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Speaker 1: Enjoying Black Tech Green Money. It would mean a lot

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Speaker 1: if you rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts or

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Speaker 1: Google Play. The way the algorithm works, the more you

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Speaker 1: rate and say nice things, they'll introduce Black Tech Green

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Speaker 1: Money to more people and more of us need this content.

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Speaker 1: So thank you for rating this podcast five stars today.

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Speaker 1: You know, essentially what we've done is developed a platform

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Speaker 1: technology that transforms your city into a smartphone, so that

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Speaker 1: deploying and managing infrastructure solutions like ev charging, like smart

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Speaker 1: water systems, like all the things that you would need

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Speaker 1: to avoid a lot of the death that we saw

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Speaker 1: from the from this storm. So doing that is as

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Speaker 1: convenient as downloading and running an app on your phone.

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Speaker 1: I'm with Lucas and this is Black Tech Green Money.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you to you to some of the

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Speaker 1: biggest names, some of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas.

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Speaker 1: If you're black, in building or simply using tech to

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Speaker 1: secure You're back this podcast this for you special edition

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Speaker 1: to Black Tech Green Money. Some Unstable Conversation with my

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Speaker 1: friend Jessica Old Matthews, founder and CEO of Uncharted Power

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Speaker 1: and a War winning renewable power and sustainability company. This

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Speaker 1: conversation was held during the Back to Black Innovators Digital Summit.

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Speaker 1: We had afro chech through a bit ago and I'm

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Speaker 1: excited for you guys to hear this conversation. That's so,

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Speaker 1: I'm pleased to introduce my friend here, who I lovingly

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Speaker 1: called like the dopest scientist you're ever gonna meet. And um,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna give her a bio and then I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: ask her, like, give her what her version of her

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Speaker 1: own bio is. So. Jessica Old Matthews is founder and

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Speaker 1: CEO of Uncharted Power and a war winning renewable power

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Speaker 1: and sustainability company now on the bleeding of creating UH

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Speaker 1: smart cities around the world. And the company was founded

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Speaker 1: by Jessica when she was only twenty two years old.

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Speaker 1: Big move, big queen, move right there. Dual citizen of

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Speaker 1: Nigeria and the US still still do a citizen? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: still do a citizen? Mean I don't know about the

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Speaker 1: US part. For there was a time there was a

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Speaker 1: moment where if there was one of them, I was

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Speaker 1: gonna give it up. It was that one. But you know,

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Speaker 1: we were looking good so far. Yeah, these are these

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Speaker 1: are facts. These are facts um. She has a degree

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Speaker 1: in psychology and economics from Harvard University, NBA from a

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Speaker 1: HBS as well UM and it's listed over on a

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Speaker 1: hundred patents and patents pending just twelve twelve, twelve twelve.

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Speaker 1: I'll tend I'm sorry, I'm okay, it's ten. The one

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Speaker 1: I had was ten. Be prolific and ethic, Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: or you on your way, because if anybody can do it,

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Speaker 1: it's Jessica Matthew so um, including her first invention with socket,

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Speaker 1: which is an energy generating soccer ball. She did that

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Speaker 1: nineteen years old. I mean, what were you doing that nineteen?

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Speaker 1: I know what I was doing, and it was not

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Speaker 1: inventing energy producing soccer generating soccer balls. But list of

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Speaker 1: accolades includes which is most Promising Women Entrepreneurs for Start

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Speaker 1: Getting thirty eight, Magazine thirty, The thirty and Harvard University

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Speaker 1: Scientists of the Year. Jessica Matthew, How do how do

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Speaker 1: you introduce yourself? Oh? Man, say hey, I'm jess uh gosh.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I do like to tell people that I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to be like the love child of Beyonce and

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Speaker 1: Bill n the science guy. I do like to say

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Speaker 1: that because I feel like it's still whole, like if

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Speaker 1: you just kind of pulled together. When I was younger,

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Speaker 1: I was way more bill n I like Beyonce takes Beyonce.

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Speaker 1: It is the hard party, the hard work, that's the

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Speaker 1: hard part. Um. But yeah, kind of that vibe of

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Speaker 1: how I moved through and I approached things. So that's

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Speaker 1: proba be the quick one. I love I love that

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Speaker 1: love that. So when I met you, it was just

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Speaker 1: uncharted play. Um, and now it's uncharted power and you've

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Speaker 1: gone from harnessing energy to creating power. So and nonsustainability. Um,

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Speaker 1: what what drove like the expansion of your skulle? That's

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Speaker 1: a good question. Um. I like to tell people that

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Speaker 1: the first step in innovation is the articulation of the problem.

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Speaker 1: The way that you've you articulate that problem will then

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Speaker 1: drive what you determined to be the solution. And so

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Speaker 1: when I was nineteen years old, you know, when I'm

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Speaker 1: over here just knowing that stuff doesn't make sense. You know,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand how my own family, cousins and Nigeria

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Speaker 1: who are engineers themselves, they can't imagine a better world

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Speaker 1: than the world that we're living. In where we're losing

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Speaker 1: power several times a day. Um, you know, and there

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Speaker 1: are quite a few other infrastructural problems. Uh. And yet

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of the flip side is they always

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Speaker 1: had a better cell phone than I did. Right, So

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Speaker 1: clearly it's an issue that masqueraded as social economic but

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Speaker 1: was really infrastructural. For me, I thought the issue was inspiration.

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Speaker 1: I was like, they need to believe that they can

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Speaker 1: change the world that they're in. They need to believe

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Speaker 1: that they have agency. And so how do I design

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Speaker 1: a solution that inspires them to try to play the game,

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Speaker 1: to get in the game, literally inspire them to get

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Speaker 1: in the game. And so that's where the first products

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Speaker 1: came from. Energy generating play products like taking the most

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Speaker 1: popular sport in the world, soccer, and saying, all right,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna bridge the gap between this passionate excitement that

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Speaker 1: I know my cousins, I know a lot of people

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Speaker 1: in the world are gonna have and bring them across

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Speaker 1: that bridge over to engaging in energy and infrastructure. And

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Speaker 1: my assumption was that if I inspire them, they'll do

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Speaker 1: the work, because you know, oh, I'm sure they're smart enough,

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Speaker 1: and there are better people in the world, who are

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Speaker 1: better suited to be building infrastructure solutions. So let me

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Speaker 1: just inspire get to the point where we're you know,

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Speaker 1: producing tens of thousands of these, partnering with different UM companies,

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Speaker 1: you know, governments to distribute them more on an education side.

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Speaker 1: Started to even work with different Fortune one hundreds on

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Speaker 1: their energy generating UM strategy is right, like energy generating strollers,

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Speaker 1: all that stuff. That's when we met. I think, remember

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Speaker 1: afro Tech. I'm like, okay, remb to do the stroller

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Speaker 1: suitcase UM. And it was two things happened. First, you know,

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Speaker 1: I started to realize that it was still gonna take

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Speaker 1: a couple of years. It takes two years to make

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Speaker 1: any product for that's gonna a baby is gonna be in.

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Speaker 1: You can't just come up with some stuff like it

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Speaker 1: takes years to go through that partner in R and D.

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Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, this is kind of

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Speaker 1: coming off a little kitchy, Like it's fun, it's cool,

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Speaker 1: but I don't necessarily see people being inspired and fixing

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Speaker 1: the infrastructural problems. I just kind of see them, you know,

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Speaker 1: getting excited, but then sitting there. And then the second

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Speaker 1: thing that happened was that Donald Trump won the election.

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Speaker 1: Dead ass. The most inspirational thing that ever happened to

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Speaker 1: me was Donald Trump winning the election, because prior to that,

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Speaker 1: you know, people would say, oh, um, well, you know,

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Speaker 1: were you inspired When Barack Obama was president? I was like,

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Speaker 1: Barack Obama was a constitutional scholar, He's supposed to be president.

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Speaker 1: Just because his black ass is president does not mean

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Speaker 1: that I should be president. No. But when Trump won,

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Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, so now anybody can do it.

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Speaker 1: And that was the first moment when I realized I

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Speaker 1: first of all, yes I could be president. If this

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Speaker 1: is what we're working with right now, I believe i'd

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Speaker 1: be a good president. Let's go. And then I turned

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Speaker 1: to my team and I said, why are we waiting

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Speaker 1: for other people to build infrastructure when fools like this

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Speaker 1: are building infrastructure or running for president. Uh. And so

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Speaker 1: at the end of IS when we said, all right,

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Speaker 1: what if we take this investment and instead of putting

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Speaker 1: two to three years into kind of consumer products, we

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Speaker 1: start looking at infrastructure. And in seventeen is Only formally

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Speaker 1: changed their name from Uncharted Play to Uncharted Power based

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Speaker 1: on the success we had in building UM an energy

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Speaker 1: generating speed bump. What then happened again would not have expected. Um.

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Speaker 1: We kept on working and built something that was pretty

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Speaker 1: dope UM compared and ran analyzes. You know, we were

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Speaker 1: beating out numbers of you know, major uh kinetic academics

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Speaker 1: and Virginia Tech beating out the numbers of competing companies.

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Speaker 1: And Boston, Singapore brought our solution. We can actually you

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Speaker 1: degenerate a kill a lot of power when you when

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Speaker 1: you drove over the speed bump. It was a precursor

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Speaker 1: to energy generating. Roads started to bring our solutions to

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Speaker 1: different governments and the governments were excited about it, but

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Speaker 1: they didn't really know how to scale it. At best,

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Speaker 1: they were interested in maybe like a one off pilot

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Speaker 1: here or there. And that's when we realized that the

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Speaker 1: issue was much broader than just a new way to

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Speaker 1: have decentralized energy generation for infrastructure. The issue was the

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Speaker 1: lack of a platform to actually to actually deploy and

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Speaker 1: manage this infrastructure. So the cities were like, this is cool,

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Speaker 1: but how do I make this work in this silo?

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Speaker 1: When I got to work with the grid in this way,

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Speaker 1: I gotta work a solar here and there, was nobody

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Speaker 1: who was saying, how do you bring it together? It

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Speaker 1: was it was almost like it was almost like we

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Speaker 1: were all trying to be chefs making a meal at

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Speaker 1: a buffet. But then when someone comes and says, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is dope. Okay, Yeah, I want to eat it.

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Speaker 1: Where's the tray? Oh we don't have those here. Where's

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Speaker 1: the play Oh we don't have those here? All right,

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Speaker 1: so how do you want me to sustainably gather all

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Speaker 1: these things together and bring it back to my table

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Speaker 1: to eat it? That's not my problem? Or do it

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Speaker 1: in a really expensive way. And so we realized that

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Speaker 1: that's that's how we were being viewed. So we really said, okay,

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Speaker 1: kind of like how Stacy Abram's all right, voting doesn't

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Speaker 1: work in Georgia for me, I'm aa fix the voting

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Speaker 1: system so I can run for governor. That's basically how

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Speaker 1: that's that's a classic black women vibe. I was like,

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Speaker 1: all right, I want to get my application out, so

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and fix the way that all

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Speaker 1: applications get deployed and managed sustainably like and then that

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Speaker 1: way I can deploy my stuff. And so that's what

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Speaker 1: brought us to building these sustainable smart city platforms where

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Speaker 1: we're consistently dry looking at how do we drive down

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Speaker 1: the cost the upfront costs reduced of time to deploy.

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Speaker 1: We choose the time to repair and take away all

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Speaker 1: the stress that the city has and deploying and managing

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Speaker 1: things like our energy generating speed bumps. But by g

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Speaker 1: AI smart lighting, lighting everything, and so into a smart

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Speaker 1: take a city like infrastructure solutions like even for us,

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Speaker 1: like smart water systems, like all the things that you

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Speaker 1: would need to avoid a lot of the death that

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Speaker 1: we saw from the from this storm. So doing that

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Speaker 1: is as convenient as downloading and running an app on

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Speaker 1: your phone. Um So, now when we think about the

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Speaker 1: past apps we've made, we're excited because once this platform

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Speaker 1: is out there and people have the smartphone, which which

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Speaker 1: we're going to be putting out this year, um in

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Speaker 1: a couple of our Betat cities, then we get Now

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Speaker 1: you get that kind of unprecedented, unpredictable thing that happened

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Speaker 1: with smartphones, right no one, no one knew the value

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Speaker 1: years ago, but now we can't live without it. We're

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Speaker 1: excited for people to start playing around with that. So

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Speaker 1: that's that's the arc. That's how I got from soccer

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Speaker 1: balls to part any platforms. Now. I love it and

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Speaker 1: I want to spend some time in a few minutes

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Speaker 1: talking about more than mentality. It takes to do the

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Speaker 1: scale of things that you're doing. But I'm gonna start here. Um,

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Speaker 1: there was a quote I found from you that said,

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Speaker 1: after nearly a decade of work, we realize that the

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Speaker 1: problem isn't just a lack of smart power infrastructure, and

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Speaker 1: so I kind of see like, Um, what you're doing

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Speaker 1: now is like it's not micro pivots, but it's like

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Speaker 1: the problem reveals itself right when you get started. Can

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Speaker 1: you talk about how you you just gave us the arc,

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Speaker 1: but how when you get started on the road as

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Speaker 1: an innovator, you may think the problem is X, but

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Speaker 1: it's actually why. Well, you're becoming my favorite person to

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Speaker 1: talk to because that's thank you for these questions. Um,

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Speaker 1: I will say this one thing that hasn't changed has

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Speaker 1: been my true north from the jump. The mission has

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Speaker 1: always been, how do we get to a world where

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Speaker 1: there's universal access to smart, sustainable infrastructure? Right? How do

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Speaker 1: we get to a world where the things that some

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Speaker 1: people take for granted and other people are dying literally

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Speaker 1: without UM. It just doesn't make sense, right. And I

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Speaker 1: think for me the year after the wedding that a

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Speaker 1: lot of people kind of know about, right, that led

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Speaker 1: to my first invention that it wasn't like I went

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Speaker 1: to my aunt's wedding, you lost power. And then there

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Speaker 1: was an invention of an energy generating soccer ball. That year. Uh,

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Speaker 1: there were three people in my family, my grandfather, my uncle,

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Speaker 1: and my aunt. All of them died and they all

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Speaker 1: passed away from things that either could have been at

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Speaker 1: least delayed, if not totally avoided UM if they had

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Speaker 1: access to this infrastructure that we take for granted. And

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Speaker 1: so that was the thing that in me kind of

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Speaker 1: a line and say, all right, you know, I like

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Speaker 1: I often tell people like intersectionality is a compass, and

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Speaker 1: when you think about all the things that make you

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Speaker 1: who you are and all of your experiences, that's something

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Speaker 1: like if you look at the intersection of that, the

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Speaker 1: next point of that is what you should be doing

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Speaker 1: with your life period point like that's it. And so

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Speaker 1: what I found at that next point for me was

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Speaker 1: like trying to address this problem. Like I literally remember

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Speaker 1: thinking I was in my ap psychology class, high school year,

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Speaker 1: eighteen years old, right before all this thinking, I know

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Speaker 1: I can't cure death, but can I cure life? Because

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Speaker 1: what's messing with me more than anything, honestly, like is

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Speaker 1: it's not just the fact that they passed in a

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Speaker 1: way that could have been avoided. It's that most likely

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Speaker 1: when they took their last breath, they thought the same

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Speaker 1: thing that my cousins you know in Nigeria thought, which was,

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Speaker 1: we have no agency, We can't change this. The best

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Speaker 1: way to deal with your problems is just to get

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Speaker 1: you to die. And so like that broke my heart.

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Speaker 1: That seemed ridiculous, like I refuse to accept it, like

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Speaker 1: it is truly the thing that made me say, all right,

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Speaker 1: So how do I then start to think how I

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Speaker 1: could bridge the gap in YadA, YadA, YadA. So then

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Speaker 1: once I had that true north, everything just becomes kind

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Speaker 1: of like a meditation on intention and impact. So first listen,

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Speaker 1: I'm young, thinking the issue is inspiration approaching it. I

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Speaker 1: had opportunities to be in the business of just making

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Speaker 1: millions of soccer balls. Yeah, I had, like I had

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Speaker 1: that in fact that people wanted that. But so if

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Speaker 1: I'm seeing that it's not actually resulting in what I want,

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Speaker 1: And in fact, it's just more plastic, more this, more that,

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Speaker 1: And it's not Leslie fixing the bigger issue because you

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Speaker 1: then what's what's up? Um, Like, I didn't get into

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Speaker 1: this just because oh, look, I can say I made

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Speaker 1: you know this. It's like this was step one. But

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Speaker 1: my intention, what's my intention? My intention is to fix

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Speaker 1: this infrastructure issue. And if it's not happening just through inspiration,

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Speaker 1: then what's happening? So then I'm thinking, oh, maybe there

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Speaker 1: needs to be an infrastructure model for decentralized energy. I

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Speaker 1: thought that that was the issue that people can conceptualize

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Speaker 1: a world where we didn't have centralized infrastructure systems. Built

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Speaker 1: a system there you go, then you get them. You realize, No,

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Speaker 1: it's bigger than that. It's not just about decentralized energy.

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Speaker 1: This is about the lack of a platform to actually

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Speaker 1: pull it all together, to get all these disparate decentralized

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Speaker 1: infrastructure solutions interoperating together. And again like like for me,

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Speaker 1: I was like, of course, like, inasmuch as this speed

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Speaker 1: bump is still sexy and fun, I have a goal.

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Speaker 1: I have a goal because this is a life or

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Speaker 1: death situation for me personally. Um, and now even bigger.

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Speaker 1: I you know, I got engaged last year and so

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna be getting married in Nigeria, big

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Speaker 1: Nigerian wedding in March. And if you think they go,

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna let these people bring a diesel generator out

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Speaker 1: after everything I've done said for the last decade thirteen years.

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Speaker 1: Will listen, So I'm out here, like, listen, y'all, I

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Speaker 1: get it together all right, So so so so this

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Speaker 1: is the like I'm real big on drink your own medicine,

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Speaker 1: like the first parts of our system we installed, you

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Speaker 1: know at a facility where my own mom and brother

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Speaker 1: would like, you know, be driving over at etcetera. Like

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Speaker 1: I am a percent bringing this platform to Nigeria and

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Speaker 1: the first place y'all gonna see it as at my wedding,

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Speaker 1: and I'm gonna be like, you smell that air, You

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Speaker 1: smell that fresh air, you like that look. Now I'm

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Speaker 1: about to be like, I'm like, oh, y'all this, I

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Speaker 1: don't care what's up. So it's it's personal, right And

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Speaker 1: I think I think if you know why you're doing it,

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Speaker 1: and you are, I think fully understanding that just because

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Speaker 1: it's not your plan doesn't mean it's it's not gonna

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Speaker 1: be your destiny. Is something I say a lot um

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Speaker 1: you you you just gotta be really uncompromising with your mission,

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Speaker 1: but then flexible with everything that takes you there. And yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a it's a it's a balance.

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Speaker 1: But I think that the rubric is know why you're

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Speaker 1: doing it. That's the thing that that's the know why

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Speaker 1: you're doing this, know what you intend for this to be,

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Speaker 1: and and find ways to continuously bring yourself back to that.

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Speaker 1: That why So I'm so glad you said you ended

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Speaker 1: on that, because so many people I want to start

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Speaker 1: a business, um, may not know what idea to pursue,

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Speaker 1: what idea they can you know, create value with for

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Speaker 1: others and up shows that ideas are literally all around you.

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Speaker 1: Um how problems are literally all around you that you

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Speaker 1: can solve even how do you, by more than just

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Speaker 1: your representation, get us to look around us for the

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Speaker 1: problems that we can solve. That's a really good question. Um.

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Speaker 1: So we do have that. That's we do have a

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Speaker 1: program at the company because this is something we actually

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Speaker 1: want to operationalize um. You know, in the early days,

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Speaker 1: I truly believe that almost anyone could be an inventor,

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Speaker 1: they just had to be given the kind of right

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Speaker 1: psychological tools. I still very much believe that the problems

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Speaker 1: of this world are entirely too complex, complicated for any

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Speaker 1: one person or organization to solve. And so our best

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Speaker 1: chance in hell, especially with the damn near you know,

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Speaker 1: end of days that it seems like in the world

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Speaker 1: right now, with everything going on with the locus and that,

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Speaker 1: you know, like it's scary, it's it's a scary time.

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Speaker 1: We need as many people as possible believing that they

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Speaker 1: can make a difference, because even if it's just one

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Speaker 1: out of every one thousand people doing something that really

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Speaker 1: changes where we're at, that's better than what we have

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Speaker 1: right now, which is, you know, a small group of

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Speaker 1: people who basically all think the same thing, who think

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Speaker 1: that they're the only one that are worth getting their

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Speaker 1: big idea funded right and pushing forward. And so for

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Speaker 1: for us, that meant developing a program that we call Uplift.

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Speaker 1: And what we did is we created a curriculum, and

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Speaker 1: especially curriculum now that's gone through it's like fourth version

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Speaker 1: we digitized it during COVID and we still reach like

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Speaker 1: lots of kids through through digital means. Um. And basically,

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Speaker 1: we have a curriculum called Think Out of Bounds that

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Speaker 1: teaches kids how to become social inventors. How and literally

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Speaker 1: it goes through the process of teaching them what it

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Speaker 1: means to be an inventor because some examples of inventors

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Speaker 1: that look like them, uh, and teaches them how to

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Speaker 1: look at their surroundings not as obstacles but as opportunities.

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Speaker 1: So let's make a list of all the problems you

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Speaker 1: have and now let's come how would you think about

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Speaker 1: inventing something to solve that? Uh? And so that's that's

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Speaker 1: a program we like to do wherever we're about to work, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, Poughkeepsie where we're where we're working on some

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Speaker 1: exciting things to to demonstrate how a normal city, you're

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Speaker 1: not even one of the big you know, quote unquote

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Speaker 1: sexy ones, like a normal city most cities are like mckepsie,

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Speaker 1: how they could use our smartphone to choose the apps

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Speaker 1: that I go to transform their city into a smart,

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Speaker 1: sustainable city in record time and under budget. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: before we we do all that we want to make

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Speaker 1: sure that the people in that city feel prepared for

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Speaker 1: that opportunity, right like they need to they need to

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Speaker 1: understand the power in their hands when you when we

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Speaker 1: give them this this platform. And so we've done already

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Speaker 1: almost two hundred kids. UM in partnership with the city

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Speaker 1: school district. We're getting ready to do like a little

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Speaker 1: um like invention the thon with some of the kids.

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Speaker 1: And it's it's it's dope, right, It's it's focused, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's authentic. It's not like the broadest scale stuff. But

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Speaker 1: it's something that we've done in Swaziland, Bronx Harlem like

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Speaker 1: you name it, um if we've worked there, we we've

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Speaker 1: added that component and um, you know, we've seen an

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Speaker 1: actual statistical improvement in creative confidence, like like you ask

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Speaker 1: the kids beforehand, do my ideas matter? And you asked

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Speaker 1: them after and it's it's a it's a maybe to

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Speaker 1: an increase and that that's one of the things that

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Speaker 1: we do structurally. Uh. I think as an organization. So

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Speaker 1: I hear you when you because and I love that example,

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Speaker 1: because I want to push you a little further down

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Speaker 1: that line. Because the SBA put out a study. I

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Speaker 1: think it was the last time that they did it,

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Speaker 1: but it said eighty percent of black owned businesses are

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Speaker 1: in the bottom for a revenue. Like, so we over

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Speaker 1: index on creating service worker you know, so we long

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Speaker 1: care and beauties shops and you know, diners, and but

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Speaker 1: we pent of our businesses are created in those the

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Speaker 1: bottom of industries for a revenue. Um. But the work

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Speaker 1: you're doing is industry reimagining. Like blow, it's a trillion

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Speaker 1: dollar market, you know. And what you do with sustainability? Um,

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Speaker 1: are we thinking big enough? Just i' mean black people,

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Speaker 1: are we thinking big enough? You know? It's a two

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Speaker 1: sided street, right, So on one hand, you know you

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Speaker 1: you you innovate on what you know, right, And it

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Speaker 1: took me a decade to get to the point of

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Speaker 1: knowing enough where I could be in anyone with anybody,

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Speaker 1: I don't care who they think. They are obviously down

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Speaker 1: right there with Bill Gates and be like, listen, Bill,

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Speaker 1: what you just said is super cute. But this is

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Speaker 1: what I know because I just mean the last decade

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Speaker 1: doing this, um and so. And it took digging, like

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Speaker 1: I said, like I had to get to layers of

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Speaker 1: understanding the problem. Um, and so I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of it's like we you your approach was right in

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Speaker 1: front of you, and then you run, you run on that. UM.

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Speaker 1: I do also think that we it's it's a nuanced thing.

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Speaker 1: So I'll give you an example of what's happening right now. UM,

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Speaker 1: we have you know, we have have brilliant CTO started

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Speaker 1: his year black man, which it took me so long

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Speaker 1: to find. I didn't hire because he was black, hired brilliant.

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Speaker 1: I hired him because he's brilliant. Just you know, listen,

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Speaker 1: but this happens to be a black man. Uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: started his career a year after I was born, Like

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Speaker 1: you know Compton raised army, but like his literally like

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Speaker 1: part of the teams when people think about their smart

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Speaker 1: meters that are on their homes, part of the team

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Speaker 1: that led that, like helped one company built up a

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Speaker 1: product line and the smart grid space that uh like

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Speaker 1: already brought the fifteen million in revenue you know before

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Speaker 1: without a sales team three million in revenue. Was that

427
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 1: got the sales team the I p O. They still

428
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,159
Speaker 1: bring him for consulting. Went to another company that he

429
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,840
Speaker 1: built their initial system and they sold the Verizon you

430
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,359
Speaker 1: know his he's advised on how forty five different smart

431
00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 1: cities in the country have how they build their smart

432
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 1: cities low key do that like gets this stuff done.

433
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 1: The person who's doing our edge cloud was Cloud was

434
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:06,040
Speaker 1: literally Oracles chief cloud architect. Now he's mine, that's a

435
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,560
Speaker 1: white he's legit, super legit. You know. We have really

436
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,560
Speaker 1: really like yeah, we pulled the cather like the people

437
00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:15,600
Speaker 1: who built the underlying technology that we have gotten comfortable

438
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,480
Speaker 1: with that we take for granted. As soon as COVID

439
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 1: had I was able to pull them for wherever they

440
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 1: are because I'm like, now you don't have to be

441
00:24:21,320 --> 00:24:24,159
Speaker 1: in Harlem, just come here find on and it's dope,

442
00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:28,119
Speaker 1: but still, well, here's what I face, right, So now

443
00:24:28,359 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 1: we walk into a virtual room and I'm like telling someone,

444
00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:32,720
Speaker 1: this is what we do, this is how much we need,

445
00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,120
Speaker 1: this is how we're gonna this is where we're demonstrating it.

446
00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:40,320
Speaker 1: What I face that's really interesting is in other situations,

447
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,720
Speaker 1: if I was a white male founder, people would be

448
00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:45,360
Speaker 1: comfortable with the fact that they will never understand the tech.

449
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:47,720
Speaker 1: Who knows how the internet works, who knows how your

450
00:24:47,720 --> 00:24:49,479
Speaker 1: phone knows? You don't No one can break down how

451
00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:51,560
Speaker 1: the phone works, but you know the value it brings you.

452
00:24:52,280 --> 00:24:55,720
Speaker 1: But when I'm there saying it, they have to find

453
00:24:55,840 --> 00:24:57,640
Speaker 1: they now have to find a place in their head

454
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:01,320
Speaker 1: where they have to sit and say this black girl

455
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:05,480
Speaker 1: understands something technologically that I don't. She is so clearly

456
00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 1: obviously above me in this, and that's something that they've

457
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,800
Speaker 1: been getting. I've been seeing people get uncomfortable with, like

458
00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,160
Speaker 1: they refused to say, you know what, I'm never gonna

459
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:18,600
Speaker 1: understand this, but I understand value. They're like there's a

460
00:25:18,640 --> 00:25:22,760
Speaker 1: game where they're like, how like and it's multiple things happening,

461
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:24,680
Speaker 1: is the race and the gender. And they're sitting here like,

462
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,879
Speaker 1: all right, well explain this. Then Bill starts talking and

463
00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:28,560
Speaker 1: I'm saying and I'm like, why are you asking Bill?

464
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: Bill is about to say ship even more technical to me,

465
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: I barely understand the academs, Bill saying. Bill is talking

466
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,520
Speaker 1: about all these I p X thing seven seven seven standards,

467
00:25:36,640 --> 00:25:38,919
Speaker 1: all this different ship, talk about all this stuff. I

468
00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:40,960
Speaker 1: don't get it. I just learned what the fiber pop

469
00:25:41,160 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 1: was like. And I'm sitting there like, don't ask him this,

470
00:25:44,119 --> 00:25:46,120
Speaker 1: But they're still trying because they're seeing him. They seeing

471
00:25:46,160 --> 00:25:50,360
Speaker 1: the brother. Oh, and I'm like, if your due diligence

472
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:53,280
Speaker 1: instead of it to understand like the map the thirty

473
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:56,199
Speaker 1: to forty trillion dollar industry that we're a first mover in,

474
00:25:56,280 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: specifically with smart city platforms. If you're due diligence is

475
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,640
Speaker 1: not to go ahead and talk to the people who

476
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 1: were delivering value do but your due diligence is to

477
00:26:05,359 --> 00:26:10,400
Speaker 1: try to be on our level with the technology. I'm

478
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 1: gonna have to I'm gonna have the way for you

479
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,439
Speaker 1: to go to the ride before you before you can

480
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,840
Speaker 1: give me money. And so on one hand, we're now

481
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,320
Speaker 1: thinking so big, like playing this out right. If I

482
00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,600
Speaker 1: tell you dead ass my solution. I have a smart

483
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,879
Speaker 1: paper that's like that has the ubiquity of a phone.

484
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,480
Speaker 1: Anywhere that there's ground, I can install it the same

485
00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:33,680
Speaker 1: way a smart phone delivers power, communications and data processing

486
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,639
Speaker 1: to applications. That's what my paper does. I have an

487
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: edge cloud that uses AI and machine learning the same

488
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:43,320
Speaker 1: way your operating system uses EDGE uses AI machine learning

489
00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 1: to run your apps. Every app that you can imagine,

490
00:26:46,359 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 1: and the unprecedented, unimaginable value of your phone is what

491
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:53,119
Speaker 1: my platform enables. They also now have to sit here

492
00:26:53,119 --> 00:26:57,040
Speaker 1: and say it's beyond thinking big. We have to then

493
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,959
Speaker 1: ask ourselves, are the people who are hearing this ready

494
00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:05,679
Speaker 1: to have black people, yeah, have that kind of power?

495
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 1: T B D T t B D on that and

496
00:27:09,359 --> 00:27:12,639
Speaker 1: like and the way the way I've seen it, I

497
00:27:12,680 --> 00:27:15,000
Speaker 1: think is like we as a community can only do

498
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:17,159
Speaker 1: so much though we only have so many dollars for

499
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,200
Speaker 1: these really big ideas we've we've got to figure out

500
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,679
Speaker 1: how we tap into the non black dollars to to

501
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: finance the ideas that are going to disrupt everything in

502
00:27:28,160 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 1: the entire world. Um and it's it's listen, it's it's

503
00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:35,000
Speaker 1: not that it's not possible. So I do think we

504
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,320
Speaker 1: need to think big. But it is a harder sell

505
00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,440
Speaker 1: because even if you have all the proof points, now,

506
00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: their issue is there, there's there's sometimes there's some discomfort,

507
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: not always to some of the people we've been playing with.

508
00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,080
Speaker 1: So I think it's a two sided street. Yeah, So

509
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: I want to talk about like more of your mentality

510
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,120
Speaker 1: because some people will look at you as I could

511
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:01,000
Speaker 1: never do, and but they forget that you wake up

512
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:03,560
Speaker 1: every day just like they did, and you know there

513
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:05,800
Speaker 1: was a day where you weren't doing this and you

514
00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,919
Speaker 1: got on the journey to doing it and now today

515
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:10,640
Speaker 1: you are who you are and the next year you'll

516
00:28:10,680 --> 00:28:13,439
Speaker 1: be even bigger. Talk to me about one of those

517
00:28:13,520 --> 00:28:17,800
Speaker 1: early leaps of faith that you took as an innovator

518
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: that could have been really humbling, Um, but it puts

519
00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 1: you on the path like an early just completely for

520
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: faith that I don't know if it's gonna work, but

521
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:34,960
Speaker 1: I'm taking a shot on me. Yeah. Um, I mean

522
00:28:34,960 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: there's so there. I feel like a big part of

523
00:28:37,080 --> 00:28:42,479
Speaker 1: the job is constantly doing risk analyses on like you know,

524
00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: in real time and making decisions that are all incredibly

525
00:28:46,400 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: risky in some way. Um, I think, I mean just

526
00:28:55,840 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 1: within the because it's coming up in the anniversary. I

527
00:28:58,080 --> 00:29:02,480
Speaker 1: remember making the decision to shut down the office and

528
00:29:02,520 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: become a remote working team despite the fact that part

529
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:08,400
Speaker 1: of our solution is hardware and people couldn't go in

530
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,720
Speaker 1: and do hardware. But when when COVID was kind of

531
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:16,360
Speaker 1: coming in, Um, it was I think March nine, I've

532
00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,480
Speaker 1: gone my last business trip and I was actually going

533
00:29:19,480 --> 00:29:23,440
Speaker 1: to Toronto to uh to go and take a look

534
00:29:23,480 --> 00:29:26,200
Speaker 1: at Sidewalk Labs, and that's when I was just like,

535
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:29,640
Speaker 1: no shade, but I was like, oh, I was like, oh, yeah,

536
00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,920
Speaker 1: it's Jankie. I was like yeah, I said at Google,

537
00:29:32,920 --> 00:29:36,520
Speaker 1: come find me like whatever, like, but I looked and

538
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: I was like all right, Like I was like, okay,

539
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: this is cool. Um, we should work together like you

540
00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:46,320
Speaker 1: have better stuff. But anyway, we don't wherever that is.

541
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: So on the way back and notice that no one

542
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 1: was on any planes, March tenth comes and uh, the mayor,

543
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: the Blasio says, if you can, you should, you know,

544
00:29:58,360 --> 00:30:02,560
Speaker 1: work from home. And I immediately had to think, okay,

545
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: what to do, and I had to I had to

546
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 1: act quickly, and I felt really you know, ultimately in

547
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: that moment, I made the decision sent an email, Hey, everyone,

548
00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 1: gather what you need to gather today because March eleventh

549
00:30:15,040 --> 00:30:17,080
Speaker 1: is the last day. I'm not no one's in March.

550
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:19,440
Speaker 1: No one's in UM. And it ended up be the

551
00:30:19,520 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 1: last time that most people ended up going to our

552
00:30:21,360 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 1: Harlem hq UM. And so that that was a risk

553
00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:28,080
Speaker 1: for a lot of reasons, because we didn't know a

554
00:30:28,160 --> 00:30:31,520
Speaker 1: lot about the pandemic. We didn't know a lot about

555
00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:35,480
Speaker 1: the virus UM. You know, we had just launched into

556
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,240
Speaker 1: some new KPI s that we were just doing okay

557
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 1: on if I'm being honest, Um, you know, I don't

558
00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:43,239
Speaker 1: know if these people, as my dad would say, are

559
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:45,560
Speaker 1: just traded on you know, on e trade or whatever

560
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,600
Speaker 1: when no one's there, like you don't know. Like I

561
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:49,080
Speaker 1: used to think that you had to be in the

562
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:52,120
Speaker 1: office in Harlem to get the vibe and get things done.

563
00:30:52,120 --> 00:30:53,800
Speaker 1: And yet I had to immediately say I'm still go

564
00:30:53,840 --> 00:30:56,959
Speaker 1: and pay you, but but go ahead and do whatever

565
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 1: and all these different things, um, and like that was

566
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 1: a risk that and I had to be very clear.

567
00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:05,959
Speaker 1: And there are a lot of people who were slow

568
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:11,080
Speaker 1: to make the move for the health of their their people. Um.

569
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:15,240
Speaker 1: But I mean I think in those moments. I think

570
00:31:15,280 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 1: back to track. So I was really big in track

571
00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:22,840
Speaker 1: in high school, one to four hundred long jump in

572
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:24,959
Speaker 1: the in the races that were kind of more like

573
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:27,440
Speaker 1: local regional. I was the ones and twos. I could

574
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:29,320
Speaker 1: kill it as soon as we started racing against like

575
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,040
Speaker 1: the serious Jamaicans. I was mostly just a four runner,

576
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:34,400
Speaker 1: like four hundred meter you know what I'm saying. I'm Nigerian,

577
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:36,400
Speaker 1: Like that's where we at, Like that's where we could

578
00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:40,160
Speaker 1: kill it. I was, I'm fast, I'm just not Jamaican fast.

579
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:44,040
Speaker 1: They're just yeah, I know where I'm at, listen, local level.

580
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:45,720
Speaker 1: I'm about to kill it. As soon as I see

581
00:31:45,720 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: some bombs let's stuff, I'm like, all right, I cool,

582
00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:50,640
Speaker 1: I let me go to a four hundre meter. So

583
00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: uh And but so much of so much of how

584
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: I think about these things kind of applies to different

585
00:31:57,400 --> 00:32:01,200
Speaker 1: times when I played different sports. And you know, the

586
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,880
Speaker 1: thing about track was the reason why you practice was

587
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,640
Speaker 1: not so that you would have your perfect race the

588
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:11,120
Speaker 1: day of the race. It's so that your worst day

589
00:32:11,360 --> 00:32:15,200
Speaker 1: still beat everybody else. Like it wasn't like okay, okay,

590
00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:16,560
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure I get this start so that

591
00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 1: I hope that I get it. It's like even if

592
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 1: I started ship, like I'm just even if this is

593
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: my worst time, my worst time is still gonna smoke y'll.

594
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,640
Speaker 1: And I feel so much of the moments like even

595
00:32:30,640 --> 00:32:33,960
Speaker 1: the last year I had been training for them. I

596
00:32:33,960 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: have been training for innovation and progress during times of

597
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:41,320
Speaker 1: uncertainty for the last like eight or nine years, so

598
00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:43,280
Speaker 1: that when it came to the moment within the layer

599
00:32:43,320 --> 00:32:46,840
Speaker 1: and kind of of COVID, I was just like, all right,

600
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: uncertainty what's new. I'm a black female founder. Let's I

601
00:32:51,640 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: gotta move. I gotta do this, well, I gotta do that. Oh,

602
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,480
Speaker 1: how many deals fell through? We had like seven, like

603
00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: three or four million dollars pilot deals. Resorts fell through

604
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: all right, like what's new? Like? And so you know,

605
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:08,840
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it again from the perspective

606
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,240
Speaker 1: of being a founder of color Um and seeing, yes,

607
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 1: lots of obstacles, but the opportunity. I felt it as

608
00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 1: if for most of my career I had been training

609
00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,200
Speaker 1: with fifty pound weights, whereas like a lot of my

610
00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: white mountain white male peers especially, I've been training with

611
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 1: ten pound weights. So yeah, they could run fast like

612
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 1: it. It It all looked easier. But when COVID hit and

613
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:33,320
Speaker 1: a hundred pounds got thrown into our hands, who do

614
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:35,240
Speaker 1: you think is gonna do better? Who do you think's

615
00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:39,000
Speaker 1: gonna like handle this? And so you know, those those

616
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: little moments happened quite a bit. Um and I had

617
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: to make a lot of quick decisions to keep my

618
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:49,280
Speaker 1: team paid to be in a position we're gonna have

619
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:51,680
Speaker 1: to furlew anyone to make a decision how we could grow.

620
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:55,080
Speaker 1: And um, I'm not going to say that I had

621
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,840
Speaker 1: some master strategy around it other than to lead with honesty,

622
00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 1: lead with authenticity, and be very contextual, so creating space

623
00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:06,840
Speaker 1: for humanity and aligning everyone's personal experience of what we

624
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: were doing. But um, I feel like very fortunately a

625
00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:13,840
Speaker 1: lot of the risks paid off because we're in a

626
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,560
Speaker 1: really good position right now and still still a hard,

627
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 1: uphill battle, but very very exciting. There's some really good

628
00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:24,120
Speaker 1: lessons in there. So, I mean, you talked about COVID

629
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,000
Speaker 1: and UM and to be supersensitive to what people are

630
00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:31,640
Speaker 1: going through personally, but how how much has COVID created

631
00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:35,799
Speaker 1: opportunity for black people in industries like sustainability? Like has

632
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,160
Speaker 1: it created more space for us? Like what are the

633
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: benefits you know, I use that word very sensitively, but

634
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:45,799
Speaker 1: what are the benefits that COVID has created for us

635
00:34:45,960 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: in the industries like this? Well, first of all, its

636
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:51,239
Speaker 1: might say you're very good at what you do, this

637
00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 1: is the best you are, will go ahead, man ship

638
00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:59,160
Speaker 1: that's that you need to you need to show you know,

639
00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:02,160
Speaker 1: you be on TV like you'd be like, oh, but

640
00:35:02,280 --> 00:35:04,040
Speaker 1: like I don't know what this is, but there's a

641
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: bunch of fools who are not cutting it. When you

642
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: do it just pointed out that can we make that happen? Y'all, Um,

643
00:35:10,760 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 1: thank you, that's a really uh okay. Last year for me,

644
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 1: it felt more just like an additional layer of fire.

645
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:24,520
Speaker 1: So first there was a period I think from May

646
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 1: to September, end of May, end of May going definitely

647
00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: than there was like Juneteenth and July. But I would say, yeah,

648
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,520
Speaker 1: kind of May through July when it was just like

649
00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:42,040
Speaker 1: I think almost every black person and it was like

650
00:35:42,080 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: we are tired, and just everyone gets away from us,

651
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:49,480
Speaker 1: like like leave us alone. And so it felt more

652
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:53,600
Speaker 1: just about I think self like trying to figure out

653
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:56,000
Speaker 1: self care, trying to figure out what kind of catharsisy

654
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,520
Speaker 1: would need, which I think was important because we were

655
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 1: going through a lot. Our families are getting hit more,

656
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:06,120
Speaker 1: um are we It felt very real and I used

657
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,280
Speaker 1: it as a fire for myself because I knew, okay

658
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:10,279
Speaker 1: as a black person and look at many more people

659
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:13,920
Speaker 1: who look like me are getting this. Um. No one

660
00:36:13,960 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: in my on my side of the family, but my

661
00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:18,799
Speaker 1: fiance side of the family being in the South, you know,

662
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 1: working in different jobs where they can't stay home, a

663
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,760
Speaker 1: lot of them got it. Um. You know that that's

664
00:36:24,800 --> 00:36:28,879
Speaker 1: just straight up what it what it is. Um. So

665
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 1: it felt like a fire for me personally to say, Okay,

666
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:36,760
Speaker 1: a lot of the things that were cracks now became

667
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,440
Speaker 1: valleys right in terms of the problems like COVID, just

668
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:45,319
Speaker 1: like it exasperated everything. What can we do? Like it

669
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:48,720
Speaker 1: broke my heart that like even in Poughkeepsie a quarter

670
00:36:48,760 --> 00:36:50,520
Speaker 1: of the kids could not continue to go to school

671
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,359
Speaker 1: because they didn't have access to internet, and all those

672
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,040
Speaker 1: kids were black, like it what there's like there's a

673
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:57,959
Speaker 1: north side and there's a south side, and the north

674
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,400
Speaker 1: side kids are the one's experienced this. So this is

675
00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:02,359
Speaker 1: like these kids are dropping out like this was straight

676
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:10,080
Speaker 1: up season four of the wire Ship happening, like no exaggeration. Um.

677
00:37:10,120 --> 00:37:12,239
Speaker 1: And so that was that was a push there. I

678
00:37:12,280 --> 00:37:20,799
Speaker 1: think more macro now has become into and and there's

679
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: like a sense of some stability. I say that very

680
00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:29,279
Speaker 1: cautiously to me. The opportunity is to go back to

681
00:37:29,280 --> 00:37:34,640
Speaker 1: the definition of entrepreneurship. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is um

682
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,759
Speaker 1: and this I did not like someone people say this,

683
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: but I agree this is also my opinion. I should

684
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:44,160
Speaker 1: say that entrepreneurship is problem solving without regard for resource.

685
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:50,520
Speaker 1: That's all it is. At your core. The first problem

686
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:56,200
Speaker 1: that you articulate to solve most authentically is usually your problem.

687
00:37:56,239 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: And so like you know, I say the joke, but

688
00:37:57,680 --> 00:37:59,960
Speaker 1: it's a fact. Like Mark Zuckerber couldn't get a D

689
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:02,040
Speaker 1: so that's what's his problem, and look what he did.

690
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:04,040
Speaker 1: Like and again, it started as one way and then

691
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: it evolved. I had a problem and I expanded into

692
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 1: an infrastructure in a play a company. Um. And so

693
00:38:12,719 --> 00:38:14,959
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people now, once you've found

694
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,120
Speaker 1: a way to stabilize and kind of work with this

695
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: new normal, you gotta ask yourself are you going to

696
00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:22,239
Speaker 1: take it? Are you gonna make it? Like? Are you

697
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:25,240
Speaker 1: is this? Is this the norm? Is this the world

698
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:27,560
Speaker 1: you want to accept? Or do you want to see

699
00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:31,239
Speaker 1: what you can do? Because yeah, the reality situation is

700
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: we can't hope for some like saving grace solution from

701
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:38,279
Speaker 1: the top down. We shouldn't. We shouldn't. There's not even

702
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,200
Speaker 1: there's no fun in that either. And so I do

703
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,880
Speaker 1: think there's an opportunity because oftentimes if you want to

704
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,279
Speaker 1: design something well, you need to design for the extremes.

705
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: And if black people have experienced the extremes of the

706
00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,000
Speaker 1: last twelve months, we are in the best position to

707
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:53,880
Speaker 1: design something that's gonna make the lives better, not just

708
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,040
Speaker 1: for us but for everybody. Um. But the resources have

709
00:38:57,080 --> 00:38:58,840
Speaker 1: to get there too, Like there are a lot of

710
00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:02,239
Speaker 1: things that are getting funded that are interesting since we're

711
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,440
Speaker 1: still all sitting in our houses waiting for vaccines. Like

712
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:09,839
Speaker 1: I know, I know black chemists. I had ideas on

713
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:14,080
Speaker 1: how to improve the testing situation, but they're in Mississippi.

714
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:17,399
Speaker 1: How they going to get any money? Um? But yeah,

715
00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:20,200
Speaker 1: that's so that's my perspective. I think on the opportunity

716
00:39:20,239 --> 00:39:24,120
Speaker 1: that we have, so to speak. There's a quote I

717
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:27,720
Speaker 1: found from you and says, any fully banked solution needs

718
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:32,440
Speaker 1: to truly contemplate the expected response of governments and finance institutions,

719
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: including so that this work. This can work for communities

720
00:39:36,600 --> 00:39:39,560
Speaker 1: that don't have the capital um. And when you said that,

721
00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: you were talking about the industry and energy industry, But

722
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 1: I see impacts in other industries where we try to

723
00:39:44,480 --> 00:39:48,960
Speaker 1: make massive disruptions, right, and so how much should entrepreneurs

724
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:52,760
Speaker 1: be thinking about policy and how do we get legislators

725
00:39:52,760 --> 00:40:00,200
Speaker 1: and bureaucrats to more fully embrace the entrepreneurial spirit. Two

726
00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: tough questions. Um, well second one is tough. First one

727
00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:08,799
Speaker 1: not super crazy, So I'll start there. Um. The more

728
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 1: dynamic and complicated the problem, usually the more you're going

729
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: to see that it's not just some new technological or

730
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:20,880
Speaker 1: business model innovation. You are going to need to think

731
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,839
Speaker 1: through the role that the government, policy and the people

732
00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:27,839
Speaker 1: who are financing this like play. So it's a bit

733
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:29,840
Speaker 1: of a triangle that you're not you need to be

734
00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:33,399
Speaker 1: aware of. Um. Sometimes you can streamline things to straight

735
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:35,960
Speaker 1: kind of B two C and go from there. Uh,

736
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 1: and then and and build. But you know a lot

737
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: of our infrastructure is as a public service, right, so

738
00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:44,799
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of like a tragedy of the

739
00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: commons that makes things complicated. Um. It doesn't mean it's critical,

740
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:54,439
Speaker 1: but if you're doing something that impacts the public good,

741
00:40:54,920 --> 00:40:59,040
Speaker 1: you know, take Airbnb, take you know, like Uber, After

742
00:40:59,120 --> 00:41:02,040
Speaker 1: a while you will be even if you're like, oh,

743
00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,439
Speaker 1: we just did what we had to do, someone's gonna

744
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 1: catch up to you and say, well, you don't ask permission,

745
00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:10,160
Speaker 1: so we're gonna start with your ship. Like so you know,

746
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: there needs to be an awareness of it, but that

747
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with that happening that way to get

748
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,759
Speaker 1: in however you're gonna get in, um, you know for us,

749
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's energy or broader infrastructure, because we're

750
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,239
Speaker 1: dealing with things that also have high um that can

751
00:41:24,239 --> 00:41:26,440
Speaker 1: be highly dangerous. That's part of why we have to

752
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:28,880
Speaker 1: just move at a certain pace because I'm not gonna

753
00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:32,720
Speaker 1: put you know, twelve kV in the ground under Grandma

754
00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,919
Speaker 1: and just say, well, you know, okay, like like that's

755
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,800
Speaker 1: not what like like that's why like i gotta I

756
00:41:39,880 --> 00:41:44,040
Speaker 1: gotta crawl because I'm dealing with power, uh and like

757
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be out here with anyone's life

758
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,200
Speaker 1: on my conscious because I you know, you know, move

759
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:54,480
Speaker 1: fast and break things like it's not that's not that's

760
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,160
Speaker 1: not it what that that's not it? Like there's life

761
00:41:57,239 --> 00:42:00,439
Speaker 1: or death consequences. Which there's a whole argument we made

762
00:42:00,480 --> 00:42:03,319
Speaker 1: that even the things that didn't seem as dangerous, like

763
00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:07,160
Speaker 1: social media probably you know, it would have been helpful

764
00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:09,920
Speaker 1: they thought about it just a little bit. Um you know,

765
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:13,960
Speaker 1: now we're seeing it exactly right now now on the

766
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:18,800
Speaker 1: other side of like how you get the governments to

767
00:42:18,920 --> 00:42:22,040
Speaker 1: play and even the financiers who are often very risk averse,

768
00:42:22,160 --> 00:42:23,520
Speaker 1: or like this is what works, we just want to

769
00:42:23,560 --> 00:42:27,800
Speaker 1: do this. I can just share what we've been trying

770
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 1: to do. UM, so one you know, has been aligning

771
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,640
Speaker 1: what we're doing not with why we think it's cool,

772
00:42:35,640 --> 00:42:39,040
Speaker 1: but why it matters to them. Most governments care about

773
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 1: two things, political optics and financial efficiency. So if you

774
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 1: can present it in something in a way that's going

775
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:49,360
Speaker 1: to make them look good for their political goals, and

776
00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: do so in a way that does either doesn't cost

777
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,799
Speaker 1: them any money or um cost them less money than

778
00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,399
Speaker 1: what they would have spent, and you're gonna get in there,

779
00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,760
Speaker 1: usually for some sort of pilot or something, because why

780
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:03,280
Speaker 1: not once they've established that they care about the third

781
00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: big thing, which is time to deploy, because they you know,

782
00:43:06,560 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: people only have so long that they're in office, and

783
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 1: so they want to be able to brag on that

784
00:43:13,600 --> 00:43:15,560
Speaker 1: for as long as they can, and you have so

785
00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:17,000
Speaker 1: they want to make sure you can move quickly, and

786
00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:20,759
Speaker 1: that's that's tough. But operationalizing around that UM is a

787
00:43:20,800 --> 00:43:22,440
Speaker 1: big deal. It's it's part of the reason why we

788
00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: think time to deploy is so massive for our platform.

789
00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:26,360
Speaker 1: The faster, you know, we want to get to the

790
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,719
Speaker 1: point where we can get infrastructure solutions deployed in communities

791
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 1: in three to six weeks. It normally takes nine months,

792
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,799
Speaker 1: all right. So that's that's a massive thing, so that

793
00:43:36,840 --> 00:43:40,800
Speaker 1: people can kind of get that that rush around it. UM.

794
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 1: And then on the financing side, Honestly, as soon as

795
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:46,879
Speaker 1: you are showing that you can make money, they'll come.

796
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 1: They're not dying driven like they just they're there. They

797
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 1: they just oh, you make the money, all right, let

798
00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:55,360
Speaker 1: me let me, let me give you some money to

799
00:43:55,400 --> 00:43:58,920
Speaker 1: make money. That's that's just what it is. UM. You

800
00:43:59,239 --> 00:44:02,279
Speaker 1: talk a lot about being UM or how being a

801
00:44:02,320 --> 00:44:06,560
Speaker 1: black woman doing this work, black woman in Harlem, you know, specifically,

802
00:44:07,120 --> 00:44:09,440
Speaker 1: is an asset to an industry like this, even when

803
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,920
Speaker 1: that they may not realize is an asset to the

804
00:44:11,920 --> 00:44:14,439
Speaker 1: industry like this. And UM that we can do more

805
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,520
Speaker 1: than people might want to. Let us let on that

806
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:23,320
Speaker 1: we can do. UM, what is it that we uniquely

807
00:44:23,640 --> 00:44:28,840
Speaker 1: bring to industries that we are not overrepresented in value wise?

808
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:40,720
Speaker 1: If we were to lean into our perspective all define

809
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:43,799
Speaker 1: our magic for us, like you know what I mean?

810
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:46,799
Speaker 1: I mean, so all I can say is just my

811
00:44:46,880 --> 00:44:52,680
Speaker 1: personal experience, I spent a lot of my career wondering

812
00:44:52,680 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 1: why me, or thinking, of course not me. I assumed

813
00:44:58,080 --> 00:44:59,680
Speaker 1: that there were people who are better suited to be

814
00:44:59,719 --> 00:45:02,280
Speaker 1: doing I'm doing right now, and it took a long

815
00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,480
Speaker 1: time for me to get to the point in realizing

816
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:09,680
Speaker 1: that that that couldn't have been farther from the case. Um,

817
00:45:09,719 --> 00:45:13,399
Speaker 1: there are things that are coming up now, like when

818
00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,480
Speaker 1: we go deep into competitive analysis and let me look

819
00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:19,640
Speaker 1: at you know, why is it that we can deliver

820
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:23,719
Speaker 1: something that Cisco couldn't, The Nokia couldn't, um, you know,

821
00:45:23,760 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 1: the Google couldn't. Like I say their names low because

822
00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:29,080
Speaker 1: like it's kind of wild, right, Like these guys are

823
00:45:29,120 --> 00:45:32,719
Speaker 1: not they know, they're not slouches. And when you look

824
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:35,080
Speaker 1: at the things that differentiate how I came to this

825
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:38,200
Speaker 1: point from how they came to the point, you realize

826
00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,480
Speaker 1: that so many things that makes you who you are

827
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: and gave you that perspective are exactly the missing piece,

828
00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:47,279
Speaker 1: because let's face it, we wouldn't be living in a

829
00:45:47,320 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: world where Texas could have happened that they had it

830
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:53,839
Speaker 1: and they had it covered. Um. And so for me,

831
00:45:54,400 --> 00:45:57,640
Speaker 1: you know, there's there's little things like our ability to

832
00:45:57,719 --> 00:46:00,080
Speaker 1: kind of be this missing link between the smart in

833
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 1: the smart city. If you, if you're upbringing was such

834
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,719
Speaker 1: that you took the grid and power for granted, you

835
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:09,719
Speaker 1: would start innovating from the point of assuming that that

836
00:46:09,760 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 1: was fine, and he would start innovating on top of that.

837
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:13,920
Speaker 1: Just the fact that I was coming from the perspective

838
00:46:13,920 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 1: of like, no, it's not because I'm thinking about my

839
00:46:15,719 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 1: own family automatically gave us a competitive advantage because I

840
00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:22,280
Speaker 1: was thinking about a system that they couldn't even fathom,

841
00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: didn't wouldn't exist. But I was like, no, this is

842
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:26,880
Speaker 1: JANKI because you can't scale like but that was only

843
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:30,320
Speaker 1: me thinking that now to oh and right now, everyone's

844
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 1: funny talking about the the infrastructure around transmission lines. I

845
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,960
Speaker 1: was saying that to CEOs and chairmans of utilities three

846
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,840
Speaker 1: years ago. Why because like, we had the experience of

847
00:46:40,880 --> 00:46:43,360
Speaker 1: trying to scale a speed bum and integrate into the

848
00:46:43,360 --> 00:46:45,439
Speaker 1: grid and it didn't work. It didn't make any sense,

849
00:46:45,480 --> 00:46:47,879
Speaker 1: and it was the fault of the grid. And off

850
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:49,920
Speaker 1: the record, not off the record for you, but like

851
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,840
Speaker 1: these people said, hey, Jess, off the record, yeah, we

852
00:46:53,960 --> 00:46:57,560
Speaker 1: know this is always the thing that you know works,

853
00:46:57,640 --> 00:46:59,239
Speaker 1: So we didn't invest any R and D in it.

854
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:02,480
Speaker 1: But yeah, we know this is bad. And that was

855
00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,520
Speaker 1: back in and I was like, okay, so now and

856
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 1: now now I for real, No, something's up. Um. When

857
00:47:09,120 --> 00:47:11,640
Speaker 1: we when we look at from a platform perspective, the

858
00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:17,120
Speaker 1: things that we're doing to drive adoption, you know, it's

859
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:23,680
Speaker 1: really understanding engagement. Knowing that people would be able to

860
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 1: understand a whole new type of energy if I packaged

861
00:47:27,640 --> 00:47:32,040
Speaker 1: it in a soccer ball. It's why our platform is

862
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:35,080
Speaker 1: going to be accepted and scaled and understood in a

863
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:39,439
Speaker 1: way that all these other platforms couldn't. And so all

864
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:41,560
Speaker 1: of that, you know, it's it's not just about being like,

865
00:47:41,600 --> 00:47:43,399
Speaker 1: you know, like black or whatever, as much as it's

866
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:46,520
Speaker 1: about saying, who are you and what's the life that

867
00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:51,120
Speaker 1: you have lived? Um? And if everybody in the room

868
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:54,880
Speaker 1: right now has basically had the same life, just by

869
00:47:54,920 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: the fact that you are leaning into who what makes

870
00:47:57,640 --> 00:48:03,839
Speaker 1: you different? That's most likely if we're still sitting here one,

871
00:48:04,040 --> 00:48:07,239
Speaker 1: that's probably the missing piece. That's probably the thing that

872
00:48:07,239 --> 00:48:11,240
Speaker 1: that that we've been waiting for. Um. And so that's

873
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:14,839
Speaker 1: that's why this is exciting. We've been left out for

874
00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,960
Speaker 1: so long, right, Like it's it's almost like they're trying

875
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 1: to cook something in the kitchen. They ain't got no butter,

876
00:48:20,160 --> 00:48:23,000
Speaker 1: and we out here just buttery, just buttery as hell,

877
00:48:23,719 --> 00:48:27,520
Speaker 1: just like just sitting here, like all right. And then

878
00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:28,719
Speaker 1: we come in there and they're like, all right, we

879
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,560
Speaker 1: got this vanilla, we got this, and you're like, but

880
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:35,239
Speaker 1: do you have the butter? And now something that would

881
00:48:35,239 --> 00:48:38,400
Speaker 1: be as like hard of the board is delicious shortbread.

882
00:48:39,719 --> 00:48:43,400
Speaker 1: That That's how I feel I feel like, I feel

883
00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:49,759
Speaker 1: like we we have an often ignored experience that is

884
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: the missing ingredient and what we need for the world

885
00:48:52,520 --> 00:49:00,440
Speaker 1: that we all want. Jessica Matthews friend ending, thank you

886
00:49:00,480 --> 00:49:03,280
Speaker 1: so much for joining me. Thank you, this is awesome.

887
00:49:25,400 --> 00:49:27,520
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is a production of Black the

888
00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,920
Speaker 1: Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking I Heart Media.

889
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:34,759
Speaker 1: It's produced by Morgan Dubon and me Well Lucas. Additional

890
00:49:34,800 --> 00:49:38,560
Speaker 1: production support by Love Beach and Raven Nearport. Special thank

891
00:49:38,600 --> 00:49:40,960
Speaker 1: you to Michael David's since the car savan Yan you

892
00:49:40,960 --> 00:49:44,480
Speaker 1: know like the wine. Yes, that's his real name. Learn

893
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:46,960
Speaker 1: more about my guests and other tech dis represent innovators

894
00:49:46,960 --> 00:49:51,359
Speaker 1: at afro tech dot com. Go get your money. He's

895
00:49:51,400 --> 00:50:07,200
Speaker 1: in love one