Black women and men tech entrepreneurs agree: Black women shoulder additional burdens on their path to success. Both genders face difficulties in accessing venture capital funding, including networking gaps and less access to personal investment due to racial wealth gaps. Alicia Sheares’ research on Black tech entrepreneurship in Atlanta and Silicon Valley identifies additional barriers faced by Black women in the field due to negative assumptions about their abilities, signals that they do not belong, sexual advances, and distractions relating to their appearance and attractiveness. These challenges for Black women are distinct from those reported by Black men and by white women. Presenting her research at a recent meeting of the Clayman Institute faculty research fellows, Sheares, assistant professor in the management science and engineering department, shared some contextual insight on gender and entrepreneurship from existing scholarship. Research has found that many women with children anticipate that corporate careers would limit their advancement, flexibility, or access to desirable projects, leading them to seek more career autonomy through entrepreneurship. However, funding access for women remains quite low, with only about 4% of venture capital funding going to all-women teams, and less than 1% going to Black women.For her larger project, Sheares studies the impact of place on entrepreneurship, focusing on the ecosystem of opportunities for Black tech entrepreneurs in Atlanta and Silicon Valley. She designed a study “really trying to understand the variety of experiences a Black technologist might have and how place affects those experiences,” theorizing that in the tech world, race and place are co-constituted. The research included 96 semi-structured interviews with Black technologists: 46 in Silicon Valley, 42 in Atlanta, and eight with stakeholders. Most participants were college-educated men, non-immigrant, and full-time workers. She also spent 100 hours participating in observation at conferences, pitch competitions, and networking events, as well as analyzing content in media reports. She found that common barriers for Black technologists typically fell into the categories of financing, networks, and racial fit. For her presentation to the Clayman Institute, Sheares dug into her research on Black women. Those she interviewed reported that reactions to their appearance often emerged in professional settings. Studies have shown that individuals who rate highly on personal attractiveness can be more successful, but appearance can be a major distraction as well. One interviewee, Sherell, endured repeated comments about her head shot on the first slide of a pitch meeting to potential investors. One man commented in front of a full room that she was even more beautiful in person and should get new head shots, she said. While she tried to move forward with the presentation, the man “would not let it rest,” and kept circling back to comments about her appearance. “Moments like this communicated to Black women that they were outsiders in the industry, and that their ideas and aspirations came second to their looks,” Sheares said.The Black women she interviewed made clear that they “constantly needed to be on alert for advances from investors,” most of whom were white and male. Trina, a woman with tech industry experience, partnered with a friend to make a prototype for an agriculture startup. Her fundraising efforts were disrupted by inappropriate advances from a potential investor, a white man who was “oddly complimentary” and “oddly nice.” Because of the way he talked to her, when he invited her out for pizza, she accepted the invitation but also brought a friend along. She sensed his interest in “meeting” was not business-related; he did not invest, and she never heard from him again. Trina found the experience “deeply troubling”; it became hard to move forward and judge the motives of potential investors. Sheares said, “This was something that Black women often had to confront, but not something that Black men in my sample had discussed.”While Black men often acknowledged the women’s challenges, they sometimes struggled to step forward as allies in an environment that remains difficult and competitive for them as well. Jordan, a Black man interviewee, admitted readily that “women have a more difficult time,” acknowledging patriarchal realities and noting that the numbers show funding success remains low for Black women entrepreneurs. Conrad, a Black man in a powerful position, recalled that he set a meeting to hear a pitch from an attractive Black woman, but then cancelled it as he admitted to himself he was not interested in funding her project. He said he realized how much time she must waste, scheduling meetings with men who had ulterior motives, while he had no need to question that investors met with him to discuss business. “That’s a problem that I never have to face,” he said.Women interviewees shared numerous experiences of being treated as outsiders in the tech funding world. Tonya, who was pitching a product in the media space, reported showing up with her partners, a white man and a Black man, for a repeat meeting with a firm. A new venture capitalist was present, and Tonya was very confused when he asked her, “What do you do here?” She was the CEO, and her photo was all over the website and briefing materials, so he clearly had not prepared for the meeting. “Even though she’s the CEO of the company, even though it’s her idea, even though she’s about to pitch it to him, it was inconceivable that she could be one of the founders, and that was not something the V.C. had said to either of her co-founders,” Sheares said.Several women interviewed by Sheares reported that when these disturbing incidents happened, they didn’t feel they had much choice but to continue on with their business, difficult as it might be in the moment. For Black women, who are so underrepresented in these spaces, being made to feel like an outsider further complicates the many challenges of making it as a tech entrepreneur.



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