Three VCs give their best advice to women entrepreneurs

On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, three venture capitalists share their valuable advice with women entrepreneurs.

Tuesday November 19, 2019 , 2 min Read

Women today are at the helm of big businesses, leveraging tech and raking in crores. But it's still not a level playing field for women entrepreneurs.

They continue to face myriad challenges - biases and societal pressure to be perfect spouses, mothers and bosses. Yet, enterprising women are not disillusioned or disheartened. They are blazing trails with whatever support and resources they have, and making a mark in different fields.

On Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, we asked some venture capitalists (VCs) what advice they had to offer to women entrepreneurs to cut out the noise and keep going. Here's what they had to say.

Roopa Kudva, Managing Director, Omidyar Network

If you are a woman entrepreneur, it means you have already made a big leap. While building a team, it is important to surround yourselves with people who are better than you and yet be comfortable in your own skin. Setbacks are a part of the entrepreneurship journey and resilience in dealing with them sets apart successful entrepreneurs from others.

Harsha Kumar, Partner, Lightspeed India Partners Advisors

After a certain point, relationships matter just as much as hard work does. Women are often too self-reliant and forget that winning never happens alone. That it is the people around us that take us to the top. Invest in your network – that’s where the best hires will come from, where best partners will come from, where the most unique ideas and opportunities will come from!

You cannot have it all! Choose what you want to prioritise. Prioritise it wholeheartedly and manage everything else to ensure that your priority gets the attention it deserves. Don’t kill yourself by trying to be perfect for everyone and everything in your life.

Aditi Gupta, Principal, Investments, Asha Impact

Instead of a quest to be seen equal to male founders, I hope women entrepreneurs celebrate their strengths, whether that's a better understanding of the target segment, ability to build a more diverse super team or just the spirit of never giving up. Be it Glossier, Away, Tala or Mobikwik we now have so many global and Indian examples of successful women entrepreneurs, that if the men don't wake up to the reality of the future being female, then it's really their loss.