All Raise, two years in: Empowering the architects of tomorrow

During times of crisis and uncertainty, we need community more than ever. For All Raise, it’s at the heart of why we exist. By building community amongst and between female founders and funders, we aim to accelerate their success to build a more prosperous, equitable future.

In early April, All Raise turned two as an organization. In year one, we were born out of a grassroots movement powered by influential women in venture who banded together to enact change. Thousands of people — mainly women and a growing number of men — signed on to drive change and start our community.

In year two, after I joined as CEO in April, we expanded beyond the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City to two new regional chapters in Boston and Los Angeles. We also grew our community to over 1,100 venture capitalists with $306B AUM and more than 1,450 visionary founders who have collectively raised $114B.

Through it all, our work is only possible because of the unwavering dedication of our volunteers — founders, funders, and operators who arm women with the access, guidance, and support they need to propel themselves forward. To all those who have committed your energy, superpowers, and time to powering our community, thank you!

Today we publish our first annual report to share highlights from the past year. Together, our community drove significant impact:

• Provided 5,600 hours of guidance for female founders and over 8,350 hours of guidance for women in venture capital
• Offered Founder Bootcamps for the first time to guide female founders through different stages of fundraising
• Launched VC Cohorts, a program enabling 200+ women across all levels in VC, from analysts and associates to general partners, to be top performers in the across the venture landscape
• Hosted a landmark second annual VC Summit connecting 600 women investors across the US — the largest convening of women in venture in history
• Piloted new programs to help female founders who are underrepresented women of color gain access to financial and relationship capital, including “When Founder Met Funder” for 100+ black founders and an AMA garden at TechCrunch Disrupt where over two-thirds of the female founder participants were from underrepresented groups (e.g. Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander, or LGBTQ+)

As we stand on the cusp of a new decade facing threats to public health and the challenges of a global recession, we’re deeply concerned that our industry will backslide on the progress it’s made.

Around the country, women will bear the brunt of an economic downturn. When companies downsize, women and people of color are disproportionately laid off compared to their white, male counterparts. In the past year, although an incredible $130B of U.S. venture capital was deployed, less than 12% of that funding went to companies with a female founder. For women of color, the stats are so bad that they barely register on a graph. As fundraising becomes harder during this crisis, starting disadvantages could be amplified. We can’t let that be the case.

At All Raise, we see a clear path forward — one in which the architects of tomorrow better reflect the world and as a result, better serve the world.

After over two decades working in Silicon Valley, I have been through several boom and bust cycles. Out of these challenging times, the next generation of game-changing companies will inevitably emerge and we are uniquely positioned to ensure that women of all kinds shape the funding, founding, and building of these companies, and reap the economic rewards for doing so. There’s a massive, $4.4 trillion untapped opportunity to invest in women and other underrepresented entrepreneurs — larger than the economy of California, which ranks as the 5th largest in the world.

We cannot afford to take our eye off of diversity, equity, and inclusion in these trying times, nor as we exit this crisis and begin to build for the future.

Although it’s tempting to focus just on economics, we need to recognize that expanding the types of people we fund, hire, and work is precisely what allows companies to out-perform and out-innovate their less diverse counterparts. Every crisis presents opportunities and those who capitalize on them will not only survive but thrive. We invite everyone who shares our vision for a more prosperous, equitable future to join our movement.