Equity League formed
The Bucks, Brewers and Packers are joining forces to help Black and Latinx startups.
ASHWAUBENON – The Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers are pitching in together to tackle a long-term problem: helping Black- and Latinx-owned startups score investment money and other resources.
In collaboration with Microsoft, the state’s three major-league franchises created the Equity League, a networking initiative to increase investment in businesses started by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.
The Packers said 1% of venture capital-backed startups have Black founders and less than 2% are Latinx. Only 3% of employees at venture capital investment funds are Black or Latinx professionals.
In short, when money and resources get handed out for potentially great new ideas, Black and Latinx entrepreneurs are at the back of the line, if they even know about the line in the first place. Equity League is designed to change that experience.
“Our goal is to invest in companies and founders that have strong potential to produce both significant financial returns and large-scale social impact,” said Israel Squires, Equity League director.
Packers President and CEO Mark
Murphy said the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha in August was an inflection point for all three teams. Blake was shot seven times by a Kenosha police officer, which sparked demonstrations and riots for days. Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down.
In response to the shooting, Milwaukee Bucks players sat out a playoff game, causing the NBA to cancel all games for that day. The Brewers did the same for a regular season game, and the Packers took off a day of training camp.
“Meeting with the players, it was clear something had to be done,” Murphy said. “We’ve talked a lot, brought attention to the issues, but really thought, is there something we can do to make a difference?”
Murphy approached the Bucks and
“Our goal is to invest in companies and founders that have strong potential to produce both significant financial returns and large-scale social impact.”
Israel Squires Equity League director
Brewers with the Equity League proposal, which he said was the idea of Craig Dickman, TitletownTech managing director.
“In some ways, it was a pretty easy sell,” he said.
Each of the founding partners of Equity League committed an undisclosed amount of money to get the initiative launched. The founding principle is that genius is equally distributed, regardless of race, gender or ZIP code, but opportunity is not.
The initiative is not confined to Black or Latinx founders, although that is Equity League’s emphasis.
“That’s really the true core of the inequities we hope to solve, but we’re focused on impact,” Squires said. “So LGBTQ, Asian, all the different minority groups that exist, we are focused on all of them, but we believe it is important to put specific emphasis on Black and Latinx because that’s where the numbers are just glaring. They’re really bad.”
Title townTech, founded by the Packers, Microsoft and other investors, offered a platform for helping those underserved entrepreneurs. The organization offers venture capital and other services, including Microsoft expertise, to some 20 startups.
Murphy said one side of the network formula is for Equity League to find money and resources for Black and Latinx startups. The other is to connect them with organizations removing barriers and creating opportunities for those companies.
Peter Feigen, president of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Rick Schlesinger, president of business operations for the Milwaukee Brewers, emphasized Equity League is not a charitable initiative.
“They can employee people, they can raise money, they can generate jobs, they can generate products or services that people in this state can use. They can be examples for future entrepreneurs,” Schlesinger said.
“It gives us this platform to really evoke change, create great awareness about the fact there has to be equality in distribution of wealth and capital as people try to start businesses in the Black and Latinx communities,” Feigin said.
Professional athletes have shown interest in investing in the target companies, Murphy said.
“We’ve had discussions with a number of our players, as well as the players coalition, which is a coalition of players from all the professional sports leagues, and it’s really impressive how many of them have a real interest in this type of investing,” he said. “Not only because they say it’s a good investment, but also for the impact it can make.”
As might be imagined with Microsoft involved, Equity League looks to build a portfolio of impact-driven technology companies.
“As an organization, we are committed to driving positive social change and using technology to open more doors of access and opportunity,” said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft and a native of Appleton.
TitletownTech is in the Green Bay Packers’ Titletown District, immediately west of Lambeau Field.
Contact Richard Ryman at (920) 431-8342 or rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ RichardRymanPG/