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Last week a founder asked me about my experience raising venture capital and then I watched this Bloomberg roundtable on the DEI backlash with 5 Black execs and I realized I’ve been giving the wrong advice.

One echoed something I've been saying for years. That early in his career his mentors told him to outsmart, outwork, outmaneuver. That he lived on a battlefield and had to form alliances. He followed those rules for a long time. They led to his survival. They also led to his success.

I've been giving founders the same playbook.

Usually, when Black founders ask me about fundraising I tell them to ignore the stats. That they're a distraction. What does it do for you to know that 0.4% of VC funding went to Black founders? If you're trying to raise VC dollars, I usually talk about getting the warm intros, knowing your unit economics, and preparing a good offense. All the tactical stuff.

I've been giving that advice for years. I'm starting to think it’s been wrong. Or at least incomplete.

My advice disregards the mental gymnastics it takes to ignore a playing field that's visibly slanted against you. It asks you to gaslight yourself into a reality where the competition is fair, and then perform as if it is.

And the question I never say out loud, even when I'm venting to other founders about funding we didn't get, a partnership that fell through, the industry stamp of approval we all quietly want is:

What if it’s me? What if I’m the problem?
What if you're just not as good as you think?
What if you don't work as hard as you think you do?
Did you really need that nap last month? What if they're just better than you?

You know that voice. We often dismiss it as weakness, but it’s not. It’s logic. It’s my brain trying to reconcile the fact that Black women are the most educated group in America, starting businesses at a higher rate than anyone else, but we’re still expected (forced?) to do more with less. Pure logic will point to you when the facts don’t make sense.

And that’s the trap. The self-doubt that creeps in is not an accident, it’s in the design of this unfair field. The unfairness is in the question, in the self-doubt itself.

So I'm changing my advice.

Stop trying to level a field that was deliberately built crooked.

My advice to you is to cheat…. Legally, of course!

Let’s not be so precious about how it looks to get a leg up. Because what's a leg up when you're starting from a deficit?

What unfair advantage do you actually have? What network can get you in a room you couldn't cold-email your way into? (The whole point of Founder Circle)
What insights can you use to your advantage? What are you sitting on that you haven't fully used? Use it. Fully.

Guava’s Founder Circle is your cheat code. Ninety days, with a small cohort for founders who are actively building toward big goals and know it won’t happen alone. If that's where you are, join the waitlist.

The field isn't fair.

You already knew that.

Now use it.

Talk soon!
Kelly

P.S. What's your cheat code? Hit reply, I actually read these. And if this resonated for you, forward it to a founder who needs permission to cheat. 6,000+ of us are in this together.

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