Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder and chief executive of Pipeline Academy, an angel investing boot camp for women, said the only way more women and minorities will gain funding is if more women and minorities become investors.
"The stats of women VC partners have declined (recently)," she told Press: Here. "Those with women VC partners invest in more women entrepreneurs."
Noguera said that about 80 women have graduated from her academy: entrepreneurs, tech startup employees, board members of family foundations or stay-at-home moms who want a flexible schedule. She said she tries to create a diverse group of women and focuses on group learning.
"The first six months of a startup's life, four out of five companies don't make it," she said. "We have over 10 companies invested and still running. that's 100 percent."
Both men and women will more often invest in male presenters than female ones, but Noguera said that bias is based on stereotypes -- especially in the tech industry.
Noguera said she started when female colleagues of hers were having a hard time finding funding as social entrepreneurs. "We want to fund women doing well and doing good," she said, but she also states that profit isn't out of the picture. "Who's to say that they are mutually exclusive?"
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