In recent decades, the number of female entrepreneurs has grown dramatically, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite the high rate of involvement of women in entrepreneurial activity, the characteristics and performance of female-led ventures differ significantly from those of ventures led by men. A potential reason for this is the lack of clearly defined firm goals, including the profit margin that ventures target. We study the relationship between gender and target margins using a large dataset of ventures located in Latin America and the Caribbean and Sub-Saharan Africa. We find that ventures led only by women are almost five percentage points less likely than male-led ventures to establish target margins, even after observable characteristics of the venture and the founders are controlled for. In addition, in most cases, ventures with only female founders set lower target margins than those with only male founders. These results suggest that policymakers, as well as accelerators and incubators, can play a major role in supporting female entrepreneurs as they grow their businesses by encouraging women to set clear and realistic target margins to be more successful at raising funds for their ventures.