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“It's a little bit harder to explain the market opportunities to men, who don’t consume beauty [products],” Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna recalls of the early days of her startup, when she had to make presentations after presentations to prospective venture capitalists. A beauty products subscription service, Birchbox lets users create personal profiles on the website and receive a customized box of samples every month. To help potential investors see the allure of Birchbox, Barna would instead explain that its business model could work in other sectors.
An example that she would use was electronics. “Sometimes that was when the guys like, the light bulbs turn on,” Barna told the audience while speaking on a panel of three female venture capitalists at FORBES’ Under 30 Summit. But the idea resonated instantly with some female investors. “This is ridiculous, the beauty market is massive,” one told Barna. “Why are you telling me it can be extended into some other area?”
Breaking venture capital’s bro culture panel at the Forbes Under 30 Summit, moderated by Forbes'... [+]
Birchbox eventually became a hit, spurring on a cottage industry of box subscription services. The firm now sells full-sized beauty products, and opened its first brick and mortar store in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo district in 2014. The company, which Barna cofounded with her Harvard Business School friend Katia Beauchamp in 2010, is now valued at over $500 million and has over a million subscribers.
In 2015, Barna stepped down as the co-CEO of Birchbox to join First Round Capital, after dabbling in venture capital as an angel investor. In this male-dominated space -- only 8% of the senior investing teams at the top 71 VC firms are female -- Barna says that men too have to speak out to change the status quo. “[You need the male VCs] to be saying that the American demographics are changing, that the next Steve Jobs will probably not be a white man,” says Barna.
Beth Ferreira, the former chief operating officer of e-commerce company Fab.com and a managing partner at New York-based VC firm WME Ventures, concurs that it’ll take a team effort to increase diversity. “The face of venture capital is changing,” she says, “and the firms that don’t end up adding diversity, they‘re going to fall behind.”
One obstacle is that the road to the top in venture capital tend to be an unusual path. Unlike a law firm or an investment bank, where there is a clear ladder to the top, some seed firms don’t even have junior positions, says Barna. And in most instances, seed investing is a long term venture, making a young VC’s track record difficult to discern, says Clara Sieg, a FORBES 30 Under 30 member and a partner at Revolution Ventures.
Therefore, initiatives to right the gender imbalance needs to go back further, such as college VC programs that allow students to invest in other students’ startups. Perhaps more importantly, executives should encourage women to become an integral part of the business. “If you’re a bigwig at your company, or your seed firm… When you see a woman [in the boardroom], make sure that woman is speaking, ” Ferreira says.
Barna thinks that companies can go one step further. “Sometimes women speak, but they aren’t giving credit,” she says. Instead, a manager can say, “I really like Beth [Ferreira]’s idea,” specifically using her name and giving credit to the contribution that she made, says Barna.
Lastly, make sure the women in your life is aware of her capabilities. “I don’t think enough women are told that they’d be fantastic founder,” Barna says. “A lot of men or boys are [asked], when are you going to start your own business?” Yet many women don’t get the same encouragement. “ Tweet at her, and text her and say, I believe you’ll be a great founder one day, let me know how I can support you ,” Barna advises.
