MI Forum - Innovating Women - The Changing Face of Technology

Context and Event Setup

• The forum at the Milken Institute, moderated by Mindy Silverstein, focused on Vivek Wadhwa's book, Innovating Women and the Vital Role They Play in the Innovation Economy.
• The panel included Anusha Ansari (first Iranian woman in private space flight, namesake of the Ansari X Prize), Dane Stangler (Kauffman Foundation), and Sharon Vozmek (venture capitalist and CEO of Astia).
• Silverstein highlighted the Institute's concurrent global programming, including the ASER summit in Singapore and upcoming events in London, New York, and Santa Monica.

Vivek Wadhwa's Origin Story and Book Creation

• Wadhwa admitted he was initially unaware of Silicon Valley's gender imbalance, having co-authored research with Dane Stangler that never tracked the gender of entrepreneurs.
• His perspective shifted at a TechCrunch conference where he noticed Mark Zuckerberg's panel consisted entirely of men.
• Wadhwa wrote a critical TechCrunch article titled "Silicon Valley, You and Your Venture Capitalists Have a Gender Problem," which provoked personal attacks from Silicon Valley moguls rather than support.
• To fund the book and avoid academic peer-review constraints, Wadhwa crowdsourced $96,000 via Indiegogo (exceeding his $30,000–$40,000 goal) and received over 500 volunteer contributions from women globally.
• The book features 50+ essays by women volunteers and is entirely profit-free for Wadhwa; all proceeds fund a Singularity University initiative for women in innovation.

The State of Silicon Valley and Venture Capital

• Exclusionary Culture: Sharon Vozmek recounted a summit where VC Brad Feld stated he did not understand why a summit on women was necessary because "we invest in the best deals," while only 3% of VC capital went to women CEOs at the time.
• Investment Biases: A preeminent VC publicly stated his investment thesis was "white male dropouts from Stanford or Harvard who don't have a sex life."
• Meritocracy Myth: The panel argued that the "absolute meritocracy" narrative is used to shut down conversations about gender bias and exclude women from decision-making.
• Data Discrepancies: Despite women comprising 60% of the labor force and 52% of Silicon Valley startups being immigrant-founded, women hold only 2% of VC General Partner roles and are underrepresented on major boards (e.g., Twitter had zero women on its board at IPO).
• Network Barriers: Vozmek noted that business networks often do not translate across gender lines due to societal discomfort with men and women socializing in traditional settings (e.g., "hanging out for a beer").

Research Findings on Entrepreneurship and Gender

• Financing Gap: Research by Alicia Robb indicates women in high-growth tech firms access outside equity at a much lower rate than men; for the same business type, men raise 27 times the capital women do.
• Growth Gap: This financing chasm directly results in lower growth rates for women-owned firms regarding payroll, employment, and revenue.
• Performance Data: Dow Jones research cited by Vozmek shows that inclusive founding teams (including women) outperform male-only teams by 64% in investor returns when capital is secured.
• Ecosystem vs. Individuals: The consensus is that the problem lies in the ecosystem and network structures, not in "fixing" women or their skills; the research has shifted from asking "what is wrong with women" to "what is wrong with the system."

Global Perspectives and Individual Experiences

• Anusha Ansari's Journey: Born in Iran, Ansari pursued electrical engineering against conservative societal norms where women's roles were traditionally domestic.
• Structural Barriers in Iran: Women in Iran face legal hurdles, including needing spousal permission to work and facing court orders that can stop their entrepreneurial endeavors.
• Higher Education Trends: Despite barriers, 62% of university students in Iran are women, and 140 women graduate with bachelor's degrees for every 100 men in the US.
• Corporate vs. Entrepreneurship: In many developing nations, women find entrepreneurship easier than climbing corporate ladders due to the latter's rigid, often government-structured hierarchies.

Solutions and Forward-Looking Strategies

• Crowdfunding as a Catalyst: Wadhwa and Stangler highlighted crowdfunding (e.g., Indiegogo, Kickstarter) as a transformative tool that validates ideas without gender bias and builds investor community.
• Inclusive Investing: Vozmek stated there are 8,000 deals with women in founding teams ready for investment, yet only 2-3% of VC funding goes to them.
• New Narratives: The panel advocates shifting the language from "women-owned" to "growth" and "innovation," emphasizing that diverse teams drive superior financial performance.
• Early Intervention: Ansari emphasized the need to start mentorship at a young age (middle school) to counteract discouraging messages from school counselors about math and STEM.
• Board Composition: Vozmek expressed skepticism toward mandatory quotas but noted that boards with women (e.g., banks surviving the financial crisis) often perform better; she advocates for valuing diversity as a cultural norm rather than a mandate.
• Group Dynamics: Citing MIT research, the panel noted that "group intelligence" and innovation correlate more with dialogue and body language reading skills (socialized behaviors often stronger in women) than individual intelligence.
• Call to Action for Investors: Vozmek challenged wealthy women to move from philanthropy to angel investing to control the flow of capital and influence the innovation ecosystem.
• Kauffman Foundation Role: Dane Stangler noted a need to re-evaluate foundation investments and increase exposure to entrepreneurship for women in STEM fields where they are currently underrepresented.

Audience Q&A Highlights

• Pattern Recognition: Vozmek defined VC "pattern recognition" as investing in entrepreneurs who look like previous successful ones (typically white males), reinforcing bias rather than objective potential.
• Board Demographics: Wadhwa noted that even at Twitter (a tech company), the board and management lacked women, despite degrees being irrelevant for many tech hires.
• Hiring Myths: The panel debunked the myth that entrepreneurs must be young; research shows twice as many successful tech entrepreneurs are over 50 as under 25.
• Crowdfunding Reality: While crowdfunding offers a venue, Vozmek noted it currently reflects offline biases, though women show higher success rates in crowdfunding than in traditional VC.
• Recruitment Challenges: Vozmek identified "intimate business relationships" (often male-dominated social settings) as a barrier to recruiting male co-founders or board members for women-led firms.
• Economic Impact: The panel affirmed that full female participation could increase GDP by 6-9%, making women's entrepreneurship a critical driver for future economic growth.