+Impact Studio Fellow & Founder Friday Feature: Closing the inequity gap in Entrepreneurship, Tech, and Venture Capital
By Katie Moore (BA ’25) and Loren Townes Jr.
This Friday marks a new series from the +Impact Studio: Fellow & Founder Fridays! This feature highlights the +Impact Studio Founders and Applebaum Impact Design Fellows engaged in impact-focused work outside the Studio. Whether that be undergoing a transformative experience, reaching a purposeful milestone, or partaking in an initiative to impact the world positively — we want to spotlight the efforts of our amazing social innovators as they navigate their impact journey. Our first feature includes George Okpamen (MBA ’23) and Grace Sanders (BBA ‘23), the founder and fellow (respectively) of PILS Ventures.
When George Okpamen and Grace Sanders saw a racial, gender, and wealth gap in entrepreneurship, tech, and venture capital, particularly in historically overlooked populations such as women, Black, and Latinx populations, they sought to find a solution. This solution manifested itself in a new initiative within Business+Tech called Close the Gap (CTG).
In establishing this initiative, Okpamen and Sanders had three objectives: (1) give attendees exposure to conferences outside of the Midwest, (2) provide experiences to the University of Michigan from people who are not from the Midwest in the form of insights into non-traditional career fields (3), and provide connections to people from the Midwest to coasts. The event saw experts such as Monica Wheat (Managing Director at Techstars), Isaiah Andrew (Head of Design at Nike Virtual Studios), Marques Zak (Head of Multicultural Marketing at American Express), and over 100 students and staff in attendance.
Sanders said that for her, the impact of the initiative was “providing more access to information and networks of individuals, as well as highlighting underrepresented individuals in the entrepreneurship, tech, and venture capital space and people who are potential allies.”
Okpamen noted that “as a student, we’re involved in pre-established things, so it was impactful for me to establish something and then to bring along a team of people to help.” Through establishing CTG, Okpamen realized that “once you have an idea, it’s not good enough just to have an idea; it takes a lot of actual work, such as writing a proposal, getting senior leaders in the org to agree to it, and getting the funds to pay for it.”
Sanders further stated, “I didn’t realize how important access to information was, and here, we’re providing…something more than internships and experiences, such as a live pitch which allowed us to understand what types of questions are important to ask founders and for the entrepreneurs it helped them understand how to better pitch their company in the future by receiving live feedback from individuals in the industry.” Beyond access to information, Okpamen said that by partnering with both Business+Tech and Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital (EVC) to create impact, the initiative “confirmed our ability to affect both our Midwest community at UMich and other surrounding communities by ideating and executing initiatives that didn’t exist before us and our ability to partner amongst our known and unknown teams to make it happen.”
After such a successful initial event, Okpamen and Sanders have big plans for CTG, breaking ground for it to flourish far beyond a singular event. “We’re thinking of ways to literally incorporate the idea, i.e., a potential startup,” noted Okpamen, adding that “as an organization hoping to give strategic and financial guidance in the future, we’re also focusing on our ability to stay connected as alumni.”
As for Sanders and Okpamen themselves, CTG extends far beyond an initiative started in school. To them, “CTG isn’t just a program/initiative we did as students, but the overall opportunity to provide additional access and help close the gap is something we believe is a life mission.” This life mission is only expanding through Okpamen’s leadership in creating the upcoming EVCCon on Friday, April 14, a conference dedicated to amplifying students’ access to the nation’s top investors and innovators through content, conversations, and connections as part of a long-term initiative to fortify the EVC ecosystem. Get your tickets for this event here! As part of EVCCon, there will also be a conversation around social impact investing hosted in the +Impact Studio that’s open to all at no cost!
