Cheryl Gentry received a $500,000 capital commitment from a venture capital fund within four months of launching a tech event platform called Onsite Planner. However, it’s been 14 months and the lady entrepreneur has not received the funds because she has yet to find a match.
“We got a commitment early on but the caveat was to find an investor who will match funding and this is where the challenge has been,” Gentry told Financial Advisor magazine. “My financial advisor is integral in creating a package and explaining the finances to me because when you go into these meetings with venture capitalists, they want to hear the specifics from the founder.”
Gentry is among the 68% of women business owners who say they face greater challenges than their male counterparts when it comes to accessing capital for their start ups, according to the 2018 Bank of America Women Business Owner Spotlight, an annual study.
“Many times, women are more hesitant to ask for capital,” said Sharon Miller, Bank of America’s managing director, head of small business. “Financial advisors can help by getting up to speed on how to access capital and putting their small business owner clients in touch with the right people who can provide the right advice.”
Miller announced the study results on the 51st floor of the midtown-based Bank of America Tower in Manhattan yesterday as part of a panel discussion that also featured Gentry, Splendid Spoon Founder Nicole Centeno and NBC TODAY show contributor Lilliana Vazquez.
“Access to capital is a constraint,” Centeno told an audience of some 200 women. “The apprehension women feel is real but it’s changing because there are more women at the top to look up to.”
Put yourself on payroll, outsource your CFO, allow financial advisors to make decisions and determine which risk will yield the best reward were among Centeno and Gentry’s tidbits of advice to women who hope to one day launch their own business.
“The biggest barrier has been my own attitudes and perceptions,” said Centeno who recently secured an undisclosed amount of series A financing.
Some 61% of women entrepreneurs say it’s more difficult for them to get their business off the ground than it is for male business owners but despite this, a strong majority believe conditions for women-owned businesses to start up and succeed have gotten better over the long term with 84% reporting improvements in the last ten years.
To assist, Bank of America is launching a 12 week certification course in November called the Bank of America Institute for Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell University.