Capstone Partners Reports: Female Executives Prioritize Market Expansion to Drive Business Growth, Show High Preparedness for M&A

Core Insights - Capstone Partners released its inaugural 2024 Women Entrepreneurs Study, analyzing responses from over 200 female business owners in the U.S. to identify key differences and challenges faced by female founders compared to the broader middle market business owner audience [1] Growth Strategies - Women entrepreneurs primarily focus on organic growth strategies, with 59% increasing market penetration and 53.8% expanding their product or service portfolios, which is higher than the 47.5% of the broader middle market business owners who have increased market penetration [2] - Only 18.1% of women entrepreneurs have pursued inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), but 36.7% are considering M&A as an exit strategy, particularly among younger women CEOs aged 18-34, where 48% are considering M&A compared to 33.6% of those aged 35-54 and 17.9% of those aged 55 and older [3] Exit Preparation - A significant portion of women entrepreneurs are more prepared for an exit than they realize, with 43.3% having started planning for a business exit, while 74.8% have completed at least one exit preparation step, such as building a strong executive leadership team (37.1%) and determining financial needs (34.3%) [4] Concerns for Future Growth - The top concern for women entrepreneurs regarding future growth is inflation, cited by 55% of respondents, followed by customer retention at 35%, and increased workload or stress at third, which is a higher concern compared to the overall middle market business owners [5] Funding Challenges - Nearly 25% of respondents indicated a need for assistance in raising debt and equity capital, highlighting the challenges women entrepreneurs face in accessing growth funds and securing sizeable loans [6] - Historical data shows that venture capital funding for female-founded companies has seen incremental gains, with only 6.1% of VC deals going to female-founded companies in 2023, up from 3.4% in 2008, while the average deal size for female founders in 2023 was $3.1 million compared to $9.4 million for male founders [6]