Female Founder Secrets (with Julia Boorstin)

Mark speaks with Julia Boorstin, CNBC’s Senior Media and Tech Correspondent and creator of CNBC Disruptor 50. Throughout her on-air career, Julia became fascinated with entrepreneurship and closing the equality gaps in our business leadership circles, leading her to author her book, When Women Lead, out October 11th. Today, Commander Divine speaks with Julia Boorstin, CNBC’s Senior Media and Tech Correspondent and newly published author of When Women Lead. In this episode, Julia shares her experience of interviewing over 60 passionate female CEO’s in the startup space and what we can all learn from their leadership. Key Takeaways: Women lead more profitable startups. Female founded VC-backed companies yield higher and faster returns than their male founded counterparts. However, every year 10’s of Billions of dollars go into venture capital, and women only draw about 3% of all VC funding. Julia’s working to change that. Communal leadership is the future, and it’s female-driven. Of the 60+ female CEO’s she interviewed, Julia found that almost all of them approached decisions from a communal perspective. Meaning, they involve those at the ground floor and gain as many perspectives as possible before taking committed action. This, she believes, is a concept many men find difficult to embody. People can smell inauthenticity a mile away. Julia and Mark converge on the topic of men and women’s leadership styles, agreeing it’s not about men or women being better leaders… but about different leadership styles. And our future is dependent on more men softening their walls and more women making it into positions of leadership. Authenticity, as Julia describes, is a hallmark of female founder leadership. Gratitude isn’t a guy thing. As studies have shown, women are more likely to feel comfortable with feelings of gratitude, and in turn they think more long-term when they plan and execute their businesses. Gratitude is deeply linked to long-term planning and bigger picture thinking - something that can often get lost in targeting quarterly earnings performance.