In 2015, Arlan Hamilton was on food stamps and sleeping on the floor of the San Francisco airport with nothing but an old laptop and a dream of breaking into the venture capital business. She had no contacts or network in Silicon Valley, no background in finance — not even a college degree.

What Hamilton did have was fierce determination and the will to succeed. Now the founder of the venture capital firm Backstage Capital, Hamilton is a serial entrepreneur and author of “It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated Into Your Greatest Advantage.”

Hamilton sat down with Wildfang CEO Emma McIlroy, who is one of the underestimated founders Backstage Capital invested in, for an interview during the 2023 Women in Retail Leadership Summit. During the wide-ranging discussion, Hamilton shared her story of success and the hard-won wisdom she picked up on her remarkable journey from food stamp recipient to venture capitalist.

One of the ways Hamilton found success was by reframing the narrative when it comes to business investments.

“There’s nothing that sets a woman apart from a man in business other than marketing, essentially,” Hamilton told the audience. “We’ve been sold something that we’re less than, and same goes for people of color, same goes for Black founders, same goes for queer founders, etc.”

By reframing the narrative to investing in “underestimated” founders, Hamilton was able to draw attention to her work.

“It got really interesting when we started doing that how many white men turned their heads toward us,” recalled Hamilton. “They understood, ‘I’m missing something if you’re underestimated.'”

Hamilton has also made it a point to invest in companies that have a reason for being — a “why.”

“All of the companies that we invest in have that because there’s a little bit more that they’ve had to go through to be equal,” noted Hamilton. Additionally, she looks for founders who have a chip on their shoulder — something to prove, some kind of resilience.

Hamilton knows something about being underestimated. As a Black gay woman without a college degree and no background in finance, she was underestimated at every turn she took to build a venture capital firm from scratch. She was told she wouldn’t be able to find 100 Black people who own companies, let alone 100 Black people to invest in. Since its founding in 2015, Backstage Capital has invested in 200 companies led by underrepresented founders.

“I’m underestimated all the way to the cover of Fast Company,” Hamilton said.

Women in Retail Leadership Circle members can watch all session recordings from the 2023 Women in Retail Leadership Summit here. Not a member? Apply today!