The typical Forbes or Fast Company profile of a successful, venture-backed startup founder that has ridden the hockey stick up to the top of the graph goes something like this:
And the rest is history.
But let’s say that you, or your friends and family, don’t have access to the roughly $30,000 it takes to start a business—or a network of people who are connected to experienced investors. Should the ability to build a great idea into a successful business be limited to people who have this kind of “social capital”?
Many entrepreneurs who don’t have access to these networks and “friends and family” money come from underrepresented backgrounds. At Village Capital, we often say that “talent is everywhere, but power is not,” and if we’re going to change the ratio of venture investment going into companies founded by women, African Americans and Latinx, we believe that changing the social capital dynamic at the earliest stages is an important place to start.
We created VC Pathways to do just that: use Village Capital’s milestone-based investment framework and partnerships with local organizations to help founders from diverse backgrounds build social capital and establish and progress toward key milestones.
We were fortunate to partner with UBS, which has a long history of advancing inclusive entrepreneurship. Their local teams brought their knowledge and networks to the table to the benefit of the entrepreneurs.
Six months, three cities, 30 companies, over 200 mentors, and more than 70 completed milestones later, we’re excited to share the stories and lessons learned from our three-city pilot. We hope it will inspire more critical thinking about how to build social capital for entrepreneurs who are currently overlooked by the early-stage financing system.
