Next spring, Backstage Capital will launch accelerators - where founders and entrepreneurs can hone their skills in a three-month program - in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, and London. That same month, Backstage Capital had officially invested in 100 founders since it launched – with checks ranging from $25,000 to $100,000, each – a goal Hamilton wasn’t expecting to achieve until 2020. In May, Hamilton announced her firm would launch a $36 million fund specifically for black female founders. Now, Backstage Capital has surpassed her own expectations. “I also thought whoever does do this stands to make a lot of money.” It just didn’t make any sense to me,” Hamilton says. “I couldn’t stomach the idea of women having to sit around and just not get asked to the party and not get asked to be part of the next 20 to 50 years. The aspiring venture capitalist sent hundreds of emails - and received hundreds of rejections. The more she learned, the more she set her sights on correcting what she saw as an injustice: an incredibly small percentage of venture capital funding goes to women, people of color, and LGBTQ entrepreneurs. She moved several times, from outside of Houston to outside of Austin, to be closer to the burgeoning tech scene, and then to Silicon Valley. She taught herself about investing and venture capital by watching YouTube and Vimeo videos. Years before she launched her firm, Hamilton spent hours at Barnes & Noble reading tech and investing books because she couldn’t afford to buy them. So whatever it is, I really have to mean it.” “It’s going to take a long time, and it’s going to be really, really difficult. “Whatever I do, I know I’m going to achieve it,” Hamilton recalls thinking before she launched her firm. She's the first black, queer woman to create her own venture capital firm - and she did it with no investing experience, no college degree, and little money to work with. Hamilton isn't your stereotypical venture capitalist. The 38-year-old launched Backstage Capital in 2015, a venture capital firm that invests in under-invested founders, like women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community. Arlan Hamilton was homeless, sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco International Airport and couch-surfing for months when it finally happened.

Arlan hamilton