StartUp’s Network is Paving New Inroads Beyond and Within the LGBTQ Community
By: Pete Holmberg
Even though I’ve been out of the closet since high school, I spent years in the business world before I encountered gay colleagues, and well over a decade before I reported to someone who was a member of the LGBTQ+ community. Moving to New York City in 1992 at the age of 25, my homosexuality was hardly a secret, but any professional issues that needed to be navigated because of it felt intensely private. As if they were my own personal burden that I had to shield from those who loved me. Looking back now with the knowledge of today, I know that there were far more people in my initial field of investor relations than I realized, and many of them had great influence. They say that hindsight is 20/20 and in this year of 2020, through my work with the seasoned mentors and emerging entrepreneurs of StartOut, I’m seeing how different my life and career could have been with just a few very simple connections. And more importantly, I’m seeing first-hand how these new alliances within StartOut — built on a foundation of full transparency and unquestioned acceptance — are clearing away needless roadblocks that queer people in the business world have been encountering since long before I was born. As we celebrate the art of mentorship this month, it was my privilege to sit and talk with three people who have become actively involved in the process through StartOut:
Elizabeth Tran, the CEO and founder of LezEvent, a global platform to connect and empower lesbian, bi-sexual and queer womxn, has been working with a StartOut mentor since November of 2019. “I was introduced by Chris Young, who is on the board. I had gotten to a place where I was just really blocked on the project and Chris was so understanding and incredibly helpful in suggesting the mentorship program. So far it has been an amazing experience and I’m blown away by the generosity of people who are volunteering their time. My mentor is Tony Vicari. He and I have been working closely together on creating the pitch deck which is a formal presentation to pitch to potential investors for funding. The process includes refining the company’s brand and vision, researching the competitive landscape and market size, building out the financial structure and creating a marketing plan. LezEvent is something that I’m really passionate about and was born out of my own experience from what I felt was missing from the queer womxn community. This will be a central resource for queer womxn to have an inclusive place to come together — outside of bars and clubs — and have the opportunity to participate in more diverse events and activities focused on entertainment, empowerment, social enterprise and offer positive visibility for the community. The hope is to create a space to empower Queer womxn to rise together. Tony isn’t a member of the LGBTQ community, but he’s a very fierce ally. Having the opportunity to work with him and benefitting from his experience from working with other startups, his insights, and the resources that he’s been able to offer has been absolutely invaluable. I’m now in the process of setting up potential meetings and working on next steps towards launching a crowdfunding campaign. Tony has supported my vision from day one. It’s impossible for me to imagine being at this point, in this accelerated time frame, without a mentor like Tony.”
Thanks to loved one, Elizabeth’s mentor, Tony Vicari — Senior Liquidy Advisor with Silicon Valley Bank, the number one bank in the innovation economy — has become a committed ally to the LGBTQ community and he’s thrilled to be working with StartOut. “I was very intrigued when I first heard about StartOut because I never knew this opportunity for people existed in this community in terms of getting resources and mentors and ventures together in one place. Since being matched up with Elizabeth Tran of LezEvent, I’ve been able to help her, and because her company is inspired by and developed for queer womxn, the exposure has given me a deeper understanding of the LGBTQ community. I think that if you’re a part of the LGBTQ community, and you’re building out a solution for that community, you have an inside track in how the community works and you can bring a lot of insight and mental toughness to the process. You need to have very thick skin in the business of raising money, but that skin will take less of a beating if you’ve backed up your value proposition with true ingenuity and indisputable facts.”
Aaron Blumenthal is the Director of Global Portfolio at 500 Startups, a venture capital firm dedicated to uplifting people and economies through entrepreneurship. He also works with StartOut as both a mentor and a mentee. “StartOut is an invaluable network for LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs. Contributing to the shared success of our community is an important thing to be a part of, no matter what side of the table you’re on. I know this because I come from an area of the country that has, unfortunately, a troubled history of killing gay people, and dealing with that is obviously quite a lot. Getting ahead as an entrepreneur is hard enough, but tackling that plus the psychic trauma of knowing that this world wasn’t built for you, that you’re different, can create seemingly insurmountable barriers to success. Untangling all of that head junk to get to where I am today was not easy, but I can confidently say that building relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs through organizations like StartOut played a huge role in my success.”
The great thing about imposter syndrome is that we can all take comfort in knowing that it pretty much afflicts everyone, but for many members of the LGBTQ+ community, it can become debilitating. Getting beyond the greatly enhanced fears of being “other” is an accomplishment that arms us with a very unique, and highly valuable, skillset. The entrepreneurs of StartOut are grateful to be tapping into that skillset and mentoring it forward.
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About StartOut:
Founded in 2009, StartOut, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is the largest national organization to support LGBTQ entrepreneurs with 17K members nationwide. Its mission is to increase the number, diversity, and impact of LGBTQ entrepreneurs and amplify their stories to drive the economic empowerment of the community. StartOut helps aspiring LGBTQ entrepreneurs start new companies; supports current entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their existing businesses; and engages successful entrepreneurs as role models and mentors, on its online portal, and through targeted events nationwide. For more information, please visit www.startout.org.
