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show time oh it is are you ready yeah yeah it was a little time ready to go all right it's all about eyelashes give folks a moment to start populating into the session and see who we have coming our way so I'll just give it a moment let folks filter in all right all right Stephen am I good to go yes you are awesome thank you all right let's get started hello everybody Welcome to diversifying your deal flow I am really excited to get started today we have an amazing panel for the next 45 minutes I expect um are going to fly by but we are going to do our best to get through all of our material and then most importantly give you the opportunity to ask some question of our panelists first off my name is Andrew zaro I am the access to Capital program manager here at startout and I am your moderator for today's session I'm truly honored to be here with such remarkable panelists to discuss this important and impactful work the world is becoming a more diverse and inclusive place and investors need to embrace this and build a diverse portfolio of startups while there has been some progress in recent years the reality is that many underrepresented entrepreneurs still face significant challenges when it comes to securing funding for their Ventures and furthering their contributions to the economy and Workforce in this session we will explore the importance of diversifying your deal flow to include underrepresented entrepreneurs we will discuss the unique perspectives and experiences that these entrepreneurs bring to the table and how they can help investors identify New Opportunities unlock untapped markets and create Financial social and Community wealth we will also examine the barriers that underrepresented entrepreneurs face when seeking funding and how investors can help break down those barriers so before we dive into our discussion it is my true honor to introduce our esteemed panelists so I will introduce each panelist one at a time and ask that they just share a little bit about themselves and introduce themselves to you all and honestly what brings you here today so first please join me in welcoming Lolita tub Lolita is a Latina GP at goddess Ventures investing in Community Driven companies and changing the face of startup VC Tech World welcome Lolita please take a moment to introduce yourself to our community yes thank you so much Andrew thanks to everyone who's here I am so honored to be on a panel with Mariela and Sarah and excited to jump into the topic so I've been in tech for over 15 years I started in corporate went into startups in the last seven years have been an NVC and so I'm I'm really excited to to be here to talk about the topic of making sure that we're backing underrepresented underestimated Founders not just because uh it's a great thing to do as a human being to think that the whole world population has talent um but because we're also leaving money on the table and there's a great returns opportunity to to look at the whole population thank you uh next up is Sarah Miller Sarah is the CEO of diversity BC diversity VC is working with entrepreneurs investors and universities in order to create an industry that is free from bias welcome Sarah please take a moment to introduce yourself to our community thank you Andrew um as Lolita said very happy to be here with the other esteemed panelists and to be uh working with start out on such an incredible and massive production um as Andrew said I'm the CEO of diversity BC um we are a non-profit organization we work internationally we work with BC funds entrepreneurs all with the lens around why uh increasing diversity equity and inclusion in the Venture ecosystem as Alita said leads to better returns it also leads to Better Business overall more responsible businesses um and I have been in and around technology also for about the last 15 years um was at a early stage Venture fund for about five and a half years and now I'm a director of operations at a startup as well so have a bit of the perspective on both sides of the table thank you Sarah happy to have you here and our last uh panelist is Mariela Salas of latinx VC Mariella is the executive director of Latin xvc where she has unabashedly focused on growing and supporting the latinx Venture Capital ecosystem welcome Mariella please take a moment to introduce yourself to our community thank you so much Andrea and thank thank uh started out for for having me um again my name is Maria la Salas I'm the executive director at latinx VC where we focus on um increasing the representation of Latino investors in the ecosystem um we live in a world where um Latinos in the US represent um about 20 of the U.S population and only two percent of the investment ecosystem so super excited to be doing that work um very long career trajectory but I'll stick to the basics um outside of my work at latinx BC I'm also a doctoral candidate at Pepperdine University where the focus of my research is at the intersection of venture capital um identity and Latino studies so very excited to be here we're excited to have you Mariella thanks for being here so we clearly have a diverse group of experts with extensive experience in Venture Capital entrepreneurship and Community Development honestly thank you all so much for being here today all right now it's time to kick off our actual discussion so let's begin with some general level setting and the data the data is what brings us here today so I'm just going to throw out some numbers before we start our questions in the last two decades only 0.5 of all the 2.1 trillion dollars in funding raise startups went to lgbtq plus Founders overall black entrepreneurs typically receive less than two percent of all VC dollars each year while companies led by black women receive less than one percent Latino startups as Mariela said received only two percent of U.S venture capital investment a percentage that stayed nearly the same since 2017 and even worse early stage funding which is the most critical phase for startups has stagnated almost completely and women are massively underrepresented among both venture-backed entrepreneurs and VC investors with companies founded solely by women receiving less than three percent of all venture capital Investments and women accounting for less than 15 percent of check writers so that's why we're here today let's start with our first question it's the obvious question what does diversifying deal flow mean to you and why is it essential for investors to actively seek out underrepresented entrepreneurs and also provide support once that check is written Lolita let's start with you sure thanks Andrew uh diversifying deal flow is is a huge topic right and the whole reason we're in the business of venture capital is to diversify our investments and when most of the capital is going to a small proportion of our population we're not quite diversifying and so uh for me it's all about hey let's think about what we're here to do as Venture capitalists as investors we're looking to diversify our investments to create returns and what's the best way of doing that actually having a diversified portfolio and how do we do that um there are different ways right first you hire people that look like the people that you want to back I I think this is just a natural extension at Ghana's Ventures we invest in proceed in seed Community Driven companies um out of the US and Latin America uh but we do not have a mandate for diversity and yet a hundred percent of our portfolio is feedback LED and founded we have LGBT Rick presentation how does this happen it is because of who is writing the text so if you yourself are not in the underrepresented community um what you can do is hire people uh to go out and have this reach in the market and give you access to broader deal flow um you can also make sure outside of just hiring them to give them Tech writing abilities we are able to see different things that the rest of the population this the status quo Silicon Valley will not see because we're facing problems we Face problems that um that that others may just be like is that really a problem um just a brief short story uh I had a we had a startup that we backed at Backstage that was at the beginning of my career Cowboy where the founder literally is talking about under um underserved community members on the banking spectrum and she literally got laughed out and said why would anybody be underbanked and it was because of who she was talking to what do you mean people don't all have access to credit cards it's a different world and so this is just like one aspect of it so hire people give them check writing abilities get your access to these different communities and um just wait and see for the returns to come I mean calendly is a great if you're like okay Lolita give me an example calendly is a great example of a black founded company that became a unicorn and at the beginning of their Journey nobody wanted to to back to obey and now look at this everyone's using calendly and it's a great success well I just learned something about that I know that about countley and we all use it all the time um thank you so much Lolita um absolutely true I mean you know that's that's walking the walk right representation matters across the board um I'll look to you uh Sarah or Marietta if you want to contribute to that one sure uh I can there there's a pretty um simplified explanation to this which is diversification leads to better returns we know that across the board in like the financial system writ large it is the Mantra like you do not over allocate to one thing and so why would you do any differently in a portfolio for VC that is your fiduciary duty to your limited partners who by the way are looking for GPS who have unique access to Founders and so they want to know that you are able to win deals that you're able to convince the founders that you want to work with that they should work with you because of what you're you're offering to them and so by diversifying who you are going to you're not only helping yourself in the returns that you're delivering but you're also helping yourself and being able to go and Pitch to LPS and say well look I have access to this pool of capital that all of those other people are ignoring and they're missing as Lolita said on the returns that these uh Founders and these companies are going to generate um and you know I can get in because I've I've put in the work and I've actually built relationships there that are are lasting and and trustworthy um so I think of it as like this is this is the job of a venture capitalist is to be doing this work um and many do not do it well enough yeah for sure and and I would just add to that I mean there there is Empirical research already that states that there's this similar similarity attraction right so we are going to invest in people who we uh we have similarities with and similarly just to your point Lolita we need to be hiring more diverse a more diverse uh Workforce when it comes to um our investment uh check writers because the more that people or specifically Founders see themselves in the people that are sitting across the table they will be able first of all I guess research sort of states that they are able to negotiate and Advocate better for themselves so it's just super important and and and and just really critical for us as we move forward to a like more globalized and diverse world thank you all yeah I mean one thing you just said that just made me remember this you know it's in close-knit communities and oftentimes underrepresented communities um we get things done by who we know because we're all in you know a similar boat together so it's economies of intimacy we're looking out for one another and helping you know a rising tide lifts All Ships you know what happens when people don't have a boat that's our job to help that happen um awesome so now that we've established the importance of why we should diversify our deal flow let's dive into the unique perspectives and the experience around how we do that um so my next question is what are we solving for how do you actively seek out and engage with entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds uh Mariella I'll start with you oof I am not an investor so I would actually like to pass that one off to either Sarah or Lolita perfect this is a safe space uh Sarah I'll look at you sure um so we uh we have a couple of ways that diversity BC that we recommend that investors get involved and and proactively look to diversify their deal flow because especially for the majority of the current Workforce and Venture Capital like this is going to take effort on your part there these entrepreneurs are not necessarily going to just come to you um and so if you want to diversify your deal flow you also have to walk the walk as you said Andrew and so um one Avenue that is um relatively straightforward is to go to those funds that are one stage earlier than you that have an explicit Dei Focus like that is they have already filtered for you who falls into these categories and companies that have already gotten some backing and so for com for funds that are at you know series a series B perhaps that's a a pretty easy answer um but it's also like you have to create deep relationships and so these are things that you have to put time into it is not just going to be a purely and anybody in in BC knows like there are relationships that you have that are like purely transactional like give me a deal and I'll give you a deal and then there are the people that you like you want to talk about things with and you actually want to like be their friend and that's why you work on things together um and so finding those people in these communities who are you know going to bat for the underrepresented candidates or the underrepresented talent like make those relationships a priority and put the time in um but there are so many different events that you can go to funds that you can get in touch with um like mentorship that you can do like there's so many opportunities to do things to get your foot in the door um but then and I think we'll talk about this a little later like you have to actually write the check and if you form a relationship with an entrepreneur from one of these underrepresented communities and you know you're partnered with that person for 10 years you'll have access to their Network also and so you have to actually like build trust with with the community to get access to this but um one of the ways to do that is to just go out and find the people who are like swimming in the same Lane as you and are willing to be a connection yeah I love everything that Sarah just said think about the multiplier effect right so if you figure out who you want to partner with and you could just literally Google who is investing in underrepresented underestimated Founders and you can see a list of accelerators of VCS I mean I am one I'm always happy to make friends with allies uh definitely don't like transactional I I have seen that where it's like hey I want to invest in you know checkbox women you know people color lgbtq I don't tend to want to build relationship I I guess I should say I don't tend to I just don't build relationships like that because we really need to take care of our community we need to build relationships this is the Long Haul right so when you're thinking about it and you're an investor whether you're an angel or a VC maybe you're also an LP so one way of um and I've seen this as we've been fundraising and some of our LPS want to be an LP in Ghana so that they can get access to our Diversified deal flow and I am filtering right so um I have a large following of over 80 81 000 Founders funders and friends in the ecosystem have been investing in it for seven years I'm not the only one right there's a handful of folks that are are doing the good work Sarah knows people Mariela knows people um just getting to know who are the people who are actually putting in the work who have the that trust established with the ecosystem who has that deal flow quality deal flow too because just meeting people isn't enough and and it's not enough to just take meetings with underrepresented Founders I I will say um I launched a a tool called the startup investor matching tool some of you may know of it if not you can Google it it's a free platform to connect underrepresented founders with investors and unfortunately some of the feedback that I've gotten from Founders is they just kind of wanted to put me in their pipeline for you know check box criteria to be able to say we're talking to on the bright side in the last couple of years we've seen over 60 companies uh get backed uh that are founded by underrepresented Founders that are that have gone back through the startup investor matching tool so this is another way of getting Diversified plot uh Diversified deal flow I I share mine because I don't have all the money in the world to back all the best Founders so happy to to be a resource there and it's like I said a free platform and and really the the goal there is is to go against that whole concept of there's a pipeline problem there is not they are here we are here all you need to do is put a little bit of effort to connect with us um so there's a startup investor matching tool Making Connections meeting Mariela meeting Sarah saying who should I connect with starting those relationships so being being really authentic about it because Founders investors we all get it like if it's B yes we do have a BS meter and we don't want to work with those people right and that's why we have this Diversified access to deal flow that's that's um not something that everyone especially in the status quo quo world of Silicon Valley will have access to um one other reason to to want to build relationships with us and to partner with us and we're not all going to be each other's cup of tea so that's okay but find people who are and then just work with us and and let's do this together find those Diamonds in the Rough and and uh back the best Founders and make some great returns well thank you so much I'm just uh fervently taking notes over here so just a couple of items that I want to name so this is for the Long Haul I heard this is about relationship building that is rooted in authenticity I love the the BS meter in there um it's not just transactional it's not just checking a box and saying that you have this you know this Matrix that you need to you need to fill um Lolita love the shout out for the startup investor matching tool I'll just reiterate that here for anyone who's watching live anyone who's watching this recording is an amazing resource check it out and feel free to give a plug for it again at the end Lolita um and then what you just said there is not a pipeline problem and that is so fundamentally true there are so many great Founders doing really amazing work they just can't get in the room for the meeting so that's you know you're breaking that down they are here we are here um don't check in the time okay so as we continue to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape it is crucial to acknowledge the challenges that are faced by underrepresented entrepreneurs when they're seeking funding we just talked a little bit about that and both Sarah and Lolita just started to hint at my next question so let's go right for it if we start to pull at that thread of where capital is originating from it goes deeper and deeper so let's explore that let's talk about the accountability cycle how can we keep LPS accountable to invest in the GPS who invest in diverse and underrepresented communities um Sarah I'll go to you for that one yeah we think about this a lot um so and I'll I'll preface this with you know I think even 10 years ago even more recently than 10 years ago VCS were very not transparent um and so it was with the Genesis of a lot of these data reports that a lot of organizations have done that kind of unveiled and not that it was not that it was ever a mystery like people knew what was going on um you can go to a lot of VC's websites they have their pictures up there and you can just do a quick little analysis and you know there's a problem um but the uh the data reports were really helpful and in kind of forcing a lot of funds to come to a Reckoning with that and to understand okay we are we are part of the problem um and I think that the same we're at the beginning of that same Journey with some of the LPS that participate in the VC ecosystem you see um only a handful of them really need to be public out who they're investing in when you get to foundations endowments family offices there's no requirement that anybody be public about what they're investing in or even their goals around diversity um there's far fewer pledges or commitments at the lp level than there are at the VC level for investing in more diverse managers um and so the way that diversity BC has approached this is we first have to understand what the landscape looks like and we we know um if we go one level up from what the founders look like it's pretty evenly matched at the investor level who actually has uh decision making power at a lot of these VCS whether it's a GP a principal somebody who has check writing ability and so we tie the the thread between we're not seeing the founders getting funded because we're not seeing the um investors getting funded so then who are the investors and the investors um and not not saying that uh we are going to suddenly start you know trying to do uh training or or development for like people to become LPS although I think that there's a lot of room for that but rather going to LPS and giving them a playbook for this is what the industry looks like this is what we think good better best looks like in terms of not just who is represented at those funds but also what practices and policies do they have in place case that are fermenting a good environment for somebody from an underrepresented background to want to come work at are they promoting people from Junior positions are they giving economics um and that actually is one of probably the the stickier points is you can give the title a position to anybody are you actually giving them the economics and the the upside in a fund that they deserve um and that's so we're working on what are these different indicators for LPS to be aware of as they're looking at different funds to say this is you know this is good practice but it would be you know here's a couple of other funds that are doing this much better um and here's how you should be like a rubric to evaluate different VCS against yeah and and just to piggyback on on what Sarah just said I think just to be very clear I think a lot of commitments didn't come until after the George Floyd the murder of George Floyd and since then we've seen um while there has been a lot of public commitment there has not been very much action um so it's really difficult for us to really um under because the their data is not public we really it's really difficult for us to sort of gauge and keep folks accountable from a you know reporting uh perspective um and then I think I think the other thing that we that we really need to think about when we think about um and making LP investments into into more diverse GP a lot of our emerging managers and emerging funds are quite small and they're really not able to meet the check writing limits or minimums of some of these larger organizations so it's this cycle where because our funds are a little bit smaller and web and I I at least in the in the Latino Community or average uh fund size is about 25 million dollars between 25 and 50 and then we have some you know microphones and so when these um larger institutional LPS are saying we really want to make more commitments into more diverse GPS well they really can't because of the limitations that they have when they're making those investments into the GPS so if we for example if we say there's an Institutional firm that came to us and said well we really want to make uh more you know investments into into Latino VCS but you know our minimum check size is 10 million and we can't be more than more than 10 percent okay well that leaves us with about three funds in the GPU in in our GP world so it's just it's you know I I think that you know there's there's just a lot of learning that needs to happen on the lp side before we can really get to the root of uh having those uh funds flow down to more uh diverse GPS and then more diverse Founders as well thank you Sarah and Mariela for summarizing my existence and experience as a micro fund GP it's so true so here's here's the real like the real truth about it uh the big foundations Mariana is just calling it out and big LPs they don't have the requirements that parallel with what we're building I have uh an aim for a 10 million dollar fund if if these foundations are writing minimum check size 10 million even if they liked me they're not going to be able to invest and so I think these big institutional um LPS that really need to think about creating these uh different uh vehicles to be able to invest in smaller funds because that is truly where we're going to start and why why Lolita why do we start with smaller funds well think about if we have to put our one percent commitment uh in our fund who has that kind of money not on not not most of the underrepresented GPS that are building funds I certainly don't and that's certainly part of the reason why the the 10 million um but it's also the the limit in how many LPs we can bring in we purposely also created a target of 10 so that we can um honor the SEC you know uh cap of of of of having more than your 99 LPS um so that we can bring more people in because we are smaller because we are Community Driven um smaller checks because we want to have the community evolved because we want to win together and create generational wealth together and so if you think about that like where we're coming from and you have these institutions that are like well we only write 10 million checks it doesn't fit and it's not because we're not ambitious it's not because of any other reason that we are where we are we need to start Where We Are that doesn't mean that there aren't these larger funds ULU Ventures chingona Ventures like we have these Latina and and diver underrepresented fund managers that that have these broader funds but they have to start somewhere and we all have to start somewhere if we really want to open up that aperture of opportunity to build the funds that are firms multi-decade firms we need to meet us where we are um and then the other thing is this that unfortunately with George Floyd I love that you call that out Maria that there was there was this whole Rush of like here's some capital A lot of Corporations were putting creating these programs but they were discretionary funds they were thought of as like philanthropy I have had LP conversations where they're like I'm sorry Lolita we're not investing in underestimated diverse uh GPS right now fund managers and I'm like but don't look at me that way look at me as just a GP who's here to make you money and so there's two things one is are we out of trending out of what was uh trending because of George Floyd is that the right reason not to invest in people that are not why cisgendered males who come from a a ivy league background or um or what what do we really want to do when we think about there's um there's money to be made when we invest in a diversified portfolio led by diverse Founders so big questions to answer and and you know putting our money where our mouth is I want to add one more thing to that or maybe two more things to that we so diversity EBC did a research report last year around the uh how much funding or how much AUM in the US was allocated to underrepresented Founders and it was less than two percent um my bet would be that the same is true at the lp level um but we shied away from saying this is the strategy that you should adopt because of exactly what Lolita just said if you set aside capital for making these Investments you are kind of you are identifying that as this is a separate strategy um and so to have different metrics that have a different rubric for how you are evaluating companies or funds that fit into your diversity or impact initiative and having worked at an impact fund like we were grouped in with the diversity funds and I was like well we we do completely different things like how are you evaluating us on the same scorecard um but the other thing I'll say is LPS break their rules all the time so do VCS like you are always going to find that opportunity that you think is great and you're going to bend the rules a little bit for it and so taking another look at those rules and saying to Lolita and Mariella's point of like you know we only invest 10 million dollars well what's the rationale behind that is there flexibility to that if somebody checks nine out of 10 boxes but that's the one that you're worried about like is that really like how much weight do you assign to that it's kind of just an easy way to say no so be a bit more introspective and look more at what am I trying to achieve with this capital is it returns is it um you know saying that I'm in the name brand funds and just be honest about what that goal is because then I think they'll find that there are some things that can be a bit more flexible well this is all amazing thank you so much um you know I'm I'm seeing a lot of Trends here uh you know the we are where we are we have to start somewhere but funds need to meet us where we're at um Sarah what you just said about VCS and LPS you know they break the rules all the time and it's the easy way to say no on how many times have we encountered folks who are that's it that's the reason there's no further conversation um and I think that does stem back to the authenticity part of it um I do want to just take a moment to thank you for naming and having the conversation around the the influx of the discretionary funds that came after the murder of George Floyd and so many you know there was a it was a point where so many of us thought okay this is the needle is moving and to hear you so honestly Lolita speak just now about how that that funding is dried up um or or it's redirected for a different reason I mean that's it's important to name that I'm really grateful that we're having that conversation right now um okay so I wanna I wanna be mindful of the time um so okay we did we just dove into the barriers on both ends both for entrepreneurs VCS investors LPS GPS so Lolita started to name it and now that we've discussed the challenges I think it's really important for us to shift and focus on Solutions but also the successes I think those wins are just as important and you're doing it right now in lifetime so let's explore a little bit um from your experience uh how investors can actively contribute to creating this inclusive ecosystem so I'll offer this to all of you can you share examples in your experience are those that you know of successful Investments made for underrepresented Founders and maybe Identify some of those steps uh that where you were able to support those founders I guess that that one's for me I have invested now in a hundred companies in my VC career and so there's there's a lot of a lot of learned lessons a lot of um really great Founders uh that back to or in my history that have now also become like VCS so that because we are talking about diversifying deal flow and just in general it's not just about the founders but the DPS and the LPS and one thing that's really cool before I talk about some of my portfolio companies is is is seeing the evolution right there's so many of us that get what's happening that get the opportunity and we're saying okay well we're not going to wait um for this table to be uh and it for for us to get invited to the table we're gonna go create one we're gonna go pull up a chair we're gonna go and do what we can and some of these Founders have gotten like in in the seven years that I've been in VC some of these underrepresented Founders have just been like I'm fed up with this I'm going to do something about it I'm going to build a fund I'm gonna build a fund of funds um VC include is one of these programs right where it's literally like hey let's get capital in the hands of VC fund managers that are going to invest in our communities because there's so much opportunity and so one thing that I would just say is is really beautiful to see is is that at the same time it's frustrating because we are getting you know little drops of of water if you will drops in the bucket of of capital to be able to shift an entire environment and so we find our community like Maria la Serra I I know we're we're people like we're each other's people right um and we see and we we look at how consistent are folks being on their message on their actions and so on and so forth and on on that note like maybe you're not focused completely on investing in underrepresented Founders or maybe or GPS or you know becoming an LP but definitely consider it right if you're no matter what your title is you can be uh you can start your own fund if you want to um and that's gonna say it's easy definitely do your homework uh and if you want to be an LP it's very similar to being an angel to a Founder you can invest in funds um and there are those of us especially in this community who want to bring in the diversity into our our cap tables from an LP perspective that's certainly the case for us we have we're really proud of our diverse um LP family um on the side of helping Founders there's things as simple as newsletters I literally yesterday got on a call with a Founder that we're going to move into due diligence with and he's like Lolita like we are oversubscribed but I want you to be in this round because literally you didn't even know you were helping me but those newsletters that you have for underrepresented Founders um with the resources and and all these Capital opportunities and and all of all of the the different connections we can make and the startup investor matching tool it's helped us get to where we are so think about what you're doing maybe it's just LinkedIn messages posts that you are putting together or Twitter wherever it is that you live Tick Tock even um but if you're able to provide valuable content um that doesn't take you very long that's one way of supporting this ecosystem communicating that you want to be supportive of this ecosystem of our founders of us as GPS um just and it's okay maybe you won't get it right out all the time and it's hard to be an ally I get it I also get slack from it like sometimes um but we do our best and then that's that's what we can do but messaging resources it doesn't hurt anyone it doesn't take anything away from anyone when you're just like look I have this resource let's have everybody know about it that's definitely one way I've I've helped uh companies and actually I would let to some deal flow for sure um in terms of who are we backing uh recently we invested in in a company called latitude uh latitude is is this uh company out of Latin America that's really uniting the startup ecosystem across the entire region bringing Financial tools for companies to incorporate to manage their their companies and it's been wonderful to see I mean we we co-invested with a16c and nfx and it's been wonderful to watch them grow and this is woman uh co-founded company and I'm super excited to see them grow other ways that we've been helping again connections are kind of the biggest thing and also talking about strategy we personally um focus on Community Driven companies so that's a lot of what we do when we're helping our Founders what is what does it mean to be Community Driven how do you leverage your customers that and your community around your company to be able to build your product to sell it and to scale it and so those are some of the ways that that we help that I got yeah and just to sort of take that to the next level um at latinx VC we just hosted our first pre-partner level VC Summit for Latino VCS who are currently working in Venture it's the first time it's ever been done but really it was about helping VCS with career uh Career Development and really honing in on some of the skills that it takes to work with Founders and we had a really interesting panel that was of three VCS I'm sorry three founders who had very competitive rounds and they just got so much Insight from that and so really just leaning into ensuring that the few Latinos that we do have in the ecosystem really stay in the ecosystem and are able to make investments into more diverse Sounders I um different part of the question on on kind of stories of success and talk about I mean we could name definitely name names there's a bunch of Founders that I've uh that I've backed that um I think are incredibly successful and I also want to be Keen to define success as I see it because I think when we are talking about success inventure it is very frequently like you are only successful if you have delivered this billion dollar creation of value for your investors and that is absolutely true we have to give money back to our LPS having a billion dollar company in the portfolio is fabulous um but I would also look at especially for underrepresented Founders like it is a success to raise money because this deck is stacked against you and so raising money continuing to raise money that's a success continuing to build your business in the face of a lot of adversary adversity that is a success even a failing business is a success because one thing I'm very cautious of is if we continue to look at underrepresented Talent as like the only way for them to succeed is for them to succeed at this really really great um or setting the bar super super high then we're not making things Equitable for them because we all know of the large number of the majority Founders who have failed at multiple businesses they still go out and raise money and they get multiple shots on goal and so I also think that we we should Define successes like sticking with it knowing that you have something of value to bring to the ecosystem and and continuing to deliver that over time um and not just thinking you know aim for aim for that really high bar but recognize that just if you don't make it there that's where 99 of people end up and so it's okay to to be in that camp and it is a success if you are delivering value to your customers to your investors to your LPS so wow they're all giving me chills right now I just typed a bunch of of quotes of what you just said I mean wow how are we defining success wow okay so I I want to be mindful of any questions if anyone anyone from the audience has any questions we only have a couple minutes left feel free to share them in the chat if you'd like I'll keep an eye out for it um but uh this has just been such a wonderful conversation I feel like um we're just so lucky to have you to share your insights um with us so that we we can see from your your lens and your perspective you know what this massive undertaking is and and how you're addressing it every single day through your work and it's truly an honor to um be able to talk to you about it um I'm not sure if we have any questions from the general audience right now it's okay um but I think maybe uh the the last thing I'll say maybe we can do it in two minutes is you know how um I guess giving you closing comments if each of you want to take a moment because I don't want to set you up for a very quick question what are your closing comments on this as we're telling folks to leave this session what's their next step why are and higher I mean like those are the two things right I think uh we used it a few years back but it's true higher and make just write the check I think Sarah mentioned it uh first during this this session we have to write the check mentoring is one thing writing the check is another so put your money where your mouth is I think for people who are just getting started creating a plan of action and like actually writing it down and setting goals is a good way to in the same way that you would do for a diet for an exercise regime like this is going to take effort and time so make it a plan I don't have anything substantial to add I think they I think Sarah and Lily really hit it on the nail so I'm good thank you all so much truly um panelists I I look forward to be able to work with you again thank you for sharing these valuable insights and perspectives with us we've clearly covered a broad range of topics related to diverse find your deal flow supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs celebrating the wins and the successes while acknowledging there's a lot of work in front of us um so this does conclude our panel on diversifying your deal flow again I just want to extend my sincere gratitude to the three of you I remember telling you and we met to prepare for this meeting I'm a huge fan of all of you and so this has just been so cool for me personally to be able to talk to you all about this because you're doing amazing work but let's continue the conversation everybody let's keep working together towards the more inclusive and prosperous future um and a couple of shout outs if you are an investor looking to diversify your deal flow please go to startout.org investors or you can email programs at startout.org to sign up for the portal please reach out to Mariella reach out to Lolita reach out to Sarah if you have any questions or thoughts we'll be sure to get their contact information out there for you and truly thank you for everything everyone happy pride and remember to take care of each other thanks everyone thank you hey