Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, recently criticised the unfair treatment of female business founders in the tech world. Herd’s remarks highlighted the importance of mentorship for female entrepreneurs in the industry.
In light of this issue, we’ll explore the importance of mentorship for female business founders. We’ll examine how mentorship can benefit female entrepreneurs and discuss how women-led startups can find and develop mentorship relationships that benefit their company.
Bumble’s CEO Criticizes Treatment of Female Business Founders
The statistics about female entrepreneurs around the world speak for themselves. According to a 2019 survey, only 6.6% of women aged 18 to 34 identified as entrepreneurs, compared with 16.7 % of men in the same age group. Recent news events have spotlighted the challenges faced by female business founders, and it’s easy to see why this issue needs serious attention to ensure future equality in entrepreneurship opportunities for women.
Given this grim reality, mentorship plays an important role in overcoming these challenges. Many success stories have testified to how powerful these relationships can be when keeping a business afloat. Companies such as Bumble recognize this importance and are working towards providing access and guidance for young women interested in starting their businesses. Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd criticised the unfair treatment of female business founders, pointing out that sexism at business schools opposes progress made by equal opportunity initiatives within her company and others such as LeanIn or Girls Who Code.
It’s clear that with empowering policies and initiatives spearheaded by corporations such as Bumble, there is now greater opportunity for young women interested in pursuing business ownership. This article will highlight more specifically why mentorship is both so beneficial — and why it remains so necessary — for helping aspiring female entrepreneurs across society successfully navigate the path ahead of them.
Summary of Bumble’s CEO’s critique
Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, recently criticised how women business founders are treated in the corporate world. She pointed out various obstacles in the way of female-founded businesses, such as inadequate capital and a lack of mentorship. According to Herd, these factors often contribute to lower business survival rates for female entrepreneurs than their male counterparts.
As one of the most powerful figures in business and technology, Herd believes that her success should help pave a brighter future for other female entrepreneurs. She spoke about her commitment to supporting fellow women business owners through proper mentorship and resources. Her words resonated with many founder networks that have since made even more commitments towards fostering better environments for women leaders and founders.
The Need for Mentorship
In a recent article, Bumble’s CEO, Whitney Wolfe Herd, criticised the treatment of female business founders and the lack of mentorship they receive. Herd’s comments highlight the need for mentorship and support for female entrepreneurs, who often face greater challenges starting their own business.
In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of mentorship for female entrepreneurs and how it can help them succeed.
The impact of gender bias on female entrepreneurs
The success of female entrepreneurs is often hindered by gender bias and discrimination. This can manifest in many ways, from denial of access to funding and networks, unyielding accounts receivables, and the dreaded glass ceiling.
Studies show that female-led companies in the UK report more gender bias than their male counterparts. For example, a 2015 study revealed that women perceive more barriers regarding network access, capital availability and ‘likeability’. In addition, female entrepreneurs also need to grapple with issues related to structural inequality such as a lack of mentors and role models, difficulty in getting accurate information on opportunities available, and unequal access to capital.
This concept was highlighted recently when Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd criticised venture capitalists for their “boy’s club” attitude towards women business founders. Wolfe Herd urged the industry to change its attitudes towards female founders who she believes are held back due to sexist language and unfair expectations from investors and partners. Her words highlight the need for increased mentorship opportunities for women across all industries so they get the same chances at success as their male counterparts.
Without these resources, it can be difficult for women entrepreneurs on their paths of achievement; we must challenge this status quo by advocating for policies that support equal representation and opportunity for female leaders across all arenas. Mentorship provides an essential stepping-stone towards realising socioeconomic progress which benefits us all – we must provide continual support for our female colleagues in business leadership roles.
The importance of having a mentor
Successful female entrepreneurs often attribute some of their successes to having a mentor. Mentors provide experienced guidance and support to those new to the industry or unfamiliar with certain topics. They can also provide resources, open doors, and advise on possible challenges.
A strong mentorship relationship is mutually beneficial as both parties can gain insight and advice. Research shows that well-established female business owners who have been encouraged by mentors have higher revenues than those without mentor support.
Through mentorship, new or inexperienced professionals can learn the ropes, network with industry peers, and make connections that aren’t otherwise available to them. With the right guidance, they can avoid making mistakes or overlooking important details that might define the success of their venture over time.
The importance of having a mentor cannot be understated as many high-profile success stories begin by seeking out individuals for guidance and advice to reach their personal goals—such as Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd who criticised sexism against female business founders who find themselves without sufficient funding from venture capitalists. Likewise, female entrepreneurs striving for similar successes often benefit from seeking experienced mentorships that provide encouragement, advice, and direction in achieving their objectives.
Benefits of Mentorship
Mentorship is an incredibly important factor in the success of female business founders. Bumble’s CEO recently criticised the doubly difficult standards women often face when starting businesses. Despite this, mentorship and networking can provide invaluable resources to female entrepreneurs, making creating and sustaining a business more attainable.
Let’s discuss the benefits of mentorship more in-depth.
Access to resources and networks
Mentorship provides female business founders access to resources and networks usually off-limits for them or are hard to find. Mentors open their doors, giving access to tangible resources such as facilities, supplies, mentors’ employees and partners, and intangible resources such as advice on acquisition strategy or pricing. Additionally, mentors serve as connectors to the people and organisations a female business founder needs to be successful.
By introducing these important individuals and organisations into her network, mentorship increases a female entrepreneur’s legitimacy with potential investors and customers. Supporting many causes and their communities is a trend proving beneficial for companies looking to invest in female entrepreneurs – encouraging transparency so that more can benefit from the results. By leveraging the reach of a mentor’s brand recognition and influence, an entrepreneur will also increase visibility on how she runs her business, which serves double duty of advertising while confirming her credibility within the industry.
In addition, strategic partnerships allow entrepreneurs to leverage each other’s credibility by getting message delivery from trusted sources. Through mentorship initiatives such as Bumble’s Mentorship Program dedicated to supporting women-founded businesses globally – this new larger scope gives female entrepreneurs access otherwise only available through direct contacts or personal networks in locations worldwide.
Increased confidence and knowledge
Mentorship can have many beneficial effects for female entrepreneurs, specifically in areas such as increased confidence and knowledge. In addition, mentorship allows women to gain access to networks and advisors, who can open exciting new doors of opportunity. These networks and advisors offer advice in the form of advice on how to craft entrepreneurial strategies and business plans, tips on building relationships with stakeholders, and even mentorship on personal growth.
Mentorship helps increase the confidence level of female entrepreneurs by providing them with a supportive space where they can learn more about business practices, understand their core strengths, and gain insight into potential opportunities. Additionally, valuable feedback from mentors can help aspiring business owners develop their ideas further while developing problem-solving skills essential for launching successful businesses in any industry.
The knowledge these relationships provide also helps create a pathway for women to utilise resources available at universities and accelerators. For example, knowledgeable insight from experienced mentors could put female entrepreneurs in line for funding or provide supplemental training on hard or soft skills needed for success in an existing company or when starting a new venture.
Being connected to successful peers increases motivation levels, which can result in higher collaboration between female entrepreneurs; allowing them to form mutually beneficial partnerships that can put their businesses at the top of their respective fields. Additionally, this potentially opens up new sources of capital when launching a company and grants opportunities or prestige awards that are available exclusively through certain networking connections.
Examples of Successful Mentorship
In a world where mentorship opportunities for female entrepreneurs can still be limited, recognizing and showing appreciation for successful mentorship examples is more important than ever. One such example is Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, who has publicly highlighted the unfair treatment female business founders face.
Here we will focus on other successful examples of mentorship for female entrepreneurs.
Success stories of female entrepreneurs
Many successful stories of female entrepreneurs have found success through mentorship. From tech titans to startups to some of the most recognizable CEOs in the world, many female entrepreneurs have achieved great success with the help of a mentor.
One powerful example is Ellen Pao, an entrepreneur and investor who has founded several organisations and is now a venture partner at Kapor Capital. In 2016, Pao was appointed CEO of Reddit and later championed for gender diversity in Silicon Valley’s hiring practices.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is another serial mentor for women in business. After working as Google’s VP of Global Online Sales and Operations, she was tapped as Facebook’s COO in 2008. In addition, she currently serves on the boards of several charitable organisations that focus on improving gender parity in corporate America.
Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder & COO of CloudFlare wrote creditably about her own experience finding a mentor while building her startup – “As I look back over my journey—from formation to growth—finding the right people to mentor me was crucial”. Google Ventures Partner Dave Munichiello strongly advised Zatlyn toward some key investments that turned out well for CloudFlare.
In 2019, Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd noted the discouraging conditions many women face when starting their businesses: “It’s hard to fundraise if you’re a woman,” she said during the SXSW conference in March 2019. Yet, despite setbacks like these, many inspiring stories like those mentioned above underscore the importance – and potential – that mentorship holds for female entrepreneurs worldwide.
Examples of successful mentorship programs
There are several successful mentorship programs focused on helping female entrepreneurs succeed. One example is TiE 40 Under 40 program which celebrates outstanding achievements by women in technology, media and digital commerce. Each year, the program nominates up to forty finalists and selects an overall winner who receives a free three month membership and access to all of the TiE Network. Additionally, Great Mentors offers one-on-one mentoring for inspiring women in the STEM industry through their Women In Tech Mentorship Program.
Other successful initiatives include Bumble’s CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd’s fellowship designed to help female entrepreneurs thrive by providing them mentorship and funding for early-stage businesses. Runway is also a hotbed for innovative female founders thanks to its pilot accelerator program. It provides mentors, coaches, workshops, and over $1 million in seed funding towards selected startups with diverse teams working beyond traditional venture capital investment scenarios. Finally, Google’s #Iam Remarkable initiative provides online resources featuring insights from experienced Googlers about confidence building, networking skills development, mentoring relationships, and work negotiations strategies.