She Knows How to Play the Game

By: Katharine MieszkowskiWed Dec 19, 2007 at 12:20 AM

The startup revolution is as much about the democratization of capital as it is about the creation of new technologies. So why do women-led companies still receive only 4.6% of all venture funding?

"The VCs will tell you that they fund people with a track record, who they've heard of, or who work for companies that have done well," Brosseau says. "They fund people who have been funded before. I am about making sure that the pipeline is full, training people along the way, and getting that statistic up. We have given women the experience that VCs are looking for. There are more and more women starting and running bigger and bigger companies."

Katharine Mieszkowski (km@salon.com), a former senior writer for Fast Company, is a senior writer for Salon.com. Contact Denise Brosseau by email (denise@FWE.org).

Sidebar: Lessons For Loot

Denise Brosseau's primary role is that of entrepreneurial connector. She amasses the speakers and teachers, the coaches and mentors, so that women-led companies can get up to speed faster. "You don't wake up one day and know how to do this," she says. "You can learn it at the school of hard knocks, but I believe there is a better way to learn your lessons."

The first lesson that Brosseau teaches: VCs don't bet on desperate entrepreneurs. "VCs want to be a part of success. They want to be part of the avalanche of money that's going to wash over you." One entrepreneur told Brosseau that she was so tired of being turned down that she stopped feeling discouraged and started to get mad. Anger was more effective. In her next pitch meeting, she all but pounded her fist on the table as she explained her company. She got funded.

Brosseau's second lesson: While passion is good, greed is bad. She tries to rank the entrepreneurs she meets on what she jokingly calls the "greed dotcom" scale.

The third lesson: Do take "no" for an answer -- then figure out how to change it to "yes." Entrepreneurial folklore holds that entrepreneurs never listen when they hear a "no." But Brosseau encourages FWE entrepreneurs to listen most carefully at that time. Why are investors saying no? When entrepreneurs are striking out with funders, part of her role is to help the entrepreneurs ask themselves the toughest question: "Am I fooling myself?" Maybe the first 100 people who said "no" were the wrong hundred people, or maybe your pitch is off.