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 invested nearly $5m into 100 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.

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.

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.

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. 🤷

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. 🐈

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.

Jessica is the Executive Administrator to our CEO, Christie, and provides operational support for our Crew. But her connection to our founder goes back to a pre-Backstage 2007, when she was a guest writer for Arlan’s blog and Interlude Magazine. In 2015, Jess became a Limited Partner in Backstage. Previously she earned a Bachelors degree in business administration, worked at a pharmaceutical company in Palo Alto for almost 10 years working in Administration + Regulatory Affairs, and helped run a family commercial real estate company in Berlin, Germany. She and her dog (a yorkie mix named Kiko) now call Philadelphia home. She enjoys a good block of cheese, a funny movie, and spending time with loved ones.

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! 🍳☕️

Olivia is driven by the belief that access to peers, mentors, investors, and resources is crucial to the success of entrepreneurs and businesses. She is focused on cultivating a more vibrant and diverse tech community in Detroit. Under her role as a Venture Partner and Program Manager for Venture Catalysts, Olivia has taken the lead on strategic programming for Detroit Startup Week, which brings 11,000 entrepreneurs together in Detroit over a 5-day period of learning, sharing, and growing the community. She also championed bringing Blavity’s AfroTech to Detroit in 2018, – the first time the conference was held outside of Silicon Valley. She has been in world of tech recruiting for the past 5 years working with companies like Microsoft and, more recently, Duo Security, where she supported the hyper-growth as their team tripled in less than a year-and-a-half. Olivia will be bringing to the Backstage Detroit team her commitment to help the companies and entrepreneurs develop into great organizations and individuals.

Amanda Lewan is passionate about building inclusive founder communities. She bootstrapped her real estate company Bamboo to operate 25,000 sqft. of co-working, building a diverse and collaborative hub recognized nationally for their impact. She has over a decade of startup operations and marketing experience. When she’s not nerding out over startups and tech, she loves to write, read, cycle, cook, and introduce people to Detroit.

Andy Ayim is a startup investor, advisor, and Product Manager with over 7+ years experience. He provides both startup and scale-up companies Product Management support to build products customers love. Experience spans across B2B and B2C products, and both mobile and web apps. Andy previously co-founded a music discovery and distribution startup, Mixtape Madness, and has also experienced working globally as a Management Consultant with EY + Elixirr. He believes founders and investors from low income communities are undervalued and underestimated. This presents a significant market opportunity for investors who widen participation through differentiated deal flow.

Anisah is the Founder + CEO of 23 Code Street, a coding school for women created to make technology more accessible to women and non-binary people. She was the first employee and Operations Director for The Bakery, a global accelerator bringing new products and services to market by connecting startups and brands, responsible for managing end-to-end programmes. Anisah also ran a Sirius Programme arm, an accelerator, funded and run by the UK government, to bring global startup talent to the UK. Having seen the lack of diversity and inclusion in tech and the effects this has on products and services, Anisah is determined to be a signpost for the underrepresented to create a workforce that represents our society.

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.

Anastasia is passionate about empowering others, creating genuine connections, and striving towards financial independence through entrepreneurship. She 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.

As a Director of Backstage Los Angeles, Amiah is an innovation curator. She spent years examining the myriad ways founders harness, strategize, and utilize their unique socio-cultural location to get to their desired successful outcome. A graduate of Columbia University in the City of New York, Amiah cultivated an academic and practical education leveraging sociology to explore gender and organizational leadership – specifically the experiences of Women and Women of Color – human resources, non-profit and social impact consulting, entrepreneurship, and business development. As a perpetual learner, she’s prioritized creating and implementing intersectional solutions, previously at BRAVA Investments and Propper Daley. Amiah is particularly bullish on investment opportunities in beauty and wellness sector, and about the LA tech ecosystem.

Prior to joining the Backstage Los Angeles team as a Director, Greer joined the Backstage Crew as an Analyst on our Deal Flow Team, which played a key part in closing out our 100 investment milestone in 2018. Both for previous investments and the first cohort of Backstage Accelerator, she reviewed hundreds of founder applications, participated in due diligence, applicant interviews, and the company selection process. Before Backstage, Greer worked in the legal industry for 8 years primarily focused on emerging growth companies and venture capital. She holds a BA in Journalism from California State University Northridge. Greer is a mom with a young family, an avid sports fan, and a sneakerhead.

Over the past 15 years, Liz has worked on a wide range of projects ranging from web and app development to research regarding motivation, cognitive learning, and design theory. Her passion for User Experience was ignited by her work as an Urban Planner who assisted communities in making human-centered design decisions for neighborhood revitalization projects in both Western New York and Philadelphia. Due to her passion for coding and design, Liz took on a second Master’s degree in Information Design and Technology while working as a Neighborhood Planner for the City of Philadelphia. In 2014, she co-founded Webjunto, a community and user experience focused web and mobile development company and the awards and recognition followed including: Technologist of the Year, Rad Awards 2018; Best Tech Workplace for Diversity, Timmy Awards, 2017; and Named one of Philly’s 12 Young Leaders in “Who’s Next in STEM”, to name a few.

AK is the Director of Backstage Philadelphia, founder of AI consulting company Allagi.ai, and past CMO and Principal of JetSense.AI. As an investor and serial entrepreneur, he understands the issues surrounding the lack of diversity and inclusion in tech, both personally and professionally. Allen has a passion for innovation and education, building the artificial intelligence-driven chatbot most notably used in the UCLA-led research study “Text Me: The Promise of Strategic Nudging to Increase Student Awareness and Access to Financial Aid”, which measured the effectiveness of text messaging and student matriculation outcomes. Allen is always working on ways to improve user experience outcomes through digital communications, data analysis, and artificial intelligence as he continues to create a roadmap to improve underrepresented founder success rates and bring value to the the tech ecosystem as whole.

Thom is an experienced business leader and entrepreneur in the creation and development of for-profit and non-profit organizations in both the private and public sectors. He has over thirty-five years of experience with assisting organizations as a senior advisor in the planning and development of business strategy; the launching and expansion of new divisions; and the financing and capitalization of programs. Thom currently serves as a Management Advisor to BASE Architecture, Planning, & Engineering one of the most successful and experience nationally owned and operated African-American Architectural and Engineering Firms; and to The Alpha Enterprise Group, ranked by Black Enterprise Magazine as one of the top 100 largest African American owned business in America.

Aniyia is an invaluable contributor to the Backstage community. A Backstage Capital portfolio founder with fashion tech startup Tinsel, she’s also a Co-Founder of Black & Brown Founders, an organization working to provide resources and access to underrepresented founders in tech, and Zebras Unite, which calls for a more ethical and inclusive movement to counter existing start-up and venture capital culture. With these efforts, Aniyia is a front-line leader in the revolution to bring representation to tech, and we’re honored to gain her expertise, wisdom, and support in making Backstage Philadelphia an incredible experience for underestimated founders.

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.

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.

Clair works with companies and founders on business operations and finance, understanding both the tactical and strategic and how they are crucially intertwined — from due diligence and compliance to financial statements and modeling, with a bit of market research, human resources, culture, and design thinking sprinkled in-between. Her unique perspective is complemented by a career with wide industry and institutional experience, from humanitarian relief in Sri Lanka to a venture studio in San Francisco. Clair has bachelor’s in International Development Studios from UCLA and an MBA from Georgetown University.

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. 🦄

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.

Lisa brings to Backstage 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.

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.