For Shiva Kashalkar, CEO and founder of subscription box startup Green Piñata Toys, an event last Thursday provided her with something she was seeking for a long time: face-to-face introductions with multiple investors.
Kashalkar was among the 64 entrepreneurs who participated in Unpitch, an annual event held in Boston by the New England Venture Capital Association that aims to connect early-stage founders. What made this year's event stand out was that half of the startups in attendance were female-founded and nearly half of the investors were women.
"My experience was better than what I expected it to be because it’s a room full of the most important people you want to meet in the investing arena."
By providing access to dozens of angel investors and venture capitalists, Unpitch helped tackle one of the largest challenges for early-stage founders, especially women. A study by Babson College last year found that all-male teams were four times more likely to receiving funding from venture capital firms than companies with even one woman on the team.
"My experience was better than what I expected it to be because it's a room full of the most important people you want to meet in the investing arena," Kashalkar told BostInno, adding that she was able to set up follow-up meetings with a few investors in the next few months.
While the Unpitch event isn't meant to guarantee funding from participating investors, it is one of multiple efforts by the NEVCA to increase the visibility of women in tech, which continued on Tuesday with news of six new board appointments. With the addition of Nancy Brown of Oak HC/FT, Margarita Chavez of AbbVie Ventures, Colleen Cuffaro of Canaan and Sarah Hodges of Pillar, nearly half of the NEVCA's board is now women — a point made in its press release.
"As we continue to learn about the benefits of diverse leadership - and the reality that it is broadly lacking in our industry - we believe our additions best position the organization for long-term success," Jody Rose, NEVCA's executive director, said in a statement to BostInno.
Rose added that she sees the move as "leading by example" for the region's tech industry: "We are demonstrating that intentionally diversifying is completely consistent with maintaining a commitment to excellence," she said.
A growing body of research supports the idea that diversity is good for business. For instance, First Round Capital found that its female-founded portfolio companies performed 63 percent better than portfolio companies founded by men. Meanwhile, a study by McKinsey in 2015 found that public companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have better returns. Furthermore, a more diverse workforce can help companies avoid embarrassing and offensive mistakes.
Asked about what the NEVCA is doing to boost the visibility of people of color in tech, Rose pointed to the group's Hack.Diversity program, which is placing 37 black and Latino students into 10 Boston tech and healthcare companies this spring.
"Our goal for the program is to radically change the recruiting calculus, then the diversity representation metrics, and ultimately both people's lives and the overall health of the ecosystem," Rose said.
