By Eleanor Kaye

Despite repeated commitments to “do better,” venture capital continues to be dogged by poor diversity and inclusion: Black investors make up an estimated 4% of venture capitalists in the U.S., and in Europe, women only represent 15% of general partners.

Studies show that people hire and back those who remind them of themselves. This “affinity bias” creates a vicious cycle. With a stark lack of diversity among VCs, is it any surprise that all-male, all-white teams remain vastly more likely to attract funding?

To add insult to injury, VCs are unwittingly fueling this status quo through “knowledge gatekeeping” — holding information and power close to their chests. This is preventing people with overlooked and underestimated backgrounds from accessing VC careers, thereby cementing the inequalities we see around who receives funding.

Extensive jargon

VC knowledge gatekeeping takes many forms. One of the biggest is jargon. “Carry,” “secondaries,” “LPs,” “bridging” — for someone new to the startup world, it’s overwhelming.

And yet very little is done to boost access to VC education. We don’t teach it in schools, nor routinely at the undergraduate level. This creates an intimidating barrier for those looking to break in. The result? The VC talent pipeline is stacked by people who have organic access to knowledge gained through parents, peers or attendance at certain institutions.

When my organization, the Newton Venture Program, launched our free ‘Foundations’ program earlier this year, more than 1,000 people signed up in a month. There is strong demand for entry-level resources; we simply need more people willing to create them.

Exclusive spaces

Another form of gatekeeping is the exclusivity of the networks and communities across VC.

Reminiscent of high school parties, lots of deal-making and knowledge-sharing happens in invite-only spaces (digital and IRL), or between industry peers with existing relationships.

This cross-firm collaboration is an integral part of VC, but it can also operate to the detriment of aspiring investors. (See also: Investors’ over-reliance on the warm intro and its impact on founder diversity.)

For those who don’t have an existing network, it’s tough to break into what can feel like a clique. And it’s those from overlooked and underestimated backgrounds who lose out. If existing members of the VC club fail to pull up aspiring recruits and invite them to the proverbial party, we will never truly diversify the industry.

Rigid resumés

Venture is a tough industry to crack. There are a limited number of funds, most with small teams, and competition is fierce. But VCs’ overreliance on resumé hallmarks are hurting diversity and excluding exciting talent.

According to one analysis, 42% of adverts for VC internships mention engineering degrees and 20% mention computer science — both male-dominated subjects. Likewise, the research showed firms expect candidates to have 0.5 to 1.11 years of experience to qualify for internship roles. This is a major barrier to entry for candidates who don’t have the connections needed to secure experience (and likely can’t afford to work for free).

By continuing to rely on rigid resumé requirements, insider mentalities and jargon-laden lexicon, VCs are gatekeeping access to the industry and unwittingly locking-in the cycle of poor diversity.

These aren’t hard problems to solve. However, fixing them requires honesty and action on the part of existing VCs and LPs. That means addressing these inequalities by investing in educational and community access programs, embracing anonymized, skills-based hiring, and ensuring teams are consciously looking to create pathways to success for those aspiring to roles in the industry.

By doing this, VCs can ditch the role of gatekeeper and instead embrace a new position as custodians of a fairer, more inclusive venture capital industry.

Eleanor Kaye is the executive director of Newton Venture Program, a joint venture between LocalGlobe VC and London Business School to diversify venture capital. Newton provides access to education and training to people from overlooked and underestimated backgrounds looking to access or accelerate careers in the industry.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

Thursday, May 2, 2024 – A presale for Sealana ($SEAL), the all-American redneck seal, launched on Solana yesterday, taking in $100,000 within minutes of launch.

In a sector dominated by land-roving canines, one marine mammal is trading his way out of mom’s basement like a true 21st-century patriot pursuing the elusive American Dream. 

If his face is familiar, that’s because Sealana is a spin on the viral South Park character Gamer Guy, aka Fat Computer Nerd. 

Gamer Guy appeared in the hit cartoon’s side-splitting World of Warcraft episode and instantly became a viral meme all on his own, recognizable by his milk-bottle glasses, screen-locked stare, messy room and gravity-defying girth. 

He has since symbolized anyone from the legions of disgruntled keyboard warriors writing sharp, acerbic opinions in internet comments sections, to a kind of Everyman – a symbol of the idler in everyone. 

Sealana is Gamer Guy but made in Web3. Whaled at his PC and growing by the day, Sealana is so absorbed in degen trades that he’s abandoned the trim figure of his youth for a diet of chips and tinned tuna. His obsession with finding the next big Solana meme coin keeps his flippers busy and his room looking like a bomb hit it.

All anyone needs to dive into the fixed-price presale is a funded SOL wallet. For every 1 SOL, investors get 6,900 $SEAL tokens airdropped to them on the ICO’s conclusion. This puts them in pole position to exploit some potentially explosive appreciation through the presale and the potential Solana meme coin gold rush beyond.

Users can pay using a widget on the website or by sending SOL from a decentralized wallet to this address: DJ15ZYXqUNMYJ3hL7z4ciSaSFAw5cbos3YjGpdvwmF6c.

Sealana: Solana’s Hottest New Meme Coin

Sealana’s native blockchain, Solana, is rapidly outdoing Ethereum to become the go-to blockchain to launch tomorrow’s biggest meme coins.  

Amidst a brutal recent sell-off that plunged the price of Bitcoin ($BTC) down 10% to about $57k, Solana coin Popcat ($POPCAT) is pumping 45% in seven days while Solama ($SOLAMA) rallied 25% overnight. Even Dogecoin-imitating chainmates like DogWifHat ($WIF) and Bonk ($BONK) are currently retaining value better than their competitors. 

Solana itself is also quickly recovering. In the last 24 hours, the price of SOL leapt 10%, far outpacing market leaders Bitcoin and Ethereum and showing the fast rebounding capabilities of blockchain’s biggest growing ecosystem. 

The reasons for this are no mystery. Solana is a digital economy housing $3.637 billion in total value locked (TVL) across various apps and financial services, with over 1 million active users transacting daily and over 2,500 monthly active developers. 

Alright, listen up! Meet #Sealana, the kick-ass seal, #Trading his way out of his mom's basement like a true American Hero!
This fat boy's chowing down on burgers, dreaming of Lambos, and making #Crypto gains. So huge, he's defying gravity, floating all the way to the… pic.twitter.com/Xcvkl5fs3e

— Sealana (@Sealana_Token) May 1, 2024

Sealana also comes hot on the heels of another recent viral Solana meme coin ICO. Slothana ($SLOTH), the 420-friendly sloth, raised a staggering $15 million in a one-month presale that has just concluded. 

Speaking of popular crypto sloths, there are rumors that the Sealana team was also behind the scenes of another successful fixed-price presale, the popular Slerf ($SLERF) project, which is up 15% in the last 24 hours.

Word on the grapevine is that they are having a go at another successful launch, without accidentally burning $10m worth of tokens.

Meme Coin Gold Rush After Bitcoin Halving?

This week’s fallen prices reflect a market that is briefly doing a spot of profit-taking before the effects of a Bitcoin software update known as “the halving” become clearer. 

The halving slashed mining rewards from 6.25 BTC per block to 3.125, effectively halving the issuance of new BTC. Now, with Bitcoin setting new all-time highs this year, many analysts say the crypto market will become much more valuable, thanks to the depleted Bitcoin supply. 

The past three halvings have added significant value to the market well within a year of the update. 

And when traders begin seeing market-wide green candles again, further meme coin gold rushes will ensue. This time, Solana and its affiliated prohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7bNkhkU_bojects will be at the helm. 

Don’t ignore the patriot’s call to help Sealana Web3 his way out of mom’s basement.

Simply bulk him up with SOL and watch him send a tsunami of $SEAL straight into your wallets! 

Interested? Keep up-to-date on Sealana’s X account.

Buy Sealana at the official website here. 

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