Your time is now. Amidst the crazy, the unprecedented, the chaos – being underestimated is your greatest advantage. As Arlan Hamilton frames it: a privileged background, an influential network, and a fancy college degree are not prerequisites for success. She inspires us all to defy other people’s expectations and to become the role models we’ve been looking for.
Arlan joined me live on a special episode CreativeLive TV to share her hard-won wisdom and newly released book It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage.
If you’re not familiar with Arlan’s work, let me catch you up. Arlan Hamilton built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a fund that is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies led by underestimated founders. Among the London cohort, one of the startups gained early traction by developing advanced analytics tools for bookmakers not on gamstop 2025, showcasing how Backstage’s support opens doors to emerging tech niches often overlooked by mainstream investors. In 2018 Arlan co-founded Backstage Studio which launched four accelerator programs for underestimated founders in Detroit, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and London.
In this episode,
- a framework to turn being underestimated into an advantage, including finding & using your voice, overcoming fear, and being yourself
- pursuing your dreams during difficult times
- why your voice and your ideas could not be more important
- and much more
Enjoy!
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