@eugenia.aulestia: Canada has an estimated 710,000 missing entrepreneurs: people who aren’t entrepreneurs but could be, based on their education, experience, and genuine desire. 78% of them are women. The structural barriers behind that number are documented in the data: ↳ Women receive 4% of venture capital funding in Canada. Not because they’re building worse businesses but because investors are pattern-matching to a narrow definition of what a successful founder looks like. ↳ Women-owned businesses are rejected for loans at a rate of 22%, compared to the 15% average. When approved, they’re borrowing 150% less than their male equivalents, which means less runway, less ability to hire, and less capacity to absorb early losses. ↳ Women still carry a disproportionate share of domestic labour. Building a business requires time, mental and emotional bandwidth, and risk tolerance, all of which are directly impacted by how much invisible labour someone is carrying outside of the business. ↳ Entrepreneurship as a career path is still culturally male-coded. The underrepresentation of women in high-profile entrepreneurship environments compounds itself with each generation. ↳ The advisory infrastructure (accounting, legal, financial planning, operations) was designed long before women were significant contributors to the entrepreneurial landscape. A business owner who started with 53% less capital, in a sector with thinner margins, carrying most of the invisible labour at home, has a very different set of problems than the average small business owner. The advisory space doesn’t account for that.

Eugenia Aulestia

Open In TikTok:

Region: CA

Friday 05 June 2026 21:36:05 GMT