Success Stories vs. Setbacks: The Reality of Funding for Female Founders
Mira Murati leaves OpenAI to build her own venture, on track to raise over $100 million & how even successful female founders don't increase likelihood of investors to invest in female founders again.
We are officially ONE WEEK away from the Girls Into VC x Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship 2024 Summit, and all I can say is I am so pumped!!!
With a great lineup of speakers and interactive workshops, I really can’t wait to see how everything comes together next Sunday!
With the summit just a week away and a midterm tomorrow, it's been a grind—but I'm almost there, and so are you! 💪💖
Happy Halloweekend to everyone who’s already celebrated and to those gearing up for next weekend’s festivities too! 🎃✨
We’re all about the new and the next, and we’re here to help you dive into it. We’re going to highlight all the fierce women building startups from their dorm rooms, balancing classes, and even #droppingout to turn their bold visions into reality.
Are you ready to dive into the next big thing, brought to you by unstoppable women?
Her Hustle is powered by WWV Labs, a talent-matching and skill-building platform created to connect top female students and recent grads with high-growth startups.
Female Student Founder Spotlight
Name: Mary Catherine Hanafee LaPlante
School: Harvard University, Class of 2025
Major: Government and Economics
Startup: Composite.ai
Description of Startup: Building AI document management systems for governments + large corporations working with ESG data
Biggest Startup Achievement: My biggest achievement so far has probably been landing a $50k ARR contract within a week of starting my company... that was crazy. Another major achievement has been fully committing to entrepreneurship for the past five months, which was really scary for me, but totally worth it.
Biggest Startup Learning Moment: I didn’t get into YC or secure early investment from several VC firms, but in hindsight, I’m grateful because it allowed me to focus on building a great product instead of chasing funding or prestige we didn’t need.
Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: First, I started off simple by building small projects with friends I enjoyed working with. If you're non-technical like me, find a technical friend and create something small together (a newsletter, a website, a conference, literally ANYTHING)—it's a great way to flex that entrepreneurial muscle. Along the way, you'll learn more about yourself, what you actually want to build, and the kind of people you work well with.
Finding a cofounder who complements your skills is key. When you're non-technical, partner with someone technical and vice versa. But most importantly, make sure you really like them because you'll be spending a lot of time together!
Know a bada$$ female student founder?
Nominate her or yourself to be featured in Her Hustle’s newsletter by completing this form!
Female Venture News
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is launching her own AI startup (Tech Crunch)
Mira’s new venture is aiming for $100M+ in funding. Large funding rounds led by women in tech, especially in the AI space, are very rare, making a $100 million raise a significant milestone that stands out among female-led ventures.
If Mira secures $100 million for her AI startup, it will be one of the biggest funding rounds led by a female founder globally in 2024!
Why It’s Harder for Women Founders to Get Venture Capital Funding (Yale Insights)
A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes shows that women are less likely to get funding compared to men with similar entrepreneurial history. One reason is that investors who have experienced a poor outcome from a woman-led startup shy away from other women founders—but benefitting from successes of women founders doesn’t lead them to invest more.
Yup, you read that right… despite the fact that 90% of startups fail, men are often given the benefit of the doubt and the chance to learn from their past mistakes, leading them to secure VC funding for their next venture.
But for female founders, a single failure doesn’t just impact their own future funding opportunities—it can also shut the door for entirely different female founders, as VCs’ gender biases hold female founders back.
Even worse, when a successful female founder does bring in high returns, it still doesn’t translate to more investments in female founders.
The double standards are real, but we’re here to break them!
Trending on LinkedIn
Megan Lieu, Developer Advocate at ML Data: Computer science students are fighting for their lives in this job market right now ➡️ Megan’s advice to students and new grads
Plenty of universities are seeing more than 50% of their undergrads graduate with a CS degree because they were once told it was a straight path to a 6-figure job right out of college.
But in the context of massive tech layoffs and the most intense competition ever—both with other new grads and experienced professionals—the picture is looking grim for CS students.
So my advice for students and new grads is this:1️⃣ 𝗔𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝘀
2️⃣ 𝗚𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗲
3️⃣ 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆
Women in Entrepreneurship University Events
Boston
Girls Into VC x Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship 2024 Summit Pitch Competition Application → Apply here for your chance to win up to $4k!
Application due 11:59 pm EST on Sunday, Oct. 27th
Fintech Feminists Book Tour @ Harvard University on Thursday, Nov. 14th, 2024 → Register here
California
Berkeley Ventures Capital's Startup Pitch Competition → Apply here for your chance to win a $20k non-dilutive cash prize!
Application due November 1, 2024
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Resources
Are you a female student or recent graduate who wants to work at a startup? Apply to WWV Labs Fellowship Program to find ad hoc projects, term-time internships, summer internships, or full-time employment opportunities at startups!
SIRA and the Gloria Steinem Foundation are hosting a fundraiser focused on women's intergenerational healing, taking place on Sunday, November 17, at Gloria’s Manhattan townhouse in NYC. If you're interested in volunteering for fundraising support, please email wwvlabs@gmail.com.
Cherry VC, one of Europe's leading VC firms, is interested in supporting WWV Labs fellows with opportunities at European startups. If you have EU or UK citizenship and are interested, please email wwvlabs@gmail.com.
We are gauging interest to see how many female students subscribed to our newsletter would be interested in connecting with a female founder, female investor, or male ally founder/investor during drop-in office hour sessions through WWV Labs. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please fill out this interest form!
Being a startup founder is hard, and dealing with legal issues is even harder. Sign up for Onward Justice’s legal platform to post your questions for free and connect with lawyers ready to help (for a fee)!
Let’s Connect
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
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Love,
Daniela