Stephanie Gravenor, co-founder & COO, and 20 other remarkable female founders were selected from nearly 100 applicants to participate in a day of insights, community, connections and experiential learning hosted by the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP in New York City. “I was excited to be part of WEB’s all immersive, women entrepreneurs bootcamp. The commitment and enthusiasm from my fellow female founders and co-founders was energizing, and I was inspired by the remarkable companies they were building across all industries…from fashion to finance!” – Stephanie Gravenor At WEB, I participated in a role playing exercise: “Turning the Tables: Overcoming bias in VC interviews,” where I was asked gender-biased questions in a mock-VC pitch. Why does only about 2% of venture capital go to fund female-founded companies? There are numerous reasons, but one stands out: investors ask men how to win and women how not to lose. A phenomenon waiting to be disrupted, and Dana Kanze, a researcher at Columbia Business School, taught us how at WEB 2018. Thanks to Dana’s incredible work, there is now a toolkit – for both Female Founders and investors — to interrupt the bias that contributes to the underfunding of female-founded companies. Dana shared tips on how a female founder can be attuned to the language used in questions and reframe answers so they are promotional and forward looking. Armed with Dana’s new tools, when investor David True asked me about the crowded space in the healthcare IT sector, I was able to reframe my answer and highlight the potential wallet size and growth potential for Medecipher’s technology.
