1. Women becoming entrepreneurs -- No glass ceilings here -- An entrepreneurial venture begins -- Venture growth is a choice -- Women-led ventures -- Slow to grow -- Are there changes in the offing? -- Private equity : the last big hurdle -- Angel investing -- Venture capital -- The hurdle analogy -- The plan for this book -- Notes -- 2. Women entrepreneurs : pathways and challenges -- The entrepreneur -- Aspirations and goals -- Capabilities -- Strategic choices -- The venture concept -- Industry -- Resources -- Hurdles to overcome -- Motives, aspirations, and commitment -- Human capital -- Financial knowledge and business savvy -- Growth orientation and strategies -- Social capital and social networks -- Building a management team -- Funding connections -- Higher hurdles for women -- Why are the hurdles higher? -- Parents -- Peers -- education -- Media -- Work experience -- Winning the race for success -- Notes -- 3. Funding sources for businesses on the "grow" -- Money and the start-up process -- Growth capital versus start-up funds -- A strategic approach -- Bootstrap financing -- Credit -- Institutional debt -- Equity -- Sources of equity capital -- Angel investing -- Government-supported investments -- Hybrids : government-supported venture capital -- Venture capital -- Notes -- 4. Motives, aspirations, and commitment -- The entrepreneurial choice -- Motives for entrepreneurship -- Women's aspirations contrast with entrepreneurial reality -- Family role expectations -- Women's self-expression leads to perceptions -- Truths and realities -- Moving beyond the expectations -- Summary -- Notes -- 5. Women and human capital -- What do resource providers look for? -- Assumptions about women entrepreneurs -- Sorting fact from fiction -- Education -- Experience -- Overcoming the hurdle -- Assessing your education and experience -- Enhancing your human capital -- School -- Training -- Work experience -- Summary -- Notes -- 6. Financial knowledge and business savvy -- Challenges built into the system -- Do women underinvest in their businesses? -- Do women have the requisite financial knowledge, skills, and experience? -- Separating the high potential, high performers from the rest -- The springboard survey : a study of women entrepreneurs leading high-potential enterprises -- What can women do to clear the financing hurdles? -- To overcome any shortfalls in initial funding -- To demonstrate financial knowledge and management savvy -- To overcome concerns about ability to manage risk -- Notes.
7. Growth orientation and strategies -- Are women-owned firms smaller? -- Why are women-owned firms smaller? -- Why are women-led ventures perceived differently? -- Women aren't serious about growth -- Women are better at low-tech service ventures -- The new generation of women entrepreneurs -- Strategies for growth -- Ambitious strategy -- Deliberate strategy -- Variable strategy -- Maintenance strategy -- Overcoming the high hurdles -- Summary -- Notes -- 8. Building useful networks and cashing in on social capital -- Are women unplugged from the right networks? -- Formal networks -- Informal networks -- Benefits of networks -- Network boundaries and barriers -- The case for homogeneous networks -- The case for heterogeneity -- Social capital : the currency of network exchange -- Reputation and trust -- Spending social capital within a network -- Some networks are like foreign countries -- Women have diverse networks -- Women benefit from strategic sponsors -- Creating effective networks -- Notes -- 9. Women building management teams -- Perceptions about women -- Women don't want to share ownership -- Women don't recognize the types of people needed -- Women are outside the networks -- Women just don't have what it takes to lead a growth venture -- Fact and fiction about women and teams -- Building a high-potential team -- Challenges in team formation -- Summary -- Notes -- 10. Networking for venture capital -- A brief history of venture capital in the United States -- Tracing the roots of the industry -- The context of growth -- Understanding the investment process -- Risks and rewards of venture capital financing -- The cultural context for the U.S. venture capital industry -- Venture capital cycles -- Building partnerships, professional staffing -- The venture capital community today -- Women in the venture capital industry -- The pioneers -- Implications -- Getting access to venture capital investors -- A connection or a disconnect? -- Missing links between women entrepreneurs and venture capitalists -- Do you know the right people? -- Getting connected -- Do they know you? -- Model misfits -- Getting to yes -- Can women venture capitalists change the equation? -- The research process -- Performance review -- What next? -- What can you do to change things? -- Investigate organizations that provide support -- Build entrepreneurial connections now -- Do additional venture capital research and make contact -- Notes -- 11. In conclusion -- Note.
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"Starting, funding, and growing a new venture are significant challenges for every entrepreneur. For women, the hurdles are even higher, due to widely held perceptions about them, their capabilities, and their businesses. Now, five leading experts on women entrepreneurs offer systematic solutions to the challenges, offering timely advice to women dedicated to achieving success and claiming the rewards." "Clearing the Hurdles draws on five years of original research, performed as part of the Diana Project - a major initiative that explores ways women grow business."--Jacket.