Neha Mehta has joined the First Followers as a co-founder to promote gender diversity at the fund manager & founder level. She is an experienced entrepreneur & operator with experience building different businesses in India, the USA, Sub-saharan Africa, and the Middle East. In her two decades of experience, she has worked with several MNCs, Corporates, OTTs, Content Aggregators, and Investors. She has been active in the venture ecosystem as a mentor to several entrepreneurs, angel networks, and family business owners.
Her fantastic piece (personal blog style) on what she believes is the problem.
All women are asset managers, money allocators, controllers & managers. And excellent ones at that. However, when it comes to numbers, most of us fail to think big; some of us don’t know where to begin, and few of us who want to create change are bullied into inaction.
The concept was also demonized for me, as it is for many women. A woman is ideally a caregiver, a submissive, a homemaker, and a money manager ( not an asset holder or creator ) because that will increase her chances of finding a “good” husband. A little ambition in a woman is not a sexy trait at all. Let’s say that no man unwilling to share opportunity and control is a “good” man. Find a “normal man” or just a “man” who looks at you as a Co partner and not as a manager in his home and life. Figure your relationship with wealth independently, unapologetically, and brutally.
A strong gender bias in investing in companies is not a Social or a Feminism protest. It’s a business case. And let’s discuss it in numbers.
Today, women control a third of US household financial assets—more than $10 trillion. [Ref]
I want to tell all women that no one is coming if you don’t make it your priority. In most cases, we are not decision-makers, just caretakers of financial assets and flow. We are kept away from critical discussions and real talk.
My mission is to shift the control of the world's future and wealth to rooms full of women making decisions.
Let’s start taking investing goals to be more female-oriented & gender smart.
Today, the Nigerian currency Naira is projected to hit 900 against the dollar when it used to be 192N against the dollar in 2015. The crypto bubble is crashing. Sri Lanka has been taken over by China. The Lebanese economy has crashed completely in 1 year. The US controls the money, where three people are the decision maker for the entire world, and they are all men. Their wives became rich after getting their divorce however, ironically still leave control of their money behind because Capitalism doesn’t come intrinsically to us. This conditioning is where the mindset needs a serious overhaul. Because things have gone out of proportion for letting just men manage & control money, we need a balance, feminine leadership in financing to bring the natural balance back.
The issue is not enough women taking control of global finance and economics the way a man does. Women are not holding the position of decision-making where economics is concerned. And we want to change that. And mind it, this is not a feminist issue; it’s not a social issue either …it’s a bloody economic crisis. And we all are facing the brunt of this; hence, the planet and the animals suffer too. Yes, I said animals, and we will get to that later.
I feel very personally about this, and I may get some backlash from saying this; Why do we need women fund managers - because No 1, they do it better, and No 2, they are more diligent and far-sighted. According to IFC1, the statistic shows that gender-diverse fund teams deliver an incremental 10%-20% return compared to a non-gender-diverse team.
I was buying designer bags and shoes but had no actual credit score, assets, or money invested in Equity. It was a good life but was it a rock-solid life? No - Am I leaving a mark on the planet with the money by investing and channelizing money myself rather than letting my male colleagues and wealth managers manage it on my behalf. I want to bring a gender-smart lens to my investment. For that, I need to control the flow of capital.
I learned it the hard way because when the castle came crumbling down, I had no financial rock-solid wall to stand back on. I had never considered investments and saving and, at some point, even earning as my problem because I did not prioritize them.
Whether you are a homemaker, an entrepreneur, a professional, or a creator. Love and Manage money. And be proud to do so. Do a little, and then do a little more.
And I want to tell women that no one can do it better than you. I also want to change conversations and want more women ( All women) talking about finances, investing, and fundraising because financial equality is everyone's birthright. But it won’t come sitting. It won’t be handed over either by merely asking. You will have to make that seat on the table and then make the table turn to listen to you.
I want to support this change and do as much as possible work in this as I wish was done before me, and I had someone like me when I needed HER.
So I pray that before I put the cards down on life, I would have done some work to change the relationship between money and women.
Let’s teach you where to start and this time, let us control & manage it consciously so we can preserve this planet earth & give back to the communities as women being better controllers of wealth.
Written by NEHA Mehta
Note: If you want to be in touch with Neha and discuss something, mail her at office.neham@gmail.com.
By the way, Neha is a badass artist - her motto is to let it flow; look at her recent work!
The case for female (women) fund managers
[Article] Female-managed US funds outperform all-male rivals
[Article] Female fund managers make the case for gender alpha in emerging-markets
[Podcast] Common Traits Shared by Top GPs, Why Underrepresented Fund Managers Will Produce Superior Returns
[Case Study] Institutional Investors Must Help Close the Race and Gender Gaps in Venture Capital by Harvard Business Review
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Super inspiring ,very engrossing and worthwhile.