INVEST LIKE A WOMAN
Seen on Screen have announced that we are fundraising, and not just that, we’re doing an ALL FEMALE INVESTMENT round because I want every investor in SOS to be a woman.
I have been told that ‘women don’t invest’, ‘women are risk averse’ and not to do an all-female round because it will hold my business back. But I cannot wait to set an example and to prove them all wrong. If you’re interested in investing in Seen on Screen and want to know more about this opportunity, email me at bonnie@seenonscreen.dance.
Ladies, it’s time to invest like a woman!
Our time is now.
“Saying you’re a feminist is not enough.” Jude Kelly, CBE
There is only so much a motivational Instagram post can do. Women need action, and they need financial support so they can build their businesses. But we have a problem. The vast majority of investors are male. However, women tend to create products for women. Additionally, if that female-focused product is for a millennial market, it tends to be too young for investors’ wives and too old for their young daughters. And if their wives and daughters wouldn’t use the product being pitched, men don’t know whether the product will sell, so they see the opportunity as too risky. But what ‘risky’ really means is, I don’t understand it, therefore, I am unable to invest in it. If we want to close the gender gaps, it is paramount women invest in women.
6.4% of Fortune 500 CEO roles are held by women, 15% of FTSE 100 executive roles are held by women, 5.6% of the total number of Heads of State in the world are women and a tiny 3% of venture capital investment went to companies founded by women in 2017. Things have got to change. And they are — because women are taking action, pushing against the headwinds of gender bias and inequality to create a world which is run equally by both men and women, from all races and backgrounds. I believe in balance, and I truly believe we’ll live in a safer, happier world when fiscal and political power is held equally between the sexes.
“You can’t easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure.” Mary Beard, author Women & Power A Manifesto
So, why is it that such a small percentage of investment capital goes to female founders? Is it because less women are starting businesses? Are female lead businesses not as good, or are women less resilient than men? Or is it because of an unconscious gender bias which says a women creating a solution for a female market, isn’t a serious enough venture to provide a 10x return over 5 years, or female entrepreneurs simply aren’t capable of pulling it off? Perhaps this is why women feel the need to bring a man along to their pitch to secure investment, because experience has shown them that their venture won’t be taken seriously without male endorsement.
The world’s most successful investor Warren Buffet created a mental model for investment called the ‘Circle Of Competence’ advising investors to only operate in areas they know best. In other words, invest in what you know and understand. Is it really such a surprise that men struggle to understand an opportunity for a female market they know nothing about, ran by a female founder which doesn’t fit into their traditional mould of a start up entrepreneur, i.e., a college educated white male, like them? Equally, isn’t this an obvious opportunity for women to invest? According to Bloomberg, women are the world’s most powerful consumers and if the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female. Who better to understand the appeal of a product than the consumer who buys it? If women stick within our circle of competence and support the businesses we buy from, women have the potential to become the world’s most powerful investors, as well as the most powerful consumers.
I believe we should be the change we want to see in the world, and I want to see a world in which female-led businesses are not held back because of the founder’s gender. But I don’t think we can truly achieve this until the investors backing female-led businesses are women. With this in mind, I know that women fitting into a male structure is not the answer. We have to build a new structure of our own, which needs financial backing. But if that backing is male, the structure on which we build our businesses will remain the same at its heart because female CEOs will be held accountable to their male shareholders. So as Helena Morrissey rightly says in her book ‘It’s A Good Time To Be A Girl, “Don’t lean in, change the system”.
Dancer In The Closet
I was recently invited to mentor girls on behalf of WOW — Women Of The World organisation on the International Day of the Girl. Following our mentoring session on the London Eye, mentors were invited to a panel discussion with Jude Kelly CBE (founder of WOW) and Julia Gilard, the first female prime minister of Australia. During their conversation, Jude said she felt she’d had to ‘come out as a woman’ in business, which really resonated with me.
In the past year, I have finally gained the confidence in my ability and who I am to ‘come out’ as myself in business. To own the fact that I am a creative, dyslexic, pioneering, ruthlessly determined, dancing businesswoman and very female founder. And I am ready to shout it from the rooftops because if I have the strength to wear my story on my sleeve, I can use this experience, this climate, this opportunity, to my advantage.
For so long, I thought I had to conform to what I thought a businesswoman should be. I thought that in order to be successful, I needed to look and behave a certain way to gain the approval from the traditional business world. But I learned that I will never fit into those shoes, and that’s OK. I learned that my experience, my creativity, my background (what I used to want to hide) — are the reasons for my success, and my business will continue to reach new heights because of my strengths, not in spite of my weaknesses. And if an investor see’s these qualities as a risk, I wouldn’t want an investor like this as a shareholder in my business, because I could never be myself with them.
Speaking of experience, the life of a dancer is actually very similar to that of an entrepreneur. You follow your passion to do something you love, while building a steely resilience and self belief under fierce competition which drives you to be the best. Dance has taught me how to lean on myself, and instilled in me the grit, resilience and confidence to build a business from the ground up, and to be the best at what I do. If dance can give me the metaphorical backbone to do this, I can give the same tools to every woman who walks through our door, using SOS as a force for empowerment and self worth. Because setbacks are guaranteed, but the confidence to work through them and keep going to achieve what’s important to you, isn’t, and that’s where Seen on Screen comes in. It’s why our mission is to empower a generation of women to believe in themselves, using dance as a source of strength, power and confidence which they can carry through to all aspects of their lives.
During this learning curve of coming out as a dancing business woman, the phrase ‘break the mould before it breaks you’ kept going round in my mind. If you try to be something you’re not, you will always fall short. I am pushing for a new era of creative business where women of all races, and backgrounds can thrive by being true to who they are. Women are breaking the mould and challenging the perception of what a politician, investor, CEO… what a leader, looks like.
Helping to create a new system of securing investment for female entrepreneurs underpins what SOS is all about. Feminism isn’t just important to us, its at the absolute core of everything SOS was built around, and we will stay true to it in everything we do, from the message we deliver in our classes, to the funds which support our growth and the team that makes it happen.
I have been told that ‘women don’t invest’, ‘women are risk averse’ and not to do an all-female round because it will hold my business back. But I can not wait to set an example and to prove them all wrong. If you’re interested in investing in Seen on Screen and want to know more about this opportunity, email me at bonnie@seenonscreen.dance.
Ladies, it’s time to invest like a woman!
Our time is now.
