Female Funders: Darlene Boudreaux Says ‘It’s Completely Different Being On the Other Side of the Table’

One of the founding architects of the North Texas entrepreneurial ecosystem, the investor has worn many hats in her long career from CPA to CEO to entrepreneur.

Darlene Boudreaux is a dallas fort worth female tech investor

Dallas Innovates Q+A (Images: Istockphoto)One of the founding architects of the North Texas entrepreneurial ecosystem, Boudreaux has worn many hats: CPA, CEO, entrepreneur, and investor. She co-founded a pharma manufacturing startup following a successful career as a CPA—later growing a nonprofit MedTech incubator. She’s served as executive director of TechFW and is the founder of—and now investor in—the Cowtown Angels, one of the most active angel networks in the state.

Boudreaux was recently featured in Dallas Innovates magazine along with 11 other women shaking up the future of startup investment funding in Dallas-Fort Worth. Here are her thoughts on becoming an investor—and being the only woman in the room for most of her career.

BOUDREAUX ON COMING TO TEXAS

December marked my 26-year anniversary of moving to North Texas as a female founder. There have been lots of changes since then. For one thing, there are more women than just me now.

ON BECOMING AN INVESTOR

I started Cowtown Angels in 2012. Now I’m an investor in the network. I find it’s completely different being on the other side of the table.

ON REPRESENTATION

I’m proud of what the Cowtown Angels have achieved. Of its current 30 member companies, 14 are led by women and 33 percent are by minorities. That’s a big difference from when we began. Some of that reflects my various roles in leadership. Women feel more comfortable being there when others are too. But it takes these successful female entrepreneurs staying involved in the angel network scene because it then attracts more women. Representation matters. The real key is getting more of those women who have been successful entrepreneurs to get involved in the angel network scene.

ON BEING “THE ONLY ONE”

It can be hard for women to walk into a room where they’re the only one. I’m used to it. For the majority of my career, I was the only one. It still takes all of us women jumping back in, after what we’ve achieved and accomplished, harvesting the results of all of our efforts. And now we have money to invest. But for some of us, it’s not completely natural to just jump in there and do it. We didn’t have any role models on how to do this. Female founders didn’t have female investors back then. They didn’t have those role models as to who to become later.

For more on female funders, go here to read about the 12 women shaking up the future of startup investment funding in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Interviews, as told to Jasmin Brand, are edited for brevity and clarity. A version was originally published in Dallas Innovates 2021: The Resilience Issue.

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The 12 female funders were featured in our fourth annual magazine, Dallas Innovates 2021: The Resilience Issue, highlights Dallas-Fort Worth as a hub for innovation.

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Meet 12 Women Shaking Up the Future of Startup Investment Funding in Dallas-Fort Worth

A constellation of North Texas female funders has emerged. They’re bringing new perspectives and new deals to the table.

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