Good ol’ boys network, meet black girl magic: Black, female entrepreneurs are changing Silicon Valley
Generating tens of billions in revenue, black women are the nation’s fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs. But for decades at the nexus of money and power in Silicon Valley, they’ve been underestimated and overlooked. Research shows that black women are among the least likely to get checks cut by venture capitalists. So few raise venture money that the percentage is, statistically speaking, nearly zero.
Black women face significant roadblocks in Silicon Valley – insular networks, negative stereotypes, overlapping discrimination based on gender and race. Nowhere are they more sharply underrepresented than on Sand Hill Road, the leafy stretch in Menlo Park, California, where venture capitalists cluster, just miles from the headquarters of some of the world’s most powerful tech companies
Today, a new crop of venture firms started by black men – Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson, Equal Ventures’ Richard Kerby and Cross Culture Ventures’ Marlon Nichols, who say they invest in founders from all backgrounds without bias – are leveling the investment playing field even more.
Read the USA Today article