Melissa Bradley — Disrupting the Culture of Venture Capitalism
After spending just a few minutes with Melissa Bradley, it is clear that her hands-on, academic approach to managing 1863 Ventures is effortless. Less than three years ago, she launched Project500 in Washington, D.C., with the mission of helping 500 underrepresented founders scale their businesses. Quickly exceeding her goal, she rebranded and expanded the company to reflect less of a traditional VC firm and more of a…well, university.
Make no mistake, like any other investor, Bradley is focused on the bottom line — well-performing, high-quality ventures with the potential for high growth. After all, that’s what venture capitalism is about. However, what sets her apart from typical investors is her genuine desire to have an impact on the trajectory of underrepresented ventures and her ability to see beyond personal gain to help scale businesses that are not in her portfolio.
An adjunct college professor, Bradley’s passion for teaching and mentorship is evident in the programming offered to 1863 cohorts. Academic-based research drives her decision to invest nearly $500,000 a year in legal, tax and accounting services for entrepreneurs in her programs. Understanding the disparities of startup equity is only the start of rewriting the narrative for founders of color. Bradley takes her advocacy a step further by advising the venture capital community that entrepreneurs of color need $250,000 more than white founders to start a business, and by filling in the fiscal gap with 1863’s training, mentoring, coaching and funding.
Bradley not only teaches and mentors emerging founders, she is also establishing herself as a professor, of sorts, to other funders who have taken an interest in shifting the culture of venture capitalism from one that caters predominantly to white men to one that is more diverse and inclusive, and truly reflective of the startup world. As an advisor to the board of the $100M New Voices Fund and chair of the future Moxy Bank, Bradley’s portfolio of social impact ventures is as strong as her financial portfolio. She is laser focused on helping as many founders as she can, in as many ways as possible.
One such founder is April Johnson, CEO of Happied. She attributes her ability to grow and scale her business to the “tremendous resources and support [from 1863] in the areas of marketing, sales strategy, financial modeling, and overall business development.” Others tout Bradley’s ongoing personal engagement with the startup community and her commitment to inclusion, despite her company’s growth and continued rise in status. Where the venture capital community prides itself on secrecy and exclusivity, Bradley remains the standard for transparency and inclusiveness.
Minimizing the hoops and hurdles of venture capitalism is no easy feat, but the reality is, most founders need customers more than they need venture capital funding. As an investor and professor, Bradley is shifting the VC conversation from a focus on money to knowledge, and helping underrepresented founders realize the value of information, resources and support.
“I want to be a proxy. Not a role model.” ~ Melissa Bradley
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Ayanna Smith is the co-founder of WÖC Media — a newly formed digital media company that spotlights emerging women founders and makers. Our mission is to leverage the power of digital content, programming and events to bring much-needed exposure to women-led ventures.
She is also the founder of #AskMe Tees — a t-shirt brand designed to encourage face-to-face conversations about meaningful topics. Recently, #AskMe Tees were selected as the official “conversation starter” for Stanley Black & Decker’s 2018 Diversity and Inclusion Conference.
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