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If there is VC racism, doesn't that also mean there is a market opportunity for VC money to focus exclusively on African American tech startups. Even if there a

If there is VC racism, doesn't that also mean there is a market opportunity for VC money to focus exclusively on African American tech startups. Even if there aren't many, there appears to be zero competition selecting investments. The author is rightfully frustrated. But instead of focussing on lack of interest in their app, maybe there's a bigger opportunity here.

gkoberger 6y ago
Hopefully there's more, but here's a few: Backstage Capital (https://backstagecapital.com/ https://backstagecapital.com/) TxO (https://a16z.com/2020/06/03/talent-x-opportunity/ https://a16z.com/2020/06/03/talent-x-opportunity/)
- atlasunshrugged 6y ago
  I'd add Harlem Capital there https://harlem.capital/ https://harlem.capital/
graeme 6y ago
In principle yes. I can think of a few possible problems though: 1. You’re focussing on a much smaller subset of the market. It may be hard to find enough investments 2. It is probably illegal. 3. You may not get the best VC’s. The best VC’s will focus on total return and probably fund from a wide pool to find rare outliers that may grow huge. So founders may have worse VC experiences. VC includes mentorship, network etc, so this could hamper startup success. 4. You may also not get the best African American startups. The very best will be able to get attention from the top VC firms. So, there will be an adverse selection problem for any VC specializing in African American startups #2 is probably the main reason no one has tried. But #3 and #4 in combination are also deadly. But, if discrimination is a factor in startup funding, there would certainly be a market opportunity for VC’s to focus more attention on underserved groups. Edit: Another poster points out backstage capital is doing this. So, maybe it doesn’t violate any laws? I’ll be very interested to see how their returns are over time. They fund women and people of color. They may well have hit on a market opportunity. Found this article when I searched Backstage capital on HN. They’re a startup too it seems: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-on-backstage-capital/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-on...
- graeme 6y ago
  Someone in the thread linked a Tim O’Reilly interview where his partner pursued the “invest more in women and people of color” strategy and it seems to be working for him. In addition to diversity, he also selected different types of businesses. More medium size, not the rocketships. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-persuasive-case-for-why-venture-capital-is-starting-to-do-more-harm-than-good/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-persua...

gkoberger 6y ago

Hopefully there's more, but here's a few: Backstage Capital (https://backstagecapital.com/ https://backstagecapital.com/) TxO (https://a16z.com/2020/06/03/talent-x-opportunity/ https://a16z.com/2020/06/03/talent-x-opportunity/)

atlasunshrugged 6y ago
I'd add Harlem Capital there https://harlem.capital/ https://harlem.capital/

graeme 6y ago

In principle yes. I can think of a few possible problems though: 1. You’re focussing on a much smaller subset of the market. It may be hard to find enough investments 2. It is probably illegal. 3. You may not get the best VC’s. The best VC’s will focus on total return and probably fund from a wide pool to find rare outliers that may grow huge. So founders may have worse VC experiences. VC includes mentorship, network etc, so this could hamper startup success. 4. You may also not get the best African American startups. The very best will be able to get attention from the top VC firms. So, there will be an adverse selection problem for any VC specializing in African American startups #2 is probably the main reason no one has tried. But #3 and #4 in combination are also deadly. But, if discrimination is a factor in startup funding, there would certainly be a market opportunity for VC’s to focus more attention on underserved groups. Edit: Another poster points out backstage capital is doing this. So, maybe it doesn’t violate any laws? I’ll be very interested to see how their returns are over time. They fund women and people of color. They may well have hit on a market opportunity. Found this article when I searched Backstage capital on HN. They’re a startup too it seems: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-on-backstage-capital/ https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-arent-giving-up-on...

graeme 6y ago
Someone in the thread linked a Tim O’Reilly interview where his partner pursued the “invest more in women and people of color” strategy and it seems to be working for him. In addition to diversity, he also selected different types of businesses. More medium size, not the rocketships. https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-persuasive-case-for-why-venture-capital-is-starting-to-do-more-harm-than-good/ https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/26/tim-oreilly-makes-a-persua...