From Idea to Impact: Overcoming Hurdles as an Underrepresented Founder and Investor in the Startup Ecosystem

Shila Nieves Burney

General Partner

Zane Venture Fund

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shila-nieves-burney-0346436/

Shila Nieves Burney is blazing a trail to create wealth-building opportunities to help underrepresented founders through entrepreneurship now and for future generations.

As founder and managing partner of Zane Venture Fund, Shila invests in diverse entrepreneurs and early-stage founders to help them scale their businesses and grow sustainable revenue. Shila also launched Zane Access, a nonprofit, comprehensive, end-to-end Capital Readiness program that is a highly-valued resource for emerging pre-seed companies with less than $10,000 in annual revenue.

Shila’s reputation as a leading venture capitalist in the Southeast, coupled with her tenacity and dedication to helping minorities develop tech-enabled companies, has helped Black, Asian, Latinx, and other underrepresented founders in the tech industry raise millions of dollars in investments in less than five years.

While based in Atlanta, Zane Venture Fund and Zane Access are making inroads throughout the country. Shila is a sought-after speaker, board member, mentor, and advisor. She has been an Executive-in-Residence at Harvard Ventures and a VC mentor for Pipeline Angels investment group.

Nyamitse-Calvin M.

Founder and CEO

Vital Audio Inc

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyamitse-calvin-mahinda/

Entrepreneur in BME and healthtech. Pushing for technological advancements in modern day medicine. Nyamitse-Calvin is trained in Biology and Biomedical Engineering. And has worked in emergency medicine, urgent care and clinical research in the past decade.

Nyamitse-Calvin is the founder/ CEO of Vital Audio Inc. Prior to founding Vital Audio, he served as the Sr Market Lead for Mobile Integrate Care at Cityblock Health. His role is centred in technology translation and equipping providers working in Telehealth.

Lorine Pendleton

Founder & Managing Partner

125 Ventures

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorinependleton/

A highly accomplished VC investor (with two previous VC funds – Rising America I and II with Portfolia), former entertainment/media attorney, and professional with a diverse legal, tech, media, entertainment, and sports background. She has a decade of experience investing in early-stage companies with over 35+ investments. She was an attorney at a top entertainment law firm in New York representing Prince, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, Ruff Ryder Records (with artists DMX, Eve, and Swizz Beatz), and the Estate of the Notorious B.I.G. She was legal counsel of behalf of DMX for the 1st hip-hop arena tour “Hard Knock Life” with Jay-Z and DMX (40-city tour). Additionally, she worked at the William Morris Agency (now WME) in their Business & Legal Affairs department, representing celebrity clients across film, TV, and theater. She was a business development executive at several startups with two exits (Community Connect sold to Interactive One, and SelectMinds sold to Oracle).

Naeem Turner-Bandele

CEO

Latimer Enterprises

https://www.linkedin.com/in/naeem-turner-bandele/

Naeem Khari Turner-Bandele is an electricity and energy systems researcher. He is a former NREL SULI participant, John and Claire Bertucci Fellow, and National G.E.M. Consortium Associate Ph.D. Fellow. He received his doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2023.

Naeem earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University in 2018, where he received the 2018 Raymond M. Galantine Award. The Raymond M. Galantine award recognizes the outstanding engineering student who demonstrated a commitment to practicing the Catholic and Jesuit ideal of people in others' service.

Naeem is relentlessly pursuing his goal to change the world, including a commitment to reduce power and energy disparities in underserved communities, improve childhood literacy, and increase minority opportunities in S.T.E.M. The multilingual author of "What Are We Gonna Do Today?" and "The Amazing World of S.T.E.M." has also served on the Region VI Regional Executive Board and the National Executive Board of the National Society of Black Engineers. Naeem is a co-founder of The Raising Supaman Project and The League of Extraordinary Parents.