Current statistics place the number of USA women-owned business at 29% with the largest concentration in the Southern California Area. What better place to be a female entrepreneur than in the Los Angeles?

Los Angeles has always had a very strong culture in innovation, creativity and the outlandish. The city is built on engineering for aerospace and creativity for the movie business and the merging of the two. Actress Hedy Lamarr and Engineer George Anthiel filed a patent to manipulate wireless radio frequencies at irregular levels for transmission and reception. This partnership created the cell phone technology we use today. The tradition has continued as actors such as Aston Kutscher and Jessica Alba have invested in startups. Both have funded companies such as Airbnb, Casper & The Honest Company.

When asked, women start their businesses for a variety of reasons, the top ones being: in control of their lives, flexibility and work-life balance. In France, the top reason is to have pride in themselves.

Kevin O’Leary, investor on Shark Tank, has invested in female owned companies such as Wicked Good Cupcakes, Groove Book, Bottle Breacher, and Easy Daysies. O'Leary boils the success of women-run companies down to this: "Women set goals that are achievable in business. They don't take inordinate risk and set goals that nobody can achieve. When you set goals for your employees you can achieve, that generally builds morale. It gets better results."

Los Angeles has so many female support groups, meet-ups, incubators, work-spaces that one wonders how the men are getting the support they need. Groups such as Women in LAVA, SheEO, Women’s Founder Network, Hera Hub (San Diego) and The Opportunista are focused on helping women succeed in the space with education, tools and supportive environments.

For women, the avenues to funding are plentiful. There is crowdfunding, (think Roku, Style Lend), 10,000 Businesses from Goldman Sachs, SBA business loans (they love women), Women’s Founder Network, Golden Seeds, SheEO, and Female Founder’s Fund to name a few.

Some of the Los Angeles based companies that are female-owned and funded by private investors, angel investors and VC’s are:

  • Tradesy – $30M

  • Hop Skip Drive – $10.2M

  • Nasty Gal - $16M

  • Tot Squad – $1M

  • Tripscope - $4M then sold her company

  • CoolHaus - $2M

  • The Honest Company - $70M

Each of these female founders share a driving desire to solve a problem and improve the lives of others. And that is the key in the USA. Solve a problem, a big problem that is costing the target customer in time and money. Offer a smart solution at a reasonable price with a great buying experience and the world is yours to conquer.

 

Author : Laurelle JOHNSON