Expanding Ecosystems
The untapped potential of women founders and leaders in Michigan, and insight from entrepreneur Abby Gates.
I found myself in a room with nearly 100 women in technology.
Despite the frigid temperatures that evening, we gathered to celebrate and support each other. Everywhere we go in Michigan women are building. We are creating communities, launching companies, and leading innovative teams.
I couldn’t help but wonder that night, how many of these women here will start a company? Many in the room that day work remotely for big tech, in research, or at established firms.
The talent is here. Yet so few female founders actually start companies. Nationally, the estimate is 10-15% of all founders of high growth companies are women. That is shockingly low.
*Thank you to Shine and Rise & Ann Arbor Spark for the event above at Bamboo Ann Arbor.
As someone who started Bamboo with a $5,000 loan and scaled it to a multi-million dollar venture in Michigan, I often wonder why more of us don’t try. Why don’t we take the risk?
Perhaps, it starts with considering a role at a startup first. Typically at a venture backed startup, you have the opportunity for equity and a path to wealth creation, that is if the business succeeds. You might learn how to build a startup, and then be empowered to start your own.
The more wealth we create in our community, the more likely it is invested back into our local economy. Nearly 80% of our member companies at Bamboo cite they prefer to spend their money locally, with 100% of our high-growth companies prefer to hire in Michigan. Founders are our job creators. They are the path forward to a more diverse and innovative economy.
If we can welcome more women into our startup ecosystem, this creates both equity and experience that leads to future founders. We create a better flywheel of our own talent in our backyard.
Why you might want to join a startup or high growth company.
I asked Abby Gates of Sproutwise, a firm dedicated to scaling up people operations, her thoughts on this topic and how equity at early stage startups work.
Abby has been building her firm for several years in Michigan, after spending much time at high growth firms. Her work offers a unique perspective across our ecosystem.
Why should women consider joining a high-growth startup team?
“The acceleration of your learning,” Abby said. “What you’ll be asked to do and the opportunity for your impact is so much greater. You have an opportunity to explore skills you’ve never even known you’ve had. You get exposure to every part of the organization. If you’re within a product team, you might also learn about sales engineering and sales processes.”
The acceleration of learning is huge. Abby describes the growth trajectory in a high growth company as much more condensed. You get to learn faster. It is higher risk and higher reward, though in an untested organization.
How does equity in early stage startups work? Can you describe it for those unfamiliar with the concept?
“For the first timers, ownership can be a nebulous idea,” Abby says. “If the company is successful, you are treated as an owner. Equity is ownership.”
“Think of it as the green bay packers -- it is an equity held organization by their fans. Every single fan feels that much more invested in the team’s success because they are owners too. Part of it is yours. Changing the conversation. It’s not a now game, it’s the impact you might have down the line. It is a level of personal investment of building and being an owner of the company.”
“It’s a volatile environment at times, but it’s yours,” she says. “These jobs feel more like yours than anything else you might get a chance to do. You’ve been chosen to help solve a problem that no one has ever done before. That’s an exciting opportunity.”
What is one way you’d like to see Michigan’s talent ecosystem grow?
“We need more structure. If we’re considering this issue for a company, what is that we’re offering and selling to this person? Cost of living might be part of our proposition. How are we encouraging people to grow here? Relocation, stipends, might help others be here and have a safety net,” she says.
“Structurally as a state, we need to know what we offer to entice and grow here -- there’s a whole strategy element.”
PS. If words like equity and ecosystem are new to you, check out this list of startup vocabulary that Abby shared on her blog.
How to connect with our growing ecosystem and job opportunities.
Wherever we go in Michigan, women are building products, leading teams and helping to disrupt industries. One of our recent successful venture-backed exits last year in Michigan, HistoSonics, was a product invented by women. That said, finding us can be hard. We’re remote or at coworking hubs... or well we are all over the state of Michigan.
Here’s a quick list of a few firms helping women, and offering ways to find high growth jobs.
Shine & Rise - a virtual community of women in tech and startups
Ann Arbor Spark - hosting a women in tech series with Bamboo, and annually at A2 Tech 360
Women in Health Tech - a regular meetup in Ann Arbor
Michigan Founders Fund - a resource for founders in Michigan, many women members
Black Tech Saturdays - a global movement hosting a Women’s Takeover coming up
Femology - leading programs for women founders
Coffee Circle - meetups in Grand Rapids led by Jen Wrangler, one for women in tech, and women in healthcare/healthtech
Michigan Research Job board - posting job opportunities at high growth ventures in Michigan backed by MSU’s venture team
Michigan Women’s Forward - seed funding and pitch opportunities for women-owned companies
Techtown Detroit - job board
Ann Arbor Spark - job board
Purpose Jobs - jobs and talent network, hosts a quarterly Startup Detroit happy hour
Bamboo - We post job opportunities inside our private slack channel, and on social media when our companies hire. DM if you’re looking to make a change and we’ll post privately. At one point, 50% of our companies had a women co-founder or leader with equity on their team.