With $ 9 million in new funding, the founders of Kim Folsom First stand ready to help various entrepreneurs

Kim Folsom, Founders First Capital Partners founder and CEO.

The founders of First Capital Partners announced their first close for $ 9 million in funding designed to help the San Diego-based financier grow underfunded and underrepresented entrepreneurs in the United States.

“With this investment (from the Rockefeller Foundation and others) we can significantly increase our reach to various business owners who are set for high growth but are not suitable for venture capital or have the assets to meet traditional credit requirements,” he said Kim Folsom, founder and CEO of Founders First Capital Partners.

In an interview with the baby podcast “I’m Here for You,” Folsom spoke about the obstacles she had overcome as a black woman on her entrepreneurial journey that led her to start seven companies.

“When I was a college student, I knew I wanted to start a company like Bill Gates and Ted Turner,” said Folsom. “I’ve seen that this is the only way I’d ever enter the C-Suite (Executive Level). It took me eight years after college. There was no diversity and inclusion or positive action. I knew I had to use a different playbook because the people who wrote checks to tech entrepreneurs were used to a different group of people. “

Folsom started her first business as a “sideline” in the dotcom space, and it was profitable before borrowing. She was fortunate that she and her husband owned her home, and the bank asked her to mortgage her home and all of her other assets in order to obtain a $ 100,000 loan.

Founders First is Folsom’s seventh company. “I’ve spoken to so many programs and it was a common thread that I was the only black woman, the only minority. There are so many other talented women (and BIPOC entrepreneurs) who need access to opportunities to scale their businesses, ”she said in the podcast interview.

Founders First focuses on BIPOC-owned service and light industry companies that pay back their loans by mortgaging a percentage of their sales. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

Barbara Bry and her husband Neil Senturia are hosting a podcast on innovation and entrepreneurship. I’m here for you baby, the entrepreneur’s guide to the galaxy.

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