Elliott robinson bessemer free#

Elliott robinson bessemer free#

She noted community is key, and that fostering a sense of engagement and safety at the team’s home venue, BMO stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium), is one reason fans keep coming back.Īdding free metro rides to BMO stadium and private rooms for nursing fans to breastfeed or fans on the spectrum to avoid sensory overload, were just some of the ways ACFC tried to include its community in the concept of its stadium, Fleischauer said. At an LA Tech Week panel hosted by Athlete Strategies about investing in sports, Angel City head of strategy and chief of staff Kari Fleischauer said that years before launching the women’s National Women’s Soccer League team, Angel City FC was pounding the pavement letting people know about the excitement ladies soccer can bring. In the soccer world, Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team Angel City FC has put in the work to become a household name, not just in LA County but across the nation. “I think there's five Black partners that can cut a check over $10 million in the country,” he added, noting that one of them was GV partner Tyson Clark, who unexpectedly passed away last year. “A decade ago, a lot of funds decided to change everyone's title to partner so they could, ‘Look at all these women partners and they have’-but there's no economics, no check-writing authority,” Robinson explained.

Yet Black partners on VC funds remain rare, while it’s even rarer for a Black person to be a limited partner investing in a VC fund. Robinson said that in order to have more Black startup founders-who still struggle for a disproportionately low percentage of venture capital funds-it’s critical that those founders can find support among VCs who represent their same cultural interests. Yet Blck VC’s targets in reaching those goals are still a relatively thin slice of the overall industry: only 6% and 4%, respectively (up from 3% and 2% currently). Robinson is a board member at nonprofit group Blck VC, which is working to double the percentage of Black investors and venture capital partners by 2024. So for all the in the room, you really do have to just ask yourself: Why is that?” “There's a lot of diversity BS in venture capital-there still is,” Robinson said in a conversation with Upfront Ventures partner Kara Nortman.Įlliott Robinson at the 2022 Upfront Summit in Los Angeles.Īddressing the mostly white crowd on hand at the conference, Robinson noted that “fundraising for Black managers is half of what it is for non-Black managers. Speaking at the Upfront Summit in Downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, Elliott Robinson, a partner at Bay Area venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, said many VC firms opted to make surface-level changes that didn’t alter their actual, white-heavy power structures. VC firms have tried to make strides toward racial equity in recent years, but for many of the industry’s leading Black investors, the changes have been mostly symbolic. In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, the corporate world was forced to reckon with its responsibility to communities of color-and one of the industries with the most soul-searching to do was venture capital. Sign up for dot.LA's daily newsletter for the latest news on Southern California's tech, startup and venture capital scene.