Venture capital remains a critical source of financing for new ideas and technologies, but only 10-15% of venture capital-backed entrepreneurs are women. Using data from the Harvard Business School’s New Venture Competition, this column shows that networking frictions play a significant role in the gender gap, and that structural solutions focused only on providing women entrepreneurs with more exposure to VCs may not be enough to eliminate it. Instead, networking opportunities should be encouraged or even formalised, particularly in the realm of new venture competitions and accelerators.