Venture capital has a diversity problem . BLCK VC , a new organization founded by Storm Ventures associate Frederik Groce and NEA associate Sydney Sykes to connect, engage and advance black venture capitalists, is ready for a new era in the industry. Their mission: Turn 200 black investors into 400 black investors by 2024. “We think of ourselves as an organization formed by black VCs for blacks VCs to increase the representation of black investors,” Sykes told TechCrunch. “You can look around and say well ‘I know five black VCs,’ but you can also say this firm does not have a single black VC, they may not even have a single underrepresented minority … We want to make firms reckon with the fact that there is a racial diversity problem; there is a lack of black VCs and every firm should really care about it.” BLCK VC has been at work since the beginning of 2018, building and expanding a network of black investors in the San Francisco area, Los Angeles and New York. They seek to provide a...
In just about three weeks, on 29-30 November, literally thousands of startup fans will flock to Deutschland’s edgiest city to experience Disrupt Berlin 2018 — Europe’s premier tech conference focused on early-stage startups. Attendees tell us time and again that networking and building relationships with the right people is one of the most essential and rewarding aspects of TechCrunch Disrupt. We couldn’t agree more, and that’s why we decided to make networking at Disrupt Berlin a whole lot easier by offering CrunchMatch, our free business match-matching platform, to all registered attendees — not just investors and founders. No matter who you want to meet in Berlin — tech service providers, product managers, developers, marketers or engineers, founders or investors — CrunchMatch will help you “Die Nadel im Heuhaufen suchen” or find the needle in the haystack. And here’s the best part. CrunchMatch , powered by Brella , makes the connections based on your specific criteria, goals and...