Team Up on the Tide— Moving from Service to Collaboration with Diverse Entrepreneurs
Skoden Ventures Founding Partner Kelly Holmes in conversation with Maacah Davis and Cindy Willard
With Skoden Ventures, my work is primarily two-fold. I’m learning about the age-old organization and system of the finance world and its gatekeeping mechanisms while strategizing a new way forward. I believe collaborating with other luminaries who are defying the odds with their work is vital, ultimately leading to higher chances of success. I was inspired to write this article and highlight some of the extensive conversations I had with fellow friends and funders in this space: Maacah Davis and Cindy Willard. We discovered that we are the rising tide: more people than ever are looking for change, and we can all succeed more with a new approach. — Kelly Holmes, Founding Partner
Let’s be real: diverse entrepreneurs have not been “underserved.” Service is the wrong word. And I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. I recently visited with my friends Maacah Davis and Cindy Willard to discuss how venture capital can better collaborate with Indigenous, queer, Black, Brown, and women founders.
Because we’ve been here, we’ve been succeeding, and our tide has long since risen beyond the relevance of a model that seeks to maintain those who serve and those who are served. In fact, I would argue that service was neverrelevant. It complicates simple facts in order to keep the halls of power tidy. What are these simple facts? Our success is already here. We don’t need a pat on the back. We don’t need charity. Diverse entrepreneurs grow more businesses, realize higher returns, and account for $10 trillion of missed potential wealth.
That’s why we need to stop thinking about deploying capital into historically excluded communities as a service and start thinking about it as a collaboration. Investors and entrepreneurs should be on the same team — one that recognizes that the only path for a sustainable economic future is one that taps into the immense value potential of historically overlooked entrepreneurs. When investors see diverse entrepreneurs as equal partners, we all get to learn from each other and help each other add value in ways that also help the people we care about and leave strong legacies for the future.
I wanted to know: how can we unify our strategies? How can we all work together to shift the direction of capitalism so that historically excluded entrepreneurs are not categorized as needing “service” but are considered for who they are: extraordinary value creators. (Need a data refresh? Check out “The Overlooked $10 Trillion Opportunity”). We know plenty of extraordinary value creators who are BIPOC entrepreneurs, and we know plenty of extraordinary value creators who are funders. So how can we all be on the same team? How can we start pooling our wins?
I consider both Maacah and Cindy to be visionary leaders of a regenerative, sustainable economic future, and I am so excited to share what I learned about how we can make sure that we — as investors — don’t miss out on the rising tides of opportunity.
Skoden Ventures invests in Indigenous, Black, Brown, and women founders building growth companies in entertainment, experiential tech, creative products, and services.
Find out more about Skoden’s mission as well as how to pitch for investment at skodenventures.com. Have questions? Email info@skodenventures.com
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