Arlan Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of colour, women, and/or LGBT.
Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018 Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London. Arlan was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine in October 2018 as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so, and her new book "It's About Damn Time" is available to purchase on Amazon Books.
We are excited to welcome Arlan Hamilton for her first-ever fireside chat in New Zealand to talk about diversity and inclusion in tech startup ecosystems.
View the event website for more information.
You should be present for the whole duration of this event.
Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a
venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by
investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or
LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $10
million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by
underestimated founders. and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, CNN
Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz. In 2018, Arlan co-founded Backstage
Studio, along with Backstage Partner Christie Pitts, which launched four
accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Los Angeles, Detroit,
Philadelphia and London.
Arlan was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine in October 2018 as
the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so, and her new book
"It's About Damn Time" comes out on Penguin Random
House's business imprint Currency on May 5, 2020. Arlan and Backstage
were the subject of Season 7 of the popular podcast StartUp from Gimlet
Media. She authored the groundbreaking blog “Your Daily Lesbian Moment”,
which she grew to a monthly readership of 50,000 fans worldwide, and founded
and published the internationally distributed indie magazine Interlude.
Arlan is also a live music production professional, having served as a tour
coordinator to numerous international artists including [will.i.am], Toni
Braxton, and Jason Derulo. Arlan was recently named on Fortune
magazine's 40 under 40 list, as well as Vanity Fair magazine's The
2018 New Establishment List.