Where are the Black women in VC?
“Hello is anybody there?!”……
Hi I am Charmaine Hayden. I entered Venture capital as a Partner at Good Soil VC.
I did so because my team and I saw a huge market opportunity in under represented founders and wanted to set up a fund that could use diversity as a tool for high growth. We also felt that our unconventional approach and founder background could be positively disruptive to the Venture space.
As soon as we set up and started raising I wanted to reach out to some other Black women in VC to find out a little more about their experiences and whether or not they felt that their roles were making a difference. So I stood and scoured the landscape for a while, before hitting google and typing the words
Black women in VC
I came across this article by Sydney Thomas where she had compiled A list of Black women in VC I thought good read and a great concise list. I hit Sydney up straight away and jumped on a call with her to discuss her experiences so far, future goals and a whole heap of other great stuff.
I was impressed to know that there was a network of WOC, and was inspired by her statement that
“We are here and the numbers are growing”