Keynote Topics
Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started in 2015, […]
Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT.
Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested over $15M into 175 startups led by underestimated founders and has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz.
Arlan made history by making the cover of Fast Company as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so, and her book “It’s About Damn Time” is out on Penguin Random House’s business imprint Currency. She and Backstage Studio were also the subjects of Season 7 of the popular Gimlet Media podcast, StartUp. Arlan now hosts Your First Million, a weekly podcast featuring in-depth conversations with how the world’s most successful people finessed their first million dollars, customers, or downloads.
Arlan Hamilton entered the venture investing world from an unconventional path. Before launching Backstage Capital, she authored the groundbreaking blog “Your Daily Lesbian Moment”, which she grew to a monthly readership of 50,000 fans worldwide. She has written for AOL, SuicideGirls, and Curve Magazine, and founded and published the internationally distributed indie magazine Interlude. Arlan Hamilton was also a live music production professional, having served as a tour coordinator to numerous international artists including Toni Braxton, and Jason Derulo. Most recently she worked with Atlantic Records recording artist Janine.
In 2018, Arlan co-founded, along with Investment Partner Christie Pitts, Backstage Studio, a new venture studio designed to build products, services, and initiatives that serve the mission of eliminating underrepresentation in tech by empowering founders and their teams to succeed.
Also in 2018, Backstage Studio announced the launch of four accelerator programs, in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and London, UK. Called the Backstage Accelerator, this three-month program is designed to give founders the support they need to reach their next critical milestone, through mentorship, investment capital, and access to resources and networks.
Arlan Hamilton was recently named on Fortune magazine’s 40 under 40 list, as well as,Vanity Fair magazine’s The 2018 New Establishment List.
In 2019, Arlan and her mother, Mrs. Earline Butler-Sims, announced their new scholarship program, which kicked off with Oxford University’s first-ever undergraduate scholarship for a Black student, as well as a full-ride scholarship for a Psychology student at Mrs. Sims’ alma mater, HBCU Dillard University.
Arlan’s company, Backstage Capital, produced and released ‘jOURney’, a documentary celebrating the five year anniversary of the firm, highlighting the people and companies who made it what it is today and released an impact report highlighting the strides Backstage has made in changing the venture capital scene. They also launched Backstage Crowd, a funding platform giving access to the best diverse deal flow in VC. Backstage ended 2020 having made over 30 investments in underestimated founders.
To cap the year, Arlan Hamilton Academy was launched. Arlan recruited experts from across the tech universe to teach and give insight into what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Now anyone can learn what was only available to those ‘in-the-know’ in Silicon Valley.
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5FM’s Fikile ‘DJ Fix’ Moeti is a well-known South African Radio DJ, Club DJ and TV Personality (born 10 September 1986). Fix, made MTV history when she became the first female VJ on ‘MTV networks Africa’. The entrepreneurial 27-year-old beauty has graced our screens since 2006 when she won a nationwide competition to become MTV base’s […]
Richard Sutton is a renowned health and performance expert based in South Africa, celebrated for his innovative approaches to stress resilience and human potential optimization. With a career spanning over two decades, Richard has been instrumental in guiding elite athletes, corporate leaders, and organizations toward achieving peak performance through strategic lifestyle and behavioral modifications. In […]
Justin Bonello presenter, traveller, father, husband, filmmaker, gardener … and not particularly in that order … Filmmaker, veteran presenter, author and Head of Production at Cooked in Africa Films. Justin Bonello has worked in the film industry since he was 14 years old and he is the co-founder of one of South Africa’s leading film […]
Kurdt Greenwood is a young, dynamic naturalist, conservationist, survival expert, and animal behavior specialist with a passion for wildlife that knows no bounds. From an early age, Kurdt has been captivated by the natural world, particularly the most dangerous and deadly creatures that inhabit it. His enthusiasm for wildlife is infectious, leaving audiences both terrified […]
Harry Sideropoulos is an award-winning stage actor, singer, voice- over artist, speaker, business man and foodie, celebrating over 20 years on stage. He started his public career many years ago on 94, 7 Highveld Stereo’s Rude Awakening Breakfast Show and soon became an integral part of the show for 6 successful years, before resigning to […]
The Parlotones singer and songwriter, Kahn Morbee, started learning to play the guitar at the age of 17, where he began a journey into song writing that would eventually end up defining The Parlotones sound. In the summer of 1998, Morbee was introduced to Neil Pauw, a drummer who had attended the same high school […]
Bryan Miles stands as one of the foremost exponents in the extraordinary fields of psychology and illusion. His mastery of Mentalism, Magic, Hypnosis, and the recreation of Psychic Ability creates a mesmerizing experience for audiences worldwide. However, unlike many performers in his field, Bryan takes a refreshingly grounded approach, never attempting to convince his audience […]
Vibrant and vivacious, Cathy Del Mei – Conference Entertainer is an exciting saxophonist with years of experience. From hotel lounges to theatre, and from clubs to corporate functions, Cathy has played for prestigious clients and top selling shows. Apart from the sax, Cathy is also a great keyboard player, having played cocktail piano in numerous elite hotels […]
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