Margot Lee Shetterly; a writer who has worked in investment banking and media startups and is widely known for her first book, Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race; covers the underrepresentation of women and founders of color in the business world—and the rise of trailblazing women of color making an impact in the business world, “breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings along the way.” Each woman represented in the photo for Vanity Fair by Mark Seliger has raised at least $1 million in outside capital.
Read on to learn more about these amazing leaders, and continue to join us in supporting women of color leading the way in business and beyond!
As I was growing up, these were the women I wanted to be: triumphant at the highest levels of commerce, assailing stereotypes of what a successful businessperson looked like, with smarts and vision and the will to outwork everyone in sight. Being a “one or only” in the room where it happens, I knew, was part of the bargain, the number of black or female fellow travelers diminishing with each level scaled, like oxygen at the planet’s highest peaks. As a black woman who spent years working in finance and technology, I’m both giddy to know that it’s possible to fill a room with black female entrepreneurs who have raised $1 million or more in outside capital, and acutely aware of the reasons that it’s still only one room.
All successful entrepreneurs imagine a problem, a product, and a market. But because the default founder in Silicon Valley is male, and white or Asian, a black woman must also “envision herself being the person creating the product or service that is in the world,” says Jessica O. Matthews, founder and C.E.O. of the renewable-energy start-up Uncharted Power —and then get funders to buy into that vision. The tech industry is an exercise in controlled failure, with as many as 81 percent of all funded start-ups washing out before exiting; “fail fast” is part of the religion. But black women must guard against even the hint of failure with every arrow in the quiver, lest naysayers see a shortcoming as evidence that blacks or women are categorically unsuited for the business.
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