Melanie Perkins pitched investors for three years before she got funded. “There were so many rejections,” she recalled. Today, Canva is worth $40 billion. Whatever investors listened for when they rejected Perkins, they missed one of the most lucrative opportunities in recent times. This is not uncommon.

Boston Consulting Group reports that startups founded or co-founded by women generate 78 cents for every dollar invested, whereas men generate less than half that at 31 cents. Despite outperforming their peers in capital efficiency, female-founded startups have a 30-50% lower likelihood of receiving investor funding. For investors, this is money left on the table. Why the gap?

Investors rely on subconscious heuristics to determine leadership capability in founders. But many investors don’t know how to read the signals of leadership in women. These investors seek the right qualities – trust, vision, and scalable opportunity – through the wrong signals.

The issue is not simply rooted in gender bias. Despite the increase in diversity-focused initiatives over the last decade, the percentage of women founders who receive funding remains relatively unchanged.

The issue is an information processing mismatch. The language of leadership has two different voices, but venture capitalists recognize only one. Investors utilize an incomplete rubric for evaluating opportunity that miscalculates the capability of many founders.

Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrislipp/2026/09/02/why-vcs-miss-the-markets-best-returns-when-women-pitch/