"This essential read for investors and activists illustrates the many intersections between smart investing and economic and social justice. It is a roadmap for shifting the standard investment model to address issues such as income inequality and the climate crisis." — Al Gore, former Vice President, co-founder and Chairman, Generation Investment Management
"In this inspiring call-to-action, Mitch and Freada highlight a remarkable group of founders who draw on lived experience to develop new businesses that close gaps in access, opportunity, and outcome for low-income communities. Their stories show the power and the urgency of investing in the next generation of leaders and prove that change is possible, even when it feels hard." — Valerie Jarrett, Former Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama
"This message is so necessary for the startup and investing worlds to hear and act on, for much of the same reasons I decided to join this effort. It’s also about empowering entrepreneurs to build businesses run by and for the benefit of those previously left out." — Serena Williams, Managing Partner, Serena Ventures
"Freada Klein and Mitch Kapor are vital leaders shining the light towards changing the world through technology, with the radically true idea that more opportunity and diversity lead to the best outcomes." — Garry Tan, CEO, Y Combinator
"This playbook is not only for the technology and the VC community, but also for leaders in all industries, who want to level the playing field for entrepreneurs of color." — Carla A. Harris, Senior Client Advisor, Morgan Stanley, author of Lead To Win
"Mitch and Freada are Silicon Valley disrupters, but not with some new-fangled technology or business model. Instead, they ask founders, executives, and the industry the hard question: why don't companies look like the world they serve? They have been my partners in building a more inclusive, more human, and higher-performing company." — Jeff Lawson, co-founder and CEO, Twilio
"This inspiring and forward-thinking book makes an ironclad case for the powerful financial and social returns we can achieve by building more robust pathways to opportunity for all people." — Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation
"This is not just the story of how one firm made investments to lift up a new generation of leaders; it is a blueprint for how all of us can invest in people who, in turn, can change the world." — Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
2023-01-06
How to invest for a better world.
Decrying the fact that most venture capitalists “worship in the church of greed,” Klein and Kapor, founders of the impact investment firm Kapor Capital, offer myriad examples of businesses they have supported that are focused on doing good—specifically, on closing “gaps of access, opportunity, or outcome for low-income communities and/or communities of color.” An impact investment firm, the authors explain, aims to get a substantial return on their investments by funding entrepreneurs “whose own life experiences compel them to create companies and build wealth that will solve the difficult problems that they personally had to overcome.” Not surprisingly, those people come from underrepresented groups, including immigrants and children of immigrants, racial minorities, women, and individuals who identify as queer. At Kapor Capital, write the authors, “every person involved in making the fund’s investment decisions is a person of color.” They profile an impressive assortment of ventures responding to social, political, economic, and environmental problems, including Bitwise and Career Karma, companies helping people from underrepresented communities train for and secure jobs in the tech industry, notoriously dominated by White males from Stanford and Harvard; BlocPower, which uses a highly sophisticated software system to identify energy efficiency or inefficiency in low-income neighborhoods; Aclima, which aims “to close equity gaps in race, the environment, economics, education, and health by quantifying disparity as it relates to the quality of air people breathe; and Honor, which uses technology to make home health care more accessible and equitable. “What’s wrong with the larger ecosystem of mainstream tech and venture capital,” the authors assert, is that “its mission is to solve problems for the rich, and its players believe they’re smarter than the experts.” Although the authors address venture capitalists, they urge employees, consumers, and shareholders to join their efforts to make a positive impact.
Inspiring examples of responsible capitalism.