A conference bringing together the next generation of female venture capital leaders is coming to the Boston area.
The inaugural Girls Into VC 2023 Summit will take place on November 12 in Cambridge. Girls Into VC is an organization started by Isabella Mandis, a student at Harvard University, in late 2022 to bring more young women into venture capital. The group now has 3,000 members around the world. Girls Into VC members and the public are invited to attend the summit.
A Harvard Kennedy School report found that women make up about 11% of investing partners at VC firms in the U.S. Around 13% of venture capital dollars go to startups with a woman on the founding team.
A student-run organization
Mandis has long been interested in entrepreneurship and worked at startups in high school and joined the Harvard undergraduate Venture Capital Group. But when speaking with female classmates, Mandis said she found most knew about fields like banking and consulting, but not venture capital.
The night before her finals last year, Mandis went on LinkedIn and put up an online form. She asked those who were interested in connecting with more women in venture capital to get in touch. In 24 hours, she had more than 100 LinkedIn messages and her post had racked up 10,000 views.
Since then, Mandis has grown Girls Into VC (formerly known as Girls Who VC) into an organization and built a community. Mandis said they’ve hosted Zoom events, sent out newsletters, recorded podcasts and launched mentorship programs.
Mandis said their members include women in the industry and those aspiring to entire venture capital or startups. So far, membership to Girls Into VC and everything it produces has been free, Mandis said.
A new type of VC summit
Mandis said the Girls Into VC 2023 Summit will be a space for women and allies who want to reshape the entrepreneurship and venture capital landscapes. She hopes attendees walk away with resources to break into the industry and new mentors and peers from diverse backgrounds.
“This is really the first event which we’re bringing together people in person. We’re spread out. We have people all across the world,” Mandis said.
The summit will also include a networking session and a pitch competition where attendees can either participate or listen to new startups’ ideas.
Mandis said confirmed speakers include Abigail Risse of Hyperplane, Aidan Kittredge of Techstars Boston, Melissa Li of the Dorm Room Fund and Amber Yang of Bloomberg Beta.
“I’m really excited to just bring everyone together in a room, look around, see other women around them and feel inspired to do that,” Mandis said.
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