Getting There and Getting In: How Mobility and Sorting Keep Women out of Top Startup Accelerators (opens in new tab)

Startup accelerators are a leading gateway to venture capital, but top programs often require founders to relocate to a venture hub. From a hand-collected census of U.S. accelerator startups (2008-2011) followed for five years, we estimate a two-sided matching model that separates two channels behind the gender funding gap, geographic mobility and sorting across accelerator tiers. Women raise about 60% less than men over five years; the gap ...