Some interesting links we found across the web this week:

From The Editor’s Desk: To Grow a More Diverse Startup Ecosystem, Start At The Seed Stage
Crunchbase’s first Diversity Spotlight Report underscores the extent to which minority entrepreneurs are largely shut out from participating in the wealth generated by the tech industry. So far in 2020, Black and Latino founders have raised just 2.6 percent of the total VC funding for US startups, despite the two demographic groups combining to make up 32 percent of the US population. Although this article notes that there are no quick fixes for systemic inequality, it highlights one area in the report that the venture industry can improve upon more immediately: seed-state funding.

Female Founders Alliance report measures impact of pandemic on women and entrepreneurship
Seattle-based Female Founders Alliance recently released a new report that measures the effect of the pandemic on women and non-binary individuals, and how the health and economic crisis has affected their entrepreneurial goals. This GeekWire article highlights the ways in which the pandemic has exacerbated existing structural problems faced by female entrepreneurs. It also summarizes the report and analyzes its findings.

The September 2020 US Venture Capital Funding Report
This article reviews the state of venture capital and seed funding during the month of September nationally, during which over $9.5 billion was invested into US startups. The article breaks down the aggregate statistics for all funding deals by stage of funding, including Early Stage, Series A, Series B and Late Stage rounds. 

Navigating Choppy Waters: How to Successfully Launch an Online Startup During a Global Crisis
2020 has proven to be an uncertain year in which to set up a new business. However, there are many historical examples of companies that have navigated through uncertain economic times only to later flourish as online companies, such as WhatsApp, Uber, Groupon and Airbnb. This article highlights some key ways in which entrepreneurs can launch online startups in the wake of a global crisis.   

Setting up a startup? It all starts with raising initial capital
Raising capital is an integral part of the startup process. This article describes the author’s personal experience with the process of raising capital and offers some advice to those looking to start their own companies.