Women in Tech(nori)

For those of you who were at Technori pitch last night --or perhaps you caught some of the social media buzz following the event-- we hope you weren’t distracted by the chatter surrounding the controversial remarks directed at yours truly. To fill everyone in, the presenter following our pitch referred to us as “hot girls in yoga pants” (for the record, we were wearing black skinny jeans), and an audience member called foul during the presenter’s Q&A.

Let’s discuss: Men might not be used to seeing female-led companies own the tech stage, given that while women own 40% of the private businesses in the United States (Center for Women’s Business Research), they create only 8% of the venture-backed tech start-ups (Astia). Not to mention, when it comes to critical first-year funding, women received about 80% less capital than men according to 2012 research conducted by the Kauffman Foundation.

These numbers are not only disappointing, they translate into missed opportunity. According to a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, tech companies led by women are more capital efficient and have 35% higher ROI overall than companies owned by men.

But the tide is changing, and Chicago should be proud of its role in the rise of women in tech.  28% of 1871’s companies are headed by women (Blackline).  And we are proud to know some of Chicago’s incredible female tech entrepreneurs. Keep up the good work Cheeky Chicago, Matchist, Pretty Quick, Heirlume, ZipFit, Brideside, Project Fixup and cheers to the dozens of other female-led businesses in our fine city.

The bottom line: We are incredibly excited to have won Technori pitch last night! It was great to hear the audience recognize the potential of the marketplace we’ve created for in-home beauty service delivery. Thank you to Technori for inviting us to present, for allowing us to share the stage with wildly talented entrepreneurs, and for hosting a fantastic event. 

We’re going to go put on our yoga pants and take a victory lap.