Kali Hays of Women’s Wear Daily examines how the latest Fast Company cover is groundbreaking under new editor Stephanie Mehta.
Hays writes, “The relatively new Fast Company editor in chief nabbed for the cover of the title’s October issue Arlan Hamilton, the black and queer woman who founded venture capital firm Backstage Capital and earlier this year started the ‘It’s About Damn Time Fund’ with $36 million, which will go exclusively to backing start-ups by black women. Hamilton is not even a borderline household name like most of Fast Company’s covers this year, which have included the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Spotify chief executive officer Daniel Ek and Twitter ceo Jack Dorsey — but that’s what Mehta wanted.
“‘Our mandate is to cover the future of business and when we reached out to Arlan and got a better idea of what she was trying to invest in [with her funds], we were very aligned,’ Mehta said.
“She admitted, too, that in thinking about the cover she specifically wanted someone who looked different from most magazine covers. Hamilton fit the bill and had the added allure of an ‘outpouring of support’ for her fund from the venture capital and Silicon Valley community she’s managed to break into. Mehta also sees Hamilton as the real future of Silicon Valley, noting ‘the innovators of the next 20 years aren’t going to be the same as those from the last 20.'”
Read more here.
