Chicago:Blend, an organization dedicated to diversifying the city’s tech industry, announced Thursday it is setting up virtual office hours where minority founders can get advice from venture capitalists.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring the country’s economy to its knees, it is unclear what kind of impact this crisis will have on venture capital funding both in the immediate and long-term future. However, Chicago:Blend founder Lindsay Knight is sure of something: VC funding was not built for a socially distanced society.
“This is an industry that really relies on a lot of in-person and networking and who you know, or at least it has been historically,” Knight told Built In. “We anticipate that folks who are underrepresented in some way might have even less access to those networks than they ordinarily would and are going to be at even more of a disadvantage when it comes to raising funding for their companies.
“The goal,” Knight continued, “is really to just create some access to starting a conversation with a venture capitalist. It's not necessarily meant to be, like, a formal pitch competition or anything like that. It’s really just to create conversations and maybe break down some barriers.”
Participants in the initiative include representatives from Chicago Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Energize Ventures, Chingona Ventures, Origin Ventures and Vitalize Ventures. The full schedule of office hours can be found here.
Knight says Chicago:Blend has decided not to put a strict definition on who qualifies for this initiative, but that the focus is on people who have been historically underrepresented in tech, which could pertain to age, gender, race, sexual orientation and more. Plus, while the office hours are available to anyone, this initiative was created with Chicago founders in mind.
“The hope is that more of the founders will be local,” Knight said. “But I’m sure a lot of founders have the same questions, regardless of where they are, so we are not specifically restricting it to Chicago.”
Historically, Knight says, economic downturns have proven to be a good time to start a business. But these are unprecedented times, so the impact this pandemic will have on Chicago startups remains to be seen. However, she did have some advice for entrepreneurs trying to weather this storm.
“If you’re thinking about starting something, this is a really great time to do customer research, educate yourself, read up on what other businesses have done during economic downturns to eventually get funding and start being built,” Knight said. “One thing entrepreneurs could spend time on right now is just networking and getting to know people.... If there’s somebody you’ve always wanted to meet or network with, take the time to craft a great email and reach out. I think you might be surprised by who would respond right now.”
