Overcoming barriers to success: Dell ranks Top 50 global cities for women entrepreneurs

• Dell announces findings of annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index– the only global, gender-specific index that looks at a city’s ability to attract and foster growth of women-owned firms
• New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Boston and Stockholm are the top-five cities for high-potential women entrepreneurs
• According to extensive data and analysis, when impediments to female entrepreneurship are removed, there is a dramatic uplift in a city’s economic prospects
• Dell’s WE Cities Index provides a diagnostic tool to advise entrepreneurs and policy-makers on how to improve conditions to enable businesses founded by women to thrive

Today at the 8th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network Summit, Dell announced findings of the 2017 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, revealing how 50 top global cities are fostering high-potential women entrepreneurs (HPWE). Building on 2016 WE Cities research, this study ranks cities based on the impact of local policies, programs and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs.

“Globally, women’s entrepreneurship rates are growing more than 10 percent each year. In fact, women are as likely or more likely than men to start businesses in many markets. However, financial, cultural and political barriers can limit the success of these businesses,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and chief customer officer at Dell. “By arming city leaders and policymakers with data-driven research and clear calls to action, we can collectively improve the landscape for high-potential women entrepreneurs, which in turn dramatically lifts a city’s economic prospects — as what is good for women is good for the economy."

“It is in the world’s best interest that women entrepreneurs everywhere thrive. The WE Cities Index can be used as a diagnostic tool to help ensure that lawmakers are enabling women entrepreneurs to succeed,” said Elizabeth Gore, entrepreneur-in- residence at Dell. “Each of the cities on this list can learn from one another and encourage political change to attract and support women entrepreneurs. The resulting change will be felt at not just a city level, around the world as we develop an ecosystem where all entrepreneurs can thrive regardless of gender.”

Top 50 WE Cities Ranking & Methodology

Building on the past five years of Dell research on HPWE, cities were ranked on five important characteristics: capital, technology, talent, culture and markets . These pillars were organized into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating is based on 72 indicators; 45 of these, nearly two-thirds, have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component. The 50 cities were ranked as follows:

• New York
• Bay Area
• London
• Boston
• Stockholm
• Los Angeles
• Washington, D.C.
• Singapore
• Toronto
• Seattle
• Sydney
• Paris
• Chicago
• Minneapolis
• Austin
• Hong Kong
• Melbourne
• Atlanta
• Amsterdam
• Portland (OR)
• Berlin
• Taipei
• Pittsburg
• Tel Aviv
• Copenhagen
• Vancouver
• Houston
• Johannesburg
• Barcelona
• Seoul
• Munich
• Miami/Ft. Lauderdale
• Nairobi
• Dublin
• Warsaw
• Belfast
• Milan
• Beijing
• Tokyo
• Bangalore
• Kuala Lumpur
• Sao Paulo
• Dubai
• Shanghai
• Mexico City
• Lima
• Guadalajara
• Istanbul
• Delhi
• Jakarta

New York City ranks No. 1 overall among the 50 cities for its ability to attract and support HPWE with a top-ranked Operating Environment and Enabling Environment ranked. While New York City ranks No. 1 for Markets , and within that, Access and Policy , it’s No. 6 in Talent , and No. 2 in Capital , trailing the Bay Area. It is No. 1 in Culture , followed by Sydney, and ranks No. 2 in Technology

• While NYC ranked No. 1, its total score out of 100 was 62.9, leaving considerable room for improvement

• The Bay Area (consisting of the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas) ranks No. 2 overall, ranking No. 2 in Operating Environment and No. 7 for Enabling Environment . It ranks No. 1 for Capital , No. 2 for Markets , No. 8 in Talent , No. 7 in Technology and No. 6 in Culture

• London ranks No. 3 overall, and in Operating Environment , performing No. 3 for Markets and for Capital . It ranks No. 4 in Enabling Environment , and ties at No. 2 with Austin in Technology

• Boston and Stockholm round out the top 5 in the overall ranking

• Boston, No. 4 on the overall list also No. 4 in Operating Environment and Capital and reaching No. 3 in Talent Stockholm (No. 5 on list) ranks No. 2 in Enabling Environment , No. 3 in Technology and No. 4 in Culture

In the top 10 cities overall, six are in the U.S., two are in Europe, one is in Canada and one is in Asia - 41 of the cities in this index are in the top five for at least one pillar or sub-category; 34 of the cities are in the bottom five for at least one of the pillars or sub-categories – demonstrating the competitiveness of these 50 cities - Of the cities in the top 10 cities overall, only New York City and Washington, D.C. rank in the bottom five on any pillar or sub-category (New York City for cost of Market access and New York City and Washington, D.C. for cost of Technology ) - Of the top 10 cities overall, only the Bay Area and New York ranks in the top 10 across all 5 pillars

The 2016 and 2017 studies differ in several ways, including the total number of cities, number of indicators and the weight of indicators based on new data sources. Given the new elements to the ranking, scores should not be compared year-over-year.

About WE Cities

Dell partnered with IHS Markit — a leading source of insight and analytics that shape today’s business landscape — to launch this first-of-its-kind, global research that will measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs.

Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Future Ready Research Symposium chaired by Dr. David Ricketts from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. The research symposium brought together 40 global thought leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics and media to develop insights for the model. Key takeaways from the conversations at the Symposium included:

• Access to capital is still the No. 1 challenge that women entrepreneurs face, although the numbers are showing a slight improvement
• Creating robust ecosystems with incubators, accelerators and mentors makes a world of difference for entrepreneurs — it’s all about the network
• Cultural norms and their policy implications put serious binds on female entrepreneurs
• Talent, both in terms of the entrepreneurs’ own talent, including education and experience, and having access to a skilled staff also resonated as highly important

The successful pilot of the 2016 Index led to the scaling for the 2017 Index to include 50 cities.

About the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network

As the visionary outcome of a true entrepreneur, Dell is committed to help power the success of entrepreneurs by developing technology solutions that enable human potential. Through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, Dell supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs by providing access to technology, networks and capital. Learn more here.

About the Annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Summit

Dell is excited to host the 8^th annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Summit in San Francisco from July 17-18, 2017, with its Welcome Reception on Sunday, July 16. Over 150 female founders, CEOs, dignitaries, Dell Leaders and more will convene to connect and discuss today’s pressing topics. Through inspiring keynotes, informative panels and innovative workshops, the 2017 DWEN Summit will be the go-to resource for support and solutions that facilitate entrepreneurship. It is Dell’s mission to bring vital knowledge and tailored technology for women-led companies small and large. For more on the event, please click here .

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