<aside> 🌊 Groundswell is an initiative by Open Venture Capital to make Venture Capital an equitable space, particularly for black women. Via education and community building in a judgment free environment, we endeavor to bring 50 black women into the fund.
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As many of you know, I launched Open Venture Capital to leverage my experience as an operator in the health and wellness space. From the start, I wanted to be purposeful and intentional about making space for more black women to join as investors. I had a hard time explaining my intent, because so many funds are focused on investing IN black founders, and I am focused on investing WITH black women.
And then I found the words. I took a breathwork class with an incredible instructor, Manoj Dias. Manoj is co-founder at OP E N, a modern mindfulness brand (and a portfolio company). In a recent post on Instagram Manoj captured my intent so eloquently. He said:
“We have a pretty deeply ingrained negativity bias…our brains are hardwired to look for what could go wrong or what is wrong, in almost every situation. It’s a [survival instinct], a byproduct of our evolution…it meant life or death to us in pre-historic times.
A way for us to overcome this is to develop a positivity bias.”
We have all the stats that support negative bias - we know that black women founders receive less than 1% of all venture dollars, we know that less than 1% of all fund managers are black women. We are keenly aware of the racial wealth gap. We know our homes appraise for less, that our salaries are a fraction of that of our white male counterparts and that most venture funds don’t have any black investors. We have this information reinforced for us every. single. day.
The antithesis is action. It’s commune, it’s outreach, it’s intentionality. It’s a search for beauty in the process. It’s “noticing the moments when nothing is wrong”, as Manoj says. It’s creating more opportunities to look for what could go right, until things going right becomes your common place. Raising this fund, and centering black women as investors - that’s where we want to build a groundswell of positive bias, until it is commonplace.
<aside> 🌊 Groundswell is defined as a buildup of opinion or feeling in a large section of the population.
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Here are a few of the profiles of the black women that have invested in this fund and contributed to our Groundswell :
The investor that prayed over me. She prayed over me, my decisions, my path forward, and over her investment
The investor that only invests in black women. What a vibe
The investor that invested in me, because I invested in her. The mutual glow up. I love it
The investors that joined the fund after we spent several sessions reviewing diverse paths to financial freedom
The investors that have previously invested in my real estate deals - fervent, loyal believers
My mom. First check in. No questions asked. That level of trust, will take you far
The investor that exclaimed “I’m adding investor to my LinkedIn ASAP” - This woman has invested in many asset classes, but didn’t feel credentialed as an investor until she invested in a venture fund. I wonder if this is true for other groups of people?
The investor that I have explained this process to several times, but she refuses to fully absorb the information because she simply trusts me. She’s reading this. She knows who she is. (plot twist: there’s more than one)
The investors that joined together to invest, because sometimes when you take risks, you want to hold hands to do it
<aside> 🌊 We’re more than halfway to our goal to bring 50 black women into the fund. Our current count is below and we look forward to driving this higher; perhaps with you. You can learn more about the fund here.
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Current Black Women Investor Count: 52!