A Network of Her Own

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Even as they savor their niche market, VCs at women-centric funds hope their successes will lure other investors to back women-owned companies too. And, in fact, that's already happening: in April, New York City's Flatiron Partners announced a $20-million standalone fund exclusively for start-ups led by women and minorities. But widespread enthusiasm may be constrained by the paucity of female partners in traditional firms: women account for less than 20% of the nation's VCs. "I've got to believe that having decision-making, deal-doing women partners will influence VCs' perceptions of women in leadership roles," says Wang. Women-focused funds on their own "have not made much progress," she adds. "It's still a severely undertapped market."

Sevin Rosen's Roberts is nonetheless optimistic. "I think about it in terms of the progress that we've made," she says. "The face of venture firms is changing -- by age, ethnicity, and gender. It doesn't feel as inhospitable as it once did."

Whereas it can take years to make partner in a VC firm, angel investors are born overnight. And they're being born all across the country as women with accumulated wealth invest in new companies, many being started by people like themselves. The leader of the pack is the 100-member Seraph Capital Forum, assembled a year ago by Susan Preston, CEO of Reality-Based Learning Co., an education company in Redmond, Wash. Preston's motive was to get more women involved with start-ups in the Seattle area, where "there are only about four women VCs," she says.

Every Seraph angel meets the net-worth requirements of an accredited investor, but that doesn't necessarily translate into expertise. Before joining Seraph, "some of these women had never made a financial decision by themselves," says Preston. The angels are strongly encouraged to attend Seraph's lunches, classes, and seminars at which local VCs and partners from law firms and big-five accounting firms drill them in evaluating management teams, analyzing financial documents, and diversifying investment portfolios. "Our goal is to give them the education and information to help them make intelligent investment choices for themselves," Preston says.

Thus equipped, individual angels have so far invested in 18 companies, plunking down as much as $500,000 each. Although Seraph claims gender-blindness in choosing opportunities to present to members, women CEOs have knocked on its door in disproportionate numbers, and just over a third of the companies invested in count women among their founders.

Seraph appears to have started a trend: there's talk of similar groups sprouting up in New York and San Francisco. In the Washington, D.C., area, WomenAngels.net was completely booked after just a couple of breakfast meetings, with 90 members possessing varying degrees of investment experience and ranging in age from 25 to 65. "We were so oversubscribed that we think we're going to have to do another one," says organizer Esther Smith, a managing partner at investment relations firm Poretz Group, in McLean, Va. Each angel has agreed to put in $25,000 each year for three years, becoming equal partners in a fund that made its first private investment in May.

But it will take more than female angels, or any other single force, to bring women's access to capital up to par. "I don't think it's going to change dramatically until women have a greater presence in all areas, from angel financing and venture-capital firms to government, law, and Fortune 500 companies," says Preston. She and others focused on parity recommend that every area with a concentration of VCs also host incubators similar to the Women's Technology Cluster; networking and support groups akin to the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs; and venture funds and angel groups that target companies in which women are significant stakeholders.

For the new-girl network, building that infrastructure may be the ultimate goal. "There's this feeling that all of us are working for a greater good for all the rest of us," says Preston. "And maybe subconsciously we all work harder because we perceive that a failure by one suggests a failure for all."

D.M. Osborne is a senior writer at Inc.

A Fair Shot

The calendars of Web CEOs bristle with Xs designating industry conferences -- Industry Outlook, Demo, NDA, and the like -- where the company leaders can strut their stuff before throngs of well-heeled investors. Now female CEOs have their own dates to reserve: a series of venture fairs collectively called Springboard 2000 that spotlight nascent women-run companies in the life-sciences and technology sectors.

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