the facts.
In 2018, a mere 1% of venture capital funding went to Black startup founders. This disparity is even more prevalent among Black female entrepreneurs which are allocated only 0.02% of VC funding. Around 63% of Black Americans are interested in starting their own company, but 14% reported having no real role models.
the vision.
Learning from successful members within your community can be critical to increasing exposure and visibility, maintaining motivation, and boosting confidence for an aspiring founder. Amplify is an on-going speaker series to support and empower underrepresented communities in entrepreneurship and venture capital. Our first Amplify series underscores the experiences, creations, triumphs, hardships, and learnings of Black entrepreneurs.
the team.
Yale Entrepreneurial Society, Harvard Ventures, Bowie State Entrepreneurship Academy, Fordham Entrepreneurship Society, Cornell Entrepreneurship Club, Entrepreneurship Program at Brown University, Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs, Cal Hacks (UC Berkeley), Cardinal Ventures (Stanford), Wharton Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, Vanderbilt Innovation & Entrepreneurship Society, & HBCUvc.
the implementation.
In the upcoming weeks, each of the ten partnering universities will host a virtual speaker. All students are welcome to each of the Amplify events, and we further encourage professors, alumni, family, and friends to tune in. To ensure these events are as widely accessible as possible, Amplify events are technically free to attend. However, we do hope that many of you will choose to purchase a ticket for our event. All ticket proceeds will be directly donated to Black Lives Matter and affiliate organizations.
