SheKnows Media: In Search of Elusive, “Fabulously Bright, Driven Women”

We saw in Bloomberg Business that you’re having a hard time finding capable, smart women to work for your venture capital firm. Perhaps this explains why there is only one woman featured on your company’s leadership page. And in fact, only 4% of senior venture capitalists are women. 

You said if you could find “fabulously bright, driven women who are really interested in technology, very hungry to succeed, and can meet our performance standards” your company would “hire them all day and night.” If only there was a way to find these women in your 425,787 LinkedIn followers … 

We’re here to help. The good news is these women exist (building their own companies, running major corporations, developing new technologies) and they would make excellent additions to the community.

Your interview prompted Nancy Lublin, CEO of DoSomething.org and total female powerhouse, to take to Facebook. She offered up five accomplished women who would make excellent candidates for any VC firm. She asked her network to add other notables at will, referring to her list as “a little binder full of women.” In the cheer-spreading manner of the holidays, the idea caught on like wildfire with an additional 200+ women mentioned on Facebook at the time of publishing.

Take a look at a few that caught our eye. (There are hundreds more.)

1. Ayah Bdeir: Founder and CEO, littleBits
2. Beth Comstock: CMO, GE and oversaw the founding of Hulu
3. Cori Lathan: CEO and board member at AnthroTronix
4. Dava Newman: Deputy Administrator, NASA and Professor Aeronautics, MIT
5. Gina Bianchini: Founder and CEO, Mightybell
6. Heidi Messer: Former COO, President of LinkShare
7. Jennifer Hyman: Co-Founder and CEO, Rent the Runway
8. Joan Sullivan: Deputy Mayor of Education, City of Los Angeles
9. Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler: Co-Founders, SoulCycle
10. Kathryn Finney: Founder and Managing Director, digitalundivided
11. Lauren Zalaznick: Former EVP NBC Universal and Member, Board of Directors, Shazam
12. Padmasree Warrior: Board Member, Box & Former CTO and Strategy Officer, Cisco
13. Sheila Lirio Marcelo: Founder, Chairwoman & CEO, Care.com

These women are the game-changers behind companies like Hulu, Shazam, SoulCycle and even NASA. Not bad!

We aren’t surprised. We know that women are the lead adopters of technology, thus making them well-versed in the digital space. We also know that women control 85% of purchasing decisions and represent a $14 trillion market. But with only 7% of venture capital funding going to women-owned businesses,⁵ we are not really represented on either side of the table.  Something seems off, right?

Since you have committed to hiring female leaders, we will be tweeting an ongoing list of women who could fit the bill using the hashtag #shecouldbeaVC.

Women, feel free to join in!

The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage/MyersBizNet management or associated bloggers.