Month: July 2017

A compilation of black women who work in the venture capital ecosystem

When I first arrived into the venture community, my first instinct was to find my people.

The List of Black Women in VCWhen I first arrived into the venture community, my first instinct was to find my people. As an outsider in this new, foreign space, it was important that I build a sub-community within venture in which I felt safe.

So, I started building the Women of Color in VC network with Siri Srinivas. Since our first dinner last November, I have had the privilege of getting to know so many amazing women.

However, in this post, I want to highlight the black women in venture. We are here and the numbers are growing.

It is important that we recognize, listen to and encourage these women as we look towards building an inclusive venture ecosystem.

I’m hoping this list can be particularly helpful for:

Startups building boards

VCs adding new GPs or Venture Partners

Conference Organizers developing rosters of panelists and keynote speakers

I look forward to seeing these amazing women represented more in the venture capital community and growing this list exponentially in the years to come.

Investors

Kesha Cash — Managing Partner, Impact America Fund

Lisa Lambert — Managing Partner, The Westly Group

Daphne Dufresne — Managing Partner, GenNx360 Capital Partners

Tracy Gray — Managing Partner, The 22 Capital Group

Arlan Hamilton —Managing Partner, Backstage Capital

Shauntel Poulson — General Partner, Reach Capital

Karen Kerr — Senior Managing Director, GE Ventures

Lisa Coca — Managing Director, GE Ventures

Richelle Parham — Partner, Camden Partners

Danielle Morris — Partner, Jumpstart

Monique Woodard — Venture Partner, 500 Startups

Anne Richie — Venture Partner, Jumpstart

Ulili Onovakpuri —Principal, Kapor Capital & Venture Partner, Fresco Capital

Brittany Davis — Principal, Hello Angels

Nicole Walker — Principal, Baird Capital Ventures

Gloria Ware — Principal, Jumpstart

Stefanie Thomas —Senior Associate, Impact America Fund

Megan Maloney — Associate, General Catalyst

Jillian Williams — Associate, Anthemis Group

Sydney Thomas — Associate, Precursor Ventures

Adina Tecklu — Analyst, Canaan

Sydney Sykes — Analyst, NEA

Sonya Powell — Analyst, Jumpstart

Ita Ekpoudom — EIR, Plum Alley Investments

Candice Mathews — Executive Director, Hillman Accelerator

Roxann Stafford — Director of Programs, Matter.VC

Lauren Booker Allen — Senior Manager, Omidyar Network

Kimberly Marshall — Senior Program Officer (Tech Investments), Gates Foundation

Ebony Pope — Senior Manager, Village Capital

Marilyn Waite — Senior Manager, Village Capital

Diane Henry — Angel

Lauren Bias — Angel

Kathryn Finney — Angel

Gayle Jennings O’Byrne — Angel

Lorine Pendleton — Angel

Lisa Skeete Tatum — Angel

Operators

Saydeah Howard — SVP of Talent and Venture Services, IVP

Mandela Schumacher-Hodge — Portfolio Services Director, Kapor

Onyedikachi Achilike — Program Manager, Newark Venture Partners

Abyah Wynn — VP, Trimantium Capital

Timmeko Love — Business Development, Mayo Clinic Ventures

Kendall Sherman —Community Manager, Flybridge

Natanya Montgomery — Knowledge Coordinator, First Round

Did I miss someone? Please let me know! You can reach me here: sydney@precursorvc.com

It has been a week in the Valley for the books.

As all of the industry’s ugliness comes to light, I am forced to call a time out and reflect on why I wanted to be in this business in the first place. Underneath the surface of this question, lays an even bigger question: What does a successful VC look like to me?

From my discussions with GPs, it seems like everyone has their own definition. To some, a successful VC is the one who has the fancy startups next to their name on their Twitter handle (i.e. early investor in @Uber). To others, a successful VC is one who took their learnings from their time at a16z and applied it to start their own company. And to a few, a successful VC is one who built a generation of companies that will contribute to a more healthy workforce.

To me, I have realized that so much of what I want out of being a VC is not the picking, not the glamour and glitz, it’s the boring, unsexy part of being an ecosystem builder. This may in large part be a function of my background. Working across almost 5 different industries — federal government, local government, philanthropy, CPG, startups and now VC — will do that to you. I see implicit connections that require fluency in the language of different institutions.

This fluency inspires me to build bigger, larger, more stable bridges, than narrow silos.

That doesn’t mean that picking great companies doesn’t matter. If you want to stay in business past Fund I, it definitely does! But I refuse to pick companies or entrepreneurs who are not as committed to building the type of VC ecosystem that is required for it to flourish — diverse, empathetic even when it hurts and driven to do things the right way, not the fast way.

My thoughts are that these are the kinds of people who, once successful, will remember what being without power felt like so well that they never corrupt themselves with it.

I’m excited to see what happens as the bad actors are excluded from the party, leaving space open for the many different types of VCs to finally get their invitations. The ones who are here not just for the power, but for far more interesting, nuanced and inspiring reasons.