As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact the global economy, it has also highlighted the racial inequities that permeate our country’s financial infrastructure.

In an effort to help businesses keep employees on payroll and cover necessary expenses, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) enacted the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The road to recovery (or at least stability) was paved with good intentions.

Instead of distributing the funds themselves, the SBA made private banks in charge of the process. As a result, PPP loans were quickly granted to larger, wealthier companies that had the resources to expedite the application process. …

We took a look at JPMorgan Chase’s new announcement to give a balanced breakdown of what it means.

JP Morgan Chase, which holds $2.82 trillion in U.S. assets, announced a pledge of $30 billion on October 8, 2020 in order to achieve greater racial equity over the course of 5 years. Their efforts consist of five pillars:

Promote Affordable Housing and Homeownership for Underserved Communities

What they’re doing: in anticipation of 40,000 home purchase loans for Black and Latinx households, Chase is allocating $8 billion in mortgages and $4 billion to refinancing loans over the next five years. …

Say it with me: IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!

Yes, that’s right, your eyes and ears aren’t deceiving you — Harry and I finally (fintally with a T, yall) got to sit down and talk with each other for his podcast, The 20 Minute VC, a pod that gets millions of downloads each month, and has been rocking and rolling for years now.

We have tried to make an interview work for what seems like years, but something always got in the way for one of us. You could say that timing is everything, though, because I think this episode really…

Over the past nearly 5 years, I’ve seen what bold things can happen when someone gives you your first ‘YES’. After several years of looking for help and resources for my investment fund, Backstage Capital, an angel investor named Susan Kimberlin (MIT grad) came through! And since then, I’ve taken that vote of confidence and turned it into 6,000 startups screened, 130+ investments made, millions of $ raised, generated, and invested, hundreds of jobs created, and countless dreams realized.

Late last year, my mother, Mrs. Earline Sims, and I announced the Arlan Hamilton & Earline Butler Sims Scholarship, which…

Hi, Backstage friends!

We’ve all seen the impact of COVID-19 on live events, especially over the past few days. As a result, we’ve decided it’s best to evolve Backstage Tour 2020 into a series of virtual, city-focused events. Our first and utmost priority is the safety and wellbeing of our community at large and our teammates. With thousands of attendees anticipated in over a dozen cities, we’re needing to adapt just as every community and organization is right now.

We believe this is best for everyone involved.

We’re speaking now with our City Leaders, who are working with us to…

The following is from my pov and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of all Backstage’s employees, investments, investors, or community members.

While I don’t pay much attention to trends in venture and startups, I have been paying close attention to waves and patterns of sentiment and intent since I discovered Silicon Valley. In the summer of 2015, before I had raised a penny towards the more than $10mil I’ve raised to date for my fund Backstage Capital, I wrote a blog post called “Dear White Venture Capitalists…”. …

We at Backstage Capital celebrated our 4-year anniversary on September 15, and it made me reminisce and reflect on what it has taken to get here, our hits and misses, and everything in between. One of the things I often get asked is, “Are there any companies you regret not investing in?”

This question is a hard answer, because I know what the person means when they ask it. They’re saying, “Is there a company who you had a chance to invest in but passed on, only for them to go on and do well and you later regret it?”…

If you didn’t read the above photo’s caption, do so now…I’m still astonished by it.

I’ve been in love with photography half of my life — nearly 20 years. There was a burst of energy around it in my early 20s when I first discovered my eye for it. I purchased a 1980ish manual Minolta SLR from a pawn shop for $100 to start a photography class, and again in my late 20s when some places were still developing and printing film, I fell back into the groove once more, again using an inexpensive manual SLR. …