March signals the start of Women’s History Month. It also signals the launch of our Project Diane immersive experience.
Project Diane is digitalundivided’s ongoing proprietary data-driven research on the state of Latina and Black women founders in the startup space. The inaugural release of Project Diane in 2016 sparked a national dialogue about inclusive innovation. For the past six years, Project Diane has continued to help shift the startup ecosystem to focus on increasing investment in Latina and Black women-founded startups and build pathways for all founders to have equal access to funding.
As part of Project Diane’s 2022 report, digitalundivided’s research team collected crucial insights into the launching and funding experiences of over 750 Latina and Black women startup founders who received outside funding.
Below, you’ll find four of these stories from Project Diane founders. These entrepreneurs will not only explain how they raised between $1.6–18.7 million in investment capital. They’ll also explain how they challenged investors, systems — and themselves — to defy the 1% odds of becoming a Latina or Black women-owned, venture-backed startup.
Farah Allen, The Labz
Farah Allen founded The Labz — a web-based platform that allows customers to build interactive experiences for the web and mobile. Farah came into digitalundivided through BIG and became one of our coveted C-Suite founders in 2022, appearing in the December issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine.
“One of the biggest challenges I faced fundraising was being told “no”… over and over again. It’s not something you like hearing.”
Want to know how Farah navigated her self-doubt and the social constructs in the fundraising space to go on and raise $2.7 million for The Labz? Check out more in our Project Diane immersive experience!
Tanya Menendez, Snowball Wealth
Tanya Menendez co-founded Snowball Wealth, a mobile-first community platform with tools for individuals to pay debt and build generational wealth, especially among first-generation college grads. This year the Latina-led startup announced $1.6 million in funding through venture capital, angel investments, and other sources.
“There’s a very high bar in general, but that’s especially so if you’re an all-female, all-women-of-color team.”
Menendez shared her insights on successfully pitching as a woman of color and why she values her identity in building her company in our Project Diane immersive report!
Elise Smith, CEO of Praxis Labs
Elise Smith is co-founder and CEO of Praxis Labs, a DEI learning platform designed to redefine work cultures through research-backed virtual reality experiences. . Her Standford-based startup grew, raising more than $18.7 million in venture capital by 2022.
“We seek funding from people who are aligned with our vision for a more equitable society and see the power of leveraging learning, and in particular immersive knowledge and insights and practice, to get there.”
Smith shared insights on her all-women-of-color founder team, their approach to raising venture capital, experience with corporate equity pledge programs, and how she defines success. Check out more of Smith’s great insights in our Project Diane immersive report.
Sandra Velasquez, Nopalera
Sandra Velasquez is the founder and CEO of Nopalera, a culture-forward, Mexican premium bath and body brand made from Mexican botanicals. Nopalera is named for its central ingredient, nopal, a superfood known as the prickly pear cactus, a Mexican cultural culinary and landscape staple. It also reflects Velasquez’s commitment to lifting the cultural valuation of Mexican products and expanding the concepts of luxury and aspiration beyond Europe.
“Funders must stop assuming that BIPOC founders are building brands for small little niche communities. We’re not niche. Latinos are the largest minority group in this country. We are the future majority.”
Velasquez has raised $2.7 Million in seed funding and shared her thoughts on positioning Latino brands as aspirational, pitching investors, and raising capital.
Want to explore the 2022 Project Diane Report? Check out our Project Diane immersive experience NOW!