Resilia's historic $35 million VC raise; dealing with a toxic boss; and more

With “spooky season” behind us (and your candy stashes filled to the brim), welcome to the first day of November and the third edition of Forbes Edge. This week’s newsletter brings you the latest on a history-making venture capital raise for a Black woman-founded tech startup. Plus, let’s break down how remote work benefits employees with disabilities and tips for dealing with a toxic boss.?

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Success Story of the Week:?

Sevetri Wilson Defies Odds As A Black Woman Startup Founder, Leads Resilia To $35 Million Capital Raise

Sevetri Wilson, founder and CEO of software startup Resilia, just made history with a $35 million Series B funding round—considered the largest raise ever for a solo Black female-founded tech company. Wilson’s grit is evident in her success; she pulled it off with zero prior coding experience and no cofounders while operating Resilia out of Louisiana, which venture capitalists seem to have a hard time finding on a map.

Resilia beat tough odds of raising meaningful venture capital as investors have a long-documented history of failing to back leaders with diverse backgrounds. Year-to-date through October 27, Black founders reportedly raised slightly more than $2 billion, representing a downward trend from the record-setting year of 2021 with $4.72 billion raised. In the three-month period that ended in September alone, Black founders raised $187 million in venture capital—just 0.43% of the total $43 billion deployed in that timeframe.?

With this funding round, Resilia has raised nearly $50 million since its founding in 2017, and Wilson became one of the top-funded Black woman founders in tech. The startup sells software that helps nonprofits manage their operations, including tools for employee training, board management and donor reporting.?Resilia also allows major donors to subscribe and offer operation-managing tools to their grant recipients. The goal? Modernizing philanthropy for nonprofits and funders, Wilson says.

In Her Words: “Solo founders do go on to be grossly successful, and you can look at that across the board,” Wilson, who lives in New Orleans, told Forbes. “But for some reason, a Black woman solo founder can’t be successful? Make it make sense to me.”

How She Did It: For founders who aren’t technical and don’t have cofounders with that skillset to lean on, it can be a challenge to independently source tech talent, Forbes Senior Editor Jared Council adds. Without that tech background, Wilson elected to contract with a technical consultant who then made recommendations about engineers to hire—a strategy that she recommends to other founders in a similar situation.??

Read the full story here.?

Tips and Strategies:

Remote Work Boosts Employees With Disabilities, Research Shows

The Covid-19 pandemic created a cultural shift toward greater acceptance of remote work, opening up more job opportunities and better accommodations for people with disabilities who would have previously faced higher barriers to entry. Individuals with disabilities between the ages of 25 and 54 were 3.5% more likely to be employed during the second quarter of 2022 than they were pre-pandemic, according to a new survey. Flexible work-from-home allowances benefit workers in need of support by affording them a greater degree of control throughout the day while also working in companies’ best interests by maximizing employee productivity.

Read the full story here.

How To Deal With A Toxic Boss (Without Losing Your Sanity)

So much of your experience in the workplace comes down to having a good or bad manager, as your boss can either help you accelerate your career or make you dread getting up each morning. If you find yourself relating to the latter scenario, you can still do a lot to deal with a toxic boss while saving your sanity. For starters, get a clear pulse on their expectations for you so you can be vigilant about any required areas of improvement. Then, if you decide you’re meeting-to-exceeding expectations, filter through the feedback and try not to take their behavior personally while focusing on fortifying your confidence in your performance.?

Read the full story here.

More:

• Soul-Crushing, Dead-End Jobs Are The Reason Behind The Great Resignation And Quiet Quitting Trends
• Jobseekers Reject Offers On The Spot When Pay Isn’t What They Expect
• Metrics For Hybrid Work Must Change: 5 Mistakes To Avoid

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Thank you for reading! We’ll be back next Tuesday morning with another Forbes Edge.?

Forbes Edge is curated and written by Forbes Staff Writer Laura Smythe.