Arlan Hamilton

ARLAN HAMILTON is the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders, and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz. In 2018, Hamilton co-founded Backstage Studio, along with Backstage Partner Christie Pitts, which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia and London. She was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine in October 2018 as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so. Her new book It’s About Damn Time was released in May by Penguin Random House’s business imprint Currency. She authored the groundbreaking blog Your Daily Lesbian Moment, which she grew to a monthly readership of 50,000 fans worldwide, and founded and published the internationally distributed indie magazine Interlude. She is also a live music production professional, having served as a tour coordinator to numerous international artists including [will.i.am], Toni Braxton, and Jason Derulo. Hamilton was recently named on Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40 list, as well as Vanity Fair’s The 2018 New Establishment List. @arlanwashere