Kathryn Finney On How She’s Making The Startup World More Inclusive
By: Emma Wilkinson, Contributing Writer at PowerToFly
Kathryn Finney is a powerful advocate for women of color entrepreneurs in the tech startup world. She founded digitalundivided (DID) to help Black and Latina women/entrepreneurs find success and created a research study called #ProjectDiane to shed light on Black women in the tech entrepreneurship space. PowerToFly handed over our social media channels to Kathryn on Monday, June 6th, to discuss all things women in tech. We spoke with Kathryn about her own experiences as a Black female entrepreneur, how her work has made the startup world more inclusive, and the success stories of women she has helped through DID.
When did you become interested in tech entrepreneurship?
I grew up in a tech-centered household. My father was a brewery worker who learned how to code in his 30s and later went on to work as a Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft.
In the early 2000s, I started out in tech as one of the first lifestyle bloggers (and among the first ones to make money off my brand). Then along the way, I came up with a business idea that I thought was perfect for my niche (a beauty membership site for black women). In 2009, I joined one of the early incubators in New York (which turned out horrendously). Later, I sold my blog to a Midwest media company. My experience in the incubator led to me founding digitalundivided (DID) to help other women of color become tech entrepreneur themselves.
What was your motivation behind starting The Budget Fashionista?
It started out as a hobby. Back then, I was a newlywed living in a city far away from family and friends, and blogging about things I love — fashion and shopping — became a form of therapy for me. Eventually, I started gaining more readers and attention from the press, and the rest is history.
Did your own personal experiences as a Black female entrepreneur inform your decision to found digitalundivided?
Yes. Remember that incubator I mentioned earlier? It turned out that it didn’t matter if you are a Yale-educated scientist running one of the most popular style sites on the web, or that your business model was “excellent.”
Your idea could still be shut down simply because an investor thought that he “doesn’t do black women”, or that someone could doubt your knowledge of the market because he thinks you’re not like “other” black women.
This got me thinking that I can’t be the only woman of color out there who wants to start a business, but can’t get the support needed to do it. And thus, DID was born.
Tell me about the key findings of #ProjectDiane.
Our research found that Black women are extremely entrepreneurial. They’re the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. (more than 1.5 million businesses owned by Black women), and these businesses generate more than $44 billion a year in revenue. Yet black women-led startups remain undercapitalized compared to other startups.
Black women startup founders raise $36,000 on average, while the average (mostly white male-led) failed startup raises $1.3 million.
It also explains why we were only able to verify 11 Black women founders who have raised at least $1MM in outside funding for their startups. I’ve discussed more key findings of the report in my Medium post.
What kind of responses did you receive from the startup world after the research came out?
The response was one of surprise, but resignation that now that the problem has been quantified, they actually have to do something about it.
“In an industry worth $606 billion in 2011 alone, statistically no Black women have raised venture funding over the past five years.”
But we also received an outpouring of support and gratitude for shining the light on the largely overlooked state of tech entrepreneurship among Black women.
How has this research helped make the tech world more inclusive?
#ProjectDiane has been nationally discussed in some of the biggest media outlets (Forbes, CNN, Fast Company), and has jumpstarted important conversations from state houses to the White House. The report also offered recommendations with concrete actions, whether the reader is someone from a private company, a government agency, or even an individual.
What are some success stories from the Black and Latina entrepreneurs you have helped through DID?
There’s Nichelle McCall, founder and CEO of BOLD Guidance. She’s actually a first-generation college student in her family, and her experience in navigating the college application process practically on her own inspired her to start her own company that makes this process easier for both students and counselors. She was accepted as a DID FOCUS Fellow in 2013, and received training and guidance for her pitching and the app itself. She went on to win the Best Mobile App in the FOCUS 100 Conference in the same year, as well as clinch third place in Northeast Ohio’s COSE Pitch Competition. Nichelle has since raised $450K for her company.
Another is Nicole Sanchez, serial entrepreneur and founder of eCreditHero. After meeting and chatting with me at SXSW a couple of years ago, she was inspired to leave her corporate job and join the startup grind. She became a FOCUS Fellow and received training and mentoring. After winning the FOCUS pitch competition, she competed in the Tech Cocktail Celebrate event — she was one of the only three women-led companies pitching and the only company led by a Latino or Black person. In the end, she beat 45 other semi-finalists to be named one of the 5 Hottest Startups in the Nation.
How does it feel to have your very own Appreciation Day?
It’s super awesome! I feel very honored and grateful to be appreciated this way.
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