• About
  • Article PDF
  • White Papers
  • Listening Tours​
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Advertising & Sponsorships
Monday, August 8, 2022
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
Times Of Entrepreneurship
Growth and Equity for a Changing World
Times Of Entrepreneurship
No Result
View All Result

Commentary: Authenticity Is Women’s Most Powerful Weapon in Raising Funds. Here’s How To Tap Into It.

by Allison Long Pettine
March 23, 2022
in Finance
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Allison Long Pettine

Oh, I’m so sorry. Forgive me. You take the good seat. When women communicate with each other, they often lead with humility and unintentionally give their power away.

But the underlying assumption is that the other women appreciate, have even come to expect this and will give their power back—which they generally do. There’s no need to apologize! No, you take the good seat—I’m perfectly comfortable here. Women have been socialized to support each other and build each other up.

This conversational dynamic works well when everyone in the room is a woman. But it can work against women when they’re raising capital. The financial world is still a male-dominated environment. Men generally don’t give their power away to each other the way women do—because the other men won’t give it back. Women may find that this style is seen as weakness by investors who are more accustomed to chest-beating and self-promotion.

I give a lot of thought to the nuances of communication that work for, and against, women when I run our venture fund, Crescent Ridge Partners. As an investor, I have one major goal: to find the right companies for our portfolio—those that will generate high returns and are aligned with our mission. But I am also mindful of the fact that less than 2% of the venture capital raised in this country went to all-female founding teams in 2021, according to PitchBook, and of the fact I have the opportunity to bring about change.

So how can women develop a communication style that helps them raise the funding they need? This is one of the questions we address through our bootcamps at Ad Astra Ventures.  Trying to pitch like a man—the approach taught in the many programs run by men and populated by men—usually doesn’t work. Men and women are socialized to speak in what amount to different languages. We have our own styles of communication and interaction. A woman who speaks exactly like a man will almost always come off sounding forced and unnatural. It goes back to the playground. Boys can get away with saying, “I’m the best!” but if girls say the same thing, no other girls will like them.

The women who are most successful in pitching, in my experience, embrace their authenticity and their natural leadership style as women. They acknowledge what is expected of them in this setting and draw on certain masculine strategies that they are comfortable using, such as being direct and confident. But most importantly, they understand that it’s not likely that leading with politeness or vulnerability will be reciprocated, so they don’t start with that right out the gate. They are strategic about their dialogue—first building credibility and earning the respect of the investor on the other side of the table, and then incorporating humility, vulnerability, and politeness once that upfront dynamic has been established.

Establishing credibility doesn’t require elaborate prep work. Often, it’s about finding a natural point in the conversation to mention you once worked for a well-known company the investor will know or speaking in a tone that conveys you know the subject and are confident about what you’re saying. It also means avoiding habits that make you seem hesitant, like ending a statement with an upward inflection that makes it sound like a question.

Ultimately, investors want to know that what a founder says rings true. We want to know who you are and what values drive your decisions —and, ultimately, whether those things match what we are looking for. Your delivery will tell us if your words match who you and your company really are.

Pitching investors isn’t easy for anyone, and it can be particularly challenging for women in an industry that’s the same old boys club it always was. But as I’ve seen many times over, the more you pitch, the better you get at it, and the easier it is to sell your idea without trying to be someone else. That’s just as true for women as it is for men, and I hope more will stick with it until they rustle up the money they need to scale.

Allison Long Pettine is the managing partner of the private-investment firm Ridge Group Investments and founder of the venture fund Crescent Ridge Partners. She also co-founded Ad Astra Ventures, a fund that focuses on investing in female founders, to address the gender imbalances in society, in 2018. She is a member of YPO, which sponsored this commentary on Times of E.

For more inspiring stories, insights and actionable funding opportunities, subscribe to Times of E’s weekly newsletter, www.timesofe.com/introduction.
Tags: Ad Astra VenturesAllison Long PettineCrescent Ridge Partners
Allison Long Pettine

Allison Long Pettine

Related Posts

Take Your IRR With A Grain Of Salt. It’s A Vanity Metric

Take Your IRR With A Grain Of Salt. It’s A Vanity Metric

by Seth Levine
May 11, 2022
0

Seth Levine I’m observing that IRR is a metric that is becoming an increasing focus in venture, replacing fund return...

collaged headshots of a man and woman

VC Spotlight: A Palestinian Venture Fund, Going Strong, Aims To Raise Another $15M 

by Elizabeth Macbride
April 25, 2022
0

Habib Hazzan and Ambar Amleh Name: Ibtikar Fund Location: Palestine Website: www.ibtikarfund.com Size: We are currently raising Ibtikar Fund II, which we are targeting...

VC Spotlight: Entrepreneur-Turned-Investor Lu Zhang Is On Her Third, $120M Fund

VC Spotlight: Entrepreneur-Turned-Investor Lu Zhang Is On Her Third, $120M Fund

by Elizabeth Macbride
March 11, 2022
0

Lu Zhang Name: Fusion Fund Location: Palo Alto, CA Website: https://www.fusionfund.com/ Size: I just launched Fund III last year. It...

Editor’s Note: Is Venture Capital Really a Tool for Broad Economic Development?

Editor’s Note: Is Venture Capital Really a Tool for Broad Economic Development?

by Elizabeth Macbride
February 23, 2022
0

Elizabeth Macbride Earlier this month, the National Venture Capital Association and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Institute of Private...

blonde woman in black

Kizmet Impact Aims To Be One of the First Publicly Traded VC Funds

by Skyler Rossi
February 11, 2022
0

Marissa Bronfman Name: Kizmet Impact Capital Location: Toronto and Vancouver, Canada Web site: https://www.kizmetimpact.com Size: Raising its first $50M fund...

Accessing Money Tools: NFTs Explained, And How Creators Can Take Advantage of Web3

Accessing Money Tools: NFTs Explained, And How Creators Can Take Advantage of Web3

by Lori Ioannou
February 1, 2022
0

Sasha Sloan, a former Miss Utah, built a business on videos for Harry Potter and Star Wars fans. This is...

Subscribe to Times of E’s Free Weekly Newsletter

Learn about the emerging ecosystem of diverse founders

Popular

  • man in front of a tufted rug

    TikTok Craze Gets Real at a Brooklyn Rug Tufting Studio

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Venture Capital Returns Are More Skewed Than People Realize

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Top 20 U.S. University Entrepreneurship Competitions, 2021

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Commentary: Authenticity Is Women’s Most Powerful Weapon in Raising Funds. Here’s How To Tap Into It.

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A City Of 66,000 Is At The Center Of An Audacious, $200M Attempt To Build A Tech Hub From Scratch

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Recent

woman leaning against a brick wall in a white jacket

Editor’s Note: Times of E is on a reduced publication schedule

June 23, 2022
Video: Armory Square Ventures’ Sawhney On The Rise of Upstate NY

Newsletter: Varsity Blues, redemption stories and women-led finance

June 23, 2022
Video: Armory Square Ventures’ Sawhney On The Rise of Upstate NY

Video: Armory Square Ventures’ Sawhney On The Rise of Upstate NY

June 19, 2022

Recommended

  • Health
  • Climate
  • Deep Tech
  • Finance
  • Education
  • Women Entrepreneurs
  • Mentorship
Fund of the Week: Lightship Capital

Fund of the Week: Lightship Capital

2 years ago
Weekly Newsletter: Simone Biles’ Self-Doubt, Holding Google To Account, And What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

Weekly Newsletter: Simone Biles’ Self-Doubt, Holding Google To Account, And What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

1 year ago
  • About
  • Partner
  • Bespoke Research
  • Listening Tours​
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Privacy Policy

(703-966-7357)

© 2020 Mondial Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 
Facebook Twitter Linkedin
No Result
View All Result
  • Research
  • Finance
  • Women Entrepreneurs
  • New Builders
  • Ecosystem
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Editor’s Note

© 2022 Mondial Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Free Download

Times of E Speaks with Jim McKelvey

Get exclusive insights on the future of entrepreneurship. 

Download Now

Support Times of E

Times of E covers the emerging ecosystem of diverse founders.

With your support of our journalism, you will receive our weekly newsletter and one of these resources for free: 

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?