Meet Shila Nieves Burney of Zane Venture Fund in West Midtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shila Nieves Burney.

Shila, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After spending a career in both the education and nonprofit sectors, in January 2018 I decided to transition to full-time entrepreneurship launching a company called The Burney eXperience (TBX). We were focused on providing organization support services to non-profits and small businesses, and curating empowering events for women.

TBX was off to a great start when I was introduced by a family friend to a startup company that was looking for venture capital investment. The blockchain company was based on the Ivory Coast of Africa and focused on providing a sustainable solution to farmers in the region. I spent seven months knocking on the doors of investors across the country, only to be told no several times over.

In late August 2018, an investor reached out to me and was highly interested and wanted to close in 30 days. The company received a 5M letter of intent with the possibility of up to 100M on a future deal.

We were all excited. But tragedy struck. My daughter was hit by gun fire while we were driving to our workspace to meet another entrepreneur. My world stopped. My family was traumatized by the incident and I wondered if I wanted to continue to work in communities.

While my family and I were dealing with this very unfortunate event, the investor called and stated that he would invest in hotels instead of the tech startup. My mind was blown away. I felt as though I left the founder in a horrible position.

The convergence of these incidents propelled me to do something, to fight back. 

Through my research, I found there was enough capital in the market, however, only 1.0% of the venture capital went to black founders. I decided to launch my own fund to address the huge gap by investing in diverse winning teams who are creating tech enabled companies to solve problems in our communities.

In late October  2018, I launched Zane Venture Fund and have spent the year getting educated by attending VC University at the University of Michigan with the Berkeley School of Law, and VC Unlocked in Miami with 500 Startups, I received a diversity scholarship for both programs. Getting informed around venture capital by attending emerging manager events and summit across the country has been a game changer. 

During this time, I also created the Founders RoadMap Forum to bring the needed resources to founders in their own backyard. We have held events in New York and Atlanta and expanding our reach in early spring 2020.

We have our team in place with both operational and investment expertise to manage a fund and support the founders in our care. We have received our anchor investor and will continue  fundraising around the country throughout Q1 2020.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
While the road has not been easy, the work has surely been worth it. I believe that I have been well received. I have been confused by a few white women, who I assumed would have been allies, who stated that I won’t raise the money, and I should stick to curating events because “I’m good at it”.

While these are outliers, for the most part, I have been welcomed to the investor community. I been invited to attend events that have allowed me to meet many other women VCs in the southeast and across the country.

One of the struggles most diverse emerging fund managers face is maintaining operational costs while building a fund. These expenses are are paid out of pocket and adds another layer of frustration if you are not already wealthy. 

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Zane Venture Fund – what should we know?
As far as Zane is concerned, we are a team that represents what we intend to invest in. We are diverse and are focused on diverse teams who are creating tech enable companies to solve problems in communities.  We are looking to invest in the problem solvers.  At the moment, we are building a pipeline of companies while we are also raising our fund. 

In my current role, I mentor and advise startup founders who are looking to build their company but may need guidance around pivoting, pitching, and investments. I am a connector, it’s my superpower! I specialize in connecting people. I have had the opportunity to connect founders to potential investors, and investors to great companies. 

Zane Venture Fund is not about just providing capital for diverse founders, we are about supporting our community and supporting our founders to excel in business.  We have a big announcement that we will be making publicly in the coming weeks related to our commitment of community and founder support – so you’ll have to stay tuned. In the meantime, we can share that we are also gearing for up our March 2020 Founders RoadMap Forum, to be held in NYC. We have the dates and location and will be releasing the information at the beginning of the year. 

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
There are a lot of people who I could shout out including friends who have heard my story, to advisors who helped me worked through my angst. 

However, the person highly instrumental for me being in this space is a family friend,  Christopher Williams, a business development executive. He introduced me to the deal to help source investors and I have not turned back. I am extremely appreciative that he had the foresight to bring me an opportunity. 

My FAMU freshman brother Israel Rollins, also a venture capitalist and Kaufman Fellow, has been my go-to person with questions from day one. He still mentors me by text whenever I have an issue or concern, he has been extremely helpful and has asked for nothing in return.

Sig Mosley was my very first mentor in the venture capital space. He is a well-known VC in the southeast and has been instrumental in helping me along the way. We have recently added Sig to our team as a part-time venture partner. This is a huge win for me! I don’t come from the investment space, so to have one of the most prominent VCs, who to date, has the largest venture deal in the southeast.

Lastly my counsel Lowenstein and Sandler, based in NYC, has also been instrumental in guiding me as I worked to launch the fund. They have invited me to venture capital events, which allowed me to network with other VCs who I would have never known without these opportunities.

Contact Info:

• Address: 384 Northyards Blvd NW, Bldg 100
• Website: Zanevc.com
• Phone: 7703018309
• Email: shila@zaneventurefund.com

Image Credit:
International Women’s Day — Jade Johnson; Google event — Omni Worldwide Productions; NYC — AllSEEINJAH — http://allseeinjah.weebly.com/; Samsung Next; Random — Zane Julia Burney (my daughter and the fund’s namesake)

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