My interest in venture capital (VC) began long before I ever imagined building an actual venture capital fund. In college, I opened a women’s clothing store and quickly learned that having a great idea was only part of what it took to build a business. I needed capital to grow, and finding that money wasn’t easy. That experience stayed with me.

Years later, when I began looking more closely at who gets funded in America—and who doesn’t—I realized that the entrepreneurial challenges I had encountered were part of a much larger story. So I started digging into the numbers. READ MORE