How Kickstarter’s First Black CEO Is Opening Doors For Black Creators

Since taking the helm as Kickstarter’s first Black CEO, Everette Taylor has transformed the world’s premier crowdfunding platform into a powerhouse for the creator economy. Blending serial entrepreneurship with savvy marketing, Taylor has elevated the brand, endorsed progressive workplace models, and earned Kickstarter a spot on TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies. And he’s just getting started.

With a vision to impact more Black creators and other creators of color, Taylor is leading the launch of Kickstarter’s Culture Fund. The $1 million initiative was established to directly back independent creators, making direct financial contributions to eligible live campaigns to help project creators build early momentum and reach their goals.

In an interview with The Root, Taylor shared how the fund is Kickstarter’s first step to addressing inequalities for Black creators and other founders of color.

“The Kickstarter Culture Fund was born out of conversations with my team and creators, looking at what’s happening in art, music, film, and fashion. People are struggling—they lack the money, resources, and insights they need to succeed,” said Taylor. “Kickstarter wanted to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to supporting creators. We’ve never put up our own money before.”

That institutional shift reflects Taylor’s broader vision to leverage corporate power to help historically overlooked creators.

“Everything I do is designed with Black people and underrepresented groups in mind. While this fund is open to everyone, I never lose sight of global inequities,” he added. “When we build Kickstarter’s resources, my goal is to serve everybody—and ‘everybody’ explicitly includes us.“

Under Taylor’s leadership, Kickstarter is also creating a new blueprint for how companies operate. Currently, his leadership team is 75% women and 63% people of color; employees at the company are unionized with a four-day workweek, and the company donates 2.5% of its after-tax profit to organizations fighting inequality. But he still feels like there is so much for Kickstarter to accomplish.

“I’m always hungry. We’re having our best year of all time, and I’m still not satisfied, man. We have so much impact that we can still make happen in the world,” Taylor noted. “So I wake up fired up.”

Before leading Kickstarter, Taylor led several successful ventures, including GrowthHackers and ET Enterprises, while driving major acquisitions at brands like Sticker Mule and Skurt. Later, as CMO of Artsy, he led the marketplace to record revenue, cementing his spot as a top tech marketing executive.

“I know that Black people don’t get opportunities like this very often—especially in this country. It took years of being excellent at what I do,” Taylor told The Root. “Even though I hadn’t yet proven myself as the CEO of a global tech company, I felt very confident in my abilities.”

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As a Black executive, Taylor is committed to breaking barriers for other emerging Black business leaders to follow. One of his core principles is a commitment to being himself as a leader in the tech world.

“I keep it 100. It’s hard enough running a company and making it successful, and at the same time you’re trying to pretend to be somebody that you’re not. So for me, I focus on the impact. I focus on being as great as possible,” Taylor explained. “I feel like if I can deliver value and I can be really great at what I do, then I can still be authentically myself.”

Yet, standing in his truth still catches traditional corporate culture off guard. “People are surprised. When they see me, and they’re like, ‘Oh man, he got corn rolls, you dress in a certain way, you got jewelry on,’” he added. “People are shocked, but that’s just who I am.”

According to the Black Executive Brief, Black-founded U.S. startups received just 0.4% of total venture funding—a devastating drop of more than two-thirds over the past three years. At Kickstarter, Taylor is actively countering that trend by empowering Black creators to fund their visions without relying on traditional backers. He points to thriving Black-founded success stories on the platform, including BLVCK Spades, Jeneba Barrie Nude Footwear, and Tuskegee Heirs.

“It’s like LeBron James going to the Sixers. He’s 41 going on 42, in his 24th year in the league, and he still wants to grind,” he laughed. “I still want to compete, you know. I keep that mentality. But I’m also still sleeping better, and I’m taking better care of myself at the same time.”

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