Fellowship Spotlight: Macellum Private Capital
In his 17 years of private investing, working with small businesses across a number of sectors, Daniel Balzora remembers coming across a maximum of 10 founders and senior executives of color. In total.
While he enjoyed the type of work he was doing, he was longing to do it with a much more focused purpose. This desire to ground his work in a clear mission is what led Daniel to become managing partner and co-founder of Macellum Private Capital, a VC and growth equity firm focused on U.S.-based, BIPOC-owned/-led companies in the consumer sector.
A Mission-Driven Venture
Raised by parents who immigrated from Haiti, Daniel witnessed his parents pursue careers in the medical field and provide a solid suburban upbringing for his sisters and him. He and his siblings were typically among the few Black or POC students in academic settings growing up, which remained true for Daniel as he made his way through college and into his career. In hindsight, he shares, “Thanks to my amazing parents, I was very fortunate to grow up in a safe environment with a lot of support, but looking back on it, I was certainly naive to many aspects of society.”
But his patterned career experiences — and the way they reflected the demographic patterns he experienced as a student — pushed him to embrace a deeper understanding of the inequity that was baked into the investment industry. “I really realized how lucky I was after meeting so many companies looking for capital but rarely ever speaking to anyone who looked like me.”
He came to believe he could leverage his insights to apply a particular lens to the work he loved in order to shift the dynamic — and demographic — in the VC and growth equity space.
Macellum’s Why
Macellum Private Capital is committed to making investments that improve economic well-being and mobility in diverse communities while also delivering strong returns. The company is tapping into expanded interest in supporting BIPOC efforts — as evidenced by collective corporate action like the 15% pledge, a commitment from approximately 30 U.S. companies to ensure at least 15% of their products are sourced from Black-owned businesses.
Armed with the knowledge that most companies are not meeting their goals when it comes to sourcing from diverse vendors combined with the majority of Gen Z and millennials expecting corporations to support Black-owned brands, Macellum Private Capital is focusing on an underdeveloped and under-resourced market at a timely moment in American history.
“There’s a huge gap in the market,” Daniel says. Macellum Private Capital exists to fill that gap by providing capital and strategic resources. “We want to help create and grow sustainable vendors to large retailers and corporations,” he adds. “It's been rewarding and refreshing to speak to so many founders who are looking to partner with a firm like ours, particularly because there's such a lack of Black-led firms focused on investing in minority-owned companies.”
A Strong Team Making Impactful Investments
Daniel’s deep expertise — informed by two decades working in private investing, investment banking, and operations — is complemented by an experienced team and advisory board. The Macellum Private Capital team is made up of seasoned and accomplished executives with diverse backgrounds in investing and operations alike.
Working with strategic partners G-III Group, Citi Trends, Bob Johnson (founder of BET), and Macellum Capital Management, Macellum Private Capital is making mid- and late-stage VC and growth capital investments of between $3M and $7M in BIPOC-owned/-led consumer companies that are post-proof of concept with revenue between $1M and $30M. Another crucial aspect of the firm’s investment criteria is a high-quality, high-integrity management team that values diversity and promotes continuous improvement.
The Importance of Powerful Partnerships
“Early on, I realized it’s all about the people,” Daniel shares. “Having started my investment career just before the Great Recession, I learned very quickly that not all financial models go up and to the right,” he says, “and ensuring you’re partnering with people that can work through challenging situations is critical.”
Macellum Private Capital is not interested in being a passive partner, sitting on the sidelines; they want to play an active role. “We want to be a trusted partner and resource to our portfolio companies and be seen as a value-added investor,” Daniel clarifies. So if a company doesn’t have the desire to bring on a collaborative partner, then the investment is not a fit for Daniel and his team. “We’re happy to be lead investors, side-by-side, or a smaller investor alongside others,” he adds, elevating the company’s flexible commitment to creating impact in their focus area.
VCI Fellowship: Exceeding Expectations
The VC Include Fellowship exceeded Daniel’s expectations. He gained a great deal from the experts brought in by VCI. “One speaker emphasized the importance of telling your story,” he says, “and being clear about why your strategy is distinct and how it will generate strong returns.” This dual emphasis on the story of the work as well as the practical nuts and bolts has proven important and practical in Daniel’s work at Macellum Private Capital.
The peer group established through the fellowship has also been powerful. “Between meeting all the different fellows, hearing their stories and backgrounds and how they came to do what they’re doing, sharing their experiences, networking, sharing notes and ideas,” Daniel says emphatically, “that was invaluable.”
He elevates the personal benefit that he and his peers gained, but also points to the cohort’s concern for the longer-term impact that they can now play a role in creating. “The hope is that our cohort will execute on our respective investment strategies and, along the way, become better friends and help each other out,” he says, “and therefore help other future fellows and young, emerging, underrepresented GPs.” Before even completing their own fellowship cycle, the VCI Fellows were already envisioning how they can pay their learnings forward.
We at VCI are grateful that we can be a part of this cycle of support, and we’re eager to witness all the ways Daniel and Macellum Private Capital create impact through their work.
