How many rooms have you walked into where nobody looked like you, and no one could tell you how to get funded?

I've lost count. I was pitching in Birmingham to a room of investors who'd never backed a Black-owned business before mine, and I'd walk out afterwards replaying every question, wondering if another founder would've been asked the same ones, or given the benefit of the doubt I wasn't. I got turned down twice before I understood that the issue often wasn't the business, it was that I didn't have anyone in my corner who'd already navigated a term sheet, or knew which funders actually had a track record of backing founders who looked like us rather than just saying they did. What changed things wasn't a better pitch deck, although mine did get better, it was finding other African and Caribbean founders who'd already solved the exact problems I was stuck on, funding, contracts, hiring, supplier relationships, all of it. I've since raised funding for two Black-owned businesses of my own and sit on the other side of the table now too, advising early founders and making introductions. That's the group I wish existed when I started, so I built it.

The gap is real and specific, and it's not just about pitch quality, it's about networks: who your family already knows, whether you grew up around people who'd invested before, whether an advisor took your call back. None of that shows up on a scorecard, but it shapes every funding conversation before it even starts. Access to finance research consistently shows Black-led businesses in the UK are more likely to be rejected for funding and more likely to be offered worse terms when they are approved, and general business networking spaces rarely account for that. You can be the most capable founder in the room and still be starting from a different position, fewer warm introductions, less generational capital to fall back on, advisors who don't understand the market you're actually building for. This group exists because generic business advice doesn't close that gap. Community does.

What we cover inside:

Funding readiness: understanding what funders are actually looking for before you approach them, from angel investment to grants aimed specifically at diaspora and minority-owned businesses, and getting your numbers and pitch deck genuinely investor-ready rather than just presentable.

Warm introductions and accountability: the single biggest unlock for most founders here. We maintain relationships with funders who've already backed founders like us, and members make direct introductions inside the group regularly, not just at set events, two members closed pre-seed rounds last year off the back of an introduction made this way. Founders further along also hold newer members to their own goals, honest about what actually worked versus what looked good on LinkedIn.

Contracts and structure: from supplier agreements to shareholder agreements, reviewed by members further along before you sign anything, because an unfair contract signed early can cost you control of your own business later. We've caught bad clauses before members signed, one was about to give away exclusive UK distribution rights without realising what that meant for growth later.

Supplier and service networks: a vetted directory of Black and diaspora-owned suppliers and professional services, accountants, lawyers, designers, so you're not starting your supplier search from zero or hoping a Google result is trustworthy.

Every Tuesday we run a founder spotlight with real numbers and real mistakes, not just the wins. Every Sunday is an open floor session where you can ask for an introduction, advice, or just a gut check before you sign something. There's also a members-only thread for the questions that can't wait until the next call, a monthly session with funders and grant bodies who actively back diaspora-owned businesses, and a shared library of anonymised pitch decks and term sheets members have agreed to leave in for others to learn from, real documents, not templates pulled from a generic startup blog. New members get paired with someone a stage or two ahead within their first fortnight, so you're never starting completely cold, and there's always someone to sense-check a decision before you make it. Most weeks also bring at least one spontaneous introduction posted in the group, a funder looking for a specific type of founder, or a supplier offering a member discount, nothing scheduled, just people looking out for each other.

This is for African and Caribbean founders anywhere in the UK, at any stage, idea, side hustle, or seven-figure revenue, though most of us are London or Birmingham-based. It's not a generic networking group, if you're not building something, this probably isn't the room for you, and it's not a substitute for doing the work yourself, we point you in the right direction, we don't do the pitching for you.

✅ A vetted directory of Black and diaspora-owned suppliers and services
✅ Warm introductions to funders who've backed founders like us before
✅ Monthly contract and pricing reviews from members further along
✅ A shared library of real pitch decks and term sheets to learn from

Members have gone on to close funding rounds, land their first major supplier contracts, get accepted onto accelerator programmes they'd been rejected from before, and, just as importantly, stopped feeling like they're building alone in rooms that were never built with them in mind. Come find the people who already know how to get this done. Join the group.