Venture Capital Funding Remains Elusive Despite New Influx of Finding 752 Donnel Baird (C) sits with other Echoing Green Black Male Achievement Fellows in New York, U.S., during a presentation in this 2012 handout picture. Echoing Green/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) – When Donnel Baird first pitched his idea in 2014 to create a technology platform that could help small apartment buildings and other urban structures become energy efficient, he got the U.S. government to promise him $2.1 million, provided he could raise a similar amount from elsewhere, but not one of some 200 venture capital firms he approached agreed to invest back then.