The Benefits of Female-Founder Accelerators
Some of founders from the Atto Accelerator 2020 cohort.
While the message that ‘the future is female’ is one displayed proudly on t-shirts all over the world, it’s still one that hasn’t quite made it into the global boardrooms and offices of big tech companies. So, sick of waiting for the patriarchy to welcome them in with open arms, more and more female entrepreneurs and first-time founders are making the decision to get out there and do it for themselves. 🙌
The rise of the female-led startup has been a steadily-increasing phenomenon over the last decade or more. And as more female founders enter the global startup ecosystem the need for support to educate and guide them through the process has become even stronger.
Enter female founder accelerator programs. The benefits of these programs are endless, here we run through our top five.
Benefit #1: Female founders need flexibility
Kate created Atto after witnessing a few colliding problems within the startup ecosystem – the first being flexibility.
“I saw there was a real problem around the flexibility for female founders if they had/or wanted to plan for a family. I had quite a few hostile interactions with investors around the time we were planning for a family, and it falsely led me to believe the startup life wasn’t for me,” she says. “After building startups for over a decade I’ve come to realise that it’s impossible to hustle 24/7. Startups are sprints and marathons, and even enjoyable walks at times, and that’s ok. Changing your pace to raise children is a drop in the ocean in your total startup journey.”
Safe to say that understanding a female founder’s personal journey and being able to support and adapt to her needs, is a massive benefit to a same-sex accelerator program.
Benefit #2: Introductions to funds directly focused on female founders
Knowing when and how to ask for help, particularly when it comes to fundraising, can be overwhelming for a first-time founder. And when you’re hit with the data that, in 2018, only 3% of venture capital in the U.S went to companies with a female CEO it can also feel disheartening.
Being part of a female-only accelerator gives founders access to female mentors – women who have been there, done that, and raised the funds they needed. They are also incredibly proficient in helping guide founders through applying for grants, female-only initiatives and offering introductions to VCs known to invest in female-run startups.
An accelerator program like Atto will also introduce founders to the indie way of doing things, something Kate’s advocates for. “When I was in San Francisco in 2012, I started to question the ethics around big-tech and the growth-at-all-costs model,” she says. “Companies like Uber and WeWork were stopping at nothing to build, build, build and how people were treated just didn’t matter. I started to chat with founders who had bootstrapped their companies to tens of millions in revenue and began a movement in 2017 around building companies in an ‘indie way’. This notion that you can build startups ‘independently’ is an ethos we support at Atto and the reason I called my company Indie Labs.”
Benefit #3: Women-only networking and events
There are so many positives to holding women-only events. Family-friendly hours and not having to share the mic are just a couple of them.
Within the startup ecosystem, women’s voices aren’t heard as often as men so running events where women can find mentors, network and hear other women speak about their own experiences is invaluable. After all, “you can’t be what you can’t see.”
Research has shown that women speak out less in groups when they are the minority. At women-only events, there’s more opportunity for women to speak up, be more open and vulnerable and share stories about juggling family and professional life.
In fact, it’s openly encouraged.
Benefit #4: Female accelerator programs are confidence-boosting
One of the things we’ve noticed with Atto founders is just how vital female-focused spaces are when it comes to confidence-building.
During Atto’s 2020 Accelerator our weekly mastermind groups were incredibly popular and feedback showed that founders loved the peer-to-peer aspect of office hours and learning from others.
“With the 2020 Atto Accelerator program I became more aware of just how much of an issue confidence is for female founders,” says Kate. “Creating a positive environment and championing the founders to take action is key – and something that’s often missing from startup ecosystem interactions - where, traditionally, many people grill you aggressively about your idea and then poop on it!”
Benefit #5: The lack of unconscious bias
Female-founder accelerator programs have naturally removed the unconscious bias that tends to come with mixed-gender environments.
When in female-only spaces, women have the freedom to speak openly, network softly, have other female-founders to share experiences with and like-minded mentors to guide them.
And all without interruption, mansplaining and manologuing – experiences that the majority of women will have had, which are now backed up by actual research. 😉
The truth of the matter is that future is female.
Women-led businesses, and female founders, are on the rise, aren’t going anywhere and, with the right support teams behind them, there’s nothing we can’t do.