![]() ![]() ![]() You can change the way you think about something and then you have leverage. So I need to ask 100 times, 100 people, for the thing that I want in any given situation.” I said, ‘I'm going to get 99 nos for the hundred asks to get the one. I repurposed rejection into something that would work for me. Do you stay down or do you get up? Plain and simple." “I've definitely cried on the floor of an airport. And because I didn't have that history in that world, I wasn't afraid to say it." But it wasn't something that was safe to talk about. ![]() You shouldn't talk about that.' People knew it was happening. "When I would reach out to investors in Silicon Valley in 2014 and talk about race or orientation or gender, I would get responses like, 'We don't talk about that. It never was something that I felt I could physically do because I was too curious.” Having just one job for all of my adulthood never crossed my mind. “I’ve always been insatiably curious about human nature and that has influenced everything I've done. When you have a message that so many people can relate to, believe in and use to inspire themselves, you really do have a force behind you.” “I know for sure that what I’m talking about is resonating with so many people who have felt unseen for so long. “ The market has an appetite because people are seeing themselves in this journey ,” she says. Hamilton has since invested in 100 companies led by minority entrepreneurs and last year announced that Backstage’s latest fund, appropriately named “It’s About Damn Time,” will invest $36 million in black female founders. Spending most nights on the San Francisco airport floor while receiving countless rejections from potential funders, Hamilton remained undeterred, her hustle and grit crucial to securing the hard-won investments she eventually attracted.“I think there's a lot of power in understanding why you're doing something,” says Hamilton who kept a whiteboard in Backstage’s early days marked with the words 'keep going' as a constant reminder of the power of both her purpose and perseverance. Entirely self-taught and lacking investment experience, connections or paycheck to support herself, Hamilton moved to Silicon Valley with a one-way ticket and a mission to solve for the injustice she saw in venture capital funding. Having upended the stereotypical venture capital mold, Hamilton understands firsthand the challenges that go hand-in-hand with being an industry outsider. ![]()
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