Marlon Nichols has lately been wading through a lot of what he calls "diversity theater" - the performance that well-intentioned people do when they want to look "woke" without spending the money or doing the hard work to foster equality.
Since protests broke out over the police killing of George Floyd, there's been an outpouring of interest in his firm MaC Venture Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on tech and consumer products that is particularly interested in founders of color.
"Diversity is an interesting thing in this country because it tends to be important for a moment in time and then it becomes less important again," Nichols said. "This time around it feels a little bit different. It feels like people are genuinely realizing that there's a systemic problem. These aren't one-off occurrences. Things aren't equal."
On Wednesday, Nichols got a boost from the trade group that puts on the Las Vegas' Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The Consumer Technology Association announced that it would invest an undisclosed amount in MaC Venture Capital, as part of its $10 million diversity effort.
Nichols, a founding manager partner of the Los Angeles firm — which was created from the merger of Cross Culture Ventures and M Ventures — said the investment is significant given that venture funds led by women or people of color are mostly underfunded.
MaC Venture Capital's Marlon Nichols
Although the cash is not much more than an institutional investment, it marks a partnership between the trade giant and the up-and-coming firm, as venture capitalists and the tech industry struggle to overturn decades of institutional racism. Last month, another trade group, the National Venture Capital Association, launched a $5.5 million nonprofit dubbed Venture Forward, aimed at diversifying its ranks.
"The amount of funding that goes to black and brown entrepreneurs, we are talking about one percent," Nichols said.
The problem, Nichols said, stems from the lack of diversity in venture capital where investors tend to bet on people that look like them and have shared experiences. According to a survey by the NVCA, about 3% of investors are Black, though the numbers are likely much smaller.
Launched last year, MaC has already invested in nine companies and with its inaugural fund aims to seed about 40 companies with funds of $500,000 to $1.5 million. Its focus on pre-seed and seed rounds is an acknowledgement that the initial round of funding is most difficult for founders of color to raise — in part, he said, because the bar is often higher for them.
Yet, diverse founders often give back greater returns and raise more money in subsequent rounds, said Nichols, who co-authored a study by the Kauffman Fellows Research Center that analyzed the profile images of more than 260,000 startup founders and executives in the United States using publicly available demographic models.
"Founders of color that were successful raising capital in the early days, they raise significantly more money than all white teams in later rounds because the bar is so much higher in the early days," he said. "That's where the absence of capital is. Once they get beyond this stage there are tons of data that shows that they outperform and at that point it is solely based on merit.
"It's in the early days when you're still more betting on the idea, and proposition of the market, and the team where we're seeing that huge disparity," he said.
MaC is the fifth fund CTA has invested in as part of its commitment to venture firms and founders that invest in women, people of color and other diversity. Last year, it announced that it invested an undisclosed amount in Harlem Capital Partners, SoGal Ventures, Rethink Impact and Founders First Capital Partners.
MaC's portfolio includes more than 100 companies and several significant exits including Gimlet, which was sold to Spotify for $230 million. The other managing partner is former Washington D.C. mayor and special advisor at Andreessen Horowitz, Adrian Fenty.
"We are putting money in the hands of venture funds whose investment thesis is to focus on women and entrepreneur because they are traditionally underrepresented," said Tiffany Moore, an executive with the trade association. CTA developed the idea in 2018 and the money comes from its own budget. That year, CTA made $126 million in revenue.
Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter @racheluranga. You can also email me.
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Visitors to L.A. – or locals looking for a fun reason to leave their apartments – can scroll the interactive map on a browser or download the app.
Image courtesy of the L.A. Tourism Dept.
The “Discover Los Angeles” map can be broken down by neighborhood or by a series of “guides,” which all feature as part of the larger promotional campaign roll-out known as the Explorer’s Guide to L.A
Atlas Obscura and the Tourism Department also published a hardcover edition of the Explorer’s Guide, along with several other speciality breakout guides, including the Meeting Planners Guide, artistic Visitor’s Map and, for those with more expensive tastes, the L.A. Luxury Guide to the city’s pricier pursuits. The paper versions of the guides have QR codes for travelers to scan and take information with them on the go.
This year’s collaboration with Atlas Obscura gives the Tourism Department’s previous guide a much-needed update – it was previously a whopping 136-page PDF document created in 2020.
The Explorer’s Guide includes a mix of places you’d expect to see on the map, like Griffith Park and the museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. It also has some unlikely spots sourced from Atlas Obscura’s network of local explorers who recommended their favorite places to visit: the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Venice Canals or the Watts Towers, a stunning, monumental public art exhibit of mosaic steel towers that was built by one Italian immigrant over a 34-year period.
30 neighborhoods are discussed in the guide, from classic tourist destinations like Hollywood and beach cities like Santa Monica and Venice to lesser-known but still exciting enclaves like Leimert Park, Frogtown and Little Ethiopia. There’s also several maps for specific interests – taqueria lovers will find new spots to nosh with the taco map, and there’s also a map of the Downtown Arts District, spots to stargaze and sports venues.
“For myself and the writers and editors on this project, many of them L.A. natives, getting to write and curate the official visitors guide to the city of L.A. was an absolute dream,” Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras said in a statement. “We hope that these guides will inspire all the curious travelers arriving in L.A., to try new things, as well as providing new adventures for longtime L.A. residents. There is really no limit to what L.A. has to offer.”
