Until the mid-1970s, banks denied our mothers, grandmothers, and single women access to all credit (credit cards, loans) in their own name. Their fate began to change with
Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974—giving them more power over their financial destiny through making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age in credit transactions.
Almost 50 years later, we’re continuing to close the gap on how much we make compared to men…but how much we have is another story. Bottom line, the gender wealth gap is massive. In fact,
a study from 2021 found that women’s median household wealth was 55 cents to every dollar of a man’s median household wealth.
Why? For one thing, women tend to keep money in the bank, while men tend to invest. That means we’re missing out on the opportunity to earn big returns. And within the investment space, venture capital has historically been the domain of high-net-worth men, driven by relationships and word of mouth.
The truth is many of us are wildly successful in our professional jobs, but few of us realize private investment is a possibility. It can seem complicated and beyond reach, with steep minimum buy-ins.
That’s why SeedFund created Club 74—to open the door for women to substantially grow their net worth through investing in a high-potential marketplace of highly-regulated nature-based products. We provide knowledge, low-threshold investment opportunities with lower carrying costs/fees, and an inclusive network of like-minded investors, to help women go from VC-curious to wealth-building boss.
We do this through helping entrepreneurial women build businesses in a market where lines of credit are tough to secure. Our commitment is to invest at least 80 percent of our funds in women-led companies. Not just because women entrepreneurs are underfunded, but because they’ve proven themselves to generate better returns.
