There are many types of founders out there but two stand out: those who do a lot and don’t really sell themselves, and those that sell all the time but never execute (you see them posting. lot of pitch competition wins, necker island visit, private jets, etc) . The former you can see year over year chugging along, iterating quietly, making sure unit economics work, etc. The female founder groups have many people who have been clearly iterating on their projects for years, trying to bootstrap and not have to ask for permission, because it never comes or it comes with bad terms. Then just ask how many of them have seen competitors raise millions on a promise and the floodgates will open. The competitors have a lot of confidence and usually little to no experience or genuine insight. Not sure if that needs to be called or sexism, because Dunning–Kruger makes a lot more sense. The problem is when investors buy it.
On Clubhouse a few months ago, a well known investor said the pandemic has leveled the playing field between charismatic bravado driven founders and those who have execution strengths (the charisma doesn’t do so well via Zoom). So now investors who interview entirely online get to ask more substantive questions and not be swayed by confidence as much. Not sure how much that lasts during reopening, but one can hope.