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Jewel Burks Solomon shares how her entrepreneurial journey helped shape the creation of Collab Capital
“One of the things we really like about our model is that there are entrepreneurs who are building businesses because they want to build generational wealth and one of the pillars of building generational wealth is being able to pass businesses down in families. That is something you really can’t do if you’re on a venture track.”
“I take no pride in being the first of anything. I think the most important thing is to make sure I’m not the last.”
– Jewel Burks Solomon, Managing Partner at Collab Capital and Head of Google for Startups in the US
After a challenging experience growing and selling her first company, Partpic, Jewel Burks Solomon set out to build an investment fund that better aligns the incentives of entrepreneur and investor. The result is Collab Capital, a $50mm fund that helps Black founders build sustainable businesses. Using a combination of traditional equity and profit-sharing, the fund allows entrepreneurs to build businesses at a pace that aligns with their business model, instead of trying to grow at all costs before exiting. The funding model also helps entrepreneurs maintain higher levels of ownership than traditional VC funding, with the goal of allowing founders to build generational wealth and therefore reduce the racial wealth gap.
In addition to her role as a co-founder and Managing Partner at Collab Capital, Jewel is also the Head of Google for Startups in the US. Google for Startups provides entrepreneurs with tools, mentorship, and best practices to help grow their businesses. In this role, Jewel helped launch the Black Founders Fund in 2020. The fund provided $5mm in non-dilutive capital to 76 Black-led startups, alongside cloud credits, ad credits, and other wraparound support services to help entrepreneurs weather the pandemic.
During the conversation, Jewel discusses the innovative structure of Collab Capital, how raising capital as a fund manager compares to raising capital as an entrepreneur, and how her entrepreneurial journey helped shape her work investing in and mentoring underrepresented founders.
Featured Voices
Managing Partner
Collab Capital
Host
Additional Resources
- Read “Finally, A Capital Solution for Black Entrepreneurs Inspired by King’s Whole Dream” written by Jewel’s partner, Justin Dawkins
- Learn more about Google for Startups Black Founders Fund
- Follow Jewel on Twitter
- Listen to the Money and Meaning episode on the Kauffman Foundation’s Capital Access Lab featuring Philip Gaskin and Agnes Dasewicz
Money + Meaning is the official podcast of SOCAP. The series aims to expand the conversation around impact investing and strategies to finance and support social change while stimulating innovative and valuable new partnerships across sectors.
