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A crop of underrepresented founders are entering ‘s accelerator program, but according to reports by and other outlets, they’re doing so at a hectic time: Backstage Capital did not yet meet its $36 million fund goal, and Arlan Hamilton, the operations arm of the fund that focuses on incubating new companies.

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However, after speaking to numerous founders about the news, we learned that confidence in Hamilton and Backstage鈥檚 mission hasn鈥檛 been shaken.

鈥楬ustler鈥檚 Gotta Hustle鈥�

Heli Prilliman, the founder of Lacquerbar, which wants to make manicures and pedicures more empowering for technicians and customers alike, first reached out to Hamilton last year to tell her about her company. The usual happened: cold email, no response.

It wasn鈥檛 until after going through Founder Gym, a virtual training program for new entrepreneurs, that Prilliman鈥檚 cold email turned into a warm intro. Fast forward, Prilliman is joining the Backstage Los Angeles accelerator, and it came as no surprise to her that Backstage is still working out its strategy.

鈥淲e all know the struggle is real,鈥� she said in a phone call, saying she鈥檚 known for a while that Backstage was fighting to raise capital. Prilliman added that Backstage Capital is still a startup, too, and they need to figure out what works for them. Plus, like she said in her first email to Hamilton in June 2018: 鈥渉ustler鈥檚 gotta hustle.鈥�

Another founder who will be joining Backstage Los Angeles, Dr. Reginald Parker of , which creates high efficiency solar modules, compared the fund news to a product release.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like Google when they delay a product launch because they have a couple bugs to fix,鈥� he said in a phone call on Wednesday morning. Add in being a minority entrepreneur trying to set up a fund for minority entrepreneurs, and he said it makes sense that it鈥檚 tough to 鈥減ull yourself off the ground with your own bootstraps.鈥�

Hamilton echoed the same sentiment in a : 鈥淚 do not categorize anything Backstage has accomplished in our short time in existence as a 鈥榝ailure鈥� or 鈥榤isstep.鈥� There have been more disappointments than I can count, from millionaires and billionaires making promises that they later take back, to personal loss.鈥�

Ofo Ezeugwu, the founder of , part of Backstage Philadelphia, said that they鈥檙e not the only fund that has struggled to raise capital, minority-led or not. Plus, he鈥檚 a fan of , the new CEO of Backstage Studios, who he just met yesterday.

For at least this trio of founders about to spend three months with the Backstage team, there鈥檚 a lot of optimism.

鈥淏lack and brown people have not been given the same opportunities are others,鈥� Parker said. As a result, they鈥檝e learned to make lemonade out of lemons. And with what鈥檚 leftover, they鈥檝e cut it up and made potpourri.

Illustration: .