As successful business owners, Cindi Englefield and Mary McCarthy know that the odds of a female-led business attracting venture capital funds is dismal—only 2 to 3 percent of those funds are traditionally invested in female-owned companies. “Women are running great companies and creating great business cultures, and it’s an opportunity investors are missing,” says Englefield, who grew her own business, Show What You Know Publishing, for 20 years.
Englefield knew McCarthy from their joint participation in the Women’s Small Business Accelerator in Dublin, which McCarthy had co-founded to help female entrepreneurs. So the two paired in 2022 to create Accelerating Angels with a goal of investing an average of $100,000 in innovative, female-owned, tech-related companies that will grow quickly and be sold within five to seven years.
Accelerating Angels plans to invest in 20 companies with a fund that Englefield is charged with growing to $3 million, hopefully by the end of 2024. So far, $1 million is in hand. “We’re looking for like-minded individuals who are interested in investing in a woman-owned company,” she says. “Then when women exit their businesses, they pay it forward by creating a new business or investing in other businesses.”
Englefield is constantly knocking on doors and talking to potential investors. “She’s done angel investing before, and I have worked with entrepreneurs, so we bring different aspects that complement each other,” says McCarthy, who has mentored entrepreneurs for two decades and also owns YMT Consulting.
One challenge for women is having a vision large enough to get investors’ attention, McCarthy says. Her job with Accelerating Angels is to mentor those interested in funding: Do they understand how to ask for money? Make their pitch? Are they building their product? McCarthy hopes the training she’s setting up will address those issues and more.
Englefield says McCarthy is a pro at entrepreneurship and at developing curriculum and webinars, as well as helping business owners set goals. “Funding has always been an issue for women entrepreneurs, and Mary has a lot of passion for this work,” Englefield says.
So far, Accelerating Angels has invested in two firms, choosing from more than 300 companies that have applied and nine that have pitched to them. A board of advisers helps narrow down the applicants, and investors vote on finalists. Englefield and McCarthy make final decisions.
Powell-based SureImpact, which uses data to help nonprofits and government agencies measure the good they are doing, is using its Accelerating Angels investment to handle growth generated from a new contract with Microsoft, co-founder Sheri Chaney Jones says. “The investment allowed us to say ‘yes’ to that,” Jones says.
She says pitching to the Angels was a totally different experience than pitching to male-dominated investors. “Pitching to a room full of women made a huge difference, because women tend to be more involved in nonprofits, and they understood my customer base,” she says. “It’s just so great what Cindi and Mary have done.”
This story is from the Inspiring Women feature in the May 2024 issue of Columbus Monthly.
