Founder and Managing Partner
Co-founder
Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital discusses her $5M crowdfunding raise on Republic (04:16), what's "popping" in her current portfolio (20:06), her founder education course (49:46), and more! Check out the pod notes here: http://bit.ly/1205podnotes
Nilay Patel talks with venture capitalist Arlan Hamilton. Arlan founded VC fund Backstage Capital in 2015 and focuses on investing in “underestimated founders,” many of whom are people of color, women and LGBTQ. They discuss the importance of representation in tech and business, how the VC world works, and why Arlan is hopeful about the future at Backstage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
If you think hard work is enough to guarantee success, you haven’t been listening. All season long, we’ve profiled Black inventors who haven’t quite been given their due. Arlan Hamilton is helping reverse that trend by leveling the playing field—and changing the venture capital game. Arlan Hamilton’s story mirrors many we’ve covered this season—overcoming adversity to find success. But she’s also helping redefine what success can look like and, in the process, is helping change the broader tech industry. Janice Omadeke lays out how diversifying the VC community in turn leads to greater diversity among founders receiving funding. Ramona Ortega explains how traditional VC priorities often pass over startups that can be successful. And Scott Myers-Lipton discusses inequality in Silicon Valley (and beyond) and how he’s working to bring about lasting change. If you want to read up on more of our research on Arlan Hamilton, you can check out all our bonus material over at redhat.com/commandlineheroes. Follow along with the episode transcript. If you want to hear more from Arlan, check out her podcast: "Your First Million"." It's about how different people became portfolio companies at Backstage Capital.
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner @ Backstage Capital, the seed fund that has paved the way investing exclusively in startups that are led by underrepresented founders. Backstage Capital also expanded their model and now have Backstage Accelerator working with companies across 4 cities. Last month, Mark Cuban gave Arlan $6M to invest in underestimated founders (ArlanWasHere Investments Fund I). Arlan is also an Author of "It's About Damn Time". If you would like to invest with Arlan, you can, check out BackstageCrowd.com with over 2,000 accredited and non-accredited investors, they just completed their 6th deal and $1m raised within 3 months of launch. In Today's Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Arlan made her way from the airport floor to founding her own venture firm, Backstage Capital and writing a book, "It's About Damn Time"? 2.) How does Arlan assess her own relationship to money and wealth? What is Arlan's thinking around her desire to give away 90% of her wealth? How does Arlan evaluate her own appetite for risk? How has that changed over time? 3.) From a strategic perspective, what are some core elements to Arlan's strategy that are not obvious? What are the main misconceptions that remain with regards to under-represented founders? What does Arlan believe are the leading indicators when assessing founders today? 4.) What does Arlan believe have been the biggest challenges in building the firm that is Backstage? What have been the core breaking points in the scaling of people and strategy? How does Arlan think about the relationship between brand vs reputation? What does Arlan believe are the main misconceptions people have about her? 5.) How would Arlan like to see the world of venture change over the next decade? What can LPs do to encourage more under-represented founders are backed? How can this be measured? Who should be held accountable? Items Mentioned In Today's Show: Arlan's Fave Book: What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey As always you can follow Harry and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.
Follow Arlan: https://twitter.com/ArlanWasHere Join Backstage Crowd: http://backstagecrowd.com Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/Jason https://linktr.ee/calacanis
Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton and Deeds Not Words founder Wendy Davis talk with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live interview from South by Southwest 2019. In this episode: Youthful political energy in the US and Texas; the history of women and people of color not being seen in politics and tech; Hamilton's Twitter tiff with Paul Graham; how Davis' group Deeds Not Words gets women in the room; her 13-hour filibuster and the way it echoed into 2018; are things getting better and what's next?; the national political mood and Davis's next act; making apologies and accommodations for the people who discriminate; how people pressured Hamilton to prove herself immediately; who has the responsibility to increase diversity?; why do people keep talking to Kara Swisher?; Fox News and brainwashing; and the next generation of Americans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Today's episode of Product Hunt Radio is the largest gathering yet, featuring Arlan, Christie, Bryan, and Amiah from the Backstage Capital team. Arlan Hamilton isn't your typical VC. She went from being homeless not long ago to founding and scaling Backstage Capital, a fund dedicated to investing in underrepresented (or underestimated, as she coined) founders. Since 2015, they have invested millions of dollars into over 80 companies. Prior to starting the fund, she worked in the music industry, where she was a tour manager and founder and publisher of INTERLUDE, an internationally distributed indie magazine. Christie Pitts is the co-founder of Backstage Studio, their recently announced venture studio. Prior to teaming up with Arlan and team, she worked with Verizon Ventures portfolio and following emerging technology trends. Bryan Landers is Backstage's recently promoted COO and producer of two of Backstage's podcasts. Previously he worked as a designer and product manager at Zapier and as a consultant. Amiah Sheppard is an operations associate and analyst working on the deal flow team at Backstage. She has a particular focus on beauty and wellness startups. In this episode we talk about: Arlan's mission to find underrepresented and underestimated founders and the importance, even as adults, of being able to look up to role models who look like you. Arlan hopes to be a role model to a new generation of people of color that want to build companies. The crew, as they call the team at Backstage, walk through some of their requests for products, including waterproof headgear, online book clubs, and a way to bring the shared experience of live music online. Aspiring founders, take note! Also mullets make another appearance (see last week's episode for more chatter about mullet). Except this time it's not about a mullet strategy or mullet businesses, it's about the actual, for-real hockey hair. We also talk about some of their favorite products, like an app that lets you experience live music in virtual reality, a service that lets you search live audio, and a way to add pictures, maps or quotes to your favorite podcasts. We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Also, big thanks to our sponsors, Airtable, GE Ventures, Intercom and Stripe for their support. 😸 Quotes from This Episode “I cried when I saw this cover [Fast Company October 2018] because I was looking back a few years to see who I wanted to see [on a magazine cover.]” — Arlan “We’re about to have another mobile revolution [with 5G]. There are companies working on the technology, but I think there will be a whole new wave of companies that change the way we interact with each other.” — Christie “You have thousands and thousands of people who are finally getting their shot at starting a company.” — Arlan “As long as you can’t download a t-shirt, live music will always win. They said that a few years ago, but now you can download a t-shirt.” — Arlan Companies and Products Mentioned in This Episode CEEK — Explore, share and live the moment in VR. Entale — Add pictures, maps and quotes to your favorite podcasts. Nēdl — Find what's playing or saying now on live audio broadcasts. Turntable.fm (RIP) — Music-streaming, chat rooms and voting. Also explore this collection of Backstage Capital's headliners (aka portfolio companies) on Product Hunt.