
The 2 percent problem: women founders and venture funding
Companies founded solely by women have taken around 2 percent of U.S. venture dollars for a decade, per PitchBook data — the number the industry reports on itself.
Entrepreneurship reports how businesses are built and financed: amounts raised and from whom, equity retained, revenue reached, and the many companies funded by customers rather than investors. Failures are covered beside successes. Written for founders who need the numbers other people leave out of a story.
Entrepreneurship coverage from Heroines.

Companies founded solely by women have taken around 2 percent of U.S. venture dollars for a decade, per PitchBook data — the number the industry reports on itself.

Small-business lending data from 2024 and venture funding data from 2025 show the financing gap for women entrepreneurs closing on one track and staying concentrated on the other.

The leap fails on runway math, not on courage — and the numbers that make it safe are knowable months in advance.

Certification will not sell a bad product, but it opens procurement doors that never post publicly and shortlists that uncertified vendors cannot enter.

Childcare is a market the United States keeps failing to supply, and women are starting businesses inside that gap — with real economics and real constraints.

A pitch is a 20-minute case that a market pays, a team executes and a return is plausible — and the data says preparation matters more for founders getting less benefit of the doubt.