Name: How to continue investing in women of color
Uploaded: 2021-10-12
Duration: 4 min 26 s
Description: Valerie Montgomery and David Solomon discuss.

Valerie Montgomery and David Solomon discuss.

How to continue investing in women of color

I was in the morning session that was all about investing in black women as well. And it was interesting to hear about how, you know, yes, the numbers, the percentage of capital that goes to black women entrepreneurs is .3% or something like that. It's abysmal. But that that is not necessarily the answer to everything. So be interested in hearing from both of you and how do you take a more holistic look at what actually where money needs to go? And the type of business is, it needs to be sure. And this this issue around venture capital allocation is a big issue by the way. It's not just people of color, it's also women. Uh you know, just generally and that was something a number of years ago, you know, we got on, we created something called launch with GS. Um and we've committed over $500 million capital-backed businesses or whether it's women or people of color that or an asset managers, venture asset management platforms, etc. And that's been a successful program. But what we're looking at here, if you step back and you think about the life cycle of all of us, you think about, you think about birth, you think about childhood, you think about, you know, elementary education, you think about basic health needs, you think about secondary education, you think about professional career, you think about savings, retirement, financial needs, there's a life cycle of needs and there are all sorts of businesses that are out there and trying to find ways to bring people along. And if you can get capital into that ecosystem and make investments that can support and elevate those different stages. That's a much broader, much broader goal or mission than simply trying to start a new business, getting more funding, that's very important thing. But we're trying to take a much more holistic view. Our research shows that the average net worth of the black woman in this country is materially lower than that of a black man and obviously materially lower than white men and women. How can we make investments over the coming decades that will actually change that. So we have a different economic outcome that's sustainable for an extended period of time. And so we're trying to think about ways to really get capital into places that can make that difference by investing over a much longer period. I'm going to close with a quick question to the two of you. You know, this is I think it's it's all in the spirit of optimism of what can we do right. Um At the same time being realistic, there are some worrying, worrying uh indicators coming up and I know Goldman just, you just downgraded the U. S. Economy again, we're, you know, I think people are concerned about phasing out of covid relief and other things on the horizon, supply chain issues, all sorts of things, what should we be concerned about and you know, what's the call to action in the in the coming six months to year uh as it pertains to still having a focus on women of color and investing in women of color. What do you look at? You know, I think that we do have to look at when we're thinking about the return to employment, we are seeing black women continue to lag behind compared to other groups. We do have to understand the health consequences of what has happened with covid. Women were all black. Women already were disproportionate impacted by hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. And we also send delays of people having prevention and wellness checks like mammograms, et cetera. I'm not even gonna ask you to raise your hand if you desert your mammogram, you know, for for this year, because I know that many of us are behind And so we have to worry about whether we're gonna see the ravages of COVID-19 lead to a widening of the gap. And how do we invest uh not just financially but in human interaction and our innovation and our technology to narrow that gap. And many of you all have companies that have tools that can assist women with engaging around their health in a much more rapid way so that we don't see this widening of the gap. Health disparities, heart disease diabetes and hypertension. That's what worries me the most. Okay, Can you give me a 5 2nd answer? I like what dr I said the world is going to spin around. It's a complex moment. But if you stay committed to investing in the future to bring people along and improve, you know, tangible investments, you know, we will make progress. Thank you. Thank you to both so much for being here with us.