From Homeless to Kickstarter CEO: Everette Taylor on the Power of Belief

August is Black Business Month, and throughout the month, Wealth Wednesdays is celebrating Black entrepreneurs who have changed industries, created opportunities and expanded what's possible for the next generation.

This week, we're spotlighting Everette Taylor, CEO of Kickstarter.

Today, Taylor leads one of the world's best-known crowdfunding platforms. But his path to the CEO chair looks nothing like a traditional corporate success story.

Before the CEO Title, There Was Survival

Taylor grew up on the Southside of Richmond, Virginia. During his senior year of high school, he experienced homelessness and lived out of his car.

But an important part of his story began even earlier.

At just 14, his mother encouraged him to answer a classified ad for a marketing opportunity. The experience introduced him to people and possibilities beyond the world he knew and helped him discover something that would ultimately transform his life: a talent for marketing.

By 19, Taylor had dropped out of college and was earning minimum wage at Jo-Ann Fabrics.

Then he became an entrepreneur.

Building His First Company at 19

Taylor launched EZ Events, an event marketing platform, and sold the company just two years later.

The experience also delivered one of his earliest lessons about money and entrepreneurship.

He later learned the company was worth considerably more than what he had sold it for.

The lesson he carried forward was simple: Know your worth.

And Taylor didn't stop with one company.

He went on to build businesses including PopSocial, MilliSense, ArtX and GrowthHackers through ET Enterprises, working across technology, marketing, community and the arts.

That's an important part of his story.

Everette Taylor isn't simply a corporate executive running a platform used by entrepreneurs.

He is an entrepreneur.

What Happens When Access to Capital Changes How Big You Dream?

One of the most powerful parts of our conversation with Taylor centers on something we don't discuss enough when talking about the racial funding gap.

We talk about how much capital Black entrepreneurs receive.

But what about the psychological impact of knowing that capital may not be available in the first place?

Taylor has spoken about building businesses he could make profitable quickly rather than pursuing ideas that would require significant amounts of outside capital.

It raises a much bigger question:

What happens when lack of access to capital doesn't just limit the business you can build, but begins limiting the size of the business you allow yourself to imagine?

For entrepreneurs, understanding capital, equity and ownership can be every bit as important as learning how to generate revenue.

From Entrepreneur to CEO

Taylor eventually made a deliberate decision to learn a different skill: how to lead at scale.

While serving as CMO of Artsy, he knew he wanted to become the CEO of a major company. He was remarkably direct about that ambition, telling the company's CEO that he wanted to learn how to do his job.

That journey eventually led Taylor to Kickstarter, where he became CEO in September 2022.

He brought something unusual to the role.

He wasn't a traditional finance or operations executive.

He was an entrepreneur, marketer and creative who understood the relationship between culture, community, storytelling and business.

Under his leadership, Kickstarter has experienced a major resurgence and earned recognition as one of TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies.

Kindness Is Not Weakness

Taylor's leadership philosophy also challenges another assumption about entrepreneurship.

Somewhere along the way, many entrepreneurs learn to equate leadership with toughness. We construct personas, become intensely transactional and sometimes begin believing that kindness will be interpreted as weakness.

Taylor's own journey suggests something very different.

He has talked about how generosity and mentoring someone without expecting anything in return ultimately played an unexpected role in the chain of relationships that led him to Kickstarter.

It's a powerful reminder that relationships aren't always transactions.

Sometimes the opportunity comes because of who you were when you thought there was nothing to gain.

Can Working Less Actually Make Us Better?

Taylor has also become a prominent defender of Kickstarter's four-day, 32-hour workweek.

But his argument isn't really about doing less.

It's about wasting less.

When time becomes constrained, organizations have to become much clearer about what's essential. Unnecessary meetings, inefficient processes and low-value work become harder to justify.

It's a fascinating lesson for entrepreneurs.

Sometimes limitations don't prevent performance.

They force focus.

A Different Path to Capital

That brings Taylor's story back to the people Kickstarter exists to serve.

Entrepreneurs and creators with ideas have traditionally depended on gatekeepers for capital: banks, investors, record labels, studios, publishers and venture capital firms.

Kickstarter offers a different proposition.

Take the idea directly to the people who believe in it.

And now Kickstarter is taking that philosophy one step further.

Putting $1 Million Behind the Power of Belief

The new $1 million Kickstarter Culture Fund is designed to provide direct financial support to independent creators across Art, Fashion, Film and Music.

The fund is particularly meaningful in industries where accessing capital can sometimes mean surrendering ownership or creative control.

For musicians and other independent creators, the ability to finance an idea while maintaining creative freedom and a direct relationship with an audience can fundamentally change the economics of building a career.

The initiative is part of Kickstarter's broader Power of Belief campaign.

And when you understand Taylor's story, that name feels especially appropriate.

A teenager experienced homelessness.

His mother encouraged him to answer an ad.

Other people exposed him to possibilities he hadn't seen.

He built a company.

Then another.

And another.

He learned the value of ownership and equity.

He learned to lead.

And eventually, he gained the ability to put an institution's resources behind other people's ideas.

The Power of Believing Before the Evidence Arrives

That's what makes Everette Taylor such an important entrepreneur to spotlight during Black Business Month.

His story isn't simply about overcoming adversity or reaching the CEO suite.

It's about what happens when belief meets opportunity.

And perhaps more importantly, what can happen when someone who once needed others to believe in him reaches a position where he can help create opportunity for thousands of others.

Watch our full Wealth Wednesdays conversation with Everette Taylor to hear more about his journey from homelessness to entrepreneurship, what he learned about equity and access to capital, his unconventional approach to leadership, Kickstarter's four-day workweek and the new $1 million Culture Fund.

▶️ WATCH THE FULL WEALTH WEDNESDAYS INTERVIEW HERE

Throughout Black Business Month, Angela and I are celebrating entrepreneurs who remind us that building wealth isn't just about creating successful businesses. It's about expanding what's possible for everyone who comes after us.