Arlan Hamilton

Arlan Hamilton
BornOctober 30, 1980[1]
OccupationsFounder and managing partner, Backstage Capital

Arlan Hamilton (born 1980) is an American venture capitalist, investor, author, and entrepreneur. She is the founder and managing partner of Backstage capital, a venture capital firm established in 2015 that invests in startups led by founders who are traditionally underrepresented in the technology industry.

Hamilton is the author of It's About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage (2020), a memoir and career guide chronicling her path to founding a venture capital firm.[2]

Career

Prior to her venture capital role, Hamilton founded and published the indie magazine Interlude and prior to that, served as tour manager to Atlantic Records recording artist Janine.[3]

In May 2018, Hamilton announced her firm would also attempt to raise a $36 million fund specifically for black female founders.[4]

Hamilton was the subject of a six-episode series on the Gimlet Media podcast Startup.[5] Hamilton is mostly complimentary about the podcast series, but did take issue with how she was portrayed, especially in sequences that cast her in an irresponsible light.[6] Hamilton's Backstage Capital's podcast The Bootstrapped VC features episodes that are reactions to the Gimlet series.[7]

In June 2019 Hamilton received recognition from Business Insider as one of the 23 most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech.[8]

Hamilton has funded a scholarship for black female pilots,[9] and a scholarship for black students at the University of Oxford.[10]

In June 2022, TechCrunch reported that BackStage Capital had laid off most of its staff and was pausing net new investments.[11]

In March 2024, Hamilton was announced as a strategic advisor for the Inpink platform by Gritty In Pink alongside Melissa Etheridge and Live Nation.[12]

Personal life

In 2019, Hamilton married German composer and actress, Anna Eichenauer.[13]

In 2021, Hamilton paid $112,500 for a 1956 Chevy truck owned by her personal icon Janet Jackson.[14]

Writing

Before becoming a venture capitalist, Hamilton gained notoriety as a blogger on "Your Daily Lesbian Moment," a blog site and point of connection for women seeking both platonic and romantic relationships with other women.[15][16]

In May 2020, Hamilton published the book entitled, "It's About Damn Time," written with Rachel L. Nelson. The book is part memoir and part how-to for people who are generally underestimated in society. In the book, Hamilton details her early career as a music tour producer and, on pivoting to venture capital, the tactics she used to start the VC fund Backstage Capital.[17]

  • It's About Damn Time. Penguin Random House. 2020. ISBN 9780593136416.

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Arlan Hamilton". womenoftoday.com.
  2. ↑ Delaney, Kevin. "Arlan Hamilton Went From Homeless to Running $20 Million in VC Funds. Here's How She Did It". Time. Time. Retrieved 12 November 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  3. ↑ Susannah Hutcheson (April 13, 2017). "How I became a venture capitalist: Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital". USA Today. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  4. ↑ Jennifer Calfas (November 27, 2018). "This Venture Capitalist Started Her Own Firm Without Any Investing Experience or Degree. Here's How She Did It". Money. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  5. ↑ "Arlan Hamilton 1: Silicon Valley, By Invite Only". Gimlet Media. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  6. ↑ Hamilton, Arlan (2020-05-05). It's About Damn Time. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780593136416.
  7. ↑ "The Bootstrapped VC". Backstage Capital. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  8. ↑ Leskin, Paige. "The 23 most powerful LGBTQ+ people in tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  9. ↑ "Tech entrepreneur to fund Wings Alliance scholarship for black British female pilot". Pilot Career News. 10 February 2020. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  10. ↑ "Student Spotlight: Oxford-Arlan Hamilton & Earline Butler Sims Scholar | University of Oxford". www.ox.ac.uk. 27 May 2022. Retrieved 31 August 2022.
  11. ↑ "Backstage Capital cuts majority of staff after pausing net new investments". www.techcrunch.com. 26 June 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  12. ↑ "Arlan Hamilton Joins Gritty In Pink as Strategic Advisor alongside Live Nation, Melissa Ethridge, and More". KTLA. 2024-04-09. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  13. ↑ "Arlan Hamilton (1980- ) •". 2021-04-25. Retrieved 2022-02-16.
  14. ↑ Russell, Melia. "Famed investor Arlan Hamilton paid $112,500 for a 1956 Chevy truck owned by her personal icon: Janet Jackson". Business Insider. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  15. ↑ Mohan, Pavithra (28 May 2020). "'I'll be doing this for decades': Arlan Hamilton's challenging the status quo of VC". Fast Company. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
  16. ↑ Hamilton, Arlan (2020-05-05). It's About Damn Time. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780593136416.
  17. ↑ Hamilton, Arlan (2020-05-05). It's About Damn Time. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780593136416.
  18. ↑ "40 Under 40". Fortune. 2018. Archived from the original on January 28, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
  19. ↑ "Announcing Fast Company's second annual Queer 50 list". Fast Company. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  20. ↑ "Arlan Hamilton is No. 17 on the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list". Fast Company. Retrieved 2022-06-19.
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