When people create entrepreneurial support only for their own affiliation, entrepreneurship access remains fragmented. Photo by Rachel Jaffe.

Today there are two oppositional stories about the rise of female entrepreneurship. Traditional accelerators are now quick to advertise their female mentors. There are competitions and investment funds focused on women. In terms of news coverage women have gained ground.

The data on who gets funded tells a less heartening tale. Women in 2017 counted for 2% of venture-backed deals, a number lower than the year before. Much of this money went towards “women-focused” start-ups, centered on retail, health food, and childhood wellness. These start-ups tend to not reach a “unicorn” status of returns and perpetuates the stereotype that women can only build women-focused companies.

The current solution is to demand the top-down policy that VC firms hire as many women as men. Although well-intentioned, this policy ultimately weakens the ability for women and other minority groups in entrepreneurship to get ahead because it demands each group must win a seat at the table separately. This policy pits women against Latina entrepreneurs and trans entrepreneurs and every conceivable marginalized group. Even when a member of any of these groups does reach the table, this top-down tactic breeds resentment from other investors and imposter syndrome within the entrepreneurs.

The solution is to rise together and build more equitable support for all entrepreneurs. These support systems would centralize information to make entry to entrepreneurship easier for outlier entrepreneurs. These systems would create greater efficiency of effort to support entrepreneurs that do not have the same amount of time and connections to apply to a broad range of accelerators. Finally, these platforms would intentionally use anonymous design to decrease bias in who gains connections and funds. Identity politics makes for better headlines but the conscious design of equitable infrastructure makes for pervasive, long-term change.

Centralized Resources

To start a company an entrepreneur needs to effectively navigate many systems such as the incorporation process, marketing, product development, user experience, and process management. Even when entrepreneurs have access to Google, there is a difference between information and specific, high-quality knowledge that is relevant to the entrepreneur’s industry, location, and stage. The entrepreneurs who do not have access to high-quality mentors usually have the least time to start with and spend this time on the wrong things.

Centralization of entrepreneurship resources through the development of a comprehensive framework and resource center would go a long way to help entrepreneurs navigate efficiently through several different fields of knowledge. The more information about entrepreneurship that is stuck in tight social circles and conveyed through common practices and norms (termed latent information), the more inequity entrepreneurs start out with. Equitable entrepreneurship starts with a shared pathway through the entrepreneurial process.

Efficient Effort

Accelerators are an important tool to give entrepreneurs guidance, community, and initial funds. But the people who most need accelerators have the least access to them.

An entrepreneur at Stanford has friends who have been in accelerators and can provide advice on best fit. They have access to university accelerators with mentors to proofread their applications. Through networking events they build connections to entrepreneurs from previous cohorts that can provide warm introductions.

An entrepreneur at a community college might not know anyone who has ever started their own company. They might have a great idea but use the wrong wording in their application. They cannot access the kinds of networking events with people that can provide warm introductions to high quality accelerators.

The creation of the Common App for colleges helped students have a wider reach in potential schools. This process opened the door to more under-represented minorities and first generational students to reach outside of local community colleges because it demanded less time expenditure to submit more applications. A Common Accelerator App for entrepreneurs can provide those with less time and fewer connections a better chance at acceptance to an accelerator by the creation of a wider reach with less time demanded.

Design For Equity

Competitions solely for female entrepreneurs provide a win with the subtle shadow that women are not good enough to win a general competition. What looks like a positive structure of a women-only competition creates resentment from men who mistake press coverage and prizes for long-term support. Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington sums up this anger as he writes “statistically speaking women have a huge advantage as entrepreneurs, because the press is dying to write about them, and venture capitalists are dying to fund them. Just so no one will point the accusing finger of discrimination at them.” Arrington’s beliefs both make it harder for women to gain entry to entrepreneurship and delegitimizes them when they do gain access. There is no way for women to win in this situation.

The solution demands changing the situation with the conscious integration of anonymity into the platforms that entrepreneurs use to connect with each other, accelerators, and investors. With good design the focus of networks can shift to place entrepreneurs’ ideas before their gender, race, or connections. This change would get diverse entrepreneurs into the kinds of rooms that can open opportunity to them, and give them respect when they get there.

There are several platforms that have the capability to make these changes. CoFoundersLab, a website where cofounders meet currently focuses on cofounders’ names, photos, and universities attended. If this platform hid names, faces, and resumes, entrepreneurs would connect based on shared ideas instead of stereotypes. YCombinator, the world’s most prominent accelerator, can help broaden access by the removal of names and recommendations from applications that makes it so only those who already have networks gain more access.

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Inequality within entrepreneurship will not be fixed with a fragmented approach based on individual identity groups’ fight for media attention. Entrepreneurship materials accessible to all provides an initial foundation for every entrepreneur to build from. Systems that maximize the effort of one entrepreneur provides time-constrained entrepreneurs more access to opportunities for support. The design of anonymity into these systems enables entrepreneurs when their applications are read to be fairly evaluated.

I do not write to complain. For three years I studied how entrepreneurs build personal support systems and out of this research emerged Adjacent, a mobile app that provides a place for entrepreneurs to connect based on ideas rather than racial or gender identity. I want to build Adjacent further to provide centralized resources, efficient use of effort, and anonymity to entrepreneurs. At every step I have been blocked from access to the right kinds of networks and belittled when I do gain access. The very company I need is the company I need to build.

This company cannot be built by me, or at least, me alone. If you share this belief that every entrepreneur deserves a chance for their idea to be heard, please try out the app on Android or iOS, subscribe to our newsletter, or start a conversation with me at rachel@adjacent.us.