[Top Black Business Leaders Series] Defeating Racism in Startup Funding with Cheryl Contee of The Impact Seat

Cheryl Contee is the Chair and Founder of a digital marketing agency, Do Big Things. Before founding Do Big Things, she co-founded Fission Strategy and Attentive.ly. Attentive.ly is a tech startup specializing in influencer marketing technology and was acquired in 2018, making it the first tech startup with a black female founder on board in history to be acquired by a NASDAQ-traded company.

In 2019, Cheryl released her book, Mechanical Bull, which details her history as a non-traditional startup founder. Cheryl is also part of the leadership at The Impact Seat, an organization focused on democratizing access to capital in America and around the world.

She received her B.A. from Yale University and has an International Executive M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

In this episode…

In entrepreneurship and raising capital, you would think all that matters is investing in businesses with the highest likelihood of going public or businesses with a promising exit. But that’s not the case. Racism is still a significant factor that determines who gets funded — and by how much.

Cheryl Contee experienced racism firsthand when she was raising capital for Attentive.ly. An investor told her blatantly that she could not bring the great product and idea to the market. Shocking, right? Wait until you hear how Cheryl overcame that setback, took Attentive.ly to a big exit, and how she thinks investors can do better.

Tune in to this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast with Dr. Jeremy Weisz featuring Cheryl Contee, the Chief Innovation Officer at The Impact Seat. They discuss Cheryl’s entrepreneurial journey, her encounter with racism in the startup world, what she’s doing to change the narrative through The Impact Seat, lessons along the way, and more. Stay tuned.