StartOut, the non-profit formed to help LGBT entrepreneurs, will honor L.A.’s Arlan Hamilton at its 2017 awards ceremony in San Francisco.
Hamilton is the founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital fund based that invests in exceptional women, people of color and LGBTQ tech founders.
Hamilton founded Backstage in 2015. It now has invested in more than 50 companies. Her limited partners include Marc Andreessen, Stewart Butterfield, Heather Hiles, Ellen Pao and Startout board member Chris Fraley.
Hamilton also is known as the founder of Interlude, the lesbian indie magazine, and for her work as a live music producer.
Hamilton was the author of a popular blog titled “and the lesbian-adjacent” from 2006 to 2011.
The awards event will take place on Oct. 6 at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco. Tickets can be purchased online.
StartOut, whose six chapters include one in Los Angeles, was founded in 2009 by Joe DiPasquale, Bryan Janeczko, Darren Spedale and Lorenzo Thione to promote LGBTQ equality and combat discrimination in the business world. “Almost every LGBTQ entrepreneur has encountered unequal access to key resources needed to advance their business, including a lack of visible role models, difficulty locating mentors, or being denied access to capital,” Startout notes on its website.
Currently StartOut about 15,000 members and puts on over 70 events a year with programs including networking, education, research and access to capital.
