Comparison · 10 material differences
BLCK VC vs Founders Network
This comparison was generated on request from the records. It carries no editorial verdict and is not indexed. The published comparisons are listed on the compare page.
Read down each column for one organization, across a row for the difference. A bronze mark at the left of a cell means the organizations differ on that row. A dash or “not published” means the organization does not disclose the fact; it is not a zero.
Verified September 2026
Networking organization
Verified September 2026 BLCK VC
Black venture capital investors, plus Black operators and recent graduates seeking to move into investing roles
Networking organization
Founders Network
Full-time founders of technology startups, from idea stage through post-Series A, who want peer mentorship rather than capital or an accelerator programme.
What the records say
- Role or title: BLCK VC: No published role or title; Founders Network: Must be a full-time founder of a technology startup.
- Industry restriction: BLCK VC: No published industry restriction; Founders Network: Technology startups only; service firms are excluded.
- Annual dues: BLCK VC: Not publicly disclosed: no membership dues are published; BLCK VC is funded by corporate sponsors and donations; Founders Network: $900 a year.
Side by side
| BLCK VC | Founders Network | |
|---|---|---|
| Profile | ||
| Type | Networking organization | Networking organization |
| Founded | 2018 (Founded in 2018 by Sydney Sykes, then at New Enterprise Associates, and Frederik Groce, then at Storm Ventures; both now serve as board co-chairs) | 2011 (The About page credits founder Kevin Holmes, a former tech startup founder, with starting the organization in 2011.) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, United States | San Francisco, United States |
| Geographic footprint | Eight chapters across North America: Atlanta, Boston, the DMV (Washington DC area), Los Angeles, the Midwest, New York City, San Francisco and Toronto | Members in more than 25 cities worldwide; in-person chapter meetings named for San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, London and Mexico City. |
| Members | Not publicly disclosed: BLCK VC does not publish a community or member count on its public pages | 600as of September 2026 |
| Chapters | 8 | The organization does not publish a chapter count. Its About page says members are in "over 25 cities"; individual chapter events are announced case by case. |
| Primary audience | Black venture capital investors, plus Black operators and recent graduates seeking to move into investing roles | Full-time founders of technology startups, from idea stage through post-Series A, who want peer mentorship rather than capital or an accelerator programme. |
| Typical member | Members are Black investors working in venture capital, alongside participants in the organisation's pipeline programmes: operators training to become angel, scout or venture investors, and candidates preparing for entry-level analyst, associate and senior associate roles. | The organization describes its members as vetted full-time tech startup founders; it states that members have collectively raised more than US$5 billion, that average funding per member is US$1.1 million, and that 50 percent are serial entrepreneurs. Service firms are explicitly excluded. |
| Qualification | ||
| Role or title | No published role or title | Must be a full-time founder of a technology startupStated as "You are working full-time on building your tech startup. No service firms."verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Industry restriction | No published industry restriction | Technology startups only; service firms are excludedThe membership requirements text explicitly excludes service firms.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Invitation required | No | Sometimes |
| Sponsor required | Not documented | Sometimes |
| Application process | Applicants complete an online form linked from the Get Involved page and, once accepted, join the community's Slack portal. The three programmes (Black Venture Institute, Breaking into Venture and the Scout Network) have separate intakes. No sponsorship, interview or committee review is described publicly. | Applicants either arrive with a member invitation or request one through the site. The published flow is a short application of about two minutes plus an optional longer addendum. A membership committee reviews complete applications by the last Friday of each month and notifies applicants of the decision the same day. |
| Selectivity | Not publicly disclosed: no eligibility criteria or acceptance data are published | Not publicly disclosed. The organization calls itself invite-only and says it researches applicants' backgrounds, but publishes no acceptance rate or rejection statistics. |
| Cost | ||
| Annual dues | Not publicly disclosed: no membership dues are published; BLCK VC is funded by corporate sponsors and donationsverified September 2026 · source ↗ | $900 a yearLaunch Plan (idea-stage founders), listed at "$75/mo billed annually" on the benefits page; the annualised figure is derived from the published monthly rate.verified September 2026 · source ↗ |
| Programme fee | Not publicly disclosed: no fees are published for the Black Venture Institute, Breaking into Venture or the Scout Networkverified September 2026 | All memberships are annual commitments; monthly payment plans are offered on some tiers. Discounts are advertised for portfolio companies of partner venture funds and accelerator graduates, without published amounts. |
| Membership term | Not documented | Annual commitment, renewed annually; monthly payment plans available on some tiers |
| Structure | ||
| Meeting frequency | Chapter events run by volunteer leads in eight cities and regions, plus programme cohorts and community activity on Slack | Continuous online forum; roughly 100 events a year including about 40 webinars, plus city chapter meet-ups and two annual conferences |
| Peer forums | Slack-based member portal plus city and regional chapters; cohort-based programmes run separately | An online mentorship forum open to all members, plus peer advisory roundtables at the top tier; there is no standing confidential forum group of assigned peers |
| Confidentiality | Could not be independently verified: no published confidentiality policy was found | The organization describes the platform as a confidential space for founders; it does not publish a confidentiality agreement. |
| Time commitment | Not documented | Not documented |
| Organized as | Chapter-based, Virtual, Cohort-based, Event-focused | Virtual, Chapter-based, Forum-based, Event-focused |
| Confidential peer forums | Partial | Yes |
| Local chapters | Yes | Yes |
| Virtual membership | Yes | Yes |
| Online community | Yes | Yes |
| Member directory | Not documented | Yes |
| Events | Yes | Yes |
| Programming | ||
| Educational programming | Yes | Yes |
| Leadership development | Yes | Partial |
| Retreats | No | No |
| Travel | No | No |
| Family programming | No | No |
| Spouse and partner programming | No | No |
| Next-generation programming | Yes | No |
| Investment discussions | Yes | Yes |
| Investment opportunities | Partial | Partial |
| Philanthropic component | No | No |
| Networking emphasis | High | High |
| Social emphasis | Medium | Low |
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Last verified: not yet reviewed
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Sources
Drawn from the sources listed on each page: BLCK VC · Founders Network