When I started my career I was often the only woman in the room. When I was trying to raise capital for Clearco on Wall Street I got 199 “Nos”, mostly all from male bankers and venture capitalists. I even had one male investment banker say to me “Ma’am, you don’t understand credit. You’re giving small businesses capital with no personal guarantees”. Which is exactly what I wanted to do. So it was a lonely place.
Today, it can still feel that way for women in FinTech. It can feel overwhelming starting a business as a female founder, with the odds still stacked against you. To get ahead, these are my three lessons:
1. Start now and take action
The best advice I can give to any entrepreneur is to “start now”. It’s all too easy to get trapped in a cycle of waiting for the perfect time to start a business – but that doesn’t exist. You need to jump in and get the ball rolling.
Many people are held back by worrying. But worrying doesn’t solve a problem, the only thing that solves a problem is an action. Worrying is the opposite of action: it’s allowing the brain to fester and create narratives and catastrophise. It’s normal to worry and we all do it, but it’s not helpful. It’s one thing I constantly have to keep in check for myself.
2. Be genuine and responsible
Great leaders are genuine, authentic and deeply responsible. That sounds very easy when you say it out loud. But it’s so hard in reality. Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face. It’s pretty easy to see blame get spread around, to say “I told you guys what to do – you didn’t do it”. It’s pretty easy to not take responsibility for what you did, and really easy to then start making up narratives in your own mind.
And all of that makes you less genuine and less responsible. Instead you need to sit back and ask yourself: “What was the role that I played in this disaster? How do I teach my team what to do? How do we all collectively own this so it becomes an organisational learning and not something we continuously repeat?”
That’s when things get really juicy, but those are the hard bits.
3. Find a strong mentor
A single mentor relationship can change your whole life. One of my great mentors and a woman who has inspired me is Ruma Bose, Clearco’s Chief Growth Officer. We first met after someone suggested a connection on Facebook. Our first conversation – only scheduled for 20 minutes – actually lasted for three hours.
After years of being a mentor to me personally, and being a strategic advisor for Clearco in its early days, I convinced Ruma to come on board and join the company in early 2021. In her time at Clearco she has mapped out our strategy to grow outside of the US and Canada and has grown a three-person team to almost 300 people, with more than $250 million US in advances over the last eleven months.
Getting a foot in the door as a female entrepreneur and staking your claim for your business is tough. But women are extraordinary entrepreneurs and amazing innovators and I feel positive that we are making breakthroughs to help #breakthebias and create a new generation of strong female leaders.
