But it should also be a day when we confront the barriers and challenges women continue to face.
The ultimate goal will be when everyday is Womens Day.
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Theres not really a conversation yet from a professional perspective [on ethnicity].
Micky Chen and her sister Linky realised theres really no need to go for one or the other.
From this realisation, the sisters launchedMinitein 2020.
The platform connects companies to top students available to work on projects at hourly freelance rates.
In January 2022, they launched their first funding round and have since secured 300k in investment.
For her, the biggest barrier facing women of colour founders is:
The lack of diversity among investors.
The typical investor often cant relate to us, because we dont look like them.
Many people invest in those that they identify with.
Investing in people of colour is in fact a great business opportunity.
Were incredibly resilient and have unique perspectives and experiences, and that makes us strong, driven entrepreneurs.
Whats one piece of advice Chen would like to share with would-be founders?
Identify the problem you want to solve and the positive impact you want to have.
How can you make a difference through your business?
If you find your why, everything else will fall into place.
Whenever Im having a bad day, I remind myself of my why.
We need more female decision-makers that will understand the issues other female entrepreneurs are facing and solving.
But these barriers wont faze Lis drive to bring ethical AI standards to the tech world.
The program has so far impacted 15,000 women across Europe and Asia with its digital-skills training programs.
She was also nominated for the UNESCO Prize for Girls and Womens Education.
Standalone mentoring programs that are geared towards fixing women instead of the system are also ineffective.
Instead we need access to mentoring which is geared towards capital.
Not only is tokenism wrong, but it also hurts us and our businesses.
Motsoaledi told TNW:
Its phenomenal.
This is something she believes could be helped by improving the visibility of these founders.
The same goes for diversity within startups.
We had to change the way we did our app process, how we appealed to candidates, etc.
to ensure women feel confident to apply for our roles.
Its a perpetuating system.
Moreover, the underperformance of public markets and inflationary dynamics empower investors to employ fear tactics around capital access.
I see the fastest and most impactful change coming from the angel investor community.
Is it a internet in a target client base?
Product or sector knowledge?
Discuss this upfront and ask for examples of how theyve delivered such value to their portfolio companies.
Its importance should not be underestimated.
Remember, its a numbers game and you should aim for 50-100+ investor names on your target list.
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