You’ve might’ve seen Tanya Sam’s sparkling smile and vibrant personality appear on Bravo TV’son any given Sunday night but Sam is also widely known as a tech-savvy investor that’s dedicated to empowering Atlanta’s next generation of minority entrepreneurs.
“We are leveling the playing field by intentionally going out beyond the traditional circles to provide underrepresented entrepreneurs a chance at developing capital, mentorship, and resources for their business,” says Sam. Once I was exposed to the tech startup world, I decided to start pitching in wherever I could to gain more experience. Even though I’m not a programmer, in the startup space there are a plethora of tasks required to make a company successful, so I tried to learn and do as much as I could to help.
My passion and focus on supporting minority and female founders have a double bottom line because we are fixing the funding disparity while at the same time making profitable investments and generating returns. Traditionally if you look at the Forbes list for wealthiest individuals or families in this country - most of their wealth is attributed to generational or inherited wealth - centuries of family wealth and hard work.
In the South, we tend to put their heads down and grind quietly. A few things that are very unique about the Atlanta tech scene are the range of large corporations here, big global companies from beverage to logistics to automotive to financial services. These companies have been in business for years and have endured real corporate problems and survived.