Dealing with Venturesplaining

Female founders are often seen by venture capitalists as less experienced than their male counterparts, even with the same number of years working in an industry.

This unconscious bias can show up directly in the way investors speak to female founders. It’s a common complaint among women seeking funding that male investors will patronisingly explain to you how your industry or business works, or how your customers think and feel – when the reality is that you know significantly more about this than they do. They assume you don’t understand because you’re a woman; they talk at you, don’t ask questions, don’t listen or show real interest in your opinions.

This insidious (and incredibly annoying) behaviour displayed by many men in the venture industry – especially those who believe themselves to be in a position of power – is a term we have coined: ‘venturesplaining’. You’ll probably recognise it as a derivation of ‘mansplaining’, a concept outlined by feminist writer Rebecca Solnit, who wrote an essay on how ‘men explain things to me’ in 2008.

Why is venturesplaining such a problem?

The dangerous outcome of venturesplaining is that female founders can leave the interaction feeling ‘less than’, with their skills and experience minimised, confidence chipped and questioning their own expertise. This perpetuates the problem of female founders’ lack in confidence and struggle to raise investment.

Three tips to deal with Venturesplaining

How we deal with these challenges is important. When we feel threatened, our reaction might be one of flight, fight or freeze. But becoming aggressive or defensive, running out of the room or doing nothing are unlikely to serve us well in this situation – and might perpetuate the old investor world viewpoint that women ‘aren’t really up to it’.

So we must deal with challenges in a productive way, using your intelligence and smarts to open the investor’s eyes to what you have to offer as a female founder – and perhaps to their own prejudices in the process.

Here are some tactics which can be very effective at stopping venturesplaining in its tracks, and switch the focus back to you:

Challenge their expertise with grace. For example, you might say: ‘Thanks for your views. Could you tell me more about your specific experience in this area that’s led you to think that?’

Step in and tell them why you’re qualified, with a statement such as: ‘I wonder if I could stop you there? I’d really like to share with you some more about my experience on this issue.’

Use humour to switch it up in a non-aggressive way, with a gentle prod such as: ‘Have you heard of the term ‘mansplaining’? I kind of feel like I might have been mansplained to a little just then! I wonder, could I tell you more about what I’ve learned about this area over my years working on this?’ (Note that this approach is only for the brave! It needs to be done with the right level of cheekiness, not to rile the other party.)

Always make sure you strongly emphasise your credibility and knowledge. Blowing our own trumpet may not come naturally to all of us, and many female founders worry about coming across as too arrogant. There’s no need to feel that way, as long as you’re speaking about yourself in a genuine, authentic manner – this is not the time to hide your light under a bushel. As you showcase what you’re really made of, the chances are you’ll win them over.

And if you don’t? Well, it’s their loss. Quite frankly, if this is how a person makes you feel in an initial meeting, do you really want them on board in your business?

Smile, nod your head and swiftly leave!