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November 12, 2020
Democratizing Access to Village Capital’s Accelerator Curriculum
Jake Tamarkin co-founded an insurtech startup that’s "not your dad's life insurance" - with the goal of helping everyday people get coverage for their families that saves money by automatically adjusting based on predictable life events. But fundraising for startup founders is hard. Really hard. “I’d been pitching to a whole lot of different people, but getting feedback along the lines of, 'You guys are great, but you don’t have enough traction for us yet.’”
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October 1, 2020
The Ethical Disruption of the Criminal and Civil Justice System
Teresa Hodge has been a tireless entrepreneur throughout her life.
After finishing her seven-year prison sentence, Teresa has founded three nonprofits or startups to help people returning home from prison or jail in the United States. Her latest venture, R3 Score Technologies, was inspired by her experience getting turned down from a job because of her criminal record. The R3 score uses a sophisticated algorithm, the kind that’s often used by fintech startups, to create a real-time risk assessment for formerly incarcerated people when they apply for a job, a car loan or a house. The score offers a nuanced report instead of simply labeling someone’s background history as "good" or "bad."
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June 24, 2020
Startups Helping Frontline Health Workers Beat the Odds
When health centers and free clinics needed help to reach their underserved patients who are most impacted by emergencies like Covid-19, CareMessage decided to provide free access to its text messaging platform to improve awareness and access for patients in underserved communities. Since then, CareMessage has facilitated critical Covid-19 communication between health workers and patients, with over 15 million messages sent across 38 states.
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June 23, 2020
Black founder networks that deserve your support
A few years ago, my former colleague Ebony Pope wrote a blog about a Black entrepreneur who had an investor pull out of a potential investment. By way of explanation, the investor sent an email that included the line “If we see that the demographics of founders that give us the best return are white men in their late 20’s/early 30’s, you can expect the choice of management team who we invest in [to reflect that].”