Joline Godfrey

Why are women biased against investing in other women's groups?

I don't know that they're so much biased against, as it's just not a leap that they've been willing to make yet. It's fascinating to me, even with women with great wealth, often before making an investment, they will defer to some man they'll check in with, for the man to give them permission, rather than making their own decision. Partly it's that we haven't had practice. Partly, it's because women were not brought up to take other women seriously or that they could make some money. So it really has to do with having some success and seeing it pay off. I actually am very lucky. I have had some terrific women invest in my company. But all of the appointments on my calendar right now are with men.

Is there anything else we haven't covered that relates to you and the roles of a women entrepreneur?

We do this exercise at one of the programs, and at the end of it, they have interviewed a number of women business owners and I say, "So, what surprised you most about them?" and what they come up with each time is, they had no idea what they were going to be when they were little. I think that that's an interesting piece about a lot of entrepreneurs, but certainly among women. This wasn't something we planned. And yet, now that I'm here, doing this, I can't imagine doing anything but starting businesses and making them grow.

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