Bridging the Funding Gap: Kristen Cooper's Startup Ladies Story

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Kristen Cooper, CEO and founder of The Startup Ladies, shares insights on empowering women entrepreneurs to secure funding and scale their businesses. Starting from informal meetings, Kristen built an organization that now has 150 members across five states. Kristen discusses the significant funding gap for women entrepreneurs, noting that women founders secured only 2% of the $170 billion invested in US startups in 2023. She highlights her organization's innovative approach to addressing this disparity by training high-net-worth individuals to invest in women-led companies, rather than relying solely on traditional VC and angel investor channels. Key advice includes conducting thorough customer discovery, building strong foundations before seeking funding, and focusing on human connections in pitch presentations. For more details and insights from her entrepreneurial journey, listen to the latest episode of The Exit. -- Kristen Cooper has over 10 years of experience as the CEO and Founder of The Startup Ladies, where they are on a mission to increase the number of women starting up scalable businesses and help them secure investment to grow. The Startup Ladies is a professional membership organization that identifies, educates, connects, and increases investment in women entrepreneurs across various industries and stages.As a startup leader, Kristen has leveraged her background in building technology and raising money to help entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate members achieve their goals. She also writes a column for the Indianapolis Business Journal, where she shares her experience and insights on startups, tech, women in business, and LGBTQ+ issues. Website: https://www.thestartupladies.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristencooper23/ Check Out Flippa’s Data Insights Tool: https://flippa.com/data-insights -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/