Ms. Adeola Adejobi
First the good news. Black women now own about 60% of all Black-owned businesses and they have accounted for the most rapid growth in startups over the past 20 years, making them the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs in the U.S.
Here’s the really bad news. Only 0.2% of venture deals go to Black female founders with only 26 of these women raising more than $1 million in outside capital. In fact, the average amount of venture capital going to Black female founders is only $36,000 compared to the overall average of $1.3 million invested. This means that countless empowering ideas, including ones that can create tens of thousands of jobs and fight poverty in Black communities, are never brought to fruition.
Back to some good news. Adeola Adejobi, a lawyer and entrepreneur, founder of Avant-Garde Network, has launched a business and networking conference whose aim is to end this venture capital drought for Black women founders. The inaugural gathering, dubbed the Women of Color and Capital Conference, will be held this coming Saturday from 8AM to 5PM at New York University’s Kimmel Center. The all-day event will include financiers, business owners, money managers, investors, and other business and finance professionals. Women business founders will get to make presentations to a gathering of potential funders and other business owners whom they can network with.
One of the featured speakers include Lorelei Salas, New York City’s Commissioner of the Department of Consumer Affairs, who will address opportunities to do business with the city as well as programs that address students college debt burden.
Other speakers include: Momo Bi, Director, New York Ventures at Empire State Development, an early stage venture capital investor; Ruth Yakubu, Developer Relations & Advocate for Startups, Microsoft; Asahi Pompey, Managing Director, Global Head of Corporate Engagement & President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation; Leyonna Barba, Executive Director, Technology and Disruptive Commerce Group – Middle Market Banking at J.P. Morgan; Renee King, Co-founder, FundBLACKWomen; Maya Brooks, Product Manager, iFundWomen; and several other leading business figures.
Some of the topics the conference will focus on include: budgeting and financial fundamentals; seed capital for businesses; growth and late stage funding; learning how to become investors and investment managers; and, building intergenerational wealth.
Adejobi launched Avant-Garde Network’s Women’s Empowerment Collective (WEC) in 2017. The WEC helps women to grow professionally and personally, by working to break down the barriers that Black women face in the corporate world by fostering fellowship, development, support and training to propel them to the next level of leadership. She is an active member of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, New York Bar Association, Council of Urban Real Estate, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Below is the Conference Agenda:
JUNE 15, 2019, 8AM-5PM
SESSION TOPICS
Intergenerational Wealth
Student Loans
Six-Figure Women
Venture Capital
Track 1 – Wealth Building
Working with Financial Advisors
Wealth Building Through Financial Tools
Investment Advisory – What Are The Investment Options?
Track 2 – Business Owners
Business Loan Applications – How to get Approved!
How to Land Investors
Alternative Forms of Financing Your Business
Track 3- Women as Investors
Steps to Becoming an Investor
Investing in Businesses
Fund Management
