Julia Boorstin, CNBC Media & Tech Correspondent & Author, When Women Lead and Sallie Krawcheck, CEO/Co-founder, Ellevest

CNBC’s Julia Boorstin, author of When Women Lead, and Sallie Krawcheck, CEO of Ellevest, share their insights on female entrepreneurs who are driving innovation and change across industries. 

Boorstin on women redefining entrepreneurship: “I also knew that, if I could find those women who had really defied the odds, those would be the women who had the best leadership traits and skills.  If you could succeed despite all those headwinds, then you absolutely have leadership lessons for everyone … I think having an outsider perspective, approaching problems differently, that's one reason I've always been inspired by female entrepreneurs.  But I just think that this entrepreneurship space has an outsized impact on society and is a very valuable lens through which to look at leadership.” 

Boorstin on female entrepreneurs transforming industries: “I think in every industry that women are starting businesses, they have an advantage in having a different perspective.  I mean, I have a chapter in my book on purpose-driven companies, and a lot of them are focused in the health space.  So there's this whole femtech revolution right now.  Sort of health tech startups that are focused on everything from reproductive health to just general women's health to issues like menopause and fertility that have just been overlooked by the establishment forever, effectively.  So I think there is a lot of growth categories there.”

Boorstin on the power of female-led startups: “There is also a ton of data about how female-led companies outperform.  There's some data in my book about how, after a female CEO is appointed to a public company, in the following two years, her stock typically outperforms by 20%.  So the numbers do not lie … I am confident that once investors start actually digging into the data -- and I think this economic downturn might really prompt that -- that more money will flow into women.  And I think, just from a fundamental standpoint, if people are following data, that data will start to overcome the bias … There are a dozen studies in my book that show that all the ways female-led companies, female-led startups, VC funds that have more women involved, startups founded by women or co-founded by women, they simply statistically outperform.  And at some point, that wealth of data has got to have an impact.” 

Krawcheck on filling the white space for financial services catering to women: “In a patriarchal society, when we say it's for everybody, it's typically for men, right?  … And even the investing algorithms -- they work very well if you're planning for retirement if you're a man because you die sooner, you earn more, your salary peaks later, and you take fewer career breaks.  So the worst thing that happens is you die with too much money.  The problem is, if you're a woman and all those things are the opposite and they assume you're average, then you have a risk of dying with no money or having to do a Golden Girls, you know, live alone.  And this really matters.  This really matters because 80% of women die single … Half of marriages end in divorce.  We live longer than men … And newsflash, nobody's giving you a retirement loan.  Once you get there and you're on your own, game over.  And so what we're doing is incredibly important.” 

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This episode was recorded on October 11, 2022.