Entrepreneur Cheryl Contee discusses shifts in venture capital fundraising and angel support for diverse founders following the 2020 racial justice movement.
Opinion
Contee: The tech sector is generally welcoming of strong technical talent
“But I personally have found the tech sector to overall be relatively welcoming, especially if you have, you know, really strong technical skills, which are needed right now.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Contee: Startups led by women, minorities, and rural founders are undervalued
“Doubling down on investing in small businesses, especially from women, especially from minorities, especially from rural areas in innovative startups that are rising up because those are the businesses right now that are undervalued and are going to overperfor…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Contee faced VC discrimination despite running another multi-million dollar agency
“As an all female team with a black female co-founder, it wasn't easy. To get funding. We had to work really hard, and I experienced, you know, some real discrimination despite, you know, running at the same time, you know, another digital agency that had pulle…”
Insight
Contee: Diverse founders pitching white male investors must rely heavily on data
“At least what worked for me was data, data, data, data, right, and showing, look, you might not get this totally, this isn't a problem that I'm solving for you, wealthy, white, male investor, but there's a lot of people for whom this is an issue, and here's ho…”
Disclosure
Contee: Do Big Things likely to work on vaccine misinformation campaign
“We're likely to start working on a campaign targeted at misinformation around vaccines.”