Founded by Kenya Burrell-VanWormer and Katherine Winston, the advisory group completed the formation of a mentorship team and raised $3 million in its first year in operation, according to the report.
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Equity Angels has released a 2024 Impact Report on its first year as a startup advisory firm focusing on fair access to the resources that help businesses scale.
The organization launched in January 2024 in an effort to find a solution to the inequity still rife within venture capital markets. Founded by Kenya Burrell-VanWormer, formerly chief growth officer at proptech startup New Estate Only and now adjunct professor at Houston Community College teaching proptech, digital marketing, and technology integration for real estate professionals and Katherine Winston, a founding member of analytics firm Plunk and now focused solely on Equity Angels, provides mentorship, fractional executives and fundraising preparation for companies founded by entrepreneurs from diverse demographics.
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Both women serve as managing partners of Equity Angels.
Highlights of Equity Angels’ first year in operation include the formation of its mentorship team, which includes National Fair Housing Alliance Senior Vice President Laurie Banner, Twenty Five Ventures founder Maximillian Diez, Vanguard Properties Chief Technology Officer Nina Dosanjh, Rotten Tomatoes cofounder Patrick Lee and Morpheus Ventures partner Howard Ko.
The firm’s cohort consisted of four companies that raised a total of $3 million and created 11 jobs. The startup collective was made up of agent and broker financial services firm Upfront, home furnishing visualization solution The Studio Home, recruiting and retention company Maverick Systems, and Billions, a startup that strives to improve operations for high-performing teams.
Winston and Burrell-VanWormer, a former chair of the Houston Association of Realtors and Inman’s 2018 “Person of the Year,” cite a number of industry statistics to back their mission. A Gusto study found that “in 2023, only three percent of women entrepreneurs surveyed received a private capital investment to start their business, compared with 9 percent of male entrepreneurs.”
Consulting firm McKinsey found that “in 2022, Black and Latino founders received only 1 percent and 1.5 percent respectively of total U.S. venture capital (VC) funding. Women-founded teams received 1.9 percent of VC funds, and only 0.1 percent of VC funds went to Black and Latino women founders.”
However, there is good news for Equity Angels’ purpose, as the Gusto report discovered that of the 1,300 business owners it surveyed, 49 percent of the new business owners were women versus 45 percent men.
Upfront cofounder Pierre Calzadilla, a participant of the Equity Angels Catalyst Program, said his work with Equity Angels has proved to be invaluable.
“As a Latino in proptech,” said Calzadilla, who’s company locked in a $2.5 million funding round in September, “I worked my way up for over 15 years, and still — with all my experience — the time from Equity Angels and mentorship proved to be incredibly additive to my growth and preparedness as a startup founder.”
Craig Rowe has co-hosted two webinars for Equity Angels on working with the news media.