June 2020 was a catalyst for the venture capital community.
Shocked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, venture capitalists swarmed to voice their commitments to racial justice. Some firms made statements in support of Black Lives Matter. Some pledged to deepen their support for the New England Venture Capital Association's (NEVCA) Hack.Diversity program. A handful of individual investors announced they would put a portion of their salary toward racial justice initiatives, or hold open office hours for founders from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Along with the change in public sentiment, though, was a wariness that VCs would sustain these efforts in the long term. As NEVCA's Ari Fine Glantz put it at the time: “Sometimes the things that one does to power sustained change, sustained action, are more incremental and less soundbite-y. They’re also more difficult to remain committed to. They involve changing behaviors and processes from now going forward, not executing an action in the moment like pressing ‘click here to donate.’”
Now, two New England groups have teamed up to keep the pressure on the community, eight months after that initial burst. The Capital Network (TCN), a Boston-based nonprofit that works to connect entrepreneurs with funding, and the Venture Capital Inclusion Lab at Brown University have put together a program they call the "Investment and Inclusion Series," designed as conversations, roughly every month, held over Zoom. Open to all, the conversations focus on different aspects of changing the startup investment landscape, which has historically benefited white men.
"I spent the summer talking to as many different investors and founders as I could," said Marie Meslin, TCN's executive director. "These conversations I kept having, certain topics kept coming up. Investors said, 'We don't know where entrepreneurs of color and women entrepreneurs are.' There was this idea of a pipeline problem. It was very clear to me that someone, somewhere, had said that, and people were repeating the same thing."
Banu Ozkazanc-Pan, director of the Venture Capital Inclusion Lab, puts it a little more bluntly: "Many will say, 'Hey, it's a pipeline problem.' And it really isn't."
Meslin, Ozkazanc-Pan and their teams put together the first in the Investment and Inclusion Series in late October and have kept the program going through 2021. The first conversation, which had about 80 in attendance, was aimed at debunking the "pipeline problem." TCN and the Venture Capital Inclusion Lab pulled in white investors who had successfully developed diverse portfolios to discuss their strategies, how they had built their networks and what underpinned their investment theses.
Subsequent programs in the series have focused on strategies for both VC firms and angel investors to diversify their investments, as well as on amplifying founders of color.
"There was a knee-jerk reaction. All of a sudden, people miraculously put together funds targeting particularly Black founders," Ozkazanc-Pan said. "Intentionality requires structural change, and until that happens, we're going to keep targeting the pipeline."
Meslin recognizes that this programming is, in some ways, a very early step toward long-term systemic change. But she hopes that by applying continued pressure, TCN can implore VCs to stick to the commitments to racial justice that they made last summer — and bring on new VCs as well. Next, she is looking for ways to keep investors accountable in their own organizations.
Ozkazanc-Pan similarly notes that plenty of public statements don't translate to real action — particularly, she says, in New England, where the myth of meritocracy runs deep. However, she also describes herself as a "hopeful person" by nature.
"It's frustrating, because we're incredibly resource-rich in New England in terms of money. The barriers in and around New England are related to the social imaginary: Some people just don't believe that there are enough minority entrepreneurs who are investable, so they end up not looking for them," she said. "The Capital Network is really leading the charge in having these difficult conversations that I think are necessary to make the kinds of changes we need."
