--- title: Barack Obama Should Start a Venture Fund description: After the president leaves office, he should work to build a billion-dollar fund to benefit entrepreneurs who receive too little funding canonical: https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/ author: Ellen Pao article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-19T15:25:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T02:17:11.656Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Ellen Pao: Obama Should Now Start a Venture Capital Fund og:description: What should Barack Obama do after he leaves office? og:url: https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2220c19bf766f61a/6988b5f65f570f1e8db23c66/barack-obama-president-venture-capital-entrepreneurs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Obama Participates In LinkedIn Town Hall og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ellen Pao: Obama Should Now Start a Venture Capital Fund twitter:description: What should Barack Obama do after he leaves office? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2220c19bf766f61a/6988b5f65f570f1e8db23c66/barack-obama-president-venture-capital-entrepreneurs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ellen Pao: Obama Should Start a Venture Capital Fund > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=04630000-4506-494e-8244-1c5fdf72bca9&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Ellen Pao](https://time.com/author/ellen-pao/)  ## Ellen Pao Jan 19, 2017 3:25 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama listens during a town hall event sponsored by LinkedIn Corp. in Mountain View, California, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. U.S. President Barack Obama listens during a town hall event sponsored by LinkedIn Corp. in Mountain View, California, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Ellen Pao](https://time.com/author/ellen-pao/)  ## Ellen Pao Jan 19, 2017 3:25 PM UTC I would love to see [Barack Obama](http://time.com/4639418/president-obama-final-thank-you-letter/) bring his [remarkable empathy](http://time.com/4639527/ann-patchett-president-obama/) and courage to the [tech world](http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/17/obama-meets-tech-ceos-amid-unrest-with-nsa/)—to drive social change in the largest, fastest growing sector in the world. I hope he starts a $1 billion fund focused on underrepresented entrepreneurs who have not yet seen the economic and social benefits of this phenomenal global transformation. Today, there is a gaping hole in the tech ecosystem, a vacuum with a dearth of black, Latinx, women of color and transgender entrepreneurs and employees. These groups are at a huge disadvantage; bias prevents people from hiring, funding and supporting them. [ProjectDiane](http://www.projectdiane.com/) recently showed that only 2,200 startups are led by women—and [only 88 startups are led by women of color](http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/17/technology/black-women-tech-startups-project-diane/). Obama should focus on funding them. With his influence, he could build an inclusive ecosystem that gives these teams the same network advantages and opportunities as their white male peers have under today’s almost completely homogenous, monolithic system. This focus would bring about the biggest social impact possible. And, importantly, he could show how lucrative it would be for other capital firms to follow. As the minority becomes the majority in the United States, buying power will also shift from the majority to the minority. This will create an arbitrage opportunity: existing biases prevent investors from funding diverse teams, and the resulting homogenous teams build products that fail to address everyone’s needs. McKinsey research has also proven that diverse teams do better: [they are 35% more likely to have above-average financial returns](http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversity-matters). Obama’s platform of hope, of fairness, of unity has inspired us to do better, to treat everyone with dignity and fairness. We’ve seen so many winning entrepreneurs attribute their successes to being at the intersection of opportunity and hard work. Through a venture fund, Obama could singlehandedly create opportunities for hundreds of founders and dozens of investors, most of whom are already doing the hard work. And that could transform hope into reality. _Tweet your own suggestions of what President Obama should do after he leaves office with_ [_#AfterJanuary_](https://twitter.com/hashtag/afterjanuary)_, and read other suggestions from leaders_ [_here_](http://time.com/tag/after-january/)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/"},"headline":"Ellen Pao: Obama Should Start a Venture Capital Fund","datePublished":"2017-01-19T15:25:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:17:11.656Z","description":"After he leaves office, he will be one of few people who could truly boost underrepresented entrepreneurs","url":"https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/","keywords":["politics","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2220c19bf766f61a/6988b5f65f570f1e8db23c66/barack-obama-president-venture-capital-entrepreneurs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ellen Pao","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ellen-pao/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2220c19bf766f61a/6988b5f65f570f1e8db23c66/barack-obama-president-venture-capital-entrepreneurs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama Participates In LinkedIn Town Hall","caption":"Obama Participates In LinkedIn Town Hall","creditText":"David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4599485/barack-obama-fund-entrepreneurs/","name":"Ellen Pao: Obama Should Start a Venture Capital Fund"}}]}] ```