Finding Female Co-Founders: An Interview With Jane Fisher

The Beginning of the Journey

A couple of months ago, I embarked on a journey of finding a co-founder, and this time, I was curious to work with a female co-founder for various reasons that I might cover separately.

With this goal in mind, I set on a journey and tried a few different strategies, from reaching out to my network in person, posting on LinkedIn, or going the way of dedicated platforms such as Y Combinator’s founder finder.

I didn’t expect much effect to begin with; it’s not a surprise that there are much fewer female founders than male ones – only 14% of the US founders are women. There are even fewer if we look at experienced founders with a track record of success.

After not having much feedback from my network, I thought maybe it was because it’s predominantly male, and I simply cannot reach the women in the space. So I decided to register a profile on Y Combinator’s founder matching platform.

My assumption being, YC releases so much educational and inspirational content for founders, also being one of the most successful accelerators on the planet, surely if you are into startups, this must be the go-to to find the most ambitious people.

When I set my parameters for a co-founder, it showed me a bold 0. While trying to figure out if there is a bug, I decided to change just one parameter, and I added men to my search – instantly getting dozens of results.

After widening my parameters even more, I ended up with the following ratio: 5 women and 72 men. Mind you, at this point, my settings were wide enough to include people with all expertise, both technical and non-technical.

This got me quite puzzled, and I decided to do some of my own research and talk to women who are outstanding in their work in IT but are not founders in order to understand how it is possible that the ratio of women searching for co-founders is so low.

And no, I’m not buying this old and overused argument of “women are just not interested in it”.

In this first interview, I spoke to Jane Fisher, who worked as Head of Communications at cancer innovations startup, MediXSpace, and currently consults the World Health Organization on communication.

She also runs a content team for Health & Help Charity on a voluntary basis, helping fundraise for charity clinics in Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Did you ever think of becoming a founder or a co-founder in a startup?

It’s definitely one of the things I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last few months. Probably not as a founder, but if I were to leave my current workplace for another early-stage startup, I would definitely come in only as a co-founder because I am just tired of suffering from someone else’s bad decisions – I’d rather suffer from my own.

What is it that you think is stopping you from pursuing the journey actively at the moment? For example, searching for a potential co-founder, trying out some little project to see if there is a match, maybe working on an app part-time?

So, there are a few reasons for that. First of all, I wouldn’t try it as a solo founder in the first place because I know at the moment, and this might change in the future, I am just not fit to be a solo founder because I’m really not a business person and I am too chaotic; I need someone to balance me out.

And another reason why I’m not on an active lookout is that it would probably be easier if there was some idea that I myself wanted to bring to life or if there was a particular single cause I wanted to contribute to.

I guess I need to do more research and meet more people to see what’s out there.

Although I do have a proposal to join an early-stage startup as a co-founder, we are still figuring it out, and I am trying to contribute to the project just to see whether we are a good fit for each other and bringing her idea to life.

What would be the best way to approach you for someone who would like to start working on something together?

I guess I always get curious when I see people who are passionate about what they are doing, so just getting me to listen involves building a really exciting narrative. So that’s what draws me to founders in the first place.

And secondly, I am passionate about greater causes and impact, so that’s something that people who want to work with me or hire me should focus on when pitching their projects.

When I meet founders who highlight the impact side of what they are doing, it really hits that sweet spot of mine.

Whenever I hear those key points of how their innovation is beneficial to society, that’s when I cannot resist and can’t help to ask, “Okay, what exactly can I help you with?” Sometimes it takes off, and sometimes it doesn’t, but that’s probably the best way to approach me.

Do you think being a woman in the tech industry and how it’s still predominantly male, especially when it comes to fundraising (less than 2% of VC money goes to women founders), has any impact on your choice of pursuing the founder journey?

Frankly, I don’t think it does influence my choice in any way. At least, not at the current stage. I’ve been working in mostly male-dominated industries since I was 18, and I’ve learned to pave my way in them.

I also see it as a positive challenge to make my bit of difference by contributing to that percent of women getting VC funding, and inspiring others with my example.

Thank you.