Black Women in Business
Lessons, tools, and receipts for Black women in business.
Black women start more businesses than any other demographic in America and receive less than one percent of venture capital. The gap between what Black women entrepreneurs build and what they are funded to build is the through-line of Kathryn Finney's career. This page is the working set of lessons, tools, and receipts she points Black women in business toward first.
Kathryn is the founder of digitalundivided, the first organization to research the experience of Black women founders in tech. She is a Managing General Partner at Genius Guild, where she has invested in more than 80 Black women entrepreneurs. She is the author of Build the Damn Thing, the national bestseller that reframed startup advice for founders who were never the default. Read her full bio.
The lessons
Three patterns show up in almost every Genius Guild diligence session. They are the lessons Kathryn keeps coming back to:
- Build the company, not the pitch. Black women entrepreneurs are often coached into perfect decks for imperfect businesses. The deck is the easiest part. Build the unit economics first.
- Price like the value, not the apology. Underpricing is the most common, most costly habit Kathryn sees in Black women in business. Your prices are a story your customers believe.
- Know which prototype you are. Forced Founder, Co-Builder, Solopreneur, Intrapreneur, or Freedom Founder. Funding strategy, time horizon, and what success looks like are different for each one.
The tools
The free entrepreneurship tools page has the practical worksheets Kathryn hands out in her workshops. Start with the Five Entrepreneurial Prototypes quiz to figure out which kind of founder you are, then run the pricing worksheet and the fundraising checklist. They are designed to be used, not displayed.
The receipts
Every other week, Kathryn publishes The Receipts, a newsletter that runs the actual numbers behind a single founder question. Many issues are written from the experience of Black women founders. Funding math, pricing math, ops math, and what she would tell you in a closed-door call. Free to subscribe.
The book
Build the Damn Thing: How to Start a Successful Business if You're Not a Rich White Guy is the playbook for Black women entrepreneurs and other founders who were never handed the rules. Practical, frank, and built for execution. Read more about the book.
Bring Kathryn to your stage
She speaks to corporate audiences, accelerators, universities, and conferences on the future of Black women in business, capital access, and how to build inside hostile rooms. Inquire about a keynote or workshop.
Black women are not a niche market. We are a thesis.
Build the Damn Thing · Sprint
Build it. With company.
BUILD is the six-week sprint for founders who are done waiting. Black women entrepreneurs make up a meaningful share of every cohort. You leave with a working revenue model, real homework, and a peer group that will pick up the phone.
Updated May 2026. Lessons, tools, and receipts for Black women in business and Black women entrepreneurs from Kathryn Finney.