“Where can I find amazing black talent?” In a world where many large corporations and startups are prioritizing diversity and inclusion, I get this question all the time. Which causes me to think about my own personal network and how little visibility I have into the amazing black professionals that I could build with or integrate into our Upfront portfolio. Yes – we all don’t know each other!

In the past few years, many new exciting platforms like All Raise and our portfolio company The Wing have launched, doing a great job connecting and supporting women. But it’s left me wondering - why isn’t there anything equivalent for black professionals?

And for that matter, why are some people (myself included) so unaware of many successful black executives, even mega-titans, of business, media and other industries? Why did Robert Smith have to give away $34M to Morehouse before everyone was talking about him?

For all these reasons and more, I was moved to start solving some of these problems, instead of just talking about them.

Enter Valence, announced to the world today.

The Valence mission is to unlock the global combined power of black professionals to create massive economic wealth and social progress that impacts current and future generations. Every Valence member receives access to community, connection and mentorship; job opportunities from top companies; and capital and startup advice. All focused on and built for black professionals, by black professionals.

And while our founding members include some of the most impressive, experienced business leaders in the game (meet some of them here), we also want this platform to inspire the next generation of talent to pursue career opportunities they thought were not possible and to leverage the Valence Network for support and guidance. In doing so, they will write their own success stories and inspire others to follow the same path, thus massively increasing the pipeline of top black executive talent.

See more about the product itself here:

You may be asking, “why is a platform like this necessary? Is finding and retaining black talent really a problem for companies?” Well:

Valence solves this problem not just by spotlighting leaders in our community, and not even just by connecting outstanding professionals to great opportunities. The secret sauce is creating a bonded, supportive network of peers, mentors and like-minded companies to ensure that new hires thrive in an organization, long-term, building generational leaders and the wealth that comes with it.

Or you may be thinking, “this sounds like a service project, not a for-profit business. Do diversity initiatives really impact the bottom line?”

Hmm, check!

This platform offers huge potential competitive revenue value to companies who have had the desire, but not the tools, to create diversity in their organizations. Companies and Partners using Valence can: • Discover and search for members by job title, location, skills and work history • Post jobs to ensure quality diverse candidates • Contact members directly • Leverage a Community Hub for partners like ERGs and Alumni Associations to manage and scale their groups and events

And if you’re still a skeptic, you may be wondering – “by focusing only on the Black community, is this really a venture-scale business?” To which we’d answer:

So yeah - venture scale returns are on the table here. Ask some of our co-investors on this mission including Sinai Ventures (watch Managing Partner Jordan Fudge’s spotlight video here), Human Ventures, High Alpha and individuals like Paul Judge and Chamillionaire (yup, he was an angel in Lyft, not to mention an EIR at Upfront).

It’s no secret that building a startup is a challenging road, but since the day I conceived of Valence, it’s been gratifying to see how much enthusiastic support has emerged, often serendipitously. For example, on a flight to Atlanta, the stranger in the next seat commented on how well I dealt with my 6-month-old son’s diaper explosion. Turns out this neighbor was the amazing photographer Kwaku Alston (who had recently photographed the Black Panther cast). We quickly bonded over Valence, and he shot all the epic founding content you see on the site.

Or over the course of one weekend event, when I found our first funder in longtime friend Joe Marchese AND one of our eventual co-founders, Emily Slade. Emily and I randomly met at a dinner and lo and behold, she happened to have a wealth of relevant experience and personally identified with the mission on multiple levels. And it certainly was meaningful to have all company formation documents officially completed on MLK Day of this year.

Special thanks to Emily, our third co-founder La Mer Walker, and the team they have assembled who have been tirelessly executing and are carrying the torch. I am proud to be a co-founder, investor and now board member as we assemble a rock star team to scale this mission (interested? Please reach out!).

A vision this bold will truly take the community coming together, and I am 100% confident it will happen. Ready to join us? To become a member of Valence, apply through the site. Valence is a diverse community open to all, with a focus on those who self-identify as black professionals. If you are an ally or supporter of the Black community and want to be a part of what we’re building, you can sign up here.

We are all at the beginning of something truly special here with the best yet to come!