Do LGBTQ Entrepreneurs Have a Unique Advantage in Facing the Challenges of COVID-19?
By Pete Holmberg
There’s no question that COVID-19 has brought great hardship beyond the lost lives, isolation, compromised living situations, financial devastation, and physical wreckage resulting from the virus. Even the most fortunate among us are struggling to adjust to a radically altered new normal. 2020 is a challenge for everyone, but the question on our minds is this: Have the entrepreneurs in our community acquired unique skills that are now playing a significant role in their survival process? Those of us at StartOut began pondering this when we noticed that almost all of our pandemic coping conversations had us harkening back to a past crisis related to coming out or contending with the otherness we share.
So we threw the question out to the StartOut Community, and the most emphatic “yes!” came back from Chris Young, Co-Founder and Partner at Revel Partners, an early stage venture capital fund, focused on B2B software companies targeting legacy solutions across the enterprise productivity landscape. Revel has forty different portfolio companies and there are multiple cases where connections made through StartOut resulted in investment, employment, or partnership. Introduced to StartOut by the late and great PR legend Andy Morris in 2014, Chris was enthralled with the passion of the organization and quickly became a member of our board in 2015. “Level playing fields are nice, but they don’t inspire the greatness that happens when someone is required to go the extra mile. People in our community have grit, and that is something that all entrepreneurs need right now. When it comes to executing a vision, Covid isn’t something to be afraid of. It’s still the same path of building a business plan, getting funding, and fundraising. LGBTQ entrepreneurs are very well served to operate under the cloud of Covid because we have always had to work harder, fight back against marginalization, and yes, deal with unexpected clouds. So I do think we have an advantage right now. Within our community, I continue to see a level of persistence, a deployment of unique skills, and quite frankly, a hunger that will serve all of us well as we emerge from this crisis.”
Few people are more qualified to speak to the advantages of the StartOut community than StartOut Board Member JT Batson, Co-Founder and CEO of Hudson MX, an advertising technology business providing media buying and media accounting solutions globally through a cloud-based SaaS platform. “I actually met Chris Young at a StartOut event. And that one introduction — which led to Chris becoming a Board Member and an investor in Hudson MX, a company that has raised tens of millions of dollars and now employed over 400 people — is just one of many examples in which StartOut has increased the opportunity for economic empowerment in our community. As a StartOut mentor, I’m happy and proud to share my perspective and help people make inroads to capital, and I benefit greatly by being in touch with our emerging entrepreneurs who are closer to the struggle. For most of us LGBTQ folk, life didn’t go as it was originally planned. We had to let go of a lot of internal and external expectations and get comfortable charting our own course. So much about being an entrepreneur is embracing uncertainty and channeling it into positive action. Coming out means standing at the precipice of that uncertainty, not letting it debilitate you, and moving forward. So as I look at the challenges facing us as we live through and ultimately move beyond this pandemic, I think we can all take pride in knowing that we’ve earned some skills that will indeed help us to survive and thrive in this challenging time. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be discouraged. The world is changing for the better, and despite the devastation of COVID-19, there is still a ton of opportunity for people with great ideas coming out of the gate.”
As a surgeon, a biomedical engineer, and an entrepreneur Dr. Tran Tu Huynh, Founder and President of OpticSurg, a health tech startup providing surgeons with Mixed Reality & AI tools, is witnessing the pandemic from multiple angles. And she sees her queer identity and her involvement with StartOut as an ongoing source of strength as she re-strategized her business in the wake of the pandemic. “When the pandemic happened it rearranged the medical world and showed my team the huge gaps in the delivery of care. It also highlights the capacity limits and its effect on workflow to workers on the front line. In understanding these pain points (and living through them), we were able to recognize that we can expand capacity and improve care delivery at bedside by enhancing collaborations remotely with our Mixed Reality platform. Ultimately, Opticsurg is a mission focused company that’s democratizing healthcare delivery at the bedside and the operating room by leveraging Mixed reality & artificial intelligence. As a minority woman, I didn’t have the network of some of the more traditional counterparts in the startup space. The mentors and advisors I’ve worked with through StartOut have helped me make invaluable connections and also to recognize the innate leadership skills I bring to the table; many of which were acquired in my struggle to get to the table! A lot of people can do well with the right set of circumstances, but most within our community have learned to make do and thrive with less. When we harness that wisdom under one tent, there is really no stopping us.”
Bernadette Smith, a member of the StartOut Programing Board and CEO of Equality Institute, a boutique diversity, equity, and inclusion firm, is finding her queer identity to be a major source of strength and optimism during this time. “Our marginalized identities give us certain advantages, like resilience. We have thick skin. I also think that we are great network builders because we had to be throughout time just to survive. I feel like we’re naturally more empathetic because we know what it’s like to be the other, we know what it’s like to be the outsider, so it’s kind of a natural part of our identity to support our allies with whatever they have to deal with. When COVID hit I said to myself, “I was made for this. I am so ready.” And it’s not just because I’m a lesbian with a whole bunch of camping gear and non-perishable foods stockpiled in the basement. I felt like I was ready for this because of the work I’ve done on myself and also because I’m used to working from home. I really feel like that was a huge part of why I’ve thrived during this time. I’m always on the search for the silver linings of every situation, and now, COVID.”
So, do us LGBTQ folk actually have some sort of unique upper hand when it comes to addressing the multitude of pandemic challenges? We asked the question of many, and we were certainly open to a debate, but with every response in the affirmative, we detected a trend. As we write this, Wall Street is rallying with hope for a vaccine and conversations about the potential risks and benefits are happening all around us. In the mean time, all Americans are being asked to alter their behavior in order to protect themselves and avoid infecting others. I certainly can’t speak for all members of the LGBTQ community, but as a gay man who came out in 1983, that call to action feels somewhat familiar.
About StartOut
StartOut is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering and developing entrepreneurship in the LGBT community. With over 60 annual events and a network of 15,000 strong nationwide, StartOut connects the entrepreneurial ecosystem, educates entrepreneurs on issues surrounding the business lifecycle and inspires the LGBT community by profiling out and successful founders. StartOut currently has chapters in San Francisco, New York, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, with Denver, Seattle, and many more on in development. Join today to grow your network — accelerate your business — empower yourself and the LGBTQ Community. Visit www.startout.org and learn more.
