 Even amidst a world and chaos, you recognize the importance and the need for this space. And so we really sincerely thank you for being here. We'd love to hear how you're doing. So if you go to the polling tab on the right hand side of your screen, you'll see chats, polls, and how to connect with people. Click on polls and let us know how you're doing. The first poll of the morning is there and we'd love to know how you're coming into this space. Birth out of SOCAP, Spectrum's vision is to gather business leaders, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, cross-sector practitioners, and investors to address urgent needs for access, inclusion, and impact across capital markets with intention and authenticity. Spectrum's inaugural year has resulted in relationships being developed, investments made, new communities being formed, partnerships have been created, and that's what's alive at Spectrum. That's what we're nurturing and continuing to grow, especially now. We recognize that this platform, this way of engagement is sort of lacking the human element. It's unnatural, but it's the best that we have to be able to share and create community. COVID-19 and more recently, the fight for the justice of Black lives has placed an urgency upon this conversation in ways that couldn't have been imagined just a year ago. Even prior to the catastrophic pandemics of COVID-19, and yet another display, enormous display of structural racism, owners of color while making up only 38% of the population own only 19% of businesses overall. And in inner cities, while they represent 76% of the population, only 23% of businesses are owned by people of color. This was before COVID-19. According to a study from the initiative for a competitive inner city supported by J.P. Morgan in 2018, minority-owned businesses with paid employees contributed $1.2 trillion in revenues and 8 million jobs to our economy. Even still, they are not keeping pace with the growth and the growing population of color, earning just 48% of what white-owned firms earn. There are three major issues that have impacted the existence and growth of businesses of color. One is management knowledge and experience. Two, access to money and three, access to markets. Entrepreneurs of color tend to lack the knowledge and experience and the networks of successful business owners to tap into. Access to capital is a generational issue that continues to plague entrepreneurs of color, leaving them to contend with a denial of or access to small loans and limited equity capital V.C. options. Last, access to markets which mitigate against business risks, particularly contracts with government agencies, corporations, universities and hospitals, is also a challenge for entrepreneurs of color because they are less likely to be in high-growth areas. But also because of government-contract discrimination. The world has certainly changed and we all want to return to a normal. But the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on communities of color, together with the racial unrest, has again clenched our country and has catapulted us into a sphere of strategizing towards a new normal. Because the old normal, some would argue, wasn't normal at all. Our society is calling for something fundamentally different. This is a moment for a shift, a real shift, with concrete actions and tangible outcomes across multiple areas and in this case with entrepreneurs of color. We must double down on objectives to build economies that create new pathways to access and inclusion for entrepreneurs of color. Now is the time to be incredibly clear on the outcomes we are seeking, to the concrete changes we want to see. How do we better position and support entrepreneurs of color? What role can founders of color play? What will grow awareness, build agency and move decision makers to create a diverse, more inclusive decision-making tables? How do we move those with capital and power to think and act differently, more equitably about people of color such that more capital is deployed in their direction? How do we transform the minds that believe that being black or being a person of color is a risk factor? So that's why we're here. I'm really excited for the next few days together. But before we go any further, I want to do a few housekeeping, run through a few housekeeping items that will make sure that our journey is smooth. While many of us have lived in the virtual space for several months now, I don't want to take for granted that some of us may be unfamiliar with the platform. So hop in is the platform that we're using over the next three days and you'll find your agenda with the speakers and a bit of information about them on that platform. Through hop in, you're able to connect with the speaker.