For Black CEOs in Silicon Valley, humiliation is a part of doing business The Mercury News / by Bloomberg News / 9h By Priya Anand and Sarah McBride | Bloomberg Will Hayes has grown accustomed to an awkward start to business meetings. On numerous occasions, venture capitalists would confuse Hayes, the head of software company Lucidworks Inc., with another man on his executive team. The investor would introduce himself, extend a handshake to the other guy and say, βGood to meet you, Will.β Itβs strange because they donβt look alike. Also, Hayes is Black, and his deputy is White. This happened so many times, in dozens of meetings over many years, that Hayes and his longtime colleague, Keith Messick, say itβs no coincidence. Such unintentional instances of racism, they say, have become a routineβand insidiousβpart of doing business at a Black-led company in Silicon Valley. Protests over the death of George Floyd at the knee of a White police offi...
