Above: PowerMoves.NOLA Power Up Demo Day. Photos courtesy PowerMoves.NOLA.

Earl Robinson is CEO of the New Orleans Startup Fund and PowerMoves.NOLA, a national initiative to increase the number of venture-backed, high-growth and high-tech companies in the U.S. led by entrepreneurs of color. PowerMoves has received previous Knight Foundation support in Detroit. Today Knight is announcing $1.2 million in new support to launch PowerMoves Miami.

Crystal McDonald created GoToInterview, an innovative new Web-based employment service that connects employers and job hunters with on-demand smartphone videos. In a short time, the startup has grown to include thousands of users and is working with major brands such as McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Rodney Williams is the CEO of LISNR, a new communication protocol that sends data over audio. LISNR recently announced that it closed a $10 million Series B funding round led by Intel Capital.

Above: Miami entrepreneur Dawn Dixon, founder and CEO of Flat Out of Heels. Photos courtesy PowerMoves.NOLA.

With the buzz surrounding entrepreneurship and startups, Crystal and Rodney likely aren’t the people you imagine when you picture founders of high-tech, high-growth, venture-backed businesses. And that’s the problem.

Crystal and Rodney are African-American, and like others entrepreneurs of color, they face systemic and generational obstacles to starting businesses. In general, entrepreneurs of color do not have the same network and resource advantages and opportunity as their white counterparts. They typically aren’t able to raise the needed seed capital from friends and family to develop a concept, and if they get a startup off the ground, they don’t have access to growth capital and strategic advisers to help their businesses expand.

Entrepreneurs of color aren’t the only ones missing out. These voices are often left out of the innovation ecosystem. What compelling solutions, inventions or techniques “ride the bench” because of this lack of access? What lucrative investment opportunities do venture capital firms miss? What do our communities lose from the lack of diverse participation in the business community? And what do future generations lose as we perpetuate a system that fails to provide entrepreneurial models for children of color?

That’s where PowerMoves comes in. In 2014, I jumped at the chance to be the CEO of PowerMoves.NOLA to position New Orleans as a hub of inclusive entrepreneurship and help rebuild a cohort of entrepreneurs who had been disproportionately affected by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent failure of the city’s levees in 2005. Fairly quickly, organizations across the country began asking us to establish programs in their cities. In April 2015, we launched PowerMoves.Detroit with the support of Knight and Morgan Stanley, and in February 2016, we will launch PowerMoves Miami with founding sponsorship by Knight.

Our presence in Miami will include a space for developing ideas, where entrepreneurs of colors can incubate their ideas. We believe this work complements other efforts underway, such as Knight’s support for The Idea Center at Miami Dade College, Digital Grass, Black Tech Week and more. PowerMoves Miami will help shine a light on the very compelling seed, Series A, and Series B round deal flow in the city and in the region. This, coupled with the programming we will offer throughout the year, will give venture capitalists even more reason to visit Miami to pay close attention to the emerging tech industry and compelling deal flow there. Ultimately, PowerMoves Miami will position the city as a launch pad for African-American, Afro-Caribbean, and historically underrepresented startup entrepreneurs.