Sandy Eulitt Featured in TechRound on Closing the Funding Gap for Women Founders

Life Backup Plan Founder and CEO Sandy Eulitt was featured in TechRound’s Women’s Equality Day 2026 article, “Female Founders on Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding.”

The article brings together women founders and business leaders to examine why women continue to receive such a small share of venture capital and what must change to create a more equitable startup ecosystem.

In her contribution, Sandy addressed what she calls the startup funding “chicken-and-egg problem.” Investors frequently expect founders to demonstrate meaningful revenue before providing capital, yet building a viable, scalable product often requires significant investment before that revenue can be generated.

This barrier can disproportionately affect women, who are less likely to have access to the personal wealth and established investor networks that allow some founders to finance the earliest stages themselves.

“Investors should evaluate early-stage companies using evidence appropriate to their stage: the importance of the problem, customer discovery, technical progress, pilot interest, intellectual property and the founder’s ability to execute, not simply current sales.”

Sandy also advocated for releasing more early-stage funding through milestone-based tranches. This approach can give promising founders enough runway to validate critical assumptions while providing investors with measurable evidence of progress.

Women’s Equality Day 2026: Female Founders on Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding