The reasons why we fired our female CEO.

This article was a prank for International Women's Day. None of it happened.

Lately, I have been pondering whether or not I should write this article but I have been receiving so many unpleasant feedbacks about this story that I needed to explain the reasoning that led to the current situation.

Yes we had to fire our CEO and yes we had to fire her because she was a woman. I realize that it might sound misogynistic but it is truly not. It simply became good sense. Let me explain.

When we met, I found Sarah a very smart, focused, and driven young lady. When we had a conversation, it was interesting. We could exchange hours on many topics without both falling asleep. And soon, by working together, I came to the realization that she was a really hard working, detail oriented and good hearted person. We would not agree on everything but we would agree on the most important. These were the good times.

We worked intensively for three years. After raising a little less than 1M dollars in a seed round, we had developed a great product, built a efficient dedicated team and we had sold it to enough customers to reach profitability. We were a good team. Things started to become awkward when we started trying to raise money from VC firms. We soon realized the VC world was quite special. We had a lot of meetings and we knew we should be confident that they went well. Our investors and advisors, well drilled entrepreneurs and investors themselves, were pretty confident we were in capacity to raise money at our stage. Yet, there were always some lame excuse. "It's a bit early for us.", "I am not sure of your product-market fit.", "We don't believe in this market", "You would not match our portfolio" etc. Anybody who has tried to raise some money knows these excuses.

Sarah could not explain. We were doing everything right. But if everyone had a problem with us, maybe they just had a problem with Sarah. So, I started doubting her. Was she really capable of defending the company ? Her slides were always impeccable. I had been with her on commercial meetings. I had done meetings with Business Angels with her. I was confident she would do it. I felt really lost.

After a board meeting one day, I went for a drink with one of our earliest advisor and investor. He had become a friend of mine. I confessed to him, how distressed the situation made me. We had approximately this conversation.

"I have seen one case like that", he said.

"What do you mean ?", I answered.

"I had invested in a great company. The CEO was brilliant, hard working delivering great service to its customers. While we were seeing all of that in her, the VCs kept seeing the woman."

“What do you mean ?”, I replied.

“You know what I mean. Is she capable of managing people, in particular the older men she will need to recruit as the company grows. Does she have the balls to make bold things ? Will the next round VCs firms invest in a company led by a woman ?”

"And what did you do ?", I asked.

"We did nothing. Her co-founders made the choice for her. She got fired and the company raised 5M€ less than six months later."

"No way !"

"Sure !"

"I won't do that to her."

"It's not the question you should ask yourself." He paused. "You should ask yourself how far you want to grow your company in the future. Either you raise money and it will be awesome, with IPO and everything or you stay a small company trying to fight competitors who can raise money."

I did not want to fire Sarah. But I had simply worked too hard. I had to support my family, raise my own daughter. I could not let her gender get in the way of my success. Soon after, I called the board members one by one and talked openly about the situation. We all ended up agreeing on how to move forward. When Sarah was informed, we just told her she had not been capable of raising funds. She requested more time and we refused.

I personally would have preferred to succeed with her but who am I to fight prejudice. I just want to make my business work as good as it can. That's the only true purpose of an entrepreneur. And this happened to be a great decision. After just three months, I had my first term sheet. Soon after, the money was on the bank and we are now putting that money to good use. We made sure Sarah did not leave empty-handed. So everything is well.

As a final note, I just want to give a word of advice to young entrepreneurs trying to make it into a competitive world. Initially, I also thought one should not take gender into account when looking for a business partner. But the competition is hard enough. Do not lose time partnering with people who could slow you down. It is not your fault the world is like that ! You have to look out for yourself.

As long as venture capital firms do not legally have to invest 50% of the amount they manage on female CEOs, or at least co-founders, gender equality speeches will always be just for show and it is too big a risk for you to partner with a woman. Don't do it.

If, like us, you think this story should never happen (because it did not), share this article and help things move forward towards gender equality.

As a final note, according to Forbes, companies led by women tend to be more profitable.