A decade ago, launching a technology company meant raising significant capital early, hiring engineers quickly, and spending months or even years building before heading to market. AI is rapidly compressing that timeline; Founders can now test ideas faster, launch products earlier, and prove demand with smaller teams and less upfront capital.
“The time is now for women in the AI era.”
“You can literally vibe code and build something from scratch that used to take millions of dollars,” serial investor and entrepreneur Michele Romanow told BetaKit.
For Romanow and Christina Fox, the CEO of TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario, a London-based accelerator and incubator, that shift is about more than productivity. They see an opening for women and other founders outside traditional venture capital circles to gain traction and attract more funding.
“The time is now for women in the AI era,” said Fox. “We bring instinct, influence, empathy, real human qualities that create a distinct moat for women-led companies and women investors in Canada. It’s an obvious standout advantage for women now, more than ever.”
A growing body of research suggests women-led companies often outperform their peers on revenue generation and capital efficiency, despite attracting only a fraction of available venture capital. According to BCG research, startups co-founded by women generate 10 percent more cumulative revenue over five years than their counterparts, and women-led companies return 78 cents per investment dollar, more than double the 31 cents from their male-led peers. Female-led companies also outperformed all-male founding teams by 63 percent.
“If investors are looking for their greatest ROI, they should be doubling down on women-led companies,” said Fox.
Yet the share of Canadian risk capital flowing to women founders still sits between two and three per cent. Why hasn’t the capital caught up?
Both leaders point to underlying issues: who gets seen, backed, and connected inside Canada’s venture ecosystem.
“If you know the right people, are in the right circles, and are in the right places, you have historically been able to access capital,” said Romanow.
She’s spent enough time in closed-door investor rooms to know the barriers are often subtler than people imagine. “There isn’t some anti-women agenda or intentional exclusion.”
Instead, investors are often weighing risks and concerns they may not say out loud. For women founders, those assumptions can sometimes drift into personal territory, including whether they may step away from the business or how their personal life could affect perceptions of their ability to run a company.
Founders may also underestimate how much fundraising comes down to simply talking to enough investors.
“It’s not about talking to two investors, it’s about talking to 100,” explained Romanow. “You get the best results when you run the widest search.”
Fox noted that venture capital has always been built around balancing risk against the possibility of outsized returns.
