ABSTRACT
Monique Woodard, a venture partner at 500 Start-ups, established Black Founders in San Francisco in 2011 with her friends Chris Bennett, Hadiyah Mujhid, and Nnena Ukuku. Over the years the team has seen the community in San Francisco and in Silicon Valley expand. According to Woodard, it is particularly hard forAfrican-American women to raise money. Woodard joined 500 Start-ups because she was thinking very deeply about what Black Founders was going to do to open up more capital for entrepreneurs. The goal of Atipica was to use big data to understand diversity in the recruiting pipelines. Women need to actively and consciously create opportunities for other women. More female investors should mean more funding for female entrepreneurs. More female entrepreneurs should mean more women on teams.
