Make a Change: Commit your time
Like so many others, I am outraged at the senseless violence, police brutality and unequal treatment endured by people of color in America.
We cannot stand by in the face of clear injustice. Black Lives Matter.
These are not truths that we are just realizing today. I call upon my fellow venture investors to join me in pledging to do even more.
Please give until it hurts, and then give more. If you’ve already made donations, make them again. Match yourself. There are numerous great organizations. My favorites are the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Bail Project, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Center for Policing Equity and Code2040.
Money is not enough. We also need to pledge our time to make the technology industry more inclusive and help underrepresented groups gain access.
Commit to making 1 to 4 hours per week open for office hours to talk to anyone about technology, whether they’re an African American college student in Virginia or a person of color interested in IT.
The “warm intro” is famously the best way to meet a VC who might invest in your business or give you helpful advice. We have not done enough to connect ourselves with people who aren’t embedded in Silicon Valley. We need to hear the ideas they bring and fund the problems they are working to solve.
Regardless of how we got here, or how hard we say we are working to improve, we need to deliver results.
As a group, we’ve committed over $2.1m, and more than 145 hours per week for the next 12 months. (Updated 6/14/20)
Investors commit to join us.
Committed Investors
Jonathan Heiliger, Vertex Ventures US
Insik Rhee, Vertex Ventures US
Mamoon Hamid, Kleiner Perkins
Ted Maidenberg, Tribe Capital
Ilya Fushman, Kleiner Perkins
Patrick Chung, Xfund
Aaref Hilaly, Wing
Ariel Tseitlin, Scale Venture Partners
Dayna Grayson, Construct Capital
Ethan Kurzweil, Bessemer
Evan Moore, Khosla Ventures
Eric Vishria, Benchmark
Leo Polovets, Susa Ventures
Ann Miura-Ko, Floodgate
Peter Wagner, Wing
Ali Rosenthal, Leadout Capital
Ross Fubini, XYZ VC
Jade Lai, a16z
Bogomil Balkansky, Sequoia Capital
Andy McLoughlin, Uncork Capital
Mohammad Islam, Threshold
Deep Nishar, Softbank Vision Fund
Domenic Perri, Vertex Venture US
Gabriel Kra, Prelude Ventures
Karen Page, B Capital Group
Scott Raney, Redpoint
James Cham, Bloomberg Beta
Rohini Chakravarthy, NGP Capital
Jules Maltz, IVP
Timothy Chen, Essence VC
Bucky Moore, Kleiner Perkins
Chase Roberts, Vertex Ventures US
Cack Wilhelm, IVP
Ted Wang, Cowboy
Sarah Cone, Social Impact Capital
Aaron Jacobson, NEA
Anya Schiess, Healthy Ventures
Lucas Swisher, Coatue
Amy Sun, Sequoia Capital
Ash Fontana, Zetta
Karan Mehandru, Trinity Ventures
Robin Vasan, Mango Capital
Monica Desai Weiss, Kleiner Perkins
Adam Nelson, FirstMark
Annie Case, Kleiner Perkins
John Komkov, Fathom
Kyle Lui, DCM Ventures
Patricia Wexler, Starlight Ventures
Vanessa Larco, NEA
Stephen Wemple, Spero Ventures
Cack Wilhelm, IVP
Nico Berardi, ANIMO Ventures
Antonio Osio, ANIMO Ventures
Astasia Myers, Redpoint Ventures
Jake Storm, IVP
Brian Frank, FTW Ventures
Kristina Simmons, Khosla Ventures
Darwin Ling, Good AI Capital
Jeffrey Rothschild, Angel Investor
Sam Shapiro, DFJ Growth
Jocelyn Goldfein, Zetta Venture Partners
Kevin Tu, DFJ Growth
Sangeen Zeb, Founders Circle Capital
Kleida Martiro, Glasswing Ventures
Andre Rocha, Glasswing Ventures
Meredith McPherron, Glasswing Ventures
Muzzammil (MZ) Zaveri, Gradient Ventures
Richard Bhamb, Temasek
Austin Arensberg, Okta Ventures
Pascal Unger, Darling Ventures
Chip Hazard, Flybridge & XFactor Ventures
Jesse Middleton, Flybridge Capital
Madeline Kolbe Saltzman, True Ventures
Haomiao Huang, Kleiner Perkins
Stephanie Choo, Portage Ventures
Miraj Sanghvi, DigiTx Partners
Ross Darwin, Owl Ventures
Rachel West, RevTech Ventures
Geri Kirilova, Laconia
