Women in Venture Capital

The American Enterprise project is an FBLA competitive event in which members have an opportunity to impact students, schools and their overall community by introducing them to a key concept in the economic system.

Three South seniors competing as a team this year have impacted our female students going into business through their efforts by educating them about the Venture Capital (VC) Field. 

Venture capital is a type of funding in which investors provide capital to smaller businesses that they believe have the potential to grow. 

Students Sritha Neeli, Saanvi Kankipati, and Grace Chin have been working towards their goal of “educating females in their school and community about the underrepresentation of women in the Venture Capital world.”

Throughout their journey, they have held several events in helping to promote and educate others on this prevailing issue. 

Each Step in the Right Direction

The first event was holding a mock Shark Tank pitch competition in their school. Through this event, Neeli, Kankipati, and Chin assigned each group to different industries, and female competitors had to create a product and pitch their ideas to the FBLA advisers, who served as judges. 

Their second event was partnering up with a local business, The Gibson Co. During their annual Christmas Market, Neeli, Kankipati, and Chin talked to several female-owned small businesses and asked various questions about their business, including if they had the opportunity to have investors.

Their third event was a workshop at the Region Leadership Conference. Over 40 FBLA students attended this workshop and had a collaborative discussion on the issue of women in Venture Capital.

To emphasize collaboration, students got into teams and brainstormed solutions to help this issue. Then, students engaged in a competition and members of the winning team were all awarded with gift cards of their choice. 

Their fourth event was promoting community connections during the South Forsyth and West Forsyth High School FBLA social. This local event, held in Atlanta Bread, hosted over 30 students from both schools. Neeli, Kankipati, and Chin educated students about women in Venture Capital and handed out flyers with infographics and other key statistics regarding the VC world.

Towards the end of the social, students completed a small quiz on what they learned and suggested ideas to help this prevalent issue.

Their fifth event will be to partner up with Forsyth County Middle School FBLA chapters and host an interactive workshop.

Neeli, Kankipati, and Chin have previously hosted an “Idea Creation Workshop” in which the goal is to promote creativity and problem-solving. The idea behind this meeting is to introduce and educate youth on the issues relating to the lack of diversity in Venture Capital, with the hope that students can understand the power they have to make changes in the community even at a younger age. 

Their sixth event was a budgeting workshop. They partnered up with the South Forsyth High School Investment Club and held a workshop. They assigned each group thirteen jelly beans and they had to use that to budget their expenses. 

Their seventh event was interviewing the UCLA President of Girls in Venture Capital. Through this event, they gained insight into the Venture Capital field and what can be done to help this issue as a college student since they have more access to resources. 

The Success of the Project

Throughout the project, Neeli, Kankipati, and Chin ran a social media campaign by partnering up with South Forsyth FBLA by focusing on promoting women in enterprise and providing others resources regarding what they can do to help.

Additionally, they have created a website page on the South Forsyth FBLA page with different resources regarding Venture Capital such as pitching tips, investment strategies, and infographics on the underrepresentation of women in VC.

Furthermore, they provided specialized advice and opportunities, which resulted in raising awareness of gender inequality in the community.

One FBLA member noted the project’s success in offering new opportunities and promoting women’s empowerment. They expanded their research and impact beyond the school and FBLA by collaborating with The Gibson Co. and other CTSO members and raised community awareness through a successful social media campaign that engaged students from schools county-wide.

Overall, their goal is to inspire and empower more women to join the field of business. Their aim is to promote women’s empowerment by educating and uplifting our community of women in Venture Capital. Their events focused on the inequality of women in business and it played an important role in promoting gender equality and driving positive change.

By raising awareness, building connections, educating attendees, empowering women, and inspiring action, their events made a meaningful difference in the lives of women and the Venture Capital field as a whole.