Below is a copy of the email we shared with our portfolio companies on 6/1/2020 in response to the tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd.
Dear Founders,
We hope this email finds you as well as possible in light of the past few months’ events. In the midst of COVID-19’s global devastation, the tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have once again brought the issues of systemic racism and police brutality to the forefront of our thoughts as human beings, citizens, and investors.
While the uncertainty, unrest, and injustice unsettle us all, we recognize that Black communities are disproportionately impacted by these traumatic events. These problems have plagued the US for centuries, and now is as important a time as ever for us to emphasize that Black Lives Matter.
In response to the current circumstances, many of you have already taken steps to support your employees and communities, and we encourage you to share any recommended resources and initiatives with us and with each other. For those of you who are strategizing on how to address the current situation within your companies, we encourage you to lead with humanity, empathy, and humility. Many of your employees, especially your Black teammates, may be reeling from the trauma of recent events, and it’s critical to ensure that their managers effectively hear and support them. You can hear some perspectives on the importance of such conversations from Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, Erica Joy Baker, and Marilyn Addy.
In addition to actively supporting one another, it’s important to communicate with your teams about the initiatives that your company is taking to build a more equitable future. While there is no magic cure to instantly fix institutional challenges, we all have the power to effect change within our industries and spheres of influence. As many tech industry leaders make public statements, we encourage you to do so while ensuring that your internal policies are consistent with public messages of progress.
For anyone searching for causes to support and share, we recommend starting with organizations such as the Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP, CBC, ACLU, and dozens of active grassroots organizations. The Laconia team collectively has donated to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and will happily match any of your donations (please reply to this email with any receipts). We also encourage you to learn from and amplify Black historians, writers, and activists, many of whom have been doing this work for years.
We’d be remiss if we ignored the responsibility that we at Laconia have in making the venture capital ecosystem more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. While venture capital holds the promise of democratizing access to innovation capital, the industry’s dismal record of allocating capital to Black founders and other underrepresented groups reflects a remarkable failure in fulfilling that role to date. Over the past few years, Laconia has been committed to supporting entrepreneurs of all backgrounds by reducing the reliance on exclusive networks for access to capital and mentorship, leveling the playing field through transparency into our investment process, building a diverse pipeline of future investors and entrepreneurs through our paid internship program, amplifying underrepresented voices, and publicly committing to diversity and inclusion. We know all of us at Laconia have a long way to go and will share more about our continued efforts to increase representation of Black people within our team and portfolio.
Please reach out if we can be helpful with any of the above -- as always, we are here for you.
Best,
Jeffrey, David, Geri, David, Padma, and Garry