We Support Innovative, Diverse Leaders Ready To Take Their Social Impact Venture to the Next Level.
Mission: Camelback Ventures increases access to opportunity for entrepreneurs of color and women by investing in their ventures and leadership while advocating for fairness in their funding.
Vision: By seeking solutions in the genius of underinvested entrepreneurs, our vision is to create livable communities and wealth for future generations to inherit.
We aim to create a more diverse social innovation ecosystem that leverages the genius of all people. We identify leaders with promising ideas, and empower them to enact change within their communities through our initiatives where we provide an intentional blend of coaching, capital, connections, community, and curriculum.
New Orleans is the home to Camelback Ventures, and is also said to be the origin of some of the first camelback style homes following the Civil War. Families of the Free Black population resourcefully added a second story to the rear of these shot-gun style houses, creating a structure reminiscent of a camel’s back. We took our name from this innovation, believing we could continue the tradition of using creativity and ingenuity to improve not only our communities, but also lift up and create opportunities for our underrepresented peers.
Aaron T. Walker completed his Camelback Fellowship pilot for entrepreneurs of color out of his living room in Brooklyn, NY. In 2015, he officially founded Camelback Ventures in New Orleans. Since then, the organization has grown to encompass two entrepreneurial focused fellowship cycles per year, a second program focused on building more equitable + accessible funding practices in philanthropy, and our annual Guardian Summit convening bringing together members of Camelback Ventures’ diverse ecosystem.
Every day, we see ruthlessness in action — individuals and systems who fiercely work to empower themselves, to the detriment of communities around the world. Imagine though — what would happen if we took that same energy, that same aggressiveness…and used it for doing something good in the world?
That idea, being ruthless for good is what drives us at Camelback. We believe it is always the time to be ruthless for good. Camelback Ventures presents to you our manifesto, our ideas that we express with urgency and intensity, to create an equitable and just world.
What began as a bold experiment supporting just three entrepreneurs building early stage companies has blossomed into a catalyst for systemic change in the social impact ecosystem. From that initial pilot program—where two out of the three companies continue to thrive a decade later—Aaron Walker (Camelback’s Founder) was able to raise $1 million to launch Camelback Ventures and its first official Fellowship cohort. But that was just the beginning of the journey.
The 10-year winding road that followed came with its wins, failures, and pivots. Throughout it all, we have been guided by our vision for increased opportunities for diverse entrepreneurs building ventures that support livable communities.
Camelback Ventures Fellowship Pilot
Our Founder, Aaron T. Walker, supported three entrepreneurs as a pilot preceding the Camelback Fellowship program.
The “Alpha Cohort” received 1:1 coaching and access to other support services to help accelerate their startup ventures.
First cohort of Fellowship
We welcomed the inaugural class of 15 entrepreneurs that identified as BIPOC and/or women to our flagship program, the Camelback Fellowship.
We began refining our approach to entrepreneur support investing in undervalued entrepreneurs nationwide, providing $40,000 in capital and coaching.
Began ecosystem convenings
We convened over 100 impact investors, entrepreneurs and influence-makers to build a community focused on “racing to equity” within impact entrepreneurship.
We called this initial iteration Ecosystem Summit but it would evolve into Guardian Summit.
New strategic opportunities
We developed a strategic plan to capitalize on the momentum we had been building and what we had been learning from our network.
We realized that in order for the entrepreneurs we support to thrive (1) they needed capital beyond the Fellowship investment, (2) funders/investors needed to make their practices more equitable, and (3) Camelback’s team needed to grow to provide the necessary support.
First cohort of Capital Collaborative
We launched our second cohort program, Capital Collaborative, to work directly with funders from philanthropy to drive toward more equitable funding and grantmaking practices.
Navigating the Pandemic + Organizational Growth
An unrestricted grant from McKenzie Scott enabled our team to pursue the opportunities highlighted in our strategic plan and accelerate our growth.
We leveraged the gift to spin off a mission-driven venture fund, Ruthless for Good.
100 Fellows Served
The first year we held two fellowship cohorts, allowing us to significantly increase the number of founders we support.
We celebrated a milestone of supporting 100 entrepreneurs through our Fellowship.
New CEO Shawna Young
We welcomed our new CEO, Shawna Young to the Camelback Family.
We are a team that believes in the hustle over the hype, that it’s just as important to be humble as it is to be hungry, that America is its most beautiful and prosperous when we utilize the contributions of all people. Camelback Ventures was originally founded and headquartered in New Orleans and has since evolved into a hybrid remote workplace since the global pandemic. The Camelback team meets in-person several times per year to support programming, staff planning retreats, attend social impact conferences, our alumni regional events, and other convenings such as our annual Guardian Summit.
