Most startup companies live through moments of crisis. Funding rounds dissolve, key employees depart, and technology fails. From her research, Boorstin makes a compelling case that female leaders outperform in crisis situations. Typical female leadership is inclusive vs. hierarchical and prone to listen to insights from the frontline and more junior staff. That style of leadership performed well during the Covid-19 crisis. According to Boorstin’s statistics, women-led governments managed better to control the pandemic for their populations. Inclusive leadership is a superpower, accelerating the speed of frontline insights for female CEOs and leaders.

The Funding Gap

When Women Lead does not sugarcoat the statistics. Boorstin is rightfully appalled that only 2% of venture capital goes to female-only founded startups, yet they represent 6.5% of the companies (2021 PitchBook). As she points out, women startup founders get credit for being more capital efficient, but is it partially because they garner less capital?

Connecting to Alumni Ventures Women’s Fund: Investing in the Exceptional

Alumni Ventures Women’s Fund invests in a portfolio of venture-backed companies that are female-founded, co-founded, or led by women. It builds from a position of strength. We have already invested in 350+ companies that fit the mold of fabulous female leadership in companies with backing from highly respected VCs. In addition, PitchBook ranks AV as the most active VC in the U.S. and #3 worldwide (2022 and 2023), while Cambridge Associates rates Alumni Ventures as a top-quartile performing fund for five consecutive years.

AV’s mission is to democratize access to venture capital as an asset class. We’ve raised $1.3B from 10,000 individual accredited investors. We are also democratizing access to venture funding. By backing female founders through our Women’s Fund, we take a step towards closing the funding gap. The portfolio we build is driven by the rigorous standards of Alumni Ventures’ scorecard and diligence, with the added layer that our female founders have the grit to succeed in a traditionally male startup environment.

AV’s Women’s Fund enables successful women (and allies) to back the type of female leader that Boorstin describes in When Women Lead. Not just the Exception, but the Exceptional.

This communication is from Alumni Ventures, a for-profit venture capital company that is not affiliated with or endorsed by any school. It is not personalized advice, and AV only provides advice to its client funds. This communication is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any security. Such offers are made only pursuant to the formal offering documents for the fund(s) concerned, and describe significant risks and other material information that should be carefully considered before investing. For additional information, please see here. Venture capital investing involves substantial risk, including risk of loss of all capital invested. This communication includes forward-looking statements, generally consisting of any statement pertaining to any issue other than historical fact, including without limitation predictions, financial projections, the anticipated results of the execution of any plan or strategy, the expectation or belief of the speaker, or other events or circumstances to exist in the future. Forward-looking statements are not representations of actual fact, depend on certain assumptions that may not be realized, and are not guaranteed to occur. Any forward-looking statements included in this communication speak only as of the date of the communication. AV and its affiliates disclaim any obligation to update, amend, or alter such forward-looking statements, whether due to subsequent events, new information, or otherwise.