You are warmly invited to join the next E-Lab event with Johannes Lenhard and Erika Brodnock on DEI still isn’t changing in venture capital and startups — what can we do?
WHEN: Tuesday 20th June
WHERE: Judge Business School
5.00 pm – 6.00 pm: Talk in Fadi Boustany Lecture Theatre
6.00 pm – 7.00 pm: Wine reception
What to look forward to
For years, the diversity numbers haven’t changed much when it comes to decision makers in VC and the kind of founders who receive funding. Over the last two years, Erika Brodnock, herself a serial entrepreneur, and Dr Johannes Lenhard, writer and academic, have interviewed VCs, asset owners and ecosystem builders about what is holding people back and what can be done about it. Their recently published ‘Better Venture’ is a guidebook full of practical ideas and advice on how to finally push for change. In this book talk, the two will present some of the most potent insights which will hopefully start a lively debate.
About the speakers
Dr Johannes Lenhard is affiliate lecturer and researcher at the University of Cambridge. He is research affiliate at the Minderoo Center for Technology and Democracy and the co-director of VentureESG. He has recently published a monograph on people experiencing homelessness in Paris (Making Better Lives), a co-authored book on diversity and inclusion in venture capital and tech (Better Venture) and his forthcoming book on the ‘Ethics of venture capital investors’ is under contract with Columbia University Press. He writes regular for a variety of journalistic outlets and runs the non-profit CHIRN (Cambridge Homelessness Impact Research Network).
Erika Brodnock is an award-winning entrepreneur (including Female Entrepreneur of the Year and Intel's Global Business Challenge), philanthropist, and angel investor. She is also an MBA, a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a PhD in the Inclusion Initiative at the LSE where she is researching how the power of big data and machine learning can be used to diversify access to funding and investment for diverse entrepreneurs and innovators and has authored Diversity Beyond Gender, and co-authored the TRANSPARENT Framework and Better Venture. Through her work at the intersection of technology, wellbeing and product development, Erika has built products and services in the ed-tech, parental wellbeing, and financial markets that disrupt and spearhead a path out of outdated systems. Erika is Sky News’ resident parenting expert; co-founder at Extend Ventures, The Black Funding Network, and Kinhub, providing data-driven coaching and personalised employee support. She is one of 16 Black women in the UK who have raised more than £1m in funding for their startup. Erika is a non-executive director of The Good Play Guide; and serves on the APPG for Entrepreneurship advisory board.
This event is co-organised with the Cambridge Judge Business School MSt in Entrepreneurship Programme.