Hello World: Why I Joined The Community Fund
Growing up, I always wanted to be a lawyer; however, once I discovered the hacker community, where I discovered a vibrant community of aspiring technologists spending their weekends collaboratively learning, I shifted my focus to becoming a software developer. For the first time in my life, I felt challenged, inspired, and found my place of belonging. Since that day, nearly a decade ago, I’ve been doing everything in my power to support and build communities. Communities change lives. I’m a case study.
I firmly believe community will be at the core of the next generation of great companies. That’s why, I’m excited to announce I am now an investment partner in The Community Fund.
The Community Fund is an early-stage $5 million fund that invests in community-driven companies and includes thirteen investment partners from various backgrounds to tap into their communities to find the next billion dollar companies.
Both of the businesses that I founded have community at the forefront. My current company, Major League Hacking (MLH), is a community-first, mission-driven B-Corp that exists to empower our next generation of technologists. Each year, we help more than 100,000 aspiring software engineers worldwide launch their careers. Our community is where they develop the technical skills and professional network necessary to land their first job. We’re proud to count nearly 8% of all the developers in the United States as alumni and to have an all-star cast of customers like Google, Capital One, and GitHub. Whether they want to hire hundreds of amazing engineers or educate technologists on their products, they partner with us to reach our audience authentically. Community made our scale and success possible.
As the founder of a community-driven company and a new investor, I’m also acutely aware of the importance of diversity. Both tech and venture capital are widely (and appropriately) criticized for their homogeneity. At MLH, we’ve prioritized making our community diverse and inclusive. While we still have a long way to go, I’m proud that we’ve made significant strides in key areas such as gender diversity. Our community is 88% more diverse than a typical computer science classroom. The Community Fund has committed itself to diversifying venture capital, and I’m thrilled to be part of that mission leveraging my experience from MLH.
As an investment partner for The Community Fund, I’ll be looking to work with founders that are building community-driven companies focused on developers, impact, and the future of education & work. I’m excited to support the next generation of great founders and bring a fresh perspective to investing.
Happy Hacking,
Swift
P.S. If you resonate with this message & want to submit your company for review, please apply here.
