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How Venture Capitalist Arlan Hamilton Beat the Odds | B is for Boss | NowThis - YouTube
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when I looked at venture capitalists I
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didn't see black women gay women I
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couldn't find a reflection of myself
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there so I decided to become if I didn't
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do it then who would it's my duty and my
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honor to spearhead and and breakthrough
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and disrupt my name is Arlen Hamilton
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I'm a black gay woman who is a venture
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capitalist
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[Music]
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I really did start from less than
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nothing it was a daily struggle to
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figure out where I was in the sleep
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there are millions of people who are
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like in the shadows who don't know are
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actually homeless I spent a lot of time
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sleeping at San Francisco Airport but at
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the same time I always knew that this
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was the right thing to do and that this
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needed to be done my mom taught me that
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there was no room that I shouldn't feel
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comfortable in and that was very
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valuable lesson to me from the moment we
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sat down and started to talk she just
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saw me like she understood who I was and
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what I was trying to do she has invested
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in over 50 companies this is Ireland
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Hamilton coming up backstage capital is
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a boutique adventure fund that invests
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in start-up companies that are led by
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women people of color and LGBT founders
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98 percent of our portfolio consists of
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companies that are led by non-white
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straight males and in venture capital
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you'll find usually the complete
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opposite of that we invest exclusively
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and founders who have in the past and
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underestimated for backstage to exist
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and for me to be a venture capitalist
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represents something new
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I started grazing backstage in 2014 and
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it took a full year before anyone would
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invest so that was 365 days of knocking
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on doors reaching out to people and
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getting feedback of yes this is a good
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cause a good mission but not necessarily
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an interesting investment proposition
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and so it was a lot of educating people
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and also just tenacity and showing up
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again and having patience
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Susan Kimberlin was our first investor
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and she was the first person to say yes
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I will write you a check and I want to
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see what you can do I was over the moon
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because it meant two things I meant that
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I didn't have to worry about where I was
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gonna sleep and that meant that I could
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start making those investments that I
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had been cultivating for so long and I
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could start acting on those promises
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that I had been making to people
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I imagined that I would have a venture
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capital fund that we would invest in
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amazing companies I did not know it
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would be 54 in two years and that we
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would have a full team spread across the
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country and that every single day people
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would ask to join our team I didn't know
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that people would come up to me black
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women would come up to me at events and
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say I started a company because I read
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about you those types of impactful
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things I was not prepared for because
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all I wanted to do was get more capital
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into the hands of some very innovative
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people who were being overlooked
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the biggest hope I have for backstage
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though is that we're unnecessary in ten
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years that the need for leveling the
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playing field for black people for women
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of color for women in general for LGBT
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founders I hope that that's a a far-off
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memory and ten years and I hope that we
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have had something to do with that
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my name is Arlen Hamilton and I am a
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boss
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[Music]
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[Music]
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