Could a promise of diversity work in venture capital? • TechCrunch

Fashion: a sector known for influencing trends, creatives, and perhaps the future of equity for black entrepreneurs.

Last week was the second Fifteen Percent Pledge Gala, hosted by the nonprofit of the same name, to honor black entrepreneurship and the organization’s efforts to increase equity in the technology industry. fashion.

The nonprofit stems from a caption designer Aurora James posted in 2020 urging retailers to stock at least 15% of their shelves with items from black-owned businesses. (This figure is not arbitrary; black people make up about 15% of the US population.) That call grew into a pledge, then a nonprofit working with 29 retailers, including Yelp, Rent the Runway, Sephora and Nordstrom, which claims to have transferred more than $10 billion in opportunities to the black community since its launch three years ago.

The engagement spurred opportunities for black entrepreneurs. The foundation itself launched a Google-sponsored marketplace. At the gala, he handed out more than $250,000 in grants to black businesses, a sum that changed the lives of many. The average black company starts with around $35,000, compared to around $100,000 for the average white founder. Their venture capital efforts are equally heartbreaking, and most of their businesses don’t survive the start-up stage.