What this teaches
The viral 2015 essay, written while Hamilton was broke and pitching her fund, calling out venture's failure to fund underrepresented founders. It directly led to her first LP check and the founding of Backstage Capital.
Why it matters
A firsthand document of who venture excludes and how one investor turned that critique into a fund; context every founder outside the standard network should have.
Key lessons
- The warm-intro system systematically excludes founders of color, women, and LGBT founders
- Public conviction can itself be a fundraising instrument
- Underrepresented founders are an arbitrage the market is slow to correct
Backstage Capital
See their stage, check size, and thesis in the VCMatch investor index. View profile →