By Kimberly Hosey
Award-winning producer, author, and podcast host of “Invest In HER” Catherine Gray is launching “She Angels,” a new series focused on the importance of funding women founders, Saturday, Jan. 16 on YouTube. Watch the series premiere here.
The series, which viewers can subscribe to at SheAngelsSeries.com, follows the journeys of aspiring women entrepreneurs and inventors who received funding and mentorship through Gray’s She Angels Pitchfest, a live event at which women present their ideas to an investor panel of successful women founders.
The foundation of the event’s success lies in women literally investing in women, because investors tend to support founders with whom they most identify—and the majority of investors are still men.
By following women who receive support for their ideas and businesses, Gray says, she hopes to highlight their successes and inspire more women to invest.
“I hope the new series will wake people up to how underfunded women are and what we can do to change that—and make women aware that they can be part of the solution by becoming angel investors themselves,” she says.
In addition to the She Angels Pitchfest and the upcoming series, Gray also co-founded the She Angels Foundation, focused on women-geared nonprofits. Through all the initiatives, she focuses on providing women with resources to launch their innovative products and ideas and to grow their businesses to new heights.
The original series is hosted by actress Susan Anton and features powerhouse women investor panelists including TV chef Cat Cora, Emmy award-winning producer Nicole Ehrlich, Wolfgang Puck Brand co-founder Barbara Lazaroff, Fruiterie Milano CEO Celia Zaurrini Kahn, Universal Hip Hop Museum co-curator SenYon Kelly, fashion icon and True Religion jeans co-founder Kym Gold, and She Angels Foundation co-founder Catherine Curry Williiams. The series will also feature trailblazer empowerment coach Andrea Quinn.
Gray hopes to help grow awareness of angel investing—and the gender gap between men and women, when it comes both to investing and being funded—and to inspire more people to take a chance on women entrepreneurs.
“It has surprised me how few women are angel investors. So many more women could invest in women,” she says.
Women receive less than 3 percent of venture capital funding—a fact Gray focuses on in her recent TEDx Talk, “Fund Women—Save the World.” The lack of support not only disadvantages women founders, but deprives people and communities around the world who miss out on women’s unsupported inventions and efforts.
“So many creations and cures and solutions that will help save the planet rest in the hands of women,” she said in the speech at TEDxDelthorneWomen.
Gray’s company website, www.SheAngelInvestors.com, focuses on helping women find funding and get ahead; including the She Angels Pitchfest and series, the “Invest in HER” podcast, and “Six Ways to Fund Your Business” available for free download to subscribers.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Gray also teamed up with business partner Catherine Curry Williams to launch the She Angels Foundation to provide grants to women-founded nonprofit organizations helping formerly incarcerated women, veterans, and women fleeing domestic violence get back on their feet and into the workplace. Learn more about the foundation at www.SheAngelsFoundation.org.
Gray points out that “waiting for men” to invest in women’s ideas and companies is not enough.
“[Women] getting less than 2 percent of venture capital funding is not acceptable,” she says. “We are going to have to take this matter into our own hands to solve it.”
The State of Women Institute and Women Investing in Women Digital are proud media partners of “She Angels” and the She Angels Foundation, and thrilled to support their launch and their crucial work investing in women. Visit www.TheStateOfWomen.com for more, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
