The Cake
How to Change the Patterns of Startup Investors
Investing in entrepreneurs can be easier than you’d expect
Investing is one of those things that often seems out of reach, like something other, fancier, wealthier people do. Even if it’s something you’re interested in exploring, you might have felt like the path to getting there is unclear or inaccessible. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Investors aren’t just White guys who went to expensive colleges. I look like an investor. You look like an investor. You can become an investor.
Anybody can be an investor, and there are many paths to getting there, no matter your background. In fact, an overview of the paths of some of the most prominent and successful Black, female investors proves that the road to investing is rarely traditional. Some were entertainers, some were homeless. Others were flight attendants and entrepreneurs. Here’s what we can learn from their varied experiences.
In 2019, Arlan Hamilton was named by Business Insider as one of the most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech. Yet her first job was at a pizzeria. But Hamilton didn’t just see the pizzeria job as a way to pay the bills. Instead, she found a way to learn lessons — from even the most seemingly simple workplace — that shaped her as an investor.
After a stint in the music industry as a tour manager working with the likes of Jason Derulo and Toni Braxton, Hamilton began pursuing her goal of backing underrepresented entrepreneurs. She bought a one-way ticket to San Francisco and alternated meetings with tech investors with nights sleeping at the airport.
Her persistence and determination to make a difference are what allowed Hamilton to found Backstage Capital in 2016, a seed investment fund dedicated to her dream of helping overachieving, underrepresented startup founders. She set a goal of investing in 100 companies by 2020 and met it in 2018. Of the hundred, 38 are led by Black women.
