In 2019, Keren Sachs was pitching her new startup, which connects female photographers with business clients, to a partner at a midsize New York venture firm when he gave her some disheartening advice: Ditch entrepreneurship and focus on keeping her husband happy. A year later, when she was on the phone to discuss joining a fundraising accelerator program, a male interviewer asked if her husband should get on the line to help make the decision.

“My husband has nothing to do with my business,” Sachs, the CEO and sole founder of startup The Luupe, told the man before hanging up. Instead, the former Shutterstock director took on more clients and tapped $100,000 previously invested by friends and family. Not until August of this year did the two-year-old business raise its first venture investment: $3 million in seed funding led by Wave Capital.

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