It’s hard to believe that Maven Space just celebrated a one-year anniversary! It’s a huge milestone. We’ve come a long way, baby. It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in a huge, empty space, drowning in mile-long to-do lists and thinking, “How did we let Leslie Bailey talk us into getting involved in this?”
But look where we are now! We’ve built a community of nearly 50 active coworking members, hosted nearly 200 events, and donated more than $12,000 in event space to local nonprofit organizations. However, we still have a long way to go, and we need your support to continue our work. Let’s look at the facts… The odds are against us, Mavens.
DID YOU KNOW:
- On average, only 28% of total SBA loan dollars go to women-owned businesses? And when those loans are received, they’re still coming with a nearly 10% interest rate. This means that women-owned businesses are often starting in the red and struggling to work their way out of it. (And many never do.)
- Just 2-5% of all venture capital money goes to women. That’s right… 2-5%. This means that 46% of female entrepreneurs finance their start-ups with credit cards. Given that the current average interest rate on credit cards is 21%, women have to work about 121% harder than many male entrepreneurs just to break even.
- 40% of women finance their small business start-up with their own personal savings, while still trying to set college funds aside for their kids AND save for retirement.
- Traditionally, more than 70% of start-ups that raise venture capital have a white, male co-founder who went to Harvard or Stanford.
As a community, we can help equalize that gap, by choosing to spend our dollars at local, women-owned businesses who are working hard to make a difference right here in Indianapolis. Maven Space is one of those businesses. We knew better than to think we had a chance at VC funds, so we’ve done it the hard way. (And we have the gray hairs to prove it!) We’ve bootstrapped and sweated our way through Year One, and we’re ready to take Year Two by storm!
Will you help us get there?
We are a small team with big dreams, and your support means the world to us and the community we serve. If you want to help uplift and support #indianapoliswomen, contribute to our IFundWomen campaign today! Help us uplift and support women in Indianapolis. Every contribution counts, so don’t wait!
Time is of the essence
We’ve set a very ambitious goal of raising $100,000 by July 3rd. We’ll use those funds to hire more staff, improve our technology and do a little marketing, because everyone should have a chance to be a Maven.
Are you ready to #jointhemavenmovement? Contribute to our IFundWomen campaign today!