This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who are charting new pathways and fighting for opportunities for women and others.
Last year, $178 billion in venture capital was invested in U.S. companies, but only 19 percent of those investment decisions were made by women, according to the capital markets database Pitchbook.
Just two percent of that funding went to companies founded by women. This imbalance — which has persisted for decades — is what motivated Trish Costello to start Portfolia in 2014, a venture capital investment platform geared toward women and one of the first venture firms in the U.S. to focus on women’s health. That year, only six percent of decision makers at venture capital firms were women.
Ms. Costello was part of a small team that founded the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City in 1994, and she launched and led Kauffman Fellows, a training program for leaders in venture capital, for many years. The venture capitalists she knew — mostly men — wouldn’t even consider backing companies focused on problems like infertility or hot flashes. But Ms. Costello recognized the market potential and was right; from 2018 to 2023, investment in companies that support women’s health (many women-led) increased 314 percent in the U.S. and Europe.
Ms. Costello said Portfolia has 14 funds that invest in companies with a largely female target market in categories ranging from active aging to longevity to femtech; 90 percent of its investors are women. The firm has made 185 investments valued at more than $65 million in 118 companies. Nearly 70 percent of those are women-led ventures.
Ms. Costello, 68, has been an entrepreneur since she was a child growing up in rural Kansas. She and her three siblings were taught early that when faced with a need, they should reframe it as an opportunity. “There isn’t a time I can remember when I didn’t believe that if I came up with a good idea, I could make it happen,” she said in a video interview. The conversation was edited and condensed.
How did you come to be focused on startup investment and especially in women’s health companies?
I have always been interested in money as fuel for innovation. Startup investing is about being able to identify the most promising opportunities and get the fuel in at the right time. When I left Kauffman Fellows, I felt like we had made a real shift to more women in venture capital investing. I had been doing some angel investing on my own and saw the market for women’s health emerging, and it felt like no one else was seeing the opportunity. I remember I took two deals to V.C.s, companies focused on menopause. One guy said, ‘There’s no way my partners are going to do a menopause deal.’ Back then, talking about anything related to women’s health wasn’t done. But I saw a lot of potential in these markets where women were the key customers, influencers and entrepreneurs.
Only about 19 percent of investment partners at V.C. firms are women. You’ve said part of Portfolia’s mission is to help women enter this world. How are you doing that?
By bringing women in at a smaller amount of money and letting them learn. At a traditional venture fund you could invest $10 million and for that you get a report once a year; you don’t get a seat at the table. At Porfolia you can put $10,000 into one of our funds and be at a monthly meeting where companies are evaluated; members can watch startups pitch and ask questions of the founders. There are four to five partners that run each fund and take into consideration what members want and their feedback. Our onboarding process for investors provides education all the way through — how to read a term sheet, how to evaluate a team, evaluate intellectual property, how to prepare to exit a company.
In the decade Portfolia has been operating in the male-dominated world of venture investing, has it been able to move the needle to any degree?
Yes, and it’s just beginning. We’ve got 2,000 members, mostly women, worth $22 billion in combined wealth, investing their money in companies with solutions to help women. We have more than 16,000 subscribers, those interested in becoming investors and who support our work. This wasn’t happening before. Venture investment isn’t an organic system, it was created by men for men, and for the way men operate. They didn’t try to keep women out, but women weren’t in.
Can you give examples of companies in which Portfolia has invested?
Maven Clinic, a health care concierge for women in the corporate environment. Their largest client is Amazon. Maven is the first unicorn (valued at $1 billion) dedicated to women’s and family health. Future Family, a fertility financing and care support company, was recently valued at $80 million. Osteoboost, a medical device — rather than a drug — that treats osteoporosis and was just approved by the FDA.
What about male-founded companies?
About 20 percent of our investments are in male-founded or co-founded companies. If a man is going to cure breast cancer, I’m going to back him. But I’m going to make sure he’s got women on his team.