TheatreSquared and Woman-Run Launch BARRIER BREAKERS This Month

On February 17, TheatreSquared is partnering with Woman-Run, an initiative of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, for a workshop designed to sharpen the skills of women seeking funding for their business ideas. Participants will gain confidence, develop their pitches, and learn how to navigate the unique business challenges facing women and minority business owners.

Barrier Breakers is built around the findings of a 2018 study called "We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding", written by researchers from Columbia and Harvard Business Schools. Women own an estimated 38% of businesses in the U.S. but only receive roughly 2% of venture funding. That number fell to 1.9% in 2021.

Researchers found that investors tended to ask men promotion-focused questions like, "How do you plan to monetize this?" while women were instead asked prevention-focused questions, like "How long will it take you to break even?" They also found, however, that when women turned the question to focus instead on a promotion-based solution, the math changed, and their share of venture capital investments greatly increased.

"It's an astronomical amount - it's 13 times more, $563,000 compared to $7.9 million more, on average, just by answering in promotion-based language," says Meredith Lowry, a partner with Wright Lindsey & Jennings.

TheatreSquared's professional theatre artists will use these findings to help women understand how to change the language they use when asking for funding. The company is already well-versed in using theater education to boost business skills. T2's corporate workshops have helped professionals at dozens of local companies perfect executive presence (public speaking, presentation and intrapersonal skills), proactive listening, creative leadership, innovative thinking and adaptability to cultural change.

"Theatre arts and T2 are the perfect partner for Woman-Run, with their ability to teach improv and how to quickly think on your feet," says Lowry. "And the T2 team has experience teaching improv to business people for other purposes."

"The program that TheatreSquared is putting together is going to give women actual, practical steps and tools to improve their performance when they're having those meetings with investors - whether it's an angel investor or even just talking to a bank about a bank loan," says Whitney Yoder, AR public relations manager for Cox Communications, presenting sponsor for the event.

"Women and minority-owned businesses face a great deal of inequities when it comes to launching and growing their firms, and access to capital is a major issue," says Director of Economic Vitality for the city of Fayetteville Devin Howland. "Organizations like Woman-Run are working hard to not only shine a spotlight on these issues, but propose solutions and educational opportunities such as 'Barrier Breakers' in partnership with TheatreSquared."

The Presenting Sponsor for Breaking Barriers is Cox Communications. Additional sponsors include FORGE Community Loan Fund and Signature Bank of Arkansas.

The event, held at TheatreSquared (477 W. Spring St., Fayetteville), will open with a networking event from 5 pm - 5:30 pm, followed by the workshop from 5:30 pm - 7 p.m. and is free. Interested participants can sign up at theatre2.org/barrierbreakers or call 479-477-4777.

Masks will be required at the event.

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