On Monday, I spoke at a panel on term sheet negotiation for the Women's Technology Cluster in San Francisco. During the post-panel chitchat, I learned from WTC CEO Jennifer McFarlane that in 2004, they honored a few venture firms that had each invested in four women entrepreneurs. This represented a huge stride in funding for women entrepreneurs, and was celebrated.
In talking to Jennifer, it occurred to me that I was taking funding diversity for granted at Omidyar Network. When I mentioned that our team had funded six female startup founders (and ten female-led nonprofits) this year, she and the other WTC staff were pleasantly shocked.
So....let me show off a little and point you to some of the great women entrepreneurs that Omidyar Network funded this year. (Unfortunately, there's one still being stealthy so I can't post her actual info, and yet another that I can't name since it is announcing this month and I don't want to have my chops busted. I'll come back and name those names after they have done their splashy announcements.)
2005 Venture Investments:
- Backfence - CEO/Founder: Susan DeFife
- Platial - CEO/Founder: Di-Ann Eisnor
- Spikesource - CEO/Founder: Kim Polese
- Voxiva - EVP/Founder: Pamela Johnson
- Wikia – VP/Founder: Angela Beesley
- World of Good - CEO/Founder: Priya Haji
(This is 6 startups out of 19 this year.)
2005 Nonprofit Grants:
- Ashoka – President: Sushitma Ghosh
- Benetech – Director: Janice Carter
- Donors Choose – Founder: Ilana Goldman
- Global Giving – Founder: Mari Kuraishi
- Institute for Justice – Director: Beth Stevens
- KickStart (FKA ApproTEC) - Director: Tracy Pettengill
- Public Radio International – COO: Debra May Hughes
- Sevak Solutions – President/Founder: Laura Frederick
- Unitus – Vice President: Kate Cochran
- Witness – Executive Director: Gillian Caldwell
(This is 10 nonprofits out of 21 this year.)
I was glad to be reminded of our team's neutrality when it comes to color, gender, nationality, etc. Funding diversity isn't something that our team has sought, but maybe the social networking theory is true: when your investment team has diversity (see my previous post about Omidyar XX), so does your investment portfolio. 'Nuff said.
****NOTE: I updated this post on 3/9/06 with the real name for one of the two stealth companies (Platial)...and again on 3/28/06 with the real name for the final 2005 stealth company (Wikia).
Tags: christine herron spacejockeys technology omidyar network technology cluster women technology society wikia platial backfence world of good spikesource voxiva venture capital
