CREATING GENERATIONAL WEALTH IN BLACK COMMUNITIES

SITUATION

With less than 1% of American venture capital-backed founders being Black, Collab Capital recognized the funding bias that takes place within the industry. Limited access to resources for these businesses meant an increase in the wealth gap. Collab Capital set out to launch a $50 million fund to sustain wealth within the Black community by focusing on early-stage investment in Black founders during the pandemic. As businesses looked to stay afloat given the new normal, Collab desired to share their mission with key media while highlighting why they as former founders themselves had the expertise and experience to support this important group of innovators.

ACTION

Developing a communications plan for the announcement of the fund timed to the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Massacre (May 2021), it was essential to establish the managing partners as thought leaders in the VC and startup space. Given their experience in fundraising, exiting businesses and advising startups, I leveraged their backgrounds for newsjacking opportunities putting them forth as sources for a variety of business media outlets. These continued connections with journalists allowed them to softly share the news of the fund and slowly roll out the announcement. Providing Techcrunch with the exclusive, I shared the news under embargo to local, national and tech journalists in order to have a flurry of stories on announcement day that would align to the anniversary of the destruction of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and how Collab was seeking to create the next generation of Black Wall Streets across America.

RESULTS