The founder of Black Girl Ventures wants to help Black and Brown woman founders find alternative access to capital. In 2016, she launched (BGV) with the aim of creating 鈥渁 solution to wealth disparity and lack of access to capital.鈥�

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Earlier this year, Bell was on the verge of launching new chapters in 25 cities and then, 鈥淏oom. COVID-19 hit,鈥� she said.

But being the determined woman that she is, Bell wasn鈥檛 deterred. Armed with funding from the , she opened two chapters, one in Houston and one in Philadelphia.

BGV provides Black and Brown founders with resources such as learning experiences, online peer-to-peer mentoring, education, leadership development and most importantly, 鈥渁 community that looks like them.鈥�

The next level

Bell wanted to take things a step further, so she devised a plan to allow Black and Brown female founders to pitch their businesses in a room and allow the audience to donate capital.

鈥淚t was clear that Black and Brown women were not receiving access to VC funding,鈥� Bell told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淪o I thought, 鈥楲et me create something where the community can get involved.鈥� 鈥�

The organization began with its signature event, the BGV Pitch Competition, in 2017.

鈥淭hink SharkTank meets Kickstarter,鈥� Bell said. 鈥淏ut it was a live event. And we started traveling across the country with Google Cloud for Startups and others as partners. We went from 40 in a room to more than 200.鈥�

Bell even took the competitions to SXSW, and despite its cancellation, she made it virtual this year.

In addition to helping women raise money, BGV funds and scales 鈥渢ech-enabled, revenue-generating businesses (under $1M) founded by people who identify as Black/Brown and woman.鈥�

Over time, the group has traveled to numerous cities, funded 41 founders, and created a pipeline of hundreds of Black or Brown women founders.

A founder herself, Bell is the brains behind听Made by a Black (MBABW) Woman, which “doubles as a movement and a marketplace” by creating a retail space offering clothing, accessories, and home decor created and curated by women of color.

Recent events

The murder of George Floyd and its emotional aftermath was, naturally, shocking to Bell. It wasn鈥檛 the first case of police brutality Bell had seen since she founded Black Girl Ventures. But this one was different, she told me, in that it was 鈥渦ndeniable.鈥�

Suddenly, Bell found her organization inadvertently in the spotlight and was floored by an unsolicited outpouring of from a number of companies and people, including: eyewear retailer (her largest donor so far), Miir, Interscope Records and Sio Beauty.

鈥淚鈥檓 happy to see support going to grassroots organizations such as ours rather than just to a few organizations like the NAACP,鈥� Bell told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of us out here doing lots of great work on the ground. And grassroots organizations like ours don鈥檛 usually get that funnel of capital I鈥檓 seeing. It feels like the changing of a tide.鈥�

Bell plans to use the donations BGV has received to continue her plan of launching chapters in 25 cities across the country.

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and co-led the financing, which also included participation from industry giant and . The financing brings Boston-based Trade Hounds鈥� total venture funding raised to date to about $4.9 million, the company said.

In conjunction with the investment, Trade Hounds announced plans to launch a jobs platform this summer that connects qualified tradespeople with construction companies and staffing firms.

Australian native came up with the idea for Trade Hounds in 2014 after working with his uncle, who operated a construction company. He noticed that his uncle was sourcing jobs mainly through his personal network. Broomhead also realized that most construction or trade workers don鈥檛 use traditional job sites such as Indeed or LinkedIn, and would benefit from a community of their own.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always bothered me that tradespeople–the skilled workers who build our hospitals, schools and infrastructure–don鈥檛 have access to a technology platform that meets their professional needs,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t was like a lightning bolt. I asked myself, 鈥榃hy hasn鈥檛 anyone done this?鈥� 鈥�

Broomhead moved to Boston in 2014 and two years later co-founded Trade Hounds to give 鈥渉ard-hat-wearing workers鈥� a place to communicate with others in their industries and showcase their skills. They can also seek advice and build their networks.

Co-founder and CFO said the goal has been to build a platform that the tradespeople of America 鈥渨ant to use in a habitual way, capturing their hearts and minds.鈥�

鈥淟egacy platforms have failed this demographic,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News.

Trade Hounds launched a mobile app in 2019, and today its platform has more than 150,000 registered users.

鈥淥ur users can interact with each other through their preferred mode of communication: imagery and video,鈥� Broomhead said. 鈥淓lectricians, plumbers, carpenters–workers across the skilled trades–prefer to 鈥榮how鈥� their work through photos versus 鈥榯ell鈥� about in writing. This is why existing professional platforms simply don鈥檛 work for this demographic.鈥�

Now, Trade Hounds is ready to take the next logical step by giving those workers a place to also find jobs. The company claims the new jobs platform will simplify and shorten the search and hiring process for companies and staffing agencies while giving workers a way to get noticed.

Trade Hounds plans to use its new capital to continue to expand its user base, roll out the jobs platform and (naturally) boost its headcount from its current team of nine.

, general partner of Corigin Ventures, noted that historically, most sites have focused on jobs in the construction industry, 鈥渞ather than the people.鈥�

To Brick & Mortar Ventures鈥� managing director (whose family runs construction giant ), 鈥渃onstruction is an opaque industry based on tribal knowledge with a language of its own.鈥�

鈥淢en and women working across the various construction trades now have a digital home on Trade Hounds–a place where they are understood and recognized by their peers in the trades,鈥� he said.

The platform is free to workers. The company plans to make money via its new jobs platform by charging companies for access.

Photo courtesy of Trade Hounds. Left to Right: Trade Hounds’ co-founders 听补苍诲
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I reached out to the mindfulness and meditation startup for more information and it confirmed that the financing is an extension to a Series C that closed in February. Indeed, the filing comes nearly exactly four months after Headspace secured $93 million in a Series C round that we reported on here. That financing included $53 million in equity and $40 million in debt.

This latest infusion brings Santa Monica, California-based Headspace鈥檚 since its inception in 2010 (Was it really founded a decade ago?!) to about $216 million, according to SA国际传媒 data. The company declined to disclose at what valuation the Series C was raised.

In an email statement, Headspace said: “We had always planned an extension of our Series C. This extension is听now complete听补苍诲 was led by existing investors, adding $47.7 million to the $53 million raised in February, bringing the total equity funding to $100.7 million for our Series C.”

All Series A, B, and C lead investors participated, according to the company. Some of those backers include 听听 (the global investments and partnerships arm of The Times Group of India), , and

To rise above the hype around meditation, Headspace claims to be 鈥渢he most science-backed digital mindfulness product in the market.鈥� As an example of that, the company said in February it was conducting over 70 clinical research studies with institutions such as and .

Over the years, it鈥檚 branched out from its consumer app into different product lines including 鈥淗eadspace for Work,鈥� its B2B segment that counts , , and among its 600 enterprise customers. It鈥檚 also offering 鈥淗eadspace Health,鈥� an effort to integrate mindfulness into health care. In general, the company says its goal is to help users apply mindfulness to improve their health via content around stress, anxiety, sleep, focus and other things.

Growth

Since its founding, Headspace said as of February it had experienced over 62 million downloads in 190 countries and had more than 2 million paid subscribers. No word yet on if it’s seen a spike in users due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to growing its direct-to-consumer business, Headspace said it will continue to invest in its Headspace for Work segment, which has seen its revenue double year over year from 2017 to 2018 and most recently in 2019. It also plans to continue putting money into its health care segment.

In 2019, the company launched localized versions of the app in French and German, and appointed former executive as head of its European division to lead expansion in that region. Also last year, Headspace launched in Latin America with versions in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. It expanded into Asia through strategic relationships with partners such as The Times of India. In February, the company said it planned to use its new capital in part to continue expanding internationally.

Of course, Headspace is not alone in the meditation app space. Last year, announced the close of an $88 million Series B round that propelled it into unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation. In July, it announced a $27 million extension to that round.

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and co-led the Series A, which brings EnsoData鈥檚 total raised since its 2015 inception to $11.1 million, according to SA国际传媒 . SleepScore Ventures, , Necessary Ventures, and some existing backers also participated in the latest round.

The company鈥檚 trio of co-founders met nearly a decade ago while attending the University of Wisconsin where CEO told me they 鈥渇ell in love with the confluence of AI, massive data sets and working with bright clinicians to support problems in health care.鈥�

Over the years, they have developed technology they claim simplifies the process of analyzing the human body to accurately diagnose health conditions. EnsoData uses AI to analyze millions of data points collected from sensors on the human body (think heartbeats on an EKG or eye movements through an EOG) that output as waveform data. It then uses that information to deliver diagnoses via 鈥渁n easy-to-read printout.鈥�

In a nutshell, the company automates sleep data analysis using machine learning.

The startup claims its AI technology replaces a workflow that today requires thousands of hours from clinicians to manually mark dozens of complex events on reams of complex data by hand. Its AI analysis, by contrast, allows clinicians to perform the same tasks in minutes.

EnsoData is starting with diagnosing sleep apnea and other sleep disorders but plans to ultimately expand to other neurological conditions.

In fact, the company says it has developed 鈥渢he first artificial intelligence technology cleared to aid clinicians in sleep disorder diagnosis.鈥� Over time, it has amassed a database of more than 400,000 users and analyzed more than 350 terabytes of data, which it says is 50 times larger than any public dataset.

After receiving Food and Drug Administration clearance in 2017, EnsoData has primarily sold its software service to more than 300 sleep clinics in the United States. It recently launched in Latin America.

The company has seen impressive growth as of late. In both 2019 and 2018, EnsoData quadrupled the size of its customer base, according to Fernandez. Since inception, it has seen 100 percent customer retention, he said.

EnsoData plans to use its new capital in part to continue to 鈥渁ggressively鈥� hire to build out its engineering and sales teams. It has about 15 employees today. It also plans to launch new AI products in sleep and neurology and expand partnerships with sleep clinics, enterprise health systems, academic medical centers, home sleep testing providers, and integrated diagnostic testing facilities.

鈥淭his is a story about patient access to care,鈥� Fernandez told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淲e are democratizing information about health and sleep for clinicians and patients, so that we can all play a more active role in understanding and managing our own health. We鈥檙e using AI to further humanize health care, rather than taking it away with technology.鈥�

Investor POV

, managing director at Zetta Venture Partners, described EnsoData as 鈥渢he early mover to the market.鈥�

鈥淲e spend a third of our lives asleep, yet the majority of disorders that disrupt it go undetected–a problem of this scale translates to an enormous opportunity for the company,鈥� he said. 鈥淓nsoData has resonated with the entire industry. We think they have the opportunity to set the gold standard in sleep disorder diagnosis.鈥�

, managing director of Venture Investors, said he first met EnsoData鈥檚 co-founders when they were students at the University of Wisconsin.

鈥淪ince that moment, I have been impressed with their unbridled passion, infectious enthusiasm, and desire to improve patient care using medical waveform artificial intelligence,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ot only can they help diagnose sleep apnea in the 16 million Americans who are undiagnosed, their platform will improve treatments for the 6 million who are diagnosed. The potential global impact is astounding.鈥�

Moving forward, Button believes what EnsoData is doing has 鈥渕uch broader applicability鈥� than just sleep apnea.

鈥淭heir platform and algorithms can be applied to all medical waveform analysis including EEG and critical care management,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t will allow doctors to spend more time caring for patients and less time interpreting medical waveforms.鈥�

Photo: EnsoData co-founders Nick Glattard, Chris Fernandez and Sam Rusk. Photo courtesy of EnsoData.

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and Paris-based co-led the round, which also included participation from and . The financing brings the company鈥檚 to nearly $158 million–including just over $10 million across two convertible notes–since its 2016 inception. NS8 declined to reveal at which valuation the new capital was raised, but its $16 million seed round in March 2019 was raised at a $100 million pre-money valuation, according to .

Even by today鈥檚 standards, $123 million for a Series A is massive. I hopped on the phone with CEO and co-founder to understand more about what NS8 does and how it was able to raise such a large sum (in the midst of a global pandemic).

He told me that the COVID-19 pandemic, as we all know, has accelerated the adoption of e-commerce. That in turn has led to increased demand for NS8鈥檚 offerings.

But even before the pandemic, NS8鈥搘hich operates as a software-as-a-service business鈥搒aw its annual recurring revenue climb by 200 percent year over year in 2019.

It was also refreshingly profitable in 2019 and has continued that trend into 2020 so far, according to Rogas.

鈥淲ith the planned expansion ahead, we expect that we may teeter back and forth between profitability and growth,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淭he market opportunity was already听 tremendous, but we鈥檙e seeing increased demand of about five to six times as a result of ecommerce adoption accelerating due to global events, particularly in sectors such as food delivery and groceries.鈥�

NS8 says it combines behavioral analytics, real-time scoring, and global monitoring to help online businesses minimize risk. Its patented scoring technology provides data about the type, quality and trustworthiness of transactions. It looks for things like chargeback risks, fraud risks around payment and even advertising risk, Rogas said.

Plans for growth

Looking ahead, the company plans to use part of its new capital to continue growing its team. It听 currently has about 225 employees, up from about 50 this time last year.

Besides its headquarters in Las Vegas, NS8 also has a presence in Miami, Amsterdam, Singapore, Melbourne, Australia, and San Ramon, California. It plans to open an office in San Francisco later this year.

The company also will put its new funds toward accelerating product development and expanding its global reach. Currently, NS8 partners with companies such as and to help merchants selling on their platforms. Over time, it wants to reach more partners, ultimately expanding its user base to enterprises as a natural evolution, according to Rogas.

Lightspeed Venture Partners鈥� noted in a written statement that NS8鈥檚 platform 鈥渁llows its partners and their merchants to stand up a full-service fraud prevention hub, in a matter of a day, across almost every ecommerce platform. 鈥�

NS8 is another example of a SaaSy and profitable startup, a group that has only grown over time, which I wrote about here earlier this year.

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The main data point we have been referencing听 to illustrate this disparity in the startup world is revealing–just 1 percent of the amount of funding flows to black founders in the U.S

But months before the events of the past several weeks, a trio of black founders set out to change that statistic in a meaningful way by raising money for their new fund, Collab Capital.

Managing partners , and are on a mission to provide black businesses with both the funding they often lack when looking to scale their ventures and the social resources many often find difficult to tap into.

Unlike many venture funds or accelerators dedicated to funding people of color or diverse founders, Atlanta-based is unapologetically emphatic about its focus on only investing in black founders.

Its goal is to raise a $50 million fund that invests in a way that is different from traditional venture funds: A profit-sharing model versus giving capital for equity. The trio is on track for a first close of $10 million by late August. So far, LPs include and hip-hop artist .

The trio are an impressive bunch.

Burks sold her startup to Amazon in 2016, and was recently tapped as head of, U.S., where she works to level the playing field for underserved startup founders.

Serial entrepreneur Dawkins is also founder of social impact pre-accelerator , which helps everyday people and entrepreneurs 鈥渄iscover a role in an innovative process designed to solve some of the world’s toughest problems.鈥� In 2017, he was named Atlanta鈥檚 first Google Digital Coach.

Givens created the automated bartender via his startup, . He also serves as the managing director for the Techstars Social Impact Accelerator where he invests in 10 companies per year 鈥渟triving to make a positive impact on underserved communities, underrepresented people, or the sustainability of the planet.鈥�

A plan forms

The trio, who had been friends for years, came together in late 2018 to formalize their efforts to help other black founders in the startup and innovation space.

鈥淲e started our companies within six months of each other so we grew up in the space together,鈥� Dawkins said. 鈥淲hen Jewel and Barry exited their companies, we saw an opportunity to be more impactful. We鈥檇 advised, mentored and helped as much as we could around noncapital things.鈥�

The trio had reached a point where they realized they needed to address the challenge of access to capital. So they launched Collab Studio as a resource hub for entrepreneurs. In the third quarter of last year, they started to raise a fund and by March was nearing a first close. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit and potential LPs had to put things on hold.

Now, the trio has resumed its fundraising efforts so they can write their own checks. Today marks Collab Capital鈥檚 first investment, a $500,000 infusion into , maker of an innovative rain hat. Founded by , the company has over $1 million in sales.

Moving forward, Collab Capital seeks to partner with small family offices and other funds that want to invest in more black entrepreneurs but don鈥檛 have the access to founders or companies.

鈥淭his [Floyd] situation has opened a lot of eyes, and we are here to help others diversify their own investments by investing in us as a fund,鈥� Givens said. The founders are there. Last time Collab held a pitch competition for black founders, more than 420 founders applied.

In general, Collab believes the future of VC needs to be more inclusive.

鈥淚nnovation doesn鈥檛 have a color,鈥� Dawkins told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淎nd with our profit-sharing model, we鈥檙e here to help companies who don鈥檛 want VCs to take large sums of equity and wait for exits.鈥�

Photo: Collab Capital partners Barry Givens, Jewel Solomon Burks and Justin Dawkins. Courtesy of Collab Capital.
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, which operates an AI-driven insurance platform, today filed with the .

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The New York-based company revealed a proposed maximum offering price of $100 million. It also noted that it will list its common stock on the under the ticker symbol 鈥淟MND.鈥�

In April 2019, we reported that Lemonade had raised $300 million in a round led by . That financing the company at more than $2 billion. In total, Lemonade has raised since its 2015 inception. It also secured a in late 2017 that valued the company at $620 million. SoftBank led that round as well.

Other backers include Germany鈥檚 , Israel-based , and U.S.-based , (formerly known as Google Ventures), and .

Lemonade is licensed as a property and casualty insurance carrier, and began offering homeowners and renters鈥� insurance in New York in late 2016. That offering is now available for most of the U.S. population. The company says it powers its offerings with artificial intelligence and 鈥渂ehavioral economics.鈥� Lemonade claims it鈥檚 built a system that 鈥渃ollects 100x more data than traditional carriers,鈥� giving it the ability to generate predictive data that can help improve underwriting and pricing. It operates contrary to traditional insurance models, charging a fixed percentage as a flat fee.

Lemonade also has a social good component. As a , the company annually donates a portion of unclaimed premium dollars to nonprofits.

The numbers

In its S-1, Lemonade shed some light on its financials. It revealed both increased revenue and net loss in 2019. Specifically, the company鈥檚 revenue skyrocketed by nearly 200 percent in 2019 to $67.3 million compared with $22.5 million in 2018. At the same time, its net loss was up by 105 percent to $108.5 million in 2019 compared to $52.9 million in 2018.

And it doesn鈥檛 expect that to change anytime soon. In its risk factors, Lemonade said it expects that its net loss 鈥渨ill increase in the near term鈥� as it continues to invest in growing its business.

The company also said that it has not been profitable since its inception in 2015 and had an accumulated deficit of $198.3 million and $234.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2019 and March 31, 2020, respectively.

Lemonade said its headcount also grew, with 329 employed at the end of the first quarter compared to 279 at the end of last year and 117 at the end of 2018.

The number of homes it insures, meanwhile, grew to 425,000 in 2018 (covering just shy of $50 billion in total insured value) compared to just over 100,000 at the end of 2017.

Other unprofitable companies that have filed to go public this year include online used car retailer Vroom and construction tech unicorn Procore, which ended up pulling its IPO last month. also made its public debut last week.

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听(also known as Wa’ed Ventures) the venture capital arm of , led the financing for Wahed (which means “one” in Arabic).

Existing backers and , as well as and Rasameel, also participated in the round. With the latest financing, Wahed has now raised a known $40 million in funding since its 2015 founding by , according to SA国际传媒 .

Wahed raised $8 million in a seed round in October 2018 that valued the company at $100 million post-money, according to . It is not clear at what valuation this latest round was raised.

In 2016, Wahed what it describes as the 鈥渨orld’s first automated Islamic investment platform, with the aim of providing access to halal portfolio management for 2 billion Muslims around the world.鈥� The proprietary platform uses real-time software the company says is fully automated and uses customized financial optimization algorithms.

The company said it plans to use its new capital mainly toward building out its subsidiary in Saudi Arabia. It currently has more than 100,000 clients globally.

Last October, Wahed after the Malaysian Securities Commission awarded the company with that country鈥檚 first Islamic Robo Advisory license. And last May, Wahed announced it was .

The platform, which was previously available only to U.S. and U.K. communities, as of May 2019 provided access to 鈥淚slamic value-based investing鈥� to residents of over 130 countries including Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the MENA region.

In a written statement, Wa’ed Ventures managing director听Wassim Basrawi said: “We believe in Wahed鈥檚 mission to provide ethical investing. The company has taken the lead in听delivering investment services to one of the world鈥檚 fastest growing sectors 鈥� Islamic Finance.听Wahed is also, in the true spirit of FinTech, helping to broaden the investment landscape.”

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Redwood City, California-based Lastline has raised a total of $52.2 million since its 2011 inception, according to SA国际传媒 .

led its last raise, 听in July 2017 that valued the company at about $114 million. While VMWare did not disclose how much it is paying for Lastline, sources familiar with the deal peg the purchase price at 鈥渘orth鈥� of that $114 million valuation.

Other investors include and .

This marks the second exit for Thomvest Ventures in the past week. Last Thursday, we reported that had plans to purchase for a reported $1 billion.

VMware said it expects the Lastline buy to close during its fiscal quarter ending July 31. A source told that VMware will let go of some 40 percent of Lastline鈥檚 employees鈥攁bout 50 staffers鈥攁s part of the acquisition. This news has not yet been confirmed by either company.

In a blog, VMware鈥檚 vice president of corporate development, Alex Wang, wrote that 鈥淟astline detects and contains sophisticated threats before they disrupt business.鈥�

He added that, 鈥淟astline will bring world-class threat research from a renowned group of academic cybersecurity researchers.鈥�

Lastline will give VMware a way to further increase the capabilities provided by its 听with network-centric threat research and behavioral analysis, Wang said.

鈥淭his will help accelerate our customers鈥� journeys toward intrinsic security,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淲e鈥檒l add new tools to make security intrinsic across highly distributed, multi-cloud environments connected by a virtual cloud network, enabling any app on any cloud on any device.鈥�

VMware, has made a known 46 acquisitions over time, according to SA国际传媒 . This year, it also picked up 听 and , a Palo Alto,California-based startup that raised $27 million in .

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Co-founded by former Dell executive , the Austin-based nonprofit pre-accelerator holds 12-week programs for underrepresented tech founders. The group鈥檚 first cohort kicked off in September 2016 with a group of founders that included three black men, two Latinos, one Caucasian female, and four Asian women.

By June 25, will have finished its sixth cohort, having worked with 70 companies and 64 founders total.

On June 5, it launched its Social Justice Innovation accelerator that will be focused on solutions that address social disparities caused by racism. You can also check out DivInc鈥檚 most recent impact report .

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We caught up with James to discuss the challenges facing underrepresented founders today and what he thinks can be done to help change things for the better. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

CB News: When we’ve talked in the past, you’ve been open about the challenges that underrepresented founders face. What are some unique challenges they have to deal with that other founders do not?听听听

PJ: At the very basic level, a key challenge is that founders of color/women typically do not travel in the same circles/networks as white venture capitalists or even angel investors. This is especially true for new/first-time founders of color. As a result, it is going to take us longer to get the network connections and build relationships within those networks. These network connections are key to getting those “high valued” warm introductions. Almost all VCs take warm introductions over cold introductions 9 out of 10 times. So, if we don’t have those warm introductions, we have a real tough time getting meetings with investors. If we are not getting meetings with investors, then we are not securing investment funding nor are we getting access to referral opportunities. So, it is a major hustle to make the connections and build relationships with the investor community for any founder, but even more so for people of color. Most would say fundraising is a full-time job.

The other thing I would say about these networks is that only a low percentage of white VCs will intentionally seek out entrepreneurs of color to make investments. Some will tell you that they don’t even know where to find founders of color to invest in. So we can’t connect with them and they can’t find us, which can be frustrating for a lot of founders of color.

Then when we finally get those meetings, gender and racial bias, oftentimes, will be right there with us in the room. For a person of color, an investor’s biases can kick in before they even get started. The same can be said for a woman. This is very critical because investor meetings will go very differently because in many cases the questions that are asked of a person of color and women will be different than the questions white founders would get. Bias is a beast.

CB News: We know that the percentage of black founders receiving venture funding is shockingly low. What are your thoughts on why that is? And what needs to be done to change that? 听

PJ: When I first started working in the startup ecosystem I was really disappointed to see the investment data points. As I got deeper into the community my disappointment didn’t go away, but I began to understand the why. I mean, you go back just six years and there weren’t very many black VCs–probably less than 1 percent. There were not as many black startup founders back then as there are today. So the “startup life” was not very prevalent in the black communities like it is today. For most, it was an “after” afterthought. Six years ago you would be hard-pressed to find a robust startup entrepreneurship program at . Meanwhile, you had several major universities with programs that were pumping out startup entrepreneurs for decades. So, in many respects, we are behind the eight ball as it pertains to tech startup entrepreneurship.

I didn’t like it at all that we were not making up 10-15 percent of the startup founders getting funded. As I mentioned earlier, the vast majority of VCs were not intentionally seeking out black founders and black founders were having a hard time getting to the VCs due to lack of networks. I would imagine that many black founders would have gotten some level of investment had they been white, so bias/racism clearly played a role in the low investment numbers.

My thought is that investors would say they were not yet “comfortable or confident” with that founder/company. From my perspective, that was bias in disguise. It is my belief that as an investor you have to have a sense of confidence in the founding team’s ability and capability to execute key milestones that drive business growth. Investors also have to be or feel comfortable with the founders. There is a “likeability” factor that is associated with the founder or the business itself, but I tend to think it’s mostly with the founder. Long story short, black founders have a steeper hill to climb and a lot less wiggle room than our white counterparts when it comes to making investors comfortable and confident enough to invest in us.

CB News: What needs to be done?听

PJ: A few things. For one, we need to get more people of color investors. We also need alternative funding vehicles that possess no/less bias within the decision-making process. And, we need to get black founders and white investors together more often so the investors get a better understanding of the high value of the companies founded by underrepresented entrepreneurs. The more we bring them together, the more deal flow the investors get exposed to, the higher the likelihood that the investors will see, experience and recognize the value. As a result, investors will do more deals with founders of color to maximize their portfolio value. They have begun to realize that if they don’t make the investments, they will not remain competitive as next-gen VCs make the investments instead.

White male investors need to acknowledge their biases and get a grip on them, because if they don’t they will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Traditional white VCs need to commit to making more investments in black founders. To do that they must commit to being intentional about their deal flow. There are several accelerators throughout the U.S. that cater exclusively to underrepresented founders–including DivInc–that would be great deal flow partners. There are many investment funds that focus exclusively on women or people of color (, for example) that provide major deal flow to co-invest for VCs. Likewise there are several key events held throughout the year that VCs can attend to gain access to that deal flow, , , , and Demo Days. So, in reality there is absolutely no excuse for investors not to increase their investments in people of color and women. In a nutshell, to commit to it and hold themselves accountable internally and externally. I also believe that the LPs can hold the GPs accountable for diversifying the portfolio investments.

CB News: How does it feel to be a black man in tech in an industry largely dominated by white males?听

PJ: To be honest, it feels the same as it does as being a black man in America. What I mean by that is, I’ve been in it for so long it is my part of my black experience in America. If you are asking if it’s lonely/tiring sometimes because I am the only person of color in the room, if I have experienced bias, if I have experienced subtle or explicit racism, if I’ve been passed over for a promotion or didn’t get a raise because of the color of my skin, if I didn’t gain access to opportunities because I didn’t have network connections or sponsorship or if it was harder for me to fundraise and so on. The answer is absolutely yes, sure.

However tough it is for a black man, it’s even tougher for black women. All said and done, none of these negative experiences have ever been a reason for me or any of my brothers or sisters in the industry to stop moving forward. We have to be the change we want every day. In the tech industry, just like in America, we must always be working together to create cultures that are authentically inclusive, equitable and diverse at work and at home.

CB News: What can we learn from the murder of George Floyd and its tragic aftermath?听

PJ: This is such a loaded and emotional question. People are so damn tired of the abuse, it’s been going on too damn long. I know there has been abuse to LatinX brothers and sisters as well. I know the women are unfairly treated and abused as well. But as a black man, people must learn and know that black people are sick and tired of being denied the very basic rights of being a human in America, just because of the color of our skin. I would like people to learn, if they have not already, that this has to stop now if we don鈥檛 want to be in this situation six months from now.

We must change things now by doing the hard work of addressing issues at the core. No more of these “comfort zone” solutions. We have to radically change the policies and laws that we have in place across the board in order for us to achieve socio-economic prosperity equitably. We have seen people from all backgrounds and races come together to protest. We need to take that momentum and together make these changes and overcome the “leaders” who resist and want to maintain the status quo. Those leaders are scared and they are scared because of their ignorance to the issue of how racism and bias are at the core of all of the problems we have seen today. We have to change mindsets. We have to take action together, all races all genders at the table together to effect real change.

CB News: What would you say to founders and investors who want to take action to combat discrimination?听

PJ: I’m going to focus on the investors because the founders are out there hustling and making it happen despite what’s going on. Yes, all founders need help through the journey, but our black, brown and woman founders are doing the work. On the investor side, I’m seeing quite a few new funds being stood up and investors redirecting or carving out funding targeted to black founders. That is a great start.

Here are my suggestions for investors.

1. Open your heart, your mind and listen to what black and brown people are saying. Listen to what women are saying. What they are experiencing is real. Investors need to leverage their networks, tap into the innovative side and figure out how to invest in more black, brown and women founders.
2. Within their current funds, investors must commit to diversifying and focusing a larger portion of their investment funding in black, brown and women founders.
3. They must also hold themselves accountable. LPs can hold the GPs more accountable by making it part of the investment thesis or a requisite of the investment firm. I’d say the same for angel investment groups as well.
4. Many, if not most, VCs and angel groups may not know how to “connect” with founders of color. My guidance to them is to spend time reaching out to programs like DivInc, , Founders of Color, or , , , , , ,听, , and and a whole host of others that you can partner with to find awesome deal flow.

There are several key events that they can attend, AfroTech, Black Women Talk Tech, SXSW and so on, where they can find some of the best and brightest among women and people of color entrepreneurs. In a nutshell, there is no excuse to not be able to effect the change.

Another thing that other major VC firms can do is create new funds specifically targeted to these demographics and hire black, brown, women to run them and let them be the apprentices, pipeline of VCs to the future. You can work with venture scholar programs to identify candidates and organizations like. Alternatively, you can build a venture scholar program within your firm. Bottom line, open your minds, hearts, listen and innovate. There is going to be a higher ROI than you imagined. Those who don’t will be left behind.

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