For instance, Vurbl found people were frequently searching for religious sermons and bible readings but Google and Youtube often did not return good results. Vurbl wants to fill the gap by providing a curated, one-stop-shop of the best audio on the internet, which can include podcasts but also goes well beyond that. "It's astounding how underserved audio is." "The podcast is very archaic," said Audra Gold, founder and CEO of Vurbl, a Los Angeles startup that is launching a new platform Wednesday with an audacious goal of being the Youtube of audio. “Because if you don’t invest in them, and I invest in them, and they succeed, you miss out. “These are people that are not receiving capital, and this is an economic opportunity for me,” Millar said. “ does a disservice to investing, and it looks like charity, and it was very frustrating to me as a woman.”Įvery panelist agreed that mainstream investors are missing out on millions by not funding more diverse businesses. “I was like, well, you guys manage billions of dollars and is only $10 million… So I wrote this article, ‘ Investing in Women Isn’t a F- Charity,’” Draper said. Tech Week) about a cultural impact fund, then being told it was only a $10 million allocation. but the way that our community is investing is pretty traditional,” Bynum Mc Laughlin said, pointing to athletes who invest in restaurants or sports teams.ĭuring the panel discussion, Millar and Draper both said that when it comes to convincing VCs to back diverse founders, it can seem like a no-brainer on paper, especially when considering that women founders are more likely to exit and have higher rates of return compared to men.ĭraper recalled being contacted by Andreessen Horowitz (the sponsor of L.A. “There's a lot of money within our community. She noted that she’s trying to convince older, wealthier Black people to put some of their money towards investing in Black founders. “That is all to say that racism is alive and well and it evolves very intelligently,” McLaughlin said. She found work trying to push those initiatives ended up “watered down.” McLaughlin was speaking alongside Draper and Fernando Zeledon, managing director of StartUp Grind East Los Angeles. Mandy Bynum McLaughlin, CEO of BLCK VC, said she worked for a startup called New Relic in San Francisco as its global head of diversity and inclusion.
Some of the panelists were critical of what companies are actually doing with their diversity and inclusion initiatives. “Knowing, and then actually doing something about it are two very different things.” “Sometimes it’s these bigger institutions that are part of the problem, but yet they’re also trying to be part of the solution, so it’s a weird dichotomy,” Carlson said. By providing them with the information, we can at least move them a step forward.”Īisling Carlson, former chief business officer of Sieo and current market strategist for Diversity VC who helped organize Friday's panel, mentioned the company’s studies are sponsored by Amazon Web Services and Silicon Valley Bank. “We see the data as a way to engage stakeholders that might otherwise say, we just don't have enough information to make these decisions. “The powerful thing about data is that you can't argue with it,” Sarah Millar, chief operating officer of Diversity VC and panel moderator, told dot.LA. The more research can be collected on how disparate the finance ecosystem is for underrepresented populations, the more likely VCs are to change their minds and hire more diverse fund managers.ĭiversity VC is currently working on its second report on diversity in venture capital, which will be published this October. The general consensus was straightforward: in the world of finance, numbers and data speak loudly. Mayor Garcetti’s PledgeLA, the event focused on what venture capitalists and bankers can do to encourage more diverse investment in Los Angeles and across the globe. Hosted by a coalition of nonprofits and outreach groups including Diversity VC, BLCK VC and L.A. Tech Week’s “Diversity and Inclusion in the VC Value Chain” event, held Friday morning. Local efforts to change this dynamic were the focus of L.A.
They’re likely to raise 2% to 4% of venture capital funding compared to men, according to Halogen Ventures General Partner Jesse Draper, whose Playa Vista-based VC firm is on a mission to fund more companies founded by women. startups during the first half of the year.įor women, the numbers were similar. A 2020 Deloitte study found 93% of VC firms didn’t have any Black partners, and that Black founders received just 1.2% of funding invested into U.S. There are few people of color who found tech startups in their neighborhoods in Silicon Beach who can find venture funding to back them up.
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