On a bright Saturday earlier this spring, the 2025 Yale Black Venture Summit 2025 (YBVS) transformed the Beinecke Terrace at Evans Hall into a hub of ideas and new connections. This year, the summit was driven by a clear mission and vision to connect Black entrepreneurs, founders, funders, and business leaders across Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, and beyond. Members of New Haven’s Black community have often describe feeling invited to Yale events as guests rather than partners. So for YBVS 2025, we turned the model inside out. We organized a New Haven event, hosted at Yale in partnership with the New Haven Black business community. And New Haven showed up! Many of the city’s most influential voices were represented, including the leadership of the prominent economic development organization ConnCAT, whose mission to buy back the hood is a radical reinvestment in Black prosperity.
In keeping with tradition, Tsai CITY’s managing director extraordinaire, Zoe Hunter, welcomed attendees to a Friday evening networking reception at their beautiful space. The fact that the reception was oversubscribed should have been our first cue that this year’s summit would be extraordinary. The atmosphere buzzed with energy; the sights, sounds, and spirit of the evening created a perfect backdrop for the kinds of meaningful conversations that spark new ventures and lasting friendships. With excellent wine, delicious hors d’oeuvres, and a room full of creative and purpose-driven minds, the night set the tone for an unforgettable summit.
Our keynote speaker, venture capitalist Michael Granger, delivered what can best be described as a moment of deep reckoning and renewal. He issued a clear admonishment to the audience and the broader Black entrepreneurial community: “The cavalry is not coming.” That is, we cannot wait for traditional structures—be they government, philanthropy, or White-led capital—to rescue us. We must take ownership of our economic futures, build wealth collaboratively, and embed our values into how we invest in one another. Michael called on attendees to collaborate rather than compete, to share resources rather than guard them, and to invest in ideas, in people, and in places. He cautioned us that the journey will be tough and arduous, that we cannot relent, and that, ultimately, the results will be more than worth it. Black wealth is not just about individual success but about our collective empowerment. Michael’s message set the tone for the entire summit: urgency, unity, and unapologetic self-determination.
This year, we introduced two transformative workshops that gave attendees tools to build and grow their businesses. In “Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset,” tech founder Harold Hughes walked attendees through a candid exploration of self-doubt, vision, and discipline. He emphasized that entrepreneurship starts with belief in oneself, in a novel idea, and in connecting with people. He shared parts of his own journey, highlighting the resilience it takes to keep building in the face of obstacles. Attendees walked away with clarity and confidence. Yale SOM professor Shane Frederick offered a rigorous yet accessible guide to testing assumptions and gathering evidence before scaling during his “Designing Business Experiments” workshop. He challenged attendees to treat their businesses like scientists, sharing the mantra “test, measure, learn, and iterate.” It was a master class in decision-making under uncertainty, drawing on behavioral economics to help founders avoid common pitfalls. Many attendees expressed their enthusiasm at the opportunity to learn business strategy from a Yale faculty member.
