From Community Advisor to Angel Investing
- Jill Johnson
- 7 days ago
- 1 min read
I never saw angel investing as something people like me could do,” shares Dekonti Mends-Cole, an advisor to local governments and nonprofits on community revitalisation. “It felt like an exclusive space reserved for ultra–high net worth individuals investing in other founders who looked just like them.”
That changed when a close friend introduced her to Pipeline Angels, a network of women and nonbinary investors reshaping who gets to fund the future. “I met Pipeline Angels who looked like me, had backgrounds like mine, and shared my goals. That’s when I realized: I could be an investor.”
Leaving her community development role in 2024, she launched her own entrepreneurship journey—deeply inspired by what she learned about capital, access, and community wealth building.
Dekonti says, "When we invest in founders solving problems for our own communities, we change the trajectory of our families and neighborhoods.”
