It’s About Damn Time: Interview with Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund she started in 2015. Today, Backstage Capital has raised more than $7 million and invested in over 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders who identify as Black, women and/or LQBTQ.
This month, she published her must-read, new book It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage. I had the pleasure to meet Arlan and hear from her on topics ranging from founder self-care to allyship in VC to the decentralization of Silicon Valley.
In Chapter 11 “The Best Music Comes from the Worst Break-Ups,” you talk about resilience. In fact, you created your first blog with over 50,000 followers “Your Daily Lesbian Moment!” after a tough break-up with your then-girlfriend and the cancellation of your first magazine Interlude.
How can we think about resilience during COVID-19?
Arlan Hamilton: By taking some of the lessons that have already been hard-earned and hard-learned from other people. There is always a lesson to learn from people who have done it before — even from yourself. If you are a founder, if you are an entrepreneur, you have most likely gone through something yourself. There is nothing similar to what we are going through right now because it has never happened before, but it can be something that was in your own world that seemed insurmountable.
If you are here to think about it and reflect on that, that means you got through it. The first step of it is to say, wait a second, I am made of something because I got here. I am standing here to have this conversation. That’s what you can say to yourself.
In Chapter 26 “The Danger of Hustle Porn,” you talk about how tech has a toxic culture that glorifies the hustle. Working full-on, seven days a week with no rest is not only unsustainable but it disproportionately affects founders who may have ten-hour day jobs, night shifts, kids, or caring responsibilities.
What is your advice to underrepresented founders on managing self-care alongside their business?
Arlan: There are many ways, and my way is not the only way or the right way. I found that what helps is by making self-care — whatever that means to the individual —part of your job strategy and a mandatory part of your company’s culture and for you as a leader in your company.
At Backstage, we have mental health days that are paid. You do not have to give any notice because it rarely comes with notice. You just say, that day or that hour, I need to go, and you go. That is what happens. There is no question.
I know a lot of people have remorse about that when they’re in the leadership position. But turn it into: this is as much a part of my role as a leader, as learning the latest level of upskilling in my industry or going out to raise funds. Then, it becomes more of a habit and a priority in your life.
During this time of COVID-19, it is even more important. One day you are just going to collapse from some sort of exhaustion, whether that is physical or otherwise. Then, you are just no good.
This is when you have to be the leader and step up. No one is going to come to you and say, “Hey, you are kind of frazzled right now. You are snapping at people. You are not on the top of your game.” No one is going to do that until the house is on fire. Instead, say: What can I do ahead of time to get us in a position where if anybody, including myself, needs to be human for a day or for a week, we can make that work?
What can I do ahead of time to get us in a position where if anybody, including myself, needs to be human for a day or for a week, we can make that work?
You have talked about the opportunity to invest in swaths of this country, in the Midwest and cities like Atlanta and Detroit, that have been left behind yet still fight. Backstage Capital has recently opened up an accelerator, Backstage Studio, in Detroit, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and London.
What do you think about the decentralization of Silicon Valley in light of more remote work in tech?
Arlan: Oh yeah. We’ve talked about it for the past two or three years. We’ve said, Silicon Valley is a bubble. It was not going to be sustainable. Prices have been building up and building up. I think all of that will happen, but this is going to be more permanent. You will have some people that stay around.
You will have a lot of people who will go back home, which is going to be exciting. They can take what they learned, take the network that they built, take all of the investment they made in themselves and go and create this abundance where they were born or where they call home.
You will have a lot of people who will go back home, which is going to be exciting. They can take what they learned, take the network that they built, take all of the investment they made in themselves and go and create this abundance where they were born or where they call home.
That is exciting. I think about it all the time. I live in Los Angeles. It is in no way a bubble in the tech space, so there is a lot to be done there. However, when I make decisions about where I am going to put wealth, it is not necessarily Los Angeles. It is in Dallas and parts of Texas. It is in parts of Jackson, Mississippi, where I was born.
If you have thousands of people doing that all at once — all in the same 18-month period — that is going to mean a lot for innovation and for competition. If we can compete with each other through different cities as we do with sports teams, we can then compete with other countries better.
You will also include a lot more people. You won’t have the same bro culture that you have in San Francisco. There will be pockets of it for sure. They will find themselves. They will hang out, but there will be a more of a level playing field for different people to be the leaders.
In Chapter 4 “There is No Such Thing as Self Made,” you talk about how under-estimated people can help under-estimated people. In Chapter 8 “Let Someone Short Stand in Front of You,” you address privilege and how prosperity is not a zero-sum game.
What makes a good ally in VC?
Arlan: Allyship is really going to bat and really being uncomfortable. It is not wearing a t-shirt that says, “Go ally.” It is not tweeting when everyone else is tweeting about it, so you know you are not going to get into too much trouble. It is standing out. It is speaking out. It is being called out.
Maybe you were trying to do the right thing and someone calls you out. They call you something that you are not or say you are something you are not, but you do not retreat because it was too difficult. These issues happen to people that you are trying to be an ally to every day.
It just happened yesterday with the VC in Minnesota. He tried to kick two men out of the gym because they were Black. They were at a WeWork. These Black entrepreneurs who are members of the WeWork were working out. He comes in. He sees more than one Black guy together, and he automatically assumes that they have broken in. He calls the police or threatens to call the police in a situation where the day before a man died under police action. They got him on film saying, you do not belong here.
I was talking about that online. My white friends, allies, and strangers took action. Then, a couple of people were like, “I don’t like the way that you phrased that. That is not fair to white people.”
My mother was in Jackson, Mississippi burning cars and having dogs sicked on her. She had water hoses on her to fight for her right to survive in protest. I am over here tweeting a sentence that has you all riled up, but you don’t have anything posted about George Floyd. My sentence upsets you. We can talk about that, but that is what’s upsetting, really?
It is an example of picking how you are going to be an ally from a selective menu. I will be an ally when it is convenient for me. When it does not hurt me or when it does not offend me, I will be an ally. On top of that, because I say I am an ally, because every once in a while I join the parade, I get the accolades of my friends and everybody thinks I am “woke.” So, you get two times the credit for doing half the work. That is not an ally.
Allyship is showing up the way that you would show up for your sister or your mom or your child for a stranger. I am practicing what I preach. I know it is not easy. I know it is not comfortable, but that is what allyship is. You either do it or you don’t. At this point, I think we are all fed up. I think that Instagram-red-carpet-allyship is no longer enough. If you want to be an ally, I applaud you. Be one through thick and thin.
I know it is not easy. I know it is not comfortable, but that is what allyship is. You either do it or you don’t. At this point, I think we are all fed up. I think that Instagram-red-carpet-allyship is no longer enough. If you want to be an ally, I applaud you. Be one through thick and thin.
Could you provide an example to illustrate?
Arlan: I have had many examples. Some of it is like, that is what you should have done. More generally, when someone comes to me and says, there is this founder I want you to look at because they are Black. I’m like, “Okay, are you investing in them?” When they say, “Yes, I already wrote the check” and when they say, “I want you to get in on this deal”—that is an ally.
Allyship is not, “I want you to meet Arlan because you are Black and that makes me look cool because I have that introduction.” It is not showing up to All Raise, going to the convention and wearing the t-shirt, but then not sharing deals. It is suggesting, “Hey, maybe this person, this person, this person should also be considered for Partner and not just Craig.” It is speaking up, being uncomfortable. That is what it is and anything less is nothing.
Allyship is not, “I want you to meet Arlan because you are Black and that makes me look cool because I have that introduction.” It is not showing up to All Raise, going to the convention and wearing the t-shirt, but then not sharing deals. It is suggesting, “Hey, maybe this person, this person, this person should also be considered for Partner and not just Craig.” It is speaking up, being uncomfortable. That is what it is and anything less is nothing.
In Chapter 21 “This Industry Wasn’t Built for Us,” you take on an institutional-level view of VC. I think this is one of the most seminal chapters in the book, and you talk about the unique shape of Backstage Capital and Backstage Studio: “We’re a whole new ecosystem, and we can’t be boxed in.” You play a different game at Backstage Capital.
Will VCs still be playing the same game in one, five, 10 years?
Arlan: Because so much of it has been made about my story, there is this label: you are in VC. But I have tried to be very clear that venture capital is nothing that I am aspiring to be part of. It is not something that I waited my whole life to be part of. It is not the end-all, in my opinion. It is one tool of many.
There are two parts to it. I will not be forced out. I will not be scared out. I will not be guilted out. Though, they try. They really do. Some people don’t like me making noise and don’t like me shaking things up. I understand that, but that is not going to send me away.
I will, I am, have been, and will continue to look at other means to get the same or better outcomes for founders of color who are women. That includes, and I’ve said it since 2016, creating an entirely new asset class.
I will, I am, have been, and will continue to look at other means to get the same or better outcomes for founders of color who are women. That includes, and I’ve said it since 2016, creating an entirely new asset class.
It may not be me: don’t ever count out Black women. I look up every day and there is somebody sending me something that is bold and new. I am also a big fan of bootstrapping.
As we have seen, VC is not perfect. It is ripe for disruption. I have done a little disrupting, but it is ripe for major disruption. I hope it happens, and I hope that it happens for the greater good of as many people as possible.
I am not here to see anything burned down. But I think there is more space for other people to come in, and we somehow have this illusion that there is not. So that is what I want to see disrupted. I want to see more people out and involved.
If you stay on the outside of it, observe it and say it is wrong, I don’t think you have as much credence. It is not as strong an observation because so many people can use the excuse that you are not in VC, so how can you talk about it?
That is one of the reasons I got in it. I wanted to look around and see what is going on for real. Now that I am here, I know there is some crazy stuff going on.
Think of the people like Marc Andreessen in the world — who is an investor in our fund. Think of the people like Elon Musk — who is not an investor in our fund. Think of them.
The best part of this disruption is that by a VC’s own admission and definition of who they are, they should be impressed with and proud of the young innovators and the young disruptors of VC.
The best part of this disruption is that by a VC’s own admission and definition of who they are, they should be impressed with and proud of the young innovators and the young disruptors of VC.
It would be counter to their whole credo if they were to say, wait a minute, you are disrupting me. That is not okay. It will be really interesting to watch. What happens when they are on the other side of things that they started out saying. They should be the first in line to back it.
Follow Arlan Hamilton and Backstage Capital on Twitter. Check out Arlan’s podcast Your First Million and her latest article in Fast Company about the PPP.
