Speaker 1: Afrotech is a global gathering where inclusive tech companies meet innovators.
Speaker 1: It's the only tech event you need all year. Get
Speaker 1: ready for Afrotech twenty twenty three in Austin, Texas, November
Speaker 1: first through the fifth. We built a whole temper you
Speaker 1: can use to help you get your employer to sponsor
Speaker 1: your trip and enjoy experiences built for every stage your career.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a college student looking for your next internship,
Speaker 1: or if you're work in a venture capital looking for
Speaker 1: your next business to invest in, and if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a co founder or people that's join your team,
Speaker 1: there's no better place to be. The massive corporate layoffs
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three have affected
Speaker 1: our community in a big way. An Afrotech wants to
Speaker 1: help you get back on your feet with skill development,
Speaker 1: making it easier to switch industries. If that's your route.
Speaker 1: In an afro tech you'll make connections to help you
Speaker 1: get your next opportunity. Visit afrotech dot com slash conference
Speaker 1: to learn more. I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech,
Speaker 1: Green Money. Mandy Bauman is founder and CEO of Official
Speaker 1: Black Wall Street. The marketplace ad that is the fastest
Speaker 1: growing platform for finding and supporting black owned businesses in
Speaker 1: the United States. Internal reports say her app has recirculated
Speaker 1: about ten million dollars in sales and business services back
Speaker 1: into black owned businesses. Now, she's focused on expanding her
Speaker 1: services to ten other countries, including Canada, South Africa, Friends
Speaker 1: in UK, and the Netherlens. When you're starting something like this,
Speaker 1: you don't always intend to be a techie. What did
Speaker 1: she have to learn to get this idea off the ground?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is a good question.
Speaker 3: I'm a non technical founder, So I started out my
Speaker 3: career in the digital marketing social media space, and I
Speaker 3: think that's what helped me grow Official Black Wall Street.
Speaker 3: But on the tech side, you know, I had taken
Speaker 3: some some web development classes, very very different from building
Speaker 3: an actual app, and so for.
Speaker 2: Me it was a major learning curve.
Speaker 3: I definitely had just have a lot of mentors and
Speaker 3: advisors to help them to help me actually interview you know,
Speaker 3: developers and you know, our a CTO just to make
Speaker 3: sure that we were considering.
Speaker 2: The right things.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we, I say we at that point, it
Speaker 3: was just but I had even back then, I was
Speaker 3: so accustomed to saying we all the time. But I
Speaker 3: had launched the app, the website for Official Black Wall Street,
Speaker 3: the first one in like twenty fifteen, and that one
Speaker 3: I had built myself.
Speaker 2: I knew for a fact that.
Speaker 3: I did not want to do any of that again
Speaker 3: for the app or something even bigger, because it took
Speaker 3: a lot, and so for me, it was it was
Speaker 3: literally just all about trial and error and finding the
Speaker 3: right people who had the right skills, which again was
Speaker 3: a lot of trial and error.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you think about, you know, organizing this database
Speaker 1: of black owned companies, a lot of our companies' businesses, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: are not supertect happy. There's you know, a category of
Speaker 1: them are, but a lot of us have mom and
Speaker 1: pops and et cetera. So I wonder how you go about,
Speaker 1: you know, engaging them to the directory when they already
Speaker 1: have some issues just getting their technology up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that one was tough.
Speaker 3: Like you said, I've noticed when it comes to technology,
Speaker 3: a lot of our businesses are way behind. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, we have other businesses talking about taking advantage
Speaker 3: of you know, VR technology and AI, and we're still
Speaker 3: trying to get our business owners online, like just a
Speaker 3: website first. So for us, even with our platform, you know,
Speaker 3: there's like an application process to be approved, and we
Speaker 3: want to make sure that the businesses on there are prepared,
Speaker 3: you know, for traffic, you know, the the aesthetics and
Speaker 3: everything else. So for us, we have different partners that
Speaker 3: we work with. So when we come across the business
Speaker 3: that doesn't have the right infrastructure, doesn't have the right
Speaker 3: website in place, we pass them along to those partners
Speaker 3: so that they can help them. A lot of times
Speaker 3: there's just a major there's just a major gap when
Speaker 3: it comes to the education and resources, especially when you're
Speaker 3: talking about technology.
Speaker 2: So for us, it's all about kind of holding their hands.
Speaker 3: We have, you know, two different type of customers and
Speaker 3: for those we hold their hands and we you know,
Speaker 3: we refer them to our partners to help them with
Speaker 3: with all of that.
Speaker 1: You know, many have tried to organize black companies onto
Speaker 1: a platform but have not reached the success you have.
Speaker 1: I remember even Diddy, you know, like a year ago,
Speaker 1: was talking about building you know, some things to help
Speaker 1: organize us. But you've you've found a lot of success here.
Speaker 1: What would you say differentiate you or your offering or
Speaker 1: was different about your strategy or your value prop like
Speaker 1: what made you the one to shoot out of the crowd?
Speaker 2: I like to say I was a secret sauce. Outside
Speaker 2: of that, I think my like I said.
Speaker 3: Before, my background was in the digital marketing social media space.
Speaker 3: Before we even had a website, I had a community
Speaker 3: that I was growing online. So before we had a
Speaker 3: websit or anything like that, I was like, you know,
Speaker 3: let me create some social pages and share the businesses
Speaker 3: that I'm coming across. And in doing that, we had
Speaker 3: literally built a community of over one hundred thousand followers
Speaker 3: before we even launched a website. So I think building
Speaker 3: that community and you know, fostering that community, and you know,
Speaker 3: this is a social impacts tech company, and the fact
Speaker 3: that we were very big on social in the very
Speaker 3: beginning definitely helped us pick up steam, especially when you
Speaker 3: think about all the different social movements that have that
Speaker 3: we've experienced over the past couple of years alone, Like
Speaker 3: we've been in position.
Speaker 2: And ready to.
Speaker 3: You know, ready to take the lead in those areas
Speaker 3: because of our social media presence and the community building
Speaker 3: that we did before we even had a product.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you said a couple of things you
Speaker 1: said that I think are necessary to highlight you know,
Speaker 1: you know, just because because you have you know, a
Speaker 1: well funded, you know, initiative doesn't mean you're gonna go.
Speaker 1: Like you talked about, you built a community first. And
Speaker 1: what people so often missed is if you haven't engaged community,
Speaker 1: people who really believe you can almost sell them anything
Speaker 1: because you've already earned the trust. So can you talk
Speaker 1: about what kind of things you did to nurture that community,
Speaker 1: because I'm imagining you had the community before you had
Speaker 1: the idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yes, I don't know that, correct me. I
Speaker 2: don't know that was a good guess though I had.
Speaker 3: When I first, you know, started the idea for official
Speaker 3: Black Wall Street, I was creating a resource my my background.
Speaker 3: I went to school for entrepreneurship, and kind of this
Speaker 3: evolved into a business. So I didn't in the very
Speaker 3: beginning see this is, you know, being a business.
Speaker 2: But I lost my train of thought.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, I mean I just imagine when when you're
Speaker 1: building a community, people will follow you anywhere. And so
Speaker 1: when you've built this community, like, what the things that
Speaker 1: you do to get people interested in joining your group?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was all about trial and error and with
Speaker 3: social media, there was a lot of that, so figuring
Speaker 3: out what our customers actually wanted, what our users wanted
Speaker 3: to see. So at that point in time, they wanted
Speaker 3: to learn about different black owned businesses.
Speaker 2: Well where are they in the US.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of users who were in New York, Atlanta, La, Houston,
Speaker 3: so you know, highlighting the different businesses in those areas,
Speaker 3: you know, doing different community events in those you know,
Speaker 3: local community events in those areas, also collaborating with local organizations.
Speaker 2: So all around the country.
Speaker 3: There there are you know, different black professional groups than
Speaker 3: black entrepreneurial groups, and so connecting with those people. But
Speaker 3: really it was all about I think one of the
Speaker 3: biggest mistakes me and other entrepreneurs make starting out is
Speaker 3: creating something and being like, Okay, this is what I
Speaker 3: would want to see, uh but for for for this,
Speaker 3: in the very beginning and building that community, it was like, okay, well,
Speaker 3: who is who is you know in our community? What's that?
Speaker 3: What is that persona like? And what exactly do they
Speaker 3: want to see? And so we began you know, producing
Speaker 3: content around that. In the very beginning, I was I mean,
Speaker 3: I wore all the hats, so you know, we did
Speaker 3: a lot with content as well, and that helps, you know,
Speaker 3: just circulating different businesses in different areas, all of the
Speaker 3: small nuances of social media commenting, following, you know, following
Speaker 3: up with people, congratulating people for anniversaries, posting about it,
Speaker 3: different things like that definitely helped to build an if
Speaker 3: off of that community.
Speaker 1: When you are building something that helps people find, you know,
Speaker 1: actual physical locations, rick and mortar locations, I imagine you've
Speaker 1: got to do a lot of work in a particular
Speaker 1: area in order for there to be enough in said city,
Speaker 1: said town. Did you find it an imperative to be
Speaker 1: hyper local first and wherever that may have been?
Speaker 3: Yes, uh so we didn't exclude other businesses in other areas.
Speaker 2: But it's when you have a marketplace you you.
Speaker 3: You come across that, you know, the chicken and the
Speaker 3: egg problem, which one comes first?
Speaker 2: Which one do you focus on first?
Speaker 3: Uh So for us, the easiest thing to do was
Speaker 3: to figure out which cities you wanted to zero in
Speaker 3: on first. You know, I had already built that that community,
Speaker 3: so it was like, okay, where are.
Speaker 2: Most of these people located?
Speaker 3: They were in New York, La Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and
Speaker 3: so then it was drilling down into those specific areas
Speaker 3: to find the businesses and find the people.
Speaker 2: Very similar to like Uber and a lot.
Speaker 3: Of those companies, and you know, when they first started,
Speaker 3: they were just in specific locations and then expanded outwards.
Speaker 1: And you were doing you know, social media for major
Speaker 1: brands before you did this, Like, what did you learn
Speaker 1: about how all things work in those brands that might
Speaker 1: have helped you, you know, scale Official black Wall Street.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest thing so I had out of college, I.
Speaker 3: Worked in the music industry, so I was at Atlantic
Speaker 3: Records in digital marketing. Then I went to Complex Magazine
Speaker 3: and Essence Magazine and Social and.
Speaker 2: I think being at.
Speaker 3: Being at those companies, especially the digital online publications Essence
Speaker 3: and Complex was super helpful because it I learned content
Speaker 3: and content is king. So when it comes to marketing
Speaker 3: Official black Wall Street, when it came to growing our platform,
Speaker 3: even going viral in different areas, you know, being for example,
Speaker 3: being at Essence, it taught me the type of headlines
Speaker 3: that people look for. So I was able to write
Speaker 3: our press releases when we first started, I you know,
Speaker 3: had a good idea of you know, a similar audience,
Speaker 3: so I got a good idea of what people clicked
Speaker 3: on versus what they didn't click on so much when
Speaker 3: it comes to the images and the headlines, so I
Speaker 3: was able to create articles on a consistent basis that
Speaker 3: would literally go viral and bring more attention to the
Speaker 3: businesses on the platform. So I think that and when
Speaker 3: it comes to social media, just being consistent, which is
Speaker 3: a tall order because you know, social media can be
Speaker 3: a lot, and knowing knowing when to sit out of
Speaker 3: you know, the new thing that's happening, or knowing when
Speaker 3: which platforms you need to focus on so that you're
Speaker 3: not spreading yourself tho thin. But I think those two things,
Speaker 3: especially content, was a major.
Speaker 2: Key for me.
Speaker 1: Afro Tech is a global gathering where inclusive tech companies
Speaker 1: meet innovators. It's the only tech event you need all year.
Speaker 1: Get ready for Afrotech twenty twenty three in Austin, Texas,
Speaker 1: November first through the fifth. We built a whole temper
Speaker 1: you can use to help you get your employer to
Speaker 1: sponsor your trip and enjoy experiences built for every stage
Speaker 1: your career, whether you're a college student looking for your
Speaker 1: next internship, or if you work in avention capital looking
Speaker 1: for your next business to invest in, and if you're
Speaker 1: looking for a co founder or people that's join your team,
Speaker 1: there's no better place to be. The massive corporate layoffs
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three have affected
Speaker 1: our community in a big way. An afro Tech wants
Speaker 1: to help you get back on your feet with skill development,
Speaker 1: making it easier to switch industries. If that's your route.
Speaker 1: In an afrotech, you'll make connections to help you get
Speaker 1: your next opportunity. Visit afrotech dot com slash conference to
Speaker 1: learn more. Have you found that knowing that black vendors
Speaker 1: exists is enough? Like what other keys to them thriving
Speaker 1: and us supporting them are necessary?
Speaker 2: Knowing that they exist definitely not enough.
Speaker 3: I think when it comes to support, there has to
Speaker 3: be it has to be intentional.
Speaker 2: One thing that I've found is.
Speaker 3: That there is always this massive energy towards buying black
Speaker 3: when something happens, you know, when there's you know, some
Speaker 3: like police brutality, or there's a large you know, luxury
Speaker 3: brand that does something that it is always reactionary. So
Speaker 3: I think for us, in order to move things forward,
Speaker 3: at least on our end, it has to be a
Speaker 3: more intentional push where we're not just doing this as
Speaker 3: a reaction to something else. One and then two, there
Speaker 3: is you know we can talk about you know, systemic
Speaker 3: racism and the different challenges business owners go through when
Speaker 3: it comes to that, and that is a whole different
Speaker 3: ballgame that we can't even I believe that it's it's
Speaker 3: up to the powers that be to change that system.
Speaker 3: And you know, the when we talk about access to capital,
Speaker 3: and you know, there is a stat that black women
Speaker 3: receive less than one percent of VC funding. You know,
Speaker 3: when it comes to bank financing, you know, even when
Speaker 3: we're equally qualified, we still get shut out of those loans.
Speaker 3: So I think there is a heap of work that
Speaker 3: needs to be done on that end. And I think
Speaker 3: when it comes to us, there is I think supporting
Speaker 3: or knowing that they exist isn't enough. I think that
Speaker 3: we need to be intentional about supporting them.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And number two, I think we need to be intentional,
Speaker 3: intentional about giving grace when it comes to black businesses,
Speaker 3: and not just not just when it comes to the
Speaker 3: day to day supporting, but also you know, when there
Speaker 3: is a black business that gets acquired, you know that
Speaker 3: is that is being an If you are an entrepreneur,
Speaker 3: you know that that is an amazing accomplishment. So being
Speaker 3: you know, having some grace and understanding how things work
Speaker 3: on the other end would definitely help.
Speaker 1: Yeah, along those lines, I was reading this article when
Speaker 1: you said buying black should not be a trend, it
Speaker 1: should be a habit. And with that said, like, it's
Speaker 1: not always easy to buy black, Like, how do you
Speaker 1: discuss this being a responsibility in that sometimes we probably
Speaker 1: should go a little bit out of our way to
Speaker 1: support black owned businesses. You know, what would you say that?
Speaker 3: I would say that it's it's necessary. You know, we
Speaker 3: we don't have the same access we we also don't
Speaker 3: have the same the same number of businesses, uh, the
Speaker 3: same variety in our communities. I mean you go to
Speaker 3: some even some black communities and you know there are
Speaker 3: Asian owned businesses on every single corner, and that we
Speaker 3: we don't have that all the time. So I think
Speaker 3: it's necessary for us to, you know, even if it
Speaker 3: made you got to go out of your way a
Speaker 3: little bit to support I mean, how else are we
Speaker 3: going to get it done? I know something that there
Speaker 3: is one one I guess you can call it a
Speaker 3: complaint that I hear a lot with people like you know,
Speaker 3: the the price points when it comes to black businesses
Speaker 3: are a lot higher than others. Uh. And it ties
Speaker 3: into you know what you just said and and us
Speaker 3: going out of our way to support a lot of times,
Speaker 3: these small black owned businesses don't have the same contracts,
Speaker 3: they don't have the same demand that these larger companies
Speaker 3: have to sell things at a steep discount, and they
Speaker 3: can't get to that.
Speaker 2: Point unless we actually go out of our way to support.
Speaker 3: Them so that they have the demand to do so.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's it's like an ongoing cycle, but the
Speaker 3: only way for us to actually push through.
Speaker 2: And I mean, we've been doing this for god knows
Speaker 2: how long.
Speaker 3: You know. I have an advisor who you know is
Speaker 3: old us with my dad, and he talks about, you know,
Speaker 3: we were in college, we did something like this too.
Speaker 3: So at some point we have to do something different
Speaker 3: if we want to see something different.
Speaker 1: Like I said this on a different episode, but like
Speaker 1: I don't shop at Target because I believe in the mission,
Speaker 1: Like I shopped there because they have what I need.
Speaker 1: And it's purely just that, how do we get more
Speaker 1: black owned businesses and black owned companies to just be
Speaker 1: utilities to where it doesn't necessarily matter to even communities
Speaker 1: outside of our community, to where it's not just us,
Speaker 1: but they just simply have what you need.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that you said businesses being purely utility.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in that we're not necessarily I don't support Target
Speaker 1: or I don't support Walmart. I just go there because
Speaker 1: they have the thing, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: so in that way, they purely are the tools because
Speaker 1: they're the vehicle who have the stuff on the shelf
Speaker 1: that I need. Now to your point about specifically black
Speaker 1: owned businesses, we do need to support and I agree
Speaker 1: with that, but I wonder how do we get them
Speaker 1: too the place to where we as a community and
Speaker 1: other communities are frequenting these places black owned businesses particularly
Speaker 1: just because they have the think.
Speaker 2: Yes, that is a great point. That is a really
Speaker 2: good point.
Speaker 3: I feel like we, especially in doing this, we have
Speaker 3: so many basically businesses that are necessities every day necessities
Speaker 3: and terms of you know, getting more businesses into that space.
Speaker 3: I think it's it's all knowledge and resources and a
Speaker 3: lot of you know, there's that education gap and a
Speaker 3: lot of our communities. We don't have an example of
Speaker 3: someone who has done this before. I mean, it's a
Speaker 3: lot easier now because we have the Internet, so you know,
Speaker 3: you can google something or go to YouTube university and
Speaker 3: figure it out. But I think, you know, letting people
Speaker 3: know the benefits of it so that you know, everyone
Speaker 3: doesn't have to have a skincare or not that anything
Speaker 3: is wrong with that, but creating things that people actually need,
Speaker 3: and sometimes they're not the sexiest businesses. I remember someone
Speaker 3: had told me about there's this company that sells like ice,
Speaker 3: and I was like, I did not even think about that,
Speaker 3: but you know, businesses continuously need ice, and you know
Speaker 3: they sell directly to restaurants. But anyway, I think it's
Speaker 3: it's I think for a lot of business owners, we
Speaker 3: create the businesses out of a need or out of
Speaker 3: a passion. So like, hey, I can cook really well,
Speaker 3: so I created a business from it. Or I can
Speaker 3: sell really well, so I created something from it. So
Speaker 3: I think I hate saying that we need more knowledge
Speaker 3: because I also think even more than that we need money.
Speaker 3: But I do think that there is an education gap
Speaker 3: where we need to understand, you know, the benefits when
Speaker 3: it comes to profit. I think I've seen a lot
Speaker 3: of business owners who are creatives and not necessarily savvy
Speaker 3: in the business sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I was reading a posts about you
Speaker 1: guys having you know, you've recirculated about ten million dollars
Speaker 1: in sales and business services back into black owned businesses. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, congratulations, and you know we salute you
Speaker 1: for that. What are some of the best effective messages
Speaker 1: or best effective methods of encouraging black people to spend
Speaker 1: their dollars with black owned businesses? And here's why. I
Speaker 1: I don't know the numbers. You may know these numbers,
Speaker 1: but it talks about, you know, the white dollar may circulate,
Speaker 1: you know X amount of times, the Jewish dollars circulates,
Speaker 1: why amount of times? And whatever it is ours, once
Speaker 1: we have it, it's immediately out of our community six hours.
Speaker 1: So how what are some of the best messages you've
Speaker 1: found to be effective in inspiring black owned business support.
Speaker 3: That is a good point when the staff that you
Speaker 3: have mentioned the dollar in the black community circulates.
Speaker 2: For six hours.
Speaker 3: In Asian and Jewish communities is a month and twenty
Speaker 3: days on average. But I think the best message that
Speaker 3: I have found is the benefits of supporting black owned businesses.
Speaker 3: You know, when it comes to one circulating our dollars
Speaker 3: back into our community, creating more jobs, and creating more conglomerates.
Speaker 3: You know, when we talk about you know, anytime there
Speaker 3: is a black owned business, I gets acquired you know
Speaker 3: social media.
Speaker 2: You know social media is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, people are usually pissed about it, and it's like, no,
Speaker 3: this is this is how it works.
Speaker 2: This is how we generate more wealth.
Speaker 3: We always talk about generational wealth in our community, and
Speaker 3: this is like a major way that we get to
Speaker 3: that point. So I think I think the best the
Speaker 3: best messages making it personal. You know, this is the
Speaker 3: reason why I support black owned businesses, is because I
Speaker 3: want to see more wealth in my community, and that
Speaker 3: is a great way to recirculate it. Even when it
Speaker 3: comes to when we're talking about the benefits of buying
Speaker 3: black even there was a study that Golden Sachs did
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago where they found that I
Speaker 3: think it was like nine times out of ten, when
Speaker 3: there is a black entrepreneur in our community, they become leaders.
Speaker 3: So they become mentors. They're teaching other people how to
Speaker 3: become business owners. You know, they're they're basically leaders within
Speaker 3: their community. So I think removing the whole you know,
Speaker 3: this company or this police officer did this thing, so
Speaker 3: now we're going to do this in response, I think moving,
Speaker 3: you know, removing that completely and making it more so
Speaker 3: about you know, giving back to you know, bringing dollars
Speaker 3: back into our community and our infrastructures in my local economy.
Speaker 3: I think that that is the best message to you know,
Speaker 3: to get things.
Speaker 2: Through to people.
Speaker 1: And so you have this initiative to expand of Official
Speaker 1: Black Wall Street out to ten countries, you know, super ambitious.
Speaker 1: Proud of you though. I salute you for undertaking this.
Speaker 1: Talk about you know, the challenges that exist when you know,
Speaker 1: starting to distribute to other countries, when there's different cultural implications,
Speaker 1: different econom implications. How are you navigating those types of conversations.
Speaker 3: So expanding outside of the US has been a goal
Speaker 3: that we have had maybe since our first app iteration.
Speaker 3: We have you know, in growing the platform we have
Speaker 3: been we received emails and messages from people in South Africa,
Speaker 3: the Netherlands, Canada who were just like, yo, we need
Speaker 3: this too, Like how can we get this into our
Speaker 3: country and our community. Uh So, for us we I mean,
Speaker 3: we're not launching in ten different countries like tomorrow or
Speaker 3: next year.
Speaker 2: We definitely plan on doing it one by one.
Speaker 3: So we we've connected with you know, local organizations in
Speaker 3: South Africa and the Netherlands, which is you know, we're
Speaker 3: considering starting and making it more of a collaborative effort
Speaker 3: so that we one gain access to you know, knowing
Speaker 3: the different pain points that they're going through as well,
Speaker 3: but also having some one on the ground who already knows,
Speaker 3: you know, the area, already knows the culture and can
Speaker 3: kind of act as an ambassador or a laison for
Speaker 3: official Black Wall Street.
Speaker 1: You know, we've talked about these stats and I don't
Speaker 1: love them, but you know, their reality is, you know,
Speaker 1: most black owned businesses have relatively small payrolls by and large,
Speaker 1: and two thirds, you know, like sixty six percent have
Speaker 1: fewer than ten employees. And this is these are like
Speaker 1: twenty twenty numbers, like very recent numbers of fourteen percent
Speaker 1: you know, ten to forty nine employees and just three percent,
Speaker 1: you know, fifty percent fifty employees are more. How do
Speaker 1: we scale, like, what is what is the barrier between
Speaker 1: us and building businesses that grow beyond mom and pop shops.
Speaker 3: Man, it really hurts even hearing it out loud. But
Speaker 3: the first thing I thought of was one the access
Speaker 3: to capital. A lot of the business owners that we
Speaker 3: work with, if they don't when they don't have the
Speaker 3: knowledge of receiving that capital and knowing what's possible and
Speaker 3: what their options are, and so for them, you know,
Speaker 3: they're starting out in a negative and there is no
Speaker 3: space for hiring somebody else. It's like, Okay, we can
Speaker 3: get an intern, but that's about it because we have
Speaker 3: to work our way up. So I think, you know,
Speaker 3: one the different bias is that business owners go through
Speaker 3: when it comes to bank.
Speaker 2: Funding, VC funding, All of that has to to.
Speaker 3: All that has to change in order for us to
Speaker 3: actually get the funds that we need to launch and scale.
Speaker 3: But I think outside of that, it goes back to
Speaker 3: the conversation of buying black And you know what I
Speaker 3: mentioned before about people kind of like the cycle that
Speaker 3: we're in where it's like, you, we want businesses to
Speaker 3: grow and be prosperous, but we have to support them
Speaker 3: so that they have to demand to grow to that
Speaker 3: level and actually you know, have the revenue and the
Speaker 3: funds that they need to hire other people and continue
Speaker 3: to grow. So it always goes back to access to
Speaker 3: capital and US actually, you know, making a concerted effort
Speaker 3: to support those businesses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna give you another one that may even
Speaker 1: help further this conversation is like they're according to I
Speaker 1: think US Census, there's one hundred and forty thousand, nine
Speaker 1: hundred and eighteen at least registered US Black or African
Speaker 1: American owned businesses. As Lord knows, we have many that
Speaker 1: are just not registered. And we're just doing this and
Speaker 1: so across all sectors of the economy, and they a
Speaker 1: trip they have ray I'm sorry, in sales generation one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty one billion dollars in twenty twenty. That's
Speaker 1: their annual sale. So just in like raw division, you know,
Speaker 1: that's with one point three million people employed by these companies,
Speaker 1: that's nine employees per company out of those one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty thousand, and then raw division a million dollars
Speaker 1: in sales per company. Obviously that's raw division. Some of
Speaker 1: them might do better than others. But if there are
Speaker 1: a couple levers that make the most difference with these
Speaker 1: businesses scaling that we as a community can pay attention
Speaker 1: to when we're both building these businesses and trying to
Speaker 1: support these businesses, what can we do so like And
Speaker 1: I would like you to answer that, and particularly from
Speaker 1: the perspective of building these businesses, because you work with
Speaker 1: these companies, what kind of things are the ones that
Speaker 1: are growing doing right at the onset that help them
Speaker 1: to scale that other companies, you know, may do wrongly
Speaker 1: that hurt their ability.
Speaker 3: Oh man, I have two that immediately immediately came to mind.
Speaker 3: One is prioritizing tech in some way, shape or form
Speaker 3: so that we're not trailing behind the industry. And two,
Speaker 3: I think one thing that one thing that I've seen
Speaker 3: a lot a lot of black owned businesses do not
Speaker 3: have a marketing budget and or don't understand the importance
Speaker 3: of marketing.
Speaker 2: And my background is in marketing, so for me, that is.
Speaker 3: An official Black Wall Street is essentially a martech company.
Speaker 2: But you know, so it is extremely important to me.
Speaker 2: And I think the.
Speaker 3: Communicating that importance to businesses where it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: these are the things that you should have, as you know,
Speaker 3: a business owner if you want to grow and scale.
Speaker 3: But I found that there are so many, so many
Speaker 3: business owners large and small who just don't have a
Speaker 3: marketing budget, or don't prioritize marketing, or don't have a
Speaker 3: sales strategy or funnel, and so they are all these
Speaker 3: kind of missing pieces that are kind of that are
Speaker 3: glued together, and it just it doesn't.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work out when it comes to scaling.
Speaker 3: So knowing how to to automate, you know, those different
Speaker 3: processes and being strategic things like having a strategy for sales.
Speaker 3: And if you're not a salesperson, I'm not a salesperson,
Speaker 3: so we have someone who specifically does it well as
Speaker 3: an entrepreneur. I am the the salesperson, but you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. But yeah, I think you know, those
Speaker 3: are the biggest things that I've seen. You cannot grow
Speaker 3: a company if you aren't if you aren't putting money
Speaker 3: back into it and marketing you know, your product or
Speaker 3: service to other people.
Speaker 1: Where are we making money? Like, in what industries are
Speaker 1: we making the most money?
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot, well, at least when it comes
Speaker 2: to our platform we have.
Speaker 3: I've seen that we have a lot of businesses that
Speaker 3: are in professional services. There are a lot of businesses
Speaker 3: that are in food and beverages, and a lot that
Speaker 3: are in beauty.
Speaker 1: So when you say professional services, let's break down what
Speaker 1: that is like. Is that consulting or bookkeeping?
Speaker 3: That's like consulting, bookkeeping, you know, CPA marketing. People in
Speaker 3: those basically people who took their professional skills and Step,
Speaker 3: I'm going to make a business out of this.
Speaker 1: Done And you talked about earlier, good to continue on
Speaker 1: it if you.
Speaker 2: Weren't finished, No, that's I'm good.
Speaker 1: And so you talked about earlier you had this database
Speaker 1: of a community and you could look and see, you know,
Speaker 1: where is it. Where does it make the most sense
Speaker 1: to launch official Black Wall Street talking? You know, we've
Speaker 1: seen the lists of best cities for a black entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: You know, I want I would love to hear from
Speaker 1: from you. Where are you? Where do you see if
Speaker 1: you were to locate or relocate a service, Where do
Speaker 1: you think, geographically are suitable places that offer the best
Speaker 1: chance for success?
Speaker 3: Oh, I would say number one is Atlanta. I think
Speaker 3: Atlanta's probably at the top of everyone's list. But there is,
Speaker 3: you know, this massive community of black professionals and black
Speaker 3: entrepreneurs and so, you know, collaborating and partnering with is
Speaker 3: something I think we must do. Uh is a lot
Speaker 3: easier in that kind of atmosphere where there's so many
Speaker 3: different creatives and and you know, entrepreneurs around you.
Speaker 2: So Atlanta is a definite.
Speaker 3: I'm a little biased on this, but I would say
Speaker 3: New York only because there are so many opportunities out
Speaker 3: here and so many companies that you know, you can
Speaker 3: you know, corporate companies that you can network with. There
Speaker 3: are also so many founders out here. But I think
Speaker 3: I found Atlanta, Houston, New York, which I'm a little biased,
Speaker 3: so you can take that one with the grain of salt.
Speaker 2: I think those are also Miami.
Speaker 3: I feel like there has been this growing, you know,
Speaker 3: black tech community in Miami as well.
Speaker 1: You're obviously paying a lot of attention to not only
Speaker 1: your the growth of directory listings on your platform, but
Speaker 1: also that those companies and thrive. What gives you hope
Speaker 1: about what you're seeing, Oh, that's a good question.
Speaker 2: What gives me hope is just the quality of the businesses.
Speaker 3: I think that was one of the reasons why I
Speaker 3: created Official Black Wall Street as a resource in general.
Speaker 3: You know, I this started out, as you know, a
Speaker 3: passion project. I wanted to support the businesses in my community.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, all right, let me just you know,
Speaker 3: create a list and see what's out there. And there
Speaker 3: were so many beautiful, dope, amazing businesses everything you can
Speaker 3: think of from you know, black owned banks, restaurants, gas stations.
Speaker 3: And I was like, wow, this is this is amazing,
Speaker 3: and I don't see that. I'm a very prideful person.
Speaker 3: I think that we are an amazing, amazing people, the
Speaker 3: most creative and brilliant people.
Speaker 2: You know. So I think that alone has has given
Speaker 2: me a lot of hope. Also, there's this.
Speaker 3: Major kind of people prioritizing, know, like socially conscious brands
Speaker 3: or brands that at least align with their value. I
Speaker 3: think forms that come out with this this article saying
Speaker 3: that you know, socially conscious spending is at an all
Speaker 3: time high.
Speaker 2: So we see the trend is there.
Speaker 3: We see that people are are are more focused on
Speaker 3: black owned businesses.
Speaker 2: Maybe not as.
Speaker 3: Much as you know three years ago, but there is
Speaker 3: a bigger focus on black owned businesses. There's a bigger
Speaker 3: focus on you know, spending based on value. And I
Speaker 3: think the world is the world is finally seeing the
Speaker 3: amazing things that we produce. Uh and I think that's
Speaker 3: one of the one of the things that excites me
Speaker 3: about doing official Black Wall Street, Like we have black
Speaker 3: owned multi vitamins and and black owned puzzles and toys
Speaker 3: and dolls, and there's just a wealth of amazing businesses
Speaker 3: out there, and so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm very hopeful about it.
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity afro
Speaker 1: Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in nine hied
Speaker 1: Media and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
Speaker 1: with additional production support by Sarah Ergin and Rose McLucas.
Speaker 1: Special thank you to Michael Davis, Vanessa Surroundo and Maya Mooldreu.
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech Distructor is
Speaker 1: an innovators at afrotech dot com. Enjoying Black Tech Green Money.
Speaker 1: Share this with somebody, don't get your money, peace and love.
Speaker 1: Afrotech is a global gathering where inclusive tech companies meet innovators.
Speaker 1: It's the only tech event you need all year. Get
Speaker 1: ready for afro Tech twenty twenty three in Austin, Texas,
Speaker 1: November first through the fifth. We built a whole temper
Speaker 1: you can use to help you get your employer to
Speaker 1: sponsor your and enjoy experiences built for every stage your career.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a college student looking for your next internship,
Speaker 1: or if you're work in a venture capital looking for
Speaker 1: your next business to invest in, and if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a co founder a people that's join your team,
Speaker 1: there's no better place to be. The massive corporate layoffs
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three have affected
Speaker 1: our community in a big way. An afrotech wants to
Speaker 1: help you get back on your feet with skill development,
Speaker 1: making it easier to switch industries if that's your route.
Speaker 1: In an afrotech, you'll make connections to help you get
Speaker 1: your next opportunity. Visit afrotech dot com slash conference to
Speaker 1: learn more