Maitê Lourenço, founder of BlackRocks, tells how she created a
innovation hub focused on black entrepreneurs
In 2010, psychologist Maitê Lourenço worked in career management when she decided to open a company to help people create their CVs and do well in job interviews. Four years later, she wanted to use artificial intelligence to automate the process and gain scale, so she started attending events startups.
“When I started participating in these technology events, I did the neck test: I looked from one side to the other and asked myself: where are other people like me, a black woman? Those who gained investment were white men who had other white men as advisors”, recalls Maitê.
It was in this scenario that she founded, in 2016, the BlackRocks, an accelerator focused on developing innovative businesses in the technology area that are led by black people and based in São Paulo (SP).
In six years of operation, BlackRocks has accelerated more than 30 startups and created the first Map of Black Startups of the country, launched in 2021. In an interview with iFood News, Maitê Lourenço tells her story and evaluates racial diversity in the Brazilian startup ecosystem.
To begin with, who is Maitê?
I'm a psychologist, I'm 37 years old and I've always worked with racial issues, trying to understand how racism It affects the black population not only in mental health but also in employability and entrepreneurship. And I'm also very interested in data, in seeking information that doesn't just validate what I feel and see, but rather brings a social perspective, to find out how people feel, in general.
How did you get into this world of startups?
In 2010, I founded a CV writing and job interview simulation company. Like many entrepreneurs, I had this pain: how do I increase the number of customers without necessarily increasing my costs? How do I scale and grow my business without hiring more people?
I wanted an artificial intelligence solution, an algorithm to perform intelligent reading, so I started attending startup events. At these events, I looked around and didn't see black people. Those who won the pitch duels [investor presentations] were white men who placed other white men on the PPT as advisors, as they were people with whom they already had a relationship.
I saw great potential there. The girl, the peripheral boy, black people, like the majority of the population, suddenly have a problem or a solution that the majority of the population also has. So I literally grew my eye: no one is looking at the majority, so who is going to look? It will be me.
And so I decided to create an innovation hub to seek out the power of these black entrepreneurs. BlackRocks appears as an accelerator that meets the demands of this group. It works like other accelerators, but is focused on the challenges of black entrepreneurs and gives visibility to the potential that other accelerators and investors do not see.
How do black entrepreneurs bring a different perspective?
We are talking about entrepreneurs who have a lot of potential, who create incredible solutions, but who do not reach big investors. And this is not just a challenge for black entrepreneurs: it is also a huge loss for the market. When I, a black woman, open the bank app and have to do facial recognition and I can't get it to map my face, imagine how fintechs are failing to gain customers. At the same time, I'm sure there are black people creating solutions that won't exclude me as a consumer.
What does BlackRocks look for in a startup?
In our last selection, we have startups that work in different areas, from creating technical support with an automated assistant to predicting factors to correctly price ship freight. What I try to evaluate is whether the solution is scalable. When selecting startups, we evaluate which solution can be scaled today and in the future.
We have, for example, a startup focused on supporting the mobility of elderly people, with the care and attention they need, already thinking that in a few years the majority of the Brazilian population will be over 50 years old. We look for solutions that have a high reach and provide an innovative solution using technology.
Do you think the startup ecosystem has evolved on the racial issue?
Before, what accelerators and investors said was that there were no startups with black people, there were no black mentors. In the study we did with Bain Company, we spoke to 30 agents in the startup system about racial diversity in their portfolio and 91% from accelerators and investors said that there was no racial diversity in the ecosystem.
I understood that this bubble was so firm that when someone hit it, it bounced back. It was necessary to create something very powerful, very resilient, that could little by little break this logic that there are no black entrepreneurs in startups. In 2022, we are already talking from a place where it is not necessary to explain that racism exists in the startup ecosystem. We are already at the level of creating actions to solve the problem.
Even so, there is no way to be optimistic knowing that there is still exclusion of minority groups. Our mapping shows that a quarter of startups are led by black people, and among them, 18% are led by women.
Today the ecosystem is at a time of questioning how to generate inclusion of black people, a conversation that did not exist six years ago. The Black Lives Matter movement brought this discussion to large companies and institutions. Nasdaq today requires that there be at least one black person on the board of directors of companies that are going to IPO.
But those who work with racial diversity are going against the current, fighting to have their space and demanding practical actions. Young people today, on social media, are demanding that companies have more social responsibility, more action and positioning.
Was there an advance in representation?
That's not even the question anymore. We talked about representation back in 2017, 2018. After that, we understood that there was a tokenization of black people: companies hire black people to say that they are represented, but the spaces of power are not theirs.
That's why, We no longer seek representation, but proportionality. If we are 56% of the population, where are the black women in leadership positions in companies? How many black people are in leadership and have the opportunity to develop innovation and actions that generate a positive impact? We need proportionality in leadership, it is in this direction that we must think about moving forward.
Thinking about the future, what is your big dream?
When I started BlackRocks and people asked me what I wanted in five years, I said my wish was for BlackRocks to no longer exist [laughs]. My desire is still the same. I hope that in the future we don't have to talk about diversity as a differentiating action.
I hope that Maitê can talk about entrepreneurship and innovation and is provoked to go beyond what she already knows. I really want Brazil to move forward by taking and seeking solutions for Africa, which has been developing fintechs. Nigeria is a pioneer of payments without bank intermediation, Meta went there to understand how to do this for WhatsApp. I hope to see more actions inspired by the value of our businesses.
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