Launching While Female: Smashing the System That Holds Women Entrepreneurs Back

An expose of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and a road map for a more inclusive and economically successful future for us all

A rallying cry that exposes the obstacles that women and non-binary entrepreneurs face in the business world and a roadmap for a more inclusive and economically successful future

Journalist and professor Susanne Althoff exposes the ways in which the current start-up paradigm was engineered by and for white men, and the ways in which women, non-binary, and trans folks–especially those who are non-white–face impossible barriers to landing funding from venture capitalists to make their companies viable. Through interviews with over 100 founders of small start-ups, Althoff paints a picture of a systemically rigged start-up culture. She tackles the gendered perceptions of innovation and who is allowed to play; for example, why women are called mompreneurs rather than business women and why only 18 Black women founders of companies have been able to break the $1 million threshold for funding … ever.

Althoff provides a way forward, providing proof that companies started by women are a boon to society and the economy, and offering advice for non-male people starting their own companies.