Rodney Sampson, CEO of the Opportunity Hub, thinks so. He spoke with Yahoo Finance on Big Tech's responsibility for Black communities' gentrification and displacement, and lack of venture capital reinvestment dollars through the hiring of Black talent and investment in Black-owned businesses.
To combat these systemic problems, Sampson, and Steven Case of Revolution Funds, have partnered with other organizations for a $2 million pitch competition awarded to Black-owned startups located outside of Silicon Valley, New York, or Boston.
“These companies, Google, Facebook, etc., are amazingly successful and hats off to them. But I think venture capital is very reluctant to fund a company that's going to compete with Google or compete against Facebook, and they are using their platforms in a way that does advantage some of their own businesses and disadvantages other businesses,”
- Steve Case, Revolution Funds
Check out the full Yahoo Finance write-up, here.