I’m here today with Monique Woodard – Monique has most recently been an investor at 500 Startups where she invested in early stage startups and raised a $25M fund to invest in Black & Latino founders and categories that will see high growth with these multicultural

• She expanded 500’s investments in Africa and led 50+ investors on their ‘Geeks on a Plane’ trip to explore four ofAfrica’s emerging startup ecosystems.
• And Monique was the first black partner at 500 startups
• Monique is also the co-founder of Black Founders — a nonprofit startup started by four tech friends in a San Francisco.
  • With a mission to increase the number of successful black entrepreneurs in tech, the organization has cultivated a new generation of tech founders from Silicon Valley to New York City, Atlanta, Austin, and several HBCU campuses.
• Previously, Monique served as one of the first Innovation Fellows for the San Francisco Mayor’s Office where she worked on innovation projects around open data, municipal wi-fi, and civic engagement.
• Monique was an entrepreneur before entrepreneurship was the new normal. She has built things big and small, including Speak Chic – a mobile app.

She attended Hampton University (in Hampton, VA) and the University of Miami.