MILWAUKEE — Two Milwaukee businesswomen gave up their successful jobs in the hopes of helping startups run by other women and underrepresented groups succeed. Jennifer Abele and Raquel Filmanowicz launched “VC 414” in January. The “VC” stands for venture capital, and the two are looking to invest in businesses.
The two met when they worked at Milwaukee City Hall decades ago and went on to successful careers outside of city government. Now they say it’s the right time to start this new venture. “We saw a gap and felt like this is our passion in the next chapter of our life where we really want to make a difference for people of color and entrepreneurs across the US,” said Filmanowicz.
They found that the venture capital world didn’t look like them, and they didn’t invest in startups run by people that looked like them. “Only about 5% of venture capital check writers are women in the United States today, and only about 2% of venture dollars go to women. So there really is a big gap there,” says Abele.
As Managing Partners of “VC 414” Abele and Filmanowicz are actively sifting through applications for investment funds. Abele says, “we are looking for early-stage companies, so companies who are seeking pre-seed funding.” But they don’t want their involvement to stop at funding - education is a key piece of their mission. “We have over 40 years of management and operational experience that we can kind of help these founders grow and scale their companies. We want to be more than just writing a check, we actually want to be helpers in their business,” said Filmanowicz.
Both women say they want to demystify and dispel myths about venture capital firms. The first companies to receive funding from “VC 414” will likely be unveiled in the coming weeks.
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