How to Pitch as a Female Founder

Last week, a friend of mine pitched her startup to a room of investors. One of them pulled her aside afterward. “Stop pitching like a man,” he said. “You’re a beautiful woman, and you can rely on your looks.”

She was stunned. She tried to brush off his comments completely, but they got her thinking: Should she alter her pitching style to be more stereotypically feminine? Had she been trying to “pitch like a man”? And what does it actually mean to pitch like a man versus a woman?

Getting this right really matters for female founders, who face daunting odds: all-female startup teams received roughly 2% of U.S. venture capital last year, a gap that’s barely moved in a decade. And it matters for many jobs across all industries; success at work often depends on pitching ideas effectively.

I initially assumed that the best pitching advice for female founders would be similar to other negotiation advice: be warm and empathetic, and frame your requests as benefiting everyone. But that advice turns out to be wrong in the vastly male-dominated world of venture capital funding.

Not all of you are raising money right now, but you may know someone who is, and this research isn’t well-known. If a founder comes to mind, send this to her. Here’s what the research says actually works:

How to pitch investors, as a woman:

Lead with growth.

Women are more likely to be funded when they frame their ventures from the outset in highly positive terms, backed by evidence: market size, scalability, trajectory.

Pivot from risks to upsides.

A major new study found that investors tend to ask women more “what could go wrong” questions and men more “how big could this get” questions — and this pattern often led to worse outcomes for women. But women can partly offset this — and raise consistently more funding — when they respond to risk-centered questions by focusing on opportunity and growth potential.

Include signals of legitimacy.

Prior funding rounds, credentialed advisors, and press coverage help to close the funding gap for women. The same research points to a specific way to get that first funding round: women have a documented advantage in online funding from small donors, so a strong crowdfunding campaign can double as the prior funding proof point that helps persuade investors later on.

Keep it gender-neutral.

One well-replicated study found that investors penalize warmth and expressiveness in men and women alike, and confident, assertive delivery reads as more competent, regardless of gender. In other words: there is no way to pitch like a man versus a woman, because these qualities can be embodied well by any individual. And the “advice” my friend received could not have been more wrong. (He was wrong in another way, too: research shows that being considered attractive helps men get funding but makes no difference for women.)

This matters beyond any single founder’s pitch. Closing the gap isn’t only fairer to women founders. It means more businesses get built with women in the room from the start.

— Bridget Griswold, CEO, LeanIn.Org