Trump and Women in Entrepreneurship

Intro

This page is to aid in the research for Women in Entrepreneurship (Issue Brief)

Research

As of right now, it seems that there is very little formal information about Trump's policies on VC. The Whitehouse.gov website doesn't mention it and none of his executive orders pertain to VC or women directly.

Sources on Women in VC

The first comprehensive study on women in venture capital and their impact on female founders: https://techcrunch.com/2016/04/19/the-first-comprehensive-study-on-women-in-venture-capital/

• This report has some really great data on women in VC. Some examples:
  • only 7% of partners at top 100 venture firms are women
  • Of the top 100 VC firms in the US, only 10 of them have more than one woman as an investing partner. On top of this, only 38 percent of the top 100 firms have at least one female partner.

Gender, Leadership and Venture Capital: Measuring Women's Leadership in VC Firm Portfolios: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2851969

• "We find a clear positive correlation suggesting that if women are represented in leadership in VC portfolio companies, they are likely to do so in leadership positions in the executive team as opposed to as company founders or managers.
• "The low levels of women in

leadership positions of VC funded companies illustrates that prevailing gendered stereotypes and ideals impede women’s acceptance as company founders, managers and executives. This situation may be rectified by providing transparency of the gendered nature of VC firm portfolios to potential investors"

VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTING: ARE WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS PERCEIVED AS RISKIER INVESTMENTS?: http://digitalknowledge.babson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3166&context=fer

• This research from 2015 found that higher-profile venture capital firms tend to invest more in female entrepreneurs
• "Because women entrepreneurs do not conform to the “role” of the entrepreneur in

the high growth venture, role incongruity may lead to greater perceived risk on the part of venture capital investors (Orser, Riding & Manley, 2006; Brush, et al, 2002)"

• higher status firms were more likely to invest in companies with women on the team

or women CEOs, these firms appear to mitigate this risk through control mechanisms like having more co- investors and less frequently investing in seed or early stage deals

Sources on Trump and VC

Here are some links to information with summaries below from about an hour of research

NVCA Outlines Key Policy Priorities in Letter to Donald Trump: http://nvca.org/pressreleases/nvca-outlines-key-policies-priorities-letter-donald-trump/

• Young companies, many of them venture-backed, create an average of 3 million new jobs a year and have been responsible for almost all net new job creation in the United States in the last forty years. In addition, venture capital has backed nearly half of all companies that have gone public since 1974, which have collectively been responsible for 85 percent of R&D investment during this period. In short, while a small industry by relative standards, venture capital is mighty in its outsized role in supporting economic activity and creating growth and economic opportunity.
• Suggestions:
  • Make American capital markets work for small capitalization companies.
  • Encourage talented immigrants to build or work at American startups.
  • Make life-saving medical innovation a reality.
  • Increase basic research investment and encourage technology commercialization.
  • Support technology policy to create twenty-first century jobs.
  • Crack down on abusive patent litigation, but preserve startups
  • Reform the regulatory state to bolster startup activity.
  • Partner with states to spread startups in areas of economic distress.

Venture capitalists say they’ll keep pumping money into startups even with Trump as president: https://qz.com/833424/after-donald-trumps-election-venture-capitalists-plan-to-keep-funding-startups-like-usual/

Tech, Private Markets, And A Trump Presidency: How The US Election Will Impact The Global VC Ecosystem: https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trump-election-winners-losers-venture-capital-tech/

• Speculates about what the Trump Presidency will mean for VC