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2 Developing entrepreneurial identity
among start-ups’ female founders in
high-tech: policy implications from the
Chilean case
Katherina Kuschel and Juan-Pablo Labra
Entrepreneurial identity and female founders
e science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector is driving
economic growth (Csorny, 2013). Although female participation in the technology
industry is growing (Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 2016), the process is
still slow and female founders represent an underexplored sample in the current
literature of technology entrepreneurship and other social elds. Some studies on
female founders focus on founders’ career advancement and identity (Dy, Marlow,
and Martin, 2017; Marlow and McAdam, 2015), and some report their participa-
tion rate (Berger and Kuckertz, 2016) and barriers they face while raising risk capi-
tal (Gatewood, Brush, Carter, Greene, and Hart, 2009) or scaling their businesses
(Kenney and Patton, 2015; Kuschel et al., 2017).
Entrepreneurial identity
Social identity is a component of the personal identity associated with the mem-
bership in social cohorts (Alvesson and Due Billing, 2009; Ashforth, 2001).
‘Entrepreneur’ may be a category or social identity. A review of the literature
on entrepreneurial identity conducted by Ollila and Williams-Middleton (2012)
reported that many of the articles reviewed present identity as a xed state of
existence, resulting in categorizations of entrepreneurial identities (e.g., Vesalainen
and Pihkala, 2000). ese categories include entrepreneurial identity as it relates
to ethnicity, gender, career path and family framework, rather than as a method
or process of construction and growth. A small portion of the literature reviewed
discusses themes such as narrative and storytelling as a means towards shaping an
entrepreneurial identity (Jones et al., 2008). Of this selection, some authors also
propose entrepreneurial identity as being constructed in a situation (Down and
Warren, 2008; Hytti, 2003; Johansson, 2004) and through socialization (Falck et al.,
2012; Rigg and O’Dwyer, 2012).
28 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Entrepreneurial identity among women
Nadin (2007) studied female entrepreneurs in the care-giving sector and found that
they often silenced their entrepreneurial identity and embraced their female iden-
tity, explained in terms of their desire for legitimacy and integrity. is study also
displays the diversity of positioning and the potential contradictions (for example,
between ‘boss’ and ‘friend’). In other words, their sense of self is shaped by the
social context, but these women also have agency to enact gendered practices and
to contribute to the construction of their identity. Similarly, a study on the narra-
tives of women in family business show how they challenge forces of patriarchy or
paternalism by using an alternative discourse (Hamilton, 2006). A qualitative study
on Spanish women entrepreneurs explained how women perceived the dissonance
between the two discourses of being a woman and an entrepreneur, and how they
engaged in practices of doing and redoing gender (Díaz-García and Welter, 2011).
Morris et al. (2006) pointed out the relevance of identity studies on female entre-
preneurs. ey found that modest- and high-growth entrepreneurs dier in how
they view themselves, their families, their ventures and the larger environment.
eir results suggest that growth is a deliberate choice and that women know the
costs and benets of growth and make cautious trade-o decisions.
To our knowledge, the question of how entrepreneurial identity is constructed
among dierent industries has not been signicantly explored in the literature,
nor have the peculiarities of the identity construction of female founders in the
technology industry and in countries outside the United States (US). is chapter
aims to address the call for discussing two issues that have been not fully recog-
nized within the entrepreneurship research agenda (Ahl, 2006; Bruni et al., 2005;
Díaz-García and Welter, 2011): rst, the use of masculine constructs that position
women as the ‘others’ who need to adapt to existing systems and structures; and
second, the vast heterogeneity of women’s entrepreneurship.
Female founders in the technology industry
e technology sector is, by a wide margin, a male-dominated industry. is fact
has been well reported. According to estimations of Coleman and Robb (2009), 5‒6
percent of high-technology entrepreneurs are women, and normally 3‒5 percent
of incubated or accelerated projects are led by women. A recent review of the
literature revealed that there is very limited research on technology businesses
run by women, and even less conducted in Latin American countries (Kuschel and
Lepeley, 2016a). e same authors have analyzed the performance of women in
high-technology industries and observed that, although the proportion of women
in entrepreneurship generally compared with men has increased considerably, the
proportion of women in the high-tech industry ‒ an opportunity-driven type of
entrepreneurship ‒ is still very low. is evidence uncovers the need to increase
eorts to bring women into high-tech participation. Furthermore, women in high-
tech start-ups and entrepreneurship positions can be used as a proxy to assess the
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 29
eects of women leadership (that is, women investors, executive women in tech
companies, women leading networks). At the same time, this solution can also
deal with the need to increase the proportion of women leaders in global and fast-
growing industries by providing role models and access to meaningful education
(Lepeley et al., 2016).
Although the identity construction of female founders in Latin America can be
a prolic line of research and contribute to entrepreneurial education, the lack
of knowledge in the literature is a limit to developing eorts to increase the total
number of female entrepreneurs participating in economic activity (Cohoon et al.,
2010).
In Chile in 2010, the government created the Start-Up Chile program. It is a public
acceleration endeavor intended to expand the entrepreneurial ecosystem and pro-
mote a pro-entrepreneurship culture by ‘importing entrepreneurs’ (Leatherbee
and Eesley, 2014). Today Chile is considered one of the main innovation hubs in
Latin America and around the world, often referred to as ‘Chilecon Valley’ (e
Economist, 2012; Washington Post, 2014).
e aim of this chapter is to identify and examine the elements that contribute to
building identity among female entrepreneurs in the technology industry. Results
will show the constraints and obstacles female entrepreneurs face when attempting
to build their entrepreneurial identity and we expect that these may help policy-
makers to design and implement new reforms that facilitate female participation in
entrepreneurship. is growth will serve as an important component of economic
development supporting high growth among women entrepreneurs.
Methodology
Specically, this study is based on start-ups that participated in the Start-Up Chile
acceleration program (SUP), a public grant of US$33 000 per project. e grant is
‘equity-free’, meaning that the government is not taking business participation.
Normally, three batches of 80 start-ups have been selected each year since 2010.
A start-up is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and
scalable business model (Blank, 2010). We have used data from the Start-Up Chile
program because of its viability and ease of access and also because it may serve as
a proxy of the total population of female founders in tech.
Sample design
Our dataset consisted of 11 participants: (1) eight interviews conducted with female
founders in technology who are participating in or have participated in the Start-Up
Chile acceleration program (therefore, from dierent ‘batches’ or generations); (2)
two interviews with female founders whose start-up was not accelerated; and (3)
one venture capital investor (Table 2.1). By this procedure, we were able to identify
30 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
the present and missing elements that are contributing to the identity-building of
female founders. All interviews were conducted during 2015.
Some of the results are illustrated by the data of Start-Up Chile applicants and
beneciaries, provided by the organization. is was an anonymized database con-
taining the demographic information for each start-up team participating in the
acceleration program during ve years between March 2010 and March 2015.
Procedure
e female entrepreneurs included in the sample were contacted by e-mail and
invited to participate in an interview. Before the interview, signature of an informed
consent form was required. It contained a full explanation of the objectives and
scope of the study in compliance with established ethical policies. Researchers and
the participants signed the consent form and a copy was provided to participants.
All participants agreed to participate in audio-recorded interviews.
To fulll the requirements of the research questions, each interview followed a
semi-structured script with questions related to the following six topics: (1) moti-
vation and previous experience as entrepreneur; (2) role models; (3) funding needs
and sources; (4) team structure; (5) common obstacles; and (6) networks used.
e following is a sample of the kind of questions included in the personal
interviews: ‘Why and how did you decide to apply for Start-Up Chile funding?’
‘What are the future expectations for your venture?’ ‘As a female start-up founder,
did you confront special challenges raising capital?’ Interviews with the entrepre-
neurs lasted between 40 minutes and one hour and 20 minutes. After the interview,
Table 2.1 Sample characteristics
Participant
ID
Country Industry Age Co-founders
+ employees
SUP Chile
batch
CM Argentina Fashion e-commerce 32 4 + 6 11
DG Chile E-commerce 31 3 + 43 9
LF USA Energy 31 1 + 1 1
PC Chile Education 31 2 + 4 –
GV Estonia Services (recruiting and hiring) 29 3 + 2 –
SC Argentina Software as a service 32 4 + 6 6
AS Venezuela Health technology 26 5 + 0 11
CN Mexico Entertainment 33 3 + 0 6
LC Argentina Software as a service 32 4 + 6 6
VK Argentina Venture capital investment 40 – –
MA Chile Software as a service 32 2 + 1 6
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 31
each audio recording was transcribed verbatim and entered into the Atlas.ti v.7.0
software for qualitative analysis.
Analysis
We have applied a grounded theory approach to our data, dened as ‘the discov-
ery of theory from data systematically obtained from social research’ (Glaser and
Strauss, 1967: 2). Briey, a grounded theory approach consists in simultaneous col-
lection and analysis of data, a creation of analytic codes and categories developed
from data and not by pre-existing conceptualizations, inductive construction of
abstract categories, theoretical sampling to rene categories, and writing analytical
memos as the stage between coding and writing.
Results
We observed that the rst wave of female entrepreneurs in technology shared some
common characteristics as they responded to an underdeveloped entrepreneurial
ecosystem.
Female participation
Being a woman as being part of a minority
Table 2.2 shows female participation in the Start-Up Chile program. In the rst 13
funding rounds, 445 women out of 2,765 participants were selected for Start-Up
Chile, meaning that 16 percent of the participants were female. We include these
data as they may serve as a proxy for the total female participation in the technol-
ogy industry in Chile.
Table 2.3 shows the number of selected start-ups per funding round and the gender
of the start-ups’ leaders. ere is a strong correlation with the results presented in
Table 2.2, as 15 percent of the projects were led by women.
Moreover, the sta of Start-Up Chile (SUP) were proud to grant more opportuni-
ties to women (15 percent on average) than other accelerators do. Other accelera-
tors such as Y Combinator in Silicon Valley did not ask applicants to specify gender
on their application for many years. Although 19.5 percent of the start-ups funded
by YC during 2014 had women on the founding team (Altman, 2014), we do not
have information about start-ups actually led by women. e estimation is 2‒3
percent (Munguia, 2015).
Table 2.4 shows that, despite the lower number of female participants, there was
no signicant dierence between genders when comparing the number of female
chief executive ocers (CEOs) versus the total number of female participants.
Women who held CEO positions represented 44 percent of the total number of
32 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Table 2.3 Number of selected start-ups and gender of leader
Year Funding
round
Start-ups % by gender
Male leader Female leader Total projects Male leader Female leader
2010 0 20 2 22 91 9
2011 1 96 11 107 90 10
2011 2 133 21 154 86 14
2012 3 85 15 100 85 15
2012 4 82 18 100 82 18
2012 5 85 16 101 84 16
2013 6 89 16 105 85 15
2013 7 82 18 100 82 18
2013 8 67 18 85 79 21
2014 9 74 26 100 74 26
2014 10 90 10 100 90 10
2014 11 89 10 99 90 10
2015 12 86 14 100 86 14
Total teams 1078 195 1273 85 15
Table 2.2 Female participation in Start-Up Chile
Year Funding round Participants % by gender
Male Female Total Male Female
2010 0 21 2 23 91 9
2011 1 169 26 195 87 13
2011 2 187 34 221 85 15
2012 3 184 39 223 83 17
2012 4 163 40 203 80 20
2012 5 180 46 226 80 20
2013 6 205 36 241 85 15
2013 7 202 36 238 85 15
2013 8 162 40 202 80 20
2014 9 202 46 248 81 19
2014 10 222 34 256 87 13
2014 11 210 29 239 88 12
2015 12 213 37 250 85 15
Total participants 2320 445 2765 84 16
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 33
women who participated in the program, versus 46 percent in the case of male
CEOs.
ese numbers were apparent in every meeting, seminar with visiting consultants,
networking event, meeting with investors, or demo day. 1 e evident low participa-
tion of women in the accelerator program was taken for granted, as it was similar to
the situation of other accelerators and companies of the technology industry.
Somebody from the audience came to me and said, ‘I loved seeing a woman at a demo
day.’ en I realized that although there were more women as members of the teams that
participated in the competition, the one who pitched was always a man. (CM, Argentina,
SUP Gen 11)
Female founder as an element of dierentiation
Tech ventures founders believed that having a female co-founder might benet the
company by giving the start-up some visibility:
Beyond the fact that our start-up is about women’s clothing, thinking strategically, when
we had to decide who was going to remain as the public face of our project I said, ‘It’s
better for us that I’ll be the leader, there are only a few women in this eld (tech entrepre-
neurship).’ I do all of the pitches. (CM, Argentina, SUP Gen 11)
Female founders had two dierent attitudes regarding gender, but it was dicult
to nd female founders who were neutral to gender. At the very beginning, many if
not all female founders were gender-blind. en they started to experience obsta-
cles with clients, suppliers and potential investors in Chile; then they began to real-
ize that they had experienced gender discrimination in Chile. ey rst decided to
react aggressively to this type of discrimination by defending feminism, gathering
themselves to build a women’s group, and building their own networks. Although
some women understood that there were more benets to being ‘the only woman
in the room’, the majority tended to victimize themselves. For those women who
decided to use gender as a dierentiator, they gained several benets for the com-
pany, for the team and for themselves (that is, self-condence):
As there are not many women in this eld, I am easily remembered everywhere. (LF,
United States, SUP Gen 1)
Table 2.4 Number of selected start-ups and gender of the leader
Gender/Role Participants CEOs CEOs vs Participants
Male 2320 1078 46%
Female 445 195 44%
Total 2765 1273
34 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
I never felt less for being a woman, in fact, I never felt any issues for being a woman.
Instead, I always tried to it use it as an advantage to me. (LC, Argentina, SUP Gen 6)
No appropriate role models
For this rst wave of female entrepreneurs in technology, low female participation
in the technology industry was the norm. Female founders had no appropriate role
models to follow in the tech industry. ere was a lack of role models representing
a female entrepreneur, a female founder, a successful female entrepreneur, a suc-
cessful founder in Latin America or a more ‘balanced’ entrepreneur. Any meeting
or seminar a female entrepreneur went to was full of men, without women as
keynote speakers. Some participants mentioned Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook chief
operating ocer, although her prole does not necessarily t the role of a childless,
young female founder.
Some female and male teachers did serve the role of motivator, enhancing women’s
careers. For many women, the real role model came from their families: the entre-
preneurial activity of the couple or the father and the multiple roles of the mother.
e couple as entrepreneur
I helped my husband when he started his entrepreneurship, and he helped me back when
I started mine. He used to say, ‘the most dicult part of being an entrepreneur is to be
aware and take actions that nobody else will do for you’. (DG, Chile, SUP Gen 9)
e father as entrepreneur
My dad was always an entrepreneur. Since I was a child, I saw him making millions and
then failing to the point that we didn’t even have food on our table. And then again, the
whole success and failure cycle would repeat over and over. is had a big impact in the
way I see things in life. For me, to have a corporate job with all its nancial stability and
predened career path was always completely out of the picture. It’s not that I was explic-
itly taught to think like that, it’s just that my dad had the courage to take risks and I learnt
that from him. I have skills to face uncertainty that others who are more conservative do
not have. (SC, Argentina, SUP Gen 6)
e mother as a working woman
I had a working mother. She was a science teacher. And she had friends that were also
working mothers. She was always a ghter. (PC, Chile, not-accelerated)
No network
For the rst wave of female founders, there were no professional networks avail-
able. In the US, there are some networks in the Silicon Valley area, for example
Women 2.0, Women Who Tech, Women Tech Founders, Girls in Tech, Women
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 35
Who Code. Girls in Tech and Women Who Code were foreign networks, born in
the US, that initiated activities in Chile in 2013 and gained traction and visibility in
the media over the last few years.
Moreover, female founders usually do not participate actively in these networks at
the early stages of their start-up. Low network activity is explained by the fact that
female founders are frantically working to build their start-ups and do not want
to get distracted. Female networks also replicate gender patterns by not including
men in the conversation.
In Estonia, we have an organization called Big Sisters. I participate in almost every event
they have. But most of our activities aren’t exclusively female focused. Most of them are
focused in start-ups, or in marketing topics . . . topics that don’t have a gender. So, I haven’t
actually been part of a network intended only for women. (GV, Estonia, not-accelerated)
I started to get closer to other female colleagues at Start-Up Chile . . . We have a group
and we get together to speak about a bunch of things, not only personal stu but about
also the entrepreneurship process that we are going through as female entrepreneurs and
it’s very helpful . . . I think that we have reached a stage where what female empowering
communities should do is to provide more down-to-earth tools, right? Mentorship, access
to investors, technical knowledge, don’t you think? If I want to participate in a funding
round, what kind of paperwork do I need? And I think that many of these female empow-
ering communities are still in the stage of ‘don’t be afraid, you can do it, we’re here to help
you,’ right? More as motivators, and as emotional helpers than as providers of resources
that will really help you get through with your business idea. (CN, Mexico, SUP Gen 6)
I see a trend among all of my friends from the tech and start-ups environment, they have
a strong commitment to motivate other female entrepreneurs, to tell their story to make
themselves more visible, to inspire and help others to actively participate in this genera-
tion of female entrepreneurs. (SC, Argentina, SUP Gen 6)
At the same time, networks are not always perceived as ‘helpful’ for venture
development:
I believe that there is a very negative system of false help. at you have to go through
accelerators that are going to help, that you have to have a mentor, and that every-
one is willing to help you . . . I didn’t receive help from anybody. e guy that started
Mercadolibre didn’t receive any help. e Groupon guys didn’t receive any help. (VK,
Argentina, Angel Investor)
Teams
Small teams
Start-up Chile application limits the number of team members to a maximum of
three people. Table 2.5 shows that participants of the rst 13 nancing rounds
36 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
grouped in 1,273 teams that had one, two and three members in 24 percent, 35
percent and 41 percent of the sample, respectively.
Tables 2.6a and 2.6b show that team leadership by gender closely follows the
gender participation presented in Table 2.2. Men are leaders of 84 percent of two
and three-member teams.
Table 2.7 shows an analysis of gender composition of two and three-member teams:
65 percent of teams have male-only members, 3 percent of teams have female-only
members, 32 percent of teams are mixed-gender.
It is interesting to contrast the small number of female-only teams shown in Table
2.7 with the leadership role that females adopt within mixed-gender teams. Table 2.8
shows that, within mixed-gender teams, 42 percent of teams are led by a female CEO.
Opening up the composition and leadership within three-member teams, Table
2.9 shows that female leadership is relevant in mixed-gender groups, with a female
founder leading 82 percent of the teams that have two female members.
Table 2.5 Team size
Team size No. of teams % of teams
One member 309 24
Two members 446 35
Three members 518 41
Total 1273 100
Table 2.6a Team leadership by gender and team size: one-member teams
Team leader No. of teams % of teams
Male 270 87
Female 39 13
Total one-member teams 309 100
Table 2.6b Team leadership by gender and team size: two and three-member teams
Team leader No. of teams % of teams
Male 808 84
Female 156 16
Total two- and three-member teams 964 100
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 37
Summarizing, Start-up Chile teams show that women prefer to work either indi-
vidually or in mixed-gender groups. In these teams, females adopt the CEO posi-
tion in 42 percent of cases.
Trust-based teams
e female founders who were interviewed built their teams based on trust. At
the beginning, they formed a small team with friends with whom they had long
Table 2.7 Gender composition of two- and three-member teams
Team composition No. of teams % of teams
Only male members 624 65
Only female members 31 3
Mixed-gender members 309 32
Total two- and three-member teams 964 100
Table 2.8 Leadership by gender composition within mixed-gender teams of two and three
members
Leader gender Team size
Two members Three members Total
Male 74 104 178
Female 52 79 131
Total teams 126 183 309
% Male leader 59 57 58
% Female leader 41 43 42
Total 100 100 100
Table 2.9 Leadership by gender composition within mixed-gender teams of three members
Leader gender Team composition
Two male, one female One male, two female Total
Male 97 7 104
Female 47 32 79
Total teams 144 39 183
% Male leader 67 18 57
% Female leader 33 82 43
Total 100 100 100
38 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
relationships, or their romantic partner. ey feel that trust-based partnerships
reduce risk:
I met my business partner in high school. Since back then he is somebody who I trust very
much. Trust is key. He knows my bank account password. at level of trust, for sure.
(MA, Chile, SUP Gen 10)
It’s not easy to have a business partner in entrepreneurship. You have to trust and get to
know the other person so much as to get along on a journey that will have highs and lows.
To be able to delegate, know about strengths and weaknesses, and say, ‘okay, you take
care of this . . . or how do we complement each other. It’s not an easy job to start work-
ing right away in an entrepreneurship with somebody that you don’t know. (PC, Chile,
not-accelerated)
For some of them, their romantic partner or best friend seems to t the business
partner’s requirement of trust:
I started with my husband. He is still co-owner of the company, but in the day-to-day
activities, it’s only me as full time. He has another job. ey told us that being copreneurs
is a red ag for investors. (CM, Argentina, SUP Gen 11)
My partner and I, we both quitted Groupon and started our own business. (DG, Chile,
SUP Gen 9)
e criterion for team-building was not specialization in another area of the com-
pany, as experts recommend. is was not considered as a handicap, because later
on they include developers as business partners:
My business partner and I have been friends since we were 5 years old . . . our rst com-
pany was a software development company. My partner did the sales and I did project
management, and we met our new partners outsourcing part of our work as they were
our vendors. And we said, ‘why don’t we work as partners? In order to scale up in a much
more solid way.’ (SC, Argentina, SUP Gen 6)
Building self-confidence
Female founders who were interviewed for this study acknowledge that their male
counterparts are far more condent than they are. Part of their challenge is to
become, or at least ‘act’, as a condent founder:
We started without fear, empowered. You have to believe in yourself. My business part-
ners are the two individuals that believe more in themselves in the world. at’s not the
problem. I am the one who stays behind saying, ‘hey, what if this or that happens?’ But the
courage that we’ve had with our website has been great. I get infected by my partner’s level
of trust. ey have an incredible courage. If they believe too much in something, I can’t be
a naysayer. (DG, Chile, SUP Gen 9)
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 39
You have to believe in yourself and get out there to make things happen. ere will be
times when you will not have a clue, and therefore, the idea is to have a solid support
system, with good suppliers, good consultants, and good employees. (VK, Argentina,
Angel Investor)
At the end of the day, your gender doesn’t matter, the road of innovation and entrepre-
neurship is a hard road intended for those who have high levels of self-condence and
self-esteem. For those who wish to nd opportunities. ere are limits, for sure, the ones
that you impose upon yourself. (AS, Venezuela, SUP Gen 11)
DISCUSSION
Identity of the first wave of female techpreneurs
ese women have created entirely original ventures. e start-up founders lack
awareness of who they are (for example, business women, innovators, saleswomen),
what they want to do (business model), or how they will do it (business plan or exe-
cution). Female founders are working on something they have never been taught to
do (as well as male founders). e tech industry is, by denition, an uncertain path.
Our study revealed ve elements that contribute to the female founder identity:
female participation in the tech industry, role models, network, team and attitude,
as shown in Figure 2.1.
First, being part of a well-known accelerator program gives entrepreneurs a social
identity acknowledged by family, friends, other entrepreneurs, co-founders and
investors. Being part of a ‘minority’ also makes female founders feel special. At
the same time, they use their gender as a dierentiation element which gives them
an advantage because they become more memorable. is nding is in line with
‘optimal distinctiveness theory’ which states that individuals desire to attain an
optimal balance of inclusion and distinctivenesswithinandbetween social groups
and situations (Brewer, 2003).
Second, identity of the rst wave of female founders in Latin America was ‘self-
made’, highlighting attributes and virtues of many people they admired. Although
most of their role models were not female founders, in order to illustrate and
negotiate an entrepreneurial identity they often established provisional identities
(Ibarra, 1999) through the early stages of the venture’s formation. e cultural
factor can also play a role. Peus et al. (2015) found in a sample of 76 mid- to upper-
level female managers from China, India, Singapore and the US that a role model is
a critical factor for career advancement and success. Although they were managers,
and not entrepreneurs as in our sample, the nding is relevant for our discussion on
role models for women. Peus et al. (2015) compared the female employees in those
countries. In their results, while U.S. managers generally referred to role models
from their professional lives, in China and India role models were usually taken
from the private sphere (that is, the mother). Our Latin American data conrmed
40 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
the results of Asian data, whose culture is family-oriented and not individualistic as
in the U.S.
ird, female founders did not have emotional or business support from a net-
work. e lack of network aected their socialization and adjustment to their
role. On the other hand, they preferred to trust their own team instead of being
distracted by actively participating in a network that was only just beginning at
that time.
Fourth, contrary to the current academic advice of building an eective and func-
tional team based on the specialization of each member, female founders pre-
ferred to build small and trust-based teams. Some female founders work with their
romantic partner in the management team (Kuschel and Lepeley, 2016b). Although
this type of team may seem to be a disadvantage at the onset of their entrepreneur-
ial venture, it ultimately allowed them to leverage their self-condence. e female
founders worked to both gain legitimacy (through storytelling) and then maintain
Entrepreneurial
Identity for female
founders in tech
Female
Participation
Woman as a
Minority
Differentiation
element
Role Models No appropriate
role models
Network No network
Team
Small Teams
Trust-based
Attitude Builidng Self-
confidence
Figure 2.1 Elements for female founder identity
DEVELOPING ENTREPRENEURIAL IDENTITY AMONG START-UPS’ FEMALE FOUNDERS 41
legitimacy (through feedback from their team) in the desired role of ‘entrepreneur’
(Somers, 1994; Kuschel and Lepeley, 2016b; Williams-Middleton, 2013).
Lastly, female founders reported that the struggles and challenges they have faced
in building a successful company have, at the same time, enabled them to build
self-condence, which is a required asset to navigate through the uncertainties
of the technology industry. We conclude that these ve elements help women to
construct their identity, which is an unstable result of these beliefs, people, and
reinterpretation of facts (failures and successes).
Conclusion
Contribution
We have characterized the elements that female founders of technology ventures
utilize to build their identity in the Chilean context. An understanding of entre-
preneurial identity and identity construction will allow policy development and
accelerating growth.
Policy implications for early stages of entrepreneurial ecosystems
Many developing countries are trying to emulate the Chilean entrepreneurial eco-
system. We suggest that these countries deploy initiatives to foster the construc-
tion of social identity and the sense of belonging to a community among female
entrepreneurs that not only funds start-ups but also provides them with advice
from inuential and eective leaders (Haslam and Reicher, 2007). Identity con-
struction needs to be seen as equally important as entrepreneurial education and
venture creation (Ollila and Williams-Middleton, 2013). Motivation and a frame-
work of ‘positive relationship between women and technology’ in overall society
will decrease the ‘identity threat’ and will assure the performance and persistence
of women in STEM (Lee et al., 2015).
Policy implications for advanced stages of entrepreneurial ecosystems
e entrepreneurial ecosystem in Chile has now developed into a new stage. In
this new stage, the Chilean ecosystem provides the second wave of female found-
ers with more resources. ey have networking activities intended for women in
business (for example, Mujeres Empresarias, Emprendedoras de Chile), and par-
ticularly intended for women in technology ventures (for example, Girls in Tech).
Business angels who invest in Chile are now gathered around a network called
Chile Global Angels. Access to these networks has enabled an increasing number
of female entrepreneurs to participate in entrepreneurial activities, helping to close
the gender gap of participation widely reported in the technology industry.
42 A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR WOMEN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Suggestions for further research
A number of initiatives, companies and programs are diligently working to close
the female entrepreneurs’ participation gap. Although progress is certainly being
made, some may argue that it has not been quick enough. For the industry to
radically transform, it must also be inuenced by the rise of successful women-led
start-ups augmented by an inux of investment for their companies. Having more
female tech executives will aect the pace of change. We suggest examining the
impact of the rst wave of female founders on further generations of women-led
start-ups. Moreover, women in the business world are helping others to achieve
their goals through mentoring, a move that could improve the outlook for women
in technology.
Female entrepreneurial identity construction requires further investigation and
discussion. e process of founding a business is, for most people, a period of tran-
sition entailing taking on a new role. Such a transition will often result in a change
of values and beliefs. For some women, values ascribed to the entrepreneur will
conict with conventional feminine values. Our interviewees reported conicting
values, which need to be further explored and studied to nd out whether, or how,
this could aect identity construction. More research is needed on the dynamic
identity claiming strategies that female tech entrepreneurs engage in to gain legiti-
macy (Lepisto et al., 2015).
Note
1 A demo day is an accelerator event where the start-ups are presented to the investors. Each team (previously
selected) presents their business model in a ‘pitch’ format (a two- to ve-minute presentation).
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