A Comparison of New Firm Financing by Gender : Evidence from the Kauffman Firm Survey Data

This study uses data from the new Kauffman Firm Survey to explore gender differences in the use of start-up and follow-on capital by new firms. Our findings reveal that women rely heavily on personal rather than external sources of debt and equity. Further, our results demonstrate that women start their firms with significantly lower amounts of capital than men. Finally, women went on to raise significantly lower amounts of incremental debt and equity in years two and three even controlling for a variety of firm and owner characteristics including the level of initial start-up capital and firm sales