(Black PR Wire) NEW YORK, NY - Today, Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne founder of venture capital firm, the WOCStar Fund, and champion for women investors and entrepreneurs is adding her voice to the structural racism she sees in the financial markets.  Starting with an opinion article in Bloomberg Opinion, titled  “Investors Can Fight Structural Racism by Supporting Black VCs”.  She tells the market to “Put your money in funds that invest in Black-owned startups”.

Excerpt: 

“Society benefits from Black innovations every day. Black women led developments in caller ID, CCTV security video, call waiting, and fiber optic cables, central heating, and laser surgery for cataracts. As long as Black entrepreneurs are overlooked, White America and the investing community will continue to miss out on the 30% higher returns that ethnically diverse founding teams generate over and above all-White teams.”

At the same time, she and the team at WOCstar Fund are filling a void that has challenged Black and people of color entrepreneurs for decades - access and the inside track into investors and sources of startup capital.  

“VCs off the Record,”  a new podcast launched by WOCstar Fund, is the insider’s playbook and golden rolodex for both startups and investors that want brutally honest information and resources about raising capital or investing in startups,” states Gayle Jennings-O’Byrne. As a builder capitalist, who is committed to building wealth in communities of color, Jennings-O’Byrne conceived of the podcast to help respond to a need that became increasingly urgent in the midst of COVID-19.

Designed for the busy entrepreneur and investor, the short, 20-30 minute episodes feature guests from across the finance and business community that are committed diverse entrepreneurs such as: Katherine Klein, Vice Dean of Wharton Social Impact Initiative, Kimberly Marshall of Launch with GS, Goldman Sachs, and Jessica O. Matthews, CEO of Unchartered Power, along with guests from Founders First Capital, Humble Ventures, and Zane Venture Fund.

In the latest episode, Gayle sits down with Marc Morial, President & CEO of the National Urban League and author of The Gumbo Coalition: 10 Leadership Lessons That Help You Inspire, Unite and Achieve. “The business case for investing in Black-owned businesses is abundant. Unfortunately, the willingness of society to participate as equal investors and partners is not,” says Marc Morial. 

With “VCs off the Record” and the ongoing efforts of the WOCstar Fund, Jennings-O’Byrne hopes to change this and bring sustainable change to black-owned businesses. 

For more information on VCs Off the Record, visit here. 

About Gayle Jennings-O'Byrne

Gayle (Gay-lä)  is a builder capitalist with over 20+ years of Wall Street, technology, philanthropy, and training experience at firms such as JPMorgan Chase and Sun Microsystems. She invests in women of color entrepreneurs (“WOCstars”) and inclusive teams through a venture fund she co-founded, called the WOCstar Fund. www.wocstar.com 

She is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, the University of Michigan and an attendee of the National University of Singapore and City of London Polytechnic.