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Speaker 1: The groundbreaking, revolutionary experience from black tech, e startless and

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs is afro Tech World. Are you ready for the

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Speaker 1: largest black tech conference of the year. Get ready to

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Speaker 1: connect with the global community of twenty thou black innovators

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Speaker 1: during a series of digital and in person events with

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Speaker 1: dynamic programming on emerging trends, networking opportunities with industry leaders,

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Speaker 1: and conversations with top tech recruiters. It's afro tech World.

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Speaker 1: Learn more and experienced that afro tech dot com. I'm

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Speaker 1: Will Lucas and this is black tech, Green Money. So

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Speaker 1: we are two weeks away from afro tech World one

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Speaker 1: and we are planning like mad men and mad women.

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Speaker 1: While we will have some live and in person events,

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Speaker 1: the bulk of the conference this year will be your

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Speaker 1: digital experience, much like last year at afro tech World,

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Speaker 1: but you know we're always raising the book. Last year

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Speaker 1: in the virtual world, I met people from all over

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Speaker 1: the world, from Cape Town to St. Louis, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't have to wear a mask get on the plane.

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Speaker 1: While I do missing all of you in person. That

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Speaker 1: time will come again. But for now, and before we

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Speaker 1: get into today's episode from one of our highest view

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Speaker 1: afro tech YouTube series ever term Sheets Venture Capital in

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Speaker 1: New York City. I wanted to share some memorable experiences

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Speaker 1: from afro Tech Days of You Are at afro Tech

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen in San Francisco, California. Airbnb User Experience Designers

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Speaker 1: SUN League du Karem is on an afro Tech breakoutstay.

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Speaker 1: He's talking introductory pathways and insights into UX design. Let's

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Speaker 1: listen and as he breaks down the best way to

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Speaker 1: understand first what the UX designer actually does and what

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Speaker 1: a designer needs to consider in order to be good

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Speaker 1: at that job. I'm gonna talk about what is UX design.

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Speaker 1: This is what Wikipedia says. It says it's the process

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Speaker 1: of enhancing you to scientist user satisfaction with a product

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Speaker 1: by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the

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Speaker 1: interaction with the product. It's very abstract in my mind. Uh,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't actually paint the whole picture. It's like saying

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Speaker 1: that basketball is about putting a ball in a hoop.

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Speaker 1: It's a lot. It's a it's about offense, it's about defense,

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Speaker 1: it's about matchups, it's about scheme, it's about the rules

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Speaker 1: of the game. It's about so much more. So this definition,

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Speaker 1: I think, gives you a small piece, but it doesn't

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Speaker 1: dive into the meat of the actual thing. In order

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Speaker 1: to get you all thinking about the meat of U

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Speaker 1: X design, I'm gonna related to something else to all

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Speaker 1: of us go to grocery stores. You're going with your list,

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Speaker 1: you walk around the store with your car, you fill

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Speaker 1: it up, you get to the checkout. When you at

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Speaker 1: the check out, there is this a whole mini isle

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Speaker 1: of candy right where you are. And if you anything

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Speaker 1: like me, you're exhausted from shopping. So you figure you're

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Speaker 1: gonna just get some candy, and you're gonna get the

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Speaker 1: best candy in the world, which is the Twigs. Let's

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Speaker 1: take a minute here. A TWIGX is a Now I'm

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Speaker 1: just playing. So you got your twigs. Next thing, you're thinking, Okay,

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Speaker 1: if I go home with candy from me and none

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Speaker 1: for my wife, I'm be in trouble. Let me get

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Speaker 1: something for her. Next thing, you know, you bought more stuffing,

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Speaker 1: money and candy than you did in actual groceries. So

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Speaker 1: so who thought of this putting candy at the check out? Right?

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Speaker 1: Stories weren't always like this. There's a whole retail store

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Speaker 1: industry focused on shoppers and how they navigate stores, and

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Speaker 1: it started back in the fifties. I found this UM

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Speaker 1: article written by William Applebaum. It's called Studying Customer Behavior

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Speaker 1: and Retail Stores and even back and they really sought

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Speaker 1: to understand customer behavior, their buying patterns, who buys, what,

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Speaker 1: when and how. It has sections that talk about the

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Speaker 1: identification of customers, trying to figure out who the customers are,

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Speaker 1: not just their buying patterns, their age, their sex, their group.

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Speaker 1: There's educational status, their nationality and so on. There's even

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Speaker 1: a section called the origin of customers, which asks questions

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Speaker 1: like where do the stores customers come from, what is

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Speaker 1: the geographic distribution from their home? And how far do

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Speaker 1: they have to travel to get to the store. And

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Speaker 1: he even talks about how to observe, interview and conduct

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Speaker 1: experiments in the store to gain data. And it's back

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Speaker 1: in the fifties. So this paragraph here talks about uh,

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Speaker 1: following customers around the store to observe arreous patterns. Now,

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Speaker 1: when I was younger, I got followed around in a

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Speaker 1: lot of stores. Maybe they were doing data. Maybe I

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Speaker 1: gotta twist it, but seriously, the paper is really fascinating.

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go through the whole thing and check

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Speaker 1: it on online, but just imagine that you have an

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Speaker 1: empty space and you can build a grocery store. You

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Speaker 1: get to decide everything. You get to decide what's the

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Speaker 1: first thing that a customer sees when they walk in

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Speaker 1: the door, Where are we gonna put the chips, what

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Speaker 1: is that checkout? You can decide everything, where it is,

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Speaker 1: why it's there. And the only way you can do

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Speaker 1: that is if you truly understand your customer, and the

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Speaker 1: ux designer does the exact same thing, except this in

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Speaker 1: a digital device. And then afro Tech seen Ben Silverman,

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Speaker 1: founder and CEO ad Pinterest, took to the main stags

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Speaker 1: to talk about leadership and teamwork. Pinches just the fourteenth

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Speaker 1: largest social network in the world. It ranks ahead of

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Speaker 1: Twitter and Active us is according to the Global State

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Speaker 1: of Digital. I mean, I think the first thing is,

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Speaker 1: especially in a lot of like business books, there's this, uh,

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Speaker 1: they kind of make the founder the hero, when when

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Speaker 1: actually everything that was ever worthwhile being built was built

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Speaker 1: by a lot of talented people with different talents, and

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Speaker 1: so really early on, like me and my co founder

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Speaker 1: understood that and so putting together a team of people

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Speaker 1: that had different skills than us was like top priority.

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Speaker 1: And honestly, I feel really lucky. I I told, I

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Speaker 1: told my whole company this yesterday, the whole company. I

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Speaker 1: was like, I I think the greatest perk of starting

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Speaker 1: companies when I get to work with people with all

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Speaker 1: these different talents um and so that that I think

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Speaker 1: that comes through people know when you really value them

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Speaker 1: for what they have to offer and what they have

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Speaker 1: to build. And then in terms of philosophy, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think there are a few things that I always

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Speaker 1: really believe. You know, One is I love companies uh

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Speaker 1: and projects that that bring really different skill sets together

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Speaker 1: uh to achieve something that no one individually could have done.

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Speaker 1: So I loved when I was a kid reading about

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Speaker 1: Bell Labs in New Jersey. They had like physicists, material scientists, engineers,

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Speaker 1: business people, marketers. I love the company Pixar. Pixar has

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Speaker 1: got animators and artists and storytellers and merchandizers, um and

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Speaker 1: so we really value building these teams with very different,

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Speaker 1: very different skill sets. And then if you do that,

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Speaker 1: then the trick is how do you get all these

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Speaker 1: people with different skill sets? To work together. UH. And

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Speaker 1: at our company, we have a philosophy called knitting. It's

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Speaker 1: kind of one of our core values. And we try

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Speaker 1: to select for people that we think will be good

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Speaker 1: at working with people that have different skill sets and backgrounds.

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Speaker 1: So we select for people explicitly who are curious about learning.

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Speaker 1: We explicitly select for people that can communicate what they

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Speaker 1: do to people that may not be familiar with their discipline. UH.

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Speaker 1: We select against people that are really arrogant UH, even

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Speaker 1: though some of them are really talents. It because when

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Speaker 1: you put them in a team, the team starts to

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Speaker 1: break down. And so we really cherish that. We talked

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Speaker 1: about it a lot. If you look at our teams,

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Speaker 1: they're super cross functional. UH. And then the last thing

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Speaker 1: is we try to build a culture where you can

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Speaker 1: remove all of the things that shouldn't matter at work

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Speaker 1: but matter right if you can remove all the friction,

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Speaker 1: if you can create an environment where people can just

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Speaker 1: focus on bringing their talent to work rather than all

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Speaker 1: the other bullshit that you have to deal with. UM,

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Speaker 1: I think people will do their best work and no

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Speaker 1: rise to that and that's not easy to do. I

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Speaker 1: don't think we've percent cracked that, but it's an aspiration

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Speaker 1: that you could just go in and only worry about

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Speaker 1: what you're building and be excited to build it with people.

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Speaker 1: And I think that would be an amazing place that

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Speaker 1: I would want to work. Sheets A protec mini series

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Speaker 1: available on YouTube about Vinci Capital in New York City February.

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Speaker 1: Mis League is at the time an investor at Human Ventures,

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Speaker 1: a New York City based startups studio invented capital firm. Today,

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Speaker 1: she continues in her gift working with startups on their

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Speaker 1: business strategy, I mean the opportunities in operations. She also

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Speaker 1: works with corporate innovation teams, building entrepreneur and residents programs

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Speaker 1: and identifying founders aligned with investment thesis. We talked in

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Speaker 1: her Manhattan's office about everything from investing with an idea

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Speaker 1: to make the world a better place and not just

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Speaker 1: about a dollar to start a hubs outside of Silicon

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Speaker 1: Valley in New York City. I emphasized the seeing capitalist.

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Speaker 1: So I just learned to be clear, I care about

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Speaker 1: the world. I have not, but I am a capitalist,

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Speaker 1: you know. I think it's this is not I don't

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Speaker 1: like to align myself with these people because even the

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Speaker 1: icons of American history, they also did terrible things to

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Speaker 1: human beings. But it's sort of like the Carnegie or

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Speaker 1: Rockefeller mindset, right, like the idea that you can prioritize

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Speaker 1: building great industry and know that you have an obligation

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Speaker 1: to the broader community. Right. Um, we straddle that line

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Speaker 1: in that some of our companies, our companies are solving

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Speaker 1: problems for corporations, for customers, and they also happen to

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Speaker 1: have a social good impact. Right. There's a way to

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Speaker 1: like to to do that, to solve a problem that's

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Speaker 1: affecting people in mass and let the commercial outcome be

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Speaker 1: one of the motivators, and it's still do good. Right.

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Speaker 1: I think that the challenges that many companies I mentioned

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Speaker 1: you before were built for a very small technology companies

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Speaker 1: for a very small group of people and their first

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Speaker 1: world problems. Right. There are actually more people that have

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Speaker 1: myriad problems navigating the United States and their community and

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Speaker 1: services and all that, and someone between the federal government

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Speaker 1: that's supports them their own paycheck. They're willing to pay

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Speaker 1: to have the friction taken out of their lives. So

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Speaker 1: I don't think it's a I don't think you're making

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Speaker 1: a choice about social impact. I think that there are

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Speaker 1: more social problems that you can build technology to address

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Speaker 1: that will generate a return. It's hard for people to

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Speaker 1: wrap their brain around it. I'm not going out there

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Speaker 1: saying everyone should invest in social enterprises. I don't suggest that.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying that the options available and it's actually not.

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Speaker 1: You're not making a hard and fast choice all the time. YEA.

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Speaker 1: How much of your personal journey speaks to that? Because

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Speaker 1: when if I look at your resumes, you are either

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Speaker 1: headed to government professionally or even maybe even education if

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Speaker 1: you were to look at it and look at it

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Speaker 1: from that lens, how much of your personal you know,

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Speaker 1: journey and career speaks to your ability to be more

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Speaker 1: insightful about social impact and it's relationship to capitalism. That's

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Speaker 1: a great question. I think it's um. I don't want

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Speaker 1: to take too much credit for it. I think that

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Speaker 1: a lot of people along the way pushed me to

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Speaker 1: consider social impact as a core value for for for myself.

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Speaker 1: And the reason why I describe it that way is

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Speaker 1: that I grew up relatively poor, and when I got

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Speaker 1: the opportunity and like, oh I'm actually smart, I can

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Speaker 1: do well in these tests. I bet you I can

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Speaker 1: get into a good school. I was really focused on

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Speaker 1: economic stability and not on impact. No long the way

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Speaker 1: people are saying no, no no, no, You're bigger than that.

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Speaker 1: It's not just about the money. Think about this thing

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Speaker 1: over here, and so I think UM less of career

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Speaker 1: and more mentors have been the influence about keeping that

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Speaker 1: front of mine. When I was in Congress UM as

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Speaker 1: chief of staff, I managed fifty four billion dollars of

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Speaker 1: science and technology investments like okay, I can see how it,

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Speaker 1: how it stitches up nicely. But I never thought that

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Speaker 1: I'd be a venture I'd never thought i'd be in startups.

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Speaker 1: I never thought any of those things would actually be

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Speaker 1: a part of my life journey. UM, it's been really

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Speaker 1: about being aggressive about how much time I have on

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Speaker 1: this earth, a level of impact I want to make,

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Speaker 1: the mark I want to leave UM, and pushing myself

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Speaker 1: to consider what best is in and all that I'm

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Speaker 1: capable of. So that's really what those circuitest choices are about.

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Speaker 1: I see a Misha at Afro Tech and I see

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Speaker 1: you walking down the hall. What sort of thing gets

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Speaker 1: your attention when you talk to founders and you're like, oh,

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Speaker 1: that's interesting. We should talk. Yeah. So I approached a

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Speaker 1: little differently, UM, primarily because I'm focused on the individual

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Speaker 1: as the core of whether or not the business will

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Speaker 1: be successful. And so I spent a lot of time

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Speaker 1: trying to hear someone's personal story, which at first can

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Speaker 1: feel off putting and voyeuristic. But I'm listening for the

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Speaker 1: journey traveled. I'm listening for that distance. I you know,

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Speaker 1: not that everyone has to have a hard scrabble background.

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Speaker 1: I don't believe that, UM, But doing anything for the

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Speaker 1: long term, it's going to require resilience and sort of

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Speaker 1: the breath training of a marathon runner. And the only

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Speaker 1: way you can identify it is you know about the

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Speaker 1: races they've rhyn before they've met you. I think the

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Speaker 1: other element is really clear vision about what they want

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Speaker 1: to build. It doesn't all have to be sussed out,

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Speaker 1: but I need to know this person who spent time

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Speaker 1: with this idea and made choices about you know, I'm

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Speaker 1: a little two inches to the left, not too interest

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Speaker 1: the right on this idea. Right. I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of folks UM want to talk to someone with money

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Speaker 1: the moment they've got an idea that a few of

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Speaker 1: their friends have said that sounds cool. I'm listening for

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Speaker 1: the person who's delved a bit deeper. They've read five

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Speaker 1: books on the subject matter, They've used their network to

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Speaker 1: find two engineers that would help them tinker a little

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Speaker 1: bit like they're doing the work because that's what's going

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Speaker 1: to take. And so that's what I'm listening for when

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Speaker 1: I first, when I first an entrepres that sounds in

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Speaker 1: my experience a lot like an angel investor who comes

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Speaker 1: in super duper early before there's a product market fit,

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Speaker 1: a defined market for this. And what is the difference

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Speaker 1: to you based on that pieces between a VC and

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Speaker 1: an angel investor, and how should founders be thinking? Right?

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Speaker 1: So the thing to think about for me, UM, I've

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Speaker 1: only done early stage, even in Washington, A lot of

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Speaker 1: the early work that we've invested in UM, the best

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Speaker 1: they've got is a peer review paper that's indicating that.

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Speaker 1: So I've only played in that space where I'm trying

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Speaker 1: to have a conversation, understand the limited resources that they

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Speaker 1: have and figure out where should this fit in the

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Speaker 1: broader portfolio. UM. So I don't do I'm not oh,

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Speaker 1: you know, you know, looking at product market fit and

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Speaker 1: like how they're growing their customer. I don't do that

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Speaker 1: as much. So that's a biased word background for me. Um.

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Speaker 1: There's the there's the rhetoric around how um, it's easier

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Speaker 1: to construct a better deal if you play this early.

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Speaker 1: But I'm actually more interested because I like to meet

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Speaker 1: founders at this stage, even if I'm not investing in them,

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Speaker 1: even if we don't do business together. I like to

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Speaker 1: be in their world and journey um for for as

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Speaker 1: long as there as they're building. So it's a bias

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Speaker 1: on my part. It sounds like angel investing because I'm

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Speaker 1: speaking more about the people, but it's really about the

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Speaker 1: thesis um that we have about the individual being the

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Speaker 1: beginning and end of the success of the company. Relative

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Speaker 1: to a lot of black women who come into tech

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Speaker 1: and over you know, perform because because they've had to

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Speaker 1: juggle a lot of things in life. And when you

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Speaker 1: see studies that have shown that black women do return

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Speaker 1: um multiples of their investment dollars, talk to me about

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Speaker 1: what it means to you for to see other black

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Speaker 1: women more of late, start to see recognition as people

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Speaker 1: who can make returns for investors and build great companies. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't I feel Um, that's a great question. I

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Speaker 1: feel I have big feelings about that, primarily because UM,

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Speaker 1: women of color have been from a demographic perspective, the

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Speaker 1: leaders and entrepreneurship for decades the United States, and so

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Speaker 1: it feels kind of late if it feels um of

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Speaker 1: flat that we're being in all it's like okay, all right,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's it's only been here for like forever

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Speaker 1: call back to Madam C. J. Walker. It's like, that's

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Speaker 1: a long time to wait for someone to say, oh,

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Speaker 1: you guys actually might be good. I think for me

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Speaker 1: and I think it extends beyond just black women. I

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Speaker 1: think it extends as a as I as I've mentioned before,

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Speaker 1: are it extends to um young people in rural communities

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Speaker 1: who are really, um, incredibly capable and never get their shine.

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Speaker 1: It extends to black men, It extends to to Asian women,

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Speaker 1: and it extends to you know, hispanically extends to all

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Speaker 1: of us. Like you know, the idea that UM that

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Speaker 1: on on a basis of nothing else except the way

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Speaker 1: I show up in the world, you would have doubt.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm not I'm not thrilled that it's

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Speaker 1: being acknowledged because I think that the value of that

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Speaker 1: experience of being unacknowledged for so long is that we

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Speaker 1: realize that it's not actually about acknowledgement. The power is

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Speaker 1: and what we build. The power is how we connect

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Speaker 1: to customers, the powers, how we drive returns. The power

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Speaker 1: is to the legacy that we lead and what we built.

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Speaker 1: And that's really the thing that matters. And what I'm

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Speaker 1: encouraged by is that more and more people are expecting

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Speaker 1: not to be acknowledged and suiting up for it anyway.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's the thing that's most exciting for me.

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Speaker 1: Is it dangerous and you'll see it every once in

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Speaker 1: a while on Twitter as a founder will not out

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Speaker 1: a name, but out a VC the experience of the VC. Yes,

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Speaker 1: And so is it dangerous for particularly black women, but

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Speaker 1: black women also to talk about their negative experience with

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Speaker 1: vcs publicly? Yeah? No. And I think about this a

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Speaker 1: lot because I'm one of these people who I mean,

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Speaker 1: even by appearance, I like, I suit up for the

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Speaker 1: thing and being very polite and respectful as a part

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Speaker 1: of my personality. Um, I thought about this. I don't

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Speaker 1: think so. I think it's more valuable that folks are

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Speaker 1: speaking up. I think there are two tracks. You can

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Speaker 1: do it publicly like in Twitter as the universe that

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Speaker 1: you do it, and I think that that's more of

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Speaker 1: a signal to be quite explosive. And I think that

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Speaker 1: people have varying degrees. People who feel that they are

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Speaker 1: being described in those negative experiences right as being the

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Speaker 1: aggress or the offender. The negative experiences will have reactions. Right.

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Speaker 1: But the thing I've noticed, and this exists with entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: of all backgrounds, the really good ones figure out how

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Speaker 1: to build a network and back channel that information all

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Speaker 1: the time. Right, So we have two choices, right, we

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Speaker 1: have the lane to be explosive every now and again.

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Speaker 1: I think that people who want to do that should

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Speaker 1: feel empowered to do that and should be loud about that, because, um,

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Speaker 1: there is a narrative idealizing what it means to be

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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur and a founder. There's a narrative idealizing what

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Speaker 1: it means to be a venture capitalist. I think that

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Speaker 1: the more disruption and honesty and sunshine we put on

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Speaker 1: what it's really like, I think the better it will

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Speaker 1: help people make smart choices. And then conversely, for I

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Speaker 1: think it encourages people to be more comfortable back channeling

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Speaker 1: what it was really like to have a meeting with

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Speaker 1: bc X or banker why or angel investor Z, Like

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Speaker 1: that's really important. The path to growth for people who

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Speaker 1: have been sort of overlooked for a really long time

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Speaker 1: is getting more and more comfortable about sharing information as

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Speaker 1: cantilely as possible. It's the only way you can decide

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Speaker 1: how to do the right deal for you and how

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Speaker 1: to avoid mistakes is when someone says I talked to

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Speaker 1: that person. I don't think so, or this is what

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Speaker 1: I learned this. I navigate that the more we practice

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Speaker 1: and exercise that muscle being candid, the better Ackrock wana

364
00:21:17,640 --> 00:21:20,520
Speaker 1: be because it'll short circuit who we let into our

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Speaker 1: deals for our very very great companies, especially since our

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Speaker 1: the prices or deals tend to be a lot lower

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Speaker 1: because we don't anticipate um sort of a rush of

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Speaker 1: capital that we're trying to build something. Talk to me

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Speaker 1: about venture capital specifically in New York. What's different about

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00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:41,520
Speaker 1: doing it here versus Simlican Valley or Chicago or in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: I think I've been thinking about this a lot, and

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Speaker 1: I have a good side of what's different, have a

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Speaker 1: bad side and I'm happy to share both. UM. I

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Speaker 1: think that UM what's good about New York UM is

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Speaker 1: the companies that we build, they tend to be further

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Speaker 1: ability beyond like team and dream. I think that has

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Speaker 1: to do with New York's personality as a city, right, UM.

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Speaker 1: With financial capital world, we're fast. UM. The expectation of

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00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,040
Speaker 1: it being done yesterday is a very real thing that

380
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Speaker 1: seeps into UM this community, and so people are more

381
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Speaker 1: inclined as opposed to in the Valley, to show it

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Speaker 1: with a thing. This is the core idea fleshed out

383
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Speaker 1: is how much money. I think that the investors are

384
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Speaker 1: much more aggressive about proving, getting an entrepreneur to prove

385
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Speaker 1: about what they're doing before they write a check. I

386
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: think that's good, right, That sort of validates what's being built. UM.

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Speaker 1: I think the downside of New York is that is

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Speaker 1: also our personality. We are a town that in one

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Speaker 1: hand is really good about UM. We have the financial industry,

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Speaker 1: we have entrepreneurship, we have hustle. We also have UM

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna try not to care. We also have the

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Speaker 1: bs of press. We're we're a community that marketing and

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Speaker 1: branding is a thing that that is that's a part

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Speaker 1: of our world. So I share that to say that

395
00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:07,280
Speaker 1: there's a lot in this community that is held up

396
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 1: in the press as successful company, as a strong venture

397
00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,360
Speaker 1: capital firm, as people who care about diversity, as it's

398
00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,879
Speaker 1: all just about the matter, all just an indicator the

399
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:20,840
Speaker 1: last reporter they spoke to, not what they've actually done right,

400
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:24,280
Speaker 1: and so it so it's both good and bad are

401
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:27,480
Speaker 1: byproducts of the personality of the city. But it's a

402
00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:37,680
Speaker 1: very very real thing. More in recent years than ever,

403
00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:43,879
Speaker 1: Probably there's more opportunity for UM diverse founders to get funded,

404
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:46,000
Speaker 1: not as still we still got some ways to go,

405
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,639
Speaker 1: and there's more opportunity for people who look like you

406
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,479
Speaker 1: and I to be in the seats that you sit in.

407
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: Can you talk about the opportunity for people like us

408
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,560
Speaker 1: in the tech industry and the entire ecosystem and what

409
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:06,160
Speaker 1: you see? I am just UM. I am super excited

410
00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:11,120
Speaker 1: about where we are right now in terms of UM

411
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,840
Speaker 1: access to technology and there by therefore what anybody can

412
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:20,679
Speaker 1: build and therefore what anyone can invest in UM and

413
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Speaker 1: and to the satisfaction of the customer people want to

414
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:27,520
Speaker 1: serve like I'm super excited about that. Primarily you mentioned

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00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,040
Speaker 1: earlier about the new recognition that women of color are

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00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 1: getting as entrepreneurs. Um. You know, I I'm excited for it,

417
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:38,399
Speaker 1: but I'm glad they're late, right Um. The thing about

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00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,399
Speaker 1: it is that founders of color are people who aren't

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00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:45,439
Speaker 1: from the coasts. I see them as an overlooked and

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00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:49,639
Speaker 1: undervalued asset class. Right there, deals the expectation for what

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00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: they want to raise is a lot lower, right Um.

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00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: Even when they're well network it's a lot lower. UM.

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Speaker 1: So the deals are cheaper to get into, and by

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Speaker 1: every metric we've seen for the last forty years, these

425
00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:02,960
Speaker 1: founders work twice as hard to get into the door.

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Speaker 1: And so imagine a world in which the asset is

427
00:25:05,880 --> 00:25:10,080
Speaker 1: overperforming but cheaper like that's like a clear arbitrage opportunity,

428
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:11,720
Speaker 1: and as an investor, as something that I want to

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00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,120
Speaker 1: spend all of my time focused on. UM, I am

430
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:20,199
Speaker 1: excited about. UM. The fact that we're in the past

431
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:22,159
Speaker 1: or when I was growing up, right, I had to

432
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:26,200
Speaker 1: be in every engineering program and every advanced mathematics program

433
00:25:26,240 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 1: in order to figure out if I was talented. Now

434
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:31,840
Speaker 1: a young person could get on YouTube on their phone

435
00:25:31,840 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 1: and figure out how to code this, how to build

436
00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: that you know bar you know, where can I find

437
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:38,520
Speaker 1: a three D printer to build out a prototype? Like?

438
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 1: The access to test and learn, like the barriers are

439
00:25:43,119 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 1: much much slower. Right, We're we're moving um, all of

440
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: these qualifiers that flawed people, because we're all flawed, created

441
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,359
Speaker 1: to decide who could build something great. And it's going

442
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,439
Speaker 1: to shift, um who gets to build the future. And

443
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:02,040
Speaker 1: it's gonna be more aligned with our everyday needs and

444
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 1: more aligned with what the mass the problems of the

445
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:07,840
Speaker 1: masses are dealing with that ten people who are brown

446
00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,840
Speaker 1: or queerer, more femine, not from the coasts, just by

447
00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 1: sheer geography and space. Not everybody can live in a

448
00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,960
Speaker 1: Silicon Valley or New York, right, and they shouldn't and

449
00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 1: they shouldn't. And so there are many people in our

450
00:26:23,040 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: audience and who are trying to build technology companies and

451
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:32,159
Speaker 1: are in Oklahoma or in Georgia, or in Ohio or Kentucky.

452
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:37,600
Speaker 1: And how what should happen in the ecosystem globally of

453
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 1: technology and venture that pays more attention and gets more

454
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:46,760
Speaker 1: credit to those startups that could be incredibly viable but

455
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:49,719
Speaker 1: don't have the network to get to a person like you,

456
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,959
Speaker 1: it's arguing to lose invariably, right, what will happen is

457
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 1: you can't stop a person on a mission with a

458
00:26:58,640 --> 00:27:00,879
Speaker 1: clear vision is like a freight train, and you can't

459
00:27:00,880 --> 00:27:03,960
Speaker 1: stop it. Right, they'll it'll take them longer to get

460
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: there if they're not network and all that, but you

461
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,720
Speaker 1: can't stop it. And it's really our game to lose.

462
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:11,240
Speaker 1: I think that venture itself as a as a space

463
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: UM is not as wanted as it once was. It's

464
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 1: not as admired as it once was. People are getting

465
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,200
Speaker 1: more and more creative at what it takes to fund

466
00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,960
Speaker 1: their companies UM, and so really I would flip the

467
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: question the real concern or the real urgencies on the

468
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,479
Speaker 1: part of investors and whether or not they are racing

469
00:27:30,520 --> 00:27:32,520
Speaker 1: to get there, because those folks are going to build,

470
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: right like that, just like it's not what it was

471
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: twenty years ago, right, they have the capability to build.

472
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,639
Speaker 1: And I want to encourage those folks, those founders in Oklahoma,

473
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:46,920
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, Mississippi, you know, in Dayton, Ohio, to like, yes,

474
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,600
Speaker 1: it's hard, right, it's harder to find capital, it's hard

475
00:27:50,640 --> 00:27:52,320
Speaker 1: to find people you want to collaborate with, but it's

476
00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: not the end of the world. People in New York

477
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:58,440
Speaker 1: are building offshore engineering teams. That means that people in

478
00:27:58,520 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 1: dat know how it can too. And those offshore engineering

479
00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:03,600
Speaker 1: team teams are cheaper than you can find New York

480
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, which means they're also cheaper for you

481
00:28:05,760 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: in Dayton, Ohio. You follow like it's it's just a

482
00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 1: whole new world. And if you believe that your product,

483
00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,600
Speaker 1: your technology should live in the world, there is a

484
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:20,359
Speaker 1: way to get there. Now. I think that, um, some

485
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,360
Speaker 1: folks are on the coast or being more and more

486
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:27,199
Speaker 1: open to discovering folks that are building in these communities.

487
00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:31,160
Speaker 1: But you know, hy Alpha is not in New erkas

488
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: in Indiapolis, right, Like, there are folks that are moving

489
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:38,040
Speaker 1: like they're There are coal hubs and communities in Denver, Colorado.

490
00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 1: Right there's a community being built in Salt Lake City, Utah. Like,

491
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: that's what's happening because smart people are waking up to

492
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 1: the fact that that you guys are out there, and

493
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:50,000
Speaker 1: that it's argued foods that we don't get in it.

494
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,720
Speaker 1: We should be rushing, Uh, we should be rushing to you. Um.

495
00:28:54,360 --> 00:28:55,920
Speaker 1: I think that that will be the case for for

496
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:58,880
Speaker 1: a period of time, and and and you can't encourage

497
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: people to do the smart thing, to set the figure

498
00:29:00,640 --> 00:29:02,960
Speaker 1: it out. And that's what I mean that too, investors

499
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 1: who are overlooking this community. Black Tech Green Money is

500
00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,360
Speaker 1: the production to Blackty Afro Tech on the Black Effect

501
00:29:20,400 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: Podcast Network and i Heeart Media, and it is produced

502
00:29:23,160 --> 00:29:27,480
Speaker 1: by Morgan Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production

503
00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: support by Love Beach and Marista Lewis. Special thank you

504
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 1: to Michael Davis, Adam sims insa Carsavanan you know like

505
00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 1: the wine. Yes that's his real name. Learn more about

506
00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: my guests and other technist has it innovative the Afro

507
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: tech dot Com. The video version of this episode is

508
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:49,200
Speaker 1: already on YouTube, So tap in enjoying Black Tech Green Money,

509
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,720
Speaker 1: leave us the five star rating on iTunes. Go get

510
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: your money, Peace and love,