Business Angels Groups in the future

The angel groups investigated during the research can be divided in three types:

 Only Women groups

 Mixed groups with a low participant of women

 Mixed groups with a low participant of men

By making a focus on the mixed groups studied percentages of the presence of men out of women are highlighted:

o Belle Michigan, that has 8 men out of 64, hence, 12.5% of the members are men o Osea Angels Investors, that has 4 men out of 35, hence, 11,4% of the members

are women

o Angels Santé that has 73 men out of 100, hence, 73% of the members are men

It appears, from the answers received in the interview that only two groups (Belle Michigan and Osea Angels Investors) out of three think that there are differences in the way groups approach the investment and so they think there are differences between mixed groups and only women groups.

“I think there are less women for sure in the business angel landscape, but I don’t see any differences [between mixed groups and only women groups], they are very experienced people with a great career, people with high studies and high positions”

~ Maéva Joalland , Angels Santé

It emerges that groups with a majority of men do not see any differences, it might be because the number of women in these groups is so low that, when they join, they just adapt to the approach of the group, hence, they do not have the power, to change the way they work, or the confidence, to make men understand that they might feel overwhelmed especially at the beginning. Two facts from Harrison, Boteltho, Mason (2020) must be underlined, first of all, women in stereotype threat environment have lower level of self – confidence and self – efficacy compared with women who are in an identity safe – environment, secondly, what usually happens when women join mixed groups is that, in a stereotype threat environment, to succeed, they will become more like men (Harrison et al 2019), and will not differ from them in terms of self – confidence and self – efficacy (Harrison, Boteltho, Mason, 2020) , this leads to call them “Honorary Men”

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(Harrison and Mason 2007) because they separate their work identity from their gender identity (von Hippel, Issa et al 2011) in a process of identity bifurcation (Pronin et al 2004). What needs to be highlighted is that, according to Hoyt and Murphy (2016) over time, this behavior that lead women to become more like men could promote persistence and determination in short term, but eventually, could also lead to demotivation and low performances as well as withdrawal.

At the same time, men cannot see differences because they continue as they have always done. On the other hand, groups with a minority of men investors operates like they are only women groups, because, in the same way, men have not the power to change the way the group operate.

So far, the researches made have highlighted the existence of several mixed business angel group in the world of which the majority has a little percentage of women [Chart 7]. Indeed, groups of mixed business angels were found on the web and, where the list of investors were shared, every women and men were counted.

Chart 7 Presence of Women in Mixed Business Angels Groups Around the World [Own Elaboration]

As it is shown, six groups out of eight present a majority of men, also, these groups are the ones who have a foundation date which is around 2004 – 2008, much earlier compared

0 50 100 150 200 250

Angels Quebec

Angels Santé

Belle Michigan

Club degli Investitori

Italian Angels for

Growth

New York Angels

Osea Angels Investors

Paris Business

Angels Men Women

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with Belle Michigan and Osea Angels Investors, respectively created in 2012 and 2017.

This outline the growth in the recent years of the presence of women angel investors, hence, the creation of new groups that create an environment where more women can join without feeling misplaced or stereotyped. This fact leads back again to support the idea that groups with greater experience do not induce women to join because the processes followed, and the atmosphere is more suitable for skilled angels instead of newest angels.

“…It came out a female investment club giving them the confidence in what they need, in order to feel that, they have the skills and know how. I pretty much hope that in the next few years we can also open our club to male angel investors to participate because then it will not be any longer an issue and by the way, already today, some male Angel investors join our investment, they even choose to invest under our umbrella structure but they are not part of the club.”

~ Orit Alperovitz, Neome

As came out from the interview to O. Alperovitz, whom group is composed by only women, she hopes one day to open the doors to the enter of men as well.

As she underline, this is a change she is committed to do only on favorable conditions, which could be when women will feel more sure about their investments, when there will be no more stereotype threat that, so far, do not enable women to do their best when facing the investment world. If it will be possible to reach this environment in the future, it could be fair to ask themselves if, in the next year, the new groups only made by women could also become mixed groups, with a little share of men at the beginning that could increase by the time, as long as they will become real mixed groups with equivalent share from both parties (women and men).

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Conclusions

From the qualitative research made it appears that differences, in terms of investment behavior, are impacted by the theme of gender only consequently, because the real difference is inherent to the fact that exists two kind of investors: experienced investors and new investors. Therefore, the fact that more and more women are joining the investment field in the early years leads them to be classified as newest angels, and differences between them and new men investors are due to social barriers that do not allow them to feel comfortable in an environment predominantly made by men.

The arise of business angel groups only made by women is a movement that is growing day by day and will certainly demand more attention in the future with consequent requests of custom policies.

What would be great to achieve in the future is the reduction of the necessity by women to build their own ecosystem in order to practice in the investment field. This aim could be far away from now because of ingrained stereotypes in society which, it must be said, are topics frequently discussed nowadays especially concerning gender equality. There are still many steps to do and what certainly could contribute would be researches that involves responses to solve this situation, in order to shape an environment with equal opportunities either for investors or for entrepreneurs.

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