ABSTRACT
The old adage “behind every great man there is a woman” is alive and well in the 21st century in the medical device industry, and this pertains to female entrepreneurship. Only 4% of healthcare companies have female CEOs.* The female gender is intelligent, well-educated, driven, and capable; however, in a male-dominated industry-and in the male-dominated world still existing in the 21st century-breaking away from the status quo to take a leadership position and maintain it is difcult at best. It is easy to point ngers, yet each one of us shares much of the blame. Females
Female Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century ........................................................ 423 Personal Requirements for a Start-Up ...................................................................424 Why Start a Company? .......................................................................................... 425 Key Components for a Medical Device Start-Up .................................................. 426
Unmet Need in a Growing Field ....................................................................... 426 Regulatory and Reimbursement Pathway ......................................................... 426 Funding and Financing ...................................................................................... 427
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 427 About the Author .................................................................................................... 428
generally accept our position as “number two,” and if we make it to the top, we spend most of our time politically campaigning to maintain that position, rather than focusing on building that newborn company to its full potential. Funding female-led businesses through the normal venture capital (VC) channels is equally frustrating. According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, women-led businesses receive less than 5% of all VC funding*; however, women own more than 40% of all privately held companies in the United States, and I would venture to assume that a large number of those women owners have been turned down by the incestuous white male-led venture community. With this sobering statistic, I will provide my beliefs on the basis of my many years of experience, on what it takes to be a successful female entrepreneur in the 21st century.
