San Francisco Bay Area #1 for Women Entrepreneurs: Survey

The San Francisco Bay Area is the most supportive environment for female entrepreneurs who wish to start and grow businesses.

That’s the takeaway from the 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities Index from Dell Technologies. The index ranks 50 cities around the world on their ability to help women start and grow their businesses. Dell Technologies has tracked this issue since 2010, ranking cities based on the impact of policies and programs they have organized to improve support for women in business.

Dell partnered with IHS Markit to research cities and rank them on important characteristics, including access to technology, talent, capital, markets, and culture. Results were organized into two groups: operating environment and enabling environment. Overall, researchers tracked 71 indicators, 45 with a gender-based component. Relevance, quality of data, and uniqueness were used to weight individual indicators.

“When we invest in women, we invest in the future; communities prosper, economies thrive, and the next generation leads with purpose," said Karen Quintos, a Dell EVP and chief customer officer. "By arming city leaders and policymakers with actionable, data-driven research on the landscape for women entrepreneurs, we can collectively accelerate the success of women-owned businesses by removing financial, cultural and political barriers."

The 2017 to 2019 WE Cities Index are aimed at highlighting successes and challenges that each city faces so cities can learn from each other.

While all 50 cities made progress since 2017, some cities managed to do much better than others. The San Francisco Bay Area took the number one spot this year, dethroning New York, which won last year. According to the index, the Bay Area is one of the best spots for women to get the capital they need, and they also have access to mentors and support to help them start or run a business.

Mexico City also improved a lot, jumping from 45th to 29th. The city increased access to education for women and hired more women in educational institutions, particularly at business schools. It also incorporated vendor procurement programs and access to capital.

Based on all the findings and comparisons made in the index, Dell Technology has made a set of policy recommendations. They are focused on three areas:

Access to capital and development of financial and human capital.

Access to local and global markets and networks. Both private and public sectors would need to focus on this.

Helping women entrepreneurs thrive in the changing-face of technology.