Waverly Deutsch

If I teach again, it will likely be at a community college where those people are unlikely to ever experience a professor like me. I want Wiseheart to be part of Renumerative and part giving back. And that's the goal of Wiseheart. And by the way, my tagline is tough love for entrepreneurs. So I'm not pulling my punches here.

If I teach again, it will likely be at a community college where those people are unlikely to ever experience a professor like me. I want Wiseheart to be part of Renumerative and part giving back. And that's the goal of Wiseheart. And by the way, my tagline is tough love for entrepreneurs. So I'm not pulling my punches here.

I'm giving the same kind of coaching to the entrepreneurs that I work with as an independent that I always did to you and your colleagues at Boots.

I'm giving the same kind of coaching to the entrepreneurs that I work with as an independent that I always did to you and your colleagues at Boots.

Yes. In fact, I just accepted a speaking engagement to talk a little bit about funding. LGBTQ entrepreneurs in today's world with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. They're doing an event for Pride Month. I am hoping to work with StartOut to refresh the report that we did in 2016 on the state of LGBTQ entrepreneurship in the US because I think that data is now almost 10 years old.

Yes. In fact, I just accepted a speaking engagement to talk a little bit about funding. LGBTQ entrepreneurs in today's world with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. They're doing an event for Pride Month. I am hoping to work with StartOut to refresh the report that we did in 2016 on the state of LGBTQ entrepreneurship in the US because I think that data is now almost 10 years old.

And one of the biggest challenges in thinking about the availability of resources to LGBTQ entrepreneurs is that nobody collects the data. That's something where you have to self-identify. You don't find it in the census.

And one of the biggest challenges in thinking about the availability of resources to LGBTQ entrepreneurs is that nobody collects the data. That's something where you have to self-identify. You don't find it in the census.

You can't use AI to screen for names that indicate being a member of the LGBTQ community the way you do for gender research or even BIPOC research where you can triangulate and create a data set that is likely to be made up of people with non-Caucasian heritage. You can't do that. This is a community that has to self-identify.

You can't use AI to screen for names that indicate being a member of the LGBTQ community the way you do for gender research or even BIPOC research where you can triangulate and create a data set that is likely to be made up of people with non-Caucasian heritage. You can't do that. This is a community that has to self-identify.

So you can't say to venture capitalists, how many LGBTQ entrepreneurs do you have in among your portfolio companies? Because they say, how would we know? Unless that entrepreneur has had a direct conversation with them, unless they have self-identified with their investor. It's very difficult to get data.

So you can't say to venture capitalists, how many LGBTQ entrepreneurs do you have in among your portfolio companies? Because they say, how would we know? Unless that entrepreneur has had a direct conversation with them, unless they have self-identified with their investor. It's very difficult to get data.

There's a wonderful group out of Chicago called Blend that is working on diversity in the venture capital community in Chicago. And when they were doing their research, I said, why aren't you asking about LGBTQ entrepreneurs? They said, isn't that intrusive? So we think it's not intrusive to ask about gender.

There's a wonderful group out of Chicago called Blend that is working on diversity in the venture capital community in Chicago. And when they were doing their research, I said, why aren't you asking about LGBTQ entrepreneurs? They said, isn't that intrusive? So we think it's not intrusive to ask about gender.

We think it's not intrusive to ask someone about their marital status or if they have kids, but we think it's intrusive to ask if they identify as LGBTQ. Why? Because there's still a risk in identifying that way. So I said, rather than asking, are you an LGBTQ plus founder? You can ask, Do you choose to publicly identify as an LGBTQ plus founder, right?

We think it's not intrusive to ask someone about their marital status or if they have kids, but we think it's intrusive to ask if they identify as LGBTQ. Why? Because there's still a risk in identifying that way. So I said, rather than asking, are you an LGBTQ plus founder? You can ask, Do you choose to publicly identify as an LGBTQ plus founder, right?

You can ask your venture capitalists, how many self-identified LGBTQ capital entrepreneurs have you funded in your portfolio? We have to rely on self-identification to even collect data in that space. that makes it much harder to know what's happening with their access to resources, with their support, with their outcomes.

You can ask your venture capitalists, how many self-identified LGBTQ capital entrepreneurs have you funded in your portfolio? We have to rely on self-identification to even collect data in that space. that makes it much harder to know what's happening with their access to resources, with their support, with their outcomes.

It's just a very difficult community to support for that reason, because in the US and in many cultures around the world, it's still a risk to come out as LGBTQ. We've seen a huge rise of anti-LGBTQ backlash in this country. Cargit, which has annually done a beautiful collection of products for Pride, gave in to the protests about recognizing Pride Month and pulled that line of products.

It's just a very difficult community to support for that reason, because in the US and in many cultures around the world, it's still a risk to come out as LGBTQ. We've seen a huge rise of anti-LGBTQ backlash in this country. Cargit, which has annually done a beautiful collection of products for Pride, gave in to the protests about recognizing Pride Month and pulled that line of products.