As a woman who has run a startup, I’m confused by the furore about Penelope Trunk’s article “Stop Telling Women To Do Startups”.
I’d encourage anyone to think about working for themselves; I’ve found it on the whole more fun and better paid than working for others, you certainly have a closer idea of when your employer (= you) is going to run out of money and stop paying you…
But running a startup? When I founded my first startup in 1995, I’d always say to anyone who was thinking about starting their own – “Don’t Do It”. On the basis that if anyone was put off by that minor pushback, they’d never be able to stand the real pressure of actually doing it!
So the idea of telling anyone – woman, man, whatever – that they *should* be doing a startup… Well, that seems to me like something that would only be said by someone with a vested interest; or from someone who had no idea what they were talking about and therefore should not be talking.
Rachel
P.S. The original article from Penelope Trunk had a different title “Investors fund mostly men, which is fine for women”. TechCrunch seem to have added their own title to the same article.
Here’s the links:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/12/11/men-are-getting-all-the-vc-funding-and-thats-fine/
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/11/stop-telling-women-to-do-startups/