All I could think was, I failed my team, the majority of which is female.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to my first in-person dinner for work in a long time. (Yes. It was outdoors, and everyone was doing their part to be extremely cautious). It was a group of working women and mothers in the tech industry to hear activist & author Eve Rodsky moderate a roundtable discussion on gender equality from equal pay to equal parenting. The conversation quickly turned personal.

A friend and partner at a well-known law firm stood up and told a story: a male partner had asked her upon finding out that she was newly pregnant, ‘Will you be taking the WHOLE maternity leave?’ To which she responded, ‘Why wouldn’t I? It’s a WHOLE baby!?” She quickly found out she was the first female partner ever to do this at her firm — a firm with over 1000 employees.

What I realized upon hearing this, having fundraised through three pregnancies and never taken a maternity leave at all, I had failed my team. I had set an unintentional precedent for maternity leave policy at Halogen VC, where our focus and mission is to invest in women. I had fundraised through 3 separate pregnancies. And made it look possible (which it isn’t).

Juggling two full-time jobs is really hard

My friend went on to share her advice for other women, ‘Take the whole maternity leave. We all have to take the whole maternity leave.’ By standing up and taking the leave, it becomes more normal in what is not a ‘maternity leave’ friendly world. It was a triggering topic for me. I’m sure other women who are raising a family, regardless of whether you work in addition to the full-time job of being a mom, can relate. There are so many emotions: guilt, shame, loneliness, resentment, I could go on.

I’m sharing my personal experience because I want to give hope to all the struggling women and moms, and more importantly, I want to find real solutions for these problems. Problems that have been present for a hundred years but have been brought to life and amplified during the pandemic. Let me be clear. As one colleague said to me, ‘Childcare is a hot topic right now,’ to which I retorted, ‘No, it’s a CRISIS, not a trend, not a hot topic!’ It’s a national emergency we, as a society, across gender, age, race, etc., need to do everything we can to fix and fast.

I’ve seen it on pitch meetings, with toddlers popping up in zoom backgrounds with embarrassed parents quickly turning the video off and throwing their well-rehearsed pitches off-kilter. I’ve seen it in board meetings, with founders who would have normally met me in person dialing in over the phone, staying muted while balancing varying shades of chaos in the background. I’ve seen it in my friends’ lives, with some of them stepping back from the workforce, unable to manage it all, while others lamented missed career growth opportunities because they were essentially working two full-time jobs at once, as am I, as are so many of you.

The mass daycares like the well-known Bright Horizons are unaffordable in Los Angeles, ranging from $22,000 to 45,000 for children under 6. Forget college! Start saving for pre-school and daycare when you are 15. And also, make sure you are ready to be involved. Make sure you have extra time to help fundraise and do everything you possibly can for the school. I’ve missed picture day. I’ve been called out more than once by room moms and pre-school gala organizers for not contributing silent auction items, volunteering, or showing up for the Halloween parade. It’s brutal.

It’s an understatement to say that it’s cost-prohibitive for most American families to have children, let alone multiple children. In a country with a declining population growth rate and a clear-eyed view of what that means for its future status as a global economic superpower (ahem, nothing good), it seems we might be collectively motivated to fix this specific problem.

And yet.

Over 2.3M women left the workforce in just the first 10 months of the pandemic. That month, women’s participation in the workforce dropped to 57 percent, the lowest since 1988. And we know why. Everyone knows why. Because mothers take the brunt of it. No matter how 50/50 your relationship is and how much you have studied Eve Rodsky’s incredible book ‘Fair Play’ to level out your partnership, we know it’s because of the Moms.

And now, 18 months in, that number has been ticking up by the tens of thousands each month. And, as employers look ahead to a return either full-time in-office work or to hybrid workplaces, working mothers — many with inadequate childcare options in front of them — are the ones to feel the pinch of that shift.

The pandemic isn’t the root cause here

It’s just the magnifying glass that cracked the whole broken system open and exposed it for what it is. Think about this: Even pre-pandemic, a lack of access to childcare cost American families $37 billion in lost income and employers $13 billion a year in lost productivity — each year. It’s frustrating that I even have to type these words, but this isn’t something you can sideline as a women’s issue. This isn’t something that impacts only half the population, although women experience the brunt of the fallout. This is an American family issue. It’s a human issue. It’s a Dad issue. It’s a foster care issue. It’s a homelessness issue. And it’s a burning priority of an economic issue. Yes! These things are connected!

So, let’s quickly look at the underlying factors: First, care is too expensive for most working families to afford. According to the federal government, affordable child care shouldn’t exceed seven percent of a family’s income. In rural communities, with home care centers dominating but childcare deserts abounding, that looks more like 12 percent. In a heavily populated state like California, with extremely high real estate costs, that number goes up to nearly 25 percent. And for single parents, it comes to a staggering 34 percent.

But this equation is broken on both sides. Because at the same time, caregivers are often poorly compensated and struggle to make a living wage. Nearly 12 percent of child care workers live in poverty. On average, the true cost of providing quality child care is 42 percent more than what care providers charge families. It has become normalized for both the employer and employee to pay under the table due to lack of resources on both ends.

Some of that delta has to be covered by the federal government if we’re going to keep pace with the rest of the world. Trailing other developed nations in parental leave, universal childcare, and early education, the U.S. government has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to its role in subsidizing the cost of this necessary care. In fact, in America, parents pay nearly twice the average of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries on childcare (Americans pay 23.1 percent of net income where the OECD average is 11.8 percent).

The next underlying issue is that there’s a real scarcity of quality childcare options in many, correction, most parts of the country. Even pre-pandemic, between 2018 and 2019, according to the non-profit Childcare Aware, “53% of states reported a decline in the number of child care centers…and 79% of states reported a decline in family child care (FCC) providers.” The pandemic has accelerated those closures in a way we won’t properly understand for another few years. Operating at slim margins, so many small child care centers and home daycares were forced to close, unable to ride out the uncertainty of shifting regulations and stay-at-home orders. Many of them won’t reopen, leaving already underserved communities with even fewer options.

And finally, there isn’t enough flexibility built into most childcare options to support working parents — and this again disproportionately impacts low-income families. After-hours, summer, and holiday care (known as wraparound care in the industry, meant to build around school calendars) are all cost-prohibitive additions that don’t fit into many families’ budgets. Why isn’t some form of school year-round? This is childcare for many families.

It’s time to disrupt childcare

These are deeply rooted challenges that aren’t going to be solved by one mom — no matter how much of a superwoman she is — or even just one employer. But a combination of government funding (child tax credits are a good start) and true disruption might be the answer. Companies like our portfolio company Weecare are creating affordable solutions with 2500 in-home and vetted childcare locations across the country. And the bet I’m really eager and ready to place is on the female founders who are looking to disrupt and reimagine a broken system. The visionaries who have already built companies in and around the childcare and family system that we work with like Hop Skip Drive, WeeCare, Brella,Caribu, and Binti. The ones who are obsessed with finding solutions to the problems they live and breathe every single day. The ones who are not just thinking about how hard everything feels right now, but seeing that there’s an opportunity for all of us to do better, for us to throw out the systems that don’t serve us and replace them with smarter, better, more efficient ideas.

Childcare is a significantly underserved opportunity, and as an investor, I see it as one of the most lucrative opportunities in the next 10+ years.

Venmo, Uber, and Airbnb, to name a few, came out of the 2008 recession. When people needed new ways to work and make money, they realized that individuals, peers, and communities could have more power than institutions. And those people and companies changed the way we live, travel, and work. They also drove billions of dollars in job creation and economic opportunity for consumers and investors alike. Imagine if they also had real childcare options back then, would they be valued higher?

The big, hairy audacious goal that will come out of this pandemic has to be finding a solution to the child care crisis. Again, it’s a crisis!

Because it’s millions of women and men hiding in closets screaming into the void. It’s parents perma-muted on zoom, nodding along as their coworkers pitch ideas while their household melts down in the background. It’s nannies, daycare workers, and other caregivers taking second jobs because their socially necessary first job doesn’t pay the bills. It’s 60 percent of rural Americans living in a childcare desert. And it’s parents, mostly women, giving up their future earnings potential by stepping away from the workforce because they don’t have a childcare option available that feels both safe and reliable — without exceeding their monthly paycheck.

Those are the problems. Now, what we need are solutions. Questions to ask: Could childcare-oriented salaries be tax free? Could every single corporation be required to offer some customized benefits so that they could be used for what you need? Is there a better solution for foster care? If we focus on solving foster care, will over 50% of the homeless be off of the street? (The answer is yes.)

And I’m betting on the female founders who are feeling the impacts of this crisis every day to find those solutions. These future billionaires don’t just have vision, grit, and a strategic point of view; they have skin in the game. And there’s nothing more powerful than that when it comes to building a business that can change the game — and the world.

Calling all fellow investors everywhere! Today, childcare is a $54B+ industry, with nearly a $1T impact on the economy. But looking into the future, the future of families is more like a $7.5T opportunity, according to the data our team at Halogen has collected. I’m excited to invest in this opportunity. I love space travel and rocketships and blockchain as much as the next investor, but childcare and the future of families is a trillion-dollar opportunity and needs innovation and solutions here on Earth. I’m excited at the potential to make real change by investing in childcare. However, I can’t do it alone. We need more funds pouring capital into this loving space.

And here’s one small thing you can do, take the whole maternity leave. By the way, Dad’s can take the whole paternity leave too.

It’s a Whole Baby, Take the Whole Maternity Leave was originally published in Index on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Big Boob Cartel, that’s what my husband and I started calling it. It being the ‘breast is best’ guilt-ridden look on my face when another lactation consultant or self proclaimed breastfeeding expert comes into my hospital room. It being the breast-force-feeding mafia. That’s what it feels like to me after 3 kids and thousands of pro breastfeeding personalities and opinions. I’m not against breast feeding but I want to share another perspective with you. I’ve had 3 preemies, each came at least a month early. I guess I bake them in 8 months instead of 9. Each of my sons spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) immediately following their birth. I never really got to keep my baby right after I had him is what it felt like to a freshly postpartum Mom.

Baby 1. They pushed a breast pump on me immediately. ‘Pump. Every 3 hours. You aren’t producing enough milk? Pump every 2 hours.’ So I diligently did and slept less than I pumped. I didn’t have a baby officially in my hands yet as he was in the NICU and I’d visit but he was being fed through a tube in a glass box so I couldn’t even really practice breastfeeding with him yet. There I was, pumping religiously without a baby. After a few days, when I finally could, they were expecting him to latch on despite the fact he still had a small feeding tube in the side of his tiny mouth. It felt like everyone was an expert on breastfeeding. When I finally could take him home, he’d already been consistently on formula and I was still barely producing anything. I had all the specialists, lactation consultants, nurses, even some who came to my house. I tried so hard but I just wasn’t producing enough milk to feed my child. At most, I was lucky to be getting him ¼ of what he needed. I remember walking in a daze into a legal office for a meeting with my husband and my son. My son was about 3 months old. Painted across my face was that newborn daze screaming that you haven’t slept in weeks, barely functioning and going through the motions like a zombie. We were there setting up guardianship and our will. The receptionist saw my tired eyes and a new baby in our stroller and said ‘Aw! A Baby! Are you breastfeeding?’ Just like that. Straight out of the gate. I wasn’t even taken aback by this, I was so tired. I began trying to answer the question. ‘Well, sort of, he was in the NICU, so…it’s been hard….’ she interrupted my exhaustion orientated answer on the verge of tears with ‘Well, you aren’t drinking enough water! Drink more water.’ All of the sudden, I was really looking forward to the meeting with our lawyer on what may happen if we died. And my son was formula fed.

Baby 2. I was ready, there’s no way my second kid would end up in the NICU! I was planning on trying a new breast pump out. I had my second son. I got to sleep with him for a few hours in the hospital! Heaven. Suddenly, the nurse summoned our doctor who whispered to all the other nurses and then to my husband. All I heard after that was fuzzy, my vision went blurry from my tears, I screamed like a lioness when I realized my son was being taken from me, yet again. There is nothing more painful than having your child taken from you right after you’ve given birth even if in your right mind you know it’s for the health of your child. You are not logical in that state. It’s pure cavewoman. All of the sudden, I was alone. My husband was with the baby in the NICU because after watching the first season of ‘Jane the Virgin’ where her baby is stolen in the hospital, it’s become my greatest fear. We now have a ‘someone with the baby at all times’ rule. (I’m aware this is a ridiculous fear…but, is it?)I was digesting this information I’d just been given about my son not being able to breathe on his own. The next person to enter my room was the lactation specialist. She lectured me for far too long on how to self express and how important it was to pump. I tried to tell her that this was my second kid and I did have experience with this. I could barely speak through my tears and raging hormones from my child having just been taken. I started pumping. It wasn’t working. When I could visit the NICU this time, I was excited to try breast feeding with him in a new light. Second time around you know that there’s an actual chemical reaction that happens when your skin touches baby’s and that’s how you get your boobs going. Skin to skin is the key. It was going to work this time. I was so optimistic! I was excited! However, after trying and trying, I was still producing so little. The NICU feels to me like a magical baby safe haven with as many lactation specialists as can fit per square foot. The first one comes behind my little curtained off room. Grabs my boob. Tells me everything I’m doing wrong. Again, I can barely speak because discussing my breast feeding battle is such a loaded question and topic for me. ‘I’ve done this before. I don’t really want help right now but …thank you.’ My mother’s and grandmother’s manners lessons are drilled into me even in the most vulnerable of times. ‘Be kind, don’t forget to thank everyone.’ Finally we get her to leave so I can continue on my breastfeeding journey solo. Shift change in the NICU: Second lactation specialist comes in ‘Hi. How much milk are you producing?’ Grabs my boob, makes it flatter. I’m polite. She leaves. Next lactation specialist peeks her head in. I’m polite. Next one. I’m polite. Next one. I’m polite. Next one. I’m not. ‘It seems like you’re having a lot of trouble, you need to be pumping more.’ Aaaannnddd I’m not polite. I’m about to cut a B#?!H ! There is nothing comparable to the extreme emotions of a new hormonal mother when it comes to anything surrounding her child. My amazing husband started glancing around for any lactation specialists switching to offense and intercepting before they made it to my tent-like room. I overheard him once ‘She really doesn’t want help. This is our second kid. She’s really sensitive about this.’ Lactation specialist, let’s call her Cindy, said kindly ‘I’ll come back later.’ My amazing husband says ‘No.Don’t come back’. And my son was formula fed.

Baby 3. My husband goes, ‘So did you buy a new breast pump? We got rid of the old one.’

Me (not looking up): Nope.

Husband: Are you going to buy one?

Me: Nope.

My water breaks at 8 months again. No surprise there and yet, I am surprised every single time. After 2 vaginal births, an emergency c section was took my surprise to a new level! I’d been knocked out with general anesthesia via mask due to not having had an epidural yet and my doctor later told me that she hadn’t knocked someone out like that in 10 years. For those of you who haven’t had an emergency c section, it’s a decision made in minutes. All of the sudden you’re in ‘Gray’s Anatomy’ on an operating table and in my case, I was knocked unconscious in minutes as well, not quite knowing what happened when I woke up. By the time you get to the post partum room in the hospital, you’re still not aware of what’s going on. I was processing if I was pregnant or not, if I had a baby? Where was the baby? How did I have a baby if I don’t remember it? I was in a very fuzzy-brained shock. My first nurse comes in. She might have introduced herself earlier but my brain wasn’t working yet. She says ‘You seem really anxious, do you have a lot of anxiety in your regular life?’ My husband cracks up because as I have a fairly normal amount of anxiety in my daily life, I say ‘What?! I’m a CEO and a badass Mom, No! I did just have an emergency c section though and my baby is in the NICU so that may make me anxious?!’ I’m sort of in a fog about why this woman doesn’t understand what I just went through and the next person to come in the door is…wait for it…a lactation specialist. I look at this woman who has no idea what she just walked into and I restrain my hormonal self from biting her head off. Because I literally don’t have the strength or clarity to speak to her and explain, I hold up the palm of my hand in a ‘Halt!’ gesture and I just say ‘No. I respect your profession. But No.’

I do respect the lactation consultant profession but I also respect the people who decide not to breastfeed. I respect the people who adopt and cannot breastfeed. And I respect all the people who do not breastfeed for whatever the reason. There should be no stigma here. And then, there’s the category that I’m in: the people who try but cannot. Just like I respect the people who do decide to breastfeed. I encourage everyone to be thoughtful about the mothers and fathers with children who formula feed. We are also worthy of this respect. Yes, the CDC recommends ‘Breast is Best’, breastfeeeding is good for the mother as well as the baby and breastfeeding overall has numerous benefits. I also respect science and anatomy.

That said, not everyone can breastfeed. This is for a multitude of reasons from socioeconomic to health related situations, mastectomies and so many other reasons. In my case, I never had the choice. And I was so ashamed and shamed. Moms at baby group, as previously shared, even Mom receptionists I have never met. I always felt the need to defend that my kids were put on formula in the NICU by health care professionals. I never had the choice to solely breastfeed and I never had the proper bodily strength and operations to provide my sons enough breast milk to keep them alive. I still feel like I failed my children. I feel like an enormous maternal failure. When I think about my time in the NICU with each child, I’m haunted by a notecard on their wheelable window cribs that had each of my children’s name written in on a paper card that is sponsored by Medela. Medela, the breast pump company who’s literally advertising at birth and then at the top in larger writing it says ‘I’m a Breast Fed Boy!’ I mentioned this to one of our nurses this 3rd time around and she got him a new card which honestly made me cry because it was such a small thing that was shaming me without my even realizing it.

I wanted to breastfeed so badly but I never could. I tear up writing this. This time, I am breastfeeding when I can and he’s mostly on formula but I’m trying not to beat myself up about it. By the way, there are numerous benefits to formula feeding, one being that it promotes equality between partners and my fantastic husband can participate in the feeding just as much as I do. For those children who are lactose intolerant, there are lactose free formula options, for women who have mastectomy’s, for gay male couples, there are many options.

I still haven’t bought a new pump. To all the new mothers and father’s out there who feel ashamed that they can’t breastfeed or even just decide not to breastfeed. Don’t feel shame. Be proud. You just had an effing baby or created a family somehow! You are super human! Whatever you decide or frankly need to do to keep your child healthy and alive, is the right decision. Everyone’s decision is their own. There should be no pressure to go either way. Normalize formula feeding. Don’t feel shame or inadequacy.

By Jesse Draper

As I reflect on this character defining year, and honor the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I’m inspired by the fierce, courageous women who have stepped up to fight for a better future. From politics, to activism, to technology and business, to the Moms at home raising families while working on Zoom, 2020 continues to prove what I’ve known for a long time — women will continue to persevere and lead despite the most challenging of circumstances.

I’ve spent my career in venture capital on a mission to prove this, but our fight is far from over. The very rights Ruth Bader Ginsburg dedicated her life fighting for, are now at stake. So what can we do? Yes, we vote. Yes, we get our friends to vote. But, if we want real change, we shift the power. We invest in women. All across the board. We invest in women.

Let me start with a personal story, one night last fall, before COVID-19 had sequestered us all in our homes, I had just landed at LAX, after a trip to NYC. I was exhausted. I had two kids at home and was beginning the fundraise of my second fund at Halogen Ventures, the women-focused venture fund I founded in 2016. We’d deployed our first venture fund over the past three years. Of my portfolio companies, six had exited, two of them acquired for over $100M to companies like P&G and Walmart. And now, I was starting to build on that track record of success and raise my second fund.

In that particular moment however, I was aching to get home, kiss my kids, and crawl into bed. These things are never so simple when you are a Mom working around the clock. I got a text from one of my investors inviting me to a dinner. She’d begged her husband to secure a seat at the table for me. She told me I had to muster up the energy and go because I’d walk out of this room with a meaningful contribution to my next fund. How could I say no?

I’m not going to bore you with the details of that dinner. The Cliff’s Notes version is that it was a room full of older men who were drunk and high after a day on the golf course which they openly shared with me. And it ended when they raced off to hotel suites where they were meeting the prostitutes they had booked while sitting at a table with me.

I’m not telling this story to shock you. I’m telling it because as maddening and wildly inappropriate as it is, it actually didn’t shock me. I could also tell you about the numerous times older men have said ‘Hey cutie, women founders isn’t a big enough market,’ or the pension fund manager who literally spat his coffee in my face while laughing when he saw the page in my deck illustrating that we only invested in companies with a female founder. Other things I have heard; ‘Don’t they all end up having babies and quitting?’ ‘Too many cat fights’ ‘Not enough deal flow because no women are starting companies.’ For the record we had 4,972 deals come through our inbox in 2019. And there’s no shortage of stories like these. I think about how Justice Ginsberg handed her own experiences with misogyny, “how dare you” she poignantly stated.

When you look through that lens, it’s not at all surprising that the diversity numbers are so grim in venture capital. Only 7% percent of decision-makers at VC firms are women. 1% of those decision-makers identify as Black. 2 percent identify as Latinx. Like I said, it’s grim.

So much fuels these numbers. There’s systemic bias, a lack of transparency in hiring and in promoting, and a lack of consideration for diversity in the recruiting process. But there’s also hostility (at its worst) and skepticism (at its best) toward women and people of color in homogeneous spaces like these.

And I’m not positive that many of the gatekeepers in the industry want to change.

Until those in positions of power at family offices, institutions, Fund of Funds and endowments at the Limited Partner level change their hundred year old investment philosophy, nothing changes. Also, I have seen firsthand, women were taught not to talk about money and to donate it as opposed to invest it. These dynamics need to change as well. Because I focus on women-led businesses, people often think I’m running a social enterprise rather than a for-profit business — despite what the numbers show. So I don’t have the luxury of walking away from opportunities to raise money — no matter how uncomfortable they make me.

On a macro level, the lack of diversity in the industry is a problem because it means most of the money flows to types of founders VCs understand — businesses with white men of a certain socioeconomic background as their target customer. It means fewer great businesses have the opportunity to thrive. It means we put fewer products out into the world that improve the lives of women, BIPOC, and marginalized communities.

But at the business level, it’s also just a boneheaded strategy. It’s leaving opportunity on the table — $3T+ of opportunity, according to Morgan Stanley. Just because I invest in women-led and women-founded companies, that doesn’t mean I’m running a non-profit. It would be wrong for me to take dollars that you’re earmarking for charity. If you want to give to charity, by all means, give to the Go Fund Me set up for Breonna Taylor’s family. Give to Planned Parenthood. Give to organizations supporting foster care and domestic violence. There are so many ways to give and we should all do it as generously as we’re able.

But that’s not what investing in women is. It is a strategic move that allows you (and me) to invest in founders and leaders who build billion dollar businesses like Spanx, Sprout Pharmaceuticals, Cloudflare, Stitch Fix, Eventbrite, Care.com, SunRun, Houzz and I could go on…. It’s a way to invest money in businesses that will exit faster for double the return. It’s a way to take advantage of wide-open spaces many other VCs can’t (or won’t) see. It’s a way to get in on consumer products that are poised to capture the imaginations of the people who make up the majority of household buying decisions. And I’m not the only one who sees this opportunity as an investment. Female Founders Fund and BBG focus similarly on women-founded businesses and have a great track record as well. Rethink Impact recently closed a $182M fund for growth stage businesses with women in the driver’s seat. Goldman Sachs has vouched to invest a $500M investment in women run companies and funds through their Launch with GS Initiative. Morgan Stanley’s Multicultural Innovation Lab which has invested in one of our portfolio companies has an accelerator that invests exclusively in women and multicultural founders. Sidenote: These are the biggest banks in the world.

But don’t take our word for it. I’ll show you the numbers. I saw 4,972 deals last year — all companies started by women. I made 10 investments. Of the 100% female founded companies in my portfolio, over half are BIPOC founders. Ethnically diverse founding teams outperform all-white founding teams by 30 percent, according to a recent report from the Kauffman Fellow Research Center. This is also a returns focused investment opportunity NOT CHARITY.

RBG had a vision she dedicated her entire life to. Because of her work, women have the right:

• To sign a mortgage without a man
• To have a bank account without a male-cosigner
• To have a job without being discriminated based on gender
• To be pregnant/have kids and work

Imagine a future where women have access to more capital, where we are building diverse teams and founding billion dollar businesses, where we have access to power and wealth and can use that to build a better world. We need to change the trajectory. We can do this by investing in women. This is the time we change this old school mentality with this call to action to all of the institutional investors, endowments, Fund of Funds and Family Offices. As painful as 2020 has been for so many, I hope this is the turning point. Invest in women. We’re not a fucking charity. We’re a $3 Trillion Opportunity.

I chatted in my tennis shoes with some of my companies and investors onstage at the Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica at the Fairmont last week. VC Jamie Montgomery was supporting female entrepreneurs at his ‘Rise of the Female Entrepreneur’ event before it was essential to the success of every conference to include women. Some key insights I took from the overall event:

-It’s never easy to fundraise! Carbon38 CEO Katie Warner Johnson along with other women speaking at the conference like InDinero’s Jessica Mah alluded to raising millions of dollars in $25,000 — $50,000 checks or by taking the non-traditional route of family offices because traditional venture capital funds weren’t supportive of their billion dollar visions. While this needs to change, it doesn’t matter as nothing will stop a great founder from creating a billion dollar business.

-Marketplaces are a real art to scale! Shilla Kim-Parker of Thrilling, Joanna McFarland of Hopskipdrive and Katie from Carbon38 are 3 examples of founders who’ve succeeded. Whether it be Hopskipdrive including the Foster Care system in their solution for on demand rides, Carbon38’s 300+ brands that they support on their platform or Thrilling’s idea of recycling clothing via technology for businesses, these marketplace ladies blew the public company marketplaces we all know out of the water!

-There is still room for innovation in fashion! Pooneh Mohajer who is on her second company Tokidoki (she was co-founder of Hard Candy which she and her sister sold to LVMH in the late 1990’s) is taking the licensing model to new heights as her partner Simone Legno is the artist and co-founder behind these creative and recognizable worldwide designs. Katie Warner Johnson who created the first ever ambassador program with micro influencers is what propelled Carbon38’s significant growth! And Shilla from Thrilling has mastered the art of B2B resale in a way that’s never been done before. It turns out this multi billion dollar market is just getting going. Talk about innovation.

When it comes to women on the rise, this panel spelled it out pretty clearly. Invest in women and co-Ed teams! Why wouldn’t you????!!!