What Did And Did Not Happen In 2016

Fred Wilson of USV
As has become my practice, I will end the year (today) looking back and start the year (tomorrow) looking forward. As a starting point for looking back on 2016, we can start with my What Is Going To Happen In 2016 post from Jan 1st 2016.

Female CEOs Get Only 3 Percent of Venture Funding. That's About to Change

Female CEOs get a dismal 2.7 percent of all venture capital, the fuel for building fast-growth companies. Now armies of women are ditching Sand Hill Road and creating their own funding universe. All great revolutions begin with alcohol. That seems to be the consensus at 9 in the morning on a sunny Friday in August, when 100 women board Dandeana, a three-level, 110-foot yacht about to set sail from Los Angeles's Marina del Rey. Muffins and fruit are mostly ignored as a bartender pours mimosas for the boat's guests, a diverse collection of women that includes attorneys, business coaches, a nurse, a documentary filmmaker, and a grandmother-granddaughter team. In sunglasses and mostly low heels (this is a boat, after all), these women will spend the next three hours plotting to overthrow the boys' club that rules the Silicon Valley venture capital scene.

This particular coup is being hosted by Vicki Saunders, a ridiculously energetic five-time entrepreneur with a blond bob and oversize black glasses, who is also the founder of SheEO. SheEO is a startup that wants to use low-interest debt to fund the growth of women-led companies. Saunders's premise is that masses of women could become the major source of funding for the next generation of female entrepreneurs. Her math works like this: If 1,000 women in a city each invest $1,000, that's $1 million available for lending to 10 female-run companies. Ideally, she'll recruit women from 1,000 cities, participants will re-up every year, and they'll put the money back in as the loans are repaid. Saunders's big-picture calculation: a billion dollars going to 10,000 female entrepreneurs every year, in perpetuity. [ Inc. ]

11 Ways to Be a Better Person in 2017

Welcome to our second annual, semi-serious list of self-improvement tips, gleaned from the Styles stories that resonated most with readers this year. Here's how to be healthy, happy and a little bit Canadian in 2017. [ NY Times ]