How Can VCs Support Founders on DEI Objectives?
Join us for a panel discussion with VCs and Founders to explore how VCs can be helpful to founders in achieving their DEI goals.
This event is brought to you by Diversity VC. We are an international nonprofit whose mission is for every venture fund to have the understanding, tools, and resources to promote diversity and inclusion in both their firms and the companies they fund.
In March 2024, we released a new Founder's Engagement Toolkit that shares examples and actionable recommendations for how to integrate DEI into deal flow and portfolio management. This event will bring together VCs and Founders to talk about their experiences and recommendations live.
Light snacks and drinks will be provided.
Panelists
Preston L. James II
Preston is the Co-Founder/CEO of DivInc, which is the first early stage tech startup accelerator in Texas exclusively for people of color and women tech entrepreneurs. Founded in 2016, DivInc has helped launch 63 companies. They are expanding in Houston this year with other cities on the roadmap which will enable them to launch hundreds of startup companies per year. In the summer of 2020, in response to George Floyd’s murder and COVID-19 racial disparities , DivInc launched their Social Justice Innovation Program. In addition, DivInc has a women of color entrepreneur initiative, Startup Sistas, that serves 300+ women per year across Texas.
A former 20-year veteran at Dell, he served in executive leadership roles in Enterprise IT Sales and Consulting where he led teams responsible for driving $250M+ in revenues. He also served as the Managing Director for the Dell Global Center for Entrepreneurship, where he supervised the $100M Dell Credit Fund and helped expand the center’s initiatives globally.
He also served a two-year appointment as the Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.
Preston is a champion for transforming and mobilizing the tech ecosystem to be authentically inclusive. Through DivInc, he removes barriers for founders by providing direct access to the essential resources needed to build high growth innovation businesses. He firmly believes that the future prosperity of our nation is directly tied to our ability to empower women and people of color through entrepreneurship and innovation. It’s an economic imperative!!!
Preston earned his Bachelor’s of Science and Engineering degree at Howard University, in Washington, DC. A proud native New Yorker, Preston has lived in Austin since 1997 with his wonderful wife Kim and their four children, Sydney (20), Cori (17), Presli (14) and Preston, III (11).
Anita Roberts
Anita C. Roberts is a trailblazing figure in the minority tech ecosystem, renowned for her inspiring leadership and international speaking engagements. With a wealth of executive and senior-level experience, including roles as an army executive spokesman and public relations/marketing expert, Anita has established herself as a formidable force in the industry.
Currently serving as the Founder & Managing Partner of Silicon Hills Capital and a Founding Partner of mvmt inc., Anita is committed to bridging the gap to venture capital for women, with a specific focus on Black and Brown founders. Through these ventures, she works tirelessly to build scalable, growth-oriented companies that harness accessible technologies to empower millions of individuals to lead healthier, happier, and more productive lives.
After exiting her first company, Anita used her vision and resources to create Made Media Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering and educating African American business owners to build sustainable wealth, promote cultural relevance, and uplift their communities through economic equity.
An army veteran and combat veteran, Anita's distinguished military career saw her rise to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and serve on the first Black POTUS public relations team. Her academic pursuits include studies in Venture Capital at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, as well as Venture Capital and Angel Investing with Black Venture Institute, Salesforce Venture, and Haas School of Business.
Anita is a proud alumna of Prairie View A & M University and holds a Bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama. Her unwavering commitment to innovation, diversity, and social impact continues to inspire and drive positive change in the tech and venture capital landscape.
José Luis Silva
Passionate about growth, finance, startups, and golf, José Luis is the co-founder of Dux Capital, a Venture Capital fund that invests in Latinx outliers. He spearheads the Investor Relations team, Portfolio Management, and contributes significantly to the Investment and Startups’ Funnel, overseeing portfolio investments in Fund 1 and 2.
A seasoned entrepreneur, José Luis has founded over eight startups, showcasing his multifaceted expertise in the entrepreneurial realm. Before co-founding Dux, José Luis served as a corporate and investment banker at HSBC’s Global Banking team in Mexico. He played a pivotal role in landmark transactions across Mergers and Acquisitions, Debt & Equity Capital Markets, Structured Finance, and Treasury for esteemed names in Latin America.
José Luis holds an MBA from IE Business School in Madrid, specializing in Private Equity/Venture Capital on a dual diploma from Singapore Management University. Additionally, he graduated with a BA in Finance from Tec de Monterrey in Mexico City.
Two years back, José Luis, with his wife and two kids, moved to Austin, Texas, seeing it as the perfect spot to kickstart his second fund amidst a vibrant startup scene. Realizing there weren't many others doing what he does in the USA, he was excited about diving into the blue ocean, where he often finds himself as the only one in the room.
Nowadays, José Luis serves on the board of University of Texas - Texas Venture Lab, sharing his experiences and knowledge as a lecturer, inspiring young minds to become outstanding entrepreneurs.
Zuby Onwuta (moderator)
Zuby Onwuta is a Harvard-MIT trained innovator, US President Obama Presidential Service Award recipient, serial patented inventor, global UN Speaker, software engineer, US military veteran and solutions architect. Legal blindness Disability ended his medical studies and US military career, which forced him into studying engineering. While at UIC Engineering, Zuby helped pioneer Smart Home automation by creating a solution that helped homeowners to control home doors, utilities, and appliances remotely.
Zuby worked as a software engineer in corporate America for 15 years, helping Fortune 500 companies. At Lucent (Nokia), as a full stack web developer, he deployed web applications that helped the pricing team in providing uniform pricing for the firm’s multi million dollar clients. At Goldman Sachs, Zuby designed, architected, and wrote a real-time software application that calculated, stored, reported, and securely archived over $50 Billion of annual electronic stock trades. At IBM, as a Global Technology Leader, he led interdisciplinary and cross functional teams in US, Europe, and Asia, in resolving highly critical technical problems for multi-billion-dollar clients like NASA, The White House, and Boeing.
Zuby is the founder of a biotech startup called Think and Zoom, under which he invented and patented “Brain Control for Blind Assistive Tech” and helped pioneer the field of “Assistive NeuroTechnology for the blind and visually impaired”. Think and Zoom received recognition from Apple, for creating “Kenti” the first Brain Control Game featured at Apple WWDC Developer Conference, and awards from Mass Challenge, and Singularity University.
Zuby was awarded the US Presidential Service Award by President Obama for his mentorship of innovation-minded STEM students across the world. As a global speaker, Zuby has spoken at TEDx, in 5 countries including UN, Geneva, Switzerland, appeared at the US Congress, and his work as a disabled Astronaut in Training has been featured in global publications like BBC and NY Times.
Zuby’s educational background includes pre-med, B.Sc. in Computer Engineering, Innovation training in Technology, Business, Entrepreneurship and Healthcare from MIT, Harvard Business, NSF and Harvard Medical School respectively, and recently, Venture Capital training from Harvard Business Executive.