Inclusive Alpha Founder Report

Ada Ventures exists to find & fund the Ada Lovelaces of today.

In October 2023 we coined the term Inclusive Alpha® to describe an investment approach where an inclusive lens is prioritised at every stage of the investment process - from the investment team structure, to the investment strategy, to sourcing, selection and portfolio support.

Read our full reportThe report launch event

At the selection stage, we felt talent is still being assessed by investors using crude pattern-matching: where someone went to school, where they've worked, and who they know.

We wanted to find a way to more objectively assess founder qualities, not just relying on heuristics and biases that marginalise diverse voices. To do this, we partnered with Synaptiq - an applied psychology company - to study the psycholinguistic profiles of unicorn founders, to see what we might learn from comparing the qualities of diverse founders to their non-diverse counterparts.

Our findings point to ways in which investors can break free of pattern-matching, by tuning their radar slightly differently when meeting diverse founders. To do so would help to funnel the fair share of investment outside of the same demographic profiles, by investing in the best, not just the best connected.

Inclusive Alpha® reframes diversity as a disciplined, evidence-based investment thesis. It is not about charity or optics. It is about finding Alpha in overlooked places, expanding the opportunity set, and building portfolios that are both more representative and more resilient.

Our Inclusive Alpha Founder Report Found

Similar
Traits

between Unicorn Founders
The study found that 88% of traits are shared by unicorn founders, regardless of identity.

Subtle
Differences

shared by Diverse Founders
The study identified four key traits in diverse founders that break traditional pattern-matching.

Smart
Adjustments

investors can make
The study highlights four key watch-outs to consider 
 when assessing diverse founders.

Similar Traits across Unicorn Founders

We Analysed

171

Unicorn Founders
(+ non-unicorn Founder control group)

159

Psycholinguistic Traits

We Found

Regardless of identity, Unicorn Founders score higher on:

Analytical Thinking

Think through problems in a more structured & logical way

Assertiveness

Push through their ideas & back themselves

and lower on:

Neuroticism

Are more resilient & composed under stress & pressure

Inward Focus

Are more inspiring to their team & investors

Main Takeaways

  • This provides empirical evidence that talent is evenly distributed, if opportunity is not
  • Investors can therefore feel comfortable that diverse founders who present differently to non-diverse founders may still represent opportunities for Alpha

Inclusive Alpha

Structure
Strategy
Sourcing
Selection
Support

How Ada is using Data to Inform the Selection Process

Human Decisions (Informed by data).
Investors make final decisions, not AI.

Our partnership with Synaptiq helps us make better investment decisions by de-biasing the Selection stage of our Inclusive Alpha approach.

Psycholinguistic Assessment

30-minute assessment administered through Synaptiq.

Proprietary Dataset + Framework

Traits compared against our dataset of unicorn founders+ our Ada Founder Framework.

Comprehensive Psychometric Reports

Reveals where Ada can provide equitable support.

Deal Memos bias-checked using custom tooling

We've built internal tooling to check against common biases in investment decision making.

Image: In the investment paper for a fictional company we've called CarbonVault, the AI has flagged two potential biases which could impact quality of decision making.

Our Inclusive Alpha Founder Report Found

Subtle Differences in how Diverse Founders show up...

... require Smart Adjustments in how Investors assess

Communion Language

Diverse founders are more likely to highlight the contributions of others, to emphasise the group effort.
“Our technology looks to solve...”
“The team has been grinding away...”

How Investors Assess Iconoclasm

  • Don’t confuse co-operation & empathy with “softness” or a lack of singular ambition, but rather strengths in themselves.
  • Do value collaboration and empathy, especially in domains where mutual benefit drives scale (such as healthcare, or partnership-driven ventures)
The trope of the singularly focused founder may not be the right signal to look for in diverse groups.

Tentativeness

Diverse founders are less likely to “hedge” their statements, and more likely to make assertions with a higher degree of confidence.
“we’re 100% convinced that...”
“we will deliver on...”

How Investors Assess Humility

  • Don’t mistake founders’ strong claims on conviction for hubris.
  • Do recognise this might be their one shot to build a startup, and they’ll try extra hard to convince you they’re “all in”.
Conviction & certainty is often necessary for diverse founders to push through barriers and have their ideas heard.

Present Focus

Diverse founders are more likely to focus on current traction and where the business is today, rather than the opportunity ahead.
“Today, our ARR is £XXXm”
“Our current product feature set”

How Investors Assess Storytelling Ability

  • Don’t mistake founders who talk about the ‘here and now’ with not having the future vision of where the company might go.
  • Do ask more probing questions about the path to £100m in scale and assess their ability to execute.
Separate storytelling style from strategic capacity — present focus can signal charismatic, disciplined leadership.

Imagination

Diverse founders are less likely to discuss the ideal of what the business potentially could be, more grounded in reality.
“Applying our technology to [existing problem]”
“We’re not re-inventing the future...”

How Investors Assess Vision

  • Don’t equate pragmatic, concrete language with an absence of big-picture ambition or innovative thinking.
  • Do dig beneath rhetorical style to assess the scale of the founder’s product, market and model ambitions, and support them to translate pragmatic plans into compelling narratives when needed.
Evaluate the ambition of the plan, not the flourish of the pitch.

Industry Perspectives

“For an industry that likes to say over and over that it’s all about the founders, it’s amazing how many people in venture will resort to lazy signal spotting like what school someone went to or where they worked last. It’s great to see research being done on actual underlying traits that lead to great companies being built.”

Suranga Chandratillake

General Partner at Balderton Capital
Suranga ChandratillakeSuranga Chandratillake
“This study shows that founders who do have the skill, plus the sheer grit and desire to build a company, have genuinely had odds stacked against them because of gender or background. Let’s pay attention to this Inclusive Alpha research, to help level the playing field.”

Jane Elizabeth Reddin

Partner at AlbionVC
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake
“Talent is universal, opportunity isn’t. Data shows that unicorn founders share the same core traits, regardless of background. What really matters is whether investors can look past their pattern-matching and recognise true conviction, collaboration, and pragmatic ambition. There are smarter ways that we as a community should pay attention to.”

Dan Bowyer

Partner at SuperSeed VC
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake
“The real risk for investors is overlooking exceptional, alpha-delivering founders whose success traits transcend gender and background. This study demonstrates that gender is not a differentiator among unicorn CEOs; the traits that drive outstanding outcomes are widely shared. Investors should broaden their perspective and seek these proven success factors earlier, to unlock talent wherever it emerges.”

Anna Ott

VP for People at HV Capital and Board Member  of the VC Platform Community
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake
“Data like this is rare and valuable. It’s the first time we’ve had psychometric evidence at this scale on what drives diverse unicorn founders, and it shows that what we’ve sometimes seen as deviations from the “norm” – the adaptations diverse founders build to navigate bias – can actually fuel performance. Yet our industry keeps matching against outdated patterns and screens out precisely the traits that build resilient, high-growth companies. It’s time to update the playbook on what we look for so capital can flow where results already prove it should.”

Meghan Stevenson-Krausz

Co-CEO at Diversity VC
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake
“Having invested in multiple unicorns over the past decade, I’ve learned that while no two founders are the same, there are some common characteristics that set exceptional entrepreneurs apart. As venture capitalists, we’re in the business of backing outliers, and those defining traits often aren’t the traditional markers investors tend to look for, like credentials or background. This research reinforces what experience has long shown: extraordinary founders can emerge from anywhere.”

Yvonne Bajela

Venture Partner at LocalGlobe
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake
"I’m from Spain, raised in Germany and the US, and now living in London investing in European founders. The different languages of ambition is something I think a lot about. This report goes to the heart of it: unicorn founders share many of the same underlying traits, though they’re sometimes expressed differently. It’s a powerful reminder that the alpha lies in hearing the signal beneath the background."

Carmen Alfonso Rico

Founder of Cocoa
Jane Elizabeth ReddinSuranga Chandratillake

Inclusive Alpha

Structure
Strategy
Sourcing
Selection
Support

How Ada is Using Data to Inform Founder Support

By understanding founders as whole humans, we're able to provide equitable support and help them reach full potential.

We use our findings from interviews & psychometric assessment to understand how we can best support founders post investment.

See more on how we support founders post investment below.

Image: Illustrative output from Synaptiq's psycholinguistic assessment.

Growth Support

Post-investment, we match each portfolio company with an experienced Operator-Advisor to mentor on Customer Acquisition & GTM

"As a former VC turned founder, I value partners like Ada who offer the perfect balance of support and challenge, allowing us to thrive in building from 0 to 1."
Mark Whitcroft
,
CEO and Co-founder of PlannerPal

Founder Welfare

Every founder gets access to up to 40-hours of back-up emergency childcare for a 12 month period when they need it the most, powered by Bubble.

Every founder gets access to anonymous mental health support, powered by Spill.

“Spill has been an important part of my journey as a Founder and helped me with actionable techniques to maintain mental clarity during key inflection points of the company’s growth.”
Amber Hill PhD
,
CEO & Founder, Research Grid

Coaching & Advisory

Every founder has access to our roster of specialist advisors - be it on talent & culture, storytelling, fundraising & pitching, or marketing & communications.

"It was great to work with Ada Ventures' Talent Partner for our Independent Board Member search and senior member of the leadership team. The support and knowledge of best practice talent hiring was invaluable. We needed this support at a crucial time and Ada was there for us."
Julia Fan Li PhD
,
Co-founder & CEO of Micrographia Bio
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