By Rieva Lesonsky
The world of serial entrepreneurs—people who love the thrill of startup so much, they can’t stop with just one business, but keep launching more—has long been considered the territory of men. But are more women becoming serial entrepreneurs?
In this article, Forbes argues yes, although it offers only a few examples (Bliss spa founder Marcia Kilgore, who went on to launch FitFlops exercise shoes and Soap and Glory beauty products after selling Bliss, is one).
At Springboard Enterprises, which connects women-led startups with venture capitalists, two-thirds of the organization’s “graduates” say they are serial entrepreneurs.
And David Barsky, a former professor of entrepreneurship and management at Temple University, has done research which suggests that “businesses of female serial entrepreneurs have come to rival the businesses of male serial entrepreneurs in terms of revenue.” Barsky says women serial entrepreneurs are a new phenomenon, but one to be reckoned with.
One serial entrepreneur quoted in the article thinks maybe women are better suited to serial startups because in daily life, they’re used to multitasking and juggling many roles—just what a startup entrepreneur has to do.
To be sure, serial women entrepreneurs are still relatively few in number. Most women-owned businesses don’t generate $1 million in revenues. But it’s hard to argue with Barksy’s numbers, Kilgore’s continual success and the fact that once they experience business ownership, few women (or men for that matter) want to go back to the life of an employee.
What do you think? Are you noticing serial female entrepreneurs (or are you one)? We’d like to hear from you.
Rieva, thanks for shedding more light on this topic. In my experience, there have always been A LOT of very successful women serial entrepreneurs. I count a whole bunch as my closest friends and entrepreneurial buddies. That said, I think that women serial entrepreneurs often times (not always, of course) take a much lower key approach to touting their achievements in the entrepreneurship arena. I won’t draw any analogies with the lack of known female serial killers, as compared to the mountain of known men serial killers.
Maybe it’s just that many times men and women gravitate toward entrepreneurship and serial entrepreneurship for different reasons. I thank you again for putting some focus on this topic and hope it will generate a lot of discussion and more research to really understand the differences between male and female serial entrepreneurs. Paul