– Founding story. Forty percent of female founders say that macroeconomic conditions have hurt their businesses—and 46% say that political uncertainty in the U.S. is a direct threat, too. But amid the challenges of tariffs, weakened consumer confidence, and political attacks on diversity and inclusion, female founders see opportunity in other areas—namely, AI.
The early-stage VC firm Graham & Walker gathered these results from a survey of 180 female founders of “VC scalable” startups in North America.
Fifty-six percent of all-female founding teams see “more opportunities” because of AI, compared to only 46% of mixed-gender founding teams who say the same. This report speculates that female founders—who also cite fundraising as, still, a major challenge—could be looking at AI as a way to scale with less capital and avoid some of those fundraising challenges. Seventy-one percent of founders surveyed said raising their last round was harder than they thought it would be. Forty percent of founders still say their gender was a top factor in that difficulty. In 2024, according to Pitchbook, teams including female founders raised 27% more capital than the year prior, with $38 billion closed—but across 13.1% fewer deals than 2023.
Other fundraising challenges include “shifting goalposts”—with norms changing for early-stage funding and early-stage investors expecting founders to meet benchmarks that might have previously been reserved for Series A.
Fourteen founders in the survey specifically called out their experiences with female investors. Many of the concerns they raised are likely related to the pressure those female investors are under. One founder surveyed said female investors are “harder to win over” and “require every box to be checked,” while another said that they’ve pitched women who have “no real ability to do deals.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– Making waves. Tech founder Weili Dai is set to take home $237 million in the sale of Alphawave IP Group to Qualcomm, a $2.4 billion cash deal expected to close next year. Dai, who founded Marvell Technology and Silicon Box, has a 96.3 million-share stake in semiconductor company Alphawave. Bloomberg
– On the streets. New York City, with its traffic and unruly pedestrians, has long been out of reach for self-driving car companies. Now Waymo, led by co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana, is trying to bring its vehicles to the city—for now, with humans in the cars to comply with state law that requires it. Wall Street Journal
– Policy problems. CDC vaccine policy adviser Dr. Fiona Havers resigned earlier this week, citing Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attack on vaccine policy as the reason for her exit. “If it isn’t stopped,” she told the New York Times, “a lot of Americans are going to die as a result of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
– Squad success. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are getting a 400% pay raise after years of dissatisfaction that led the cheerleaders to begin negotiations. News of the “life-changing” pay bump was revealed in Netflix’s docuseries America’s Sweethearts. Time
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Surgimate, which provides software for scheduling surgeries, appointed Jessica Cook as chief revenue officer. She was most recently SVP of sales at Azalea Health.
Medison, a biotech commercialization company, named Tali Mirsky chief legal and compliance officer. Most recently, she was corporate VP, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Nice.
Algonquin Power & Utilities named Amy Walt chief customer officer. Most recently, she was VP meter to cash at Entergy.
ON MY RADAR
Michelle Obama was vilified by the right. Then came MAHA Politico
Ouai founder Jen Atkin shares the advice that propelled her 9-figure brand Inc.
She says social-media algorithms led to her eating disorder. Now she’s suing TikTok and Instagram Time
PARTING WORDS
“I tend to drive myself harder than any job is ever going to drive me.”
— CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Michelle MacKay on her intense work pace at iStar prior to retiring—only to come out of retirement to join her current firm as COO
