10-10-2023 It's Official: VCs Must Report Funding by Race and Gender in CA

There’s a ray of hope coming from the Golden State with California’s governor signing SB 54 (tracking race and gender of venture funding recipients) into law. It’s been a long time coming and we hope this will spread to the federal level for more accountability.

Today’s Top 5 News Stories in Tech, Race, and Gender

1 / California Passes Bill to Shine Light on VC Investing Patterns of Funding by Race and Gender

State lawmakeres in California are at it again. After a landmark victory in passing the Right to Repair Bill which greatly affects consumers’ budgets, California yesterday passed SB 54 requiring venture capital firms in the state to disclose the gender and race of the principals of the firms they fund

This transparency brings much-needed accountability and firm numbers to what has been estimated to be a critically one-sided venture capital funding system with Black women getting less than 1% of venture capital funding for startups they lead. For Latinas, the numbers are slightly lower.

I often think about Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of blood testing company Theranos. She garnered billions in funding in a short period of time due to relationship building and high-level connections who just liked her. This teaches us that funding relies on the know, like, and trust factor more than anything else. By extension, when venture capitalists don’t know, like, or trust people who don’t look like them or their family, you get today’s lopsided startup business funding system.

Hopefully with the passage of SB 54, things will improve. You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

2/ IBM CEO Arvind Krishna Won’t Lose One Programmer to AI Efficiencies

3/ Netflix Pulls the No-Cost Rug from Under Kenyan Customers, Nixing the Country’s Free-Access Plan

4/ Solid Inside Look at Stereotypes in AI Image Generation

5/ ️Find Out Who’s Pushing Forward with Startup Ventures from the Indigenous Community

What’s Happening in Tech

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