Chicken or Egg?

We’ve been thinking a lot about investing in women, ever since we started this venture really, but certainly over the past few months as we prepared New York’s January event.  Which, by the way, was a smashing success and has us left us with lots of ideas percolating.  More on that later, though.

So with all of that going on, we found this article in the New York Times on women-run hedge funds really interesting.  It turns out that they have fared significantly better than hedge funds overall over the last several years.  How significantly, you ask?  From 2007 through June 2013, they had a 6 percent return, versus the -1.1 percent posted by the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index.  Some standouts were Bluecrest Capital, run by Leda Braga, which grew 11 percent annually since its founding in 2004, and Jamie Zimmerman’s Litespeed Management which has posted annualized net returns of 12.38% and in the last ten years has grown from a firm with $4 million in assets to $1 billion.

But, the article goes on to explain, as per the report on which it is based, that there are a lack of women owned or led hedge funds because there is a lack of capital flowing into those that exist.  And there’s a lack of capital flowing into those that exist because there is a lack of women run or owned hedge funds.  Sound familiar?  Sort of like the difficulties around getting more women into top leadership positions.  And on corporate boards.

Spoiler Alert: I don’t have the answer. But I know that if we as women leaders invest in women-led businesses, in the women on our teams, and in ourselves and our future as leaders, we will get closer to finding it.