Rodney Sampson is the executive chairman and CEO of Opportunity Hub, a holding company committed to building racial equity in the technology, startup, and venture ecosystems. Through several programs, OHUB offers re-skilling, talent acquisition, startup support, fundraising, and DEI planning to corporations, cities, and colleges.
The program helps connect college students with access to capital and entrepreneurial resources. Sampson is also a partner of the 100 Black Angels & Allies Fund, which invests in the development of Black tech entrepreneurs.
Speaking to Insider, Sampson said OHUB has sponsored over 1,000 Black, Indigenous, people of color from more than 400 colleges and universities.
Last year the company joined forces with Steve Case's Revolution Fund and Morgan Stanley to create a $2 million fund to invest in Black startups. For Black History Month, OHUB teamed up with UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan Flagler Business School to launch two certificate programs in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Solutions and Black Technology Ecosystem Investment.
Creating policy and initiatives to help advance economic rights is key to the Black Lives Matter agenda, Sampson said. "Black Tech and Black Lives Matter must be hand in hand in the continuing fight for human, civil, and economic liberty," he added.
"It is important for big tech and the startup ecosystem to remember that racial equity must be sacrificial rather than performative," he said.
Black entrepreneurs need to persist through their pain and scale their productivity to be successful, he said.