30 Under 30 with Jackson Block, Co-founder and CEO at LGBT + VC

Speaker A: Welcome to the Future Work Playbook. This podcast series features founders, investors, and legal talent that will help you embrace technology and transform your organization for a better future. This series is hosted by Natalie Pearce, the chair of Gunderson Detmer's Employment and Labor Practice. Natalie and her guests are committed to helping you develop new playbooks to elevate your game.

Speaker B: Welcome to Gunderson's Future Work Playbook. Today's episode is especially meaningful as Gunderson celebrates its 30th anniversary. And as part of that celebration, we are spotlighting the trailblazers and the transformative ideas shaping the future of work and innovation. Joining us for this special edition is Jackson block, a Forbes 30 under 30 recipient in venture capital, co founder and CEO of LGBT plus VC, and a dynamic force at the forefront of inclusion and venture capital. Jackson's visionary work tackles the persistent gap in investment for LGBTQ founders, bringing equity, visibility and opportunity to the venture ecosystem. With a global mission to empower 10,000 LGBTQ and ally investors by 2030, Jackson leads Change through advocacy, coalition building, and a powerful focus on intersectionality within finance and entrepreneurship. Welcome, Jackson.

Speaker C: Thank you, Natalie. I'm so grateful to be here.

Speaker B: Thank you. Jackson, you've got this blend of experiences that are truly amazing. You have the finance and investment background, you teach venture capital, you're an author, and we'll talk more about that a little later. You're committed to social impact. Your career isn't just ticking boxes, but more about weaving the finance and social impact together. Can you tell our listeners about your personal background and story?

Speaker C: Yeah, I'd be happy to. So. So I think there are two themes that have really resonated in my career in particular, and that would be purpose and profit. Um, and those go in tandem together. On the purpose front, I was luckily and gratefully raised by two public education teachers who taught, uh, me a lot about values, about giving back to community, a sense of social responsibility. And through support from both them, as well as extended scholarships and other pieces, I think I found a very strong commitment to community that embedded my entire career. And I always wanted to use business as a vehicle for social change because it's one of the most amplifying and catalytic. Uh, and so purpose was driven from very much the family and the communities that I was just surrounded by, as well as different philosophies in religion and spirituality that helped kind of make me want to give back to community in particular and do mitzvahs on the other side for profit. I, uh, started my career and oftentimes was in these new or kind of quasi new spaces. I knew the job that I had would never be the job that would be presented at that moment in time, because I imagined at that point that jobs will continuously change. So I was interested in what was social entrepreneurship, which was a budding field at the time. And I think many of my business school counterparts were focused on accounting, baking and consulting. And I decided to sneak in for social and entrepreneurship. A mix of the blend between what Berkeley is really great at, making leaders who want to change the world. And so knowing that as long as I have good values, I can do good business has been kind of hand in hand. And then that propelled me to this world of entrepreneurship, to investment, um, and also just informed how I thought about investment theses in general. It led me to start at an early stage investment firm that was investing in LGBTQ founders beyond work with acceleration and supporting minority owned and woman owned businesses. And then it led me to one of my greatest moments is creating lgbtvc.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's amazing. Uh, I just have to say Go Bears, by the way, for our, uh, listeners. Jackson and I share that in common. Okay, so, yeah, so let's talk about that. And I think we're getting an idea of really how everything kind of came together when you co founded LGBT plus vc. Why don't you share, you know, what was, what was really that spark about creating the vc, about creating that nonprofit. And when answering your question, if you can share some of the earlier goals that you and your team set out to achieve in addition to advancing LGBTQ prosperity.

Speaker C: So a little bit about the origin story of lgbtvc. It came at a time where there was a lot of disruption and chaos. And specifically it was right around the time of the Silicon Valley bank kind of dismantling for many of you who may have forgotten about that, but that was, uh, a moment where the venture industry just propelled itself into action. There were about 600 VC firms that signed on within seconds to kind of say, we need to support American, primarily American entrepreneurship and American investment. And that was very quickly. But just months prior, you had the DOPS decision in the United States, which dismantled reproductive rights for women and, uh, gender expansive individuals and the allies that support them. And VC firms, there were about 150 VC firms that were very much pledging in that support. So just to put it in perspective, 600 when the banks collapse, but when women don't have the free access to healthcare, you know, you only add 150, which just kind of also shows a little bit of the disproportionate percentage of gender equality in the venture ecosystem. But when you had 650 anti LGBTQ bills across 48 out of 50 states, and you saw what has transpired across the United States kind of basically at a grassroots level, which is now felt at the federal level.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker C: You didn't hear anything from the VC community about LGBTQ rights. So in the early days, I think it was about doing something that just made sense. It was about respecting people and human dignity and then just bringing a voice. And people didn't even imagine could be a hundred LGBTQ and ally investors in one room or at a time. Or sometimes people feel like they're the first or the only because it can be very isolating to work in venture capital at firms with only maybe three to five people because they do work in small startup environments. So bringing in, convening community and launching at first at Netflix was about advocacy, it was about community building, it was about showcasing it. But then it became, it was so unbelievable. I can't believe this exists. And we had this like propel moment where we had to grow the organization and people were like, it's been around for years. They just naturally assumed. And that was honestly a little bit of the great name that we have, which I can go into. But then later down the line now just to say, and I talk a little bit about this book because in the book I write about the history of LGBTQ venture capital prior to the Stonewall movement to modern day this summer. But we went from Netflix launching in the organization to partnering with the New York stock exchange in 2025 and less than three years with major Fortune 500 companies like Amazon and Microsoft and great ECVC law firms like Guns are as part of this process. We knew that demographics are destiny and venture, but honestly, it's just been taking off and continues to take off because of that.

Speaker B: Oh, Jackson. Yeah. I mean, you found a way to fill the silence and then find the community, build the network. And look, you're right, I mean, we're not talking about that. Long ago you launched in 2022 and you touched upon your book. So I want to take us there now. Your recently published book, I think just this summer. Right. Uh, is titled Venture Capital. Perfect. And as you said, you explore the intersection between the ideas of capital, culture and conviction. And I really do want to talk about. And uh, you talk about this history, but let's talk more about the genesis of the book, the inspiration behind authoring the book, and in what way those themes kind of shape the startup and venture capital landscape.

Speaker C: Yeah. So as I was running lgbtvc, I had the fortune of starting to teach at City College of New York in Harlem at the Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership. And I was actually building out their venture capital class. And it was basically the second time that they had a venture capital class. But I had an opportunity to look at curriculum, and as any university professor, I think now does, or at least just the way I was looking at it is I pulled together, using some of the AI resources, a variety of different syllabuses around, uh, the country. So I looked at 20 different syllabi around the country for venture capital. There are not many for undergraduates, and the ones for even graduate. Oftentimes it's just referencing Harvard or Stanford, which is your typical pattern, or just references mostly male venture capitalists who are running firms. And you know that there it's over. Like a venture capital journal, I think, published a directory of 300 women led VC firms, but they were in none of the curriculum across the United States.

Speaker B: And I seriously, wow.

Speaker C: Not really. Like, uh, maybe you got a little bit with Arlen Hamilton or. And Van Winkle Ventures, which is the student run fund at, uh, Brown University, embedded some of that with Harlem Capital and Arlen Hamilton from Backstage Capital. But just across the board, they didn't reference or incorporate the voices of women in venture capital in the curriculum, or they didn't reflect the students that I was serving. So I was like, let me restructure curriculum and in general. And so I was pulling together books, resources written by women, immigrants, people of color in the venture capital industry, LGBTQ as well, and wanting to just update that curriculum. While I'm doing that, I'm like, well, let's take this a little step further. I know that there have been many historic moments that LGBTC has, and I know that my legacy is beyond me. When we were able to advocate at the White House or go to the New York Stock Exchange, or have the moments with the corporates at, uh, Microsoft near the United nations or so on and so forth. Those moments are history in the making. It was just. But I always said those are everyday actions. So I said, we need to put these stories and highlight them in a book, in a package, so that way future generations can continue to benefit and expand. So that's kind of a little bit of the genesis. I was working on my course, um, teaching Venture Capital. I bring students into venture capital through the organization, and there were so many milestone moments that felt I needed to write this down before I honestly forget it.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It was a lot. It was a lot. And I love that you got down these historical moments so that future generations can really appreciate them. Love that you're a professor, that you're teaching these students and really bringing them into this world using all these different voices. And I hope that you're using your book in the classroom. Yes, yes.

Speaker C: This upcoming semester. Yes.

Speaker B: Okay. Beautiful. So you will have to see how your students react to using their professor's own book in the classroom, but it's perfect. Uh, congratulations on the publication of that book.

Speaker C: Thank you.

Speaker B: This is not the only other adjacent work that you're doing, but last year you partnered with a company called Acrylic Robotics to commission the LGBT VC collection. Um, Jack, can you tell our listeners what is acrylic Robotics and how do they work with artists?

Speaker C: Yeah. So, you know, when we were talking a little bit about for this podcast, what does the future of work look like? I think sometimes we always think B2B SaaS or FinTech or other pieces. But this is one of my favorite examples of this blend between inclusivity, but also just creativity in the venture landscape. So, and I write about this as other chapters. Like I write about Broadway Tech or Art Tech, because you have companies like Masterworks or Todaytix, which are venture backed companies that are just working in really creative sectors. Because once you have that digital transformation, you can have another form of transformation with AI or other forms of technology. Specifically, Acrylic Robotics was a connection that I was able to make through the Forbes community. Um, they were doing a user interview at the time, and their marketing person came to me. I said I wanted to sign up for the user interview. And then it blossomed into something more when I found out the founder was from the LGBTQ community. And we ended up creating this partnership. So what does Acrylic Robotics do? It's an art robot that helps artists create at scale. So an artist, for example, we partnered with Cy Douglas Fish for this first collection and our second collection. Um, Cy created the art specifically for our last two summits. Custom made on the digital design, the robot then painted it so that way there can be production at scale, basically increasing capacity so artists can focus more on creativity and spend more time on creativity versus the hand painting of the piece itself. And now Acrylic Robotics is selling into hotels and theme parks. Well, I hope the theme parks, but hotels in particular, they're doing stuff around fraud prevention in particular. And this past year, we actually did a really exciting piece which was for our third Year of the organization, we had this kind of. It was called Fortitude, but it was this pride collection of three lion nests that were there. And it represented the three different summits that we had in June in Chicago with the New York Stock Exchange, as well as the one we hosted ourselves, um, at the Museum of Art and Design. So. And this custom piece was made again. And then there were. Because it's a robot, you can have different variations. So you had the one that was designed in the progress flag colors, you had them in the bisexual flag colors, the lesbian flag colors. And I was able to actually present some of our collection to the CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, Lynn. And that was an amazing gift to give her as a thank you for the partnership. And honestly, a thank you to Acrylic Robotics for making that happen too. Just, I took a. A wild idea and said, hey, how can we work together? And I really appreciate that.

Speaker B: Well, I'll. I'll tell you, Jackson, that I had to check out Acrylic Robotics myself because I have a daughter who wants to go to college and study art and art history. And so I'm a little protective. I love robots just about as much as anyone, but I was sort of like, wait a minute, getting into the artist space. But what I thought was great about, uh, Chloe, the co founder, CEO, really explaining that she's an artist and she grew up and she's had curated, uh, shows herself, and this is kind of her passion. And to be able to take that passion and then take her engineering and technology background and recognize to your point that it's really difficult. It's difficult for artists, period, to make it. But then to be able to really scale their work, to have to just rely on galleries or to, if they want to replicate it, to have it be in a manner that might not be as appealing to people who want to collect art. And this notion of, yes, you can then take an artist's work and have it shown in hotels. So that's good for the hotels, have it shown, but just be so much more accessible. And it is their work, the robot is actually duplicating their painting strokes, their patterns. It's their design. And then for those artists who do use the platform, knowing that they receive the credit for being the artist, the inspiration. So that made me feel a whole lot better. I'll just put it that way. And I love the partnership that you have with them and the gifting of each of the lionesses to different entities. I think it's great.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's wonderful. And I think, you know, a lot of times right now with Generative AI, we're hearing about the destruction of art and creative art careers in particular. And so one of the things I do, to your point about what acrylic robotics is, it really centers how do we enable art artists to be artists and financially reward them for their creativity, which is not always the case with the copyright issues that we're seeing with Generative AI.

Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Well, because you have really actively worked to bring these worlds together, what do you enjoy most about what creatives bring to a community traditionally focused on tech and finance?

Speaker C: Uh, I think that they just bring such a refreshing perspective to it. And there's a lot around experimentation that I think is really important in the early stages of creating companies. If you look even at, um, our organization, we were first supported by one of our first big believers and allies was the founder and CEO of Tumblr, which was just a creative platform in itself. Um, really grateful for David, uh, Karp for his initial gift and ongoing support of the organization. But essentially, when I was talking to David, as part of stewardning him, many people came out for their first experience on a platform like Tumblr because it was a place where you could put cosplay and could be someone else and you could just put and define yourself. And digital interactions and art oftentimes go hand in hand, and design goes hand in hand. I think right now, at this moment in time, in August, where the most recent IPO is figma and you can't separate design and technology from each other, when you think about something as important as figma, where user design defines people's interactions with their phone, um, with how they receive services. A platform like OpenAI and ChatGPT, they struggled for a very hard time at the beginning because users weren't as engaged with it. It wasn't until they figured out that, right, design, the Chatbot Interface, that the 3.0 version kind of took off and they scaled so rapidly to the number of users. So design and creativity and technology are really important and intentional around that. Beyond that, just being around creative people, I think it's one of the highlights of the New York venture capital ecosystem is that you get this blend of different sectors coming together that's a little bit different than other places like Chicago or Atlanta or San Francisco. You have finance and art and fashion tech, and you could have Broadway tech. Like, these are the things that I think only New Yorkers would dream of. And that's exciting to me to have that kind of creativity which then brings life to other cities.

Speaker B: Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm so fortunate to have had the opportunity to live in New York City for a few years and misses but there is that beautiful intersection and I think you gave some really good analogies especially uh, with what it took to really get OpenAI to hit in terms of figuring out the design. Jackson, what are some of the ways that you see creative capital, let's call it reshaping not only the startup world but also the traditional boundaries of venture investing and entrepreneurs. Where do you see it going in the future?

Speaker C: So there are a few areas where I see creative capital kind of going in the future. One, I think I'm looking at this moment in time where the major tech companies or I wouldn't call it big tech, but I wouldn't call it small tech. I would call it like medium tech for the browser wars that are happening. I actually think that we're going to see more creativity on that because it's going to need creativity. You saw that happen with Perplexity or ARC or dia, uh, and like all of these browsers. I think there's something creative there in this medium tech world which is how are you going to attract people? And people are also feeling a little bit like wanting nostalgia. So you'll see instead of GPT.

Speaker B: Yeah. The reaction to, I mean already just the reaction to GPT5 and people, why wait?

Speaker C: Bring back, bring back. But on the nostalgia I think there's, you'll see new AI driven apps or AI powered apps that like I was just looking over the weekend instead of just doing normal film production, it's supposed to recreate the camcorder from the 1980s.

Speaker B: Oh, I see. Oh, uh, that's good. Yeah, that kind of nostalgia. Nostalgia, yeah.

Speaker C: So I think creative capital, broadly speaking and just my working definition is this mix of like user design, media and entertainment, a little bit of gaming and user interface. I think all of those components come together because even slack, it started as a game. It started as a game and then became professional.

Speaker B: Who would have known? Yeah.

Speaker C: And you see it with also kind of discord and the popularity around discord. But it's uh, the creativity, the edge cases, it's the things that people consider on the margin that will continue to make noise and or be adopted by a large group of people later down the line. So what might look outlandish or weird or different at this moment might actually become a part of everyday life later down the line. That's how I think about creative capital.

Speaker B: So well said. And how does creative capital impact impact the mission of LGBT VC and its future? And does adding creative thinking change the game for entrepreneurs?

Speaker C: Yeah, so I think part of it, uh, comes to the worlds that we end up interacting with in the worlds that we bring together, like these art, technology or Broadway stars, or media and entertainment or gaming. All of these subsectors have a large LGBTQ presence and so you find some opportunity in it. For example, on the gaming front, I've worked with startups that are specifically trying to create safer worlds because I think it's like 75% of LGBTQ people identify as gamers. And part of that is because they want to live in a different reality than the world that we're dealing with from a day to day, because it can be difficult. So you want a form of escapism. So I think you find these patterns of creativity when there's restrictions or boundaries or defined lines or pressures. And so I see that in the future and continuing to see in the future. For every straight dating app out there, I will say I think there's like six LGBTQ dating apps. And when I talk to my straight friends about that, they're like, why are there so many different ones? And it's like, there's just because people want creativity, they want choice, they want freedom. And I think those things go hand in hand. Creativity is part of different users experiences and different opportunities beyond that. I do see the artistic world, and specifically the asset managers who invest in art as an alternative asset class to continue to skyrocket because one, it's been a tax haven for many years for wealthy individuals. But two, uh, there's going to be a proprietary element of art when you have so much synthetic art coming out or synthetic imagery. So you'll see return to what is original, what is producible via no technology. I think you will see that.

Speaker B: Yeah. When that which is the unique thing is that which was created by humans, I absolutely think that we're going to see that. Ah, focus. Coming in the future. You have helped us, uh, I think our listeners, all of us, really see in a new way this work that is at the intersection of finance and social impact and culture, technology and even the arts. And it really is truly amazing to see, Jackson, honestly. Okay, I have a last question for you, if you could please share with me and with our listeners. Uh, what are your top three works of art? And they can be from any medium and maybe tell us what they are and why they're in your top three.

Speaker C: Okay, I won't use my own book, so that counts. I won't use. That's not that. The self promotion, you know, you do on the podcast. No, read it.

Speaker B: Listeners.

Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, the three that I would probably choose. Um, and I'm just. I'm doing a little bit of improvisation here. Actually, I would use this one. I did a class a while back ago, Improv for Feelings went down. The improv world. Really love it. But there's a great book which was how to be the Greatest Improviser on Earth by William Hines. I believe how you pronounce them. And there was always this theory, and I got a chance. One of the beauties of the pandemic. And I will say there were. You had to look for your little gems.

Speaker B: You had to look for them.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. He was teaching the class in Los Angeles. I was living in New York. I was able to take it because it was remote and in zoom, but the book in particular, and being able to just have that freedom to do that, that was really exciting because it pushed him to expand the class. But to do that book, you know, there's a lot you can take from Second City, Broad City, all of these improv groups, and use them as life lessons. So I really like that book.

Speaker B: Have you ever gone out there and done it? Jacks, I have to ask you.

Speaker C: I've done improv. Improv is a lot better than, uh, standup that I've done. The one that's been the hardest for me, but most rewarding was musical improv, because just New York is filled with musical talent here. But it was worthwhile to take that class. And people said you had to be at, like, a different level of. I'm just trying to use the more correct term, a different level of courage. Musical improv is like its, um, own thing in itself. But I did do that. So that would be one book, the second piece of art. I don't know if this would. You, uh, know, I just got back a little bit from Europe, and so I just really was floored by just honestly looking at the Eiffel Tower from an engineering perspective. And it's just so beautiful at night. And Paris didn't even really want it, like. And that was wild to me, just learning about the history and learning about how Thomas Edison ended up being there, that Paris didn't even want it and was created for, like, you know, we used to have a lot of worlds, these beautiful designs and push technology forward. You don't really have that as much anymore, but you have that Eiffel Tower. And that's one of the creations from a world's Fair that was pretty impressive. So I just think of that as a medium of art. And then I would say third, I love cooking and baking. I previously had a bakery and ran a bakery, but I also did marketing for a culinary school. When I go back to these interviews, I oftentimes think about the odd jobs that I had, but I worked for marketing for a culinary school. So the third one, I would say a work of art, is like a cookbook. And the cookbook that I really enjoy is, uh, Sahav, which is Michael Solomon's restaurant in Philly. And Sahav in Hebrew means golden, but just the imagery of the book in itself, of all of the different plates and colors, it's just really beautiful. And a work of art in itself.

Speaker B: Uh, that's great. Yeah. I also remember going back to the Eiffel Tower. I remember that they just thought it was this abomination. Somebody thought it was this eyesore. And now when you're in Paris and it's dark and you look over the sun, you see it light up. It's amazing. And just a couple days ago, I was walking by the palace of Fine Arts, which was the World's Fair. Yeah, well, you know, because you've been there, but that was also a result of the World's Fair. So, um, thank you so much, Jackson, for sharing your vision and strategies to empower LGBTQ leaders and innovators and showing us how reimagining business can lift communities and create real impact. Thank you for being here, Jackson.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me. And I really appreciate Gunderson and you for this opportunity to share a little bit about our story. I will say, even when we started the organization, I had a little history book because I knew that what we were doing was different and new as part of it. But inside my history book, I have a few mementos, and one of the ones that I, uh, took because we did something with Gunderson, where, for our youth program in particular, we were able to visit the firm and get to meet the employees. But I don't know who gave me this, but there was a card that says from Guns or Sin. Nothing good comes out of just staying in your comfort zone, like, be uncomfortable and create. And I have that card in my history book, and I look at it as, like, I kept going throughout the years, and it just reminds me of the importance of stepping outside of one's comfort zone to create, to be an entrepreneur, to think differently. And so I really appreciate Gunderson as being part of our journey and also just really appreciate you for taking the time to share a little bit more about our vision and how we're helping change the world together.

Speaker B: Jackson, thank you. And yes, listeners, remember, get comfortable with the uncomfortable. That's how we make changes for good in this world. And thank you for sharing that. Jackson. Super kind. And listeners, until next time. Time this has been Future Work Playbook.

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