Molding HBCU Students Into Tech Investors

A New Program Teaches How To Think Like Venture Capitalists

- Jeffrey McKinney

BLACK FOUNDER’S CO-FOUNDER AND and Director of Education Programs & Out reach Hadiyah Mujhid has launched a new initiative called HBCU.vc. As the founder and managing director of HBCU.vc, Mujhid is partnering with several black investors to back the program, many of which run some of Silicon Valley’s top venture firms.

HBCU.vc will focus on training students on how to think like a tech investor, and provide participating students with the tools to develop startup communities on their own campuses.

Righting a Funding Wrong

The HBCU.vc program emerges during a time in which statistics show the financing of black tech firms occurring at dismal levels.

Take the recent #Project Diane and digital undivided study, The Real Unicorns of Tech, which reveals that only 88 startup tech firms are currently run by black women. Furthermore, the study reports that black women account for less than 0.2% of all venture deals, and that, on average, funding for black female founders is around $36,000. Conversely, the average failed startup—which, as the study reports, is typically initiated by white men—can raise nearly $1.3 million in funding. Other reports from recent years have also shown that less than 1% of tech firms with black founders receive venture capital financing.

Building Wealth