Bias, networking fears: Women want to power exchange in India’s male-ruled VC enterprise

When Harsha Kumar joined Lightspeed Ventures after a profession in product control, matters had been distinct. Unlike working in a fast-developing startup-like Ola, where large leaps might be made in a be counted of days, in project capital, the output of her paintings would take years to reveal up. In the absence of beyond performance to fall again on, Harsha realized that she could find a way to break into this male-ruled industry.

“As a VC, the humans you interact with are normally external to the fund and don’t work with you daily. They have by no means visible you perform; so, when you meet someone for the primary time, you may sense that there may be skepticism, you observe the bias,” she said. “I have been in meetings where the person might as a substitute speaks to a man who’s my junior to look at me in the eye and communicate to me. It takes some exercise to transport beyond it and make yourself heard.

Kumar’s story is similar to a couple of female buyers that ET spoke to. Some said they found networking intimidating or awkward inside the absence of supportive structures. Others stated they struggled with getting their voices heard inside fellows’ presence across the startup funding and entrepreneurship atmosphere in India and elsewhere.

Ladies have needed to combat more difficult to make their way and be treated at par with guys, regardless of historical statistics and monetary returns favoring girl marketers and budgets led by girls, for example, consistent with First Round Capital, businesses with a female founder done 63% higher than investments with all-male founding teams. At the same time, Harvard Business Review says that fewer than five% of all VC-funded companies have ladies on their executive groups, and the best 2.7% had a woman CEO.

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