"Most women face problems to be seen as professional entrepreneurs." One key way to overcome this is to correct the imbalance on both investment and founder teams.
Efrat Roman had a double mastectomy at 41. After the procedure, finding that there was little available in terms of post-treatment advice and products, she created one herself: EZbra, a designated post-op dressing for women who have undergone breast procedures.
For her, the surprise was that, up until this point, no one had thought of this before. But she had an idea why after showcasing her product to medical professionals. "Most surgeons are male, and most patients are female. It was somewhat of a blind spot for them, and they never paid attention to what it was like for women in that situation," Roman said.
The male-dominated investor circle was not much different. EZbra's product straddles the line between a medical device and a consumer product; as well as being a sterile dressing, it is a wearable aid focused on the well-being and comfort of the user. For several male investors, this was a turnoff.
"The moment [the product] became something dealing with self-esteem and well-being, it became a problem for male investors," Roman said. "The feedback was ‘it's nice', but they did not understand. They were sympathetic, but between that and investing there was a wide gap.
"In many cases where we spoke to male investors, it felt like they thought it was a woman's thing: It's not a startup, it's not medical, it's not serious enough. But we're talking about half the population. It felt like they were petting us."
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