WHO
WE
ARE
the "B" stands for Black and Brown
Our mission is to provide Black/Brown woman-identifying founders with access to community, capital, and capacity building in order to meet business milestones that lead to economic advancement through entrepreneurship.
We fund and scale tech-enabled, revenue-generating businesses (under $1M) founded by people who identify as Black/Brown and woman. We ignite civic engagement and hyperlocal infrastructure at the intersection of business support services, supplier diversity, social and financial capital.
Founded in 2016 by Serial Entrepreneur and Computer Scientist Shelly Bell, The Black Girl Ventures Foundation (BGV) addresses the unique challenges Black/Brown women face in accessing social and financial capital to grow their businesses. The BGV Style pitch competition is the largest pitch competition globally for Black/Brown women founders. It uniquely combines the premise of Shark Tank and Kickstarter by activating community participation in donating to support women-owned businesses directly. We have funded 130 women of color, held over 30 BGV Pitch Programs across 12 cities and served over 200 participants. BGV pitch participants are collectively generating over $10M in revenue and supporting 3,000 jobs. BGV is now the largest ecosystem builder for Black/Brown women founders on the East Coast.
Black Girl Ventures pledges to accelerate 100,000 Black and Brown women-identifying entrepreneurs by shifting the idea of community building from being viewed solely as a community service to a valid and viable business offering to ensure the development and growth of small businesses.
We believe in a world where ALL ideas have a chance to succeed.