@kathrynfinney
Essays, founder lessons, and the occasional unsolicited opinion.
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Kathryn Finney: Investor, Author, and Founder of BUILD
You’re probably on this page because you want to know who I am. But before I hit you with the accomplishments, I want you to know something more important: I know what it feels like to walk into a room and realize it wasn’t built for you.
Here’s my story…
Chapter One
Growing Up
I grew up in Minneapolis, and I’ve always been a builder. My first business was in the 4th grade, a friendship bracelet operation that cornered the South Minneapolis market.
From there I started a babysitting business with four employees and ran a newsletter for the apartment complex my family lived in. The titles changed, but the instinct never did: see a gap, build the damn thing.
Chapter Two
The First Build
In 2003, I turned my love of discount shopping into one of the first lifestyle blogs: The Budget Fashionista. Before the word “influencer” even existed, I built it into a seven-figure media empire with a monthly spot on NBC’s The Today Show and six-figure endorsement deals. In 2014, I became one of the first Black women to sell her internet company for a profit.
I was supposed to feel like I’d made it. Instead, I joined a startup incubator in New York and realized something that changed everything.
For the full arc of what I’ve built since, see my work.
Chapter Three
The Wake-Up Call
I had a killer idea: a beauty subscription brand for Black women, powered by the 1.1 million weekly visitors to my blog. I had a Yale degree, a proven track record, and a pitch that a guest mentor called “one of the best elevator pitches I’ve ever heard.”
But the investors in the room? Silence. The startup world wasn’t built for someone like me. It wasn’t built for the 233 million Americans who aren’t white men.
So I decided to build something different.
Chapter Four
The Mission
I founded digitalundivided and launched the FOCUS100 conference with support from Andreessen Horowitz, Google, and American Express. Then I created ProjectDiane, the groundbreaking research that proved Black women founders received less than 1% of all venture capital funding. That data didn’t just make headlines. It changed the entire conversation.
Since ProjectDiane, the number of startups founded by Black women has more than doubled. The amount raised by Black women founders increased 500%.
Chapter Five
The Doonie Fund
In April 2020, I started The Doonie Fund with a $10,000 personal donation, named after my grandmother, Kathryn “Doonie” Hale. What started as a way to support Black women entrepreneurs during COVID has grown to provide micro-investments to more than 3,000 Black women-owned businesses, with partners including Pivotal Ventures, Surdna Foundation, and UBS.
Chapter Six
What I’m Building Now
Today I’m the founder and Managing General Partner of Genius Guild, a venture firm that invests in companies using innovation to build healthy people, communities, and environments in untapped markets. I’ve invested in over 100 companies, from pediatric mental health platforms to a Scottish football club.
I wrote the Wall Street Journal bestseller Build the Damn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business if You’re Not a Rich White Guy, with a foreword by Guy Kawasaki. And I built BUILD so that anyone, regardless of background, can go from idea to launched business.
I didn’t build this for Silicon Valley. I built this for you.
A fuller picture of Genius Guild, BUILD, and the rest of the portfolio lives on my work page.
What Others Say
“The startup whisperer for diverse entrepreneurs.”
“One of the most influential women in tech.”
“Top 50 Women in Tech.”
“A force to be reckoned with.”
Receipts
Credentials at a Glance
- Yale University, Master of Public Health with Honors
- Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author
- 2x Exited Founder
- 100+ Portfolio Company Investments
- Managing General Partner, Genius Guild
- Founder, The Doonie Fund (3,000+ businesses supported)
- Founder, digitalundivided and ProjectDiane
- White House Champion of Change (2013)
- Heinz Award for Economy
- Honorary Doctorate, Mount Holyoke College
- Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech
- Aspen Fellow
- Rutgers University African-American Alumni Hall of Fame
- February 26 = Kathryn Finney Appreciation Day, Borough of Manhattan
- 20+ Keynotes Per Year (Google, Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Harvard, Stanford, JPMorgan Chase)
- EBONY Power 100
Follow Along
Where Kathryn shows up.
The newsletter is the long form. LinkedIn and Instagram are where the running commentary lives.
@hiiamkathryn
Behind the scenes. The book tour, the keynotes, the bookshelf.
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