EP #82: Free The CEO: Building Black Economic Power & Venture Capital to Uplift Black Founders with Evan Poncelet

In my conversation with Evan Poncelet, we discussed his shift from the tech industry to community work after George Floyd's murder. He joined his family's nonprofit, Africatown Community Land Trust, to build an economic engine for the Black diaspora in Seattle. Evan started an angel investing syndicate and is developing a VC fund to support Black founders and investors.

We explored challenges Black founders face, like assuming demand without validation, overspending on development prematurely, and limited fundraising networks. Evan stressed conducting customer discovery, building a minimum viable product, and leveraging community resources for traction. He shared Dreamward Ventures investment criteria, prioritizing strong teams, technical abilities, coach-ability, market potential, and a clear path forward.

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