Cheryl Contee: Democratizing entrepreneurship for women of color

Cheryl Contee is an entrepreneur, investor, writer, founder of a digital marketing agency Do Big Things, and currently the CEO of the Impact Seat Foundation, an organization that aims to level the playing field for women of color who want to become successful business leaders. Over the course of her career, Cheryl was also successful in building Attentive.ly, a social listening and marketing automation startup focused on developing tools for non-profits.

In our conversation, we discuss Cheryl’s work with Attentive.ly, and how she co-founded the company as a spin-off of her digital marketing company Do Big Things. We talk about the market for building tools for non-profit organizations and how Cheryl has built the company over the years and eventually exited to Blackbaud in 2016.

We also dig deeper into the evolution of the startup funding ecosystem, and its many flaws and shortcomings. Particularly lack of support for female founders and founders of color. Cheryl recalls her first fundraising experiences and shares interesting insights into why the VC world isn’t willing to fund diverse founders.

Cheryl also shares the mission of the Impact Seat Foundation, and how it's trying to democratize business leadership and make it more accessible to women of color.