Howdy y’all, here’s hoping all of you and yours are safe and healthy! I don’t know about all of you, but I could use a vacation. So I’m taking one. I’m packing everyone into the family truckster and heading to the mountains for a few days. I am 100% serious when I say that simply sitting on a deck and sipping coffee in the crisp mountain air - just that idea alone - is one of the most tantalizing things I can imagine. Anyway, I’m about to hit the road so I wanted to share a couple of tidbits with all of you that remind us why what we are all doing is so important.

In particular, I wanted to share that our friends at the Kauffman Foundation are leaning into their America’s New Business Plan initiative to help rebuild the economy during and after the COVID crisis. Philip Gaskin and his team there aim to unlock and balance the scales of capital access for the underserved, reduce red tape that inhibits business formation, deliver meaningful help to entrepreneurs lacking access to mentors and technical/business assistance, and reduce the barriers to entrepreneurs creating their own safety nets (medical and insurance costs, student loan debt, etc.). This is a comprehensive plan attacking what I have come to believe is one of the most fundamental challenges we face in America today: the clear disadvantage people of color face in starting and growing a business.

If you’re on board with their plan, I encourage you to join their effort and to help amplify their message. Here is a link to some copy you can use if you’d like to share on social channels: https://www.startusupnow.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2020/05/Rebuild-Better-Social-Media-Toolkit.docx

This also reminds me that our friend Victor Hwang, formerly of the Kauffman Foundation and now founder and CEO at Right to Start is working on this challenge as well, and I invite you to explore how you might help him in his efforts. Victor has been a champion for ecosystem building and for entrepreneurship for years, and his efforts have yielded some incredibly important work (including America’s New Business Plan). 

The effort that Kauffman and Right to Start lead is an important part of what we are all striving for: a better capital ecosystem for founders no matter where they were born, what they look like, or what they believe. Truth be told, I sometimes forget that the work I do every day is in service to this very mission, that there’s a larger purpose behind the day-to-day, the grind, and the push. I get lost in the work, in the effort. I’m grateful to be reminded of just how important our work is by all of you on a regular basis, and honored to be a small part of this growing industry and asset class. Press on, friends, and keep building toward a more equitable and efficient future!