Alfalfa and Spanky Would Fit Right In With Today's VC Firms
If you had to guess, what percentage of the investing partners at the 50 most active U.S. venture firms are female? 10%, 15%, 25%? It’s just 5%, according to research by Cynthia Padnos at Illuminate Ventures, one of the five female VCs Tom Stein writes about in this month’s cover story for Venture Capital Journal. (Subscribers can read the story here). Despite that shocking statistic, none of the women Stein spoke with complained about sexism. In fact, Theresia Gouw Ranzetta of Accel Partners says the venture business is actually a breath of fresh air compared to her first job as a design engineer at a large carmaker. She was just one of a handful of women in a building with about 1,000 engineers, and business lunches typically took place at a local strip club. “Nothing fazes me after that,” Ranzetta said.
