Aoifinn Devitt: We approached literally hundreds and hundreds of venture capital firms. You know, I think it was about 300, and of those, we probably started talking to about 70, went into second discussions with about 10, and ended up talking to the final 3, of which 2 were inbound. So my success rate was a failure rate of something like 99.7%. I think that gives you the sort of scale of how hard it is to actually raise.
Ezechi Britton: Founder life. If we were to put together a wall of inspiring quotes for founders and venture capitalists, we might put something like this quote from Michael Dell: Ideas are a commodity. Execution of them is not. We might use the wise words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: ‘Never, never, never give up.’ Or we might look to the co-founder of Dropbox, Drew Houston, who said, ‘Don’t worry about failure. You only have to be right once.’ But no matter the pep talk, we know that life as a founder is hard, riddled with setbacks, hundreds of thousands of requests for funding, and assiduous networking. In this special 50 Faces focus series focused on underrepresented founders and VCs, we meet with a cross-section of both founders and VCs from the US, the UK, and Africa to talk about specific challenges that they face. We provide access to resources, role models, and tips for the next generation. First, we asked why the distance travelled to get to the starting line are so different for many.
Speaker C: How easy is it for you to get to the starting line? Now, some people get driven in their parents’ Mercedes, other people have to walk around the corner, and then there’s a demographic of individuals who have to walk 20 miles barefoot in the cold, jumping over hurdles just to get to the start line. And that piece there is the adversity that most of these founders have to go through just to be in the room.
Ezechi Britton: There can sometimes be cultural barriers too.
Speaker D: Now, when it comes to Black women, 28%, I think, of the Black entrepreneurs, and they’re 50% of the Black working population. When you look at the cultural demands on me as a Black woman, balancing running the business and cultural expectation, etc., there is a pull and a block. There’s a pull at home, which is sometimes cultural, raising the family, caring roles, et cetera. There is a block or boundary or perceived block or boundary that being accepted as a Black woman in business, in the business world.
Ezechi Britton: And once those founders get to the room, is the opportunity self-evident or does the pace of change remain slow?
Speaker E: I was certain that everybody would wake up to this huge gap and this huge opportunity within the next year or two. I was just so confident that my window was so small to break into the industry and sort of make some noise with that as an idea, as a novel concept. Fast forward, you know, nearly a decade, it’s still a novel concept to back diverse founders and the industry just hasn’t woken up to it.
Ezechi Britton: We speak about why the lack of representation is a problem and can lead to diminished social capital.
Speaker F: The lack of representation leads to the lack of knowledge.
Ezechi Britton: We also learn that VCs need to do more to foster success among founders.
Speaker F: So many VCs will just turn that entrepreneur away because they feel like, you haven’t been doing this long enough, you haven’t learned the ropes, I don’t have time for you. Well, no, you should have time for them.
Ezechi Britton: Why is it that the same setbacks, though, can foster a resilience that offers both diversity in business models and style, and why this is cause for hope?
Speaker G: So I see the next few years in the venture industry to be really good. Now, what I do think that LPs need to do is catch on to that and find these amazing women, and just generally people of color to go back because that resilience that they have is going to make them win and not the traditional other folks that are in the market out there that they’re used to backing.
Ezechi Britton: As always, we return to some cardinal rules of founder life and words of wisdom. Seeing entrepreneurs fail, rise up from those failures, and going on to do great things, it’s just showed me that failure is not the end. We’re not to be defined by our failures.
Speaker E: Who— anybody who’s not learning from failing isn’t really doing anything.
Ezechi Britton: So from next week, join us on this fascinating journey, which we will be releasing all during the summer. This series was made possible by the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers focused on delivering long-term investment excellence for clients and their beneficiaries, as well as Nile Capital Group, a sector-focused, operationally oriented private equity firm based in the Los Angeles area.
Aoifinn Devitt: We approached literally hundreds and hundreds of venture capital firms. You know, I think it was about 300, and of those, we probably started talking to about 70, went into second discussions with about 10, and ended up talking to the final 3, of which 2 were inbound. So my success rate was a failure rate of something like 99.7%. I think that gives you the sort of scale of how hard it is to actually raise.
Ezechi Britton: Founder life. If we were to put together a wall of inspiring quotes for founders and venture capitalists, we might put something like this quote from Michael Dell: Ideas are a commodity. Execution of them is not. We might use the wise words of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: ‘Never, never, never give up.’ Or we might look to the co-founder of Dropbox, Drew Houston, who said, ‘Don’t worry about failure. You only have to be right once.’ But no matter the pep talk, we know that life as a founder is hard, riddled with setbacks, hundreds of thousands of requests for funding, and assiduous networking. In this special 50 Faces focus series focused on underrepresented founders and VCs, we meet with a cross-section of both founders and VCs from the US, the UK, and Africa to talk about specific challenges that they face. We provide access to resources, role models, and tips for the next generation. First, we asked why the distance travelled to get to the starting line are so different for many.
Speaker C: How easy is it for you to get to the starting line? Now, some people get driven in their parents’ Mercedes, other people have to walk around the corner, and then there’s a demographic of individuals who have to walk 20 miles barefoot in the cold, jumping over hurdles just to get to the start line. And that piece there is the adversity that most of these founders have to go through just to be in the room.
Ezechi Britton: There can sometimes be cultural barriers too.
Speaker D: Now, when it comes to Black women, 28%, I think, of the Black entrepreneurs, and they’re 50% of the Black working population. When you look at the cultural demands on me as a Black woman, balancing running the business and cultural expectation, etc., there is a pull and a block. There’s a pull at home, which is sometimes cultural, raising the family, caring roles, et cetera. There is a block or boundary or perceived block or boundary that being accepted as a Black woman in business, in the business world.
Ezechi Britton: And once those founders get to the room, is the opportunity self-evident or does the pace of change remain slow?
Speaker E: I was certain that everybody would wake up to this huge gap and this huge opportunity within the next year or two. I was just so confident that my window was so small to break into the industry and sort of make some noise with that as an idea, as a novel concept. Fast forward, you know, nearly a decade, it’s still a novel concept to back diverse founders and the industry just hasn’t woken up to it.
Ezechi Britton: We speak about why the lack of representation is a problem and can lead to diminished social capital.
Speaker F: The lack of representation leads to the lack of knowledge.
Ezechi Britton: We also learn that VCs need to do more to foster success among founders.
Speaker F: So many VCs will just turn that entrepreneur away because they feel like, you haven’t been doing this long enough, you haven’t learned the ropes, I don’t have time for you. Well, no, you should have time for them.
Ezechi Britton: Why is it that the same setbacks, though, can foster a resilience that offers both diversity in business models and style, and why this is cause for hope?
Speaker G: So I see the next few years in the venture industry to be really good. Now, what I do think that LPs need to do is catch on to that and find these amazing women, and just generally people of color to go back because that resilience that they have is going to make them win and not the traditional other folks that are in the market out there that they’re used to backing.
Ezechi Britton: As always, we return to some cardinal rules of founder life and words of wisdom. Seeing entrepreneurs fail, rise up from those failures, and going on to do great things, it’s just showed me that failure is not the end. We’re not to be defined by our failures.
Speaker E: Who— anybody who’s not learning from failing isn’t really doing anything.
Ezechi Britton: So from next week, join us on this fascinating journey, which we will be releasing all during the summer. This series was made possible by the kind support of Wellington Management, one of the world’s largest independent asset managers focused on delivering long-term investment excellence for clients and their beneficiaries, as well as Nile Capital Group, a sector-focused, operationally oriented private equity firm based in the Los Angeles area.
