Understanding if and why some groups of entrepreneurs experience larger funding gaps than others are foundational questions in entrepreneurial finance. This study investigates equity investors’ evaluations of pitches by physically disabled versus non-disabled entrepreneurs. Leveraging the stereotype content model, we hypothesize that pitches of physically disabled entrepreneurs will be evaluated more positively, a relationship that is expected to be mediated by equity investors’ greater perceived warmth and competence of these entrepreneurs. Two experiments with participants with equity investment experience support the hypotheses. Our findings are unexpected based on the minority entrepreneurship literature, which focused on other types of unconventional entrepreneurs, and contribute to entrepreneurial finance by expanding the discourse on the “democratic” nature of entrepreneurial finance markets.
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