Women and senior talent in the entrepreneurial world

A few weeks ago, we shared data on the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem evolution, which was based on the Entrepreneurship Map 2019. The latter was issued by Spain Startup-South Summit 2019 and there was a clear conclusion: the Spanish startup ecosystem is experiencing a maturing phase. 

The same data revealed two relevant aspects which could negatively affect the startup ecosystem: The presence of women and senior talent (over 45 years old) are still insufficient in the entrepreneurial world. 

Some key points about female presence are: 

• Women represent 51% of the Spanish population but only 19% of females in Spain (22% in 2018) make the leap to entrepreneurship. This small percentage is higher than the European average (17%) but lower than the average at a global scale (27%). 

• 39% of startups in Spain have at least one female entrepreneur among their founding team. That percentage is 36% in Europe and 50% in the rest of the world. 

• When studying the way in which men and women address entrepreneurship, 62% of female entrepreneurs prefer to take the leap solo while only 26% of male entrepreneurs make the same decision. All-female teams are practically non-existent. 

• Women prefer to start business ventures in areas such as Health, Culture, Robotics, and the Tertiary Sector. Men prefer to invest in Robotics, Insurtech and Big Data. 

Some key points about senior talent presence in the ecosystem: 

• In Spain, 21% of founders constitute senior talent. This number is higher than the European and global average.  

• Also, 30% of Spanish startups have at least one senior among their founders. 

• 9% of Spanish startups are founded exclusively by seniors. 

• 55% of seniors who decide to venture in business prefer to do so alone or to start with a reduced number of partners (2 or 3). 

• Senior founders are largely found in technology sectors, and they are connected by a professional specialty. In other words, most senior entrepreneurs use their experience to identify business opportunities in their professional fields. 

Consequently, it seems that both female and senior presence in the entrepreneurial world are still insufficient and, in the future, their participation should be strengthened. Life and professional experience seniors possess are crucial differential factors that can be fully exploited for the development of startups. Similarly, the way women approach life and their personal vision of what a company should be essential aspects in any organization that wants to achieve permanent success.  

In this context, in Fellow Funders we are committed to supporting entrepreneurship and startups. The composition and chemistry among teams, whether they are sufficiently balanced and integrated, are a couple of aspects we analyze in detail. For us, the presence of senior and female talent are not, in any case, a distorting factor, but they rather generate interesting and positive synergies that allow companies to grow in an adequate and sustainable way. 

Have a good weekend!