Barclays Eagle Labs has partnered with Foundervine [CEO Izzy Obeng pictured] to launch its second 12-week virtual accelerator program designed just for Black-founded early-stage tech businesses. The program, which officially kicks off on November 22, was created to help new startups founded by one or more black entrepreneurs access resources to help them with sales strategy, operations, product development, and leadership. According to Barclays, applications are now open for the Accelerator to UK-based digital and tech start or scale-ups with a “minimum viable proposition for their business and with one or more
The last few weeks (but really years) have been nothing short of emotionally challenging. In between bouts of deep sadness and profound rage, I’m a confused mess. It hurts deeply to care so much about a world that’s not designed to promote the prosperity of Black people. While I’m consistently proud of (and enamored by) the resilience of our community throughout history, I often wonder about the amount of violence a community of people can endure before the damage is irreparable. I frequently worry about the collective psyche of oppressed
If any of you are unfamiliar with the lyrical genius of Craig David, please click the link and make your self-isolation a better place. (and this blog post makes sense!) “Got the information on Mondaaaaaay” Purely through chance, I sent my monthly investor update on Monday 9th March, on the eve of the Week of Realisation about the Coronavirus crisis. I signed off my usual SUPPORT section with a simple question: Almost immediately, several investors responded with variations on the following; So I paused all planned work for the day
Arlan Hamilton — founder and managing partner at Backstage Capital — summarized best why investing in Black Female Founders (BFF) isn’t just important, but could produce high yields: “Less than 0.2 percent of all early-stage venture funding goes to Black women, while we make up approximately 8 per cent of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest-growing entrepreneur segments in the country,” Arlan wrote. “It is my firm belief that because Black women have had to make do with far less for centuries, equipping them with early-stage capital that is
This conversation between Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton and Michael Berhane is from this #Techish podcast episode. It has been edited for clarity. I’ve always wanted to know when you first had the idea for Backstage Capital. What was the first thing you did? Cried [haha] It didn’t happen overnight. I studied, I started my education to understand venture capital. I had to. The old guard, the people who are already there, perhaps they needed a little bit more of a shakeup when it came to their perspectives. And so
