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Men vs. Women When Speaking with VCs

Name: Men vs. Women When Speaking with VCs
Uploaded: 2020-08-04T02:44:26+00:00
Duration: 1 min 18 s
Channel: Royston G King
Description: In this brief panel, two speakers discuss the gender confidence gap that women often face when pitching to venture capitalists. Speaker A points out that…

4 Aug 2020 · 1 min

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1:18

In this brief panel, two speakers discuss the gender confidence gap that women often face when pitching to venture capitalists. Speaker A points out that male founders tend to ask for money more audaciously, while women may be less bold. She recommends that women be brave, direct, and prepared with clear questions, citing Google’s internal "I Am Remarkable" training that encourages women to articulate their strengths and has demonstrably boosted confidence among participants. Speaker B adds that women should also adopt a highly optimistic tone when describing their business potential, noting that male founders are typically "self‑optimistic" and that VCs can detect inauthenticity. He advises taking the most optimistic assumptions when discussing future performance, while staying true to oneself.

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We noticed in our research there's a confidence gap, right? And so there's a difference between a confident male asking for money versus a female who may not be that audacious in her ask. And I would say if you come to the table, be brave and bold enough to ask for what you want, have your questions right, and be direct. We do a training at Google called I Am Remarkable, which encourages women to speak up about their strengths. And I think investing in something like that, at least we see the difference when we do that with our women at Google, I think makes a huge difference. So just upping up that confidence a little bit. And I don't mean that you've got to match, you know, the stuff that we see in pitch competitions, but I think it's important to be a little bit brave.
I mean, building on that, do be optimistic. The men you are pitching against will be incredibly self-optimistic. So when you're talking about what your business is going to do and achieve, be optimistic and understand that you have to be crazy optimistic. And you can't be, you can't be not true to yourself because VCs see when you're not being true to yourself. But just logically understand that when you're asked what your business is going to do, any numbers you say, anything you say, take the most optimistic assumption possible.