{"id":6390,"date":"2017-07-02T06:18:16","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T10:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6390"},"modified":"2017-07-02T06:18:16","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T10:18:16","slug":"say-hello-to-alice-the-siri-for-female-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kerryhannon.com\/?p=6390","title":{"rendered":"Say Hello to Alice, the Siri for Female Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a>Robin Bylenga, 52, the founder and owner of\u00a0<\/span>Pedal Chic<\/a>\u00a0in Greenville, S.C., is the epitome of a smart, successful female entrepreneur. Before opening her women\u2019s cycling and athletic boutique in 2010, she worked for a bike shop to understand prospective customers. She invested $500 for a tiny inventory of women\u2019s biking apparel that she spun into $1,500 in sales at an area bike race. Bylenga also asked the Clemson Regional Small Business Development Center for advice, connected with a retired retail exec through the U.S. Small Business Administration\u2019s SCORE program and tapped her own network to find mentors.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve had to push through at every stage, and there have been setbacks, but the demand is there and growing,\u201d says Bylenga, whose shop is profitable today.<\/p>\n

The Support Female Entrepreneurs Need<\/h3>\n

In many ways, Bylenga was fortunate to have such great resources in her backyard and sources of capital (a $40,000 loan through Michelin Development and $10,000 of her own money) to help launch and support the business. Sadly, many women eager to launch businesses \u2014 especially those in their 50s and 60s \u2014 don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Finding mentors and advisers are major stumbling blocks for many\u00a0women starting businesses<\/a>\u00a0in America. But scaring up capital remains one of their biggest obstacles. Like it or not, men are more likely to invest in companies pitched by men than women. \u201cIt\u2019s called homophily, \u201c according to a recent\u00a0Forbes post<\/a>\u00a0by Geri Stengel, who covers women entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

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The current startup ecosystem continues to cycle resources among a very small percentage of well-connected entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Carolyn Rodz, entrepreneur and Alice creator<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What Alice Is<\/h3>\n

Addressing all of these issues is where\u00a0Alice\u00a0<\/a>comes in.<\/p>\n

Imagine a Siri for female start-up creators and you get the idea. A new virtual adviser, Alice is a platform that uses\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0(AI) to let female entrepreneurs connect with other business owners, government resources, potential funders and mentors. Alice provides assistance from some of the top entrepreneurship sources in the country, including The Case Foundation, The Kauffman Foundation and the U.S. Small Business Administration. Her promise: to \u201cconnect founders with the resources the need to scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit:\u00a0helloalice.com<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Women looking to build businesses are expected to be able to find answers to questions about financing, strategy, marketing and legal needs by asking Alice, the creation of three-time entrepreneur Carolyn Rodz, founder and CEO of\u00a0Circular Board<\/a>, a virtual collaborative accelerator for women entrepreneurs. (An\u00a0accelerator<\/a>\u00a0is a structured operation that assists entrepreneurs for a short time with capital and advice in exchange for a small ownership stake in their companies.)Alice was developed by Dell and the software development firm\u00a0Pivotal<\/a>\u00a0and made her debut at the Dell EMC World 2017 Conference in Las Vegas on May 9. \u201cAlice is a female founder\u2019s best mentor, guide and consultant,\u201d\u00a0said Rodz<\/a>. She made a convincing case for Alice this way: \u201cThe current startup ecosystem continues to cycle resources among a very small percentage of well-connected entrepreneurs.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Alice Works<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s how AI Alice works: For starters, it\u2019s free (for now) and it\u2019s not technically restricted to women, although Alice is coded with women in mind. You enter in your profile based on your industry, start-up stage, revenue and location. Alice then curates your needs based on what you\u2019re looking for \u2014 say a tech solution or an attorney \u2014 and the answers are different for every user. The goal is to connect entrepreneurs with resources they can\u2019t find in their location or that aren\u2019t on their radar.<\/p>\n

Why the name Alice? When its creative team was knocking around ideas for names, \u201cthe idea of Alice in Wonderland came up,\u201d Rodz told Vanity Fair. The thinking was: Alice\u2019s adventures are similar to the ride entrepreneurs take to succeed. Said Rodz: \u201cThe Queen\u2019s comment to Alice captures what entrepreneurship is all about: \u2018Why, sometimes I\u2019ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice\u2019s timing is especially excellent, since entrepreneurship among women is on the rise. In 2016, there were an estimated 11.3 million women-owned businesses in the United States \u2014 a 45 percent increase since 2007, according to\u00a0The 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report<\/a>\u00a0from American Express. And the trend shows no signs of letting up.<\/p>\n

Alice: A Game Changer for Female Entrepreneurs?<\/h3>\n

Can Alice be a game changer?<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very hopeful that Alice will help women entrepreneurs receive the guidance and help they need to make their business a success a grow,\u201d said\u00a0Kimberly A. Eddleston<\/a>, a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern University and a senior editor on the\u00a0EIX Editorial Board<\/a>\u00a0of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen are often reluctant to seek help from entrepreneurship centers \u2014 they often see them as geared more towards male-type businesses and high growth ventures \u2014 so Alice should help break down barriers that keep women entrepreneurs from seeking advice,\u201d Eddleston told me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, since it is not as easy for women entrepreneurs to find mentors and gain access to key networks, Alice may help them to identify useful events to attend and also offer them a \u2018virtual mentor\u2019 to aid them with their entrepreneurial journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Resources for Female Entrepreneurs<\/h3>\n

Alice is the latest offering in the arena of helping women entrepreneurs gain traction, which includes accelerators like Circular Board and\u00a0Springboard<\/a>,\u00a0 a network of experts, advisers, coaches, investors and other sources devoted to building tech-oriented companies led by women.<\/p>\n

Another accelerator is the\u00a0Women Innovating Now (WIN) Lab\u00a0<\/a>created by Babson College\u2019s Center for Women\u2019s Entrepreneurial Leadership, a program in Boston and Miami for early-stage, female-founded companies. Each group consists of around 20 diverse female founders and experts provide advice on everything from legal advice to negotiation to operations.<\/p>\n

There are also a growing number of services and support groups for female entrepreneurs. They range from female angel-investor groups to crowdsourcing platforms like\u00a0iFundWomen<\/a>\u00a0to co-working spaces encouraging collaboration between female entrepreneurs and women-focused networking events (like the\u00a0Women in Technology Summit<\/a>) as well as online meetings and groups created for women in business, such as\u00a0Ellevate Network<\/a>, a global professional women\u2019s network.<\/p>\n

Advice From Alice\u2019s Creator<\/h3>\n

Finally, I\u2019d like to leave you with these parting thoughts from a\u00a0video\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0interview at Dell EMC World 2017 with Rodz and Elizabeth Gore, Dell\u2019s entrepreneur-in-residence.<\/p>\n

When asked her advice for a woman struggling to start a business, Rodz replied: \u201cBuild the right team. Look beyond just your employees as your team, but who is the circle you are enlisting behind your business to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gore added: \u201cPut purpose into profit. Really understand why did you start in the first place, what is the purpose that your company is going after? On those hard days, put that back into your focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart advice, I think. I wonder what Alice would say.<\/p>\n

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