equal ventures

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Richard Kerby (@kerby), Co-Founder and General Partner at Equal Ventures, a seed stage focused fund backing the founders and businesses transforming society and industry. Prior to Equal Ventures, Richard was an investor at Venrock, where he led seed stage and Series A stage investments in 6Sense, Amino Apps, Beckon, Burner, Luxe Valet, and Salsify. 

Prior to joining Venrock, Richard was an investor at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), where he focused on identifying and evaluating later-stage investments. While at IVP, Richard worked with IVP portfolio companies such as Dropbox, FleetMatics, PopSugar, Shazam, and Yext. Previously, Richard worked in the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse. 

Richard is a proud Georgetown alum and is a rabid Hoyas basketball fan. He is also the founder of Stealth Mode, a community of more than 1,500 African American founders, operators and investors.

Website: Equal Ventures

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richardkerby/

Twitter: @kerby

Email: kerby@equal.vc

Show Notes:

• Equal Ventures' investment thesis and the strategy behind being generalists
• Deciding to start a fund instead of joining an existing one
• Richard’s key learnings as an emerging manager
• What being hands-on with their founders means at Equal Ventures
• Their all “hands on deck” approach to building the Equal Ventures team
• Running the Emerging Managers Circle and deciding to host summits
• Trends Richard is excited about
• Richard’s view on remote vs. in-person
• How Equal Ventures evaluates founders
• Richard’s advice for emerging managers

More about the show:

The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 400+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.

Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. 

The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. 

The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. 

More about us:

Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The Vitalize Team:

Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVC
Caroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_
Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212

Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:
https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

The data tell the story: Less than 1% of venture capital in the United States is invested in companies led by Black entrepreneurs. Add "female" as a data filter and it drops to 0.2%. Amid reckoning with legacies of racial injustice, we wanted to examine how a lack of representation in the startup ecosystem hinders access to capital for diverse founders. Brown Advisory’s Keith Stone sits down with three thought leaders in the venture industry—Charles Hudson, Richard Kerby and Monique Woodard—to explore paths to a growth economy where an expanded set of innovators and ideas can thrive.

Guests:

• Charles Hudson, Founder & Managing Partner, Precursor Ventures     
• Monique Woodard, Founder, Cake Ventures
• Richard Kerby, Co-founder & General Partner, Equal Ventures 

Host:
Keith Stone, CAIA
Private Equity Analyst, Brown Advisory

Background Reading: 

• A VC’s Guide to Investing in Black Founders, Harvard Business Review, June 19, 2020
• Precursor Ventures’ Charles Hudson on ‘the conversation no one has during an upmarket’, TechCrunch (subscription), April 24, 2020
• The Black Founder List, February 28, 2020
• Cities Using Capital to Build More Inclusive Ecosystems, November 6, 2019
• Where Black Female Founders Can Find Funding, Resources, and More, September 22, 2019
• Where Did You Go to School?, July 30, 2018

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speaker(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of Brown Advisory. These views are not intended to be and should not be relied upon as investment advice and are not intended to be a forecast of future events or a guarantee of future results. The information provided in this podcast is not intended to be and should not be considered a recommendation or suggestion to engage in or refrain from a particular course of action or to make or hold a particular investment or pursue a particular investment strategy, including whether or not to buy, sell, or hold any of the securities mentioned. It should not be assumed that investments in such securities have been or will be profitable. There is a risk that some or all of the capital invested in any such securities may be lost. This piece is intended solely for our clients and prospective clients, is for informational purposes only, and is not individually tailored for or directed to any particular client or prospective client.