Business
Meet Rodney Sampson: Angel Investor and ABC Shark Tank’s Head of Diversity
Sampson will share his insight on how entrepreneurs make it onto the show and how best to pitch one’s business concept to investors during an exclusive one-on-one interview during the conference. He also will discuss his book Kingonomics, which is an interpretation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s economic vision for jobs and financial freedom for all Americans through his lens as a serial entrepreneur and accredited investor primarily in technology and new media.
Hundreds of thousands of angels and venture capitalists are writing checks every day. Yet, less than 1 percent of all private equity in America is invested in black-owned companies each year. How then do startups raise the much needed seed capital and established companies raise the much needed capital to scale and grow. At the conference Sampson will address this issue by leading a panel session created for entrepreneurs and aspiring angel investors to help them learn how and when to engage with the investment ecosystem, how to get and stay in the “right room” of angels and venture capitalists, and how to create a new culture of black, brown and women owned angel investors.
In addition, select companies attending the conference will be able to schedule one-on-one sessions with active angel investors and check writers. “Angel investing is important to the entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem, particularly as it relates to job creation, disrupting poverty and closing the wealth gap in America,” says Sampson, who wrote Kingonomics: Twelve Innovative Currencies for Transforming Your Business and Life Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sampson encourages black accredited investors to become angels and to learn how to invest or co-invest (via seed and venture funds). He recently created blackangels.US as an extension of his Opportunity.UP: Unleashing Private Equity conference program.
Sampson says that blackangels.US exists to identify, inspire, train, mentor and activate a new investor class amongst black high net worth individuals (HNI), corporations and private institutions. Initially blackangels.US will target existing government contractors and companies that procure contracts from large corporations via supplier diversity opportunities.
Sampson also said, “Our message to these companies is that they have a responsibility to engage in the entire business ecosystem and cycle. Investing is the ultimate way to give back and has the greatest opportunity to create generational wealth and sustainability opportunities for generations to come.”
Copyright Black Enterprise Magazine 2014
