What if venture capitalists looked less like Oscar voters and more like the rest of Chicago?
The vast majority — 87 percent — of venture capitalists are Caucasian, according to a 2011 survey from the National Venture Capital Association, and 89 percent are male. Only 4 percent identify as African-American or Latino nationally, and there are very few in Illinois. The widely mocked Oscar voter lineup is 94 percent white and 77 percent male.
It’s hardly a representative group to define what success looks like, whose ideas are funded and even who pursues entrepreneurship to begin with.
Amina Elahi 