Thanks but we don't need to kiss no frogs...

Is this what I should expect as a female founder? I sincerely hope not!

Today did not start the way I expected.

Alarm went off at 5.15. Normal.

Hubby leaves for work. Normal.

Drinking coffee and running through any changes to today’s plan. Normal.

Check phone for any pearls of wisdom, sarcastic messages or actions from my fellow female founder. Normal.

Notice 5 missed calls received throughout the night. Slight panic but then realised they were all from a potential investor I spoke to yesterday. Interesting.

You're now entering the Twilight Zone………

Although it is still very early I phone him back and the aggressive tone starts almost immediately. Now bear in mind it was agreed yesterday that we would catch up this morning to discuss the terms of the investment further. What we offer is generous and have de-risked it as far as we possibly can for any investor. He wasn’t satisfied with this yesterday and had tried to renegotiate the whole package. He was politely but firmly told this wouldn’t be happening. We know our worth, we are confident about our offer and in our eyes it would be immoral to offer it to one when it had not been offered to others. No amount of zeros at the end of a figure would change that, in fact, it makes it worse for us as it is more to pay back.

He wasn’t taking no for an answer and flew into what could only be called a misogynistic tantrum which left me feeling like my sole purpose in life should in fact, and I quote “be a pregnant sow”.

Some highlights from the conversation.

“Women have no place in business.”

“You’re too emotional.” Remembering I’m not the one shouting and screaming down the phone here nor at any point have I even raised my voice throughout any of our discussions.

“You need me, why do you keep saying no?!” Huge Red Flag!!!

“Is there not a man in the business I can speak to?”.

“You and your little female friend are going to regret this”.

At this point I was actually starting to wonder how the other two ladies in the business would be dealing with this phone call. I’ve been in construction all my life and worked day in, day out with colleagues - the vast majority of whom were men. There were ups and downs but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and in part miss the crack and comradery of working in larger teams. Since leaving construction and becoming a founder it is a more isolated lifestyle but what became immediately apparent was the blatant misogyny I was faced with.

Having listened to this gent’s point of view for longer than I should, I was literally on the cusp of closing the call down when he became quite shrill and by the sound of it, slammed his mobile phone down. I was left bewildered and was in the process of messaging my business partner when he called back.

I was left staring at my phone wondering whether to answer or not but I did and received an apology for his behaviour and how could we move forward.

We can’t. Simple. There is nothing on this Earth that would persuade me to ever do business with the gent (and I use that word in its loosest possible term) after his behaviour. If this is what I could expect from the first 24 hours of conversation, what could I expect from actually starting a business relationship? The phone call was wound up very politely and I hung up.

Did the call affect me? Yes it did but it hasn’t deterred me, in truth it’s probably lit even more of a fire under me.

It has left me wondering is this common behaviour? Were there perhaps mental health issues at play or stress?

Either way it’s unacceptable and needs to be addressed but not by me. I wish this gent all the best for the future but he won’t be included in ours.