- When I looked at venture capitalists
I didn't see Black women, gay women,
I couldn't find a reflection of myself there,
so I decided to become that.
If I didn't do it then who would?
It's my duty and my honor to spearhead,
and breakthrough, and disrupt.
My name is Arlan Hamilton.
I'm a Black, gay woman who is a venture capitalist.
I really did start from less than nothing.
It was a daily struggle to figure out
where I was gonna sleep.
There are millions of people who are in the shadows
who you don't know are actually homeless.
I spent a lot of time sleeping at San Francisco Airport,
but at the same time I always knew
that this was the right thing to do
and that this needed to be done.
My mom taught me that there was no room
that I shouldn't feel comfortable in,
and that was a very valuable lesson to me.
- From the moment we sat down and started to talk
she just saw me, like she understood who I was
and what I was trying to do.
She has invested in over 50 companies.
This is Arlan Hamilton coming up.
(clapping)
- Backstage Capital is a boutique venture fund
that invests in startup companies
that are led by women, people of color,
and LGBT founders.
98% of our portfolio consists of companies that are led
by non-white straight males, and in venture capital
you'll find, usually, the complete opposite of that.
We invest exclusively in founders
who have in the past been underestimated.
For Backstage to exist and for me to be a venture capitalist
represents something new.
I started raising Backstage in 2014,
and it took a full year before anyone would invest.
So that was 365 days of knocking on doors,
reaching out to people, and getting feedback of,
yes, this is a good cause, a good mission,
but not necessarily an interesting investment proposition.
And so it was a lot of educating people
and also just tenacity and showing up again,
and having patience.
Susan Kimberlin was our first investor,
and she was the first person to say yes,
I will write you a check and I want to see what you can do.
I was over the moon, because it meant two things.
It meant that I didn't have to worry
about where I was gonna sleep,
and it meant that I could start making those investments
that I had been cultivating for so long,
and I could start acting on those promises
that I had been making to people.
I imagined that I would have a venture capital fund,
that we would invest in amazing companies.
I did not know it would be 54 in two years,
and that we would have a full team
spread across the country, and that every single day
people would ask to join our team.
I didn't know that people would come up to me,
Black women would come up to me at events
and say, "I started a company because I read about you."
Those types of impactful things, I was not prepared for
because all I wanted to do was get more capital
into the hands of some very innovative people
who were being overlooked.
The biggest hope I have for Backstage though
is that we're unnecessary in 10 years,
that the need for leveling the playing field
for Black people, for women of color, for women in general,
for LGBT founders, I hope that that's a far off memory
in ten years, and I hope that we have had something
to do with that.
My name is Arlan Hamilton and I am a boss.