Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the nation, yet according to Digital Undivided research, they receive just 0.00006% of available investment capital. This week, All Raise and Unusual VC with support from my organization Black Women Raise, launched When Founder Met Funder, a half day forum designed to give early stage entrepreneurs guidance about their startups and access to potential future capital and, for investors to meet black women entrepreneurs on the rise.
Speakers such as Michael Seibel CEO of Y Combinator gave practical no nonsense advice about what excites Silicon Valley investors…spoiler, they prefer software focused businesses with high margins. Founders had the opportunity to hone their verbal pitching skills in front of a live audience. And personalized storytelling sessions allowed the attendees to further practice pitching, with direct feedback from investors such as Charles Hudson of Precursor.
To really move the needle for black women entrepreneurs, we need as many of these more focused initiatives as humanly possible, as well as investors who want to do more than pay lip service, and actually put real money on the table by investing in the founders of color.
