The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
1–10 of 49 posts
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#2Interesting point. Hard to discuss too, because as always with women-related issues the heat is pretty high.
However, let's play devil's advocate and extend it to the man's case too. If I put myself in the role of a VC I would think twice about hiring anybody who's going to have children soon. Children, from what I gathered, are emotionally and physically draining for both parents. If you add up the challenges of having a startup, which is like another child well that's a good damn reason to refuse investing.
The problem is that pregnancy and a child coming soon can be physically seen on a woman, but we can't ask a VC to be blind on that.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#3It's particularly significant that this is twins we're talking about, not just a "typical" pregnancy.
Let me tell you from personal experience that twins, two babies in parallel, are FAR more than twice the work of two sequential babies.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#4> I've never heard someone ask the same of a founder-CEO-dad, worrying about a slightly different dirty little thought: "An expectant father/CEO will fail his company."
Well, of course I don't have any way of experiencing both and comparing them, but isn't a pregnancy much more difficult for the pregnant female? No matter how many times the dad runs out to buy watermelon at 4 in the morning, he doesn't have a living thing growing in his uterus.
I don't agree with the statement, "a pregnant ceo will fail her company". I might agree with the statement, "all else being equal, the person with less to overcome is more likely to succeed". And likeliness of success is pretty much what VCs do.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#5The problem is instead that to make the asset class decide we're worth their investment, we can't have families or pretty much anything else beyond providing them returns to support their lifestyle.
Good grief. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates ripped all of you guys off soooo bad and it's like none of you get it. 80k at 80 hours a week is less than someone makes in a supermarket. Suckers, all of you.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#6Interesting point. Hard to discuss too, because as always with women-related issues the heat is pretty high. However, let's play devil's advocate and extend it to the man's case too. If I put myself in the role of a VC I would think twice about hiring anybody who's going to have children soon. Children, from what I gathered, are emotionally and physically draining for both parents. If you add up the challenges of hav…
What point do you draw the line? Say a woman entrepreneur got married a year ago and it's getting to be 'about that time'. The inlaws are asking when they're going to hear the patter of tiny feet? Or what if you hear a couple saying 'they're trying for a child'?
Do you want to hire someone at this age? What's the difference, they've got the same goals, one is pregnant, one isn't yet.
It rapidly turns into sexism. So she's going to have to take a while off. She'll have some hormone stuff to deal with. What do you know about that couple? Maybe Dad's going to be the one changing the diapers and getting up at 3. What right do you have to judge?
The whole point is that life goes on and constantly discriminating against women because of this is just wrong.
The point is that she thinks she can handle it, she thinks her team can handle the slack, she's putting her ass on the line. Fair enough, go for it.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#7I'm guessing the original author didn't read the BI article because the VC DID fund her.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#8The problem is instead that to make the asset class decide we're worth their investment, we can't have families or pretty much anything else beyond providing them returns to support their lifestyle. Good grief. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates ripped all of you guys off soooo bad and it's like none of you get it. 80k at 80 hours a week is less than someone makes in a supermarket. Suckers, all of you.
Actually, that works out to $20/hr, which would be pretty good for a supermarket salary.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#9Kids and startups are doable. Like she mentioned in the article - its about prioritizing and the support you have at home and at work. I'm speaking as a father of two boys and a as someone at his third venture.
The most unintentionally interesting point of this article, which was written in 2011, is that going to profounder.com reveals that they are now closing down, due to regulatory restrictions that prevent them from growing their business.
Re: The Pregnant Entrepreneur And The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her
#10Um. The headline here says "The VC Who Wouldn't Fund Her" but the article talks about a VC that did fund her though expressed his doubts. Also he's one of "thirty plus" investors.
Both articles were written a month ago and the company she founded has already shut down: http://blog.profounder.com/2012/02/17/profounder-shutting-do...
However I'm sure Forbes and Business Insider are very grateful for the ad impressions.