Have you ever thought about how it is that the innovations you depend on actually made it into your office or your home? For instance, take your palm pilot-could you live without it? Or what about that roomba- the robotic vacuum cleaner that makes housework fun?

But before these ideas were in your life, someone worked hard and long to create the idea, develop the technology and build a company to manufacture these products. And they had to raise money to market and commercialize the technology. Both Donna Dubinsky developer of Palm Pilots with Jeff Hawkins, and Helen Griener, founder iRobot had to raise significant funding to launch their companies.

What if the investors decided not to invest in these innovative and timesaving ideas?

The truth is some technologies get commercialized and others don't. The gatekeepers of the money that funds these technologies are private equity investors. Investors say they have very particular criteria for investing- usually things like market size and demand, management team quality and capabilities, business model, metrics and financial plan. In addition, investors look to make a return on their investment- usually within a reasonable period of time.

While the process seems reasonable and objective, but with my research partners in the Diana Project, we learned that often it is subjective factors that get in the way. The venture capital industry is highly networked, homogeneous and geographically clustered (Calif. and New England). At the same time, there are misperceptions that women entrepreneurs just aren't qualified or don't want to grow their businesses. Just because a woman entrepreneur is of child-bearing age, this doesn't mean she is less committed to running a fast growth business. When perceptions get in the way, innovative technologies are at risk.

So why are there misperceptions? Most likely it's because of a disconnect in the networks. Most of us like to deal with people we know, and trust. When it comes to money and investing this is even more true. Because the venture capital industry is so tightly networked, women entrepreneurs are sometimes outside of the network. How many women venture capitalists are there? Not very many- in fact less than 10% of all people in the industry are female.

This suggests that the best innovations may not get funded because the people with the money may not know about them, or worse, may have misperceptions about the quality of the business founders. Unfortunately, women entrepreneurs could lose the chance to create wealth. Are things changing and getting better? Yes, somewhat, gradually, women entrepreneurs are getting more audiences in front of investors-for instance, the Keiretsu Forum, a national angel investor organization seeks to expand its presenters and its investors, by actively encouraging women to participate. But, there is still a long way to go. Misperceptions should not get in the way of funding the best innovations.

For further information- see work by the Diana Project.