Startups with a female founder or co-founder in the Philippines received 23% of all private funding raised by domestic companies in 2023, found a recent DealStreetAsia report. This placed the country second in Southeast Asia for the percentage of capital flowing to female-founded startups.
“In the Philippines, the current [startup] ecosystem has matured, giving female founders more support and opportunities,” observes Alex Gentry, co-founder of Philippine B2B SaaS startup Sprout Solutions, in an interview.
However, she acknowledges that much work remains to be done. “Despite recent advancements, women continue to be underrepresented in both the VC and founder sides, and this fact alone poses an additional hurdle,” she adds.
Sprout Solutions, founded by Alex and husband Patrick Gentry in 2015, is committed to tackling the diversity challenge –women make up 51% of its workforce and 59% of its management team.
“Diversity, whether in terms of gender, ethnicity, background, or perspective, in a group that practices radical candour – challenging each other directly while caring personally – can unlock innovation and group flow, better decision-making, and greater customer empathy,” Gentry says.
Her advice to aspiring female entrepreneurs? “Start! That’s the hardest thing to do.”
The full interview is below:
What inspired your journey into entrepreneurship?
My journey into entrepreneurship was sparked by my passion for solving problems and building products. As a woman, I’ve always felt a deep sense of empowerment in carving my path and creating opportunities for myself and others. Sprout Solutions happened very organically – we were solving a pain point that we were experiencing and sought to see if we could help other companies. What was extremely purposeful, though, was establishing a mission-based north star. So while I started my journey solving business problems, I stayed the course because we were impacting lives.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your role?
The most challenging aspect of my role is the fact that it keeps on changing. I always say that the top predictors of success as a leader in Sprout are a person’s ability to simplify and adapt.
Sprout has gone through so many evolutions, sometimes so quickly, that my co-founder and I were caught off guard. There were some periods when it felt like everything was going to come crashing down, but understanding Hiroshi Mikitani’s Rule of 3 and 10 was very helpful for us. The Rakuten CEO noticed that certain levels of employee growth brought about drastic changes in a company and that these usually came in multiples of 3 and 10. We experienced this drastically in Sprout when we hit over 35 employees, and we were at a loss because we weren’t prepared for it, and we were resisting change. It hit us again at 100 employees, but that time, we were anticipating it and had programs ready to address the change. We didn’t really feel it when we breached 300 employees, but we took a proactive approach by purposefully seeking out what we could change.
To what extent has your experience as a female professional influenced how your company is run?
We are big advocates of work-life integration and the ability to bring your whole self to work at Sprout. I think that is in part because of my own experiences as a female founder. This allows us to attract female talent and continuously nurture them. Currently, our workforce is 51% female, and our management team is 59% female.
I have a very active role in training our leaders in Sprout, and a big part of the lessons I share around mental resilience, team management, conflict resolution, framing, and communication are drawn from my personal experiences as a wife, a mother, and a female founder.
Can you share your insights on the fundraising process you went through?
Fundraising is always both challenging and rewarding. What was a bit unique about Sprout was that its co-founders are husband and wife. For any investor (even for me now as an angel), this married couple-co-founder relationship dynamic needs a more thorough investigation.
A big part of fundraising is the founders’ ability to pre-empt investors’ questions and doubts by showing that they have thought through them. So in the earlier rounds, even if we knew that our good working dynamics were evident, we were very vocal about understanding the risks that we were introducing to the business and our marriage. In the later rounds, we were very purposeful about highlighting the strength and diversity of ideas within our executive team.
Other insights – we focused on connecting with investors who resonated with our vision and values. By aligning ourselves with those who believed in our mission and our market, we were able to stay true to our north star.
In your opinion, what are the benefits of having a diverse founding team?
Diversity in the founding team discourages groupthink, which can inhibit creativity, and creativity is the lifeblood of a startup.
Diversity, whether in terms of gender, ethnicity, background, or perspective, in a group that practices radical candour – challenging each other directly while caring personally – can unlock innovation and group flow, better decision-making, and greater customer empathy.
Do you believe female founders face additional hurdles in raising capital during the current funding climate?
In the Philippines, I think the current ecosystem has matured, giving female founders more support and opportunities. Having said that, I think there’s a lot more work to be done. Despite recent advancements, women continue to be underrepresented in both the VC and founder sides, and this fact alone poses an additional hurdle.
Why do you think there’s a scarcity of women-led startups, and are there any unique factors in Southeast Asia contributing to this trend?
In Southeast Asia, I think the prevalence of traditional gender roles and cultural expectations contribute to the low number of women-led startups. I am a firm believer that fighting for the equally shared responsibility of child-rearing and homemaking is as important as fighting for equality in the workplace.
What advice would you offer to aspiring female entrepreneurs?
Start! That’s the hardest thing to do. Lean in on your strengths as an individual and as a woman. Embrace change. “We are all in the process of becoming.”
