Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch discussed improving conditions for female business owners statewide during a roundtable discussion with a group of female entrepreneurs Wednesday.
The forum, a partnership between the Doyenne Group and American Family Insurance, discussed issues ranging from the availability of funding to the vast disparity between male and female-led startups.
“What can we do as a state to encourage women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams?“ Kleefisch asked. “We want to ensure that Wisconsin is competitive when it comes to women starting small businesses and we want everyone to succeed and be at the table.”
One of the key topics discussed was how female entrepreneurs can secure capital for their projects.
Lorrie Heinemann, former secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and vice president of the BrightStar Foundation, a group which funds early stage start ups, said a major problem is that women are underrepresented in the financial sector.
“If you take a look at the website of the vast majority of venture capital firms, it’s all white males,” she said, adding only one in every ten female entrepreneurs can secure funding for their projects. “Women don’t have the power at the bank level and the venture level because people want to take the risk on people who look like themselves.”
Kleefisch predicts the topics discussed will be important policy issues when the state Legislature reconvenes in January.
“This is definitely something that will come up because it deals with job creation,” she said. “We need to make sure our entrepreneurs have access to capital.”
Claire Matejka, founder of the home organizing company Life: Organized, sees events like the roundtable as important for helping entrepreneurs like herself.
“I think there are a lot of issues that relate to women and are coming up in my business but there is a lot of brainstorming going on that is beneficial,” Matejka said. “I look forward to seeing more of these events in the future to help us move forward with our businesses.”
This article was updated 11/21 to reflect that the Madison Community Foundation did not sponsor the event with the Doyenne Group and American Family Insurance.
