By Mia Geiger -- Philadelphia Business Journal, June 7-13, 1996

When Anne-Marie Corer, co-founder of a local biotechnology company, needed substantial funding to keep her business going, she was luckier than many women business owners.

"I've been extremely fortunate," Corner said.  "Through Biosyn I was able to tap into a group of investors.  They introduced me to friends who introduced me to friends.  Before I knew it, we had a lot of investment in this company.  For some women, they never make that first break.  They are forever struggling for that early capital."

To help women business owners get the money they need, Corner and seven of her peers have formed Women's Investment Network.  The organization's goal is to bring together women business owners with individuals interested in investing in those businesses.

The group does not assist in brokering any transactions; it simply acts as a platform for the two groups to meet.  The organization is geared to women in "high-growth" businesses- companies that have at least one of the following characteristics: start-up capital of at least $1 million, expectations of $10 million in revenues in five years, a proprietary service or products, or an expectation of going into a public market.

"We've always felt there was a very well-established old boys' network and a very well-established angel network for professional men, but there has never been a [network] whereby professional women or wealthy women could invest in entrepreneurial businesses," said Corner, co-founder, president and chief executive officer of the West Philadelphia-based  Biosyn.

"I don't think people are aware that there are these women-owned businesses that have such big potential.  Traditionally, when people think of women-run businesses they think of clothing stores, florists, beauty parlors.  We want to open people's eyes to the point that we are running high-tech manufacturing, communications, biotech companies.  We have revenue potential in the hundreds of millions.

The awareness may not exist because it is only recently that more women are entering nontraditional industries.

While the majority of women-owned businesses are in the service sector, the greatest growth in the number of women-owned companies has been in fields such as construction, transportation, communications and manufacturing.  The number of women-owned manufacturing companies grew 112 percent between 1987 and 1996, and the number of women-owned transportation, communications and public utilities firms grew nearly 140 percent for the same time period, according to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners.
 
Such capital-intensive businesses often need private investors or "angels" who will provide funding to keep the businesses afloat until they have grown enough to be attractive to venture capitalists.  Women, however, do not always have access to investment sources.

"Private investment is very personal," said organization co-founder Denise L. Devine, found and CEO of Center City-based Devine Foods Inc., "You don't make a cold call to a private investor.  It's the sort of thing where you know somebody who knows somebody.  Historically, women have not traveled in the circles that they would know of the private investors."

Women's Investment Network aims to tap into the network of women who are now in high-level corporate positions as potential private investors.  "There are a lot of women out there who invest in the blue chip stocks, they give money to political causes, to charities.  We want to expose them to these businesses," Corner said.

Devine believes that women business owners who obtain funding through the program will become private investors themselves.

"When these business owners become successful they will turn around and be an angel to a new business," she said.  "That is where the missing link is.  We think there is a whole new group of female business owners our there who can become angels and support new cherubs."

The group will bring investors together with business owners through educational programs and receptions.  It will host four seminars a year, and each one will be preceded by a cocktail reception.  They first seminar will be held this fall.

The new organization is an outgrowth of an informal group of local entrepreneurs.  Corner, Devine and several other women business owners began meeting informally two years ago, after discovering that existing groups did not meet their needs.

"There are lots of organizations for women, and there are lot of organizations for entrepreneurs," Corner said.  "There is not something this specific whereby women entrepreneurs in high-growth businesses can come into contact with people who share common concerns.

"I belong to numerous women's business groups.  I enjoyed going to all the events, but I felt there wasn't anything that was particularly useful for me.  They would talk about how to get a $10,000 line of credit at the bank or how to find a retail spot with plenty of parking.  Those were not concerns that I had.  I needed [to talk about] venture capital, the regulatory issues I face."

She discovered that friends in similar businesses felt the same way, and they soon began meeting on their own.  About a year later, they decided to make it a formal organization, with an emphasis on investment opportunities.

An article in the Wall Street Journal spurred them on.

"It said that less than a dozen female-owned businesses have ever received more than a million dollars in venture capital.  If that is a true statement, it is very alarming.  When you see that in black and white ... it said something is wrong, there is a missing link, an awareness problem, something," Devine said.

Earlier this year, the group incorporated as a nonprofit organization.  So far the organization has obtained about $25,000 in sponsorships, which Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Partnership program has indicated it will match, according to Corner.

The fact that the group has sponsors lends credibility to the organization and the businesses looking for investment, said Sharon Hadary, executive director of NFWBO.

"Ten years ago if they had gone to any sponsors and said this is what we want to do, after [potential sponsors] picked themselves off the floor laughing, they would have said, 'We have real uses for our money.'  It really is a sign of our times that there are sponsors who are saying this is worth doing."

Having sponsors will also communicate credibility to investors, she said.  "It's more than just, excuse me, I've never been in these [investment] circles.  I may have been in these circles and someone may have said, 'Oh, aren't you cute,' and didn't take me seriously.  Now these potential investors will take the women seriously because sponsors have said this is important enough to put my money into."