It took Arlan Hamilton 16 months to convince Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, Brad Feld of Foundry Group, ex-Salesforce executive Susan Kimberlin and others to put up $5 million for Backstage Capital to invest in women- and minority-owned businesses.
Hamilton expects it to take as little as two months to raise Backstage’s second fund, as Silicon Valley investors wake up to VC and tech’s lack of diversity.
Backstage has invested in 31 businesses. The new fund will aim to seed three-times as many, focusing on businesses started by women of color.
Photo credit: Backstage Capital
