What’s the Price of an Entrepreneur’s Vision?

In the 15+ years that I have been navigating the global innovation and entrepreneurship space, I have never found it fair for women of color to always have to work 2 to 3 times harder to get to the baseline of what non-minority men and women earn, raise, or even find their own companies to be valued at. As I look back on my own journey and success, I believe that my conviction to that notion has served me so well in the ascension of my career.?

When I founded my first company in 2004 a vineyard/winery — a far cry from tech, but very much innovative for its time due to our business model — and was looking to raise capital, I found myself in meetings ready to answer the questions I knew would come, but had nothing to do with the business at hand. Even after answering all their questions, there was not a willingness to make an investment. It only took a few “no’s”? and that was enough for me to stop seeking. Instead, I chose to invest my own money into my business. However, this in and of itself is a privilege.

I honestly do not know how many doors I would have had to knock on to receive an investment in my first business. However, this is what Black and Latina women are up against every single day.?

Today, as CEO of digitalundivided, I serve as a change agent and do this work powered by my lived and professional experiences, with the added benefit of proprietary data to match the personal stories I hear all too often and validate the notions I already knew to be true. At the end of the day, entrepreneurship for us as an organization is so much more than small business. Entrepreneurship is about building and creating business, finding new ways to lead, and exploring new business models to profit from. With entrepreneurship, you are ultimately selling your vision. The reality of our ecosystem is that the price for someone’s vision is not matched with their grit, resilience, business acumen, or even their experiences as Black and Latina women. What it all boils down to is who will simply take a chance on you.?

Over the last few years, we have witnessed incremental change within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Women of color are starting new businesses faster than anyone else and the venture capital landscape is raising more capital than ever before with record-high investment levels. Yet, Latina and Black women founders get less than half of 1% of funding. At our start, digitalundivided was the first to use data to show the funding and investment disparities that women of color and people of color faced and continue to face — ultimately calling for the closing of the racial funding gap for Latina and Black women founders. Fast forward to now, 10 years later, and the disparities we signaled in venture capital are still prevalent.?

Last year we sounded the alarm on progress for women of color entrepreneurs still being too slow. This year, that alarm rings louder as we celebrate a Decade of Disruption and focus our attention on the valuation problem and the complex role it plays in widening the funding gap.?

We know that this is uncharted/unsaturated territory. This is why digitalundivided is working diligently to change the narrative and take an education-first approach to unpack the mechanics of funding and valuation. We are beginning to track new and relevant metrics to measure progress on this and give founders the support they need to thrive.?

digitalundivided’s research team is currently in the field with a new valuation study. The purpose of this study is to help shape our directional approach to valuation for the year. The insights revealed in this survey will help us continue to unpack the depth of this issue and work together to build solutions that support the advancement of a more equitable ecosystem.

I set an audacious goal to double the valuations of businesses founded by Black and Latina women. across the US. This goal mirrors my unwavering commitment to helping accelerate the success of women of color in business. However, we cannot attain this goal on our own. I empower you to share the 2-minute valuation survey with your network of founders. It is open for ALL founders of ALL stages to share their experiences. Together, we can tackle the valuation problem that continues to fuel disparities for our community and the next generation of founders.?

Onward,

Lauren Maillian