Despite minority entrepreneurs being prone to starting more businesses than their non-minority counterparts these underrepresented groups are met with limited probabilities of receiving VC funding. To date, our understanding of how entrepreneurs’ minority status influences VC decision-making is limited. The lack of access to VC capital that minority entrepreneurs face is particularly problematic as it precludes the start-up from achieving its growth potential, hinders its ability to grow at a rate that is comparable to start-ups owned by non-minority competitors, and at a broader level deprives the economy of countless potential new jobs created. To understand the inequitable funding that minority entrepreneurs receive, VC-minority entrepreneur relationship using the stereotype content model (SCM) and Intergroup Contact Theory are analyzed. Specifically, authors hypothesize that entrepreneurs’ minority status, relative to non-minority entrepreneurs, negatively affects investor willingness to fund such ventures via the assessment of trustworthiness and competence of the entrepreneurs. However, we posit that VCs engaging in positive imagined intergroup contact may ameliorate the negative effects of VC stereotyping. Findings expand our systematic understanding of the investor-minority entrepreneur relationship by explaining the mechanisms through which investors make decisions about minority entrepreneurs, how dissimilarity biases influence VC decision making, and how minority entrepreneurs can potentially counteract negative subconscious investor perceptions.