Kelechi Anyadiegwu – Zuvva, Tatiana Figueiredo – Everist, Christina Valdez – Taeleur, Darlene Gillard – DigitalUndivided, Kathryn Finney – DigitalUndivided, Kellee James – Mecaris, Amina Yamusah – Bloc, Nicole Sanchez – ECreditHero

Atlanta’s digitalundivided, led by Kathryn Finney, is working to break down the barriers for black and latino women entrepreneurs. It recently graduated the inaugural cohort of the 12-week BIG incubator, which, of course, culminated in a Demo Day. Last weekend, the six founders who participated (Tatiana Figueiredo of Everist, Christina Valdez of Taeleur, Kelechi Anyadiegwu of Zuvva, Amina Yamusah of Bloc, Kellee James of Mecaris and Nicole Sanchez of ECreditHero) pitched their startups to a packed room.

“We had over 300 people who registered, and for us to be able to host an event that highlighted companies founded by black and latino women during MLK weekend in Atlanta was incredibly special,” says Darlene Gillard, a director at digitalundivided. Keep reading for more from Gillard on the event and the importance of providing targeted support to this under-represented group in entrepreneurship.

If you could only highlight one or two moments of the BIG Demo Day, what would they be?

One of the highlights of the event was having Mark Walsh, head of investment and innovation for the U.S. Small Business Administration and some of the advice he gave during his talk. Another would be having Dr. Freada Kapor Klein, one of our early supporters, come out from Silicon Valley to speak and to show her continued support of digitalundivided

All of the companies got a $20,000 seed investment, but they were also pitching to investors. Did any connections or interest come out of that? Was there a “winner”?

There were several connections made and leads to potential investment that we are extremely excited about. In the beginning of the 12-week BIG Incubator we had some investors come in to meet with the companies and to learn about what they were doing. A couple of the companies were being tracked by those same investors who showed up on Demo Day to find out where they landed. We are excited about all the possibilities.

This was the inaugural class, and I assume only the beginning. Are you planning for another cohort, is that already in the works? And what can you tell us in terms of interesting events or programs you’re planning in the near future for digitalUndivided?

We’ve opened up the BIG Innovation Center to events, memberships and co-working. In April we’ll start our next cohort accepting up to 30 companies.

Nicole Sanchez – ECreditHero, Kellee James – Mecaris

Was the growth apparent in the companies pitching on Demo Day? In other words, how did the incubator program help grow these individuals and ideas?  

Some of the companies that entered into the program were simply ideas, others were already established and yet through mentorship and training were able to pivot to ideas that are scalable.

Your organization is synonymous for many people with #ProjectDiane and the research finding that only 0.02 percent of venture deals were with women of color-owned companies. We’re now coming up on a year since that statistic first made headlines. What’s changed since then? And what does that say about how long (or not long) making a sea change like this takes?  

We believe that there are at least two more companies founded by black and/or latino women that have been able to raise more than $1M since we released #ProjectDiane but that’s not a significant enough increase to think that our work is done. It is going to take years for a sea change to happen and we’re doing our part to move things along. We created The Harriet Fund to provide investments in high-growth companies led by under-represented women founders and this year we are looking to expand our current data collection efforts and create a variety of reporting and dissemination tools (white papers, infographics, workshops/talks) on black and Latina women entrepreneurs in the tech and innovation space.

Photo credit: chuckyfoto

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When Kathryn Finney, a Yale-educated epidemiologist, joined one of the earliest and biggest incubators in New York City in 2007, she was met with extreme sexism and racism that also served as the trigger moment that led her to create an enterprise that actively addressed her and others’ experiences in pursuing opportunities in tech and entrepreneurship. Launched four years ago, digitalundivided (DID) is a social enterprise that fosters economic growth in communities by finding, training, and supporting women of color entrepreneurs.

Now, both Finney and DID have relocated to the South —Atlanta, to be exact— and are set to go big, literally.  The 6,000-square-foot BIG Innovation Center is projected to open in September, with its goal to encourage innovation in communities that have been excluded from the process.

And by process, Finney more specifically points to funding.  While Black and Latina women comprise the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. (over 1.5 million businesses owned by Black women alone) and their businesses generating over $44 billion a year in revenue, they remain undercapitalized compared to other startups. “The proprietary research by #ProjectDiane discovered that Black women startup founders raise $36,000 on average, while the average (mostly white male-led) failed startup raises $1.3 million,” said Finney. “Statistically, zero venture deals from 2012–2014 were for Black Women startups (0.2%), and Black women Startups represent a mere 4% of the already few women-led startups.”

While most programming at the BIG Innovation Center is in the planning stages, one major new program that directly addresses the funding needs  is already set and actively taking applications until July 31 for its inaugural cohort in the 12-week BIG business accelerator program. “We’re looking for tech-enabled startups led by Black or Latina women founders, with business models that are highly scalable and investable,” says Finney, who noted that while they’ll accept startups at all stages, a pitch deck is a required part of the application.

In addition to the structured curriculum focused on developing sustainable businesses, mentorship by top leaders, opportunities to pitch directly to investors, and direct access to funding will be provided.

When asked why Atlanta, Finney said that they specifically chose Atlanta for the pilot run because “it’s really shaping up to be a major tech hub outside of Silicon Valley. It ranks second in America’s Most Tech-Friendly Cities.” The tech talent pipeline from the Atlanta University Center was another factor in selecting the location, as well as active support from the city officials. “We’ve also received outpouring support from the city, including the mayor of Atlanta, Mayor Kasim Reed.”

Cover photos credit: #WOCinTech

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