An Airport Floor Became Her Startup Office

In 2015 Arlan Hamilton was trying to raise money for a venture capital fund aimed at founders that investors often overlooked. She had no home at the time. Many nights she slept on the floor of San Francisco International Airport, using rolled-up jeans as a pillow. During the day she took meetings around Silicon Valley, trying to break into an industry that the ABC7 report describes as dominated by white men.

Back at the airport she kept to herself and moved between terminals. She also found small ways to be useful: she helped confused travellers with their flights and, on one occasion, walked a family who did not speak English to the international terminal. Looking back, she has said that she essentially launched her firm while she was homeless.

Help arrived through people she met along the way. At a Silicon Valley event she met a woman named Susan Christie, who gave her 25,000 dollars to make her first major investment in someone else, and another 25,000 dollars to set up the business. The firm, Backstage Capital, went on to raise 30 million dollars since 2015 and to invest in about 200 startups founded by women, people of color and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

Hamilton has since written two books, It's About Damn Time and Your First Million, and she hosts a podcast and live events under the name Your First Million. She works with her mother, Earline Sims, who has said the mission has stayed the same. Hamilton has described the airport floor as the place where she spent a lot of her time in 2015.