Charlie O'Donnell
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Xennial. VC @ Brooklynbridge.vc. Mets fan, triathlete, cyclist. Friend of the Pod. We care about everyone and they don't. These are my initials, btw.
Unfortunately, one of the panelists, Skinny Girl vodka's Bethenny Frankel, told an African American founder in the audience that if she wanted to raise funding, that she should go out and hire a white guy to be the face of her business. Yet, I can think of at least four occasions in my career where I took a meeting and a female founder clearly brought a token white guy to the meeting, seemingly in order to increase her chances of getting funding. They all tried to form a connection with me as if we were in some secret white guy financing club--with two of the guys repeating phrases like, "We know how it is" or "We know what you're looking for," meaning him and me. As someone who has backed teams with at least one female founder about 40% of the time, or a founder of some kind of diverse background at least 50% of the time, I believe that these founders can get funding--but they're not encouraged and advised properly.