Name: The VC world needs to reshape they way it looks for founders
Uploaded: 2020-10-14
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: Inspired Capital's Alexa von Tobel and Cleo Capital's Sarah Kunst explain.

 Jen Wieczner:: I know, Alexa, you've also been making some efforts to source more diverse founders in your deals. Can you talk a little bit about that, and are you making any progress there? And what does it take to find those companies that are founded by-- and find those founders? ALEXA VON TOBEL: Sure. So first, Inspired Capital is a $200 million fund located out of Manhattan, but investing globally, particularly in the United States, in Series A. We built the firm model from day one with three female partners of four, a great mix between men and women with different backgrounds and diversities of all different shapes and sizes. And I would say I think that having a firm that represents who all the potential founders can be out of the gate, we just see it change in our deal flow. We just had our annual meeting where we looked at 40% of our females are founders. 43% are Black or Hispanic. And I think when you have different archetypes at the top of a firm, and you have different investors out there-- and I couldn't agree more with everything that we've heard here today-- you simply have different deal flow. And so we have to change who the investors are. And Inspired Capital is a step in the right direction. We have so much more work to do, but I do believe you have to change the archetypes types of who founders see so that they feel comfortable. They can show up and they can be their whole authentic selves when they go out and get investments. Jen Wieczner: Yeah, Sarah, I'd love to get your input on that. I mean, it sounds like you've just got a little bit of a chicken and the problem, that in order to find diverse founders, you need diverse investors. So what does that mean, if you are a woman of color who's looking to start a company, or looking for the seed money and for funding? What do you think-- what are the issues there, and how do you go about combating them? SARAH: Yeah, I mean, you certainly don't have to be diverse to invest in diverse founders, right? But unfortunately, non-diverse investors are often a bit myopic about who they're backing. And so it does tend to be that the more diverse the investor faces at a fund, the more diverse your portfolio, will be as well. And that certainly goes along with having a lot more amazing diverse investors as well. And so if you are a woman of color, and you're out fundraising now, or you're about to start in fundraising, you can't wait for the investor world, years for the investor world to get more diverse. I don't think that means that you can't go out and raise. I think it's understanding that there's a saying in the Black community that you have to be twice as bold to go half as much. And that treatment is, obviously, not [INAUDIBLE] deep disparities and unfairness of the world. But I use it to flip it around and internalize it as you get to be twice as good, right? How many times in your life do you look around, and you're getting [INAUDIBLE] twice as good as everybody else around you, right? And so when you think about that, when you do get that investment, it's just a question of persistence, right? It feels totally normal, no matter your race or gender, that it takes 100 people to raise a pre-seed round. It's pretty normal to raise from 200 or 300 people, particularly in these kinds of economic times. It takes a crazy amount of persistence, and a crazy amount of preparation, and knowing what you're doing, and being able to wow people with your approach, and finding the right people to doing that. And if you are a person of color, if you are a woman, when you do get funded, you should feel pretty good that you probably are better, statistically, than the average white dude who's raising, because that's, unfortunately, the world we live in right now. And the best part is, you're better. 

Inspired Capital's Alexa von Tobel and Cleo Capital's Sarah Kunst explain.