Description: Black entrepreneurs bring incredible resiliency and innovation into the global marketplace despite having raised only 1.3% of US venture investment in 2021. Black, Indigenous, People of color (BIPOC) founders are at a clear disadvantage when trying to access venture capital and other resources to help grow and scale their businesses. There is rapid growth in black entrepreneurship, particularly with the number of companies started by black women. Are the resources to help them build and scale growing along with them? Funding certainly has not proven to match the growth trajectory. What is the better way? We'll discuss the broken system, the ways that black founders and other founders of color are innovating to grow and scale and we will lay out a roadmap for sustained support throughout the lifecycle of the black founder.

Panelists: Zaneta Kelsey (CEO, Access Mode + moderator), Melissa Pegus(Managing Director, Techstars), Kevin Allen(Co-Founder, Access Mode, Founder, and VC), Dujon Smith(Venture Manager, Accenture), Nehemiah Green (Amazon Web Services)