My experience as a female founder hoping to secure venture capital (VC) funding can be summed up in one anecdote: I was at lunch with a hedge fund guy. He polished off the sample can of my Sang Vietnamese Coffee. We talked through the business fundamentals, and he smiled and nodded at every juncture. Then he said, “Lan, investing in women hasn’t panned out for me.”

This investor had watched numerous male entrepreneurs go under—and yet he continued to invest in them. The fact that a few failed attempts by women entrepreneurs were being used to paint an entire gender with a broad brush is like blaming a single raindrop for a flood. But that’s what you’re up against when you’re a female founder. READ MORE