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Inside Pitch: Black Blockchain Founders Evaluate The Pitch Deck Field
Hip hop artists and investors Hakeem “Chamillionaire” Seriki, and Earl T. “E40” Stevens as well as “Shark Tank” investor Daymond John garnered headlines — across black and mainstream media — recently in announcing a forthcoming $100k prize pitch-deck competition. The contest is specifically designed to address the dirge of funding afforded to women, minorities of color, and black people who are spearheading startup ventures. The deadline for submission is December 6th for this pitch deck competition.
Numerically, black technology startup founders face disparaging odds when it comes to netting adequate funding for their ventures. In analyzing the 2017 year — which was an apex year for Bitcoin ATHs (All Time Highs) — RateMyInvestor’s Diversity VC research report found less than 1 percent of available VC dollars went to black-helmed startups. Moreover, DigitalUndivided’s Project Diane that studied black-women founders reported black women-led technology startups only netted .0006 percent of startup funding available from 2009 through 2017. So basically, black women tech founders netted zero, statistically, in comparison to other technology leaders seeking funding.
The downside of a no-hitter
Funded black technology startups are proverbial unicorns. With stats showing investment gains at 1 percent or less, this metric devalues black venture leaders as being among the least-abled demographic to garner startup funds — be it from black or non-black VCs — for their own ventures much less anyone else’s vision.
Four blockchain startup founders, two men and two women, discuss funding and the pitch-deck scene from their vantage points. All four have garnered investment dollars of some sort beyond family and friends bootstrapping, which is the most common way black founders fund their ventures.
The blockchain funding ballgame
In a blockchain landscape with black-founded Storj netting $3 million in 2017 seed funding and an additional $30 million in an ICO, its founder Shawn Wilkinson, a Morehouse computer science graduate, is deemed a visionary and success story compared to the bulk of other black blockchain founders. His presence only eclipsed perhaps by BitMex Founder and CEO Arthur Hayes who…
