The Feminization of Entrepreneurship
Women Growing Fast in Ranks of High Tech

by Anita Karcz

Take even a cursory look around at many entrepreneurial events and you will probably not see a lot of women. According to a survey released this past July by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners and Wells Fargo & Company, women entrepreneurs represent only 9 percent of institutional investment deals and actually receive just 2.3 percent of overall institutional investment dollars.

Although you read often about the increasing number of women-owned businesses, the vast majority of women-owned businesses dwell in the service industry (hair salons, retail clothing shops), a category that does not fit the venture capital high technology/high growth profile for potential investment.

While numbers do not tell the whole story, there are indications that all of this is changing. More women technology entrepreneurs may be on the way, for example, as more and more women embark on the traditionally male profession of engineering. As an example, 1,768 undergraduate women are currently enrolled at MIT, a full 41 percent of the undergraduate population. About 27 percent, or 1519 women, are currently enrolled in MIT graduate programs.

The most daunting obstacle to women technology entrepreneurs, however, remains the harsh reality that women lack their own old boysü network, an age-old mechanism connecting male entrepreneurs to interested investors. Though there may be no quick fix for this, several local organizations have been active attempting to provide women with opportunities to build networks of their own.

For example, the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, founded 22 years ago by mostly male MIT graduates to provide educational resources for entrepreneurs, now has half of its Executive Board composed of women from the entrepreneurial business community. Other committees of the Forum also enjoy significant involvement of women members. And more and more women are participating in Forum events, listening to panels of successful entrepreneurs, and working the room at breaks or over dinner to enlarge their personal networks.

Another organization that has been developing initiatives to help women entrepreneurs start high technology/high growth companies is the Boston-based Center for Women in Enterprise (CWE). In addition to establishing a womenüs angel network providing early investment capital for women-owned growth companies, CWE has organized Springboard 2000, a national initiative to link women entrepreneurs to private equity markets. With two very successful investor conferences this year in Silicon Valley and Washington D.C. under its belt, Springboard 2000 will hold another investor conference in early November here in Boston.

As women make their mark in the entrepreneurial world, many of them also join the MIT Forum, CWE, and other similar organizations not just to learn, connect, and grow but as a way of giving something back. Through such developments, we are now beginning to see a first wave of successful women entrepreneurs doing just that. The Commonwealth Institute in Boston, for example, started by successful local entrepreneur Lois Silverman, has begun forming groups aimed especially for women CEOs of early technology companies to help them perfect their business plans and presentations, and perhaps most importantly hook up with investors. As women swell the ranks of the high tech entrepreneurial community, this kind of activity will only increase.

The emergence of effective networks for women offers a kind of seed capital for women entrepreneurs. Itüs a response to the need for a set of resources for women that has been lacking for many years. In that, women can rest assured that a terrific return on investment is finally on its way.

Anita Karcz is chair of the Executive Board of MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and president of Healthcare Opportunities based in Watertown, MA. Contact Anita directly at akarcz@mediaone.net.