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Speaker 1: Will Lucas here Black Tech, Green Money, and I wanted

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Speaker 1: to take this episode and kind of just pause because

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Speaker 1: I was doing account of our episodes, and about three

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Speaker 1: or four episodes ago, it dawned on me that we

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Speaker 1: are creeping up on episode two hundred, and this is

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Speaker 1: episode two hundred of Black Tech, Green Money. And more

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Speaker 1: than anything, I'm honored that you allow me into your

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Speaker 1: living room, into your cars, into your workouts, wherever you

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Speaker 1: listen to Black Tech, Green Money. I am super duper

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Speaker 1: honored that you allow me to share space with you

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Speaker 1: for thirty five forty five fifty five minutes a week

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Speaker 1: and hopefully inspire you in some way. And so I

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Speaker 1: like it for me. You gotta understand, like I do

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Speaker 1: this podcast sometimes for my basement, sometimes from my office,

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Speaker 1: but I'm typically like by myself, even if I'm like

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Speaker 1: interviewing somebody, like they may be in another part of

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Speaker 1: the world and I'm in a room by myself for

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Speaker 1: the most part. And for people to have a connection

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Speaker 1: with this podcast something that I do when I'm not

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Speaker 1: in a room with somebody, and the effort that I

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Speaker 1: put in that it has impact in the world. Like

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how to say this, Like

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Speaker 1: I'm doing something in a room that I believe has value,

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Speaker 1: but you don't like see an audience. I guess that's

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Speaker 1: a better way to put it, Like I don't see

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Speaker 1: an audience when I'm doing this podcast. And so for

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Speaker 1: people to either stop me because they heard something on

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Speaker 1: an episode that meant something to them when like I

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Speaker 1: wasn't expecting them to say anything about the podcast or

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Speaker 1: I read you know, cause I have like Google alerts

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Speaker 1: set up, and so if I get like a Google

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Speaker 1: alert that somebody has mentioned Black Tech Green Money and

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Speaker 1: like their top podcast, like I did a couple of

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Speaker 1: days ago, Like I just got a ding from a

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Speaker 1: Google alert that somebody like down in Atlanta who was

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Speaker 1: like a big deal, like I said that Black Teching

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Speaker 1: Money was like one his favorite podcasts, and so like this,

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Speaker 1: this means a lot to me, but I believe also

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Speaker 1: too obviously it means a lot to the people who

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Speaker 1: listen to this podcast, and so I'm super thankful to

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Speaker 1: have made it to episode two hundred. We started this

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Speaker 1: podcast during COVID, and that was a time where like

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Speaker 1: nobody knew what was going to be what, and so

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Speaker 1: we were like, okay, we got to, you know, produce

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Speaker 1: some digital assets because you know, obviously Afrotech couldn't do

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Speaker 1: a lot of things in person in twenty twenty. And

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Speaker 1: I come from podcasting and before that, I come from radio,

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Speaker 1: and so I guess it might make sense for me

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Speaker 1: to tell you, and I've done this before on the podcast,

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Speaker 1: but it might make sense for me to give you

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Speaker 1: a quick, you know, rehashing of how I got to

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Speaker 1: afro Tech, and then we can talk about how the

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Speaker 1: podcast came about. So I went to my first afro

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Speaker 1: Tech in twenty seventeen, which was the second year afro

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Speaker 1: Tech existed. And before afro Tech, I was doing another

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Speaker 1: podcast called of ten Podcasts, and it was only called

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Speaker 1: of ten Podcasts because I was only gonna do ten episodes.

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Speaker 1: One of ten, two of ten, three of ten. Therefore

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Speaker 1: you get of ten podcasts. And it was a lot

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Speaker 1: like Black Tech Green Money in that I was interviewing

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Speaker 1: black technologists, but I was at the time working on

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Speaker 1: a specific startup. I was building a company, and an

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Speaker 1: advisor to my startup, who happened to be white, asked like,

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Speaker 1: what would it take to get more black kids, more

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Speaker 1: in the city, kids interested in tech? Like I was,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, they need to see like a Mark Zuckerberg,

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Speaker 1: somebody who looks like them and is realizing success. And

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Speaker 1: at the end of that conversation, I kicked myself because

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Speaker 1: I'm like, we have super successful black people in tech,

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Speaker 1: we just don't know who they are. And again, this

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Speaker 1: is back in goodness. This was like twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen.

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Speaker 2: And.

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Speaker 1: So I was like, I'm going to do a podcast

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Speaker 1: that just features these black technologists because tech Crunch wasn't

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Speaker 1: covering black technology. We we weren't on the cover of tech

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Speaker 1: Crunch back then. We weren't on the cover of Gizmoto

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Speaker 1: and all of these other, you know, tech outlets back

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Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen twenty sixteen. And so I'm like, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna do a podcast that.

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Speaker 3: Just features super successful.

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Speaker 1: Black technologists, and because I want to show the world

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Speaker 1: that we're out here. And again, I.

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Speaker 3: Was working on the startup.

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Speaker 1: So that's the reason I was only going to do

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Speaker 1: ten episodes, because I was working on something else and this.

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Speaker 3: Was like a side thing.

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Speaker 1: And so I did that ten episodes, and like somewhere

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Speaker 1: through the ten episodes might have been around episode seven

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Speaker 1: or eight, I don't even know, but I'm making that.

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Speaker 3: Part of it. Somewhere around like episode seven or eight.

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Speaker 1: I had heard about this thing called Afrotech and this

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Speaker 1: was the first year of Afrotech and it was twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and I had missed it, and I'm like, how did

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Speaker 1: I miss it?

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Speaker 3: Because if you look back at.

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Speaker 1: The lineup for twenty sixteen, a lot of the people

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Speaker 1: who were on stage at the first afro Tech I

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Speaker 1: had on my show for that season of ten Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: the first season of ten Podcasts, And I'm like, if

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Speaker 1: I just interviewed all these people and they're on this stage,

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Speaker 1: number one, how did I not know about it? And

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Speaker 1: number two, if they do it like that, I'm never

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Speaker 1: gonna miss another Afrotech. And so I determined in my

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Speaker 1: mind at that point that I was going to be

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Speaker 1: there at the next Afrotech and this was it was

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Speaker 1: back in Silicon Valley of San Francisco, and so that

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Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, I go and I knew I was going

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Speaker 1: to have a good time. I just knew it. And

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I want to make sure everybody else who's

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Speaker 1: not here realizes that they.

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Speaker 3: Need to be here.

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Speaker 1: And so I've vlogged every day of that conference. It

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Speaker 1: might have been like a two or three day commerce.

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Speaker 1: I don't even remember, but I do remember every day

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Speaker 1: I'm walking around with a camera in my hand, looking

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Speaker 1: at myself, looking at the audience, looking at the stage,

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Speaker 1: and I'm just like vlogging showing people what it's like

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Speaker 1: to experience Afrotech in real time. And I was vlogging

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Speaker 1: in real time. So I was recording all day and

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine had let me stay in his

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Speaker 1: apartment and he was out of town, so I got

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Speaker 1: this apartment all to myself. It was like the basement

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Speaker 1: of somebody's you know, it's like super San Francisco like,

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Speaker 1: so it's like the basement of somebody's apartment, but he's

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Speaker 1: living in the like the basement of another apartment, which

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Speaker 1: is wild. But so I'm staying in this basement of

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Speaker 1: an apartment and I'm editing all the footage that I

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Speaker 1: recorded that day. And so imagine, like this is like Thursday,

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Speaker 1: I'm traveling to Afrotech, So I record all that footage

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Speaker 1: during that Thursday. I get to San Francisco, I get

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Speaker 1: to my room, I edit that traveling footage that Thursday night,

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Speaker 1: put publish it to YouTube that night. And then Friday,

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Speaker 1: first day at afro Tech, I'm recording all day, capturing

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Speaker 1: as much as I can. I get back to the

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Speaker 1: room that night, edit that night, published to YouTube that night,

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Speaker 1: and so the next day people are like, yo, I

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Speaker 1: saw your video from yesterday. I even know these people,

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Speaker 1: but they saw my video and they were like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I saw your video from yesterday.

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Speaker 3: It's dope.

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Speaker 1: And so I did the same thing that next day.

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Speaker 1: I recorded all day, edited that night, publish it to

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Speaker 1: YouTube that night, and then like two day two of

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Speaker 1: doing this, people are like, yo, who is this guy

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Speaker 1: that's recorded all this footage and editing super duper quick

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Speaker 1: in this high quality, and like he's like it's happening

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Speaker 1: like right now, and back then, like nobody was doing this.

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Speaker 1: It's like now everybody does this, but like when I

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Speaker 1: was doing nobody else was walking around with a camera,

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Speaker 1: editing that fast, publishing that fast. But if you go

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Speaker 1: to Afrotech, now everybody's doing that. But I also, because

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Speaker 1: if you recall, I had all these people that were

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Speaker 1: on that stage on my podcast. So what I did

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Speaker 1: was I took like these they looked like club flyers,

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Speaker 1: but they were podcast flyers, and so I made flyers

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Speaker 1: of my podcast, and I was passing out flyers like

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Speaker 1: people pass out club flyers.

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Speaker 3: But it was about my podcast, and it was about

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Speaker 3: the people.

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Speaker 1: It was featuring people who were on the stage at

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Speaker 1: afro Tech that year. It's twenty seventeen, and again, this

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Speaker 1: was back when Afrotech was like thirteen hundred people. There

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Speaker 1: was like not a lot of people. It's thirty thousand now,

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Speaker 1: but it was like thirteen hundred people back then. And

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Speaker 1: so I'm passing out flyers and I'm the only one

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Speaker 1: doing this type of hustle because again I come from radio,

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Speaker 1: so I know how to work the street. And so

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Speaker 1: I'm number one vlogging every day, publishing in real time hustling.

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Speaker 1: I'm passing out flyers about my podcast like people plass

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Speaker 1: out club flyers. They weren't even passing out club fires

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Speaker 1: back then. Because again it's San Francisco and it's thirteen

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Speaker 1: hundred people. It's we not like that big yet. But

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Speaker 1: I'm the only one doing this one two punch. I'm

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Speaker 1: only one doing any punch at all and just trying

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Speaker 1: to market to this audience. And so inadvertently, because I

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Speaker 1: didn't do it for this reason, but inadvertally I had

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Speaker 1: made a name for myself and so people started to

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Speaker 1: pay attention to who this Will Lucas guy was, and

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Speaker 1: so I had a remarkable time.

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Speaker 3: These videos are still up on you.

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Speaker 1: So if you go to YouTube right now, then you

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Speaker 1: type Will Lucas afro Tech, you will see all the

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Speaker 1: videos I'm talking about.

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Speaker 2: And so.

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Speaker 1: That next year, I'm like, okay, time for afro Tech again.

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Speaker 1: It's twenty eighteen, and by this time, I'm like, I'm married,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, I told my wife, like, you have

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Speaker 1: to see what's happening in San Francisco. Like it is,

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Speaker 1: it's the most incredible thing I've ever seen, number one,

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Speaker 1: And all of these black people are converging in this

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Speaker 1: one place, and like we're all talking about technology, and

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Speaker 1: we're all talking about the future, and like, I've never

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Speaker 1: been in the place where so many black people are

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Speaker 1: talking about the future and they're actively building it. And

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Speaker 1: so I told my wife, like, you have to see this,

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Speaker 1: And so I took my wife to twenty eighteen and

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Speaker 1: again another remarkable afrotech. By this point it was like

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Speaker 1: three thousand people. You know, I had doubled in size

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Speaker 1: three thousand people. So at the end of it, I

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Speaker 1: look at my wife and I'm like, Yo, that was amazing, right,

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Speaker 1: that was amazing, Like, can't believe that was amazing?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 1: You agree? And she was like, yeah, it was amazing.

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Speaker 1: You should not come back unless you're on stage. And

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Speaker 1: I'm like, how am I gonna get on that stage?

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Speaker 3: And you see who was on that stage?

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Speaker 1: You know, do you see who's on that Like how,

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Speaker 1: like what am I going to say compared to the

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Speaker 1: people who are on that stage? Like these people are

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Speaker 1: big deals. And she was like, yes, but you should

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Speaker 1: not come back unless you're on stage. And so, being

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Speaker 1: the man, I am number one not knowing how, but

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Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm like challenge accepted, Like I'm gonna figure

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Speaker 1: out maybe if it's just like introducing somebody, Like I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna figure out how to get on stage, because you know,

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Speaker 1: I've been told like I can't come back unless I

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Speaker 1: was stage, and so I am. I'm a big vision boarder,

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Speaker 1: and so I put I found a picture of afro

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Speaker 1: Tech twenty seventeen. It might have been he's online somewhere,

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Speaker 1: but I found a picture of a guy giving a

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Speaker 1: talk on stage at afro Tech twenty seventeen, and I

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Speaker 1: put that picture on my vision board, and so every

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Speaker 1: day I wake up and I can see my vision board.

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Speaker 3: It's right there.

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Speaker 1: And so I'm like, Okay, next time they open up

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Speaker 1: a call for speakers, I'm going to apply. So that

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Speaker 1: season that usually happens like around February March April somewhere

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Speaker 1: around there. And so around that time, this is before

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Speaker 1: I saw all call for speakers. It was I had

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Speaker 1: to be somewhere around February March of twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry, twenty nineteen. I am you know in the

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Speaker 1: mindset that I'm going to apply to speak at afro Tech.

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Speaker 1: But I'm driving down the road. I remember exactly where

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Speaker 1: I was. I was driving down Central Avenue in Tweed, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: I'm driving down Central Avenue. I'm at the corner of

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Speaker 1: Central Avenue and Holland Sylvania about to stop at this

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Speaker 1: red light. I remember exactly where I was. And I

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Speaker 1: get this email. And I'm driving my car and get

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Speaker 1: this email. I'm at a red light. So I read

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Speaker 1: it and it's from this girl named Marissa who's at Blavity.

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Speaker 1: And she emails me and says, hey, we're going in

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Speaker 1: a new direction for Afrotech, and Morgan, who's the CEO

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Speaker 1: of Blavity Morgan Debarne. Morgan says we should talk to you.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sitting in my car like what am I

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Speaker 1: reading right now? Because I hadn't applied for anything. I

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Speaker 1: hadn't made any outreach. I hadn't you know, made any

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Speaker 1: connections at Afrotech talking about you know what I'm saying, like, hey,

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Speaker 1: I should do something more. I have not even applied

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Speaker 1: to speak yet, and so I'm like trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out like like this is this real? Like so I'm

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Speaker 1: going from you understand, I'm going from trying to figure

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Speaker 1: out how I'm going to get on stage two being

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Speaker 1: asked to run Afrotech, to be brand manager for Afrotech.

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Speaker 1: I do't. I still to this day, don't know how

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Speaker 1: that happens. But I attribute that leap in my personal

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Speaker 1: journey to doing the work, like striving to be excellent

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Speaker 1: no matter where I'm at. So anyway, like that, I

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Speaker 1: spent more time when I than I plan to. But

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Speaker 1: my point is like that's how we got here. And

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Speaker 1: so during COVID, you know, I had been with Afrotech

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Speaker 1: for two years a year and a half or so

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Speaker 1: at that point, and during COVID we had done Afrotech Oakland,

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Speaker 1: which was in person. Then we get to twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: and around April May of twenty twenty, we start to

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Speaker 1: realize that we're going to need some digital assets, and

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Speaker 1: so Morgan hits me like, all right, it's time to

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Speaker 1: get podcast going because we hadn't done an afro Tech podcast.

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Speaker 1: I had stopped podcasting since of ten podcasts, which was

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Speaker 1: before I got to afro Tech, and so there was

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Speaker 1: this law in my personal journey of not podcasting. So

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Speaker 1: during COVID it opened up the opportunity to start podcasting

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Speaker 1: again because again we needed digital assets because we weren't outside.

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Speaker 1: So I come up with the name. I remember seeing

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Speaker 1: the name Black Tech Green Money on like a pillar,

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Speaker 1: like you know, like when you go to if you've

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Speaker 1: been to Afrotech, or you've been to any conference, you know,

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Speaker 1: like they have signed each up everywhere, And I've been asked,

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Speaker 1: I think maybe Love Love Beach, who's one of my

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Speaker 1: colleagues here at Blavity Love Beach or somebody asked me

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Speaker 1: to come up with the name for the podcast. And

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Speaker 1: so I had come up with a name, like five

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Speaker 1: different names, but one of them was a kind of

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Speaker 1: saying that I remember being on a wall at whatever

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Speaker 1: recent Afro tech I had been to. So I had

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Speaker 1: to be twenty nineteen in Oakland and it had said

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Speaker 1: black Tech Green Money on like this wall, and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: that's one of the names in you know, my list

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Speaker 1: of names that I had to put up, and that's

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Speaker 1: the one that we rocked with obviously. So about two

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Speaker 1: three months after starting the podcast, Morgan has a conversation

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Speaker 1: with Charlemagne Charlemaine the God from the Breakfast Club, and

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Speaker 1: she forwarded me to email along and he's like, yo,

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Speaker 1: like what's up with Black Tech Green Money Because he

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Speaker 1: was starting iHeartRadio Network. His partnership with iHeartRadio Network called

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Speaker 1: Black Effect, and so Black Effect is Charlemagne the God's

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Speaker 1: imprint at iHeartRadio iHeartMedia And this was just starting back

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. And so after about a couple of

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Speaker 1: months of doing Black Tech Green Money just under the

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Speaker 1: Blavity profile, Charlotte Mayhead just was like, let's give this

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Speaker 1: a bigger or different, you know, distribution channel. So that's

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Speaker 1: how we today have a partnership with Black Effect and

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Speaker 1: iHeart Media, which iHeartMedia is the biggest podcasting platform in

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Speaker 1: the world, and so that's how that happens. But suffice

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Speaker 1: it to say, to be, you know, effectively for almost

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Speaker 1: five years into doing this podcast. It's a blessing, you know,

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Speaker 1: because you have thousands of people every week, legit, thousands

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Speaker 1: of people every week who hear your voice and want

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Speaker 1: to hear what you have to say. And that part

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Speaker 1: still is a little tricky for me because I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I'm a host, I'm an interviewer, and I love to

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Speaker 1: interview and I love to talk to people and glean

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Speaker 1: insights from other people's journeys. But I've realized, you know,

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Speaker 1: in the past however long, that people also want to

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Speaker 1: hear what I have to say, and that that is

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Speaker 1: a little bit more comfortable for me. But you know,

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Speaker 1: I'm growing into it because I'm by nature, you know. Again,

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Speaker 1: since my radio days, even my job was to present

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Speaker 1: the next song, or present the next question, or present

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Speaker 1: the next idea that somebody else has to provide a

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Speaker 1: platform for other people to speak. And I've always taken

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Speaker 1: that job very seriously, and so that's why you hear

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna do real research on the guests

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Speaker 1: that I do. Like, I don't just throw up, you know,

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Speaker 1: stupid questions. I'm gonna actually really dig into things that

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Speaker 1: you've said before and interviews you've done before, and I

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Speaker 1: want to hear your backstory, and I'm gonna actually do

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Speaker 1: research so I can just point you to the specific

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Speaker 1: things in your backstory that I found interesting and I

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Speaker 1: believe my audience might find interesting also. So this is

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Speaker 1: a particular way I do research. And maybe one day

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Speaker 1: I'll show you guys, you know, on maybe a YouTube

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Speaker 1: video or something. But I take this job. I take

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Speaker 1: this trust that you've put in me very seriously. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of podcasts you could subscribe to, a lot

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Speaker 1: of podcasts that you have unsubscribed from. But the fact

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Speaker 1: that you hear with me, trusting me to present to

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Speaker 1: you some value, inspiration, motivation, insights, it means the world.

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Speaker 1: And I take it very serious that I never, you know,

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Speaker 1: take that for granted. So Black Tech, Green Money is

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Speaker 1: two hundred episodes, and I have learned a ton and

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Speaker 1: the people that I've gotten a chance to talk to,

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Speaker 1: some of them, you know, run ten thousand dollars you know,

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Speaker 1: a month or a year even startups and are trying

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Speaker 1: to figure it out. You know, a lot of the startups,

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Speaker 1: founders that we've talked to or CTOs, you know, those

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Speaker 1: startups don't even exist anymore. And that kind of stuff happens.

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Speaker 1: You're building a company and you're building something from nothing.

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Speaker 1: But many several of the you know, technologists, investors particularly,

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Speaker 1: maybe not investors so much, but the founders, many founders

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Speaker 1: I've talked to, are running billion dollar valued startups today.

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Speaker 1: You know, if we're talking about you know, Dave, Dave Salvaan,

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Speaker 1: or we're talking about Frederick Hudson or other you know,

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Speaker 1: folks like this, there are building hundreds of millions of

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Speaker 1: dollars or billion dollar valuations. Their startups are worth a

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Speaker 1: ton of money. You know, we talk about Paul Judge,

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Speaker 1: and we talk about people like that who are completely

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Speaker 1: inspiring and we can learn a lot from them. And

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Speaker 1: there's more, you know, But to be doing this work

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Speaker 1: for you, I believe as a service. And again I

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Speaker 1: never take that kind of thing for granted, because I believe,

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Speaker 1: especially in the day that we live in now, that

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Speaker 1: content like this is more important than ever. I don't

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Speaker 1: come to afro tech or the work that I do.

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Speaker 1: With a victim mindset, I'm always going to come from

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Speaker 1: a position to strength because I know what I provide,

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Speaker 1: and I want you to know what you provide, And

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Speaker 1: if you don't believe you provide enough, then that means

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Speaker 1: you need to get about it. That means you need to,

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Speaker 1: you know, put the work in to make sure you're

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Speaker 1: providing value and to do your best. But this content

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Speaker 1: that we put out every single week is designed to

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Speaker 1: provide you the gasoline that you need.

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Speaker 3: To go do your thing. Whatever it is that you've.

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Speaker 1: Been sitting on, whatever it is that you've been dreaming about,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is that you've been actively working on, and

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Speaker 1: are trying to find the way to put.

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Speaker 3: The pieces together. That's what this is for.

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Speaker 1: And so hopefully there is an episode in our history,

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Speaker 1: in our archives that has provided you some guidance.

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Speaker 3: And if you have.

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Speaker 1: Not went back, if you're brand new.

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Speaker 3: To this, I suggest you should go back.

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Speaker 1: And you know, find episodes that might be relevant, and

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Speaker 1: then honestly find episodes that may not be on the title,

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Speaker 1: because what I've learned is sometimes when we are looking

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Speaker 1: for things that are super duper specific and we don't

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Speaker 1: know the answer. We don't know the answer, so why

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Speaker 1: are we looking for things that are super specific? You

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Speaker 1: should be open to finding the answer in unusual places

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Speaker 1: because you obviously don't know the answer, so how can

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Speaker 1: you know where it's found.

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Speaker 3: And so I.

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Speaker 1: Believe that every episode of Black Tech, Green Money is

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Speaker 1: a valuable one. And so you know, you could play

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Speaker 1: roll the dice, spin the wheel and find an episode,

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Speaker 1: and I believe that you will find something of value,

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Speaker 1: even if it's just a that person didn't give up

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Speaker 1: and they kept going. So that inspires me not to

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Speaker 1: give up and to keep going. But there are episodes

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Speaker 1: that actually provides you real tangible insights on how you

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Speaker 1: can do the thing, how somebody else did it, and

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Speaker 1: you can learn from that. And I admonish you, I

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Speaker 1: encourage you. I am shouting from the mountaintops to go

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Speaker 1: get your things, go get your money. And so I'm

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Speaker 1: thankful for everybody who's been a part of this, everybody

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Speaker 1: who's helped, you know, put together an episode, produce an episode,

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Speaker 1: you know. Special thank you to Morgan Debond obviously obviously

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Speaker 1: uh CEO Blavity, founder of Blavity, Jeff Nelson, hear Samuels,

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Speaker 1: Charlotmagne to God who believed and provided a platform. I

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Speaker 1: want to end this episode with a few minutes of

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Speaker 1: the very first episode of Black Tech Green Money. We

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Speaker 1: can go all the way back to episode one. It's

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Speaker 1: an episode I did with Morgan Debond, and there's just

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Speaker 1: a clip that I just want to provide at the

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Speaker 1: end of this episode, just kind of give you, you know,

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Speaker 1: a taste of what where we came from, what it

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Speaker 1: sounded like in the history of Black Tech Green Money.

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Speaker 2: Well, we didn't talk about the podcast. What are you

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Speaker 2: excited about the podcast?

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Speaker 1: Let's do that, so I am. This is what Morgan Debond,

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Speaker 1: co founder and CEO at Blavity, says to me after

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Speaker 1: we've talked for about an hour. I just finished asking

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Speaker 1: her about her thoughts on lifestyle companies, her BOMB community

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Speaker 1: and friendships with other rock star founders, and her thoughts

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Speaker 1: on the importance of black media since she was first

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Speaker 1: up on Black Tech Dreen Money. What she wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk about is what we can expect from this show.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to be asking things that you may not

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Speaker 1: hear other places. Right, I want to dig I want

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Speaker 1: to ask the follow up for the interviewer who didn't

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00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,200
Speaker 1: get to ask the follow up. I want to dig

432
00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:41,240
Speaker 1: into those things that we haven't gotten an opportunity for

433
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:42,119
Speaker 1: these people to speak on.

434
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:43,760
Speaker 3: So I'm very excited about that.

435
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 2: Well, I'm so grateful for you because a lot of

436
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:48,320
Speaker 2: what we do at Blavity was a vision in the

437
00:24:48,359 --> 00:24:50,960
Speaker 2: mind and you've been able to come on board and

438
00:24:50,960 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 2: bring it into real life, and it's sure that we

439
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,439
Speaker 2: are a place of accessibility. And I'm really grateful for

440
00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,919
Speaker 2: you because of that, because I don't think that we

441
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,760
Speaker 2: could have done it without you gotten this far, and

442
00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 2: we have so much room to grow and so much

443
00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:09,040
Speaker 2: more that we should be doing. And this podcast is

444
00:25:09,080 --> 00:25:11,439
Speaker 2: a natural extension of what we've already committed to as

445
00:25:11,480 --> 00:25:14,760
Speaker 2: a company, and I hope that this podcast can be

446
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:18,560
Speaker 2: something that's an extension of the mission of ensuring that

447
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 2: young Black entrepreneurs and young Black professionals and technology can

448
00:25:23,119 --> 00:25:27,640
Speaker 2: rise to be leaders within our community, have ownership, have equity,

449
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 2: and get the behind the scenes along the way that

450
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:32,920
Speaker 2: they don't have to know what to Sean or me

451
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:35,560
Speaker 2: because they can hear us right here on this podcast

452
00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:38,399
Speaker 2: giving you exactly what we need to know, what you

453
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 2: need to know what I should have known, so that

454
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:46,040
Speaker 2: we could all move faster towards our future together. Yeah.

455
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,639
Speaker 1: I want to entertain our audience. I want to educate

456
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 1: our audience, and I want to make sure that when

457
00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:54,239
Speaker 1: they finish an episode, they got something to go do.

458
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 2: That's right, That's absolutely right. I'm tuning in. I think

459
00:25:58,800 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 2: we should get into the nitty gritty all the money.

460
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,960
Speaker 1: Thanks, all the money things, where it.

461
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:06,720
Speaker 2: Is contracts and money, black tech, green money. That's why

462
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 2: we came up with the name.

463
00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,160
Speaker 1: I'm Will Lucas, and this is black Tech, Green Money.

464
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:14,679
Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce you to some of the biggest names,

465
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 1: some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas.

466
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:19,199
Speaker 3: If you're black in building or.

467
00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,359
Speaker 1: Simply using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is

468
00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: for you. Morgan Debon is the co founder and CEO

469
00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,760
Speaker 1: at Blavity, which is home to Afrotech twenty one to ninety,

470
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 1: Shadow and Acting Travel Noir. She's raised over ten million

471
00:26:36,320 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 1: dollars in venture funding to expand her empire and leads

472
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: a team of over seventy people. She's been featured in

473
00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: Now Week's Top thirty Media and Tech Innovators, Kank's Top

474
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: one hundred female founders Forbes Top fifty Women in Tech

475
00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 1: in America, and it's also Forbes thirty Under thirty along.

476
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: I asked her about the power of the black voice

477
00:26:54,080 --> 00:26:57,320
Speaker 1: and how black media can leverage technology to amplify it.

478
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:02,880
Speaker 2: Well, I think black media was created because of the

479
00:27:02,920 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 2: need for us to connect as a community. We couldn't

480
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 2: use the mainstream distributions of information. They weren't built for us,

481
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:13,760
Speaker 2: they weren't owned by us, and they did not want

482
00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 2: us to communicate with one another. So, you know, media

483
00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:21,600
Speaker 2: has been critical for our own advancement as a community.

484
00:27:22,119 --> 00:27:24,399
Speaker 2: Is particularly given that we're as part of the diaspora.

485
00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 2: By nature that we weren't connected, we weren't physically together,

486
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,240
Speaker 2: and that was by design, by their design, that we

487
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:33,320
Speaker 2: were torn away from one another throughout this country. So

488
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 2: having our own media brands and as early as Frederick Douglass,

489
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 2: I mean that is that is the beginning of the

490
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 2: entire infrastructure that Blavity has been following and built on.

491
00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,120
Speaker 1: So do you feel like a responsibility, you know, spanning

492
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,680
Speaker 1: all your brands, so you have the Blavities, the travels,

493
00:27:56,760 --> 00:28:00,760
Speaker 1: afrotechs on any and more. What type of responsibility do

494
00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,240
Speaker 1: you feel if you feel the responsibility to black awareness

495
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:07,360
Speaker 1: of what it takes to make us make progress for us?

496
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 2: You know, I think about the progress of our community

497
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,040
Speaker 2: and Glavity's responsibility in two different ways, because in some

498
00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 2: ways it's incredibly overwhelming when you look at a macro

499
00:28:20,320 --> 00:28:25,080
Speaker 2: level of what Glavity Inc. The big corporation that we are,

500
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,960
Speaker 2: the impact that we're responsible for in the industries that

501
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,360
Speaker 2: we're holding accountable. I mean, Glavity Inc. Is responsible for

502
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 2: holding accountable the technology industry, the venture capital industry through Afrotech,

503
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:45,200
Speaker 2: Hollywood production, the news, mainstream media corporations, police brutality, social

504
00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:51,720
Speaker 2: justice through Glavity News and Blavity politics, elected officials, local, state, regional,

505
00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:58,760
Speaker 2: national twenty ninety. There's just so many places and people

506
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:03,440
Speaker 2: and industries that we are shining a light on and

507
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,000
Speaker 2: stories that we're shining light on, and really at the

508
00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: macro level, it can feel overwhelming. And so my strategy

509
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,960
Speaker 2: oftentimes is what can we make a difference at today?

510
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:18,440
Speaker 2: And what is Blavity Inc's unique opportunity to make a difference?

511
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 2: And I challenge our writers, our audience, our community, and

512
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:25,400
Speaker 2: everyone on our team to constantly ask that question. Well,

513
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:30,040
Speaker 2: what is our unique contribution and what were you uniquely

514
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:32,840
Speaker 2: positioned to make an impact here, particularly what I think

515
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 2: about Afrotech. Because of our scale and because of the

516
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 2: clients that we have, we can make a big difference.

517
00:29:40,680 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 2: And because we're venture funded from some of the top

518
00:29:43,040 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 2: vcs in the country and perhaps arguably in the world,

519
00:29:46,320 --> 00:29:48,000
Speaker 2: we can make a difference there too, because I can

520
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,960
Speaker 2: hold my own investors accountable, which we'll have an implication

521
00:29:51,720 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 2: within the VC community, So we take it very seriously.

522
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: There's this Black af episode where Tyler Perry s down

523
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:04,480
Speaker 1: with Kendra Burras and talking about his you know, neglect

524
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:08,600
Speaker 1: of white people's takes on his work right, and but

525
00:30:08,680 --> 00:30:10,719
Speaker 1: he's in the business of serving his audience and that's

526
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 1: really all he cares about, and if they are into it,

527
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,800
Speaker 1: he's he's good. And so I wonder your thoughts on

528
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 1: that particular perspective with regards to what you're building.

529
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 2: Uh. I didn't make it that far into Black Fall Asleep.

530
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:27,440
Speaker 2: I probably four or five.

531
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:30,040
Speaker 3: I think that was the best show period.

532
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:32,200
Speaker 2: I liked it. I just couldn't get through it. But

533
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 2: it wasn't I didn't, you know, I don't know if

534
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,800
Speaker 2: I agreed with all the all the Twitter haters, but

535
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:41,960
Speaker 2: for me, Yeah, when we first started the company, we

536
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 2: explicitly said, I do not care what white people want

537
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 2: to need think. I don't care what they think we

538
00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:52,400
Speaker 2: should do and what they should build. I started the

539
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,160
Speaker 2: company without any funding, and I waited over a year

540
00:30:56,720 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 2: to get investments and take outside investments, part actually because

541
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 2: I didn't want to be influenced by what they wanted

542
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:09,160
Speaker 2: us and need to be for them. And even as

543
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 2: we've grown, I was just on a call literally today

544
00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 2: with a black VC and I was like, you should

545
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:21,040
Speaker 2: lead our Series B, because honestly, that's I don't want.

546
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,480
Speaker 2: I don't want if I don't have to. If we're

547
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 2: in a position to have the best vcs in the

548
00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 2: world and they're also black, let's do that. Because you

549
00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:35,080
Speaker 2: get on my board. You know, I need people around us,

550
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:39,040
Speaker 2: around our company, around our mission, around my employees, around

551
00:31:39,080 --> 00:31:43,520
Speaker 2: our audience that are a reflection of our passion. Now,

552
00:31:43,560 --> 00:31:45,880
Speaker 2: if you're down and you're with it, and you understand

553
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:49,440
Speaker 2: what we're doing and you support us, like GV is

554
00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 2: on our board and they've been incredibly supportive and they

555
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,360
Speaker 2: get it, that's that's all right too. I'm alright with that,

556
00:31:56,760 --> 00:32:00,800
Speaker 2: But my preference is always going to be our because

557
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 2: I think that it has such a significant residual impact

558
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 2: on everything that people touch. When you when you're owners

559
00:32:10,120 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 2: of your own destiny, in your own brands, that's right.

560
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 1: Do you think we potentially underestimate the scale of building

561
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:19,760
Speaker 1: four black people?

562
00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 2: Yeah? I got that question a lot, which was, are

563
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 2: you artificially like already segmenting off the fact that your

564
00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:30,760
Speaker 2: company can only ever be as big as fourteen percent

565
00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:35,080
Speaker 2: of the US population and you know, and you're already

566
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 2: opting in to a smaller percentage of the total market.

567
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 2: And my response to that is, have you heard of Africa?

568
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,320
Speaker 2: Have you heard of Brazil? You know? And it's just

569
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:52,360
Speaker 2: such an American point of view that we're limited to

570
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 2: what we see right around us, and the rest of

571
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 2: the world just doesn't function like that. And because of

572
00:32:56,560 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 2: the Internet, you know, in my opinion, the opportunity for

573
00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 2: a black brand is limitless because we are one of

574
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 2: the fastest growing sets of populations within the world regarding

575
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:13,680
Speaker 2: our economic wealth as well, because we are rising up

576
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 2: into the middle class around the world with access to

577
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:20,640
Speaker 2: technology in job development and multinational corporations and so that

578
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:22,920
Speaker 2: is the work. We have an opportunity to make that

579
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,920
Speaker 2: a reality. Now there are systemic reasons why that may

580
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:30,040
Speaker 2: not happen, but we have an opportunity with the sheer

581
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:37,640
Speaker 2: numbers in other countries and other continents that make companies

582
00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 2: like Blavity and or any black brand a very profitable

583
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 2: business opportunity.

584
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,880
Speaker 1: I remember Jessica Matthews speaking at afro Tech seventeen I

585
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:49,760
Speaker 1: want to say it was twenty seventeen, and she talked

586
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:53,640
Speaker 1: a little bit about the investment she got from the continent.

587
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: But I wonder what your ideas on the black.

588
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,440
Speaker 3: Business opportunity cause done. We've dabbled, especially, we've reported.

589
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,200
Speaker 1: On a lot of things coming off the continent on

590
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,480
Speaker 1: afrotech dot com, and I wonder what your thoughts are

591
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 1: on how afro tech can make impact for people who

592
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,279
Speaker 1: are living there now, whether it's networks, connections or what

593
00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:15,680
Speaker 1: is it.

594
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,080
Speaker 2: You know. I don't know that I've given that enough

595
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 2: thought quite yet. I still feel like we have a

596
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 2: long way to go here in the US, and there's

597
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 2: a lot that I would need to do to learn

598
00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,560
Speaker 2: and to make sure that we do that appropriately. And

599
00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 2: what I'd most likely do is hire someone who is

600
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 2: already there that lives in Nigeria. We probably start with

601
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:42,880
Speaker 2: Nigeria and or London and perhaps Khana and do a

602
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:46,680
Speaker 2: regional country based strategy, you know, because each each country

603
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,360
Speaker 2: has its own flavor, its own problems, its own system,

604
00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:53,920
Speaker 2: its own infrastructure, and you know, just Nigeria alone is

605
00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 2: a bajillion times bigger than the black population in the US,

606
00:34:57,160 --> 00:34:59,480
Speaker 2: Like you can build a whole Blavitu over there. So

607
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 2: it's a huge, huge opportunity. And yet I still feel

608
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:09,480
Speaker 2: like Afro tech in the US hasn't fully made reach

609
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:11,680
Speaker 2: our full potential. We still have a lot of work

610
00:35:11,719 --> 00:35:14,160
Speaker 2: to do when it comes to equity in tech, and

611
00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:16,319
Speaker 2: we have a lot of work to do, and when

612
00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:20,280
Speaker 2: it comes to advancement of black professionals in the technology industry,

613
00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:25,200
Speaker 2: and also access to funds beyond just a cute one

614
00:35:25,280 --> 00:35:28,239
Speaker 2: hundred K two hundred k check from VCS that people

615
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:30,920
Speaker 2: are doing right now. I want you to lead People's

616
00:35:30,960 --> 00:35:33,680
Speaker 2: series as I want you to lead People's Series B.

617
00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:37,840
Speaker 2: I want you to buy and acquire these companies. Then

618
00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,760
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go abroad. But we still have some ways

619
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:41,320
Speaker 2: to go here.

620
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:44,399
Speaker 1: Honest facts, and you know you're among I don't want

621
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:46,120
Speaker 1: to say a few because there have been more Black

622
00:35:46,160 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 1: women who've raised a lot of money. Then we may

623
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,600
Speaker 1: know that or that get with the respect of it.

624
00:35:52,680 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: But I wonder how you think about your role in

625
00:35:55,160 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: making sure that the investment pipelines have more Morgans in them.

626
00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:04,800
Speaker 2: It's a great question. Will I've struggled with that question

627
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,319
Speaker 2: because in some ways I've watched other black founders that

628
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,920
Speaker 2: were a part of the few burnout completely because they

629
00:36:13,160 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 2: were always giving to everyone else. And I imagine that

630
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:21,840
Speaker 2: that was very difficult for them, because the inbound of

631
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 2: requests for one on ones or speaking or advising or

632
00:36:26,200 --> 00:36:30,160
Speaker 2: angel investing can be exhausting, and I've certainly felt that

633
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:32,920
Speaker 2: for myself and have to. I've had to balance the

634
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 2: ebb and flow of being a public figure when I

635
00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:39,680
Speaker 2: really didn't expect to sign up to be a public figure.

636
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:42,080
Speaker 2: I really started this business because I wanted to start

637
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:44,840
Speaker 2: a business and make a difference. I didn't factor in

638
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:48,279
Speaker 2: the fact that I needed to be a personality or

639
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,680
Speaker 2: a role model. I'm happy and grateful and humble that

640
00:36:50,760 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 2: I am for people, but I also it is in

641
00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:57,640
Speaker 2: the second job in a lot of ways, on top

642
00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:01,320
Speaker 2: of a very hard job already of run as successful companies.

643
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:06,760
Speaker 2: So what I believe is my unique contribution is building

644
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:09,799
Speaker 2: the scalable systems and tools and platforms and enabling other

645
00:37:09,840 --> 00:37:12,279
Speaker 2: people to continue to carry the torch and to help

646
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,400
Speaker 2: them carry a big torch that's loud, that has fuel,

647
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 2: and to put more fuel on their fire. And that

648
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,080
Speaker 2: is what we can do with Afrotech, with the brand,

649
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,880
Speaker 2: with platforms like this new podcast, with our user generated

650
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,880
Speaker 2: content platform, with Glavity, and making sure that we as

651
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,520
Speaker 2: an institution are able to empower other people and make

652
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 2: it easy. You don't need to know me. My hope

653
00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:34,919
Speaker 2: is that you don't need to know who I am

654
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:37,440
Speaker 2: to benefit from the work that we do at this company.

655
00:37:38,080 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, you make me think about in this interview, I

656
00:37:42,440 --> 00:37:45,319
Speaker 1: spoke with Charles Hudson at Afrotech in twenty nineteen and

657
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:47,720
Speaker 1: I asked them about, you know, when you're the only

658
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: or one.

659
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:51,320
Speaker 3: Of few black vcs who.

660
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: May be at a conference, not an afrotech because because

661
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: everybody's you know, pretty much black, an afrotech, But if

662
00:37:57,640 --> 00:37:59,759
Speaker 1: you at a conference and you've got a couple of

663
00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,040
Speaker 1: US peppers sprinkled in, right, you become the only guy

664
00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,439
Speaker 1: who they feel like can relate to where they're coming from.

665
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:10,480
Speaker 1: And how does it feel not wanting to be And

666
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:12,200
Speaker 1: I don't want to speak for anybody, but you know

667
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:15,200
Speaker 1: you said you felt like it's a second job being

668
00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:19,760
Speaker 1: the representation. But how do you manage in a way

669
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,800
Speaker 1: being the only one that they that people can see as.

670
00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:25,879
Speaker 1: If I can just get the Morgan, then I'm going

671
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:27,480
Speaker 1: to get I'm going to get the answer I need.

672
00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,680
Speaker 1: If I can just get the Charles Hudson, I'm going

673
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:32,160
Speaker 1: to get somebody who understands that, Okay, I need this

674
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 1: money to do X, Y and Z.

675
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:36,560
Speaker 2: It's such a tough question, Will and I really really

676
00:38:36,640 --> 00:38:39,200
Speaker 2: do struggle with it because every person that emails me

677
00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:41,440
Speaker 2: and says, hey, can we have fifteen minutes? Or hey,

678
00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:43,359
Speaker 2: can you look at my deck? Can you warm intro

679
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:47,080
Speaker 2: me to someone? It is a decision making calculus of

680
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,479
Speaker 2: am I taking away from blavity? Am I taking away

681
00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:52,760
Speaker 2: from my self care? Am I taking away from my family?

682
00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:54,520
Speaker 2: Am I taking away from my partner? Am I taken

683
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:59,680
Speaker 2: away from from everything? You know? And I still say

684
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 2: yeah a lot of the time. I also have tried

685
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,920
Speaker 2: to create again scalable structure so that I can say

686
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 2: yes more easily, so I say, well, I would love

687
00:39:09,719 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 2: to chat with you. Are you on my email list?

688
00:39:12,719 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 2: Do you follow me on Instagram? Have you listened to

689
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:19,359
Speaker 2: these podcasts? Have you watched these videos? If they're like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,

690
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:22,640
Speaker 2: I'm like I cool. Stop. But if they're like you

691
00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:25,760
Speaker 2: have a newsletter, I'm like, bra, you haven't really tried

692
00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 2: that hard. I'm not going to try harder than you

693
00:39:27,680 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 2: have to help you if you really want to know

694
00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 2: my advice. I try as much as possible to make

695
00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:38,640
Speaker 2: my information accessible, my point of view accessible, and I

696
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 2: think that more black vcs and founders should try to

697
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:47,160
Speaker 2: give back in that way so that there's also an

698
00:39:47,239 --> 00:39:50,239
Speaker 2: archive and a library of information for those people who

699
00:39:50,600 --> 00:39:52,200
Speaker 2: maybe don't even know how to even reach you to

700
00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 2: ask you that question. But if they can find that

701
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:57,040
Speaker 2: Twitter thread, if they can find the Medium post, if

702
00:39:57,080 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 2: they can see something that was shared by someone else,

703
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:03,239
Speaker 2: you're giving them more opportunities to just have this information

704
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,240
Speaker 2: and normalize some of the things that we talk about

705
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:09,360
Speaker 2: in tech. And that to me, I think about the

706
00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,000
Speaker 2: Morgan version of myself when I was sitting in Saint

707
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:15,359
Speaker 2: Louis and I didn't know the difference between Mountain View

708
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 2: being in the mountains and mountain View being in California.

709
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:21,720
Speaker 2: I thought mountain View was like literally in like Michigan

710
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,200
Speaker 2: in the mountains, you know, And I didn't know. Why

711
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:27,720
Speaker 2: was I supposed to know? It wasn't part of my story,

712
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 2: It wasn't a part of my vision, It wasn't in

713
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:33,799
Speaker 2: tech Crunch. Tristan at the time, Tristan Walker was the

714
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:36,160
Speaker 2: highest black person that I'd ever seen, and it was

715
00:40:36,200 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 2: because he was at four square and like I think

716
00:40:38,239 --> 00:40:40,640
Speaker 2: he was b D. And I apologize Tristan if I'm

717
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:43,560
Speaker 2: butchering your title, but like that was like the biggest

718
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 2: black person in tech Crunch at the time, you know.

719
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 2: So we've come a long way since when I was

720
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:50,319
Speaker 2: a girl in Saint Louis, and I'm proud of us

721
00:40:50,320 --> 00:40:51,680
Speaker 2: for that, but we still have a long line ago.

722
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:56,400
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, after two years of hosting the Afro

723
00:40:56,480 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 1: Tech Conference in San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley,

724
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,160
Speaker 1: decided to move the conference to Oakland, closer to the

725
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,160
Speaker 1: community she wanted to expose to the black wealth opportunity

726
00:41:06,200 --> 00:41:08,600
Speaker 1: in tech. Here she is at the kickoff of the

727
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen events.

728
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:12,600
Speaker 2: So there's just a lot of doubts that I had

729
00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:15,440
Speaker 2: to work through and our team had to really process

730
00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:17,120
Speaker 2: to be able to make this move and to feel

731
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:19,440
Speaker 2: confident about it. And really what it came down to

732
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,640
Speaker 2: at the end of the day was like, okay, again,

733
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 2: ten years from now, twenty years from now, when we're

734
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 2: thinking about the future and we're looking back at what

735
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,360
Speaker 2: we've done and what we're doing for the next generation,

736
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 2: are we going to be proud of where this is? Right?

737
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,200
Speaker 2: Are we going to be proud that we're putting money

738
00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:42,280
Speaker 2: and resources into this city? Not necessarily right, but Oakland,

739
00:41:42,440 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 2: absolutely right. We're buying out all the restaurants, we're buying

740
00:41:45,520 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 2: out all the clubs, we're hiring, all the people.

741
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:51,480
Speaker 1: You're vot turned up all the way running Blavity in

742
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:54,600
Speaker 1: this brands Afro Tech, Shadow and Act twenty one to

743
00:41:54,680 --> 00:41:57,240
Speaker 1: ninety and Travel Noir, as well as her own personal

744
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:00,400
Speaker 1: brands in Rods Essentials, Work Smart and the both No

745
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,359
Speaker 1: Book Can Take It's told. I asked Morgan about how

746
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:06,000
Speaker 1: she manages to carry this world on her shoulders.

747
00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:11,480
Speaker 2: I am someone who very much has boundaries with my time.

748
00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,359
Speaker 2: I think time is the most valuable thing that we

749
00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:20,160
Speaker 2: all have, and I've learned the hard way what happens

750
00:42:20,160 --> 00:42:24,319
Speaker 2: when I don't put restrictions on my time and I

751
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:31,480
Speaker 2: give myself too much to everyone around me. So for me,

752
00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:35,960
Speaker 2: it means that I don't typically have meetings after a

753
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:38,240
Speaker 2: certain time because I know that my brain is fried.

754
00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:40,720
Speaker 2: I try to give it all that I have from

755
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 2: the morning to about three o'clat and then after that

756
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,640
Speaker 2: it's like if you're after that tail end of that

757
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:51,880
Speaker 2: meeting at that three flat, you go get what you get.

758
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 2: But and I still have to have the meeting, you know,

759
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:57,480
Speaker 2: But the people around me know that they know that,

760
00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 2: and or I'm explicit about it because it's important to

761
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,759
Speaker 2: me that I show up at my best and I

762
00:43:02,840 --> 00:43:08,120
Speaker 2: also spend my weekends I work. I basically wake up

763
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:09,960
Speaker 2: at the same time every day. It doesn't really matter

764
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:12,439
Speaker 2: what day it is. I think as an entrepreneur, your

765
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 2: Saturday and your Tuesday, and it's just the same difference. Like, Yeah,

766
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:20,680
Speaker 2: until we had like real employees that were like over

767
00:43:20,760 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 2: fifteen people, I didn't even really respect holidays. I was like,

768
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:25,720
Speaker 2: what the holiday? Tomorrow?

769
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:26,240
Speaker 1: Holiday?

770
00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,400
Speaker 2: What are y'all talking about? Because the work doesn't stop.

771
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 2: But now at this point, I know that entrepreneurship is

772
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:34,839
Speaker 2: a journey and a lifetime for me. It's a way

773
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 2: of life. There is no final destination. It's just a

774
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:40,200
Speaker 2: part of who I am. And so I've learned how

775
00:43:40,239 --> 00:43:43,440
Speaker 2: to have a routine that allows me for that sustain

776
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 2: work ethic. So I wake up at the same time

777
00:43:46,040 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 2: every day, I do the same thing every morning, and

778
00:43:50,120 --> 00:43:53,120
Speaker 2: then you know, I work hard for the first few

779
00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 2: hours of the day, so that by twelve o'clock on

780
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 2: a Saturday, when it's time for brunch and the beach,

781
00:43:57,920 --> 00:44:00,839
Speaker 2: I'm gone. I'm out, and I'm enjoying myself and I

782
00:44:00,880 --> 00:44:03,520
Speaker 2: feel good. I don't feel guilty. I got my work done,

783
00:44:04,440 --> 00:44:06,040
Speaker 2: and I'm also able to have a full day.

784
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder how you develop as a leader, because

785
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,600
Speaker 1: I think about so many of the founders that we

786
00:44:13,680 --> 00:44:17,040
Speaker 1: see these days, you know, coming to very young late teens,

787
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:21,520
Speaker 1: early twenties and thirties even, and you know a lot

788
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:26,040
Speaker 1: of these folks in many respects have not had like

789
00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:29,360
Speaker 1: a ton of career experience, but they come in found

790
00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: a company, grow a team, and have to learn along

791
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:34,839
Speaker 1: the way. So I'm interested in like the things that

792
00:44:34,880 --> 00:44:37,799
Speaker 1: you've done, like books you've read or classes like what

793
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: have you done to develop Morgan into the leader?

794
00:44:41,360 --> 00:44:45,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, I started the company and I was twenty three

795
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:47,360
Speaker 2: when I first had the kind of we're going to

796
00:44:47,400 --> 00:44:51,440
Speaker 2: do a thing moment, and twenty four when it launched publicly,

797
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:57,239
Speaker 2: and you know, so I'm six years in. And one

798
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 2: interesting thing about being a young founder is that you

799
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:04,400
Speaker 2: are young, which gives you a certain level of privilege

800
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,759
Speaker 2: of not having the responsibility that others typically have in

801
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:11,200
Speaker 2: their mid thirties. And so I was able to do

802
00:45:11,239 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 2: things like sleep on the couch and sleep on the floor.

803
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,960
Speaker 2: I was able to do things like, you know, sit

804
00:45:17,080 --> 00:45:20,799
Speaker 2: and work for fifteen hours straight and do it every day.

805
00:45:21,080 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 2: I was able to do those things, and certainly I

806
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:26,959
Speaker 2: could do them now, but the consequences would be much harder.

807
00:45:26,960 --> 00:45:33,319
Speaker 2: My knees would start hurting an old lady, and I

808
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,839
Speaker 2: don't want to sleep on the couch anymore. I want

809
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:42,040
Speaker 2: to bet and so in a lot of ways, though,

810
00:45:42,080 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 2: that stage and that time in my life gave me

811
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:49,279
Speaker 2: so much freedom to make a ton of mistakes, and

812
00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:52,080
Speaker 2: there were mistakes that it impacted very few people because

813
00:45:52,080 --> 00:45:56,239
Speaker 2: we weren't that big, and it was very genuine and authentic,

814
00:45:56,280 --> 00:45:58,240
Speaker 2: and it still is now. But I have a much

815
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:02,520
Speaker 2: larger responsibility. Withployee base and being the chairwoman of the

816
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:06,359
Speaker 2: board and huge investors who've invested millions of dollars into

817
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:09,840
Speaker 2: our company, I have a much larger impact for the

818
00:46:09,880 --> 00:46:14,000
Speaker 2: mistakes that I make, and I take that very seriously,

819
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:19,160
Speaker 2: and so I have surrounded myself with advisors who hold

820
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 2: me accountable. Two of my best advisors are my co founders,

821
00:46:24,080 --> 00:46:28,319
Speaker 2: Aaron and Jeff. You know, Aaron can say things to

822
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,000
Speaker 2: me that most people cannot say with me at least

823
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 2: hearing them. And Jeff is the voice of reason so

824
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:38,640
Speaker 2: many times when I feel defeated, and he centers me

825
00:46:38,760 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 2: and centers us as a group on the purpose of

826
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 2: our business and not to get too tied into the

827
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 2: cents and pennies and dollars of what we're doing, but

828
00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:52,080
Speaker 2: why we're doing what we're doing and how to get

829
00:46:52,120 --> 00:46:55,400
Speaker 2: it done. And so I think having advisors has been

830
00:46:55,440 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 2: critical for me. And then I learn a lot throughout entrepreneurs.

831
00:47:00,520 --> 00:47:04,600
Speaker 2: So I hold very close to me entrepreneurs who are

832
00:47:04,640 --> 00:47:08,799
Speaker 2: either investors or friends. So DeShawn from Maven, you know,

833
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:10,640
Speaker 2: I will call him. I remember one of the first

834
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:12,840
Speaker 2: phone calls I had with DeShawn, Well, Deshaun was actually

835
00:47:12,840 --> 00:47:15,759
Speaker 2: one of the first people who've kind of shamed me

836
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:17,879
Speaker 2: into quitting my day job, because I used to see

837
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:21,000
Speaker 2: him at the Black Founders meetups in San Francisco. The

838
00:47:21,000 --> 00:47:23,479
Speaker 2: Black Founders group was started by Monique and a few others.

839
00:47:23,520 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 2: Moniq quitter and I used to go to those networking hours,

840
00:47:26,200 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 2: but I still had my day jab and so DeShawn

841
00:47:29,840 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 2: was like, if I see you one more time talking

842
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:35,440
Speaker 2: about this blavity and you still have a day job,

843
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:36,400
Speaker 2: I'm not going to talk to you.

844
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:37,120
Speaker 3: Wow.

845
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,840
Speaker 2: And I was like, this is harsh, bro and uh,

846
00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:44,120
Speaker 2: and so I quit. I quit, And the next time

847
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 2: I saw him, I told him he was one of

848
00:47:46,080 --> 00:47:47,400
Speaker 2: the people that pushed me over the edge. But I

849
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 2: remember this time that I called DeShawn and really for

850
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 2: business advice, and as an advisor, I was getting a

851
00:47:54,080 --> 00:47:59,360
Speaker 2: term sheet and I didn't know much about pricing the business,

852
00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,920
Speaker 2: and I didn't really understand the maths. I didn't understand

853
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:05,920
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff when it came to the seed round.

854
00:48:05,960 --> 00:48:08,160
Speaker 2: I made a lot of legal mistakes early on in

855
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:10,480
Speaker 2: the business. I made a lot of mistakes about structure.

856
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 2: I just didn't know, and very expensive mistakes to clean up,

857
00:48:16,200 --> 00:48:18,440
Speaker 2: by the way, so everyone get a good lawyer if

858
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:23,640
Speaker 2: you're at the seed stage. It's more expensive later. But

859
00:48:23,760 --> 00:48:25,720
Speaker 2: I remember calling to Sean and I said to Sean,

860
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:28,560
Speaker 2: I was almost crying. I was like, are you telling

861
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:32,120
Speaker 2: me I have to sell twenty percent of my business

862
00:48:32,640 --> 00:48:36,280
Speaker 2: that they want twenty percent? That I'm going to own

863
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:38,399
Speaker 2: less because when you have co founders, you're like, I'm

864
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:42,920
Speaker 2: going to own less than seventy five percent of my company.

865
00:48:43,760 --> 00:48:50,359
Speaker 2: And he was like, uh yes, and not only that,

866
00:48:50,360 --> 00:48:52,479
Speaker 2: but you're going to keep giving away twenty percent every

867
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:56,480
Speaker 2: time because I didn't know. Nobody talks about these things,

868
00:48:56,520 --> 00:48:58,240
Speaker 2: and these are the things that the white boys talk about.

869
00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,399
Speaker 2: They just they talk this stuff all the time. We

870
00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:03,239
Speaker 2: need to do a better job in our community talking

871
00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,680
Speaker 2: about the numbers and talking about the nitty gritty. And

872
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,160
Speaker 2: that's why the communities of like Afrotech are so important

873
00:49:09,239 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 2: because we get we get through all the fun stuff

874
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,440
Speaker 2: and then we really become friends and then it's really like, yo,

875
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:17,920
Speaker 2: let me send you this. This is how you negotiate

876
00:49:17,960 --> 00:49:20,160
Speaker 2: this deal. This is how you negotiate this stock at

877
00:49:20,160 --> 00:49:21,960
Speaker 2: this company that you're working at this is how much

878
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:24,960
Speaker 2: they really pay people at this company, Like, we get

879
00:49:25,000 --> 00:49:28,000
Speaker 2: to actually get into that type of discussion and that

880
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:30,520
Speaker 2: type of advisorship with one another. And that's just been

881
00:49:31,280 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 2: I've made so much more money because I can talk

882
00:49:34,440 --> 00:49:38,800
Speaker 2: to my other business friends about how to structure deals.

883
00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:39,920
Speaker 3: That's beautiful.

884
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:44,719
Speaker 1: What I respect about you is your respect for lifestyle

885
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:49,960
Speaker 1: brands too, and not just these super scaled monsters. Right,

886
00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:54,320
Speaker 1: And do you think enough of us recognize the potentially

887
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:57,399
Speaker 1: life changing wealth capacity lifestyle companies can have.

888
00:49:58,080 --> 00:50:00,200
Speaker 2: Well, I think that we are going. I think that

889
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 2: media makes things ebb and flow, and I think as

890
00:50:03,200 --> 00:50:08,960
Speaker 2: a black entrepreneurial community, we are awake to the possibilities

891
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,080
Speaker 2: and the sexiness of venture capital and how that can

892
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:16,080
Speaker 2: accelerate the business and scale the business and solve one

893
00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:18,120
Speaker 2: of the systemic problems that we've had, which was access

894
00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:20,760
Speaker 2: to capital. Previously, the only way we could get capital

895
00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:23,000
Speaker 2: was through banks, and we all know what those numbers

896
00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:26,680
Speaker 2: look like. So this is a new frontier of financing,

897
00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,719
Speaker 2: which I think is very exciting, and I love how

898
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:33,200
Speaker 2: many new entrepreneurs are pitching and really putting themselves out

899
00:50:33,239 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 2: there to go raise five hundred K or go raise

900
00:50:35,640 --> 00:50:39,720
Speaker 2: a million dollars. That's beautiful to me. I also think

901
00:50:39,880 --> 00:50:46,439
Speaker 2: that there is an interim and intermediary type of fundraising

902
00:50:46,680 --> 00:50:50,240
Speaker 2: that more people should consider, which is not going after

903
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:52,280
Speaker 2: the huge VC rounds, although I do think we should

904
00:50:52,320 --> 00:50:54,640
Speaker 2: there are people that should do that, but also going

905
00:50:54,640 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 2: after angels and building out and getting investment in that

906
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,480
Speaker 2: way for lifestyle businesses. And a lifestyle business can still

907
00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:05,120
Speaker 2: mean you're making twenty thirty forty million dollars in revenue.

908
00:51:05,320 --> 00:51:08,640
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean you know that you only can afford

909
00:51:08,680 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 2: a basic lifestyle. It means that you are building a

910
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:16,480
Speaker 2: business not necessarily to be a billion dollar valuation or

911
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:22,120
Speaker 2: or two hundred three hundred million dollar exit. And it's

912
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:25,920
Speaker 2: something that the Blavity team we've considered multiple times to say,

913
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 2: you know what, if all we ever were were as

914
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:32,840
Speaker 2: big as we are today, are we okay with that? Like?

915
00:51:32,880 --> 00:51:35,319
Speaker 2: Are we okay with this lifestyle? Are we okay with

916
00:51:35,360 --> 00:51:38,440
Speaker 2: the team structure? Do we have enough money like to

917
00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:40,759
Speaker 2: pay our team? Do we have enough money in the

918
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:42,840
Speaker 2: bank just in case shit hits the fan, like I

919
00:51:42,880 --> 00:51:47,440
Speaker 2: don't know, a pandemic? Like do we have enough? Do

920
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 2: we have enough? Is this enough It's a question we

921
00:51:51,080 --> 00:51:54,640
Speaker 2: ask ourselves every six months because it's so important. You know,

922
00:51:54,800 --> 00:51:56,480
Speaker 2: I don't know that I always want to be chasing

923
00:51:56,520 --> 00:52:00,840
Speaker 2: after the next biggest valuation or the next big the funding.

924
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:04,720
Speaker 1: How do you think about being like a multifaceted entrepreneur

925
00:52:04,760 --> 00:52:07,840
Speaker 1: because you've got several media companies, especially under Blavity, and

926
00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 1: you've got him Rosen, You've got gult Journal, and how

927
00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:13,520
Speaker 1: do you think about being able to do these different

928
00:52:13,600 --> 00:52:15,880
Speaker 1: things and still having laser focus.

929
00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:19,960
Speaker 2: Well, Blavity is my number one, one hundred percent. It

930
00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:22,520
Speaker 2: always will be. It's like you're firstborn, you know, it's

931
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:25,200
Speaker 2: like but also Blavity's grown up a little bit. Blavity

932
00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:27,320
Speaker 2: is basically in like middle school right now. You know,

933
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:33,000
Speaker 2: there's other people who are working on Blavy every day.

934
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:38,600
Speaker 2: Blabby grows while I sleep. We have a huge vision

935
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:44,200
Speaker 2: that people can rally around. That people understand. I have

936
00:52:44,280 --> 00:52:47,080
Speaker 2: also shifted my day to day role to be an executive,

937
00:52:47,840 --> 00:52:50,040
Speaker 2: which is very different than being an early stage founder.

938
00:52:51,080 --> 00:52:53,239
Speaker 2: The thing about me is I enjoy being an early

939
00:52:53,320 --> 00:52:55,400
Speaker 2: stage founder. I enjoy being executive in the place that

940
00:52:55,480 --> 00:52:59,160
Speaker 2: I am now, but I really enjoy being at the beginning.

941
00:52:59,320 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 2: I think It's just so much fun. There's no expectation,

942
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:06,560
Speaker 2: there's no pressure, and you're just solving problems without you know,

943
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:08,799
Speaker 2: all the hoopla of it all and all the approvals.

944
00:53:08,800 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 2: I still have to get approvals as a CEO Blavity.

945
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:13,879
Speaker 2: You know this look like did you get that approval? Like, ooh,

946
00:53:13,920 --> 00:53:17,400
Speaker 2: I gotta get this approved by But I love it.

947
00:53:17,520 --> 00:53:20,839
Speaker 2: It's it's a beautiful thing. I also enjoyed just going

948
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:24,160
Speaker 2: and just making and innovating, and so I started MROs Essentials,

949
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:26,719
Speaker 2: my skincare company, because I also wanted to learn a

950
00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:30,480
Speaker 2: new type of business, of consumer business with product and

951
00:53:30,840 --> 00:53:33,680
Speaker 2: supply chain, and I've learned a lot. I have so

952
00:53:33,840 --> 00:53:36,960
Speaker 2: much respect for my sisters who have consumer beauty companies.

953
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:42,520
Speaker 2: Melissa Butler, Luster's Pink Like, there's so many amazing people

954
00:53:42,640 --> 00:53:45,560
Speaker 2: who've done this. It's scale, and I'm like, y'all really working.

955
00:53:45,719 --> 00:53:50,560
Speaker 2: So much respect to those women, and I also from

956
00:53:50,600 --> 00:53:52,920
Speaker 2: a balanced point of view. It ebbs and flows. One

957
00:53:52,920 --> 00:53:56,000
Speaker 2: of the beautiful things about having these side businesses. You know,

958
00:53:56,360 --> 00:53:59,160
Speaker 2: if I don't post on Instagram on Mro's Essentials for

959
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:03,400
Speaker 2: a week or two weeks weeks, nobody cares, you know,

960
00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:06,920
Speaker 2: and so that also gives me just some creative freedom

961
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,359
Speaker 2: to allow myself to ebb and flow with my own

962
00:54:10,480 --> 00:54:14,920
Speaker 2: entrepreneurial spirit, and it's something that I needed for my

963
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 2: own mental health. And also when I think about the

964
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:21,240
Speaker 2: future of Morgan Dubon the person, I think it's important

965
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:24,160
Speaker 2: for every single person who's listening to this podcast to

966
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,880
Speaker 2: not just consider who you are in your role, but

967
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:29,800
Speaker 2: also who are you in the long term. For me,

968
00:54:30,080 --> 00:54:32,960
Speaker 2: it's important that Blavity lives beyond me. It's not called

969
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:37,040
Speaker 2: Morgan Dubon and Co. For a reason. Most people who

970
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:39,560
Speaker 2: read our content or go to afrotech, they don't know

971
00:54:39,680 --> 00:54:43,399
Speaker 2: who I am, and I love that. Please, I don't

972
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,759
Speaker 2: want you to know who I am. I didn't start

973
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:50,520
Speaker 2: off this business for that reason, and so I hope

974
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:56,800
Speaker 2: that my future can be a multifaceted future, and therefore

975
00:54:56,920 --> 00:55:00,560
Speaker 2: I need to learn and continue to evolve and also

976
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:03,000
Speaker 2: bring those things that I'm learning back into Blabby as

977
00:55:03,040 --> 00:55:06,160
Speaker 2: a company. You know, because I learned about supply chain

978
00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:08,600
Speaker 2: and products, I know that we probably should not do

979
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:12,880
Speaker 2: that business within Blabby and so many other other examples

980
00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:13,759
Speaker 2: of things that I've learned.

981
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I'd like to get a list of,

982
00:55:17,800 --> 00:55:20,879
Speaker 1: let's say, four things from you that any entrepreneur who

983
00:55:20,960 --> 00:55:25,120
Speaker 1: wants to build companies in the vein of what you've

984
00:55:25,200 --> 00:55:28,440
Speaker 1: been able to accomplish, things that they should do. And

985
00:55:28,760 --> 00:55:30,480
Speaker 1: I'll give the first one. I said four because I'm

986
00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:32,160
Speaker 1: gonna give the first one which I'm pretty sure I

987
00:55:32,239 --> 00:55:34,399
Speaker 1: believe you would give, and that's build an email list.

988
00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:41,720
Speaker 1: So yeah, give me four things that strong entrepreneurs should

989
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:45,840
Speaker 1: be doing to in the macro just build their business.

990
00:55:47,200 --> 00:55:49,920
Speaker 2: So entrepreneurs who are building a business, if I were

991
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:53,400
Speaker 2: building a business today as an entrepreneur, I would absolutely

992
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:57,000
Speaker 2: start with an email list for my audience, not like

993
00:55:57,040 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 2: a personal brand email list, to be an email list

994
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:01,120
Speaker 2: for my audience. And I was to release content on

995
00:56:01,160 --> 00:56:04,120
Speaker 2: a weekly basis, probably daily basis, because you learned so

996
00:56:04,239 --> 00:56:06,440
Speaker 2: much about what people click, what they share, what they

997
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:09,400
Speaker 2: open for a very cheap amount of money, and you

998
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:13,480
Speaker 2: build your own communication. If I were building today, I'd

999
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:18,160
Speaker 2: also probably considered getting people's phone numbers, because you know,

1000
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:21,920
Speaker 2: that's kind of the next big wave. Back in the day,

1001
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:28,279
Speaker 2: that was really an option for me. And I would

1002
00:56:28,320 --> 00:56:31,920
Speaker 2: think early about what kind of leader you want to be.

1003
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:37,000
Speaker 2: You know, I made an intentional decision with Aaron and Jeff,

1004
00:56:37,800 --> 00:56:40,360
Speaker 2: my co founders, that we did very much care about

1005
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 2: what kind of company we wanted to be, and that

1006
00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:45,279
Speaker 2: we wanted it to be a company. We wanted it

1007
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:48,080
Speaker 2: to everyone to work in the same room and to

1008
00:56:48,239 --> 00:56:51,799
Speaker 2: work around a shared vision, and we felt like being

1009
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:55,640
Speaker 2: a startup that stood for something and was public about

1010
00:56:55,680 --> 00:56:58,200
Speaker 2: it mattered. We could have built a company that was

1011
00:56:58,280 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 2: behind the scenes, that was porly run by contractors all

1012
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:06,520
Speaker 2: around the world and there was no culture, but we

1013
00:57:06,600 --> 00:57:08,160
Speaker 2: got the product done, and we could have done that,

1014
00:57:09,320 --> 00:57:11,800
Speaker 2: the outcome would have been quite different, and it was

1015
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:13,640
Speaker 2: an intentional decision to do it this way. Now, this

1016
00:57:13,719 --> 00:57:17,320
Speaker 2: way has been way more painful. Lord, let me tell you,

1017
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:21,760
Speaker 2: I don't know that I would I would do it again,

1018
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:27,880
Speaker 2: but it is quite painful to manage people. You know,

1019
00:57:28,040 --> 00:57:31,160
Speaker 2: being a people manager and a people leader is in

1020
00:57:31,240 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 2: itself a full time job. And we all are first

1021
00:57:35,840 --> 00:57:38,320
Speaker 2: time managers and first time people leaders at this scale,

1022
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:40,240
Speaker 2: and so we've learned a lot. We made a lot

1023
00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:44,160
Speaker 2: of mistakes, but I wouldn't change it for the world

1024
00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:46,600
Speaker 2: because I'm very proud of the careers that we were

1025
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 2: able to launch, the people that we took chances on

1026
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:53,160
Speaker 2: that wound up being huge, phenomenal leaders within our company

1027
00:57:53,760 --> 00:57:57,560
Speaker 2: and or moved on to other great careers and other

1028
00:57:57,640 --> 00:57:59,560
Speaker 2: companies that wouldn't have taken a chance on them if

1029
00:57:59,600 --> 00:58:01,880
Speaker 2: they hadn't worked at Blavity first. And so I'm very

1030
00:58:01,960 --> 00:58:04,840
Speaker 2: proud of the alumni of our company and the people

1031
00:58:04,880 --> 00:58:06,040
Speaker 2: who are still with us today.

1032
00:58:06,760 --> 00:58:09,640
Speaker 1: So I'm a capitalist, and I try not to be

1033
00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:14,320
Speaker 1: romantic about business, and I think I wonder how you

1034
00:58:14,480 --> 00:58:17,959
Speaker 1: convey the business reality that some things just won't work

1035
00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:21,240
Speaker 1: and you got to kill it and still inspire people

1036
00:58:21,320 --> 00:58:22,919
Speaker 1: to have passion about what they're doing.

1037
00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:26,480
Speaker 2: Well, well, you know, working at Blavity, I'm not afraid

1038
00:58:26,640 --> 00:58:28,160
Speaker 2: to say that didn't work. We got to move on.

1039
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:33,080
Speaker 2: I also tried to have a community and a culture

1040
00:58:33,080 --> 00:58:37,680
Speaker 2: of innovation at the company. So we are oftentimes having

1041
00:58:37,880 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 2: our teams show early versions of new products that we're releasing,

1042
00:58:41,680 --> 00:58:46,600
Speaker 2: get few feedback sessions about new products that are coming

1043
00:58:46,680 --> 00:58:50,440
Speaker 2: out before they're really ready for public eye. It's important

1044
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:52,480
Speaker 2: for every role within the company that we have those

1045
00:58:52,520 --> 00:58:56,240
Speaker 2: open feedback sessions so that people also can learn the

1046
00:58:56,360 --> 00:59:00,320
Speaker 2: process of building and shipping products ideas projects so that

1047
00:59:00,400 --> 00:59:02,600
Speaker 2: they want to one day can go and get that done.

1048
00:59:04,280 --> 00:59:08,120
Speaker 2: I also try to be explicit, even before one gets

1049
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:10,680
Speaker 2: to blavity, that we are a company. We are not

1050
00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:16,560
Speaker 2: a non for profit and it's critical that we are

1051
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:20,680
Speaker 2: a for profit entity because I'm able to invest more

1052
00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:23,400
Speaker 2: cash flow back into the business that continues to allow

1053
00:59:23,480 --> 00:59:26,640
Speaker 2: us to grow to impact more people. We're building sustainability

1054
00:59:26,720 --> 00:59:29,680
Speaker 2: so that one day we will be a sustainable, large,

1055
00:59:29,720 --> 00:59:33,440
Speaker 2: profitable enterprise. And that is critical for even the mission

1056
00:59:33,480 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 2: of our company, which is black happiness, right, it's all

1057
00:59:36,720 --> 00:59:39,040
Speaker 2: black people are happy, is the mission of our company.

1058
00:59:39,360 --> 00:59:42,480
Speaker 2: And that means economic freedom. That means ownership, that means power,

1059
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:44,640
Speaker 2: being able to give people a piece of the company

1060
00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:47,040
Speaker 2: and give everyone equity in the company who's an employee.

1061
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:50,880
Speaker 2: Those things are important to me, and that means that

1062
00:59:51,040 --> 00:59:54,040
Speaker 2: as a part of being a capitalist, being a part

1063
00:59:54,040 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 2: of a capitalist economy, not everything's going to work. Some

1064
00:59:57,600 --> 00:59:59,479
Speaker 2: things are going to get more investments, some things aren't.

1065
00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:01,880
Speaker 2: Something are gonna get cut. Sometimes those cuts are gonna

1066
01:00:01,920 --> 01:00:06,880
Speaker 2: feel arbitrary or hurt, or feel like we're leaving something

1067
01:00:06,920 --> 01:00:09,680
Speaker 2: behind or leaving something on the table. And my answer

1068
01:00:09,760 --> 01:00:11,560
Speaker 2: is sometimes we are gonna leave money on the table,

1069
01:00:11,600 --> 01:00:13,240
Speaker 2: but it's because I'm trying to go to this other table.

1070
01:00:13,280 --> 01:00:16,080
Speaker 2: There's got a bigger, bigger feast over here, and we

1071
01:00:16,160 --> 01:00:19,080
Speaker 2: got to leave this little appetizer on the tables. You know,

1072
01:00:19,160 --> 01:00:22,080
Speaker 2: somebody else can eat it, you know, but not everybody

1073
01:00:22,160 --> 01:00:24,680
Speaker 2: can see that. And so I've definitely, over the years

1074
01:00:25,080 --> 01:00:28,280
Speaker 2: built up some thick skin for being the person who

1075
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:30,160
Speaker 2: has to say, you know what, we're gonna leave this

1076
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:32,120
Speaker 2: on the table, and we're gonna go to another table.

1077
01:00:32,200 --> 01:00:33,760
Speaker 2: And I know that y'all want to eat this, and

1078
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:37,240
Speaker 2: I know that it looks good and it's gonna taste good,

1079
01:00:37,520 --> 01:00:39,600
Speaker 2: but I promise you we have something else over here.

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01:00:40,080 --> 01:00:44,560
Speaker 1: It's very good answer, very good answer, Morgan Devon, thank

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01:00:44,600 --> 01:00:45,120
Speaker 1: you so much.

1082
01:00:45,520 --> 01:00:46,480
Speaker 2: You're very welcome.

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01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:03,720
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afrotech.

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01:01:03,920 --> 01:01:06,640
Speaker 1: It is produced by Morgan Debond and me Will Lucas,

1085
01:01:07,000 --> 01:01:10,840
Speaker 1: with additional production support by Love Beach, Stephanie Aukbogu and

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01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:14,840
Speaker 1: raveniir Born. Special thank you to Michael Davis. Some Carsavon

1087
01:01:14,960 --> 01:01:17,280
Speaker 1: Jan you know, like the wine and yes that's his

1088
01:01:17,440 --> 01:01:18,400
Speaker 1: real name, and.

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01:01:18,520 --> 01:01:19,240
Speaker 3: Karri Ka Green.

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01:01:20,040 --> 01:01:22,640
Speaker 1: Learn more about Morgan Devond o The Tech Disruptors. And

1091
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:26,959
Speaker 1: innovators at afrotech dot com. Go get your money piece

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01:01:27,000 --> 01:01:27,320
Speaker 1: and love