Arlan Hamilton, Founder of Backstage Capital: “It’s not a sob story that gets you the check.”

9 to 5ish with theSkimm

theSkimm

Entrepreneurship, Careers, Business

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2019

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Arlan Hamilton started her career in the music industry, working with artists like Jason Derulo, Toni Braxton, and CeeLo Green. But in 2015, she took a look at Silicon Valley and saw a major lack of diversity there. So she decided to change it. Casual. Arlan started her venture firm Backstage Capital to invest in startups led by underrepresented founders. It wasn’t always easy (think: sleeping at the San Francisco airport while she built her business). But it paid off. Backstage Capital has invested nearly 5 million dollars into startups led by women, minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community. On this LIVE episode, Arlan talks to us about speaking up, taking risks, and getting inside the door… as an outsider. PS: After we recorded our interview with Arlan, Axios reported that Backstage Capital has run into trouble raising money for their most recent fund, and that the firm is shifting focus to its accelerator program. Arlan told us in an email Tuesday that Backstage is still working on the fund, and “will continue to until it's raised.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's skim from the couch is presented by H&R Block.
0:03.4	At the skim, we're always trying to find ways to make our to-do list smaller.
0:08.1	Whether it's a new app, the 135 method, or any other kind of productivity hack you can never save enough time.
0:16.6	We know it because we've tried everything and at the end we just want more time.
0:20.8	That's especially true during tax season. That's why there's H&R Block. More on that later. For now, let's get into the episode. They don't care.
0:35.0	Investors don't care about that.
0:36.2	It's not a sob story that's gonna get you the check.
0:39.1	It's what are you going to do with your lived experience? How are you going to take that into the
0:44.8	future and create magic? I'm Carly Zaken. I'm Danielle Weisberg. Welcome to Skim
0:52.4	from the Couch.
0:53.4	This podcast is where we go deep on career advice from women who have lived it.
0:57.0	From the good stuff like hiring and growing a team.
0:59.7	To the rough stuff like negotiating your salary and giving or getting hard feedback.
1:05.0	We started the skim from a couch so what better place to talk it all out than where it began on a couch. couch. Please welcome Arlen Hamilton to this live episode of Skimmed from the couch.
1:17.0	Arlen is the couch.
1:24.1	Arlan is the founder and managing partner
1:26.4	of Backstage Capital.
1:28.1	We love your sweatshirt.
1:29.1	Thank you.
1:29.6	Her brother made it.
1:30.8	He did.
1:32.0	He surprised me with me. And Backstage Capital is a venture capital
	...

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