Crew

Arlan Hamilton 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 people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $7 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018 Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London.

Christie is a General Partner of Backstage Capital and CEO of Backstage Studio. 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.

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.

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.

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. 🎧

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. 🎣🏌🏽

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. 🐈

Anastasia is passionate about empowering others, creating genuine connections, and striving towards financial independence through entrepreneurship. She ran Backstage Los Angeles Cohort 1 as Managing Director as well as co-founded bosa, a wellness and productivity app that enables consultants to provide the highest level of service to their clients. She’s also an emerging real estate and angel investor. Anastasia was the first Internal Program and Culture Fellow for GRID110, an LA-based organization focused on supporting early-stage entrepreneurs. Prior to entering tech and venture capital full-time, she served as an Administrative Analyst for the City of Los Angeles and a Management Analyst for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power. Anastasia has experience creating and leading programs in the non-profit, corporate, and public sectors. She’s a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy.

Monica Wheat is a Strategist, Educator, and Venture Developer leading Backstage Detroit. She is the Founder + Partner at Venture Catalysts, a venture and ecosystem development group. Monica also serves as an Advisor + Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Grand Circus Detroit, where she’s led projects focused on EdTech, corporate partnerships, and diversity + inclusion. She’s the Founder + Executive Director of Digerati Girls, Inc./Digerati Kids, a non-profit that has helped over 7,000 Detroit-area students gain skills and an introduction to careers in digital technology and entrepreneurship. Monica is extremely invested in the Detroit startup community and similar emerging tech ecosystems. She’s the Lead for Techstars Startup Programs including Detroit Startup Week and Startup Digest Detroit/Ann Arbor, and she’s also Co-founder + City Director of Startup Boost Detroit, a global pre-accelerator.

Tapan “Tops” Kataria is the Director of Backstage Detroit, a Venture Partner at Venture Catalysts, and the Chief of Staff of Detroit Startup Week. Previously, Tops was an Associate for ID Ventures, investing in early-stage, high-growth companies. He played a major role in the Techstars Mobility Accelerator as a Business and Operation Associate. He’s a DJ, Entrepreneur, and Investor, who’s obsessed with rapid growth marketplace and mobility startups. He can be bribed with brunch + cortados and is proud to call Detroit his home! 🍳☕️

Andy Davis was most recently an EIR at a health tech startup where he focused on people, product, and strategy. Having been in tech before the London ecosystem truly developed, he’s founded companies which gained VC funding, corporate support, and industry adoption. He’s also worked closely with other startups on investment, product, hiring, and business development. Andy currently leads an organically-grown, intimate, stage-agnostic community of Black tech entrepreneurs in London, 10×10, for which he spends c20 hours per week advising in several capacities. Andy deeply understands their problems, both personally and professionally, and knows what it takes to get the founders and their business to the next level.

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.

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.

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.