DANIELLE SHOOTS

New Community Transformation Fund

Post-George Floyd, $60 billion of capital was committed to Black founders. Within 18 months, only 3 percent of that had been deployed. I actually asked a lot of other people to start a venture fund focused on Black founders. Black Star Fund managing partner Kwame Anku, who invests exclusively with Black founders, said to me, “You need to start that fund here in Denver. Somebody’s going to have to. You have the network and social capital to do it.”

I thought, I’m not doing that—but then I couldn’t let it go undone.

Starting my own fund has been the hardest thing I’ve done in my career. I never want to understate that—especially in a system where I’m in the 0 percent. It’s a painful statistic to be a part of and a very, very lonely place. But the Colorado ecosystem has completely wrapped its arms around me. Brad Feld, who wrote Venture Deals, is here in Colorado and knew me from work I did during Covid for small businesses of color. He’s an investor. Bank of America led my founding close, which is game-changing. The state of Colorado invested in the fund. We’re about to do our second close at the end of March, which will be in the $30 million range, and the city and county of Denver are coming into the fund on that next close.

It’s important for states and local governments to get involved and for taxpayer money to be a part of this. We need more institutions to get out of their own way and make these types of investments for the broader good. That’s a mindset I was able to grab in Colorado and that I hope starts to light a fire. I’m here to help other cities and states do this. We want to give you the playbook. To me, that’s what success looks like for the fund. Our goals are bigger than returns.

Danielle Shoots is founding partner and managing director of Denver’s New Community Transformation Fund, which invests in early- and midstage companies led by founders of color. NCTF closed its first fund at $10.6 million in October 2022.