This article originally appeared in the Sept/Oct issue of Startups Magazine. Click here to subscribe

By Seven Jacobs, Startup Lead at Colorintec

Firstly, I do want to preface the obvious (obvious if you look at my headshot) that as a white man, I’ll have a very limited view of what the ecosystem is like from lived experiences and specific perspectives. So, I’ve made it my job to listen to our community – and much of my reflections here today represent my best attempt so far to do so.

Underrepresented tech founders are less likely to raise, to be funded, raise less on average, and many more disheartening things – all despite being more likely to start a business, and actually more likely to succeed when given the same level of funding and support as their more privileged peers. And of the funding that does go to female founders, the majority goes to white female founders – 79% in fact (in the US, I believe this is higher in the UK with this infamous stat about 0.2% going to female founders of colour). Hard not to feel like a tick-box exercise, right?

What’s the solution?

I don't want to belabour the point about the challenges, because let's be honest: we've heard them before, and too often too. The founders in our community have told us time and time again – I don't want problems, I want solutions.

So, what are the solutions? Well, when I ask that question back to our community, I get a number of comments, but many of them essentially boiled down to 'investors don't look like me' – in other words, startup investments aren't diverse enough because investors aren't diverse enough. (Big surprise, I'm sure.)

"But isn't that just another problem we already know about?"

Kind of. But to me, it reveals the more practical steps that everyone can be a part of.

Firstly, because more people in the ecosystem are aware that fund managers aren’t very diverse, there are more funds started by diverse investors, for diverse entrepreneurs. The likes of Unconventional Ventures, January Ventures, Alma Angels, and many others show that there are more players in the space who are aware of the challenge – and with awareness, energy can flow towards bridging this gap. We’re also close to Atomico, who have been known to put a lot of effort into ensuring their team looks more diverse, reporting some of the highest numbers of female-identifying investors of any firm in the UK.

Secondly, the more successful people and advocates we have from diverse backgrounds, the more that success is likely to be passed down – whether in the form of angel investments, advisory, or anything else.

One of my founders told me a story of a trade mission to New York, and of the diverse entrepreneurial community who encouraged them to be there! Successful people from diverse backgrounds know best what people from their community need when starting off; they make the best advocates, angel investors, and coaches. With more successful female founders in the ecosystem, I expect there will come more investments from them (with their exit money) which are more likely to go into other female founders. This is the same with other underrepresented communities too.

So, the short answer here is community. I wonder if, in the UK and Europe, the community is as strong as other places around the world for diverse founders. Lots of communities like ours at Colorintech exist, formal and informal, and I wonder if more involvement and contribution from early-stage to late-stage, to exit – within those communities – would make a huge difference.

Why am I excited about the progress?

We're entering a time of more diverse actors, and much more community in the space. But I'm also excited because something is changing in the ecosystem more widely that I think will make the startup ecosystem more diverse.

Gone (somewhat) are the days where someone can raise with just an idea. Everyone now needs to put the work in to prove that they're worth investing in. This means that the diverse founders who are used to the hustle, and are more likely to succeed, will be more useful, able, and adaptable in this market that is now valuing those traits more highly. Combine that with more female-started businesses that have exits, and we’ll have more money moving to underrepresented communities.

And the world is shifting too – where some doors seem to be closing, others are opening, and when you combine that with other shifts towards improved representation in this ecosystem, I think things are going to look radically different in the next 10 years. Despite the stats, there is focus going in these directions. And where the focus goes, energy flows.