Crew

Arlan built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5m into over 80 startup companies led by underestimated founders.

Arlan is also tour manager to Atlantic Records recording artist Janine. Having founded and published the internationally distributed indie magazine INTERLUDE, and toured extensively as a live music production professional, she enters the venture investing world from an unconventional path. When she’s not writing about herself in the 3rd person, she enjoys yelling at teenagers from her porch, writing the ‘L Word’ fanfic twitter page @ModernLWord, and watching the hell out of some ‘General Hospital’. 👊🏾

Christie is Partner + Chief of Staff of Backstage Capital. She is responsible for guiding our Crew to ensure Backstage runs smoothly towards its mission as well as joining Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton, in making investment decisions (aka signing Headliners!) Christie has extensive experience creating valuable partnerships between startups and Fortune 500 top 20 corporations, and joins Backstage from her role as Venture Development Manager at Verizon Ventures. Christie holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from San Jose State University, and an MBA from University of Phoenix.

Lisa is the Chief Revenue Officer at Backstage Studio, bringing to the table years of experience in growing startups and Fortune 500 companies. Most recently, she held the role of Brand Strategist at Blavity, a popular tech company for forward-thinking Black millennials pushing the boundaries of culture and the status quo. The intersection of her work as management consultant, non-profit exec, and storyteller have all come together for the purpose of creating access to opportunities for black and brown founders. Lisa holds a graduate degree from Pepperdine University in Entrepreneurship and Strategy. She’s also a poet, blues/R&B singer, youth empowerment champion, bellydancer, 90s music aficionado, amateur chef, and coffee junkie.

Bryan is COO at Backstage, translating vision into execution. He works to grow our impact globally through Backstage Accelerator, invest in the best underestimated founders through Backstage Capital, and support our team and founders through Backstage Studio. He also produces + co-hosts Backstage Capital’s podcast (The Bootstrapped VC, leads overall brand design, and creates content for Green Room. Bryan’s past work with startups ranges from helping the early Pinterest team with HTML email campaigns to leading visual design and co-leading product at Zapier (YC S12). He holds a BFA from CalArts and has been a touring + recording banjoist in Nashville, a film/TV composer, and a music editor for the Reba McEntire sitcom, of which Arlan is a fan.

Meighan empowers our Founder + Managing Partner as Arlan’s Executive Assistant, ensuring that Backstage Capital stays focused and efficient while growing and fostering key relationships. Additionally, she helps manage internal projects at Backstage related to knowledge and relationship management. Previously, Meighan was an Associate at Techstars Music program in Los Angeles, helping manage day-to-day operations and Demo Day planning. Her work experience ranges from customer management at Organic Valley, a popular organic dairy co-op, to helping Obama get re-elected in 2012 as a Vote Deputy Director at Organizing for America. She holds a BA in Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota.

Anastasia is CEO and co-founder of a newly established company, bosa, a health and wellness app that helps anticipate and prevent burnout. She was the 2015 Internal Program and Culture Fellow for GRID110’s inaugural fashion-tech accelerator cohort.

Anastasia is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy. When not traversing Los Angeles via public transit, Anastasia can be found enjoying Sunday Fundays with her closest friends, daydreaming about cold-pressed juice and ice cream, and mentoring. 😋🍏🍓🥗

Wayne is responsible for Backstage Accelerator programming, which ensures founder short- and long-term success through mentor connections, logistics, and curriculum. Previously, he launched the first accelerator for underestimated founders in 2011, and a pre-accelerator in 2014. In 2015, Wayne joined Change Catalyst to launch its Tech Inclusion programs to exploring innovative solutions to diversity and inclusion in tech through conferences, training, workshops, and fellows programs. Wayne has been recognized as one of the “Silicon Valley 100 coolest people in tech”, “52 hottest new stars in Silicon Valley”, “46 Most Important African-Americans In Technology”, and “Top 100 most influential black people on social media”. His work has been featured on CNN, BBC, USA Today, TechCrunch, Mashable, and Black Enterprise; his thought leadership on diversity and inclusion in tech has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Wayne has been a featured speaker at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke, UNC, TEDx, O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, DockerCon, and the U.S. Embassy Jamaica. Wayne winds down with long motorcycle rides on his Ducati Scrambler Full Throttle along Hwy 1 with life partner Melinda Epler.

Melinda is focused on the success of our Backstage Accelerator startups through programming, resources, and building healthy local and global entrepreneur ecosystems for underestimated founders. As Founder of Change Catalyst + Tech Inclusion — and a strategic advisor for startups, tech companies, tech hubs, and governments around the world — Melinda has built inclusive innovation ecosystems globally. She has 25+ years of experience developing business innovation and inclusion strategies for startups, Fortune 500 companies, and NGOs. She speaks, mentors, and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, allyship, social entrepreneurship, underrepresented entrepreneurs, and investing. Melinda is also a TED speaker and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. On weekends she’s often riding through Northern California on her motorcycle with life partner Wayne Sutton.

Lolita brings to Backstage her early-stage tech investing experience from Portfolia and K Fund. Her experience includes sourcing early-stage tech startups for investment, evaluating viability and exit strategies, assessing competitive landscapes, and advising existing portfolio companies on B2B enterprise strategy. Prior to joining the VC world, she spent 9 years in the trenches, selling enterprise B2B tech solutions to Fortune 500 companies at IBM, Cisco Systems, and Silicon Valley and NYC startups. That’s where she learned what it takes for products and services to sell and scale — a handy skill set in assessing investment viability and advising startups on how to close enterprise deals. Lolita holds a BA in International Relations and Global Business from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and an MBA with an emphasis in Tech and Venture Capital from the IE Business School in Madrid. She’s living the dream working alongside and investing in the next generation of diversity-led tech unicorns. 🦄

Brittany brings experience sourcing early-stage ventures for investment, conducting diligence, and managing an investment pipeline. She was a Manager at Village Capital where she analyzed opportunities and created investment recommendations in the fintech, education, health, food/agriculture, and energy sectors. Previously, she founded an ecommerce startup, Runway Technologies, while completing an MBA at Harvard Business School. She gained experience supporting entrepreneurs as an Associate at Techstars and as a Mentor at Startup Jamaica, built a solid foundation in finance working at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 5 years, and received her BS in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Del Johnson is a Principal at Backstage Capital focused on sourcing and vetting potential portfolio investments, as well as supporting operations on the East Coast. Previously, Del worked with the People Operations team at Google coordinating the engineering hiring committee, directing the candidate gifts program for the Mountain View headquarters, and developing an internal initiative that added over 50 women and minority engineers to the company’s hiring pipeline. He was also an award-winning account manager at Oracle, where he led complex B2B enterprise and mid-market software sales cycles from sourcing to close. Del holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and received his Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School.

Arnulfo “Chacho” Valadez, Jr., fulfills the important role of assisting Backstage Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton, ensuring operations run smoothly and successfully. An aspiring venture capitalist soon to complete his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration + Marketing, he has experience with running day-to-day operations at SMBs, business development, and sales. The son of an immigrant, Chacho has a strong desire to highlight diversity, especially amongst the Hispanic Entrepeneur community. You might also find him fishing for bass + pike with his wife, working on his golf swing, cheering on Wisconsin sports teams, and exploring his new home of Metro-Detroit. 🎣🏌🏽

Amrit is a CBIR (Community Builder-in-Residence) at Backstage Capital, where she is responsible for creating resources for Backstage Headliners through vendor partnerships, and internal content and community building initiatives. Alongside her work with Backstage, Amrit operates CMYK Ventures, her agency that works with consumer-driven brands and investors. Previously, she worked with funds like Collaborative Fund and RRE Ventures, six advertising agencies, and startups like CreativeMornings and Meetup to build communities around creative companies, entrepreneurs, and venture capital funds.

Alex Marshall leads Platform for the Backstage portfolio. Most recently, she was Co-founder + Head of Client Experience at Health IQ, a special rate insurer for health-conscious people that’s raised over $80M. In 2018, she was ranked in the top 30 female founders in the US in the Quartz and Pitchbook Founders Index, and is ranked the 4th Latina in the US for the most money raised in venture capital. Alex has years of experience in tech, finance, and behavioral analytics. Prior to Health IQ, she worked at Goldman Sachs in the securities division. She is obsessed with using the customer journey and psychology to prove, define, and drive value creation. Outside of work, she dedicates herself to health-focused education reform and volunteers on supporting immigration cases. She graduated from Williams College with a BA in Studio Art. She’s also an artist, writer, Olympic weightlifter, and composer. 🖤

Dianne is a wanderer, currently based in Los Angeles. She travels around the world documenting behind-the-scenes at Backstage Capital and how Arlan created a thriving venture capital fund from nothing in our web series, The Bootstrapped VC TV. Dianne received her degree in film production from Full Sail University and has been working in film, television, theater, and misc. arts for over a decade. She met Arlan during a magical night out at their favorite venue in Hollywood, the Hotel Cafe — well, actually they met in the alley behind the Hotel Cafe back in 2005. They have been empowering each other and working together in some capacity ever since. 🤷

Amiah is an Operations Associate, assistant to Backstage Partner + COO Christie Pitts, and an Analyst on the Deal Flow Team. Originally from Inglewood, CA, she’s is a perpetual learner interested in examining the myriad ways founders harness, strategize, and utilize their unique socio-cultural location at the intersection of technology and finance. At Barnard College of Columbia University in NYC, Amiah leveraged sociology to explore gender and organizational leadership (specifically for Women and Women of Color), entrepreneurship, and business development. She has worked and led social innovation impact projects for a wide variety of non-profits, community organizations, higher education institutes, and corporations. Amiah is focused on startups bringing innovation to the beauty and wellness industry.

Sarah and Arlan have been friends and professional collaborators since 1995, when they connected as members of the Janet Jackson fan club. They grew to become (snail mail) pen pals, and eventually met up IRL and traveled all over the place on wild adventures. Sarah was the copy editor for the first issues of ‘Interlude’, the magazine Arlan published prior to founding Backstage. She even joined Arlan for her first music tour with solo artist Terra Naomi, and half of her first tour with punk rock band goldenboy. Prior to joining Backstage, Sarah pursued a noble passion – working with animals. At Backstage, Sarah is helping to amplify our mission by contributing to operations and marketing, all while keeping her 3 cats and 1 husband in check. 🐈

Greer has worked in the legal industry for 8 years, most recently focused on emerging growth companies and venture capital. Her VC operational expertise includes everything from stock certificate distribution to due diligence process. She holds a BA in Journalism from California State University Northridge. Greer is also an avid sports fan.

Opeola works closely with Backstage Principal Lolita Taub on strategic initiatives as well as marketing and operations. She brings an extensive background in marketing, operations, and business design. She’s collaborated with numerous startups, emerging brands, non-profits, and entrepreneurial support organizations, including the Kauffman Foundation and Techstars Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator. Based in Philadelphia, she’s committed to supporting entrepreneurial development in the local tech ecosystem. Opeola has lived and worked internationally, speaks 3 languages, and is a major champion of diversity in tech. She has a background and strong interest in venture capital, operations management, and economic development.

Rachel has a background in the charity sector, working for Women’s Aid Integrated Services in the High Risk Domestic Violence team. Previously, she worked in Research Ethics for the Health Research Authority, an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health in the UK. Rachel has a 1st Class degree and a Masters in Research in American Studies from the University of Nottingham, and she’s passionate about writing and equal rights. She’s known Arlan for over thirteen years and is excited to help share her story and work towards Backstage’s mission. Rachel is also a Co-founder of a non-profit organisation called Fan Club, which celebrates women and non-binary people in music and art. Fan Club is based in Nottingham, where Rachel works remotely, and they put on events, live shows and publish a zine.

Keziyah is a full-stack software engineer for Backstage Studio, where she primarily works on building new products from the ground up. She received a BA in French and Spanish, and a BS in Sociology from the Florida State University. She has previously worked as a public health educator and crisis counselor at Washington, DC nonprofits, and as an ESL teacher for primary school & university students, as well as working adults. She enjoys a good run, visiting new places, and the occasional Twitter rant.

In addition to helping Backstage with full-stack development, Faye is the Co-founder + Developer of PlayLoops, a startup developing tools and services to make it super easy for justice organizations to create high-engagement content for social media. A Bay Area native, she holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science from UC Irvine and graduated from Dev Bootcamp, and 18-week, immersive coding program.

Jaimie is the Executive Assistant to Backstage Founder and Managing Partner, Arlan Hamilton. She met Arlan back in 2005 at the Hotel Café, a notable Hollywood music venue, through musician Terra Naomi while Arlan was her tour manager. Jaimie worked in the Business Affairs department at the Recording Academy, the organization responsible for the Grammy Awards, for 7 years, followed by a short stint as a freelancer based in Oregon, before returning to LA and the Academy. Her passions include collecting vinyl records with her husband, an engineer, and traveling to experience live music. 🎧

As a Special Consultant, Gabi works closely with Backstage Partners Arlan + Christie on various marketing and investor relations projects. She has 17 years of private equity and venture capital experience as a Limited Partner, a fund of funds Senior Marketing Executive, and a Marketing Consultant. Previously, Gabi served as Program/Business Development Director for RG + Associates, a Marketing Consultant for Next Sector Capital, and Director of Investor Relations and Marketing at Parish Capital Advisors, a minority-owned private equity fund of funds. While at Parish, she was responsible for raising over $1B in assets through various products. She began her private equity/venture capital career on the Private Investments Team at Duke Management Company (DUMAC). Gabi holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an avid Tarheel basketball fan, a Trekkie for life and is a serious Househead (House Music All Night Long!) 🖖🏽🎶

Mark is a seasoned, globally-minded employee experience leader who has chosen to work for big-hearted companies – including Best Buy, Levi Strauss & Company, and Gap Inc. – to unleash the talents and passions of a company’s employees. Most recently, Mark pioneered the design of the Employee Experience at Airbnb, which was recognized as the #1 Place to Work in 2016 by Glassdoor, and which has since inspired significant changes in the way organizations around the world are looking to expand the HR function to focus on the entire employee journey.

Mark has helped numerous organizations enable their employees to help those less fortunate through volunteering programs and community involvement, served on the Gap Foundation Board of Directors, and is currently on the Board of First Graduate, a non-profit which helps those who are the first in their family to attend and graduate college. Mark brings his experience and passion to Backstage to help further our efforts in investing in underestimated founders and to support our Headliners in the areas of people and partnerships. Mark is a lifelong learner, yogi, married to his best friend, and father of three – well, four if you include their chocolate lab. 😄

Kim is a longtime technology enthusiast, having spent the past 9 years working in early-stage tech. She’s currently co-founding Oxtale, a startup helping modern consumers integrate global flavors into everyday life with meal starters. As the first Platform Builder-in-Residence at Backstage, she was responsible for building initiatives, programs, and resources to help our portfolio founders scale their teams and companies. Kim formerly operated a consultancy, which works with forward-thinking venture funds and startup builders. She graduated from NYU, where she was the first female president of Tech@NYU and a founding partner of Dorm Room Fund NYC. Kim was Head of Platform at Frontline Ventures, a B2B SaaS fund in Dublin and London. Her work there led to her being recognized in 2017 in Forbes 30 Under 30.

Kelli is the Head of People at FabFitFun. Previously, she founded Sundry Style, an e-commerce marketplace that features a range of products by emerging black fashion designers and artisans, and co-founded Paradigm, a consulting firm that has helped dozens of top tech companies recruit and retain women and minorities.

Kelli practiced corporate law at Fenwick & West, where she worked on several of the tech industry’s largest M&A deals. In 2015, Kelli was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her work advancing diversity in tech and in the legal profession. Kelli is a graduate of Rice University, cum laude, and Stanford Law School.

She also enjoys hosting dinner parties and exploring Los Angeles. 🥘🌞🌴

Earnest Sweat is the investment manager at PLD Ventures. His career has consisted of a blend of real estate, finance, and technology-focused roles. Prior to his current role, Earnest served as an Investor-in-Residence at Backstage Capital where he focused on the technical and business model due diligence of investment opportunities. Earnest began his career at BMO Capital Markets as an equity research analyst covering REITs. A former startup founder and tech blogger, he’s passionate about serving as a startup advisor for high-potential startup entrepreneurs and has worked with accelerators, including Camelback Ventures and GSVLabs, assisting startups with fundraising and reaching product-market fit. Earnest holds a Bachelors of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Nahid is a Senior Software Engineer at Cisco Systems, creating new ventures in the Enterprise IoT space. She has 7+ years of experience in systems, software, and IoT products both in startups and Fortune 100 companies. Earlier, she founded Litehouse, a voice platform for connected home products. She mentored startups at Intel for the TBS reality TV show America’s Greatest Makers.

A native of Bangladesh, Nahid started her career in the U.S. at Intel where she was quickly promoted for going above and beyond her role to propose and lead a technology roadmap around the Maker Movement.

She’s spoken at conferences including TEDx and Women Techmakers Summit, and was featured in GigaOM, MacLife Magazine, and EEWeb. Nahid built and sold a mobile messaging startup during her college days at Bangladesh.

Yves is the Founder of Backstage-acquired The Door, an online community that helps underrepresented founders succeed. He’s a Google Launchpad Mentor and 500 Startups alum. Yves has been a long-time Management Consultant at Accenture, an Advisor to the Mayor of SF, and Head of Marketing + Business Development at Scopio. He holds a BBA in Management Information Systems from Howard University, and an MPA in International Finance & Economic Policy from Columbia University.