What Every Female Founder Needs to Know About Her Impact on Our World

Dear Friends,

I recently saw a LinkedIn post where a female-identifying founder shared, “in a world where only 2% of venture funding goes to women, I have received advice to distance myself from any behaviors or activities that would be considered overtly ‘feminine.’”

Unfortunately, this kind of advice isn’t unique to the funding space.

A couple of months ago, a friend overheard me on a business call and afterward, he said to me, “I don’t know how you would get any business. You were giggling like a little girl!”

I know that this type of comment/advice is often coming from genuine care and concern as most of us (women and men) have been conditioned to believe that if we don’t conform to the traditionally “masculine” norms of business and professionalism, we can’t get the funding, the client, or even be considered serious professionals. 

But these norms were originally defined and established before women ever had a real chance to actively participate and have an influence in the professional space.

Basically, these norms and systems were mostly designed by men for men in a different era.

To survive and adapt to these systems, for too long, women have had to conform to these norms, sometimes at the expense of their mental and physical health. And by adapting, we’ve also been inadvertently enabling these systems that were not designed with us in mind. 

We’ve also been made to believe that if we don’t succeed, or don’t get the funding, or the client, or the votes, we are to blame.

Either we didn’t work hard enough or we were trying too hard, or we were too assertive or too accommodating, or we were too perfect or not perfect enough, or we were too “feminine” or too “bossy”. Or maybe, we giggled too much or did not smile enough, and maybe, we used too many exclamation points!

It never ends!

If only 2% of venture funding goes to women, despite women-founded businesses yielding higher revenues than male-founded businesses, then this is a massive system failure, not the failure of women. 

If laughing and savoring the joy of making a genuine human connection is considered “unprofessional”, then it is the professional system and the workplace that is detached from the breadth of emotions and the human experience.

These are urgent calls to redesign and de-bias these systems and for us women to fiercely honor ourselves like never before.

It is through our unapologetic self-representation, standing together, and partnering with allies that we can challenge these systems to finally evolve to ALSO accommodate women, diversity, and the human experience.

No more hiding and dimming ourselves and our “femininity” out of fear of rejection. 

These “rejections” are redirecting us to find and create spaces and opportunities where we are welcomed and embraced.

And as authentic female founders, you can also pave the way by reshaping the world and redesigning the systems through your businesses and leadership.

You are already pioneers and improving our world through your products and services, but your impact goes beyond your business ventures.

With everything you do, you are redesigning our world and redefining what it means to be in business, to be a leader, and to be a professional. In fact, life may intentionally challenge you to innovate new ways of working and running a business to avoid perpetuating the old dysfunctional systems and the status quo.

None of this is to make the journey more difficult for you. Instead, it is to encourage you to create a path that better honors you and works for you, even if it hasn’t been done before and meets the disapproval of others.

If someone doesn’t give you the funding or the business because you dared to be yourself, then walk away with your head held high knowing that money or business was not meant for you. 

In fact, if someone gives you funding or business and expects you to be someone other than who you are or to compromise your values in any way, then that money or relationship would almost certainly suffocate you and limit your growth, power, and impact in the long run.

If you feel a genuine call to serve and birth your idea into this world, please trust that the right resources, the funding, and the teachers and guides will come to you as you stay aligned with who you are and your purpose.

I’m so incredibly proud of the founder who shared her post and did not heed the “limit your femininity” advice and decided to represent and show up as herself.

Let's all commit to fiercely being ourselves and refusing to settle for a world that expects us to be any less!

The more we all step into our authentic way of being, the more the world will have to transform through and around us.

So, please keep being YOU and shining your light in a way that honors you.

The world needs you to be YOU - now more than ever!

With love and solidarity,

Maliheh