Avenger of the Week | Kathryn Finney
When Kathryn Finney started making and selling friendship bracelets from her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 4th grade, it was definitely a sign of things to come.
Today she is referred to as a serial entrepreneur, a creator of several platforms that pumped millions of dollars into Black women-led, tech-enabled startups, an innovator, an author, a mentor and now, a venture capitalist.
“Entrepreneurs stand out from the rest of the pack because they are not afraid to take big risks and they aim to please no one except the people who truly matter,” says Finney.
She also says, “At the end of the day you have to go home to yourself. You have to be with yourself. So make sure what you're doing in business is representative of who you are and that you feel comfortable and that you can stand behind your work.”
Finney credits her father, a Microsoft engineer, for her entrepreneurial spirit. She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in women’s studies and politics and received a master’s in epidemiology from Yale University. While working in public health for USAID, she started writing a fashion blog for fun in 2003. It became one of the first successful lifestyle blogs, and she eventually left her job and sold The Budget Fashionista in 2014.
She wanted to change the low business ownership of women of color in the tech-enabled industry and elsewhere and support innovators as a means of improving the economy of their communities and beyond.
In 2012, she established the non-profit digitalundivided and began the ongoing ProjectDiane research into Black and Latinx women-owned businesses. The organization has mentored and assisted more than 2,000 Black and Latinx women with over $15 million in investments. Its 12-week accelerator program for startups provides a structured curriculum focused on developing sustainable businesses, mentorship by top leaders, opportunities to pitch directly to investors, and $20,000 in funding from the Harriet Angels. The program won the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2015–2016 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition.
Last year she left digitalundivided to establish the Genius Guild, a business-creation platform that uses the venture studio model, which consists of a business creation lab, a venture capital fund, and co-building with Black founders who are leading scalable companies. Venture capital investments are made in those companies, as well as other companies led by Black founders, through its $10 million Greenhouse Fund. Greenhouse focuses on companies that serve Black communities and have the ability to scale globally.
“We know that products and services that first achieve success by serving Black communities often reach significant scale as they expand outside of our community,” said Finney, noting an example. “Shea Moisture, sold to corporate giant Unilever for a reportedly $1 billion sale, graces the shelves of the Beverly Hills Target.”
Books by Finney include How To Be A Budget Fashionista and How to Start a Successful Business If You’re Not a Rich White Guy, to be published next year.
Also, at the height of the pandemic, Finney raised $150,000 in six weeks with a few posts and emails for The Doonie Fund, named after her grandmother, to give micro grants to 1,500 Black women-owned businesses that were struggling.
For her many successes in business and social enterprises on behalf of women of color and as a role model for non-stop entrepreneurial spirit, Kathryn Finney is our Avenger of the Week.
This week’s @GenderAvenger #AvengerOfTheWeek is @KathrynFinney because of her dedication to the success of Black and Latinx women founders and incredible entrepreneurial spirit. #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avenger-of-the-week-kathryn-finney