Author Guide · Business & Memoir
Books Written by
In the years before she founded a venture capital firm, Arlan Hamilton spent nights at San Francisco’s airport and lived on food assistance while she pitched investors in Silicon Valley. She had no money and no contacts in finance; her experience was in music: she had worked as a tour manager for, among others, CeeLo Green and Toni Braxton. In 2015, at 34, she launched Backstage Capital to fund founders who are women, people of colour or LGBTQ+, and the firm went on to back more than 200 startups. In 2018 she became the first Black woman who was not a celebrity to appear on the cover of Fast Company. Her two books turn that story into advice. This guide covers her two key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2020–2024 · Updated October 2026
ClickTap a spine to jump to that book below.
Quick answer
Arlan Hamilton has written two books: It’s About Damn Time (2020), a memoir and career guide about going from homelessness to running a venture fund, and Your First Million (2024), a practical guide to starting a business. Start with It’s About Damn Time; it tells the story the second book builds on.
Where to Start with Arlan Hamilton
If you want her story
→ It’s About Damn Time (2020) — from tour manager to homeless founder to venture capitalist.
If you want advice on being underestimated
→ It’s About Damn Time (2020) — the memoir doubles as a career guide.
If you want to start a business
→ Your First Million (2024) — funding, ownership and income streams, step by step.
2 Arlan Hamilton Books, in Order
It’s About Damn Time
Part memoir, part guide, published by Currency (Penguin Random House) in May 2020. Hamilton describes growing up in Dallas, reselling candy bought in bulk to classmates, years as a tour manager, and three years of pitching Silicon Valley investors while homeless, before founding Backstage Capital in 2015. She also writes about addiction, depression and stage fright. Publishers Weekly called it an “excellent debut”. The title comes from the name she gave her 2018 fund for Black women founders: “the about damn time fund”.
Your First Million
Written with Rachel L. Nelson and published by Little, Brown Spark in January 2024, in 27 chapters. Hamilton argues that starting a business is the fastest route to wealth and control for people who grew up with little money, as she did. The book covers finding an unmet need, raising money while keeping ownership, choosing collaborators and building several income streams, with case studies such as a backpack company that switched to making masks early in the Covid pandemic. It shares its name with her podcast.
In What Order to Read Arlan Hamilton
Read them in publication order. It’s About Damn Time tells how Backstage Capital began and sets out her view of the “underestimated” founder; Your First Million assumes you know that story and turns to the practical side of starting and funding a business.
If you only want practical business advice, you can start with Your First Million; it stands on its own. Her podcast of the same name, where she has talked openly about Backstage’s setbacks, is a useful companion to both books.
A reading path
1. It’s About Damn Time (2020)
2. Your First Million (2024)
The years · 1980–2024
Quick facts about Arlan Hamilton
- Known for
- Founding Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in founders who are women, people of colour or LGBTQ+, after starting it while homeless.
- 1980
- Born in Dallas, Texas
- Born
- 30 October 1980, Dallas, Texas
- Before investing
- Tour manager and booking agent in music; founded the online magazine Interlude (2002)
- Founded
- Backstage Capital, 2015; later HireRunner, a hiring platform
- Married
- The German composer and actor Anna Eichenauer, in 2019
- Honours
- Fortune 40 Under 40 (2018); Fast Company Queer 50 (2021, 2022)
- Podcast
- Your First Million
The red mark is 2020: It’s About Damn Time, her first book.
How Arlan Hamilton Writes: Memoir as Manual
Both books start from her own life and move to instructions. It’s About Damn Time runs from a childhood selling candy in the schoolyard to nights at San Francisco airport and her first investments, and each part of the story becomes a lesson about being underestimated: what it costs, and how to use it.
She writes in a direct, spoken voice, close to the one on her podcast, and is open about what went wrong: poverty, addiction, depression, stage fright and, in interviews, burnout. That candour is part of the argument. She presents herself not as a model of success but as proof that someone without money or connections can get into a closed industry.
Your First Million is more of a handbook. It is organised around concrete steps — spotting a need, raising money without giving away control, building more than one income stream — and it keeps returning to ownership, which she calls “control: power and leverage combined”.
Watch
Arlan Hamilton on It's About Damn Time
Arlan Hamilton discusses her book It’s About Damn Time at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. From the official Rotman School of Management channel.
Frequently asked questions about Arlan Hamilton’s books
How many books has Arlan Hamilton written?
Two: It’s About Damn Time (2020) and Your First Million (2024).
What are Arlan Hamilton’s books in order?
It’s About Damn Time: How to Turn Being Underestimated into Your Greatest Advantage (2020), then Your First Million: Why You Don’t Have to Be Born into a Legacy of Wealth to Leave One Behind (2024).
Where should I start with Arlan Hamilton?
With It’s About Damn Time. It tells her own story, from tour manager to founder of Backstage Capital, and explains the idea of the “underestimated” founder that runs through her work. Go straight to Your First Million if you only want practical advice on starting a business.
What is Arlan Hamilton’s most famous book?
It’s About Damn Time (2020), her first book, published by Currency in May 2020 and described by Publishers Weekly as an “excellent debut”.
What is Backstage Capital?
The venture capital firm Hamilton founded in 2015 to invest in startups led by founders who are women, people of colour or LGBTQ+. Its first investor was the angel investor Susan Kimberlin. It has invested in more than 200 startups.
Was Arlan Hamilton really homeless?
Yes. In 2014 she put her career on hold to break into venture capital, lived on her savings and, when they ran out, slept on friends’ couches, in motels and for some nights at San Francisco’s airport. She tells the story in It’s About Damn Time.
What happened to Backstage Capital in 2022?
In March 2022 the firm stopped making new investments and said it would fund only companies already in its portfolio. In June 2022 Hamilton said on her podcast that it had cut its staff from 12 to three. She said the situation “could have been avoided if systems were different”, criticised investors who offered help but did not commit money, and said she had been burnt out for at least three years.
Does Arlan Hamilton have a podcast?
Yes, Your First Million, which shares its title with her second book. She was also the subject of a six-episode series of Gimlet Media’s podcast Startup.
What did Arlan Hamilton do before venture capital?
She worked in music, as a tour manager and booking agent, and later toured as a tour manager with artists including CeeLo Green, Pharrell Williams and Toni Braxton. In 2002 she founded the online music magazine Interlude.
Is Arlan Hamilton still alive?
Yes. She was born on 30 October 1980 in Dallas, Texas.
Footnotes
- Arlan Hamilton — Wikipedia
- Arlan Hamilton (1980– ) — BlackPast
- It’s About Damn Time — Publishers Weekly review, 2020
- Your First Million — Little, Brown Spark (Hachette)
- Backstage Capital cuts majority of staff — TechCrunch, 2022
- Arlan Hamilton’s new book — Black Enterprise, 2020
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“They like to call it a diversity fund. I call it the about damn time fund.”
— Arlan Hamilton, interview with Black Enterprise (2020), on her fund for Black women founders
If this shelf interested you, the full bookshelf has more: reading lists by theme, author guides, and notes on what is actually worth your time.
Browse the full bookshelf Get book recommendations