Startup diversity still has some way to go…

Over 50% of startups have no female senior leadership representation whatsoever…research carried out by Silican Valley Bank shows with only one in four startups having a woman on the founding team.

Yet a study by Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge found that for every dollar of investment, female-led startups generated a 78% ROI, while male founders generated only 31%. This is a huge difference and one that should matter to any investor, male or female.

If we look more closely at companies with higher degrees of diversity, they tend to be more innovative and perform better financially, diversity is as we know better for business.

And while venture funding to Black startup entreprenuers in the U.S remains extremely low, Crunchbase numbers show a significant uplift this past year with a more than fourfold increase compared to the same time frame last year.

According to Olivia Greenburg, writing in startups magazine, the tech sector as a whole struggles with its gender make-up, with females constituting less than 20% of the UK tech workforce, and only 5% of senior roles being held by women. That said, the same article highlights the growth in healthtech and edtech for female entrepreuners.

In recent weeks Blackstone announced they had appointed a Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Devin Glenn who secured the appointment will be working on implementing initiatives that will help Blackstone achieve a more diverse and inclusive workplace internally and among its portfolio companies, as thier workplace diversity practice is targeting at least one-third diverse representation on portfolio company boards for new investments in the U.S. and Europe.

Whilst increases in investment is critical for startup diversity, executive search firms and recruitment practices also need serious consideration. Attraction of diverse talent requires a well thought out and alternative approach to outdated recruitment and onboarding initiatives, with C-suite leaders, founders, private equity and venture capital organisation seeing a lack of under represented talent making it to a long or shortlist presented by their existing search firms, despite a request for a diverse shortlist.

If diversity within your startup or senior leadership team is something of importance to you, then drop me a note, as I might be able to help.

Michelle Ansell is a Managing Partner at Douglas Jackson, a high-end retained executive search firm exclusively focused on consumer centric business, delivering high performance, diverse, impactful leadership in digitally native and digitally led brands. Tel: 0345 6209720 michelle@douglas-jackson.com