Our hearts go out to the friends and family of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and the countless other Black victims of police brutality across America. We stand in solidarity with the Black community. Black lives matter. We all have a responsibility, not only to stand up against racism at this time, but to uplift the Black community.

We believe this is especially important in our ecosystem, as we have the power to amplify the voices of minority entrepreneurs. 

In fact, one of the major reasons we are building in this space is to knock down VC walls. Minority founders have been woefully underserved, with over 97% of funds deployed to status quo founders. In contrast, over the past several years we have seen figures for minority founders in the crowdfunding space clocking closer to 20-30% of total funds raised, which is a major step in the right direction.

Additionally, one of the greatest wealth creation tools this country has is investing in early-stage companies with outsized return opportunities. It’s why most wealthy individuals invest in startups. Now many startups have minimum investments in the hundreds (rather than the tens of thousands seen previously), and they are available online. With that kind of accessibility, we can help get this wealth creation tool into more hands. The key is to educate and empower everyone to invest with the right information. That is where we come in. We can better enable this space and make it democratized and accessible to all.

 

We also truly believe at this time that it is not enough to stand in solidarity. We must take action. Here are some ways that we at KingsCrowd are going to actively work to dismantle oppressive systems and amplify minority voices, with a focus in and around our ecosystem:

  1. We will work to create a bi-weekly, minority-focused deal email for those that want to focus their investments on minority founders.
  2. We will make a conscious effort to offer founder profiles to more minority founders. 
  3. We will include tags in upcoming versions of our product to make it easier to sort deals based on founder demographics. 
  4. We will label Top Deals and Deals To Watch founded by those belonging to marginalized groups.
  5. We will continue to speak up in support of the Black community within our ecosystem and elsewhere.
  6. We will continually educate ourselves on systems of oppression within our own ecosystem of finance and technology and elsewhere.

 

In the meantime, we would also like to highlight some Black founders with deals that are currently live:

Joel Nkounkou, Dylan Wheeler, and Evan Shaw founded ecoText to make college textbooks affordable and accessible to all students. It’s a KingsCrowd Deal to Watch.

Pierre Laguerre, Anil Jagarlamudi, and Paul Munguia created Fleeting to overcome inefficiencies in the trucking industry by directly connecting drivers with firms that have ready-to-ship freight. It’s a KingsCrowd Top Deal. 

Tamar Lucien Blue started MentalHappy to create an online community with holistic mental health resources. It’s another KingsCrowd Deal to Watch. 

 

Finally, if you are looking to donate to a related cause, below is a reputable source with a comprehensive list of organizations:

https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-for-black-lives-matter.html

 

We at KingsCrowd are working to be active agents of change and we hope that you will join us. Please reach out to us if you have suggestions for other ways we can support the Black and minority community. We want to hear from you.