DEMI Fund

Thank you BusinessDen for covering this story! Do you know how your tax dollars are being used? #Denver #DenverColorado #Colorado

Thank you for sharing FunderLyst!

Thank you The Denver Post for covering this story! Do you know how your taxpayer dollars are being used? #denver #colorado #denvercolorado #milehighcity https://lnkd.in/eHf9sa3E

Thank you KUSA-TV, 9NEWS and Kyle Clark for covering this story! Click here to read the accompanying article and see a copy of the lawsuit filed: https://lnkd.in/g6k58isb

“I had no choice but to fight. The systems of government have forgotten that we taxpayers are their revenue source. It’s OUR money. The government should never be the big guy. The people should always be collectively more powerful. I knew that if the City could brazenly exploit DEMI’s contract as a cover for funding priorities, then this is not the first time, and I am not the only one, but I am the one who will fight to make sure it’s the last time.” – Danielle Shoots, Managing Director & Founder | DEMI Fund

I have a #venturecapital fund but I am no #venturecapitalist . 🤫. Venture capital and much of #privateequity is a Pyramid Scheme on it’s best day and a Ponzi Scheme on it’s worst. This is not a judgement on people in venture, rather the system itself. Most people are trying to do good. Within months of leaving my lucrative CFO/CIO job, I realized I had entered into the least scientific financial industry of my career. Months after that, I realized a significant chunk of the US market was based on an investment strategy that was as smart as a craps game in Vegas but with far less liquidity. The only people that take profit in cash from venture are the fund managers, who by the way, were already wealthy statistically speaking. They move founders value around on paper to tell their investors that they are making money on paper but the reality is, 1 out of 50 companies get to an exit at all, let alone a significantly profitable one. It’s a sham. I am an investor, a good one, one who has figured out how to create real value with my companies and still I tell you, this model can never work sustainably. The entire M&A and IPO market have tanked because of this methodology. Most investors don’t even think about liquidity or know why it’s important. Most of us believe investors and Wall-street are the smart ones so we don’t ask simple questions even when the game seems stupid or lacks logic. Our market has been traded in paper money for ten years. Zero percent interest rates will create an environment where people don’t understand the cost of cash or the importance of it in times when borrowing from the bank isn’t an option. Paying for operations with your own money rather than the banks has been non existent until interest rates ticked up. Don’t believe me, ask your fund managers how much cash they have on hand or available to call? Ask them what the values of their companies are vs. revenue or cash flow in those companies. Black and brown founders have had to learn to make money and create profitable businesses. This is why I invest in them. It’s the only smart way to do venture or private equity in my estimation. Companies that sustainably grow to make money is the foundation of capitalism. Now we have companies going public without ever turning a profit. If you ask me, it should be illegal to go public without profit. No consumer should be sold a stock for a company that doesn’t know how to make money. The process From inside the machine is scary fragile. I am telling you the truth. If it feels like it makes no sense, it probably doesn’t. Power is money and money gives power. Neither have anything to do with intelligence.I have much more to share about our financial systems. Stay tuned. #themoreyouknow #staywoke #papereconomy #casheconomy #moneyunderthemattress #luquiditymatters

Started #womenhistorymonth with a dinner for the ages with a sisterhood a long time in the making. ♾️ 💡 A reminder that the fight is bigger than any one of us and that we fight for more than ourselves. A reminder of the joy we find in each other, even in the hardest times. We have never been alone. We were just in different meetings. We have always been ready to “Ride At Dawn” when one of us calls. This sisterhood exists at dinner tables like this one all across the country. It is a stronger web than anyone understands. Greatly underestimated. It’s time for #herstory to change the course of history. #werideatdawn #ceotalks #womenentrepreneurs #blackwomeninbusiness Dianne Myles Denise B. Shontel M. Lewis Lana Hailemariam Makisha Boothe Gloria Prioleau Neal Maxine E. (Pryor) Harris MBA, MCA

Thanks for coming to visit us at our DEMI Fund office Emilio Goldenhersch! Emilio is the Co-Founder and CEO of one of our Portfolio Companies MindCo Health. MindCo Health is a Virtual Reality behavioral training platform, scaling 1:1 therapy through cost-effective mobile-VR programs and integrated with cross-border health coaching, helping employees and patients with personalized immediate quality care. 👏👏👏

Check out our Managing Director & Founder Danielle Shoots featured in Authority Magazine on Medium.com. We couldn't be more proud! Danielle lays out what 5 things you need to thrive and succeed as a woman in a male-dominated Industry.

I have a saying. . . “People’s Bias will eat their logic for lunch” . It’s a funny saying but implicit bias and the illogical behaviors that result have devastating results on people, communities and our economy. Personal example: my whole career, I have heard “you don’t look like a CFO”. 🤷🏽♀️ That is racial and gender bias that people may not even know they have. If you think I don’t look like a CFO, you will mostly like behave as such which will cause discriminatory behaviors like: 💡Failure to remember a CFO has significant expertise in contract compliance and negotiation so you audaciously operate outside of contract terms 💡 Non-finance people constantly questioning financial decisions creating ineffecincies abound 💡 poking holes in financial success believing if this person won, something must be wrong. 💡over or duplicative review of work or additional and bias audits of my work It’s this cycle that lies just beneath the surface, reinforcing inequitable systems. You don’t look like a CFO or investor turns into = .03% of all Private Equity Assets are managed by people that look like me. 📈 If everyone’s instinct is to explain away thes behaviors or label those who point them out as difficult, the wealth gap will continue to head backwards and just in case you think that doesn’t effect you, this gap effects us all at the most macro and micro levels of our economy. #venturecapital #privateequity #investmentstrategy #investmentbanking #womeninbusiness