ImpactAlpha, Mar. 9, 2018 – Female founders grabbed just 2% of venture capital in 2017. Women founders of color received even less. Time’s up.
These New Revivalists are changing who gets to build businesses in America…and who writes the checks. Check out the women standouts in ImpactAlpha’s New Revivalists series with Village Capital.
Melissa Bradley: Boosting the success of D.C.’s founders of color
Melissa Bradley, director, Project 500 l Photo credit: Pitch & Flow
“Making entrepreneurship more accessible to people of color is more than an ethical imperative. It’s an economic one.” (more)
>>MORE WOMEN RISING: ImpactAlpha’s full coverage
Heather Fleming: Bringing innovation home to the Navajo Nation
Heather Fleming, CEO of Catapult Design l Photo courtesy of Heather Fleming
“Most of those “unemployed” [Navajo] are working in the informal economy. They’re all entrepreneurs, they just don’t see themselves that way.” (more)
Lisa Skeete Tatum: Unlocking women’s talent in the workplace
Lisa Skeete Tatum, founder, Landit l Photo courtesy of Lisa Skeete Tatum
“You cannot have a ‘one size fits all’ solution to career development — it doesn’t work. Landit’s secret sauce is a “one size fits one” solution, a career playbook that knits together technology and human touch points for a customized experience.” (more)
Carmen Rojas: Building a 21st-century economy for working people
Carmen Rojas, CEO of The Workers Lab | Photo courtesy of The Workers Lab
“For us, building power for working people means empowering nonprofit organizations and entrepreneurs to create new models to redistribute wealth, to increase wages, and expand benefits.” (more)
Arlan Hamilton: The VC taking calls from underestimated founders
Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital Photo: Backstage Capital
“If the problem is that people are pattern-matching, that means there should be more people like me writing checks.” (more)
Margaret Bradley: Turning Philly institutions into impact investors
Margaret Bradley, director of investment partnership at Ben Franklin Technology Partners l Photo: Margaret Bradley
“First it’s about investing in strong companies. Next is how we are able to attract capital from elsewhere to Philadelphia. There are a lot of people who don’t know what opportunities are here.” (more)
Andrea Chen: Helping local founders rise with New Orleans’ revival
Andrea Chen, Executive Director and Co-Founder, Propeller
“Data’s one of the most powerful ways to bring people over to the side of racial equity beyond a qualitative narrative. It is harder to convince people that racism still prevents people from starting businesses and getting bank loans. – Propeller’s Catherine Gans” (more)
Ellen Ward: Closing the racial wealth gap with innovative finance
Living Cities’ Ellen Ward
“Jobs in America are largely created by companies that are less than five years old. But looking at the national entrepreneurship trends, entrepreneurship is actually going down….There needs to be a massive investment in businesses [founded by] people of color for our entire economic engine to keep going.” (more)
>>MORE NEW REVIVALISTS: The full series
