There’s somebody that likely looks like you at our offices. The culture that we have changed and are changing in Tulsa is: Hey, come on in. “It’s not what investing has looked like historically, which is exclusive. “It gives me goosebumps,” says managing partner Adele Weaver of the firm’s First Friday parties. It means investing in founders who have been overlooked for some reason or another-whether because of where they live, what they look like, or the problems they are trying to solve. It means investing in emerging general partners like Forum Ventures of Visible Hands. They try to meet with founders in pairs-so investors can check one another to guarantee they are leaving behind the VC-jargon during pitch meetings. For the firm, that means open-door (and open-bar) DJ parties the first Friday of every month. A core tenet of Atento is to be what venture capital often isn’t: inclusive. Three of Atento’s five senior investors are women and people of color, as well as a majority of the rest of the firm.

After all, to work in venture capital anywhere outside of the coastal meccas of San Francisco, New York City, and, more or less these days, Miami, there’s got to be a pretty good reason.Ītento Capital, which just closed its first $100 million fund this spring, is unusual by any measure-not just because of its home base (other firms, including Columbus-based Drive Capital, also focus on investing in the middle of the country). But half of the investment team is international, spanning four continents-and they had to be convinced. About one-third of Atento’s team, including co-founder Will Gray, a former competitive tennis player, is from Oklahoma. Francis Jee, a former Deloitte consultant who did work for the World Economic Forum, made his way to Atento after growing up in England and Zimbabwe. Investor Rosa Hathaway was a 10-year aerospace engineer at SpaceX.

Michael Basch, founder of the George Kaiser Family Foundation-affiliated early-stage venture firm Atento, worked on the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, then briefly ran for mayor in New York City (he dropped out before the election).

Atento careers