One Man's Effort to Get VCs to Commit to Bringing Underrepresented Investors into Startup Deals

Ten venture capital firms have committed to include a "diversity rider" — a promise to startups that they made their best effort to find underrepresented investors — in their deals.

The project was the brainchild of Alejandro Guerrero, a partner at Los Angeles-based Act One Ventures and the child of Mexican immigrants, who often found he was the only person of color in the room when investment deals north of six figures were being made.

"This is about moving diversity forward and there's two themes of how we address that: Money and access," he said.

Inspired by the George Floyd protests and the push it gave the industry to recognize long standing inequities, Guerrero reached out to several venture capital firms and investors with a proposition: add diverse investors in on the deal.

In the end, Greycroft Partners, First Round Capital, SVB Capital, Harlem Capital Partners, Fifth Wall, Plexo Capital, Precursor Ventures and Equal Ventures signed on.

Each of the firms are committed to adding "boilerplate rider language into their standard term sheets" that encourages the addition of underrepresented investors to cap tables.

Alejandro Guerrero often found he was the only person of color in the room when big investment deals were being negotiated.

In Los Angeles, one of the country's most diverse metropolises, the figures were even worse. Just 2% of VC investment partners identify as African American or Latino and less than 10% of VC-funded companies are led by women or people of color, according to PledgeLA.

The chasm is more than numbers to Guerrero.

"Sometimes it is uncomfortable being the only person of color in the room, being the only Latino person in the room," he said. "You know we're talking about a town in Los Angeles that's 50% Hispanic."

The largely exclusive world of venture capital has remained largely white in part because of the way it operates, relying on tight-knit networks that circle back to people of similar backgrounds. Guerrero said he thought a lot about that and the systematic inequalities that the Black community faced as he watched the video of police killing George Floyd.

"If you're a person of color, or an underrepresented individual you can kind of feel how you know you've been overlooked for opportunities," he said. "You haven't gotten those chances, not because you don't work hard or you're not there, but because you don't come from those networks, you don't have that wealth, you don't have that privilege and that's what's hindering you and that's not your fault. Sometimes you just don't hit the birth lottery."

The effort is an attempt to unlock access to investors of color and underrepresented groups, but it also build their reputation and eventually generate more wealth through increasing who owns a stake in companies.

"Long term, this is a step forward in changing the mindset in venture to ensure more investors are frequently considered for co-investment and follow on opportunities," said Henri Pierre-Jacques, managing partner at Harlem Capital Partners, in a statement.

It comes as others in the industry are trying to address longstanding inequities. Softbank launched a $100 million Opportunity Fund to invest in minority-owned businesses and Andreessen Horowitz announced the Talent x Opportunity Fund.

Guerrero said he's hoping that it will catch on not only with venture firms but will encourage founders to ask for diverse investors.

Firms interested in joining the initiative can sign up here.

Geekwire contributed to this story.