Tipping The Scales: Let’s Equalize the Diversity Imbalance

BAME, Female and/or LGBQ+ entrepreneurs are less likely to successfully raise capital and they’re more likely to suffer with a mental health issue

Tectonic is proud to be delivering training on the OneTech Entrepreneur and Enterprise Incubator. With a mission very close to our hearts, the 12 week program is supporting underestimated founders from ideation to MVP and beyond. Underestimated founders are people who identify as BAME, Women and/or LGBQ+ entrepreneurs. Tectonic are delivering six fortnightly sessions on what we do best as a business consultancy: Customer Discovery, Validating Your Idea and Building your first app with no-code solutions.

Diversity Imbalance

OneTech has been founded to address and challenge the diversity imbalance in tech and startup culture. A November 2020 report by Extend Ventures showed how black founders received just 0.24% and female founders received only 11% of venture funding in the last 10 years, despite representing 3.5% and 51% of the UK population.

Clearly, the UK tech scene still has a long way to go to tip the scales.

That’s why Joshua McGovern, Tectonic’s Customer Lead, who is sharing the lecturing duties with CEO Nana Parry, was so happy delivering on the OneTech accelerator:

“We’ve been consulting for startups and scale ups for nearly four years and we’re delighted to be recognized as experts in the fields of product validation and customer acquisition. In 2020, we’ve delivered bespoke training for London School of Business, UCL and Imperial Universities and a raft of incubators. Adding OneTech to the list of clients is important to us because of that underestimated founders-focus.”

Tipping The Scales

An underreported concern for underestimated founders is mental health. A 2019 report found that compared to the general population, underestimated founders were:

• 2 x more likely to suffer from depression

• 6 x more likely to suffer from ADHD

• 3 x more likely to suffer from substance abuse

• 10 x more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder

• 2 x more likely to have suicidal thoughts

To find out more about these troubling statistics we caught up with Anthony Ware, the man behind the Founder Mental Wealth report on the latest episode of Everyday Startups podcast.

Anthony’s research suggests that in addition to the pressures of starting, running, and growing a business, underestimated founders have lives that include experiences with racists, homophobes and misogynists. These experiences add another layer of negative impact on the mental health of underestimated founders.

The report, however, is not all bleak statistics, but asks people what they do to relax, find space and take time out. Thus, the report is full of helpful guidance and advice for entrepreneurs. For example, few common actions that founders recommend everyone start doing include:

• Incorporating daily body movement with run, walk, workouts, or dance 

• Start a daily gratitude list on paper, video, audio, or all three

• Therapy which may take time based on financial resources, availability of therapists, and finding the right therapist for you 

Anthony’s team is in the process of working on the second annual Founder Mental Wealth Report. This one will be an even more comprehensive report than in 2019, diving deeper into the underlying causes of anxiety and depression, whilst providing current and potential solutions. They are also expanding the reach of the study and report to include the EU, Nordics, UK, and US. They are still seeking more partnerships (financial and community) to support our ongoing research and you find him on twitter, instagram and linkedin

Let’s Equalize

Given the tremendous impact 2020 has had on us all, in ways that maybe have yet to materialise, it’s more important than ever to go easy on oneself. 

Right now, it’s important to remember that we are still living in a pandemic. Our subconscious mind is working extra time to make sense of this context. We can give ourselves some grace and forgiveness for timelines taking longer to complete or for days when we feel ‘off’. 

Protest and advocacy aside, equalizing can be a personal thing. Outweigh the stress with something fun, hopeful or delicious. Shoot some hoops, support a friend’s kickstarter, cook curry. Whatever it is, just do it.