Don’t we all need one? I’m excited to publicly discuss mine. I recently joined Grid110 as an Entrepreneur in Residence to help their portfolio founders navigate building companies. For those not familiar, Grid110’s mission is to make entrepreneurship more equitable, inclusive, and accessible. Frankly, I couldn’t think of a better use of my free time. As someone who has been building in LA for the last 10+ years, I’ve been very familiar with their work. Providing non-dilutive capital and resources to founders who are trying to create sustainable and profitable organizations, is a project I want to contribute to and see succeed.
Starting and running a company, no matter how small, what industry or product, is lonely and difficult. The Grid110 team knows “it takes a village”. As a company grows and becomes more successful, it only gets harder. Biggie said it best. All founders need support, advice, guidance, and sometimes just to know someone else was in their shoes and made it to the other side.
I believe that regardless of your idea, work ethic, or intelligence, not everyone gets a fair shot. I wish there was some profound event that I could point to that made me feel so passionate about the topic. However the reality is, I’ve always felt this way. I am an immigrant’s son whose father’s family fled religious wars in a Catholic neighbor of Northern Ireland in the early 60’s. Seeing my father work up from cleaning toilets at JFK to managing worldwide cargo, you might think I’d be an ardent supporter of “you just have to work harder to make your own opportunities”. I don’t believe this to be true.
I disagree with the notion that raw intelligence and hard work always produces successful outcomes. Despite anyone’s best efforts, lack of networks, power, biases and prejudices play an integral role in an individual’s success. As a white male, I’ve had the privilege of others taking a chance on me, where a black woman wouldn’t have received that same shake. That needs to change. And I’m working to change it.
This is just the beginning and there’s a ton of work to level the playing field. I’m excited to write more about this journey. I’d love to hear other ideas on how to make entrepreneurship more equitable. Please reach out on Twitter: @KJMagee
