An exposé of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and a road map for a more inclusive and economically successful future for us all Journalist and professor Susanne Althoff investigates the obstacles women and nonbinary entrepreneurs—especially those of color—face when launching, funding, and growing their companies, obstacles that persist because the current start-up world was engineered by and for white men. Through interviews with over a hundred founders across the country and in all industries, Althoff paints a picture of an entrepreneurial system rife with bias and discrimination, where women receive less than 3 percent of this country’s venture capital, struggle to find mentors in the wake of #MeToo, and are dismissed as “mompreneurs.” The effects of this unequal system—a weaker economy, fewer jobs, less innovation—are felt by all of us, and Althoff explains how more equitable structures in business and entrepreneurship will benefit all people, not just those hoping to fund a startup. By exploring some of the practical ways we can open the entrepreneurial system to everyone, Althoff provides a rallying cry and a way forward for women entrepreneurs and their allies, showing that change is urgent and within our reach.

An exposé of the gender gap in entrepreneurship and a road map for a more inclusive and economically successful future for us all Journalist and professor Susanne Althoff investigates the obstacles women and nonbinary entrepreneurs—especially those of color—face when launching, funding, and growing their companies, obstacles that persist because the current start-up world was engineered by and for white men. Through interviews with over a hundred founders across the country and in all industries, Althoff paints a picture of an entrepreneurial system rife with bias and discrimination, where women receive less than 3 percent of this country’s venture capital, struggle to find mentors in the wake of #MeToo, and are dismissed as “mompreneurs.” The effects of this unequal system—a weaker economy, fewer jobs, less innovation—are felt by all of us, and Althoff explains how more equitable structures in business and entrepreneurship will benefit all people, not just those hoping to fund a startup. By exploring some of the practical ways we can open the entrepreneurial system to everyone, Althoff provides a rallying cry and a way forward for women entrepreneurs and their allies, showing that change is urgent and within our reach.

This book takes a fresh look at how identifying and utilizing role models can benefit your business and life. Through interviews and research, the author identifies the traits, motivations, and personal styles of empowered women entrepreneurs and distills it all into a practical guide that explains how to become a savvy and successful businesswoman.--Adapted from publisher description.

Now available in paperback—with a new preface and interview with Jessica Livingston about Y Combinator! Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days is a collection of interviews with founders of famous technology companies about what happened in the very earliest days. These people are celebrities now. What was it like when they were just a couple friends with an idea? Founders like Steve Wozniak (Apple), Caterina Fake (Flickr), Mitch Kapor (Lotus), Max Levchin (PayPal), and Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail) tell you in their own words about their surprising and often very funny discoveries as they learned how to build a company. Where did they get the ideas that made them rich? How did they convince investors to back them? What went wrong, and how did they recover? Nearly all technical people have thought of one day starting or working for a startup. For them, this book is the closest you can come to being a fly on the wall at a successful startup, to learn how it's done. But ultimately these interviews are required reading for anyone who wants to understand business, because startups are business reduced to its essence. The reason their founders become rich is that startups do what businesses do—create value—more intensively than almost any other part of the economy. How? What are the secrets that make successful startups so insanely productive? Read this book, and let the founders themselves tell you.

For women entrepreneurs (and anyone sick of the status quo), this smart, unapologetic collection delivers fifty proven hacks to leapfrog over obstacles and succeed in business. "A must-read for any woman who has a great idea and the nagging thought that doors are closed to her; Molina Niño helps to blow them open."--Publishers Weekly Think the most critical factor for becoming a great entrepreneur is grit, risk-taking, or technical skills? Think again. Despite what every other business book might say, historical data show the real secret ingredients to getting ahead in business are being rich, white, and male. Until now. Leapfrog is the decades-overdue startup bible for the rest of us. It's filled with uncompromising guidance for winning at business, your way. Leapfrog is for entrepreneurs of all stripes who are fed up with status quo advice--the kind that assumes you have rich friends and family and a public relations team. Refreshingly frank and witty, author Nathalie Molina Niño is a serial tech entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of BRAVA Investments, and a proud daughter of Latinx immigrants. While teaching budding entrepreneurs at Barnard College at Columbia University and searching the globe for investment-worthy startups, she has met or advised thousands of entrepreneurs who've gone from zero to scalable business. Here she shares their best secrets in the form of fifty "leapfrogs"--clever loopholes and shortcuts to outsmart, jump over, or straight up annihilate the seemingly intractable hurdles facing entrepreneurs who don't have family money, cultural capital, or connections.

Create Your Own Women Owned Business Startup “...a guide for smart, ambitious women who want to make their mark on the world...a practical step-by-step journey to shifting your mindset and calling on your own resilience and resourcefulness.”?Rachel Beider, bestselling author of Massage MBA: Run Your Practice, Love Your Life and globally recognized small business expert The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business is a book for freedom-seeking female entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who want to know how to connect with their true passions, skills, and desires. It’s a book for startup business women who get honest with themselves about their reasons for wanting to start a business. Learn what type of new business you want to lead. Through a combination of data, neuroscience, true stories, humor, and the type of frankness that you would expect from your best girlfriend, this book helps you determine the real reasons and motivations behind starting a business —and then dares you to dream big about what being the head of a woman-owned business can do for you. Find real tools for real women in business. When creating a start-up, it can be difficult to stay the course —to choose yourself and stay motivated on the hardest days. Ameé Quiriconi, author and entrepreneur behind the One Broken Mom podcast, has your back. In The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business, learn about: The main reasons business owners report why they closed their businesses —and how you can avoid failure Specific techniques and insights needed for building a startup and brand that is authentic to who you are How to turn your side hustle or hobby into a money-making endeavor Strategies for navigating the sometimes-hostile world business women live and work in every day Readers of business books and entrepreneurship books for women like Girl on Fire by Cara Alwill Leyba, Fear is my Homeboy, Believe It, or Boss Up! will love The Fearless Woman’s Guide to Starting a Business.

Practical, specific advice and strategies to help women develop an entrepreneurial mindset Entrepreneurship has always skewed male—from availability of funding to how-to books that assume a primarily male audience. And yet, 36% of all small business or franchise owners are women, and there are 13 million female-owned businesses contributing to more than $1.8 trillion in revenue. Now, with a fast-changing economy making traditional employment unsteady, there’s never been a better time for becoming a “fempreneur.” In Launch Your Inner Entrepreneur, Charlene Walters provides the tools you need to successfully launch and grow your side hustle, start up, or small business. As a mentor on Entrepreneur magazine’s “Ask an Expert” forum and developer of a digital entrepreneurship MBA program, Walters knows what you’re facing—and can help you avoid common mistakes, find your niche, build up your personal brand and reach your entrepreneurial goals. You’ll find the practical, real-world advice necessary to create the opportunities you want by embracing ten Mindset Shifts, including: Embracing an Entrepreneurial Attitude Cultivating Financial Confidence Branding and Building Presence Leveraging Social Media Options Leading Your Startup Going into Growth Mode Rebooting, Repeating, and Avoiding Burnout Along the Way Packed with smart tips and hard-won wisdom, Launch Your Inner Entrepreneur concludes with a special bonus section, the Fempreneur Action Plan—which includes a business concept and planning worksheet, visual brand style guide, resilience and setback survival exercise, and more—to help you put the Mindset Shifts into action, now.