Recap: 500 Startups Unity and Inclusion Summit LA

Recap: 500 Startups Unity and Inclusion Summit LA. Over the past weekend, I had the pleasure of hosting the 500 Startups Unity and Inclusion Summit—and united it was. It was great to see so many entrepreneurs of color, all in one location, ready to growth-hack their startups to success. Monique Woodard kicked us off with an interesting fun fact, during her opening remarks. “Black women and Latinas are the fastest growing entrepreneurs,” which doesn’t hurt, with African and Latino Americans having a combined $2.5 trillion in consumer spending power. This gives us more opportunity to keep the dollars in the community. It also lends itself to the reason why Woodard is so focused on African American and Latino American consumer groups for her fund. Woodard’s opening remarks were followed by James Andrews, CEO of Smashd, an early stage accelerator and venture fund lead by the former manager of Lady Gaga, Troy Carter. The film focuses on girls who are making moves in the industry and was another talking point that continued to push the conversation of diversity. My take is, if we continue to have these conversations with not just ourselves, but inclusively—black, white, red, or other—those numbers will begin to shift until hopefully, conferences like this won’t be necessary because inclusion will be the norm.