This Female-Led Venture Capital Fund Is Aiming to Smash the Patriarchy With a New E-Commerce Site
Conscious fashion consumerism has, in many ways, gone mainstream. With so many social issues at stake right now, from climate change to gender and racial equality, companies both large and small are doing their part to help. But while all messaging for positive change is a good thing, it can often be hard to tell how much you’re giving back, if anything, by buying and wearing, say, a T-shirt emblazoned with a feminist slogan. Is that garment really helping to move the needle for women’s rights? Is it just a marketing ploy? At the end of the day, looking at the modern feminist movement and the fashion industry specifically, large female-led brands, small businesses, and start-ups need our support, but also capital backing and advisors in order to succeed. They need both in order to shift the perception that in fashion and in finance, women don’t have a seat at the table.
In 2017, according to the financial data company PitchBook, a mere 2% ($1.9 billion) of the total $85 billion invested by venture capitalists went to female entrepreneurs. That same year, a survey by a U.S. communications firm found that 84% of consumers want to buy from companies that support women’s rights. In 2018, one woman decided to really hone in on this deep divide between investment opportunities for women and the demand for women-owned products. Feminist activist and strategy consultant Lindsey Taylor Wood started The Helm, a venture capital firm that has invested nearly $1.5 million in 11 female-founded companies in the U.S., some of which include a start-up that makes designer hijabs and another focused on modern gynecology. Today, Wood is starting round two of her project: an e-commerce platform exclusively featuring female-led labels from a range of brands in the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle spaces.
Fashion designers on the new site include Mansur Gavriel, Galvan, Nili Lotan, Mari Giudicelli, and more, all of whom were selected by former Vogue staffer turned style director at The Helm, Rachel Waldman. The new e-commerce site will also incorporate editorial content highlighting the various female entrepreneurs both in the fund and on the shopping platform. A portion of the profits from these sales (the exact number of which has yet to be determined, according to Wood) will go directly back into The Helm’s next round of venture capital funding and ultimately, to more women-owned-and-operated businesses.
As Wood says of the concept, “The mission of The Helm is to make it easy to invest in women. We’ve known from the very beginning that in order to do that, we needed to create a number of different vehicles and access points that meet people where they are.” She adds, “For those that have the capital to write a five, six, or seven-figure check, our venture fund offers this opportunity to make direct investments into women-built-and-led companies. For others who are investing by being thoughtful about their purchasing power, we’ve created a content and commerce platform that tells the stories of game-changing female founders and offers consumers the ability to shop their products. We believe that every dollar you spend is investing in something, and our hope is that this is one more way people will invest in women.”
Wood refers to this whole process of recirculating the profits back into the fund as “a flywheel of women investing in women.” She says, “I think one of the biggest opportunities we have is not only to drive greater economic outcomes, but to create greater awareness around the dearth of capital, opportunity, and visibility for female entrepreneurs.” Wood goes on to say that she doesn’t think “the average shopper knows that even in fashion and beauty, the vast majority of companies are owned by men, nor do they know why that matters. If we can begin to grow awareness around that, the same way people have around sustainability, then I believe we can create real, lasting change.”
For Wood and the team at The Helm, it’s about empowering women to go a step beyond wearing their favorite feminist slogan on their clothing. It’s about empowering women to view and to use shopping as a real means of smashing the patriarchy. After all, as Gloria Steinem once said, “It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than watch it accumulate.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
