SUGAR CEO Vineeta Singh speaks on gender bias says ‘was denied funding until..’

While speaking on The BarberShop with Shantanu, Vineeta shared how once an investor refused to fund her company unless her husband was on board. 

Speaking about the gender bias, she said, “Early on in our journey, we were so desperate for capital and it was so hard for Kaushik (husband) and me to raise funding all the way up till 2018-19 when B2C (business to consumer) became cool.”

She said that she did not choose the battle of calling out bad behavior. “When I get my chance, I will pay forward and I will ensure that when I have some money I fund a lot of woman-led companies but I will not take panga with them (investors).” 

Speaking about her initial journey, she said, “In 2012-13, when Kaushik was still with Mckinsey and I’ve had an investor say ‘We don’t invest in solo women founders so, until Kaushik quits Mckinsey and joins full time, we can’t give you a check.”

When she asked as why would that be, she was told, “We had this female founder and when she had a family, she decided to not prioritise this and the business sort of drifted away.”

She said, “In my head, I was like ‘Wow! Sample size n=1 and you’ve decided to label our entire gender saying that you’ll never invest in women founders and you’re openly talking about it’.”

But what I said to him was, “We’ll come back” as she badly needed that money.

She later added that she pinged her husband all kind of expletives about this investor, she said, “but then atleast he has said that if you quit then he (Kaushik) gonna come so we have some hope there.”

Giving another example gender bias, she said, “There are still times that some venture capitalists would shake my husband’s hand, but not mine.”

Further explaining, she said, Some of the best VCs, senior partner, people I really respect, they are also naturally so uncomfortable while shaking hands, but she would shake her hand properly. “I know they are avoiding eye contact and not asking me questions, but I will make eye contact with you and explain to you that gender is not the criteria here and and we are all just building something together irrespective of gender.

The CEO also spoke about how crying is a self expression, not a breakdown for women at workplace. She further said that it out is an important coping mechanism for a lot of women and it just helps us release the pain and come back stronger. While speaking on The BarberShop with Shantanu show, the Shark Tank panelist said, “She said that she has coached many of her senior leaders to make them understand that crying it just a way of reacting for many women.”

Meanwhile, Vineetha Singh will be seen in the second season of Shark Tank. Makers of the show announced the premiere date of the first episode of season 2. The show will be back on television screens on January 2, 2023. Although Ashneer Grover will not return as a shark this season, the shark panel will have a new member.

Sharks from season 1 – Aman Gupta, Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Namita Thapar, and Peyush Bansal are all set to invest in potential business. The new shark on the panel will be Amit Jain. Amit Jain is the CEO and Co-founder of CarDekho Group.