Arlan Hamilton has been shaking things up in the venture capital space and wants to help others build and do the same.
As the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, Hamilton has been on a mission to invest in women, people of color, and LGBT founders.
Much like other industries, the venture capital space gets it wrong when it comes to investing in Black founders, but Hamilton wants to use her platform to be an additive to what creators have already built.
For Hamilton, it’s about what a founder has done before they’ve gotten into the room to invest in the team.
“People have incredible stories and feats that they’ve overcome to get where they are,” said Hamilton on the latest episode of Black Tech Green Money.
While they rarely invest financially at the idea stage, Hamilton says this is where they invest emotionally.
“There’s a lot of data to look at but ultimately, that early, I’m looking at it like this, ‘Is this person going to wake up every day and breathe life into this company?'”
For more on what Hamilton says she looks for in a pitch, how to be a good investor and investing against the grain, listen to the full episode of Black Tech Green Money here:
