Marceau Michel

Marceau Michel is a New York City-based Managing Partner and founder of Black Founders Matter, an apparel brand that he evolved into an early-stage venture capital firm. Before launching the fund, he worked as an analyst at Rogue Venture Partners and operated as a startup founder following his early education and missionary work with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Under his leadership, Black Founders Matter focused on industry-agnostic, seed-stage investments in Black-led startups, writing initial checks exceeding $100,000 and closing $3 million toward a $10 million target for its inaugural fund in 2020. Michel was ousted from the firm in June 2022 following contract disputes and board pressure, leading to a restructuring of the fund alongside former Managing Director Himalaya Rao-Potlapally. His career centers on disrupting pattern-recognition bias in venture capital by directing institutional funding toward historically underrepresented minority entrepreneurs.