Josh Kopelman revealed as investor in Backstage Capital's accelerator
Summary
In Philly last night, at the tail end of a news-heavy week for her minority-focused firm, Los Angeles-based Backstage Capital founder Arlan Hamilton laid out the narrative: Following some layoffs and an internal restructuring, the firm will continue to back companies in its four-city accelerator program, support its 100-plus portfolio companies and is still — countering what Axios reporter Dan Primack initially reported — actively raising a $36 million fund to invest in Black women one million at a time. “He has quietly over the past year and a half helped Backstage in ways no one ever knew, basically because he doesn’t need them to be known.” In two short emails to Technical.ly, Kopelman confirmed he was an investor in the multi-city accelerator program, on a personal level rather than as head of First Round, but he did not mention a specific amount. The startups are all founded by underrepresented founders in tech — Backstage prefers the term “underestimated” — in a move meant to counter the deep inequities of the venture capital space. If every other month you hear ‘here comes a million and then it goes away’ … that’s stressful.” Pitts shouted out the quality Philly cohort of companies, which features names like millennial-focused apartment listing and renter information site Whose Your Landlord and on-demand beauty startup Tressenoire. People are gaining so much more than what our checks can measure up to, and that’s what I was looking for.” As for Kopelman — who joined a panel alongside Hamilton at last year’s Introduced conference — when we asked what made him want to partner with the Los Angeles-based fund, he sent back a one-word reply.