Carla McDonald is trying to fix the number that haunts Austin's women founders: 1%

AUSTIN — Austin ranks among the top markets in the country for venture capital deals and dollars. For its women founders, one number cuts against the boom: less than 1% of those dollars reach companies led by women, by the count of local advocates — worse than an already-low national average that has hovered near 1% to 2% for a decade.

Carla McDonald, founder and managing director of investment firm Dynabrand Ventures, has made closing that gap her public project. She chairs the Mayor's Task Force for Austin Women Entrepreneurs, formed under Mayor Kirk Watson to recommend steps the city, private sector and universities can take to make Austin a better place for women to build companies. McDonald was named a 2025 Change Maker for the work.

She is not alone. The task force includes Lauren Washington, co-founder of the AI-driven startup investing platform Fundr, who built her company after watching how systemic bias in traditional funding works against women, along with founders and investors including Jan Ryan and Mellie Price.

Why it matters

The disparities the task force documents are concrete: women founders often receive roughly half the funding of male counterparts pitching identical plans, and they tend to undervalue their own companies when raising. Those are not soft problems; they shape which Austin startups get built and who gets to build them.

There are signs of movement. The Better Business Bureau Foundation secured approval to open Austin's first Women's Business Center, slated to offer free training, capital access and contract certification. Whether the 1% figure actually rises will be the real measure of whether McDonald's effort changed the scene or simply described it.

Austin ranks sixth nationally for venture capital deals and dollars, but less than 1% of those dollars reach women founders.— Silicon Hills News, reporting on Austin's funding gap