Journalist and professor Susanne Althoff investigates the obstacles women and nonbinary entrepreneurs — especially those of color — face when launching, funding, and growing their companies, obstacles that persist because the current start-up world was engineered by and for white men.
Through interviews with over a hundred founders across the country and in all industries, Althoff paints a picture of an entrepreneurial system rife with bias and discrimination, where women receive less than 3 percent of this country’s venture capital, struggle to find mentors in the wake of #MeToo, and are dismissed as “mompreneurs.”
The effects of this unequal system — a weaker economy, fewer jobs, less innovation — are felt by all of us, and Althoff explains how more equitable structures in business and entrepreneurship will benefit all people, not just those hoping to fund a startup.
By exploring some of the practical ways we can open the entrepreneurial system to everyone, Althoff provides a rallying cry and a way forward for women entrepreneurs and their allies, showing that change is urgent and within our reach.
