Black Founders are NOT Charity.

9 min readJun 12, 2020

Marginalized people are NOT charity. Black people are NOT charity. So stop treating Black founders like charity. They’re one of the biggest untapped opportunities that are ignored.

Recently, a long-overdue fury was ignited across the world when we were forced to watch a viral video of Black man being murdered by police. Is police brutality against Black bodies new? Nope. However, what made this moment so impactful was that the world was forced to watch George Floyd die slowly over a span of 9-minutes during a pandemic where we’re all sitting still.

This moment has sparked some of the most beautiful forms of humanity that I have ever seen. From protests taking place around the world that encompassed all races, genders, ages, social statuses, you name it screaming #BlackLivesMatter. To new policies being implemented after just 10 days of protests. It has reignited my hope in humanity when it’s often put to test because of the perpetual brutalization of bodies that share my DNA.

However, this moment has also made some of the darkest forms of our humanity rise to the surface for us all to confront which makes it very hard to deny. If you are still in denial, you’re a part of the problem. This is across the board but I will specifically focus on the tech entrepreneur ecosystem since it is where I commit a lot of my time and energy in my work to shaping better outcomes for marginalized people.

What’s the Problem?

Since the murder of George Floyd, the tech ecosystem has responded but the responses have been a clear indication of how broken the system is. Here are some of the reactions to leaders in this space in dealing with the murder of George Floyd and why they’re problematic:

Your emails to your customers and employees won’t make systemic racism go away.

…In the words of Martin Luther King, “Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.“ With every breath we take, we must commit to being that change, and to creating a better, more just world for everyone. —
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple email to employees.

Your social media posts won’t make systemic racism go away.

You can’t pay for systemic racism to go away.

This is probably one of the biggest issues I’ve seen perpetuated in our ecosystem and was characterized by the recent announcement of A16z’s Talent x Opportunity (TxO), a $2.2M fund dedicated to investing in underserved founders.

Given that this fund has $2.7B under management, a $2.2M “donor-advised fund” felt like a slap in the face. TechWeek made the edit to the current title, which originally excluded the phrase “ongoing contributions” but still included “donor”.

However, the issue isn’t capital. There’s an exorbitant amount of capital in the ecosystem, even during a pandemic. All of these examples carry the same sickness that limits the impact that they could have before they even got started.

What’s Broken?

This shared sickness is the mindset towards Black people as helpless charitable recipients on a checklist that are glanced at ever so often when our rage bubbles back up to the surface in response to oppression. The responses are meant to “defuse” the reaction instead of addressing the underlying problem. History tends to repeat itself when we haven’t learned the lesson. In this case, it’s the refusal to fully confront an oppressive system that benefits a few at the expense of others.

Black people, like all people, should be viewed as critical components that allow the world and the entrepreneur ecosystem to thrive. You wouldn’t have the liberties you have on American soil if it weren’t for Black people.

Let’s dive deeper into the example from A16z to gain a better understanding of this toxic mindset. Here’s a quick excerpt from the plan that the fund mapped out:

The fund begins with $2.2M in donations from the partners of Andreessen Horowitz.
The fund is a Donor Advisory Fund managed by Tides which provides tax benefits for the donor — we welcome donations from others to help us in this effort (link below).
Ben and Felicia Horowitz will match up to an additional $5,000,000 total in any other donations.

If you would have stripped away the fund name on this, I would have thought this was a donor proposal for a charity, not an investment opportunity that will yield Trillions of dollars in returns.

It goes even deeper than a fund A16z started working on 6 months ago. A16z has gone on record walking through their approach to deal flow. In Why We’ve Failed Female Entrepreneurs and What We Can Do About It, I highlighted Marc Andressen’s views on cold outreach in an interview with Brian Koppelman.

In his interview, he mentioned that of the many deals he has invested in, he has never invested in a founder from cold outreach, i.e that didn’t come from a trusted source. His argument, along with many VCs, is that the warm intro not only helps to minimize risk but also proves that the founder has enough hustle to “get the job done” by any means necessary.

This is not unique to A16z. They’re just the only ones I’ve heard that haven’t made bullshit public statements about being open to cold outreach. This is how most investors approach deal flow — by pattern matching, where they place their bets on the profiles of companies and founders that have returned an ROI in the past in order to minimize the risk today. However, this is why the funding pipeline is broken and dollars typically go to all white and/or ivy-league teams with the exception of a few.

The pool of “underserved” founders they are addressing is already limited. For example, if they are relying on their networks, which typically look just like them, and the companies they’ve invested in, which also have similar characteristics to them — the dollars funneled to underserved founders will not go far. For example, I went to one of those fancy undergrads that funds will look to for deal flow. There were only 4% of Black people. Read that again.

The reality is that the likelihood of that fund's path crossing with Black founders that don’t fit their pattern matching profiles is slim to none. Therefore, their ability to even invest in “underserved” founders is beyond limited because their mindset and approach to who is “underserved” and where to find them is problematic.

The reactive nature of the entrepreneur ecosystem towards “dealing with” marginalized founders as something on a checklist for charitable giving that they’ll eventually write off is a reflection of it’s an unwillingness to get uncomfortable and do the necessary work to eradicate a centuries-long system that keeps those select few comfortable. While those select few people and organizations remain comfortable, it will continue to create barriers that limit the ability of Black founders, and any marginalized founders for that matter, to achieve success and our ability as a whole to achieve the greatest outcomes for us all.

Do you really think that a centuries-long epidemic could be solved with a tweet, email, or by throwing money at it? It’s time to do better and not think of Black founders as a charity because they’re not. Actually, investing in Black Founders is one of the greatest opportunities in the entrepreneur ecosystem that will yield some of the greatest untapped ROI’s.

Black Founders are an Opportunity.

“Just 1% of venture-backed founders were black.” Crunchbase

In 2016, Monique Woodard, a former Black partner at 500 Startups laid out why she’s placing her bets on Black & LatinX founders:

If you look at the way the U.S. is taking shape, you can see that people of color will be the majority by 2044. There is $2.5 trillion combined spending power between Black and Latino consumers. Black and Latino millennials will be the top of the heap in population size. You also have a population that is going to be skewed younger. The median age of a White person is 42 and the median age of a Black person is 33 and a Latinx person is 27. This is important because of how much more active spending time as a consumer Black and Latinx people will have compared to the majority. This is a group that has never really been spoken to before. There is a lot of blue sky there for entrepreneurs to take on these interesting consumer groups and make products that are really scalable.

What Now?

Acknowledge that there is a problem. I’m hopeful that if you’ve read this far, you have already accomplished this step. If not and you are here to justify the oppressive system that we currently live in that puts Black people and black founders in harm’s way and keeps us at a disadvantage, this is exactly where you need to start.
Study and Learn History & Acknowledge How You May Have Willingly or Unwillingly Been A Participant in the Problem. No. I’m not talking about the bullshit they teach you in schools that are also a product of the same broken system. You cannot fix what you do not understand. The lack of understanding a painful history is what makes leaders believe a tweet, email, or throwing money at the problem is the solution.
Stop Weaponizing Your Privilege. Use it as a Tool to Empower Yourself and Others. No one is asking you to feel bad for the privileges you were born with. That is not your fault. However, the moment you feel ashamed of your privilege, feel guilt, and project that guilt onto marginalized people as if we should feel bad for you about the privileges that you were born with, is the moment you take one of the most powerful tools you have and transform it into a weapon. Instead, ask yourself: How can I leverage my privileges as tools to uplift myself and others who are marginalized?
Reframe Your Mindset About Black Founders. Black founders are not Charity. Black founders are not looking for a handout. Black founders want to win with you. Black founders are just as capable as non-Black founders. Black founders are one of the most untapped opportunities you have yet to fully address. Make this your mantra for your approach to Black founders.
Step out of your silos. Your network is your net worth, right? Your net worth won’t increase unless you diversify your network. That’s what we are taught about investing in stocks, right? If you limit yourself to the same pool of opportunities, you cap your growth potential. Instead of relying on your “buddy” system, do the work to find other ways to step out of your silos and make new connections with communities that you typically overlook but have amazing founder opportunities that are typically overlooked.
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable: No one likes being uncomfortable. However, we’ve been on auto-pilot for centuries. There’s a lot of work to be done and deconstruction of harmful habits that are implicit and explicit. It’s going to be uncomfortable at times but meaningful growth, impact, and reward never comes with being comfortable. To get started, check out this amazing TED Talk by Luvvie Ajayi.
Make doing the work a habit. Otherwise, a change won’t come.

“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” ―Stephen Covey

Tim Cook ended his email to employees with the following —

With every breath we take, we must commit to being that change, and to creating a better, more just world for everyone”

So what is your commitment to change? We need Apple, other companies, leaders, and our entire ecosystem to commit to walking the talk consistently. An email, tweet, and donations aren’t a plan of action.

Are you ready to invest in one of the best opportunities for us all? If yes, how are you committing to doing the work?