Building a successful business is all about bringing an idea that resonates with a target audience and venture capitalists to life. However, the reality of business is that every budding entrepreneur does not get equal access to funding opportunities, and while there have been improvements made in recent years, there’s still a long way to go for equitable funding.

The onus is on business leaders to create a business industry that boldly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and opens access channels for underrepresented founders. To help, 12 members of Forbes Business Council each share one thing industry leaders can do to close the funding gap between women and minority founders.

  1. Focus And Highlight The Substance Of Their Ideas
  2. Do Away With Qualifying Requirements
  3. Endorse The Underserved
  4. Make It Easy For Entrepreneurs To Find And Connect With You'
  5. Focus On Diverse Hiring From Within
  6. Create Investor Pools To Identify Needs And Knowledge Gaps
  7. Increase Financial Literacy
  8. Offer Incentives
  9. Mitigate Unconscious Bias In The Funding Process
  10. Leverage Technology To Remove Biases
  11. Promote New And Interesting Companies
  12.  Look Beyond Visuals

Read the full article about equitable funding for founders at Forbes.