Background
This year, the death of George Floyd and other actions, such as racial profiling of black entrepreneurs by a white investor, highlighted the deep and structural inequities that exist for people of color in a variety of settings. Venture capital is no exception.
In the US, founders of color receive less than 2% of all venture funding. In order to build a more equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem, we are convening a group of investors in Minneapolis - St. Paul to create a space to share openly to understand the status quo, hear from diverse founders to identify the challenges they face and co-create solutions for a more equitable access to capital in our community.
Equity in Investing is a 5-part, cohort-based workshop series. The cohort will kick off on Dec 15 and continue in early 2021.
What is the cohort?
The cohort will be composed of investors in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Caroline Karanja, CEO of Hack The Gap will facilitate workshops. The goal is to unearth useful information that can be used to create a more impactful and implementable action steps. These workshops will make sure to focus on three higher-level themes:
Unpacking the decision-making process behind how certain ventures get funded. Our programming, will be focused on trying to understand an investor’s thesis for investable companies.
Understanding the role that bias plays in accessing capital. Once we unpack the decision making process, we will ideate on how to apply an equity lens to those decisions.
Helping diverse entrepreneurs understand some of the criteria and processes that investors go through when deciding to fund a particular business venture or not. This will increase transparency for entrepreneurs.
What is the commitment?
In order to participate as an investor you are expected to meet the following requirements:
Provide a representative on behalf of your organization - ideally a decision maker within the organization
Be actively investing in Minnesota-based companies
Participate in the workshops listed below
What is the timeline?
December 16th - 9-10am: Kickoff
Share insights into how each does their deal flow with the hopes of knowledge sharing and understanding some best practices
Share insights on how other funds and ecosystems are addressing diversity, equity and inclusion
Share new data + research
January 13th - 9-10:30am: Unconscious Bias
Understanding the impact of unconscious bias
Discuss what ‘diversity’ means depending on sector
January 20th - 9-10:30am: Hearing from Entrepreneurs
Hear from entrepreneurs about their experiences
January 27th - 9-10:30am: Reimagining workshop
What would a more inclusive ecosystem look like?
How do we bring more transparency to the sector
February 3rd - 9-10am: Goal setting and ecosystem workshop
Set goals for how activate the ecosystem we want to see
Recap, Progress + Next Steps
Cost: $150/person - the cost is flexible. Please contact us for additional information.
