Marceau Michel, a goal-oriented African-American entrepreneur, is raising funds not only for his own company but also for other Black-owned start-up companies. Through his company that promotes the hashtag #BlackFoundersMatter, he aims to raise $10 million of funds to help minority entrepreneurs with their business.
Starting out a business as a minority in the United States has seemed to be challenging than if you're a White. Marceau knows that and he himself experienced it when he founded his own idea of a start-up called Werkhorse.
Even though he was as determined as he could be and his startup idea won numerous awards, he found it hard to secure venture funding. He realized that it was because of racial inequalities.
"In spite of having an award-winning startup, I found investors unwilling to invest in my company and other companies led by people that look like me. Less than 5% of venture funding in 2016 went to women and minority-led startups. Which makes it nearly impossible to succeed in tech," Marceau told Black Enterprise.
Instead of complaining, he used it as motivation to start his own fundraiser. He initially set the goal to $500,000 to start his small t-shirt line. Upon seeing the positive results, he set the goal much higher to $10 million.
"I'd like to raise a $10M fund, even though it's scary to say out loud. By raising awareness, using our supporters as walking billboards and reaching our community, I believe we can raise more than enough funds to shake up venture funding as it pertains to people of color and make them pay attention to our resourcefulness and resilience," he said.
Aside from it, he is also working on other projects to help fellow minorities become successful. He is involved in the campaigns Fund Female Founders and Fund a Founder and is planning summits to teach Black entrepreneurs how they can succeed in the tech startup industry.
For more details about Black Founders Matter, visit www.blackfoundersmatter.org