Why Won’t the Big Leagues Come Watch Us Play?

My buddy RJ texted me this weekend and asked if I wanted to “go out” (go out = go to a bar or night club). I declined! Statistically speaking, a black person has a better chance of getting their venture funded than it is to get me to “go out”, especially to a bar or night club and especially on weekends like this past one. I’ve spent the past month diligently working on releasing a couple of new features for Blastchat, features that my users have been unknowingly demanding for months. But this weekend wasn’t ALL about work. I managed to find a couple of hours of downtime and rewatched Soul of the Game, a 1996 HBO distributed movie about Negro League Baseball.

Soul of the Game is about Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and his determination to integrate Major League Baseball. Despite the intense racial climate of the time and receiving backlash from other wealthy owners, he decided to scout and recruit talent from the Negro League Baseball. The rest is history, Rickey went on to sign Jackie Robison in 1947 and for the following seventy years blacks have displayed brilliance, professionalism and dominance in fields (on fields/courts) where they were never wanted and previously not allowed.

As the movie went on, comparisons to the modern day venture funding (ALL VENTURES OF ALL SIZES) become more prevalent:

The concept of pattern matching was just as intense back then in baseball as it is in venture funding today!

100% of teams prior to 1947 were full of white men. Today, less than 1% of all venture funding goes to black founders. I understand racial tensions were more extreme and more common than they are today, but it was never illegal to integrate professional sports teams. Just as it is not illegal to integrate your portfolio by funding more black founders. But Branch Rickey saw opportunity when other owners soaked in tubs full of ignorance. And you know why his approach should resonate with todays VC’s, especially the ones that think they are lowing the barrier if they decided to invest in black founders? RICKEY INTERGRATED WHILE ALSO MAKING MONEY AND WINNING! Branch Rickey was as innovative as they came both on and off the field. He is noted as being the father of the farm system, he hired the first statistician in baseball, and he is responsible for ideas like the sliding pit and batting tee. But his most notable feat was being the first white business man in professional sports to truly stand for inclusion. And not because he desired to be a civil rights icon and or because he wanted to give blacks handouts because he felt bad for them but simply because he wanted to WIN and that is what he did!

Negro League Talent had to work 10x harder than their white counterparts. They played on worse field conditions and with worse equipment but when given the opportunity to play on a level playing field, THEY OUT PERFORMED! But this doesn’t begin nor does it end in just sports! When playing on a level playing field, black ALWAYS eventually find a way to succeed and WIN! You know why we win? Because there is no group of people in this world who are more resilient than a black American! Isn’t that one of the most important traits that investors look for in entreprenuers? Didn’t Steve Jobs say this:

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.”

Haven’t we proved that we can persevere through almost anything? What is the problem now?

Oh,

We built an MVP but we don’t have traction!

We have traction but we don’t have the “data points!”

We sent a cold email and we weren’t recommended by other white men in your network!

These are the most common reasons why black founders are not taken seriously and THIS IS NONSENSE!

We have been denied level playing fields since this country was founded and this will never change!

But we will be ready when Branch Ricky comes and watch us play in the NEGRO LEAGUE OF TECH! She doesn’t have to be a man and he doesn’t have to be white but she is coming because she wants to win and we will help him do just that!