“Starting a business is a privilege,” says Burton O’Toole, who worked at various startups before founding and then selling AdMass, his own marketing technology company. The company gave her access to the HearstLab program in 2016, but she soon discovered that she liked the investing aspect more and became vice president at HearstLab a year later. “Empowering some of the smartest women to do what they love is amazing,” she said. But beyond being for women, Burton O’Toole loves the job because it’s a great market opportunity.
“Research shows that female-led groups are two and a half times more profitable than male-led groups,” she said, adding that women and people of color tend to build multifaceted groups. more diverse and thus benefit from different perspectives and perspectives. She also explains that companies with women on their founding team are likely to be acquired or listed earlier. “Despite results like this, only 2.3% of venture capital funding goes to groups founded by women. I’m still surprised more investors don’t take this data more seriously,” she said.
Burton O’Toole – who earned her BS from Duke in 2007 before earning her MS and PhD from MIT, all in mechanical engineering – has been a “data nerd” ever since she got her job. can remember. In high school, she wanted to be an actuary. “Ten years ago, I could never have imagined this job; I like the idea of doing something in 10 years that I can’t even imagine now,” she said.
When starting a business, says Burton O’Toole, “women tend to want all their ducks in a row before they act. They said, ‘I’ll do it when I get this promotion, have enough money, finish this project.’ But there is only one good way. Let’s make the jump. “
