WEBVTT - How you too can raise $18.2 Million w/ Clarence Bethea 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:08.880 Af roa Tech Oakland, California. I'm in the main expo 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:12.880 hall with Charles Hudson, managing partner at Precursive Ventures, talking 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:17.079 about investing in early stage startups. So many companies get 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.880 sold the idea that farming out technic contractors or all 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:24.560 short developers undercut your opportunity to build something meaningful, that 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:26.840 if you can't hire the talent in the house, that 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:30.280 you might be doing this wrong. What does D say 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.480 about that? So? I think a long time ago, most 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:37.080 technology products built by tech startups were deeply technical. So 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:40.839 if you're Intel, you're building chips and motherboards. A lot 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:42.640 of the companies I meet today, I don't mean this 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.319 to denegrate their products. The products they're building have really 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.400 low technical risk. You're building a retail experience. You're gonna 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:53.680 start on Shopify. Do you really need Google engineer to 0:00:53.720 --> 0:00:55.720 help you get started on Shopify? I don't think so. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:57.640 So the way I think about it is, if your 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.560 product has relatively low technical risk, the most important thing 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.360 is to get it felt, And if that's done by 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.000 an agency or an a worker to get you to 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.400 view one, I think that's totally fine. I'm Will Lucas 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.720 Mrs Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna introduce you to 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:14.959 some of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.000 and brilliant ideas. If you're black in building are simply 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.920 using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you. 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.600 Claren's Bethew is founder and CEO at ups, a technology 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.280 company offering consumers an alternative when purchasing extended warranties for 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:37.520 electronics like mobile devices and home appliances. He recently closed 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:41.480 an eighteen million dollars Series A funding round, as Clarence 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:44.120 about the counts of that. With several black owned startups 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:48.400 announcing large fundraises recently Upsee among them, is there still 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.320 validity to the idea that there's still so little progress 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.520 to show for black founders raising sufficient capital to build 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.920 and scale their businesses. Do I believe that that narrative 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:02.680 has changed? No. I think oftentimes we look at when 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.480 ye know Will has a show, right, or Clarence raises 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.600 some money, or you know, this black black person does 0:02:10.680 --> 0:02:13.960 this one thing, and we started looking at the narrative like, look, 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.320 it's getting better and and the truth is I don't 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:20.240 believe that. Is it's it's gotten better for me, which 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:24.200 is okay, it's great, But I'm also not I'm not 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.400 in this game just for me. I'm in this for 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.440 for all of us. So I think why I've been 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.120 been blessed and lucky and fortunate, Um, it's we still 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:36.560 have such a long way to go, you know. So 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.800 we see like these winds that people like you just 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.720 raised eighteen million dollars, people like Squire just raised a 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.480 bunch of money, and there's there's so many more people 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:50.239 who have raised money, both institutionally and even like with crowdfunding. 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:54.200 And I wonder, like, what if you could give me 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.960 like your you know, two minute, three minute state of 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:01.360 black companies being funded, what would you say it looks 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.520 like at present day? I think at present day, what 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.079 we see is what Solange and I'm doing at the Squire, right, 0:03:09.200 --> 0:03:13.240 we see up see, we see what Steven and those 0:03:13.240 --> 0:03:16.200 guys are doing over at a kids company about like 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:19.560 we see those moments, but remember those moments are like 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:23.600 they're in tech Crunch, the Black Enterprise that you know 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.920 that then all of these other things. And and I 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.240 still hear so many stories every day of founders with 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.560 great ideas, um, great businesses who are not getting funded 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.280 at the rate of our counterparts again funded so ideas 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:42.680 on the napkin or I haven't quite hit traction yet. 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.880 And we know that our counterparts, like they get the 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.400 opportunity to figure out traction and figure out go to 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.280 go to market. Oftentimes we don't get a chance to 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.720 figure that stuff out. And so I don't think we're 0:03:54.760 --> 0:03:59.000 any better off than we were two years ago. They're 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.240 just there's more news around us because what happened with 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:05.400 George Floyd anywhere happened without right. So there's it is. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.960 It is pretty cool to announce a black person's raise 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.560 or black person show or a black person X right 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:17.640 now because you're gonna get clicks. Yeah, And when I 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.479 read your um and it's been well documented that you 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:23.680 came through tech Stars program when you had this idea 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:27.120 for this warranty business, and I wonder, you know, how 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.839 did you go for capital first or did you go 0:04:29.920 --> 0:04:33.200 for customers first? If you went for customers first, you know, 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.160 how did you get that attraction when you know, if 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.880 you're selling warranties, that means you gotta have the money 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:41.960 to be able to put it out if I break 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:46.359 my device, right, Yeah, I got lucky in the early days, 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.880 I had some former angel investors who put a little 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.120 bit of money and some time and some built out 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:54.880 our first kind of m v P, and so out 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:56.920 of the gate I had, you know, we while we 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.040 were going at the customers, we had a little bit 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.440 of money in the bank of folks that could help us. UM. 0:05:02.480 --> 0:05:05.400 But when we got into tech Stars. Tech Stars really 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.760 turned me on too, like what venture was and what 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.479 it is and what it can be. Because before tech 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.640 Stars I didn't know how to raise that and raise 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.520 one venture dollar. I didn't understand how you play the 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:22.320 venture game. I didn't understand how you pitch. I just 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.400 know I had a bunch of gumption to try to 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:26.440 do this, but I didn't know the game there was 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.560 in in tech Stars where like, hey, okay, you have 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.960 all this possess in this charisma, now let us teach 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:34.560 you how to actually play the game the way it's 0:05:34.560 --> 0:05:36.240 supposed to be played, so you can actually get money 0:05:36.240 --> 0:05:38.400 in the bank. So I would say we probably went 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.920 for customers first UM and didn't learn how to raise 0:05:40.960 --> 0:05:44.320 money later. So let's talk about that tech Stars program 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:47.479 because so clarance about here. Today. Let's say you are 0:05:47.640 --> 0:05:53.520 reviewing that Clarances application to tech Stars. Um, because you 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:57.880 successfully got into the program. If you're reviewing your application 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:04.000 as the reviewer, what is it in histories Clarence application 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.440 that says, you know what, this guy's got something, then 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.680 let's let him in. Because there's the thousands of people 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.480 who apply to these pro tenies accelerators and boot camps, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.680 and you got in. So if you were reviewing your 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:19.800 application from that day, what was it that said, yeah, yeah, 0:06:19.839 --> 0:06:24.800 he's somebody we want. I don't believe it had us 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:27.600 getting in. It didn't have anything to do with our application. 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.080 I think us getting in had everything to do with 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:36.120 how bold I was walking into the program. Um, some 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.080 of it was fake boldness because I didn't internally, I 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.719 really didn't feel like I just I deserved to be 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:45.640 and and and you're asking me to go back to 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:49.080 a time before I know what I know now. But 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:51.880 going into the program, we have people from Silicon Valley, 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.320 we have people from New York. I was really really intimidated. 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.279 I was. I was. My wife would tell you I 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:02.640 was scared because I was, Wow, there's you know, there's 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.719 a woman from Silicon Valley who was at HP for 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.920 all these years and like had this network and was great, 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:12.800 and I think I just had to be bold. And 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.640 you know, you know, my story is well documented. Like 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.760 I'm just a street kid, man. I come from the hood. 0:07:18.200 --> 0:07:20.000 I grew up, you know, doing all the wrong things 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.240 that you bossibly can do. So in times of of 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:26.360 of of being nervous and in times of like not 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:28.360 knowing what to do, it's kind of the only thing 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.720 that you can turn to is your confidence and being bold. 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:33.040 And I would say that is what I was just 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:35.080 bold enough to think, Yeah, I can come in, I 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:37.320 can do this um and and it's worked out so 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:40.040 far for us. So let's let's talk. Let's dig into 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:43.480 your history a little bit, because I wonder what was 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.760 that moment where you realized what Silicon Valley was and 0:07:46.800 --> 0:07:51.440 what venture capital was to be nervous walking into those rooms, 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.680 like you said, you said yourself, you know, you were 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.640 a street kid. So so many of us come from 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.840 these backgrounds, and we and too many in our neighborhoods 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.480 still don't know what silok and Valley is. What was 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:05.640 your introduction to that world beyond you know, wanting to 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.680 build something, which we'll talk about. What was your introduction 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:11.920 to that specific world that says, you know, this is 0:08:11.920 --> 0:08:14.840 a little bit intimidating because this is could be my future. 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.200 You know, I'm walking into a room that people who 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.760 in many ways, not all of the ways, but in 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:23.800 many ways hold the keys. Right. My first foray with 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:27.040 the Silicon Valley was actually in Silicon Valley. UM I 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:31.640 went to. I was in a program called Village Capital UM. 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.040 They run a great program where they get the top 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:35.880 two companies a hundred grad at the end of the 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.239 program and their final the final piece of the program 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.840 was in Silicon Valley and it was at this big 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.280 law firm and then you moved to UM this like 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:50.240 where all the Silicon Valley like investors meet up deal 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.960 and I remember we had like eighty Silicon Valley investors 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.199 there and it was a hard lesson for me to 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.319 learn they didn't give a damn about me, Like it 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:03.760 was clear that I was a nobody, that I meant 0:09:03.760 --> 0:09:05.920 nothing to them. I was just a black guy in 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:09.280 the room. And I remember being like, wow, like nobody 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.600 even even though I felt like I was, I was 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.240 like I won the competition. So even though I felt 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.440 like man like, like I know what I'm doing, that 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:19.079 like I don't have it all figured out, but I'm 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.040 figuring it out. And you know, I'm careiss mag I'm 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.040 already saying that he said you want to be and 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:27.520 it was clear, you know, that was two sixteen. It 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.200 was like, now I don't believe. And I actually had 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.280 the investor tell me. He said to me, Clai, I've 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.720 never seen a black founder go to exit or I 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:40.880 p o at like a billion plus exit. So I 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.600 just have a hard time believing that a black founder 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.440 can build a big company. So I'm just not interested. Um, 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:52.760 and it was so great, So one can take that 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.840 many ways. UM, you being the guy who you grew 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:59.760 up being. When you have somebody put that kind of 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.560 you know, stamp on you saying you know, I've never 0:10:02.559 --> 0:10:06.720 seen nobody like you, UM do this that A don't 0:10:06.720 --> 0:10:10.200 you like? What did your spirits? How you like in 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:14.000 that moment? I'm gonna be that guy? Can we curse 0:10:14.040 --> 0:10:18.160 on this show? Um? Look, I'm a I'm a big 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.760 chip on the shoulder type of guy. And so when 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.560 people were telling me, especially earlier only in the journey, 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:27.319 that I would never do this, I would never do that. Like, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:29.520 you don't have the background, you don't have the pedigree. 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.400 That that's the word I kept hearing. You don't have 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:33.680 the pedigree. You didn't go to Harvard, you didn't drop 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.080 out of Stanford, you don't have the network. Man, I 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:39.440 tend to say fuck you, like in my mind, right 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.360 in my mind, I'm like, all right, okay, I'm gonna 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.120 show you. UM. And I think at a certain I'm 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:48.960 actually getting out of that phase now of this journey 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.960 because UM, everybody seemed to believe that we can do 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.640 what we can do now. But early on in the journey, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.080 I would use that as as motivation UM to just 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.200 be like, all right, well you don't believe me, let 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.400 me show you. What do you think happens in UM 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:09.960 the tech space for black entrepreneurs. UM. Do you think 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.240 not enough of us have that? Or do you think 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.600 so many of us have that that maybe they're not 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:19.760 getting recognized? Like how come not enough of us? As 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:21.959 to your earlier point, and it is very well know, 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:25.000 not enough of us are raising capital like at the 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:27.520 levels that you have and that others that we've mentioned. 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:30.880 Do not enough of us have that? Or is there 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.080 are there other issues that UM keep people keep us 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.360 from getting to the place to where we're even having 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.960 the conversation at that level with an investor. Yeah, I 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:42.680 see it both ways, to be honest with you. And 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:44.760 then this is, yeah, this is always tough for me 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.800 to talk about. There's one side of it from a founder. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:50.960 You know, you're a founder, right, Like we're founders where 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.199 we're like like, we all think that we deserve money 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.000 and that's cool and like, yes, we should be more 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.160 bold than whatever. But on the other side of me, 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.120 which is I'm out at True Ventures out of San Francisco. 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:05.680 They want to top see stage firms. I also get 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.800 a lot of inbound from black founders, and what I 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:12.000 see a lot of times is we're not ready for 0:12:12.160 --> 0:12:14.480 prime time. And not only are we not ready for 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.760 prime time because we have to fight and call and 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.240 scratch and like have that kind of screw you mentality, 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:26.120 we're also don't have our ears open here like what 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:27.720 we need to hear to get to the next level. 0:12:27.720 --> 0:12:29.840 And I give you I give you a quick example. 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:32.400 I was talking to a founder I don't know a 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.600 few months ago and the we were going back and 0:12:36.600 --> 0:12:40.040 forth over zoomed and I was like, hey, like, and 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.240 I'm not the one to give advice, but I do 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.959 give you, like, here's what it worked for Clarence. Here's 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.440 what I did to have success, and feel free to 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.040 follow it or not. But there's just fundamental things you 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:53.120 can't do in a pitch you can't do in the 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.199 pitch jack, and just certain stuff you know, Like I 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.000 mean you can probably say you have our phone call. 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:01.680 Like and I was going back and forth with the 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:04.600 founder and I said, hey, I really think you know 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.200 you should try doing this, like like you don't talk 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:09.040 about traction. I think I was talking about traction. You 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.760 don't talk about traction anywhere. And he's like, well, I'm 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.080 kind of pre revenue. I said, great, but you still 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.680 have some traction points like how fast are you building 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:20.520 your product or or how many UM people on your 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:22.840 wait list do you have? Like all of that is 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.760 considered traction in this game because dudes are raising millions 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.240 of dollars off ideas on the napkin. So you show 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:30.760 some traction, you can get it. And the dude literally 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:33.679 looked at me and he was like, f you, you 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:35.959 just don't want to see me when you want to 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.040 be the only one in the room, blah blah blah 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:43.440 blah blah. And I remember thinking like man like, like 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.480 if you had just listened, I wasn't I wasn't here. 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.320 I wasn't here too to hurt you. I was here 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.599 to give you everything that somebody gave it to me 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:57.000 at one point. And so I think we why, yes, 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:01.840 there's a funding problem, there's also thattitude UM, and I 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:03.640 had it at the beginning. I had to like, I 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.199 got checked on it, and somebody sat me down and said, hey, man, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.240 you're not going to be your best stelf unless you 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.440 learn to listen. And I was like, well, what do 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:15.960 you mean that that? And that it's just like everybody's 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:18.760 not out here to hurt you. Some people are out 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.040 here to help you, and you have to decipher between 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:25.760 the two. So I think that we have to UM, 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:28.040 because we've been in a fight, in the struggle for 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.440 so long. We have to understand that there are people 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.720 out here to help UM and sometimes you gotta learn 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.920 to just listen and then walk away gracefully and decipher 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:39.120 and take what you need out of it. So how 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:43.040 do you decipher through that? How do you know who's 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.480 really trying to give you some game and the ones 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:49.080 that are, you know, just saying whatever they got to 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.520 say because they don't believe. Yeah, well, I mean, everybody 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.640 to me deserves to be listened to. How I take 0:14:56.680 --> 0:14:59.840 it is up to me. So if you're giving me advice, 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:03.840 and I may say, well, like man like, thanks for 0:15:03.880 --> 0:15:06.560 the advice. Man, I appreciate it, and I'm so humbled 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.080 that you would even take your time out to give 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.720 it to me, then it's my job to walk away 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:16.160 and start to look at what you're saying and say, Okay, 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.760 you know what, it's kind of full of it, but 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:21.400 this a little this, a little timper cent that he 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.440 gave me, it's gonna help my business go to the 0:15:23.440 --> 0:15:25.680 next level. Often times we walk away and we say 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:27.360 if we don't agree with one thing that you say, 0:15:27.400 --> 0:15:30.040 we stopped agreeing with everything that you say, and I 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.000 just don't believe that that's true. There's nuggets in in 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.000 all of this advice that you should get um, and 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:40.160 it takes a humble spirit to to to figure out 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.800 that timper cent that you should be taking. You know, 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.160 I wonder you're making me think about when you said 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:47.680 the investors said, you know, I've never seen anybody you 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:49.520 know exit at the billion dollars. I p o who 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:52.440 looked like you and you talked about that that happened 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:57.160 after winning a competition, and I wonder how much stock 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.760 we should be putting into competitions then, because you know, 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:05.680 there's a lot of diversity theater out here, UM and two. Now, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.520 checks can mean nothing to a lot of these companies. 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:10.560 And it could be, hey, we had a black company 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.400 with our competition. You know, they got this check and 0:16:14.440 --> 0:16:18.400 so apparently to that investor, you winning a competition was 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.560 not enough to say this guy clears is onto something. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.960 How should we be looking at competitions, UM with a 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.520 critical mind but also one you know, hey, I'll take 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:33.680 the k But how should we also be looking at 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:39.800 them critically and strategically as proof points that we're onto something? Right? Right? 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.360 Great question. Competitions are great from the sampoint of you 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.360 get up, get up in front of most time a 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.640 live crowd, and practice and be able to have the 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.400 ability to understand what it's like to change in emotion 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:57.520 in the room, because great founders can change emotion in 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:00.640 the room. Great founders can make you like, here a 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.000 business and you said, oh, that's stupid, and then get 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:05.639 in front of it. You get up in front of 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.760 the stage and the whole emotion in the room change, 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.280 it changes. So I think they're good for that practice. 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.960 But like you said, we can't put too much stock 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:19.080 in it because oftentimes these conferences, these competitions are theater 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:22.119 I need a black person, or need I need a 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.280 couple of black people to do. Like literally, I've been 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:26.879 reached out to where people say, hey, we want you 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.520 to be in our twenty dollar pitch competition, and I 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.639 send them a link to our article, to an article, 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:35.920 and then like you didn't even doing the whole work. 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.200 All you saw was that I was black. You know, 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.840 there's somebody more deserving for this at this stage, and 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.280 so I think there's a lot of diversity theater that 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.400 plays into this. So I think we have to look 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:49.720 at it for what it is. It is an opportunity 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:52.000 to pitch, and whenever you have the opportunity to pitch, 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.480 you should take it win loser, draw to get better 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:59.480 because in order, like I keep telling people, in order 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.680 to raise the money that we raise to day, you 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:05.919 don't many bad pitches I've had. I've had hundreds of 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.160 bad pitches in order to get to a pitch where 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:10.840 it may step. So I would say do it, but 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.280 understand what you're doing. We talked a little bit about 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.320 your introduction finding out that Silicon Valley even existed, right, 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.520 And and there's so many UM in our communities, the 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.280 communities that we come from, that UM that still struggle with, 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:26.879 you know, some of the issues that you said you 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:29.720 did as you were growing up. And what do you 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.320 find as a successful if we're trying to sell them on, Hey, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:35.919 there's this other world out here, the world of building 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.919 really big companies. UM, what do you find as a 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:44.640 successful narrative or a successful story that UM would get 0:18:44.680 --> 0:18:47.800 their attention to see that there's a viable path in 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:51.560 this world that they may not have considered for themselves. Right. 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:54.919 I speak at jails in prisons, especially before COVID. I 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:56.760 do that a lot, and I say the same thing 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:01.240 to them. I am no smarter, no more savvy, no 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.159 more like my business acumen is not any better than 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:08.320 any of their's. It's all about taking the time and 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.040 just doing it. Like a lot of times, it's just 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.320 about jumping into the game and being a voracious learner. 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.240 I don't believe, but I think oftentimes we make founders, 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.320 we make them feel like they're special like we are 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:23.880 like we have the special innate because we we feed 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.280 off the Elon musk, and it's the Steve Jobs kind 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.680 of aura, and and and the truth is, I don't 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:35.040 look at anything that we've done at ups as special 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.440 or unique or anything like that. I look at the 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.320 work that our team do on behalf of our customers 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.320 a special unique. But as a founder, I'm like man like, like, 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.720 there's nothing special about players. And so that is my 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.159 message to anybody. Every time I go speak, I say, 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.399 there's that special about me. All of you are smarter 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:57.520 than I am. All of you are more savva than 0:19:57.560 --> 0:19:59.919 I am. The one thing that I don't know that 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.280 you all are more than me is I'm gonna outwork 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.600 you at every turn. And if you can outwork people, 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.080 because look, I got a lot of white buddies with founders. Man, 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:13.520 there are some of the laziest s O b s 0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:17.520 I've ever been around in my life. Yeah, but they've 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:22.080 raised hundreds of millions of dollars. We can't be that. 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.600 I can't be that. I gotta outwork you in order 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.680 to get in the room. So my message I was 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.399 just saying, you want to get in the room, you 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:32.320 want to have a chance outwork everybody. So let's let's 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.840 go step further on there, because let's say you sold Okay, yeah, 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:39.399 I know businesses, you know, an opportunity out there for somebody, 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.199 but I don't really have any like brilliant ideas, Like 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:46.040 there's nothing special about warranties. You know, it's a warranty, right, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:49.119 And so let's go a step further and say, Okay, 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.280 now you've sold me that business. There's this viable path 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:55.800 some way that um, I can find a different life 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.320 for myself. But I don't know, like what now, what 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.160 to do? I've in effective devalued my own idea. So 0:21:03.320 --> 0:21:06.639 what would you say to that to to that person 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:08.439 just trying to figure out, like what do I do 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:11.080 next with They don't they don't feel like they have 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.119 an idea worthy of millions of dollars or market attention 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:19.800 or et cetera. Google is a powerful tool. You You 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:22.960 literally can start your business by googling how to start 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:26.960 a business. You know, there's tools like Shopify. There, there's 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.359