LA Catalyst — “LA CAT” for short — will host a May 24 roundtable on the subject of angel investing.
The meeting will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will be held in Briefing Room below the Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
Angel investing is a hot topic in Silicon Beach — and just about everywhere, really — as the entrepreneurial boom continues unabated.
The Apple Store Briefing Room offers a big electronic board for presentations, a big table and several chairs. Nibbles, water and soft drinks are available.
But the room isn’t that big, and organizers urge those who want to attend to sign up quickly. Those who wish to go should sign up here.
At the last LA Catalyst meeting, discussion leaders tackled the issue of gender inequality in the tech space.
Roundtable panelists included Alyse Killeen, Kevin Lew, Mari Bower, Nancy Pearlman, Rob Kornegay and Tracey Freed.
Statistics provided on the big electronic board showed that companies with females in the management team often do better than all-male teams; additional statistics indicated female-led startups are less likely to get funded than all-male teams.
Speakers explored many possible reasons for this seeming paradox: upbringing; education; lack of mentoring; men feeling threatened by strong female leaders; female insecurities related to asserting themselves; and women choosing to start businesses that target women (and that male investors don’t appreciate or understand)
According to some in the room, things are changing. Rob Kornegay of Wilson Sonsini (a law firm that specializes in the tech space) said a perfectly well-qualified colleague in the firm didn’t make partner several years ago and she eventually left.
Today the firm has female partners.
Tracey Freed, another attorney in the entertainment field, said she had an excellent working relationship with a male mentor early in her career.
Colleagues at the time snarkily suggested she received favoritism from the boss because she was “pretty.”
This led to an interesting conversation, moderated by Sonya Sepahban and Leslie Huynh, about the various hypotheses surrounding why women are underrepresented in the start-up ecosystem, and real-time discussion of actionable solutions.
Several proactive recommendations were proposed by the panelists: get more women involved in investing; educate the investing community about real data (women-led businesses often do well); promote successful role models; offer tax incentives and policies that encourage investing in women-led businesses; increase mentorship and peer networking; broaden female founder networks; and “get creative” (think “tiramisu”).
Perhaps the most important piece of advice: “Be yourself.”
