1302: Changing The VC World From The Ground Up

Zane Venture Fund is a woman-led venture fund investing in early-stage, tech-enabled B2B, B2C or DTC companies, with exceptional diverse founders, and teams. Their mission is to catalyze the proliferation of world-class organizations led by diverse founders and teams building tech-enabled solutions by providing capital access and support to companies that can capitalize on these resources to scale their business. Shila Nieves Burney is the founder of Atlanta-based Zane Venture Fund. An entrepreneur at her core, Shila is dedicated to reinventing the world of venture capitalism with – and for – the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs. In June, Shila and ZVF announced the Zane Access Pre-Capital Program, a new program aimed at helping these entrepreneurs from the very beginning of their startup journey. This 12-week program, sponsored in part by Techstars’ Brad Feld, is specifically focused on providing and supporting diverse founders (women, POC, LGBTQ+, etc.) The Zane Access Program is a first-of-its-kind approach to leverage our network and provide these early-stage founders with the strategy they need to accelerate growth, gain traction and get founders thinking about how to go down the right funding roadmap for their companies – be it venture, crowdfunding, or a different option.