When Grammy award-winning rapper Hakeem “Chamillionaire” Seriki began learning the ropes of venture capitalism in the tech space, he noticed something almost immediately— he wasn’t seeing many people who looked like him. When he began to fund ventures himself, the heads of startups that were brought to him weren’t diverse, either, and that led him to create pitch competitions specifically geared toward people of color and women. His latest contest features a $100,000 investment from him and fellow rapper E-40. “The reason why we decided to put the focus on minority and women-funded startups is because this demographic of companies...