Fabric VC’s Laurel Mintz on Closing the Inequality Gap for Diverse Founders

Despite how far industries have come regarding DE&I initiatives, traditional venture capitalists are lacking in adopting this change. According to CNBC, venture capital for Black entrepreneurs fell 45% in 2022. In the few years prior, there was a spike in firms pledging to make diversity a top priority following certain events, but these numbers didn’t hold and continue to backslide. Unfortunately, this was not unexpected. Historically, Black entrepreneurs have been overlooked by VC funding and receive less than 2% of overall dollars each year while Black women receive less than 1%, according to CNBC.  

So, who will stand up and pledge to change VC funding for minority founders? 

The team at Fabric VC, founded by Laurel Mintz, is taking the lead—and unlike traditional firms, it’s not a half-hearted claim.  

“Diversity in thought, diversity in boards, diversity in public companies, diversity in all of this is what creates a better culture. It's what creates better outcomes, both financially and emotionally. Ultimately, it's just a better approach to creating a more well-rounded society,” says General Partner of Fabric VC and Founder of Elevate My Brand (EMB) Laurel Mintz. 

Mintz is on a mission to change the current and long-standing suboptimal standards of VC, and as a result, the future of funding. Mintz has a doctorate in Law, a master's in Business Administration, over 15 years of experience running an award-winning marketing agency and sits on the Board of Directors for NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) and the Women Founders Network. She also serves as a mentor for The Women's Global Leader’s Initiative, advises LAVA (Los Angeles Venture Association), and is part of All Raise’s Steering Committee in the Los Angeles chapter.  

“Traditional investors have intentionally left minority founders and funders off the table and away from this conversation,” she says. A few years prior to launching the fund, Mintz was approached by a client at her marketing agency, EMB, who encouraged her to raise her own fund for diverse founders. At first, she seriously questioned the idea, but once she became aware of the very real and stark situation, along with the impressive returns analysis that diverse founders provided when they received funding, she couldn’t turn away.  

“When I saw that 2% number, that was my first real insight into the severity of the lack of diversity in the space. At that point, I couldn’t unsee the inequity and I knew I had to step up and go make change in that space.” 

Before Mintz fully stepped into impact investing, she was running a highly successful but scrappy marketing agency—led by her life motto, “Figure it out, get it done.”   

Mintz wasn’t born into a family with the tools or means to guide her on a path of investing. Growing up, money was an uncomfortable conversation; talking about it was either “feast or famine” in her household, but that didn’t stop her from seeking help elsewhere. When she reached the age where she began making money, Mintz took matters into her own hands by joining a women’s investment group early on in her career—a catalyst for her future role in the investing world.  

In 2009, Elevate My Brand was born, dedicated to providing its clients—mainly early-stage diverse-led founders—with innovative and creative marketing solutions, specializing in elevating business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) brands. “As a diversity-driven, woman-owned marketing agency, we believe in putting people first,” she states, a priority Mintz passionately upholds in everything she does.  

One thing led to another, and in 2022, Mintz established Fabric VC—a $10M US seed fund that invests in diverse-led consumer-tech brands to elevate and support the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion in fundraising. Supported by a team with “over 60 years of experience in vetting, leading, investing in and marketing brands in the consumer tech and future of healthcare and fintech spaces,” that’s exactly what Fabric VC is achieving.  

With her marketing agency and VC firms, Mintz is a double threat; not only can she fund underrepresented founders, but she can also market them, controlling their narrative of success, an incredibly unique operating skill set in VC land. 

“I am very uniquely positioned to take a stand, and I really am of the mindset that I need to leave the planet in a better place. This is that initiative,” Mintz emphasizes. “I've always been a flying, leaping cannonball kind of person. I never knew the word no.” 

But the journey hasn’t been all “flat waters.” Mintz admits the experience is more challenging than she anticipated, thanks to the Macro environment. “This is the most challenging fundraising environment in recent history,” she says. “But I think there’s something beautiful in that the people who are not real in this space, the ‘tourists’, have now dissipated.” 

What’s happening is that we are seeing real valuations, real deals, and real companies emerging, and she believes the ones that can stick around are going to be the “game changers.”  

“It hasn’t not scared me away yet … It turns out, I’m absolutely built for this,” she laughs. Her carefree enthusiasm is exactly what makes her so relatable for those who may not have previously written checks into venture or who haven’t necessarily felt confident in understanding this asset class, allowing them to feel comfortable having real conversations with her.  

“The true joy in this work is educating and empowering people who haven’t sat here before to understand the importance of having a seat at the venture table,” she discusses.  

Fabric VC stands for everything the investing industry tends to push aside. “There is a huge wealth transfer that's about to happen in the next ten years, and women are going to be at the forefront of that. So if I can be at the forefront of education and empowerment and give them the tools they need for the wealth they're about to come into and evolve into these real change makers with that wealth, I'm happy to be in that battle.” 

Despite the long road ahead, and “the extra gray hairs,” Mintz is helping support the next generation’s minority founders so their journey can be flat waters.  

“If not us, then who? And if not now, then when?” she concludes. 

To follow Laurel Mintz’s inspirational path of closing the inequality gap in the VC space, follow her on Instagram and visit Elevate My Brand’s website here.  

If you’re a startup led by women, BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA+ founders, apply for Fabric VC’s funding here. Interested parties looking to invest in Fabric VC’s fund can click this link here.