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Arlan hamilton8/24/2023 “So we ask ourselves what is in our power to tip the scales a little bit more in our favor.” But right now our circumstances are that we are playing catch-up from decades and centuries of being institutionally locked out,” Hamilton said. “We know that these founders are going to be the leaders of tomorrow. “Because we’re not seeing it.” Building a network “Every time I look at a TechCrunch or Axios article that says the ecosystem is flush with capital, with VC capital, there’s a bubble, I’m like where?” Hamilton said. Backstage Capital reports that women, people of color and LGBTQ founders receive less than 10% of all venture capital deals. Less than 2% of start-up financing went to female founders and only 1% went to black and Latinx founders in 2016, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which studies education and entrepreneurship. And so I try to give that same Iron Man suit and augmented privilege to others.” Needed investment But it’s really everything that I built for myself. “I have on the Iron Man suit, and I’m walking around. “I call it augmented privilege,” Hamilton said. Hamilton said 80% of founders supported by Backstage Capital have bootstrapped - or self-funded - their businesses. The grit it took to build her fund from scratch is one way Hamilton, who now serves as managing partner at the firm, connects with and supports founders of companies in Backstage Capital’s portfolio. During the time she started pitching Backstage Capital to investors, Hamilton was homeless. She didn’t have a college degree or run in wealthy circles where VCs are typically born. Similar to the way she taught herself to book music tours, Hamilton taught herself how to start a venture capital fund from completely different means. I was already dancing on the boat as I walked in,” Hamilton said. But I think some of them were a little afraid to rock the boat, because it had been so difficult for them to get in. “There are definitely people who paved the way for what I do. That’s when Hamilton knew she could continue to work on her own company, or she could raise money for other companies and have a bigger impact by unapologetically challenging diversity and equity gaps in start-up funding. The more she learned, the more she noticed that brown and black founders were underrepresented, overlooked and undervalued. It piqued her interest at a time when she wanted to start her own company. In 2010, Hamilton noticed celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Ashton Kutcher, were investing in start-ups.
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