If you’ve heard the statistics once, you’ve probably heard them a thousand times: Of the nearly $100 billion in venture funding that goes to entrepreneurs in America,&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/04/female-founders-have-brought-in-just-2-2-of-us-vc-this-year-yes-again/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">less than 3%</a>&nbsp;goes to female founders and just 0.2% goes to black female founders.&nbsp;



There’s a growing consensus that venture capital’s race problem needs to be fixed.What’s less clear is precisely how to start closing the massive gulf. And at the inaugural Black Women Raise conference in Manhattan on Friday, a gathering of some 80 black female founders, a series of candid conversations laid bare the frustrations around the lack of an obvious path forward. In several raw moments of interchange, however, some answers started to emerge.



Investors &#8220;could ask different questions,” Charles Hudson, founder and managing partner of Precursor Ventures, said during a panel conversation with BBG’s Susan Lyne, First Round Capital’s Hayley Barna, and Female Founder’s Fund Sutian Dong. “There are all these questions—‘Well, do you think she can recruit? Do you think she can hire?’—I know what’s behind that question. 



It’s ‘Do you think she can get people to work for her because she’s a black woman?’ And people ask these, what on the surface sound like innocent enough legitimate questions about investments, but they’re not innocent. They’re loaded. And you learn a lot by the questions people ask.”



Despite the existence (and, arguably, preponderance) of these loaded questions, Hudson and the others cautioned the entrepreneurs in the room against becoming disillusioned with the traditional venture capital community. Instead, they said, minority founders should prioritize investors who have a track record of investing in entrepreneurs who look like them.



“Vet investors up front. Don’t let them waste your time only to give you a half-ass answer after you spend an hour with them or even two weeks later,” said Barna, who started her venture capital career after successfully cofounding e-commerce darling Birch Box. “Just ask, ‘Is this in your sweet spot?’”



Dong noted that investors should be self-monitoring for where they’re over- and under-indexing, too. “We’ve said we don’t like the ratio of founders in our portfolio. About half are nonwhite, but only two are African-American. So we asked our network who we should be talking to,” she said.



It can be hard, in an open and on-the-record forum, to ask the hard questions about investing in underrepresented founders—much less to receive forthright answers to those questions—but to the credit of the Black Women Raise attendees, no one shied away from speaking about the reality of her experience as a founder of color.



“Everyone talks about the ‘friends and family round.’ I raised $63,000; I&nbsp;am&nbsp;the friends and family round,” quipped Star Cunningham, founder and CEO of health management platform 4D Healthware. But underpinning her self-funding, Cunningham continued, was a lack of capital access. “I have debt, because I had to get it, because no one wanted to give me any money. So what are you, as investors, going to do to look at our companies differently?”



Barna’s reply: Don’t be afraid to talk about your distance traveled. “The same stories about people getting straight A’s from Ivy League schools isn’t what gets us fired up; it’s instead hearing about how someone put themselves through med school from driving an ambulance,” she said. “You might think that you’re not supposed to talk about your life story, but I think it’s an important data point in helping [investors] make the right decision.”



This isn’t to say that a little bit of information and clever storytelling will fix the funding gap for founders of color. Viola Llewellyn, cofounder of African fintech platform Ovamba, pointed out as much, saying that many of the investors she’s come across don’t seem interested in asking the questions that lead to the sorts of decisions Barna is referencing.&nbsp;



“Here’s the problem: No one gets punished intellectually, emotionally, or financially for saying no to black women or to Africans. You will instead be congratulated if you don’t make the ‘foolish mistake’ of investing in something that doesn’t fit into the preconceived ideas of what success is,” Llewellyn said to Hudson, Lyne, Barna and Dong.&nbsp;



“At what point do we find a way to tell the story of the fool that said no?” she continued, to applause from the room.



Hudson waited a beat, and responded with empathy.



“There’s a million reasons [for investors] to say no, but until we have more success stories, I think there’s always an easy out for people to say, ‘No one has proven to me that investing in this way and this type of person works out.’ It’s intellectually lazy and it’s wrong,” he said. “You have every right to be angry.”



Angry, yes, but also motivated. Among the clearest takeaways from the conversation is that one of the best ways to change the system is to start from within. In Silicon Valley and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominiquefluker/2018/05/23/arlan-hamilton/#4014dbc63dab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arlan Hamilton parlance</a>, fight pattern-matching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iheart.com/podcast/309-startup-podcast-28030163/episode/arlan-hamilton-3-picking-winners-29309049/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">with pattern-matching</a>.



“More black women need to control capital, in whatever form that may be,” Dong said. “More black women need to be controlling capital to put that into companies run by black female founders.”

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What Will It Take To Close The Funding Gap For Black Female Founders?

Reabetswe Ngwane has come a long way from Rustenburg, and she has covered the journey on recycled tyres – literally.
The bubbly and ambitious Ngwane, raised in Mogwase, a township in Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa, recycles tyre tubes for a living, and has been able to turn waste to wealth.
When we meet her in the affluent suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg, she is late, having driven in from Rustenburg after another meeting. Dressed formally in black, she settles to talk about where it all began.
Ngwane’s entrepreneurial journey unraveled when she relocated from the township to the city in Rustenburg where she started her first business with a friend. They recycled plastic bags, turning them into school bags with solar lanterns, provided to kids in underprivileged areas.
Unfortunately, that partnership did not last.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/02/01/roll-sleeves-walk-past-handbag/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: ‘Roll Up Your Sleeves, Walk Past That Handbag’</a>
“Then we parted ways respectively in business and generally. That’s when I started the tyre business with my sister [Katlego],” says Ngwane.
The business picked up. They were approached by REDISA (Recycling and Economic Development Initiative In South Africa) who offered to handle their Rustenburg tyre depot.
Ngwane wanted to learn and research more about all the elements that went into the tyre business.
So she did what most wouldn’t think of – she consulted with the people pushing trolleys on the side of road recycling scrap.
“They work extensively at the mine fields; in a nutshell, they are industry experts. We went to them, consulted with them. [About an] alternative to plastic, because that’s all I knew. I asked them ‘what else I could use as a resource to make up products’ and they advised on the tyre tubes and it became a business,” she says.
The business’ main focus is recycling tyre tubes to make fashionable bags.
The whole process begins by transporting the tyre tubes to one of their work sites where they wash, clean and refurbish them. They are then taken to a production factory where they are cut into respective patterns depending on orders.
Ngwane has her products in a store, Mememe, in Cape Town in the Western Cape, and another in South African capital Pretoria, called In Bloom. She also takes orders online. Her bags range from R500 ($43) to R1,400 ($120).
She not only recycles tyre tubes to create trendy bags, but also makes products for the mining and construction industries.
These orders differ from the retail industry.
<div id="attachment_35904" style="width: 693px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35904" class="wp-image-35904 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-683x1024.jpg" alt="" width="683" height="1024" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101-768x1151.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Reabetswe-101.jpg 1366w" sizes="(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" />Reabetswe Ngwane. Photo by Motlabana Monnakgotla.</div>
“The retail industry is not as mass-orientated as the mining and construction industry. With the retail industry, it depends on how many orders of these we get, how many orders of backpacks we make, and then the patterns are made and then the bags. With regards to mining and construction, there are three sets of products we provide to them,” she says.
For the mines, Ngwane makes first-aid kit bags used by the workers underground and over the ground. The material mostly used for this previously was canvas, which is not durable, she says.
Ngwane also makes respiratory bags or masks used by the workers. The biggest orders she gets from the mines are however for seat protectors.
“It’s like a shield that covers your bum, you strap it on your waist, strap it on your legs, as the guys drilling underground [are] scooting backwards and forwards; because they [are] scooting, they damage their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and bump into hard surfaces like rocks, and corrosive liquids whatever the case may be; [the seat protector] is used to protect them,” she says.
Ngwane is the first to break into this kind of market, she says.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2014/06/01/woman-toughest-job/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: The Woman With the toughest job</a>
She recalls the days she had to knock on several doors to get her business going. Her research involved ongoing conversations with users in the mines asking them about the durability of canvas.
Ngwane is contracted to an entity that supplies a lot of the mines in the North West of South Africa with PPE. With her sister Katlego, their company, KreamFields, has been in operation for the last two years, and their fortune is growing.
Their work also has social significance as recycling waste means helping the environment rid itself of rubber scrap.
Ngwane seems to have literally reinvented the wheel turning tyre tubes to tote bags.

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On A Roll With Used Tyres

There is no air of self-importance surrounding the co-founder and CEO of Nkonki Inc., Sindi Zilwa. In fact, if you did not know her, you would walk past her without a second glance.
Born 45 years ago in the city of Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape Province, she has come a long way to become one of the most important women in South Africa’s corporate world. Zilwa’s dream was to see more black women become chartered accountants (CAs).
“I lost sleep over the fact that I was the second women to become a CA,” she says.
Nonkululeko Gobodo, executive chairperson of SizweNtsalubaGobodo, was the first and because they came from the same city it was inevitable they partnered to form Filtane Nkonki Accounting Consultancy in Mthatha.
But before she opened the consultancy, Zilwa had pursued her dream of producing more black chartered accountants by lecturing at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the then University of Transkei (Unitra).
“I was in a hurry to see more black CAs but the people I wanted to see qualifying were not in a hurry, there was a misalignment.”
“I was so sad when I marked the scripts and realized that no one with an ambition to become a CA was willing to work hard for it. Others wished to become CAs but they didn’t do what it costs to become a CA,” says Zilwa.
Zilwa had come from the same poverty stricken background—her mother was a hawker—as her students and was not willing to take any excuses.
“Based on that I said, ‘Let me try to use my time in some other way’. So, I decided to concentrate on my practice.”
That practice was established in late 1992 when Zilwa moved back to Mthatha after leaving Deloitte in Johannesburg. Three years later, the two partners decided to go their separate ways.
“If the car you are driving from here, Johannesburg, to Butterworth, a town near Mthatha, continuously gets tire punctures, you need to make a decision whether you want to continue with that car. For me reaching Butterworth, the destination, was more important; I just had to find another vehicle,” she says.
That vehicle came in the form of her brother, Mzi Nkonki, who was working as a chartered accountant in East London. The siblings joined heads and formed Nkonki&amp;Nkonki in 1996. It was clear that Zilwa—whose maiden name was Nkonki before she married lawyer Sivuyile Zilwa—would become the CEO.
“When we won a contract worth R5 million ($565,000) from the Bisho government to do their audits, we really felt our confidence grow,” says Zilwa.
In 1998, 31-year-old Zilwa caused waves when she was voted Businesswoman of the Year by the Businesswoman Association of South Africa. The hard work was paying off and the partners decided to expand nationwide.
Nkonki Sizwe and Ntsaluba accounting firms joined hands to form the first national black-owned accounting firm, NkonkiSizweNtsaluba. Zilwa was the CEO of the joined entity. This relationship lasted for six years before it was disbanded. Interestingly, Nonkululeko Gobodo has since replaced Nkonki as part of SizweNtsalubaGobodo.
“At brand level we did well but at administration level we didn’t do so well. I could only share in the liabilities and profits in the Eastern Cape but where I was based, in Johannesburg, I didn’t get anything,” says Zilwa.
The Nkonki siblings decided to revert back to working alone after another short-lived joint partnership.
“We made a commitment never to burn our fingers again. When you merge you move ten steps forward but if it does not work you move twenty steps back. I think that was the problem,” she says.
Today, Nkonki Inc. has more than 55 partners and directors based in the country’s major cities, with 300 staff and a turnover of around R60 million ($6,7 million). Although it is a thriving business which counts, amongst others, South African Airways, Hernic Ferrochrome and Eskom as clients; the company still experiences many challenges.
“As a black firm you are more inclined to get public sector work because you get more support from there. All the medium-sized firms are owned by the white middle class so they tend to get private sector business more,” she says.
Never one to back down from a challenge, instead of complaining the mother of two shows that she is a solutions-driven person.
The first time she opened her accounting firm, Zilwa wrote to the then Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni, to tell him about the challenges faced by black accounting firms.
“I always aspired to audit a bank because that is an intellectual hub of knowledge, so I wrote to him because of the conditions.”
“Companies wanted you to have 10 years of partner experience but none of us had that experience. Where would you have been a partner for 10 years back then?” she asks.
This was to be the beginning of her other career as a member of a number of boards including Aspen, Woolworths, PRIMEDIA and the Billion Group.
“The deputy governor of the Reserve Bank gave me call and said I should come up to Johannesburg to meet him. That really opened doors for me,” she says.
The first board she sat on was the Wiphold Group, which was once listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Currently, she is making waves as part of the high performing Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, led by FORBES AFRICA Person of the Year nominee, Stephen Saad, which he started with deputy CEO, Gus Attridge.
“She is an extremely warm-hearted person with a great sense of humor, which makes her instantly likeable. I admire her career and personal achievements as a person who has reached the heights of her profession when she was afforded no privileges in her upbringing or early education,” says Attridge.
Zilwa has come a long way from being instructed by her brother to study accounting to being a leader in the accounting industry.

Tag: Black Women

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What Will It Take To Close The Funding Gap For Black Female Founders?

On A Roll With Used Tyres

Never Let A Puncture Slow You Down