Bio

One of the Most Important Venture Capitalists in The Midwest (as selected by Peers) -Business Insider 2022 Kathryn Finney is the Managing General Partner of Genius Guild, a Chicago-based venture capital firm building a new kind of venture platform focused on creating a world where everyone gets alpha—Investors, Founders, and Communities. We invest at the intersection of the five social determinants of health (SDOH): healthcare access and quality; social and community factors; economic factors; education access and quality; and neighborhood and built environments. One of the most influential women in tech and venture capital (Inc Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine), Kathryn's groundbreaking work laid the foundation for generations of black entrepreneurs and investors. In April 2020, Kathryn founded The Doonie Fund with a $10,000 personal donation, to support black women entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 crisis. The Doonie Fund has supported over 2,000 Black women entrepreneurs since 2020. She is also the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller ''Build the Damn Thing: How to Build a Successful Company When You're Not a Rich White Guy'' (Portfolio/Penguin). Kathryn is also the founder/founding CEO of digitalundivided, a groundbreaking social enterprise focused on creating a world where women own their work. Kathryn started DID after selling her company, The Budget Fashionista, an early media company. Her pioneering research, “#ProjectDiane”, drew widespread buzz for disrupting the dialogue around tech entrepreneurship. She grew the organization from a simple idea to a dynamic force with a 7 figure budget, 20+ staff, multiple offices and partnerships with major institutions such as Microsoft. After eight years as CEO, she stepped down to become the first black woman business author at Portfolio/Penguin Books. A Yale-trained Epidemiologist, Kathryn has received numerous honors and awards including the Aspen Financial Leaders Fellow, Echoing Green Fellowship, Entrepreneurs Magazine’s “Woman to Watch”, Ebony Power 100, Black Enterprise “40 under 40” list and more. A White House Champion of Change and a past member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE) appointed by the Obama Administration, Kathryn was honored by the Borough of Manhattan with the “Kathryn Finney Appreciation Day”. She has also received an Honorary Doctorate from Mount Holyoke College and was inducted into the African-American Alumni Hall of Fame at Rutgers University and Spelman College’s “Game Changers Academy.”