The Impact of Founder Gender and Gender Anonymity on Online Fundraising: Evidence from a Field Experiment
-
Aner Zhou
,
Yushi Tian
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of founder gender and gender anonymity on online fundraising through a field experiment conducted by Pitch Perfect, a platform connecting founders and potential venture capital (VC) investors. The platform randomly assigns seasoned VC investors to conditions where founder gender is either revealed or kept anonymous. Analyzing 159 matched investor-founder observations, we predict and find that investors express a higher level of intention to invest in female founders than in male founders, but only when the founder gender is revealed. Furthermore, we observe that when founder gender is revealed, investors tend to assign higher ratings to female-led projects in the relatively subjective area of problem quality, but not in the relatively objective area of solution quality, as compared to male-led projects. Such differences in ratings no longer exist when the founder gender is not revealed. These results suggest that in online VC settings, investors are more likely to favor and invest in female founders, even when there are no actual characteristic differences between female-led and male-led projects. This finding has implications for both the literature on founder gender effect in fundraising and platforms aiming to create a gender-neutral investment environment.
Appendix: Founder and Investor Questions from Pitch Perfect
The following lists of questions are obtained from Pitch Perfect.
Questions Asked to Founders
Company name
What is the big problem your startup is going to solve?
What is your solution? Why is this solution innovative?
Why are you (and your team or advisors, if applicable) the right people to solve this problem?
What is your business model (e.g., B2B or B2C)?
What is your revenue stage?
Questions Asked to Investors
What is your email?
The company is (company name). Do you have any prior knowledge of this company?
Is the problem interesting?
Does the solution make sense?
Please rate the team.
Would you invest in (or want to know more about) this company?
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