Progressive Venture Dinner for Women Entrepreneurs

Last spring I was having coffee with a business journalist in Palo Alto, and we wandered onto the topic of why women find it hard to obtain institutional investment, how difficult it is for women to be taken seriously, and finally, how not "looking like them" can preclude consideration of a candidate company, because it's easier to talk to people you relate to like yourself. So, what do we do about it to "level the playing field"?

The Forum for Women Entrepreneurs (FWE) Venture Dinner upcoming in Newport Beach, CA is one of the very few opportunities for women to pitch their companies to investment, with FWE-provided infrastructure and bootcamp. In contrast to other venture forums such as Art of the Start (sponsored by Garage Ventures), this is a venue where women are presenters, organizers, and judges, and where being a woman doesn't mean you're virtually standing alone.

One major reason women don't get before the investors is that there is very little support infrastructure to guide them, as well as set their sights on the big story venture craves (which is why the bootcamp - otherwise it's "you've got a nice little biz, dear, but..."). There's rarely any significant press coverage and little support to encourage women to enter.

I'm not talking "beauty schools" where some coach takes your money and "tunes" you, but real "shape the message, get out there and pitch" opportunities to real investors" opportunities. And I mean real investors, working to an established and balanced framework to seriously consider the candidates and pitches, as they themselves are judged by peers on how they comport themselves in like manner.

I pitched my own company ExecProducer last year in La Jolla - there were 90 entrepreneurs, and 70 investors. 3 minutes per pitch, three different tables, salad to dessert, 9 different capital providers. The organizers were great, especially Jennifer Beckey and Cynthia Trevino. I went through their bootcamp earlier in the day - had a great advisor (Jim Butz of Resonnect) - reworked my pitch per his advice. I know absolutely I did very well. I sat at a table with a woman CEO pitching her company, and a male CEO pitching his company, so it was two women to one man. Think about it. And every single one of my investors were men, but it didn't matter. They liked the pitches.

Wouldn't this be worthwhile to be a part of? Many of the VCs covered in the mainstream business press send partners to this dinner just to judge pitches, as my own binder of companies who appeared, and the bios of the investors would attest.

I won't be pitching this year, but I enjoyed it so much that I did the pitch for the dinner itself. I was one of the few women from Silicon Valley (and the only woman CTO) to pitch a hard-tech company. And I had a great time doing it.

ExecProducer's CEO, William Jolitz, by the way, was with me at the La Jolla Venture Dinner last year for moral support, but he said I should do the pitch my way - "It's FWE, the company is your idea, and you've been on Sand Hill Road enough times - you will do it". I love working with a CEO who not only has great investment and business connections, but also expresses confidence in all of his team to do the job (and I do mean all, from the admin to the Board).

It takes everything you've got - connections, mentors, talent - to make a business go these days, and let's face it - women are usually short on connections, both business and press. And I know a lot of people in the business agree with me that the connections nowadays are much more intent on "outing" people and putting down ideas and small businesses than ever before. It's a cynical time.

So I hope this little epistle not only starts to answer those questions I was asked last spring over coffee - I also hope that women will participate in this fun event. And finally, I hope the business press will cover those pitches. It makes a great story - an unapologetic "against the tide of pessimism" upbeat story.