Everyone talks about the disadvantages of being a female founder. What about the advantages?
Everyone talks about why being a female founder is harder.
Fundraising bias. Being underestimated. Walking into rooms where you're the only woman. We've all heard (and many of us have lived) those stories.
But after a startup event in Vienna, I started wondering about the opposite.
The event itself wasn't particularly useful for my stage. Investor dating was poorly matched, partnerships were too early for us, and we had already closed our fundraising. Honestly, I realized I didn't really need to be there. So I decided to squeeze every bit of value out of the trip.
I booked meetings with anyone I thought might matter in the next few years—people from large companies, potential strategic partners, anyone I could get in front of.
Almost every meeting was with a senior man.
The funny part? I was probably only 30% prepared.
Instead of pretending I knew everything, I leaned into curiosity. I asked questions. I admitted when I didn't know something. I built the conversation as we went.
And every single meeting turned out to be valuable.
It made me wonder whether this is one of the hidden advantages of being a female founder.
If I had walked into those meetings as a man, I feel like there would have been much more pressure to project certainty and expertise. As a woman, people seemed more willing to explain things, share advice, and genuinely help.
Maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe it was just those particular people.
But it left me wondering: what advantages do female founders actually have that we don't talk about enough?