922 Julie Castro Abrams: How Women Invest

Leveraging Community to Empower Women to Invest in Women-Led Startups

Less then 2% of women-founded companies that qualify for venture-funding—with bold, differentiated and scalable innovations addressing massive markets—actually land investment.

It’s a percentage that hasn’t moved in 30 years, even though reams of research shows that women-led companies outperform their male counterparts, returning on average 60 cents more on every dollar invested than men.

There are lots of reasons women struggle to find venture capital—unlike men, we tend to be evaluated on past performance rather than future potential; we tend to get asked how we’ll minimize risk rather than maximize value, and all too often men simply don’t understand the markets we’re addressing, or how our more inclusive leadership styles tend to get better results. There is a lot of conscious and unconscious bias out there, and male VCs are leaving money on the table.

That’s an opportunity for wealthy women to step into the breach by moving beyond traditional investments into venture capital, where the returns are often 10X.  These days there are more women-led VC funds out there, though they tend to raise less money than men and often struggle to persuade women to invest in their funds.

Julie Castro Abrams is making waves by breaking down the barriers for women in the investment world with her VC fund called How Women Invest.

Today Julie shares how she leveraged her existing community of women executives and entrepreneurs, How Women Lead, into a community-focused VC fund, raising her first $10 million in mere months, and empowering women to take their seats at venture capital’s traditionally male-dominated table. Julie started by rallying an initial 221 investors, the majority of whom were women new to venture capital. Now on her third fund, focused on early-stage Seed and Series A investments, Julie has a plan to channel a billion dollars from women into other female-led funds. We talk about the investment learning curve, and why investing in female-led companies will influence the direction of the entire economy, the way we do business, and pick the future winners in our society.

Listen to the full episode to learn how Julie built trusted platform, encouraging women to invest in ventures often overlooked by traditional financial advisors and empowering a generation of women to actively participate in venture funding, reshaping the landscape for female founders and investors alike. We get into the weeds of venture capital, how to raise money, and why it’s time women step up to invest in women-founded startups.

More about Julie Castro Abrams at www.howwomeninvest.com

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More about Julie at How Women Lead and How Women Invest

Julie Castro Abrams is a venture capitalist and gender and racial justice activist who has spent the majority of her career working to build great women-owned companies and economic access for women. She is the founder and CEO of How Women Lead, a network of 14,000-plus top executive women who come together to learn, break barriers to success, and make an impact. Using her extensive background, Julie helps top executive women harness and activate their power across all aspects of their careers and lives. She also leads the sister organization, How Women Invest, an early-stage venture capital firm seeking to realize untapped economic potential by focusing on the intersection of female founders and female investors, particularly those of color.

Listen to Julie’s podcast How Women Inspire Invest Lead Give

Get the Transcript HERE