Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
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This doesn’t change without two key steps:1) Activating more Black Angel investors and LPs. There are thousands of Black individuals and couples who qualify as accredited investors, don’t know it, and have no VC/PE exposure. Also, crowdfunding makes investing accessible to non-accredited investors. Funding Black founders can actually INCREASE the wealth gap depending on how their companies are funded and who gets the majority of the proceeds upon exit.2) Using social and political power to direct government and philanthropic resources to leverage capital from step 1. All medium to large organizations that claim to be in service of the Black community need to be laser focused on this. The main thing missing here is exceptional leadership with transparent and competent governance infrastructure. Until we do these two things, these stats won’t change. I’m not guessing, I’ve got historical records and basic math on my side.
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"IRON" Mike Steadman 🥊🏴☠️
Professional Business Coach, Brand Builder, and Category Whisperer for the Moguls and the Misfits. (Academy Grads, Veterans, and anyone used to being one of one). No Ivy League degree or Unicorn startup glow required.
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Tré Baker given the amount of student loans, mortgages, and general debt that black Americans who meet the criteria to be accredited investors have, is becoming an LP or Angel too big of a lift for them? I have personally found that black Americans with wealth, tend to be the most risks averse.
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Ishu Bansal
Optimizing logistics and transportation with a passion for excellence | Building Ecosystem for Logistics Industry | Analytics-driven Logistics
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How can we increase the number of Black angel investors and use social/political power to support Black founders?
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David Jenkins
Founder | CEO | Marie Ernst®
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The truth about VC investors is clear: they’re not seeing the returns they want from the mediocre startups they invest. The primary reason they don’t invest in Black-Owned, Women-Owned, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ Founders, is heard mentality, and the issue doesn't end there.Right-wing conservatives have filed a lawsuit to block the Fearless Fund from investing in women of color-led businesses. This action raises critical ethical questions about our societal priorities. It's pure malevolence and vitriolic, targeting the Fearless Fund solely because it’s Black-owned and invests in Black-owned startups.Here’s some statistics in the funding disparities for startups: Women-Owned Startups: In 2023, startups founded exclusively by women received only 2% of total venture capital funding in the U.S.Black-Owned Startups: Black-founded startups received less than 0.5% of the total venture funding for U.S.-based startups in 2023.LGBTQ+ Founders: These groups face similar challenges in accessing the necessary funds to grow their businesses.These startup founders are overlooked purely because of their race and gender, despite their significant contributions to economic growth and community development.
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Toluwalope Oni
Entrepreneur | Advisor | Venture Capital | Edutech | Digital Communities | Sanipreneurship | Africa
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Deep insights Tré Baker Effective change that narrows the racial (and global) wealth gap needs to be intentional; not just in terms of the financing medium and investor archetype but in exploring Ventures that positively impact the lives of racial minorities in terms of jobs, opportunities, dignity etc. Combining these with strategic social and political resource deployment can be transformative. This applies not just on a national level but even interms of capital flows towards the global south and the opportunities that get funded. Equity and Inclusion is an intentional outcome that won’t just happpen with the status quo. Data shows a declining trend in Per Capita GDP across Africa despite the substantial venture flows of the last decade. Without focussed action stats remain the same.
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Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
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I don’t normally get excited to meet celebrities or public figures, but this was a special moment for me (#YangGang), especially given the latest in a long series of trainwrecks America witnessed last night. In 2020 a man named Andrew Yang warned us all about the 4th Industrial Revolution and ai/automation. He was right, and the ai revolution started sooner than we all imagined. Unfortunately, we all get the leadership we deserve, not the leadership we need. I imagine that whoever ends up in the White House in January will not be prepared to handle the post labor economic order that is rapidly approaching. So community will be more important than ever, and we all need to come together to make sure we leverage technology and innovation responsibly and intelligently to increase the quality of life for everyone. This will take radical transparency and cooperative economic structures (like employee ownership and coops).We do this through long form, reasoned discussion and debate, not petty political partisanship. I still think basic income (funded by a sovereign wealth fund) is still a good start, but it’s just a start. It’ll take a lot more to build a future that looks more like Star Trek than Star Wars.
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Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
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Great things happening in Birmingham. Congrats to KC C. and team on a successful demo day yesterday. Already had some great 1:1s with founders. Looking forward to Sloss Tech today. Founders in Birmingham hmu or find me. I’ll be wearing the Yang2020 MATH hat.
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Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
Engineers Discovered the Spectacular Secret to Making 17x Stronger Cement popularmechanics.com- Report this post
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Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
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This is necessary.
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Tré Baker
Managing Director @ Techstars. Entrepreneur, investor, author, #communitywealth advocate. 100+ startup portfolio. Pitch me at pitchtre.com.
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Lightspeed Venture Partners Shifts Focus to Secondary Markets ctol.digitalcalled it...
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