Just Don’t Try to Sleep with Me
8/08/2014
Sharing this blog article originally posted on Suzanne Andrew's blog, Bring Your Own Table.
As a women angel investor, I am interested in
how I can support women entrepreneurs in ways they don’t typically experience
with male funders. I have asked women
entrepreneurs the question a number of times:
How can we as women angel investors support you better?
The answer that I usually get is along the lines of, “I’m just glad
you won’t try to sleep with me.”
I initially feel disappointed when I get this answer. I was hoping to be able to do something more actively
innovative, more creative, more disruptive.
I want to invent new practices, improve the whole way business is done,
build something new and unique.
And yet, let’s not underestimate the impact of just treating our
entrepreneurs with basic respect.
We’ve all had the experiences, or at least heard the stories. It ranges from the blatant expectation of sex
for funding, all the way to that hard-to-put-your-finger-on-it feeling that if
you were a man, they wouldn’t be talking to you like this.
These experiences sap our life energy - energy we women would rather
direct towards building our dreams. That is why it is so powerful to have women
angel investors. Just imagine if none of us on this planet had to use our
energy asserting our right to be at the table, and instead could focus
completely on creating a new future.
As a woman investor, merely showing up is innovative, creative, and disruptive. Just by being ourselves, we allow entrepreneurs
to assume they will be considered for the strength of their ideas and the
evidence of their talents. Now, the full power of women’s dreams will be unleashed.
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