“Same thing.”
“You deserve it.”
Gloria, retired now, sat at Willa’s kitchen table drinking tea.
“I changed bedpans at two in the morning.”
“You did more than that.”
“I changed a lot of bedpans.”
Willa laughed.
Gloria looked at her.
“You sure this isn’t about proving something to that man?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“Because then he still owns part of it.”
Willa stared at her mother.
Gloria shrugged.
“I was a nurse. Doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”
The Gloria Townsend Initiative received more than three thousand applications in its first two months.
Ascend selected forty-two founders for the inaugural group.
Thirty-one were Black women.
Others came from Latino, Indigenous, immigrant, rural, and first-generation backgrounds.
Some companies failed.
Willa expected that.
Failure was part of investing.
The goal was not to manufacture a fairy tale in which overlooked founders magically outperformed everyone.
The goal was simpler.
Let them fail or succeed for business reasons after receiving a real chance.
One founder stood out early.
Keisha Odom.
Twenty-six.
Health-technology company called ClearPath.
Keisha had grown up outside Fresno, then studied biomedical engineering while working nights.
Her company built low-cost screening systems for clinics serving communities where patients often delayed care until conditions became severe.
When Ascend first met her, ClearPath operated from a one-bedroom apartment.
Keisha’s laptop overheated every forty minutes.
During one virtual pitch, it shut down twice.
She finished from her phone.