Welcome to Carter G. Startups, a community and discussion list for African American and minority technology entrepreneurs and startups. Every movement starts somewhere and this is the inaugural post. Join the movement by subscribing to the Carter G. Startup community and discussion list here: http://bit.ly/cartergstartups

Too many black owned businesses lack access to capital- especially in the tech field. The lack of access to capital, specifically venture and angel funding, is due to a myriad of factors, including the dearth of startup pedigree in our community. It’s time to do something about that.

As I’ve gone through my own personal journey of learning to build tech startups, I’ve been humbled by the access I’ve had to relatively exclusive tech communities; communities or talent and expertise that very few African Americans have access to.

I began to share my startup lessons with close friends. Facebook messages, turned to emails, now I’ve founded Carter G. Startups which begins as an email digest and will grow into a community of insights, information, and talented professionals. The purpose of Carter G. Startups is not to build an island of African American VCs, angel investors, and startup talent that does business with minorities exclusively, instead this should serve as a community within the broader tech community- sharing information, insights, and understanding so that we are all building bootstrappable and venture fundable ventures.

With this – I’ll share the most important insight in building your next venture: simultaneously dream, and put your dream into action. This site was up and running within 24 hrs, at a cost of $80. $10 for the domain, $70 for the word press template – add another $80 for the dreamhost account I already owned.

With that small investment I now have much more than an idea, Carter G. Startups is now more than an unnamed and vaguely defined idea. It’s something I can point to; an easy to grasp concept other like minds (such as yourself) can- and I hope will- rally around. While today this community is not all I envision- Rome began as an idea and so will your next venture. It will begin as a dream and it will stay a dream forever until you take the first step to putting it towards action.

Let’s take this first step together.

CARTER G. STARTUPS – FOUNDING OUR TECH LEGACY

Now accepting all partners in the dream.

Update Feb 22: Now with more free! After launching this in November I’ve shifted from wordpress to posterous to ease the formatting burden and increase its reach via social media. Also I’ve switched from a one to many communication via mailchimp (which was free) to a email discussion list via simple list. Startups have to adapt Simplelist is $8 per month, posterous is free. Join the discussion list at:  http://bit.ly/cartergstartups

-          Mikal