August - 20209GOVERNMENT CIO OUTLOOKgenerational wealth resonates well in communities of color," said Kwame Ulmer, Venture Partner at Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health.With these changing demographics of founders, the Angel community is changing as well. I am part of Tech Coast Angels, which is one of the largest Angel Groups in the country. TCA has been investing for almost 2 decades and has had several portfolio companies exit through mergers and initial public offerings. TCA is launching some initiatives to add more female and diverse angel investor members. TCA is also hosting panels appealing to more diverse founders. We recently held a panel called "How and Why Diverse Founders are Funded" in Santa Monica. This panel had lively discussion on how diverse founders can increase the odds that they can raise angel and venture capital. The audience and panel were very diverse which spurred some lively debate and productive networking. There is also a trend towards more specialized angel groups like Harvard Angels, Stanford Angels, and Harvey Mudd College (Harvey's) Angels. These Angel groups primarily invest in companies with alumni in leadership positions from these great institutions. As Harvard, Stanford, and Harvey Mudd increase their student diversity, these angel groups will invest in increasingly diverse founders.By increasing the engagement between angels and diverse founders, it may increase the amount of capital invested in companies led by diverse founders. The typical angel investor is in his or her fifties or sixties and has experience leading a successful technology business. The average tech startup founder may be in their 20's or 30's and increasingly from non-traditional demographic groups (whether ethnicity, gender, education). A lot of angel investing is based on pattern recognition, so many investors tend to bias their investments toward what they see in the media or their previous experiences. Without fostering more activities to increase interactions between these groups it is difficult, if not impossible, to promote the introductions and, ultimately, trust building required to get to a completed angel investment. When founders obtain angel investment, it gives their idea a shot to gain traction and provides some credibility for their subsequent rounds of institutional capital
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