What Women Founders Still Have to Prove

From the Ground Up

Anu Duggal has funded the businesses of hundreds of women—and has seen multiple hundred-million-dollar-plus exits. Now, she’s trying to make a statement.

For our season opener, we sat down with Anu Duggal, the founding partner of Female Founders Fund, a seed-stage venture capitalist fund focused on providing early-stage funding for startups by women entrepreneurs. Female Founders Fund has invested in more than 75 companies, including the digital financial service Tala, the razor company Billie, and the women’s health care company Maven Clinic. Ten years into running her fund, Duggal says she still has something to prove: “We’re really trying to make more of a statement than your typical VC fund that’s only looking for returns.”

Since starting Female Founders Fund in 2014, Anu has been a helping hand for female founders, but how is she navigating what companies to invest in during an election year? She speaks to Inc. editor-at-large Christine Lagorio-Chafkin about pulling back from funding direct-to-consumer brands, whether AI startups are forming a bubble, the female founder ecosystem, and her journey from being an entrepreneur to leading a fund working to bolster startups by women—and proving a point along the way.

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