"Every report on this site ends in the same place: the capital and the talent are already here. What's missing is the connective tissue. This page is the connective tissue, the shortest path from reading about the gap to doing something about it."

If you're ready to invest

Becoming an angel starts with three things.

A community to learn alongside, a curriculum to learn from, and a first check. These are the places to find each.

Start here Silver & Salt Capital The most direct path. A Utah community of women who learn together, vet deals together, and write their own checks. Applications are open now. Apply to join → Education · Standards Angel Capital Association The professional home for accredited angels in North America. Standards, education, and the returns data behind the asset class. angelcapitalassociation.org → Women's angel network Golden Seeds Twenty years investing in women-led companies, with a nine-course Knowledge Institute curriculum built for new investors. goldenseeds.com → Investor training Pipeline Angels An Angels-in-the-Making bootcamp that has trained 200+ new women investors before their first check. pipelineangels.com → National network How Women Invest A national network on a mission to bring thousands of new women into venture investing. howwomeninvest.com → Learn by investing Portfolia Themed funds, from FemTech to active aging, that let women invest in the sectors they know best. portfolia.com →

If you're raising capital

Utah has more support than most founders realize.

Start with the organizations that fund, train, and connect women founders, then browse the full national directory.

Utah · Support Women's Business Center of Utah Counseling, training, and a 3,300+ company directory. Named a 2025 SBA Women's Business Center of Excellence. utahwomenowned.com → Utah · Research & capital Sorenson Impact Institute A University of Utah institute connecting women entrepreneurs to research, capital, and growth programs. sorensonimpactinstitute.com → Federal · Programs U.S. Small Business Administration Federal mentoring and lending programs, and the data behind Utah's 129,429 women-owned businesses. sba.gov → Our directory National Landscape Map Our directory of 177 angel groups, syndicates, venture funds, and programs backing women founders across all 50 states. Open the map →

If you shape the ecosystem

The performance case is settled. The gap is structural.

The research points to three levers for funders, institutions, and policymakers.

01
Lower the on-ramp
Utah's binding constraint is participation. The capital and the founders are already here; the gap is the on-ramp between them. Models like Citrine Angels, with no investment minimum, and Pipeline Angels, with training first, widen that door before the first check.
02
Fund the funders
Every women-led fund and collective multiplies capital. The JumpFund's investments attracted 19x in co-investment. Backing the vehicles, not only the deals, compounds the effect across a whole ecosystem.
03
Keep measuring
Utah-specific gender funding data is thin. Sustained tracking, like Sorenson's Project DEEP and the Utah Women & Leadership Project, keeps the gap visible and therefore fixable.
Research Utah Women & Leadership Project The most thorough research on Utah women in business, leadership, and entrepreneurship. usu.edu/uwlp → Data Project DEEP, Sorenson Impact The dataset tracking how much Utah venture capital actually reaches female founders. sorensonimpactinstitute.com → Policy National Women's Business Council Federal policy research on women-owned business growth and access to capital. nwbc.gov → Investor training Impact Finance Center Programs that train new impact investors, a model for scaling investor education. impactfinancecenter.org →

The library

Books & podcasts to start with.

A starting shelf for the mindset, the mechanics, and the bigger picture. We add to it as we read and listen.

Books
The XX Edge
Patience Marime-Ball & Ruth Shaber
The data case for putting capital in women's hands: higher returns and lower risk.
Angel
Jason Calacanis
The canonical how-to on investing in early-stage startups, from sourcing to checks.
Brotopia
Emily Chang
How the venture world got so closed, and why opening it matters.
We Should All Be Millionaires
Rachel Rodgers
A blueprint for women building wealth and economic power on their own terms.
Jump In
Kristina Montague
The story of building the JumpFund, a women's angel collective outside the big metros.
Geek Girl Rising
Heather Cabot & Samantha Walravens
The women remaking technology and venture from the inside.
Podcasts
The Pitch
Gimlet Media
Real founders pitch real investors. The clearest window into how a deal actually sounds.
How I Built This
NPR · Guy Raz
Founder origin stories, including many women who built category leaders.
The Twenty Minute VC
Harry Stebbings
Short, frequent conversations with venture investors and operators.
Acquired
Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal
Deep histories of how the biggest companies and investments were built.

Start where you stand.

Read the research, then pick one thing on this page and act on it. That is how the gap closes, one investor, one founder, one check at a time.

Apply to join See the research

Every organization here appears in our research and references. Know a person, program, book, or podcast we should add? Email tori@silverandsaltcapital.com and we'll consider it for the list.