Private equity law expert Joe Tillman has a passion for creating opportunities for others. It is what has carried the California native’s career more than a decade and even led to him walking away from a stable career as a lawyer. Tillman’s initial exposure into law was not engraved in his upbringing. He admits to growing up in humble beginnings in Perris, CA, and not having access to people who worked in law or other professional spaces. It was not until his final year at California State University San Bernardino, where he would obtain a bachelor’s degree in finance, that his professor introduced to him the idea of pursuing law. “At this time, I did not have the $1,500 that it took to take an LSAT prep course. And he basically got the College of Finance to write me an impromptu scholarship so they could pay to get my LSAT prep course paid for,” Tillman told AFROTECH™ in an interview. “So, he was one of the few people that was willing to put his money where his mouth is. I took the...

The venture capital space is still struggling with its diversity problem, but this student-run equity fund is hoping to use its expansion plan to fix it. University Growth Fund (UGF) — considered the largest student-run equity fund in the country — has partnered up with Ally Ventures to announce that it is expanding its offices to Atlanta in an effort to usher more Black and Brown students into the underrepresented field of venture capital. According to a press release, the equity fund has established a company mission to provide “unique access to the highly-competitive and lucrative career track of venture capital through hands-on experience.” Now stationed in Downtown Atlanta — which is home to 26,000 Black and brown college students — UGF hopes to use its close proximity to the city’s top colleges and universities with diverse student bodies to turn things around for the VC world. “Only 2% of venture capital leaders are Black, making venture capital one of the least diverse...