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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PITCH: ONE WOMAN’S MISSION TO HELP HER SISTER ENTREPRENEURS MATCH VISION WITH CAPITAL
by BLACK ENTERPRISE  Jan. 26, 2023

Shelly “Omi” Bell saw the struggle first-hand as an entrepreneur, so she created Black Girl Ventures to help all ideas from women entrepreneurs succeed. 

Shelly “Omi” Bell remembers the day she was laid off from her computer science job. She decided at that moment that she had received her last pink slip.

“After I walked out of that job, I said to myself, ‘I won’t ever again put myself in a place where an employer can just lay me off for their own reasons. I have to make my own way.’”

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That promise to herself led to the launch of Black Girl Ventures (BGV) in 2016. BGV is Bell’s crowdsourcing enterprise that provides women founders of color with direct access to capital and tools that can help them get through the initial stages of starting a business, create and meet key business milestones, and kick-start growth. < https://www.blackgirlventures.org/ > 

“The motivation came from my journey,” explains Bell. “The news reported that Black women were launching businesses at six times the national average yet receiving less than 1% of venture capital. Instead, Black people depend on earned capital – our paychecks and savings.” Part of Bell’s funding came from her mother’s retirement.

A 2021 Harvard Business Review analysis confirms Bell’s point. More than 60% of Black women self-fund their startup costs—a high-risk gamble when only 29% of Black women entrepreneurs live in households with incomes over $75,000. High college debt and disparities in homeownership stack the deck further. 

To change the narrative, Bell found inspiration in the fabled Harlem “rent parties” of an earlier era. She explains, “People would throw these fabulous house parties whenever landlords raised the rent. You’d pay at the door, and they’d use the money to cover the increase. The community came together to keep people in their homes.” 

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Blue background with BLACK ENTERPRISE and Bank of America logos shown on screen.
Various images of Shelly “Omi” Bell appear.

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Shelly “Omi” Bell, Founder
Black Girl Ventures

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Shelly “Omi” Bell, Founder
Black Girl Ventures

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Black Enterprise logo
“in partnership with Bank of America” logo

Shelly “Omi” Bell: I’m Shelly Omílàdé Bell, but I go by Omi, and I’m the founder and CEO of Black Girl Ventures.

Black Girl Ventures is a non-profit enterprise where we focus on creating access to capital, capacity, and community for Black and Brown women-identifying founders.

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Homepage of Black Girl Ventures' website
Change Agent Fellowship program page of Black Girl Ventures' website
The BGV Next Gen page of Black Girl Ventures' website
The Pitch Program page of Black Girl Ventures' website

Shelly “Omi” Bell: We have three main programs: An Emerging Leaders program is our change agent fellowship. We have our NextGen program, which is our HBCU program, and we have a pitch program, which is our signature program.

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Black Girl Ventures’ Raisify.co platform

Shelly “Omi” Bell: The audience votes with their dollars for the pitch that they favor.

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Various images of Black/African American women with microphones at the Black Girl Ventures’ pitch competitions

Shelly “Omi” Bell: We take that capital, and we create a grant out of it, and we give it back to those founders. We also work with partners to either match the funding or give bigger prizes to the top three.

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Various images of Black Girl Ventures’ pitch competitions

Shelly “Omi” Bell: And it’s not just the pitch competition that comes with BGV pitch; what is available to you is a new customer base and visibility, there’s coaching, and we also do deck review, which is an opportunity to gain more capital for your business.

We want to build a sustainable community practice.

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Various images of the Black Girl Ventures’ founder and employees

Shelly “Omi” Bell: So, since the inception of BGV, we have funded over 300 founders, and this is direct funding to those founders. We’ve also directly impacted over 20,000 people through training.

Our partnership with Bank of America was specifically focused on communities, and the power of crowdfunding is the power of being able to build a community.

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Various images of Black/African American women
Short video clips of Black Girl Ventures’ pitch competitions

Shelly “Omi” Bell: The importance of working with women, in general, is that women actually are the caretakers of the family.

We’re the ones that put the energy of the household on our back. So, when you serve a family, when you serve a woman, you are serving the community.

When you serve a woman, you are serving an entire family unit, not just one person. So, the importance of serving women, in general, is to be sure that we’re supporting an entire community and the future of generations to come.

Bell initially hosted small get-togethers in her southeast Washington, D.C. home, inviting local businesswomen to pitch to the group. “We voted for the best pitch and gave what we collected at the door back to the winner in cash.”

Those early gatherings eventually turned into the company’s signature program, BGV Pitch. The door charge is gone, but the concept is the same. Competitions are conducted virtually on Raisify, BGV’s online crowdsourcing platform. Funders who qualify (they must be in business for at least a year and generating revenue) tell the story of their business or product line to an online community of potential investors. “We let people vote with their dollars,” Bell says. “Then we take that capital, create grants with it and award the funds to businesses that stand out.”

Bell emphasizes that deep pockets aren’t required to be a contributor. “The BGV Pitch allows people to engage where they are. It could be $5 or $500. You can change somebody’s life in real-time.”

Bell’s strategic partnership with Bank of America has extended BGV’s reach and capacity. “With that help, we’ve created 120 new jobs and provided 1,040 technical assistance hours. Since we launched, BGV has funded 300 women entrepreneurs who, collectively, generate over $10M in revenue and support 3,000 jobs, making us the largest ecosystem builder for Black/Brown women founders on the East Coast.” BGV hopes to help more than 100,000 Black/Brown women founders by 2030.

 “With the support of our partners, BGV is driving change and making a tangible impact in the community,” says Bell. She adds, “BGV is shooting for the moon, and we believe we can do it. There’s no doubt.”

Are you looking for a community that supports the growth of your business? Learn more about the resources BGV offers to kick-start or continue to elevate your business here. < https://www.blackgirlventures.org/ >  

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