This VC created the first fund by a woman of color, for women of color. Here are her tips for staying authentic

The venture capital world has a problem with women entrepreneurs of color. US startups raised $329.9 billion in venture capital investments in 2021, nearly double the previous high of $166.6 billion in 2020. But black women founders only received a share of this funding, raising only 0.34% of the total venture capital spent in the United States so far. in 2022.

Arian Simone, 41, aims to change that. As co-founder of the Atlanta-based Fearless Fund, the first venture capital fund created by women of color, for women of color, Simone wants to inspire more entrepreneurial millennial women of color to live their dreams. Having just partnered with the Tory Burch Foundation to create the Women of Color Grant Program, Simone wants to show investors that women of color are worth putting on. Teneshia Carr, editor of All the Hats, caught up with Simone to talk about her professional journey.

How have the past two years been for you since founding Fearless Fund in 2018? Oh my God, so much has happened in the past two years. We entered this space because of many racial disparities that exist in the industry. Currently, black women in tech receive approximately 0.0006% of venture capital funding. And as we know, technology is the biggest wealth-producing industry in the world.

The career path for me was actually personal. When I was a student at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, I was raising capital for my retail store in a mall. I raised a few hundred thousand dollars, and that's when I realized that very few check cutters looked like me. I made myself a promise: "Arian, don't worry about the investor landscape, because one day you'll be the business investor you've been looking for."

After graduation, I ran a public relations and marketing firm, serving the entertainment industry, including clients like Walt Disney, Universal, and Sony Pictures. Throughout my career, I started meeting a lot of people in the business and that's when I realized how I could keep that promise.

Fearless Fund was launched in 2018. But over the past two years, we have created a micro-fund backed by Ally Bank, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard and many more. For women entrepreneurs of color, we noticed that it wasn't just the lack of access to capital that worried them. There was a lack of access to education, resources, grants and scholarships. That's why I founded the organization, to prove that women of color are worth betting.

How did Fearless Fund partner with Tory Burch? We've partnered with the Tory Burch Foundation to establish the Women of Color Grant Program. The program is so important because small businesses make up 50% of all microloan borrowers, and we can support them. Additionally, inflation, rising interest rates, and all the macroeconomics taking place globally affect small businesses more than large corporations and entities.

Small businesses are therefore suffering the consequences. That being said, the micro-lending space, which small businesses sometimes turn to, has become even more predatory. You have probably seen the text messages and how they try to give you capital at a very high price. I mean, it can put you out of business, if you said yes to their loan. And that's why in the capital stack, this grant has become a necessity for women of color and small businesses.

Why do you think it can be hard for some black women to embrace their ambitions? Who said it was hard? I guess I see it a little differently. Of the community as a whole, black people are of course the most oppressed people in this country. And when you talk about being most funded versus least funded, a lot of that comes down to necessity versus choice. Black woman...