Backstage as a vehicle investing in “underestimated rather than underrepresented founders”.
Allison Cooper, partner at law firm Fenwick & West, interviewed Christie Pitts, general partner at diversity-focused investment firm Backstage Capital. Pitts described Backstage as a vehicle investing in “underestimated rather than underrepresented founders”, including women, people of colour, and LGBT founders. The firm has been actively investing since 2015.
Pitts commented on the increased interest in investing in diverse founders despite the pandemic: “For most of us, the pandemic was unexpected. We put in a lot of effort into helping our companies in understanding PPP [the US programme to support small businesses during the pandemic]. During 2020, we continued to actively invest and saw that many of our companies were successfully raising money because there was great attention being paid to investments in diverse founders, after the unfortunate death of George Floyd.”
Pitts shared some advice and tips to corporate VC fund managers on how to invest in diversity. She…
