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Speaker 1: In about two weeks, we'll be headed out to Brooklyn

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Speaker 1: for the third installment of afro Tech Executive or corporate executives,

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Speaker 1: visual capitalists, and tech moguls will all come together in

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Speaker 1: a more focused experience to I d at the future

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Speaker 1: and built together this time specifically with value for black

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Speaker 1: women in business. And I invite you to learn more

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Speaker 1: about it and to join us. Visit experience dot afro

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Speaker 1: tech dot com. If you're dominant, join us. Use my

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Speaker 1: code a t E twenty two will and get temper

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Speaker 1: cent off your ticket A T E two two W

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Speaker 1: I l L get temperson off your ticket. Join us

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Speaker 1: in Brooklyn for afro Tech Executive the second one two

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Speaker 1: but the third one overall. That code does expire on

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Speaker 1: three twenty three, So please join us in Brooklyn. It's

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Speaker 1: gonna be a phenomenal time. So today's show is a

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Speaker 1: throwback to afro Tech twenty twenty. UM afro Tech World

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, I should say, um, And we're talking about

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Speaker 1: venture capital. It's a venture capital these days, especially these

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Speaker 1: days when technology is shifting so quickly. It's got to

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Speaker 1: follow the convictions of passionate and studied investors. I mentioned

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Speaker 1: on a previous episode that it seems like just six

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Speaker 1: nine months ago, all we could do was talking about

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Speaker 1: what a R and VR would do to live experiences,

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Speaker 1: whether we were in a business meeting using a r

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Speaker 1: VR or a ball game using augmented or virtual reality.

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Speaker 1: Now all of that seems to be overshadowed by the

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Speaker 1: promise of Web three and the metaverse. Further, black founders

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Speaker 1: who may not have had the network to call in

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Speaker 1: friends and family round to fund their startup and get

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Speaker 1: their ideas off the ground. They're determined to not be

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Speaker 1: left behind to our world today requires innovative ventures to

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Speaker 1: meet the needs of black founders who are building the future.

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Speaker 1: So I'm excited to bring you a talk from Afro

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Speaker 1: Tech World twenty featuring Austin clements In a j Ralan

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Speaker 1: of Slawson and Co. And then discussing their fund and

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Speaker 1: what's happening in Los Angeles with regards to vesture Capital

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Speaker 1: with Arion Samuels, who's co founder is CEO of black

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Speaker 1: so Slawson Income is an early stage venture capital firm

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Speaker 1: investing in the tools, platforms and people aiding in the

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Speaker 1: development of small businesses. They believe in the power of

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurship and aimed to empower the best founders regardless of

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Speaker 1: their proximity to the traditional venture ecosystem, and Austin and

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Speaker 1: a J. I had been doing this for years, had

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Speaker 1: been the game for a long time. Austin Clements is

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Speaker 1: a venture capitalist at Slauson and Co. Where he invests

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Speaker 1: in early stage technology companies. He was previously a principal

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Speaker 1: at ten one ten Ventures after beginning his career in

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Speaker 1: investment management with Alliance Bernstein. He is the chair of

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Speaker 1: Pledge L, a managing director at Grid one ten and

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Speaker 1: a proud alumnus of more House College and n y

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Speaker 1: U Stern School of Business. And a J. Rolan is

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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur, marketing, branding specialist, and proactivist. Raised in Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles by an entrepreneurial mother, a J began his career

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Speaker 1: on the production side of the entertainment industry before making

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Speaker 1: his way into talent partnerships in the technology sector. Known

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Speaker 1: for building community through the creation of compelling and authentic stories,

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Speaker 1: a J went on to partner with NAS to launch

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Speaker 1: Queensbridge Venture Partners, partner with Issa Ray to found Hilltop

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Speaker 1: Coffee and Kitchen, and now is building Slawson and Co.

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Speaker 1: With his co conspirator Austin Clements. Super excited to welcome

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Speaker 1: Austin and a J to Afriten. Glad that you're here.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much, Aaron. We're

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Speaker 1: we're excited about this. We're excited for what you guys

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Speaker 1: are doing with the Afro tech world, taking it to

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Speaker 1: a whole another level this year. We love it. Awesome, awesome,

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Speaker 1: We're really excited to have you on the stage. UM.

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Speaker 1: And and you know, for those who don't know, you know,

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Speaker 1: Austin and a J. They're they're really staples in the

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Speaker 1: l A ecosystem and they do a lot for a

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Speaker 1: lot of people. Um. If you catch one of them

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Speaker 1: on the street that they'll oftentimes have words of advice

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Speaker 1: and mentorship. UM. So you know the feelings mutu. We're

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Speaker 1: really excited to have you on this stage. UM. So

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Speaker 1: it looks Austin. Before before we talk about your fund,

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Speaker 1: I actually want to call attention to a piece that

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Speaker 1: that you recently dropped on Medium called the Delusion around

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Speaker 1: Inclusion UM. And my favorite part of the article was

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Speaker 1: where you said smart money realizes that venture capital firms

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Speaker 1: entering the market with intentionality around inclusivity, have a much

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Speaker 1: larger pool of founders to choose from, working on a

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Speaker 1: wider variety of innovative ideas. And I'm curious if you

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Speaker 1: could talk a little bit more about this concept and

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Speaker 1: what motivated you to write that UM and what you're

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Speaker 1: trying to accomplish an article. Yeah, yeah, thank you for

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Speaker 1: the quote. Yeah, I mean I wrote that it was

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Speaker 1: really born out of a couple of conversations that we

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Speaker 1: were having already, you know, in the process of petting together.

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Speaker 1: That's fun, uh, as you know, but others may not.

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Speaker 1: We have to talk to a lot of people and

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Speaker 1: sort of pitch our funds and you know, one of

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Speaker 1: the sort of recurring themes and things that we've heard

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Speaker 1: from like the outside marketplaces, like you know, there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of diversity funds popping up for a lot

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Speaker 1: of people that are going after these markets and you know,

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Speaker 1: is it too crowded or is this too niche or

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Speaker 1: is it not developed enough yet? And it was, you know,

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Speaker 1: it was it was mind boggling to me that these

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Speaker 1: conversations were happening, because the reality is, if you look

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Speaker 1: at the demographics of the US UM and how rapidly

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Speaker 1: they're changing, and how underrepresented we are in the tech industry.

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Speaker 1: It's it's very clear that this opportunity is massive. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I would repeat that, and when I would

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Speaker 1: say that different investors who invest in venture funds, you know,

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Speaker 1: it would kind of be like an eye opening moment

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Speaker 1: for something that I thought was was blatantly obvious UM

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Speaker 1: and and and I think because of that, it made

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Speaker 1: me say, you know what, maybe I should just you know,

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Speaker 1: put in the paper, fingers the keyboard and and and

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Speaker 1: actually you know, spell it out for for people how

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Speaker 1: big this opportunity is. UM. And I did it, Uh

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Speaker 1: published it, and you know, it's well received UM both

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Speaker 1: by like other other gps, other vcs that are in

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Speaker 1: the ecosystem that are investors that are you know, people

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Speaker 1: of color, um black and you know other but it

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Speaker 1: was also circulated pretty heavily in the community of people

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Speaker 1: that do invest in venture capital. So it brought the

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Speaker 1: attention to a lot of people of like, hey, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe this is a real opportunity. And you know, I've

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Speaker 1: even heard rumblings that it actually led to a lot

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Speaker 1: of internal conversations about like, how do we figure this out?

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Speaker 1: And how do we and what is our place in

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Speaker 1: this role and how do we take advantage of this

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Speaker 1: opportunity because ultimately that's what I think that people should

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Speaker 1: be doing it as it's just a massive opportunity that's

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Speaker 1: been historically. To add to what he was saying, I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, people naturally want to take this idea of

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Speaker 1: diversity or inclusion or equity or parody and they want

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Speaker 1: to put it in this bucket of impact, which means

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Speaker 1: you're compromising your returns. Uh. In reality, you know, being

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Speaker 1: impact fool is a way to prove that you can generally,

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Speaker 1: you know, generate competitive, if not outperform um. A lot

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Speaker 1: of the people that are chasing after the same opportunity. Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: diversity does not mean charity. There is a real opportunity here,

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Speaker 1: and if you have eyes on an opportunity that other

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Speaker 1: people don't don't have, that makes you get invested in. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I think that pieces is super clear and

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Speaker 1: I love that. All right, So let's talk about then

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Speaker 1: what you're building specifically to address that. Um So, first

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Speaker 1: and foremost, let's talk about the name. Uh Slawson and

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Speaker 1: co H talk to me about I'm from l A

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Speaker 1: but not everybody's from l A. So so why don't

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Speaker 1: you to tell me how that name specifically relates to

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Speaker 1: what you're building. So, as we were kind of thinking

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Speaker 1: through like what our mission was and what we wanted

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Speaker 1: to kind of create, what sentiment in like feeling we

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Speaker 1: wanted to, you know, the bridge that we kind of

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Speaker 1: essentially wanted to build both of the people that were

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Speaker 1: investing in us and the people that we were seeking

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Speaker 1: to invest in. We were thinking about what's laws in

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Speaker 1: which is about the twenty plus mile stretched through South

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Speaker 1: l A which is predominantly black and brown community here. Um,

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Speaker 1: you think of Southola as an area where a lot

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Speaker 1: of culture originates and by the time that makes its

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Speaker 1: way further north to more developed areas, gets rebranded and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't necessarily get the credit that it that it deserves,

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Speaker 1: and all of that culture kind of gets packaged up

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Speaker 1: and exported throughout the world and the origin tends to

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Speaker 1: get lost. But when we think of Slawson is the

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Speaker 1: east to west thoroughfare and where it starts from the

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Speaker 1: inland mostly blue collar, um, mostly industrial area before making

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Speaker 1: it stressed stretched west into mostly underserved, impoverished areas and

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Speaker 1: then ending and some of the most uh prestigious Black

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Speaker 1: communities in the country. That's kind of the metaphor and

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Speaker 1: the microcosm for what we kind of want to build

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Speaker 1: because we see a slaws and avenue in every major

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Speaker 1: metropolitan city across the country, and that's what we kind

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Speaker 1: of want to tap into. And when we think of

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Speaker 1: the in co UH, it's really about the company that

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Speaker 1: we keep. We're fortunate enough to build a network of

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Speaker 1: really highly respected, highly influential people that are mission aligned,

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Speaker 1: that that that view the things that we view and

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Speaker 1: see as as the vessel to kind of help bring

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Speaker 1: them in and give them the ability to contribute and

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Speaker 1: participate in what it is that we're building. So as

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Speaker 1: we think about beyond the capital that we're deploying into

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Speaker 1: the founders that we back, it's also the networks, the mentorship,

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Speaker 1: all of the collective experiences that both of us as

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Speaker 1: well as the people that we've enrolled in our journey,

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Speaker 1: whether it's too investment or people that are just pledging

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Speaker 1: to to, you know, kind of help us do our

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Speaker 1: part to kind of bridge the divide in our in

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Speaker 1: our nation's well, that's beautiful now, and I hear you

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Speaker 1: that in Claire you know, there's there's there's a slass

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Speaker 1: in l A. But there's a slass in there's in

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Speaker 1: every major city, um in this country, perhaps in the world. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can even add, like add a little bit to that.

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Speaker 1: You know. It's also the place where you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: we're we have a lot of efforts and where we've

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Speaker 1: gotten to know each other and kind of grew up. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and and and Slaws is just just a

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Speaker 1: huge part of that. I have a team sex center

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Speaker 1: that I did in conjunction with Pledge l A the

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Speaker 1: opening later this year. Um, it's just right off the

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Speaker 1: flaw And you know, j has businesses of flaws, and

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Speaker 1: so it's deeply meaningful to us and personal to us

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Speaker 1: as well. But as they said, it's also about the

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Speaker 1: company's key and then as we as we also kind

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Speaker 1: of think through you know, Slawson and Co. As a

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Speaker 1: venture capital firm, we also have we're very uh you know,

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Speaker 1: rooted in nonprofit work and advancing the mission in other ways.

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Speaker 1: So one of the things that we're looking to develop

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Speaker 1: is what we're calling off Flaws, which is which is

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Speaker 1: kind of a natural progression of a lot of the

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Speaker 1: work that we man we often has done recently around

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Speaker 1: Good one ten, which is providing the resources for more

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Speaker 1: entry level entrepreneurs that may not quite be ready for

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Speaker 1: venture funding, but can help them, provide them with the

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Speaker 1: platforms and the tools to kind of absorb all that

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Speaker 1: knowledge as they kind of go and pursue, you know,

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Speaker 1: the inspiration or an idea that they've been following for

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Speaker 1: a while. Now. I love that And for those of

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Speaker 1: you listening, um, if you're an early stage entrepreneur that's

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Speaker 1: proximate to the l A area, you should definitely check

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Speaker 1: out Good one ten are. They're doing really fantastic where

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Speaker 1: it's an amazing accelerator. I've had the opportunity to speak

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Speaker 1: with a few of their cohorts, Aaron. Aaron came in.

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Speaker 1: Aaron came in to hear two minute pitches and grilled people.

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Speaker 1: Not easy if you ever have to pitch Aaron or anything.

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Speaker 1: I want to win, you know, I wanted to win

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Speaker 1: um so so so that so they're rolling on the

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Speaker 1: scheme of community and the company you keep Slaus and

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Speaker 1: all Slaus and let's let's talk about about the community

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Speaker 1: that you keep among one another. So tell me a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about how how the two of you

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Speaker 1: linked up, Um were your friends before this and you

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Speaker 1: work together? How to he did the two of you

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Speaker 1: really really come together for this? Yeah, so we've actually

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Speaker 1: been friends for over twenty years, and then our teams

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Speaker 1: that we always joked that we've been working together for

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Speaker 1: a while. When I was in high school, I used

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Speaker 1: to throw parties and Austin. We used to hire Austin

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Speaker 1: to make our flyers. So technically we've been transacting for

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Speaker 1: a while. But I think that you know that there's

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Speaker 1: just always been an organic friendship in mutual respect and

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Speaker 1: kind of a front row seat to what the other

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Speaker 1: person was doing, whether it's in informal advisory role or

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Speaker 1: just kind of watching from a distance through social media

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Speaker 1: seeing what the other people are up to, and then

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Speaker 1: occasionally kind of, you know, um hitting each other up

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Speaker 1: for advice. So it's very organic. And I think that

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Speaker 1: one of the things that really kind of resonated was

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Speaker 1: once once the first Hilltop got open, awesome, I were

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Speaker 1: spending a lot of time there and we're constantly reminded

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Speaker 1: about the pool of untapped talent that was walking through

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Speaker 1: those doors. Um, a lot of the folks that were working,

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Speaker 1: you know, coffee shops are ground zero for you know,

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Speaker 1: phase ground ground zero for the initial phases of a

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Speaker 1: lot of entrepreneurial ideas. So as we were just kind

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Speaker 1: of coming across people and passing and being reminded that

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Speaker 1: a lot of the people are living in these communities

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Speaker 1: who are using their uh lived experience as their competitive

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Speaker 1: advantage to build these businesses that are serving consumers that

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Speaker 1: are all overlooked as well. So they're huge, huge markets.

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Speaker 1: So as we were, you know, we were awesome, but

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Speaker 1: kind of thinking about what his next move was gonna be. I,

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Speaker 1: you know, I had some experience in the venture space

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Speaker 1: UM to Queen's Bridge, but really thinking about moving towards

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Speaker 1: more of an intentional capital model, and we we thought

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Speaker 1: of building a pisis around UM. Investing in under represented

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Speaker 1: founders was something that was worth both of us finally

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Speaker 1: come together in an a fishing capacitive and we both

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Speaker 1: grew up office plot. So back to the names. That's

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Speaker 1: how that was. That's beautiful. Love to hear those stories.

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Speaker 1: You know. Similarly, as you know, you know, the Blackty

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Speaker 1: founding team, we were all friends in college and knew

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Speaker 1: each other for for a decade before really getting into

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Speaker 1: this so UM, yeah, I love that. I love that

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Speaker 1: and it's it's it's a it's a shout out to

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Speaker 1: the possible. So we really really appreciate that story. UM.

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Speaker 1: All right, cool, So let's so let's um, let's get

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Speaker 1: into into you age a little a little bit more so. UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, not not everybody knows about you and all

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Speaker 1: the amazing stuff that you did, but but I've been

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Speaker 1: checking for you for a long time. Um. I uh,

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Speaker 1: I was a huge, huge NAS fan growing up first

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Speaker 1: of all, coming from the East Coast you know, I

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Speaker 1: grew up in in in in Rhode Island, and um,

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Speaker 1: if if if you were your East Coast you know,

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Speaker 1: growing up, it was it was it was you know,

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Speaker 1: a pop Figgy and then jan Nas and and everybody

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Speaker 1: had had had their own camp and so you know,

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Speaker 1: seeing Nas create Queen's Bridge View getting that off the ground,

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Speaker 1: I mean really incredible to see, um the legends and

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Speaker 1: hip hop move into the venture capital ecosystem in a

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Speaker 1: way to give back to the community. Um. And then similarly, um,

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Speaker 1: what what you what you've built slash our building with

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Speaker 1: with Easterray um functioning on a similar type of his

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Speaker 1: not not from hip hop, but but from from Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: from production, representative of the black community and kind of

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Speaker 1: building something that is a stable in the black community. Um,

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Speaker 1: can you talk a little bit more about about how

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Speaker 1: celebrities bring something to the table um when we're talking

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Speaker 1: about the conversation of venture capital? Sure, yeah, I think that.

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Speaker 1: You know, when you talk about some of the projects

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Speaker 1: and the movements that we both that we mentioned, it's

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Speaker 1: it's critical to highlight like the the underlying mission of

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Speaker 1: the brand or the what the effort is to begin with.

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Speaker 1: So you know, nlgne Eats are obviously amazing people and

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Speaker 1: their luminaries and their own respective lanes, but in terms

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Speaker 1: of how they naturally kind of aligned with what we

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Speaker 1: were doing with with Queen's Bridge and Hills Out perspectively, Um,

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Speaker 1: these are things that already to have had a clear mission.

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Speaker 1: These are things that already had a clear purpose, had

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Speaker 1: an audience that they served, and had something that we

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Speaker 1: had set out to do. So, you know, it's always

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Speaker 1: you see a lot of people that are working with

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Speaker 1: different influencers or talent or celebrities even um and and

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Speaker 1: but it's it's it's really crucial to make sure that

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Speaker 1: you're intentional about who you kind of bring into the

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Speaker 1: fold and how they align with what it is that

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Speaker 1: you're doing. And it takes a certain level of understanding

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Speaker 1: and research and really trying to cater to what it

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Speaker 1: is that they are and what they're about, and who

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Speaker 1: they represent and what their personal missions are and how

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Speaker 1: what's already being built, whether it's a new company or

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Speaker 1: new effort or even us as individuals. So it's like,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of going back to Slawson and we

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Speaker 1: think about this company that we keep, we're kind of

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Speaker 1: aggregating a lot of the relationships that have that have

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Speaker 1: that have kind of luminaries in a similar way. But

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Speaker 1: now around the singular path of this is this is uh,

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Speaker 1: this is the way that we're going to tackle this

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Speaker 1: one um aspect of what the current problem is, if

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Speaker 1: you will, and how we're gonna be able to leverage

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Speaker 1: everybody's skills at and their followings um to be able

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Speaker 1: to achieve our mission. That makes a lot of sense.

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Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense. Awesome, we are you

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Speaker 1: trying to get in that? Uh? Well yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: you know, yeah, fortunately, I mean this guy is a

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Speaker 1: crazy relationship network on this one. On that side of things,

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Speaker 1: But um and and UH having spent time around Hollywood

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Speaker 1: and and UH just generally knows a lot of people

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Speaker 1: from a coffee shop. I guess that's what happens when

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Speaker 1: you own all the shop more than a coffee shop,

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Speaker 1: right right masters what they're doing. UM. So you know,

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Speaker 1: so so everything, you know, we have uh both of

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Speaker 1: culture that have that have that have been interested in

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Speaker 1: getting involved with what we're doing. And then and then

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Speaker 1: after that, you know, we have Pillon Valley luminaries that

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Speaker 1: are excited about the work we're doing. UH. For example,

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Speaker 1: Ron Conway from SB angel As UH has been a

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Speaker 1: fantastic mentor um uh as we started to build this firm. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, he's been extremely helpful and insightful UH with

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Speaker 1: you know, just for us, you know, to think about

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Speaker 1: how we want to get going and get our putting

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Speaker 1: the door um with people that we're trying to get

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Speaker 1: in touch with. So, you know, when I think about

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Speaker 1: outside of people or influencers, again, it comes to that

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Speaker 1: the company we keep um uh and and and we'd

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Speaker 1: love to have more and more people involved that that

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Speaker 1: are aligned with Now it's amazing. I love what you're

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Speaker 1: bringing together, bringing together hip hop Hollywood production, Silicon Valley,

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Speaker 1: you know, all all in one mix to give something

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Speaker 1: back to the community. I think it's incredible. Um. So,

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Speaker 1: so Austin, let's let's double click on you then for

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Speaker 1: for a little bit. You know, you've been a seasoned

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Speaker 1: investor for for a long time, um, and it spent

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Speaker 1: a lot of time learning, learning the expertise and a

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Speaker 1: lot of different sectors with with a specific focus on

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Speaker 1: small businesses and technologies and empower small businesses. Uh. So,

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Speaker 1: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more,

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Speaker 1: um about when you're assessing companies to give him a deal.

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Speaker 1: You know, a lot of people listening in the afroteg audience,

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Speaker 1: a lot of people got companies here. They're looking for funding,

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Speaker 1: they're looking for advice. UM, could you could you drop

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Speaker 1: a little bit of knowledge here about when you're assessing companies,

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Speaker 1: what are you looking for? Sure? Sure? So we we

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Speaker 1: uh first and foremost, we look for alignment, right like, um,

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Speaker 1: we're we're we're missing driven in a lot of ways

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Speaker 1: in terms of uh, you know, we think about economic

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Speaker 1: inclusion um and so we you know, we think about

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Speaker 1: everybody and making sure that they're that we're properly represented UM.

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Speaker 1: But in terms of like practically one of the things

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Speaker 1: that you should highlight when you when you reach out

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Speaker 1: to us UM, for one, like, we want to know

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Speaker 1: who we're going to be working with, Like, so we

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Speaker 1: want to know the team, have an understanding of the

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Speaker 1: people UM their motivation or why they UM, why they're

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Speaker 1: doing this business. UM. You know, entrepreneur entrepreneurship are doing

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Speaker 1: a startup, high growth startup. It's tremendously hard, as you

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Speaker 1: well know, Aaron, Like it's it's uh, it's not it's

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Speaker 1: not for the same a part. And so we want

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Speaker 1: to know why. We want to know, like why you're

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Speaker 1: you're crazy enough to go after this idea UM versus

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Speaker 1: like you know, a particularly at the earlier stages, you

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Speaker 1: could you could find a job that would be paying

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Speaker 1: you a lot more and and check out at five

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Speaker 1: o'clock and you know, and and and have a much

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Speaker 1: quote unquote easier life and whatnot. But oftentimes what I

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Speaker 1: found with startup founders like they're deeply motivated by something

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Speaker 1: and and we want to have a really good sense

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Speaker 1: of what that is and and and where they're trying

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Speaker 1: to take it. UM. The other thing we look for,

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Speaker 1: you know, is just the team holistically, So we look

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Speaker 1: at the founding team, but like, who have they been

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Speaker 1: able to attract? Are their investors or advisors or you know,

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Speaker 1: we don't and we don't definitely don't require people to

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Speaker 1: have had investments already. UM. We invested the precede and

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Speaker 1: seed stage. UM. So we recognize the disparity that occur

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Speaker 1: in our community. UM. In a lot of cases, we

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Speaker 1: know that like you didn't have the hundred fifty thousand

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Speaker 1: dollar friends and family round. Uh, they got you to

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Speaker 1: a place where you know, yeah, of course I have

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Speaker 1: two thousand paying users because I was able to acquire

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Speaker 1: them with extra seventy dollars you know, advertising. UM, we

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Speaker 1: know that people don't have that sometimes. So uh, the

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Speaker 1: thing that you'll you'll you probably won't hear from us

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Speaker 1: is like the company is too early, you know, it

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Speaker 1: might not be a fit or you know, we see

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Speaker 1: a lot of companies, so we're only gonna take the

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Speaker 1: top call it one per cent of companies we see,

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Speaker 1: but it's not because you're not far enough along. Um.

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Speaker 1: And so with that, you know, we're trying to hear

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Speaker 1: from from everybody who who sees what we're about um

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Speaker 1: UM and I could talk a little bit more about

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Speaker 1: the categories if if you want about like where we

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Speaker 1: where we see opportunity and hope we invest. Yeah. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So say I'm at Afro Tech and I've recently founded

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Speaker 1: a company, and I'm trying to determine whether or not

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Speaker 1: i should pitch. You tell me some things that I

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Speaker 1: should be thinking about. Sure, So again, we're driven by

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Speaker 1: a mission of economic inclusion. Uh. The two categories are

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Speaker 1: two areas that we think are sort of most interesting

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Speaker 1: represent us in our network. Uh. First is tools, technologies

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Speaker 1: and platforms that support small businesses UM. So we look

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Speaker 1: at a lot of SMB tech UM. If you're building

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Speaker 1: and your primary customers small business owners, Uh, then we'll

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Speaker 1: be excited to chat with. The second is culturally relevant

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Speaker 1: consumer products and services. On the consumer side, we're looking

430
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:37,080
Speaker 1: at everything from you know, tech platforms uh to tech

431
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,239
Speaker 1: enabled A J's done a phenomenal job and what they

432
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,680
Speaker 1: did with Queensbridge investing in companies like Bring and pill Pack,

433
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,919
Speaker 1: Lift and UM and and and lots of others. Uh.

434
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 1: You know we we so it could be that, but

435
00:21:50,359 --> 00:21:52,800
Speaker 1: then also we're looking at people that just want to

436
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:56,040
Speaker 1: scale other businesses that may not that may be tech enabled,

437
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,679
Speaker 1: but aren't like tech at the center of it. So

438
00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:02,479
Speaker 1: we're excited for for any company that's looking to become

439
00:22:02,760 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 1: a category leader in basically either of those two categories.

440
00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:09,280
Speaker 1: And the reason why we're excited by that is both

441
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 1: represents the economic inclusion driver UM with small businesses. It's

442
00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:17,439
Speaker 1: the primary way that that that our community creates wealth.

443
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 1: And then on the culturally relevant, you know, you've got

444
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:23,199
Speaker 1: to be of the culture to understand the problem, and

445
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 1: then probably you hire more people of the culture in

446
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 1: order to to to liver on that solution. Um uh.

447
00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 1: And then so and if the company wins, then lots

448
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:36,359
Speaker 1: of people uh, you know, are able to to to

449
00:22:36,359 --> 00:22:40,040
Speaker 1: to succeed in group the financial benefits of that as well. UM.

450
00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:42,760
Speaker 1: So that's how we think about economic conclusion. That's how

451
00:22:42,800 --> 00:22:45,360
Speaker 1: we think about where the opportunities and then you know,

452
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: in many cases both of them are drastically underserved by

453
00:22:49,040 --> 00:22:53,120
Speaker 1: the traditional venture community SMB text s, scenary that starting

454
00:22:53,240 --> 00:22:54,879
Speaker 1: have a few people that are looking at it, but

455
00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,240
Speaker 1: certainly I've never seen a fund that's really dedicated to

456
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:02,239
Speaker 1: this UM areas. And then on the you know, on

457
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,680
Speaker 1: the consumer side, like, like, you know, you need people

458
00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: that have the authentic connection and the understanding UH in

459
00:23:08,840 --> 00:23:11,320
Speaker 1: order to to to really get behind it. I've seen

460
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:15,119
Speaker 1: too many people like pitch companies to vcs. Were like,

461
00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,320
Speaker 1: you just have a whole lot of work to do

462
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:19,160
Speaker 1: to bring them up to speed on even with the

463
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,920
Speaker 1: challenges that you're trying to solve your trip. You can

464
00:23:21,960 --> 00:23:27,520
Speaker 1: tell me if you're familiar with that challenge here with UH,

465
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 1: wouldn't up? Um? No, that makes that makes a lot

466
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,080
Speaker 1: of sense though, and so so so just to recap

467
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:40,720
Speaker 1: and you know we're real reductive here, but but small business, enablement,

468
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 1: technology and culturally relevant consumer. Right, So say I find

469
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:47,000
Speaker 1: myself into one of those categories, right, I know that

470
00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:50,240
Speaker 1: I'm building a great thing. Um, but I've never pitched.

471
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:52,840
Speaker 1: I've never pitched a VC before. I'm looking at the

472
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:55,320
Speaker 1: two of you. You seem friendly, a couple of brothers,

473
00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:57,800
Speaker 1: you know, people of color, like you know, people that

474
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:00,480
Speaker 1: that that I can resonate with. Um, what's the best

475
00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:03,199
Speaker 1: way that I should that I should step to you? UM? Like,

476
00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:05,439
Speaker 1: what what do you look for in in in a

477
00:24:05,480 --> 00:24:08,760
Speaker 1: cold outreach? Are you looking for a deck, a whole memo,

478
00:24:09,119 --> 00:24:11,720
Speaker 1: a model, you're looking for a high level summary, like like,

479
00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,280
Speaker 1: what is literally the best way for somebody from our

480
00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: community to approach you with an idea? Sure? So um? Uh,

481
00:24:20,720 --> 00:24:23,120
Speaker 1: First of all, you could email us, meet us at

482
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: slows and dot co um is the is like a

483
00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 1: broader email, so you can you can you can just

484
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: email us directly. But what you should include in that

485
00:24:31,840 --> 00:24:35,760
Speaker 1: and what you should talk about is UH is exactly

486
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,680
Speaker 1: you know what the problem is that you're solving, while

487
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,160
Speaker 1: you need to qualified to solve it and basically where

488
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,639
Speaker 1: you are UM. You know, you have new customers, you

489
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 1: have uh, some momentum behind you. What is it that

490
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:50,880
Speaker 1: you've you've been able to accomplish? UM? But I think

491
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,960
Speaker 1: that you know also the context that I want to

492
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,879
Speaker 1: give for us, but broadly that I think will be

493
00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,240
Speaker 1: more helpful to the entire audience listening to this is

494
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:04,919
Speaker 1: when you approach any VC, UM, realize that that that

495
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 1: between the time that they first meet you and the

496
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:12,159
Speaker 1: time that they typically make an investment in or or

497
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:15,399
Speaker 1: commitment to invest in your company, they've probably spent a

498
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:20,000
Speaker 1: cumulative three hours and face to face conversations with you,

499
00:25:20,320 --> 00:25:23,600
Speaker 1: which is not a whole lot of data to give

500
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 1: you know, to say, all right, basically, I've known you

501
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,520
Speaker 1: for three hours and you're gonna cut you a check

502
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,440
Speaker 1: for a million bucks. Like you know, it's it does

503
00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:33,320
Speaker 1: seem kind of crazy because it is a little crazy,

504
00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:37,199
Speaker 1: but um, but the reality is, um, we have so

505
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,480
Speaker 1: few data points, so everything that every data point we

506
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,520
Speaker 1: get means a whole lot to us. So that's why

507
00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,879
Speaker 1: you see a lot of vcs that require the warm intro.

508
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 1: The reality is it does mean something. Somebody is introduced

509
00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: to me by somebody I know. If Aaron said it

510
00:25:52,080 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 1: reaches out to me and says, hey, you know, here's

511
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:57,320
Speaker 1: this company. I've known this this this founder for the

512
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:00,159
Speaker 1: last two years. They've been working through this idea and

513
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:02,520
Speaker 1: I love the progress that they have. I know what

514
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,080
Speaker 1: you're about, and I think it would fit that means

515
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:08,159
Speaker 1: something to me. That's a significant signal. I'm relying on

516
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,920
Speaker 1: the information that Aaron knows the trusted source of mind. Um.

517
00:26:12,040 --> 00:26:16,160
Speaker 1: So as it's as frustrating as it is to hear

518
00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 1: other vcs talk about, oh, only approach me with a

519
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,920
Speaker 1: warm intro, um best probably provides a little bit more

520
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,960
Speaker 1: context and as to why that's required. But with that said,

521
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: lots of people are able to get in touch with

522
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,159
Speaker 1: with with vcs, with us or with other people. I

523
00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 1: mean through everything from social media. You're hitting people upside

524
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 1: in the d M just talking about what you're about. Hey,

525
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:42,600
Speaker 1: I just saw you tweet about you know, uh, hair

526
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: care products and how big of a market that is.

527
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,199
Speaker 1: Let me you know I'm working on something. Would you'd

528
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,919
Speaker 1: be interested in me sending you over deck? UM? But

529
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:54,080
Speaker 1: just know the the ideal thing is that you talk

530
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: to them and and what and you speak to what

531
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: you know about them specifically, rather than just give them

532
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 1: blankets email to everybody. That's great advice. That's great advice.

533
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:05,160
Speaker 1: So just to just to recap what I heard, just

534
00:27:05,160 --> 00:27:07,160
Speaker 1: just for the audience to make it clear. So get

535
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:10,600
Speaker 1: a war mentor if you can. UM. Also recognizing you're

536
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:12,760
Speaker 1: not always going to be able to UM. And then

537
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,280
Speaker 1: either way, when you approach, you want to make sure

538
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: that it includes what the problem is that they're solving,

539
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: why they're uniquely qualified to solve it, and what have

540
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: they done to date that proves that it's working? Right?

541
00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:33,440
Speaker 1: Am I writing in I recap awesome three paragraphs? Those

542
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,000
Speaker 1: are the three paragraphs that you write two to three

543
00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,439
Speaker 1: sentences in each paragraph and and maybe a catch or

544
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,159
Speaker 1: deck but not even required. Amazing, amazing, and and I

545
00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,200
Speaker 1: would echo that in terms of my experience with venture

546
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:47,600
Speaker 1: capital as well. UM. You know, a lot of times

547
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,959
Speaker 1: that's that's the that's the look, that's the opportunity, and

548
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:51,240
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that that you get it

549
00:27:51,320 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 1: right in that first email. UM. So now now pivoting

550
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:56,879
Speaker 1: away from that a little bit, UM, I want to

551
00:27:56,920 --> 00:27:59,600
Speaker 1: talk about just what it's like to not just to

552
00:27:59,840 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: in vest in companies, but it's like to actually start,

553
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:05,360
Speaker 1: um a venture capital firm. Uh. There's been a lot

554
00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: of conversation, um about about investing in black communities. Uh.

555
00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,680
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of a lot of lip service, um,

556
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: but by a lot of mainstream institutions, by a lot

557
00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:19,360
Speaker 1: of white lead institutions, about investing in communities of color. Uh.

558
00:28:19,400 --> 00:28:21,520
Speaker 1: And we've seen a little bit attraction happening too in

559
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:25,639
Speaker 1: terms of seeing some capital start to move. UM. Not

560
00:28:25,800 --> 00:28:27,879
Speaker 1: near not near close to enough. But but you know,

561
00:28:27,920 --> 00:28:30,040
Speaker 1: we're we're just we're just getting started here. UM. And

562
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 1: I know that you're you were recently selected by both

563
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,720
Speaker 1: Alpaca and and PayPal. UM just saw that announcement congratulations

564
00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:41,000
Speaker 1: by the way, UM, um as as UM you know

565
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:42,840
Speaker 1: as a with A with a few other kind of

566
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:46,840
Speaker 1: dozen UM fund led by diverse fund managers. UM. So

567
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:49,479
Speaker 1: that's amazing, amazing that you were able to broke these

568
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 1: partnerships and you're able to secure relationships with with LPs

569
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: or limited partners which are investors in in venture capital firms.

570
00:28:56,640 --> 00:28:59,800
Speaker 1: So I was wondering, UM, now switching gears away from companies,

571
00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 1: but for the second but for the people in the

572
00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:05,240
Speaker 1: AVERAGEK community that are considering maybe raising their own venture

573
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: capital firm one day, UM breaking into that, how can

574
00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 1: emerging venture capital managers better stand out? What are what

575
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:15,320
Speaker 1: are some of the things that that emerging VC should

576
00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:17,840
Speaker 1: should be thinking about before they go out and try

577
00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: to raise their version of Sausa and co. Sure, first

578
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,760
Speaker 1: of all, I encourage it, UM, you know, we we

579
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 1: we'd love to see more funds doing this work. And

580
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,160
Speaker 1: I guarantee there's you know, enough pive for all of

581
00:29:32,240 --> 00:29:37,640
Speaker 1: us to eat. And and the reality is like there's

582
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 1: a it's a hard thing to do and and and

583
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,120
Speaker 1: in a very expensive endeavor as well. UM, you know,

584
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:49,040
Speaker 1: if you're an emerging manager, I remember Charles Hudson who

585
00:29:49,040 --> 00:29:52,520
Speaker 1: worked at Precursor, who have a tremendous amount of respect

586
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:57,920
Speaker 1: for UM as like a black lead GP, I mean

587
00:29:58,040 --> 00:30:02,120
Speaker 1: black lead VC fund that you know, broke a lot

588
00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:03,960
Speaker 1: of ground for a lot of us that are trying

589
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 1: to make a name in the industry. Um. You know,

590
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 1: Charles first told me, like, you know, be prepared to

591
00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:14,360
Speaker 1: not take a salary for eighteen months and like and

592
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:17,600
Speaker 1: you know, and that's, uh, that's something that most people

593
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: couldn't stomach. For that matter, I couldn't stomach, uh, you know,

594
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: being totally candy. UM. And I was foolish enough to

595
00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: say to myself, Um, well, if the average person does

596
00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: it in eighteen months, I could do it in nine.

597
00:30:36,320 --> 00:30:40,520
Speaker 1: And I was completely wrong. And so you know, the

598
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:44,000
Speaker 1: reality is like, like, it's a it's a it's a

599
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,480
Speaker 1: hard process, uh, to to start your own fund. UM.

600
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:53,360
Speaker 1: But the benefit is now is that you have a

601
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,240
Speaker 1: lot of different institutions that are waking up to the

602
00:30:56,280 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 1: fact that our perspectives are totally under repert been in

603
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 1: category and that there's a phenomenal investment opportunity associated. So

604
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: when I think about like investment opportunities and and how

605
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,080
Speaker 1: you position the fund, of course, you gotta talk about

606
00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: differentiating yourself. If you ever need to to distill the

607
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: myth that there's too many diversity funds, you could point

608
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:25,560
Speaker 1: them to my blog posts that that air In referenced earlier. Um.

609
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: But but but more than anything, you know, just just

610
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 1: lean into your authentic self and the things that you know,

611
00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:34,320
Speaker 1: the things you appreciate. Yeah, and I think one of

612
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,080
Speaker 1: the things that we were actually talking about earlier today was,

613
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 1: you know, starting a venture capital fund is not that

614
00:31:39,520 --> 00:31:41,680
Speaker 1: much deffer than starting a startup. Right, you still need

615
00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,080
Speaker 1: to go out and put out what is the problem

616
00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:46,720
Speaker 1: that you're solving for? Um, why are you you need

617
00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:50,480
Speaker 1: to be um capable or the person or one of

618
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: the people that are going to go out and to

619
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: solve it. How are you gonna be successful? You still

620
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,520
Speaker 1: need to go out and find your lawyers. I need

621
00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:57,600
Speaker 1: to find out who's gonna do all your accounting and

622
00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:01,760
Speaker 1: bookkeeping and administrative work. So um, Yeah, I think it's

623
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,440
Speaker 1: often overlooked when it kind of goes into what kind

624
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: of goes into it for us to just get to

625
00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 1: get to the starting point, because we've been laying that.

626
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 1: I remember when Austin called me like put my job

627
00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 1: and I was like, nobody to do that. We're not,

628
00:32:16,480 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: I don't are we there yet? Okay, let's let's do it.

629
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:21,280
Speaker 1: And you know, but it's that kind of commitment that

630
00:32:21,320 --> 00:32:24,120
Speaker 1: you need to have, and it's like, obviously we both

631
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,680
Speaker 1: have our independent track record of things that we've done,

632
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:29,600
Speaker 1: but you know, for all intensive purposes, we were considered

633
00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,040
Speaker 1: first time plan managers because we haven't done it together.

634
00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: So that the other thing that it's worth mentioning and highlighting.

635
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:36,479
Speaker 1: This kind of goes back to the previous question as

636
00:32:36,520 --> 00:32:38,840
Speaker 1: well as the current question is like who is the

637
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 1: team and who are you doing this with? And you know,

638
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:43,720
Speaker 1: what is the track record of the team and working

639
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 1: together and why is everybody there uniquely qualified um to

640
00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:49,760
Speaker 1: to kind of create the type of chemistry that's kind

641
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:52,520
Speaker 1: of show that type of success. We need to talk

642
00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:56,280
Speaker 1: about like like how we thought about our unique position

643
00:32:56,360 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 1: and even yeah, I mean when we when we're when

644
00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:03,400
Speaker 1: we were first talking about putting upun together, you're looking

645
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:06,040
Speaker 1: at awesome skills that uniquely you know, the success that

646
00:33:06,080 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: needs A in the B two B in the enterprise

647
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 1: space and then mind more so in the consumer space,

648
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,320
Speaker 1: and then looking even at the complementary networks and the

649
00:33:12,320 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: reach that we have, whether it's within the tech of

650
00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:19,040
Speaker 1: the philanthropy community, or the entertainment or the hospitality community,

651
00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: down to the political community. And then as we think

652
00:33:21,400 --> 00:33:23,959
Speaker 1: about building out our advisor network, which is another thing

653
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,920
Speaker 1: that startup founders should be thinking about, enrolling people into

654
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,480
Speaker 1: joining them and donating their time and their um and

655
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: their skill sets and their own rollotex is. It just

656
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 1: comes down to who are these strategic partnerships, whether it's

657
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:37,400
Speaker 1: on a day to day we're gonna be working on this,

658
00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 1: or the people that are kind of aligned with your

659
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:42,239
Speaker 1: mission um and then how does that complement each other

660
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:44,160
Speaker 1: because you don't want to there's really not that much

661
00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,920
Speaker 1: use of people coming from the same advantage point. You

662
00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,320
Speaker 1: need to be able to challenge each other's viewpoints and

663
00:33:49,400 --> 00:33:51,960
Speaker 1: you need to have conviction in different ways. And part

664
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: of what we need to do it's you know, we're

665
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:55,320
Speaker 1: we're in the business of meeting, and we're gonna meet

666
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,320
Speaker 1: probably the minute that these announcements start to go live.

667
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,040
Speaker 1: We're gonna get a flood of people emailing, especially your

668
00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:06,560
Speaker 1: email edit, people that are like and we it's our

669
00:34:06,680 --> 00:34:10,160
Speaker 1: job to have a filter and have you know, complimentary

670
00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:12,960
Speaker 1: skills to use the best judgment to get to uh

671
00:34:13,239 --> 00:34:17,280
Speaker 1: get to it. Yes, awesome, awesome, fantastic, fantastic that email

672
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:25,480
Speaker 1: addresses meet us at SLAUS and Gmail. Okay, yeah, awesome, awesome, awesome.

673
00:34:25,600 --> 00:34:29,560
Speaker 1: So so so before we wrap, UM, you know, one

674
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:31,399
Speaker 1: of the things that I've that I've seen a lot

675
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,840
Speaker 1: um some of the best best investors that I know, UM,

676
00:34:34,880 --> 00:34:37,560
Speaker 1: both vcas and and kind of broader, I have a

677
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:40,879
Speaker 1: big perspective about where the world is going, UM, and

678
00:34:40,880 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 1: and that that that perspective oftentimes informs how you place

679
00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,719
Speaker 1: your bets on companies. UM. So I was wondering, you know,

680
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:50,239
Speaker 1: to close, if you could each you to share with

681
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 1: me your vision, UM, what's gonna happen over the next

682
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:56,919
Speaker 1: couple of decades in the world that is influencing how

683
00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,879
Speaker 1: you're going to be making your investment decisions. I think

684
00:34:59,880 --> 00:35:04,440
Speaker 1: the the difference between the last decade and this upcoming

685
00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:14,279
Speaker 1: decade um, UM, one of the biggest changes will be

686
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:20,439
Speaker 1: this idea of of of of this position of neutrality.

687
00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:25,760
Speaker 1: UM that the last decade sort of planet a flag

688
00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 1: and stood behind and it was it was all of

689
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:34,040
Speaker 1: the biggest platforms are saying we don't send for anything.

690
00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,400
Speaker 1: We want, you know, to be a platform for everybody

691
00:35:38,440 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: else to say what they want to do, what they want,

692
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:46,439
Speaker 1: actually want and we are technology providers. UM not gonna

693
00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 1: cut it going forward. UM people are gonna use uh

694
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 1: and and and support the products and services that are

695
00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:58,640
Speaker 1: aligned with their value. And there's gonna be so much

696
00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:02,759
Speaker 1: more transparency around what the values of the company, but

697
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 1: the values of a founder, you know, and what the

698
00:36:05,280 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: values of a team are people are gonna align with

699
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:12,560
Speaker 1: them and and so the biggest change that I see

700
00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:16,880
Speaker 1: is you know, people having more variety and aligning themselves

701
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:19,880
Speaker 1: with products and services that are built for them and

702
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 1: then just getting this before um and and and you

703
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:28,560
Speaker 1: know there, I just don't think you're gonna hear too

704
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,560
Speaker 1: many more announcements about you know, company wide policies of

705
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:37,239
Speaker 1: you know, no public policy stances or anything like that.

706
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:41,560
Speaker 1: I think that started to break with everybody announcing that

707
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: black lives matter, uh, you know on their social media.

708
00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 1: But but but beyond that, it's it's it's gonna be like,

709
00:36:49,760 --> 00:36:52,920
Speaker 1: where do you as a company stand on this issue?

710
00:36:53,200 --> 00:36:56,600
Speaker 1: Um and And it's not just policy politics about it's

711
00:36:56,640 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 1: about representations I think that to add to that, it's

712
00:37:00,200 --> 00:37:03,080
Speaker 1: really you know, the brand that people are gonna be

713
00:37:03,120 --> 00:37:05,600
Speaker 1: building and speaking of these communities and teaching people how

714
00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,239
Speaker 1: to think and talk about what it is that they

715
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 1: do in such a unique way. Um. You know. I

716
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:12,760
Speaker 1: think as things have been like over the last decade,

717
00:37:12,760 --> 00:37:14,880
Speaker 1: been more broad, you're gonna start to see more. You're

718
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,080
Speaker 1: already seeing a more nitche communities like the ones that

719
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:19,560
Speaker 1: you guys are building, um, and people that are hyper

720
00:37:19,560 --> 00:37:21,880
Speaker 1: focused on serving those communities in a meaningful way. It's

721
00:37:21,960 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 1: more of a inch wide and a mile deep rather

722
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:26,480
Speaker 1: than like, let's spray and pray and see how many

723
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:29,760
Speaker 1: users we can acquire, but you know, not making money

724
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: because we're just generally generally trying to acquire anybody that

725
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:48,719
Speaker 1: gives a shit about what we're talking about. Black Tack

726
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,800
Speaker 1: Green Money is the production of Black of the Afro

727
00:37:50,960 --> 00:37:54,719
Speaker 1: Tech in Black Effect podcast Network and iHeart Media. Was

728
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:59,280
Speaker 1: produced by Morgan Dabon and me Lucas. Did this productive

729
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:03,279
Speaker 1: supported by Love Be to Marissa Lewis. Special thank you

730
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,239
Speaker 1: to Michael Davis. Jermaine Hall is a car Savon jan

731
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,040
Speaker 1: you know, like the one. Yes that's his real name.

732
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:12,400
Speaker 1: Learn more about my guests and other tech disrupts. The

733
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,120
Speaker 1: Innovator is an afrotech dot com and if you enjoy

734
00:38:15,160 --> 00:38:17,319
Speaker 1: your black tech green money, leave us a five star

735
00:38:17,400 --> 00:38:22,560
Speaker 1: rating on iTunes. Go get your money. Piece of love,