Financial Perspective - Arlan Hamilton

According to PitchBook, in 2019 women received 2.8% of all venture capital funding, women of color received 0.2%.

In 2015, without a background in finance,  Arlan Hamilton, founded  Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm that is focused on minimizing the VC funding disparities in technology for founders who are female,  people of color, and LGBTQ entrepreneurs – the under-invested and under estimated.  When the fund was launched, the goal was to invest in 100 companies by 2020.  Arlan, who is also the Company’s Managing Partner, along with her team, accomplished this goal before this date. Today they have invested over $7 million in 130 companies.

1-   Where did you learn about money?

“I started working for a paycheque at a very young age, I was 15 years old. And I used this money to help pay bills at home. But I also recall at a young age that if I wanted something, that I had to work for it. Case in point, In high school i really wanted a computer, so I went door to door in my neighborhood and offered to paint people’s house numbers,  as many were hard to see, by solving this problem I secured the money to purchase the PC.

I am a big believer in education, so whether I needed to learn about finances, how to raise capital, or who the venture capital players are, I spent a lot of time reading books, listened to podcasts, reading blogs etc. Information is at our fingertips, it’s all there, online, for the taking.”

2-  What is your earliest money memory?

“I always knew about the power of money, and as a kid, I knew that we did not have a lot of it. So, knowing how hard money was to get, I greatly appreciated all the special gifts that I received from my mother, most notably a ticket to see Janet Jackson in concert.”

3-   Proudest financial achievement

“The proudest moment for me is being where I am today, I went from homelessness to raising $15 million in investments, and generating $3-$5 million in revenue in 5 years. That I made this happen, out of the air, is something that that I am very proud of.”

4-  View on financial literacy?

“I don’t know why financial literacy is not taught in school. When I was in high school, in an economics class, my teacher touched upon how to balance a checque book but there needs to be more on this topic. In college, students start to get pre-approved for credit cards but since all students do not come from the same means, there needs to be more information about how credit cards work, credit ratings, budgeting, saving, etc., so that students can start their financial journey on the right foot.”

5-   What’s next?

“We have a few things bubbling, and we will continue to do what we started to do, invest in underestimated founders and help them to bring their companies to market. Also, we will continue to partner with Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 corporations, as well as other big funds, to create more, small vertical funds to invest in more companies.

We are also excited about our investor syndicate called BackstageCrowd.com. This is where people can invest alongside us, and it’s for people from all financial backgrounds, who can be accredited and participate in deals.

Before we were able to invest $25k - $100k, with the syndicate we can invest $250k even up to $1million in companies. This will really change things in a major way. Additionally, I am also doing quite a bit of Limited Partner (LP) investing, where I invest in other people funds and I will grow organically as all these actions will benefit Backstage capital.”

To learn more about Arlan Hamilton, check out her newly released book, It’s About Damn Time,  and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram. You can also check out her portfolio of companies at Backstage Capital.