Venture Capital’s Elite Must Knock Down Barriers for Black Founders, Says Kapor Partner

Ulili Onovakpuri has been getting a lot of emails lately—mostly from fellow venture capitalists and startup leaders, each with a similar message: “We realize that we have a diversity problem. Can you help?”

For the Kapor Capital partner, one of very few black women partners in the venture capital industry, Silicon Valley’s moment of reckoning on race is gratifying—and frustrating. 

“I personally have worked on these issues in the tech ecosystem for 10 years,” said Onovakpuri, who leads early-stage investments in digital health and medical tech startups. “It’s been like pulling teeth to get people to pay attention long enough to actually make a change.”