Women entrepreneurs share experiences

Women entrepreneurs and venture capitalists discussed their personal experiences and the environment women entrepreneurs face today before a crowd of mostly community members on Wednesday.

The panel, which was moderated by Kef Kasdin ’85, a general partner at Battelle Ventures, included perspectives from a new entrepreneur, a business co-founder, a venture capitalist and a student.

Natasha Gajewski, who just entered the field of entrepreneurship seven months ago after years as a homemaker and photographer when she designed Symple Symptom Tracker, an app that allows patients to track their own symptoms, said she has “not found barriers to entry as a woman.”

Meanwhile, ThinkEco co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Mei Shibata said she noticed the lack of female role models in the fields she has pursued, from studying physics in college to working on Wall Street, but that this allowed her to do whatever she wanted without any set expectations.

“I’ve been in financial services, I’ve been in science, which are both very male-dominated,” Shibata said. However, she noted that she felt most comfortable in advertising, a field that is largely female-dominated.

“In the women-dominated sectors, we take it as a given that there’s more than one right answer,” Shibata said, contrasting this scenario with her experiences in male-dominated fields where the person with the loudest voice often carried the conversation.

Meanwhile, Joy Marcus ’83, a partner at DFJ Gotham Ventures, described how she had earlier worked in the media industry, which had a lot of women.

“I actually had a lot of role models, and I thought I could do anything just like my mom told me,” Marcus said.

These experiences were different from what she faces today as a woman venture capitalist, as at most only 11 percent of all venture capitalists are female.

“I went to my first partner meeting in Half Moon Bay, and I was one of five women out of the 150 there, which was shocking to me,” Marcus said. “It was shocking to sit with all of my partners, who in 2011, were almost all men.”

Marcus also noted the gender differences in the industries of the companies led by women, as most women leaders work in traditional women’s sectors like fashion and commerce.

“I was saying as a joke earlier that if I see another Harvard MBA who wants to start a fashion company, I’m going to shoot myself,” Marcus added.

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As the only student panelist, Alex Landon ’12 described the challenges of the new generation of women entrepreneurs, who are often limited by personal doubt rather than societal barriers.

“In the last year and a half, the report on undergraduate women’s leadership has sparked a lot of dialogue,” Landon said. “A lot of people used to talk about giving women opportunities; now a lot of what we’re talking about is other structural mechanisms to encourage women to overcome their own self-doubt and take advantage of the opportunities.”

For example, she recalled her own experience with the Silicon Valley TigerTrek, a trip that selected 22 students to visit companies in the Silicon Valley through a competitive application. Only six of the students selected were women, but only 12 of the 90 applicants were female.

The panel, which was sponsored by the Keller Center, the N.J. Jumpstart Angel Network and Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP, attracted a couple of students in addition to community members.

“I’m interested in entrepreneurship, and I’m a woman, and I just wanted to listen to their tips,” Xin Xu GS said. “I think I’m mostly inspired by how these women do what they want to do and take risks in a male-dominated environment.”