“By Kim Lavine
I was on the top of the Empire State Building, overwhelmed by the task at hand. I put my personal reputation on the line to enlist investors from around the world to bring hundreds of millions of dollars to this event, so there had better be fast- growth, high-profit women-owned businesses “money-ready” pitching.”
Top of the Empire State Building. Getting to the top in NYC was not easy.
“The problem wasn’t the investors, the problem was with the women: they didn’t know how to ask for the money, they didn’t know how to drive a deal, they didn’t think investors were interested in their business models, they didn’t know how to frame a Value Proposition—and they didn’t think they could.”
How To Shift a Paradigm
- Break down conventional wisdom that investors are only interested in high-tech ventures.
- Take networking opportunities out of Silicon Valley, boardrooms and "old boys clubs.”
- Teach women how to package and drive a deal.
- Elevate women’s business funding from a charitable subsistence model to one of exponential financial return.
- Vet and qualify women to be money-ready investments, then empower them to be leaders in the boardroom.
- But the most difficult and most important paradigm shift is teaching women to think they can.