Meet Danielle Marques, the woman connecting Black Brazilian founders with Silicon Valley

Brazilian entrepreneur and founder Danielle Marques experienced a life-changing moment in 2022 when she traveled from her Ribeirão Preto community in Brazil to Silicon Valley. The contrast between her community and the tech epicenter revealed a stark racial disconnect in innovation.

Marques had been working at a technology company in the real estate sector but had begun shifting her career toward innovation with her main focus on Black founders. She realized that 53% of Brazilian entrepreneurs are Black but remained excluded from innovation dialogues.

“I’d often go to technology events discussing diversity that featured only white men,” Marques recalled in an interview with Forbes.

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Determined to bridge this gap, she launched a viral crowdfunding campaign to fund her inaugural Silicon Valley trip. “If Silicon Valley’s innovations were impacting my community without our participation, I decided I’d facilitate that myself,” she said. 

Her visit exposed glaring disparities. “I was shocked that many things considered super innovative [there] had parallels with my reality back home,” she noted.

As the sole Black woman among 70 attendees, Marques recognized the urgent need for representation. “I couldn’t possibly keep all that knowledge to myself,” she emphasized. “I felt responsible, because so many people had contributed to my crowdfunding campaign.”

This responsibility drove her to launch Do Silêncio ao Silício (From Silence to Silicon), an innovation hub accelerating Black entrepreneurs through education, networking, and immersive experiences. 

In 2024, the program’s first cohort of 10 entrepreneurs with technology-based companies—selected from 300 applicants—went to San Francisco for two weeks. They visited Stanford, accelerators like Plug n’ Play, and companies such as Google and Meta, while attending the Brazil at Silicon Valley conference.

Funding came from prominent figures like Prosus CEO Fabricio Bloisi and iFood CEO Diego Barreto, covering visas, flights, and accommodations. Pre-trip preparation included eight months of English lessons and mentorship. 

Marques is determined to confront systemic barriers. According to her, most Black Brazilian entrepreneurs earn near-minimum wage, and fewer than 5% speak English.

“When you look at founders of major Brazilian tech companies, many studied at Harvard or Stanford. How many Black entrepreneurs consider an MBA abroad?” she questioned. Her initiative avoids replicating U.S. models, instead adapting global insights locally. “Not everything I consume can be adapted to our reality, but it’s important to know what’s happening,” she explained. 

Looking ahead, Marques plans to expand cohorts from 10 to 50+ entrepreneurs and target “intrapreneurs” (professionals working within established companies who also find it hard to access global innovation networks). A “give back” clause requires participants to mentor youth from marginalized communities, fostering a cycle of opportunity. “I’ve always believed in making room for more people,” she said. “If I can reach a place and bring others with me, I’ll make that happen.” 

Currently preparing for a second cohort, Marques envisions scaling her hub to many global innovation centers while developing educational offerings to democratize access to knowledge and networking opportunities through events.