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So the paper uh we set out really to uh
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we noticed that there was a uh this
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general trend where women were getting
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less uh venture financing than men and
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we were trying to figure out why that
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was uh and if there were certain uh
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variables that would offset this
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negative effect. Um and so what we found
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was that actually women are
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disproportionately
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funded less than men. Um and in
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addition, men who are attractive get
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this extra boost uh where they're
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getting funded even more than
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unattractive men.
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I think the key takeaway is that we tend
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to think that entrepreneurship is a very
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merit-based type of endeavor where we're
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evaluating the quality of the idea or
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how disruptive it is in a market or the
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executability of the idea. And what
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we're finding is that when entrepreneurs
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pitch, uh, there are a lot of other
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subtle cues, there are a lot of other
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factors that are going into whether or
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not somebody actually gets funded or
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not. Um, we've had we've long had
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anecdotal knowledge about women getting
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funded less than men. And what we really
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find is that that holds. And in fact,
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there's a premium that men get even for
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things like being attractive, whereas
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women um are still not getting funded
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based on those factors.
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I think they all surprised us to some
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degree. Um, we really set out to kind of
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find a way to find which variables or or
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which factors would equalize the
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process. Were there ways that women
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could pitch themselves or present
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themselves such that they would be able
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to uh get some get the venture financing
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or or be more representative of the
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types of financing that's out there. Um,
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and it was surprising to us to actually
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find that these results were so robust
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and that they held under a number of
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different conditions.
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I think there's a lot of practical
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implications in terms of presentation
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and impression management. Um, I'm doing
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a lot of research in terms of how people
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uh maybe present themselves in these
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settings in order to get the valuable
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resources that they need. There's a lot
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of uncertainty, a lot of unknowability
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intrinsic in this in this setting and uh
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there's a lot of factors that we don't
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realize are making an impact. A lot of
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subtle implicit cues that are driving
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this process. Uh so from the
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attractiveness perspective for example
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um you know this is something that
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people can be aware of uh both from the
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investor side as well as the
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entrepreneur side um and realizing that
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it's not something that is necessarily
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representative what's happening in the
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firm. Um it may be that there are
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specific reasons for that uh and we're
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trying to disentangle exactly what's
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happening and the mechanism behind what
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behind the the results that we're
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finding.
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You know I think here we actually were
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very careful to do a series of studies
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so that we were investigating this
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question for a number of different ways.
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Uh we were really careful to take um an
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experimental design where we were uh
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having the same presentation and
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manipulating um one condition where it
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was a female voice and one condition
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where it was a male voice for example to
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really make sure that we were isolating
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that it was just purely the gender. Uh
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we did the same thing with
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attractiveness. Um and in a third study,
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we also looked in the field at real uh
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pitch competitions to see that the
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effect hold held in in that the effect
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held in a real setting.
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I think there's a lot of directions that
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we can go from here in terms of looking
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at what's actually happening and
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disentangling the underlying mechanism.
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Um it may be that uh there's a certain
00:04:05
subset of investors. Uh investors tend
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to be over represented. they tend to be
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much more male than female. Um, and so
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that might be driving the effect. It
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might be that the type of businesses,
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the type of firms uh or startups that
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these women or men are starting uh might
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be influencing what's happening. Um, it
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might be about persuasion and the
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ability to influence. So, some of my
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other work uncovers this interpersonal
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influence uh aspect that is really
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important in entrepreneurial financing
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and entrepreneurial resource
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acquisition. Uh so there's a lot of
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underlying things that could be
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happening and I think it's important to
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kind of understand uh why it is that
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we're seeing these these effects
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