The first quarter in 2023 may have performed better than economists predicted, but for women founders, it was still a loss. According to PitchBook, companies with all women-founded teams raised a mere 2.1%, of the estimated $37 billion invested in US startups. 

As a Vancouver-based woman founder, who raised a pre-seed round at this time, I remained optimistic that the proof of our impact was changing the funding imbalance, but as we enter 2024, I have to admit, I’m not so sure.

Despite the data that shows companies with gender diversity perform better, women are still at a disadvantage when it comes to getting funding. In Canada alone, women-founded start-ups with a valuation of more than $1B US have almost doubled since 2019. Yet, policy changes, dedicated funds and increased awareness around gender bias have only helped curb overt discrimination. The battle women face for trust and respect in pitch rooms continues in more subtle ways.

As we start the new year, I want to focus less on the obstacles women founders face in raising funds and more on the actions we can take to combat them. Here are three ways women founders can help overcome the biases they face when accessing capital.

Turn Prevention Questions Into Promotion 

At a recent work retreat I had the privilege of sitting in on a talk by Dr. Laura Huang, a professor of management and organizational dynamics.

Through her research, Huang found when it comes to accessing capital, women founders are frequently asked “prevention” questions from potential investors — this line of questioning revolves around how a founder is going to prevent their company from losing. For example, women are frequently asked how they will keep costs level so an organization remains profitable or how they will maintain rates of customer acquisition.

While these seem like logical questions for any investor to ask, they differ from the “promotion” line of questioning male founders are typically asked such as, what new markets they are going to expand into or what approach they will take to M&A. 

Research shows founders who focus on answering “promotion” questions go on to receive up to seven times more funding than those who engage in dialogue around “prevention.” 

Knowing prevention questions are more likely to come our way, as women founders we can combat this bias by answering prevention questions head on, then pivoting to focus on the future growth opportunities of our companies.