Earlier this week, I checked out an exhibition at the National Museum of American History, “Lighting a Revolution: Five Steps of Innovation.”
The exhibition provides an overview of the process of innovation:
Step 1: “preconditions” or prior knowledge that inventors build on
Step 2: the act of “invention” itself
Step 3 : “promotion” of the invention
Step 4: “competition” to the invention
Step 5: “consequences” stemming from use of the invention
It is illuminating that even though Thomas Edison was renowned as “The Wizard of Menlo Park,” he had to promote his inventions to “get money from investors.”
Fast forward to today. Black innovators are largely invisible to venture capitalists. So it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of black startups have not raised any money.
A ChubbyBrain study found:
Despite the fact that over 1/2 of BlackWeb2.0 startup have launched, have traction and/or revenue, a significant number, almost 9 of 10 (88%) had not received any funding from venture capitalists, angel investors or government grant programs. This was much greater than aggregate statistics which saw 63% of startups not being funded. Given the maturity of many of the startups, BlackWeb2.0 startups were notable in that many seem to have gotten somewhat far along without external financing of any kind to-date.
To borrow a phrase, startups without finance don’t stand a chance. Black innovators need money.
