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Speaker 1: Term sheets Afro Tech miniseries available on YouTube about venture capital.

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Speaker 1: In New York City, February, I'm talking to my Issia League,

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Speaker 1: head of Founder and Studio Operations, a human ventures adventure fund,

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Speaker 1: part studio, part enterprise agency. Midway through our conversation in

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Speaker 1: her Park Avenue office, I asked Mysia about the opportunity

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Speaker 1: she might see for startups not situated in a major

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Speaker 1: tech hub to ultimately find success and what needs to

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Speaker 1: happen in the ecosystem to ensure it. It's our game

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Speaker 1: to lose invariably, right, what will happen is you can't

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Speaker 1: stop a person on a mission with a clear vision.

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Speaker 1: It is like a freight train. You can't stop it,

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Speaker 1: right'll it'll take them longer to get there if they're

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Speaker 1: not network and all that, but you can't stop it,

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Speaker 1: and it's really our game to lose. I think that

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Speaker 1: venture itself as a as a space UM is not

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Speaker 1: as wanted as it once was. It's not as admired

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Speaker 1: as it once was. People are getting more and more

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Speaker 1: creative at what it takes to fund their companies UM,

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Speaker 1: and so really I would flip the question the real

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Speaker 1: concern or the real urgency is on the part of

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Speaker 1: investors and whether or not they are racing to get there,

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Speaker 1: because those folks are going to build, right like that,

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Speaker 1: just like it's not what it was twenty years ago, right,

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Speaker 1: they have the capability to build. And I want to

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Speaker 1: encourage those folks, those founders in Oklahoma, in Philadelphia, Mississippi,

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Speaker 1: you know, in Dayton, Ohio, to like, yes, it's hard, right,

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Speaker 1: it's harder to find capital, it's hard to find people

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Speaker 1: you want to collaborate with, but it's not the end

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Speaker 1: of the world. People in New York are building offshore

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Speaker 1: engineering teams. That means that people in date In, Ohio

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Speaker 1: can too. And those offshore engineering team teams are cheaper

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Speaker 1: than you can find New York in San Francisco, which

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Speaker 1: means they're also cheaper for you in date In, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: You follow like it's it's just a whole new world.

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Speaker 1: And if you believe that your product, your technology should

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Speaker 1: live in the world, there is a a to get there.

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Speaker 1: There are coal hugs and communities in Denver, Colorado. Right,

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Speaker 1: there's a community and built in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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Speaker 1: Like that's what's happening because smart people are waking up

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Speaker 1: with the fact that that you guys are out there

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Speaker 1: and that it's arguing us if we don't get in it,

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Speaker 1: we should be rushing. Uh, we should be rushing to you. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think that that would be the case for for

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Speaker 1: a period of time and and and you can't encourage

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Speaker 1: people to do the smart thing. We just set to

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Speaker 1: figure it out. And that's what I mean that to

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Speaker 1: investors who are overlooking those communities. I'm Will Lucas and

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Speaker 1: this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna answer this

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Speaker 1: you to some of the biggest names, some of the

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Speaker 1: brightest minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building

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Speaker 1: or simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast

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Speaker 1: is for you. Jeff O Sugi is a serial entrepreneur

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Speaker 1: and co founder at e Venu, are technology startup in

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Speaker 1: even ticketing platform based in Chicago that seeks to some

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Speaker 1: more and promote black enterprises and cultural events. It startup

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Speaker 1: recently wandered one million dollars started up contests. A large

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Speaker 1: part of the value proposition is that for every ticket

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Speaker 1: sold on their platform, a large percentage goes back into

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Speaker 1: communities and nonprofits working to uplift those communities. I used

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Speaker 1: to DJ so I was excited to speak with Jeff

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Speaker 1: since he's also an event promoter about his experience behind

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Speaker 1: the scenes went throwing events for black events, particularly, it

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Speaker 1: might be harder than you imagine going from an idea

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Speaker 1: for throwing a party to opening the doors at the

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Speaker 1: gate dust Lee. I wondered how Jeff thought building a

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Speaker 1: technology platform helps to stave off the discrimination that happens

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Speaker 1: behind closed doors. One of the things that we found

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Speaker 1: out hosting events refits two years, especially in the Metroro

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Speaker 1: area urban area. Right. Um, we found you know, most

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Speaker 1: of us in terms of black folks, we didn't own

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Speaker 1: any of the venues downtown, so we're going to try

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Speaker 1: to get those venues for events. You get those questions

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Speaker 1: like Okay, what kind of crowd is gonna be? Right, Uh, okay,

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Speaker 1: who's gonna be And um, you show up and they

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Speaker 1: find out you are black. Neither get charged to the

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Speaker 1: higher rental as some of the premier spots. We wanted

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Speaker 1: to get an opportunity to the party, they'll tell you

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Speaker 1: the date, it's not available, et cetera. Um, So it's

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Speaker 1: just a lot of frustration. We realized that we were

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Speaker 1: making the venues that we did partner with a lot

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Speaker 1: of money, but we owned those and we're making the

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Speaker 1: liquor brands that we help support a lot of money

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Speaker 1: and we own any of that. And so for us,

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Speaker 1: we just want to create a way for us to

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Speaker 1: own a piece of the event ecosystem because we know

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Speaker 1: the influence that like people have on arts, culture, entertainment,

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Speaker 1: especially as it as it relates to events. What would

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Speaker 1: you say, are something like the non obvious discriminatory practices

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Speaker 1: that might happen, like the things that the consumers may

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Speaker 1: not even realize they don't have the opportunity to take

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Speaker 1: advantage of because we don't have the opportunities in the

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Speaker 1: actual production space. Yeah, so if you this is one

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Speaker 1: thing that I always like to point out where we

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Speaker 1: talk about events and just around our colleagues and we're

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Speaker 1: getting ready to take group about thirty of us out

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Speaker 1: to dinner UH in the event space here in Chicago,

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Speaker 1: or getting a tour together just to UH speaks to

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Speaker 1: different event promoters. But think about this, if you go

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Speaker 1: to a party where it's predominantly Caucasian folks, they're never

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Speaker 1: you're never gonna hear somebody say, man, it needs to

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Speaker 1: be more diverse. In here. What we would hear during

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Speaker 1: our black events. We're like, man, can you guys don't

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Speaker 1: make a little bit more diverse, like you need, you know,

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Speaker 1: try to get some some some mighty folks and Latin

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Speaker 1: folks here. That's something that we never heard, you know

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Speaker 1: when we write other events where we were always the minority.

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Speaker 1: So you know here in Chicago where I'm from, i'd

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Speaker 1: say that when you get about twenty five thirty percent

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Speaker 1: of African American crowd in your party, all of a

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Speaker 1: sudden becomes a black party. And um, and so what

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Speaker 1: happens is you'll hear managers and owners of time say,

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Speaker 1: look a it's it's getting little. You know, we gotta stop.

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Speaker 1: You see doorman, stop letting in black people and using

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Speaker 1: the dress code. Um. So we see the all types

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Speaker 1: of things in our in our fifty years. And then

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Speaker 1: you get kicked off of nights as a promoter. They say, hey,

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Speaker 1: we're not gonna be able to business anymore. The neighbors

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Speaker 1: are complaining. Um. Of course we're catering to doctors, lawyers,

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Speaker 1: all professionals. So we hear complaints about neighbors complaining about

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Speaker 1: people being there. We know this just because they see

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Speaker 1: a group of black folks and they see us as

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Speaker 1: an eyesore. And so for us, again, we just knew

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Speaker 1: ownership was away and the first thing we thought about

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Speaker 1: was ticketing UM and really being able to own UM

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Speaker 1: that piece because we looked at the general market ticket

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Speaker 1: partners out there, we know that they weren't truly event partners.

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Speaker 1: They didn't do anything and support our events UM, And

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Speaker 1: we're like, you know what, what if we can start

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Speaker 1: to get the platform actually part of where people help

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Speaker 1: them get venues, but also just a central marketplace where

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Speaker 1: black people could find events wouldn't be welcomed and embraced

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Speaker 1: instead of being turned away at the door, uh, instead

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Speaker 1: of being told that they're uh not gonna be able

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Speaker 1: to get in, just a place where we can be ourselves.

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Speaker 1: I think we all have the experience as as black

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Speaker 1: folks when you get out of work and you want

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Speaker 1: to just be around people that look like you, oftentimes

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Speaker 1: you have to go searching UM here and here in

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Speaker 1: Chicago for instance, where I'm from, Uh, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: of great venues downtown that are upscaled, but in our neighborhoods,

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Speaker 1: you know, we don't have those rooftops, right we don't

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Speaker 1: have those uh super luxury events basis, and we've you know,

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Speaker 1: we've talked to some of the seed leaders about getting

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Speaker 1: those going. But we want to be able to direct

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Speaker 1: folks to places where they're gonna be embraced instead of

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Speaker 1: spending our money and uh venues and in places where

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Speaker 1: you know, we're just being tolerated. There's this quote, because

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Speaker 1: I do want to talk about the technology behind vent Noua,

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Speaker 1: but there's this quote before we do that. Um it

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Speaker 1: comes from Steve Jobs, and it says technology is nothing.

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Speaker 1: What's important is that you have faith in people that

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Speaker 1: they're basically good and smart and if you give them

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Speaker 1: the tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. And when

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Speaker 1: I think about what you've been doing, it's like you're

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Speaker 1: utilizing tech book, like you're not just building tech for

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Speaker 1: tech sake, like you do. We get to solve real

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Speaker 1: problems in the community. Could you speak to that a

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Speaker 1: hundred percent. When we first started out, we had the

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Speaker 1: uh the earliest, you know, the worst platform in the world,

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Speaker 1: and we're still far from where we want to be

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Speaker 1: where actually, uh you know, we just closed our free

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Speaker 1: seat l you're gonna see see around to really get

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Speaker 1: our technology we wanted to be. But for us, this

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Speaker 1: is one thing we knew. If you can move people,

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Speaker 1: you can move to the world. And so we knew

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Speaker 1: that we had an influence. UM and any given time

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Speaker 1: on the Friday night, if you can tell people to

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Speaker 1: go somewhere and you can put have five hundred people

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Speaker 1: pull up, there's power and influence in that. And so

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Speaker 1: for us, it was just all about praying that central

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Speaker 1: marketing place, at central place where people go and they

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Speaker 1: see any event on that platform, they know it's for us.

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Speaker 1: I had the experience traveling out of the town where

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Speaker 1: I go on UM say event right, amazing platform. When

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Speaker 1: I go there, I'm like, Okay, what's what's one of

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Speaker 1: these sponses for me? Right? Which one of my gonna

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Speaker 1: see some people that look like me? If I just

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Speaker 1: want to see some beautiful women, where am I gonna go?

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Speaker 1: And I couldn't tell, all right, And so I go.

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Speaker 1: When I was a york I said, Okay, what's going

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Speaker 1: on harm what's going on Brooklyn? I'm hoping I don't.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna see some more diversity there. So you know

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Speaker 1: we our plans are replicate just for the Latin next

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Speaker 1: communities for the We've already been approached by some LGBTQ

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Speaker 1: organizations here. Um, we all had that sense of want

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Speaker 1: to be like people, be around people where we can

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Speaker 1: create that sense of community. Uh. And so for us

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Speaker 1: from a from a tech perspective, we're working on some

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Speaker 1: things such as AI. We can be able to recommend

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Speaker 1: events for folks. But anytime somebody go out of the town,

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Speaker 1: they say, hey, Jeff, who's the Jeff of d C

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Speaker 1: New York Atlanta? And I just got tired of getting

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Speaker 1: these text messages. So I knew it was important for

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Speaker 1: us to create created platform for that. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: building the platform. You talked about how you know, non glamorous.

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Speaker 1: It was in the beginning, and so often, you know,

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Speaker 1: we think, especially because we already get discounted as black people,

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Speaker 1: building technologies and building platforms, that has got to be

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Speaker 1: beautiful by the time we launch. I'll talk about a

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Speaker 1: little bit about how we can get away. We're putting

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Speaker 1: up a WordPress site that does X, Y Z or

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Speaker 1: launching something you know on squares or whatever, but that

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Speaker 1: we don't have to go always and go hire engineers

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Speaker 1: or learn how to code, but we can get out

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Speaker 1: our data or m v P was using existing technologies. Definitely, definitely.

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Speaker 1: You know, I have a couple of friends and that

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Speaker 1: have some no code apps UM that they've been able

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Speaker 1: to build on. What's the bubble? That was a great

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Speaker 1: platform out there. Whether you already have so many templates

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Speaker 1: in any idea you think of, somebody has probably already

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Speaker 1: done it right. Ticket is not a novel idea, but

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Speaker 1: we have a twist on it that that's able to

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Speaker 1: serve our our communities needs UM And the most important

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Speaker 1: thing for us was that those the revenue that we

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Speaker 1: get from ticket fees were able to get that back

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Speaker 1: to our event partners and organizations we work with so

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Speaker 1: or keep that money within the black community. But you know,

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Speaker 1: for us, we had we did hire off shore developer

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Speaker 1: and India and they created the most horrible platform out

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Speaker 1: there luck to be tested on our events and we

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Speaker 1: had to scrap it within a couple of weeks. So

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Speaker 1: we we threw dollars down the drain when we first

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Speaker 1: started UM. And had I known that we could have

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Speaker 1: gone for a bubble or or gone to any of

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Speaker 1: these platforms out there, are actually part of with another

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Speaker 1: ticketing company the same way Jay z when it found

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Speaker 1: a Norwegian uh, you know, streaming platform that he purchased

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Speaker 1: forty million dollars and then rebrider his title. You know,

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Speaker 1: there's people out there who already have platforms that you're

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Speaker 1: working on and they might just work with you to

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Speaker 1: license it for us. We decided to build it from

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Speaker 1: for scratchers and needs a horrible, horrible decision um, because

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Speaker 1: y'all the times find these developers that are building your platforms,

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Speaker 1: some of them don't know what they're doing and they're oversell.

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Speaker 1: So I really encourage people to look at bubble Um,

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Speaker 1: to identify fid it and companies that are already doing

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Speaker 1: what you're doing and reach out to them and say, hey, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, can I leverage your technology uh and and

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Speaker 1: put a you know, leverage my marketing and my branding

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Speaker 1: to to do something a little bit different but still

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Speaker 1: create a win win. So you've got a little bit

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Speaker 1: of money now, congratulated on on the mountain do thing,

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Speaker 1: and so talk to me about what you learned about

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Speaker 1: how to hire technical talents as you have the capital

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Speaker 1: to do some of that. Now, Like, what did you

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Speaker 1: learn in the process of making those mistakes that you

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Speaker 1: can now have have as part of your tool kit

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Speaker 1: so that when you interview in technical tality, you know

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Speaker 1: how to ask these questions. So, as a CEO, as

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Speaker 1: a founder, your job once you have some funds just

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Speaker 1: to figure out how to hire people smarter than you. Right,

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Speaker 1: I'm not a tech founder. I'm somebody that's news to

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Speaker 1: the tech space. UM and so it's important for us

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Speaker 1: to be able to speak to individuals who can make

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Speaker 1: your products better. UM. So I interview the folks of

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Speaker 1: the biggest thing I'm looking for is people that can

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Speaker 1: tell me how wrong my platform is, how wrong my

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Speaker 1: technology is, and what are the possibilities of what it

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Speaker 1: could be. And of course looking at the experiences that

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Speaker 1: they've had. It's important for us to understand the user

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Speaker 1: experience of black consumers. You know, we are very active

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Speaker 1: users digitally and I've I've worked in digital marketing for years,

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Speaker 1: and we produce the internet differently, you know, we navigate

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Speaker 1: information differently. So it's important for us to hire folks

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Speaker 1: who understand the user experience UM and just how you

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Speaker 1: know black folks access to information and what we prefer UM.

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Speaker 1: So two things making sure that they have the experience

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Speaker 1: UM and working with similar types of the industries. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then then number two making sure that they understand

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Speaker 1: the black consumer because we're marketing to to black event

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Speaker 1: attendees and event organizers and they have unique needs. One

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Speaker 1: of the best things about us starting was that we

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Speaker 1: were our own customer. We tested the platform out on

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Speaker 1: ourselves for a year and a half before we released

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Speaker 1: it to anybody else. So a lot of the kinks

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Speaker 1: that we experienced, you know, that we knew about, we

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Speaker 1: were able to jump ahead of. And so we're actually

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Speaker 1: almost finished building out the third iteration of the platform,

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Speaker 1: which released the next month, and it just really has

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Speaker 1: all the feed that we got from ourselves, but everything

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Speaker 1: we took to learn and during the pandemic um talking

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Speaker 1: to our our consumers, So making sure that person has

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Speaker 1: real world experience, and you know, it really has the proof.

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Speaker 1: Because everybody's gonna sell you, especially devs, on what they

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Speaker 1: can do. They all say they can do everything. So

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Speaker 1: and from the other side at the table, you know

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Speaker 1: a lot of developers are in high demand. Like these

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Speaker 1: people can go a lot of different places, especially the

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Speaker 1: good ones, the ones that you're talking about trying to

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Speaker 1: recruit and retain. What is the cell, Like, what is

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Speaker 1: the big idea that you found that gives people say,

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Speaker 1: you know what, Yeah, I got these other offers, but

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Speaker 1: I'm rocking with you. Um from our perspective, you know,

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Speaker 1: you know, equities of borting, all right, So we're looking

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Speaker 1: for people that want to be a part of the

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Speaker 1: law around on the journey for the Law Hall. And

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Speaker 1: so we're actually looking for a developer right now, and

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Speaker 1: we're looking for somebody that wants to understands where we

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Speaker 1: can go and we were trying to go. We're talking

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Speaker 1: about five ten years down the road. We're not just

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Speaker 1: looking to be an event platform. We want to be

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Speaker 1: the BT of events for selling merchandise. Right. We realized

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Speaker 1: during COVID we have to have incremental revenue streams. We're

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Speaker 1: launching the subscription based model. People don't just want to

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Speaker 1: have ticketing and access to more capital. They want they

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Speaker 1: want to know about how they can get more sponsorship

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Speaker 1: for their events. They understand how they can build a

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Speaker 1: six figure event. I mean, you guys have done amazing

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Speaker 1: things with after Protect. It's it's a place you have

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Speaker 1: to be if you're in the tech space, right, um,

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Speaker 1: b T you have to go to the BT awards.

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Speaker 1: If you're an entertainment you want a network. And so

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Speaker 1: we're trying to help event organizers become smarter along with UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, selling tickets and getting a piece of their

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Speaker 1: their fees. So UM it's importing they had somebody that's

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Speaker 1: there for the long call, somebody that UM for me.

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Speaker 1: I like when people say, hey, you know what, I'll

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Speaker 1: take a little bit less money because I want equally

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Speaker 1: I want to I want to get money on the

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Speaker 1: back end because it shows us that they understand the

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Speaker 1: business and understand what the real opportunity is here. You know,

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Speaker 1: I think about UM, I have this oculus right, and

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Speaker 1: so I've read stories about oculus and like in the future,

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Speaker 1: like you'll be able to sit courtside at an NBA

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Speaker 1: game and not even be at the game, but you

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Speaker 1: got your you save it's on. And I wonder your

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Speaker 1: thoughts on how the future of events might look. And therefore,

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Speaker 1: where does event and new our play when artificial and

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Speaker 1: artific when virtual reality, augmented reality I'm sorry, become more

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Speaker 1: prevalent and accessible for consumers to be able to take

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Speaker 1: advantage of UM real real world. In any other case,

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Speaker 1: UM Entertainment, it's it's super important that in the future

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Speaker 1: we have a super hybrid platform that can leverage um,

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Speaker 1: you know, digital events, but just from a founder experience

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Speaker 1: where my co founders and I are. One thing we

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Speaker 1: realized during the pandemic was that there's nothing that can

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Speaker 1: replace it in person event. Uh and so you no,

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Speaker 1: down the line, we're definitely gonna have that the AI piece,

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Speaker 1: but sitting down with somebody looking into our eyes, being

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Speaker 1: able to dance with somebody, being able to to talk

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Speaker 1: to a DJ for question your favorite song, those are

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Speaker 1: experiences you can't mimic in the in the digital space.

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Speaker 1: UMS don't always like that, by the way, they hate it, right,

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Speaker 1: they hated, but just big able to get that, get

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Speaker 1: that frown from them, like and so get away right Like,

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Speaker 1: there's nothing that can replace that. I'm me seeing that

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Speaker 1: once the events have returned with the surgeon revenue of course,

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Speaker 1: but just the number of people that are out. Everything's

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Speaker 1: for all organizers. They're making more money they ever made.

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Speaker 1: Everything is sold out. People want to meet in person.

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Speaker 1: So I basically said that to say that we're creating

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Speaker 1: more opportunities for folks to have those in personal events.

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Speaker 1: Understanding that down the line, we're going to have to

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Speaker 1: have that hybrid technology. For now, we're making sure that

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Speaker 1: all the zooms um, all of those digital platforms can

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Speaker 1: be easily integrate with our platform. People can send their

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Speaker 1: tickets out to their virtual link UH and they can

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Speaker 1: be able to actually for zoone for instance, we're working

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Speaker 1: on integration where you can you know, hold true your

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Speaker 1: life events right on our interface. So you either have

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Speaker 1: to be able to integrate and work with those guys

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Speaker 1: that have the proper API s, or you're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to build out your own uh platform that can can

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Speaker 1: manage the digitals uh digital space as well. So I

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Speaker 1: mentioned that you guys got a little bit of money

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Speaker 1: now having one a Mountain Dude challenge or congratulations on that, Like,

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Speaker 1: what did you learn about winning a competition when you

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Speaker 1: because you've got so many people who signed up for

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Speaker 1: these things and this is a million dollar challenge. So

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Speaker 1: having going through that process, having pitched over and over

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Speaker 1: and over again getting through different levels of this competition,

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Speaker 1: what did you learn that could potentially be a key

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Speaker 1: for other people who are trying to get through processes

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Speaker 1: and competitions and get picked for boot camps and get

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Speaker 1: picked for accelerators. What you learned in that process that

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Speaker 1: this might be the thing that people are missing and

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Speaker 1: why they get rejected man special thanks to Mountain dude Man.

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Speaker 1: So many corporations, uh you know put their black boxes

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Speaker 1: on Instagram and made their statements last year and so

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Speaker 1: for then they come through and and really uh support

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Speaker 1: O relations like they did and our supports like ourselves amazing,

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Speaker 1: So thank you to pets Key, thanking the blabty bright

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Speaker 1: as of all. But to answer your question on that part,

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Speaker 1: they were over two hundred startups that applied and there

385
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Speaker 1: were some amazing starters to break technology. And what I

386
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Speaker 1: realized is that when you have an idea, it's not

387
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Speaker 1: about you know, how amazing your idea is to you.

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Speaker 1: It's a out how easy it is for other people

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Speaker 1: to understand what you're trying to do, and how easy

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Speaker 1: is to understand the impact that you can have and

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Speaker 1: where you can take it to. So you know, we're

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Speaker 1: an event ticketing platform, but our mission is you want

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Speaker 1: to recycle a million dollars annually back into community organizations,

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Speaker 1: event organizations, event partners, just to keep that money within

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Speaker 1: the community and um for us, if we believe that

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Speaker 1: that that impact piece tied in with just the fact

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Speaker 1: that everybody has that same problem. Right, you have to

398
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Speaker 1: be able to solve a problem that everybody around you

399
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Speaker 1: was experiencing and or that people can understand. Um, when

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Speaker 1: I pitched in the pandemic to folks and they weren't

401
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Speaker 1: people that understood black culture and the fact that our

402
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Speaker 1: event ecosystem is different, very promoter driven. They just couldn't

403
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Speaker 1: resonate with the problem. Right. If I'm a eight year old,

404
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Speaker 1: seven year old, uh, you know, white male, I may

405
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Speaker 1: not understand that I can't get into certain venues because

406
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Speaker 1: I'm black. You know, I'm not welcome in certain areas

407
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Speaker 1: because I'm black. And they definitely don't care about going

408
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Speaker 1: anybody's party, right or their their their gala. So I

409
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Speaker 1: think that for us, we had an audience of folks

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Speaker 1: who truly understood the pain point and problem uh and

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Speaker 1: the fact that there was a need in the community,

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Speaker 1: but also really resonated the impact. So my advice is

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Speaker 1: simplify your pitch. Um anytime my talks point ad that's true.

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Speaker 1: They didn't understand exactly what we did. It was almost

415
00:20:20,960 --> 00:20:22,560
Speaker 1: like I lost them. And as they've never able to

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Speaker 1: get them back. So definitely simplify your pitch and make

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Speaker 1: sure that you're really making sure that that problem that

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Speaker 1: you're solving is something that people can relate to. Um

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Speaker 1: and so just know your audience too, right, Like, not

420
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Speaker 1: everybody is going to be a good audience for you

421
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Speaker 1: when you're pitching nobody. So if you know your audience,

422
00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 1: know who you're talking to, we just happened, I believe

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Speaker 1: to have folks that really understood the problem where we're

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Speaker 1: trying to tackle. So how do you how do you

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Speaker 1: simplify that pitch when you could also run the risk

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Speaker 1: of opening up yourself for questions of like, okay, how

427
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Speaker 1: where is the unique value here that you offer that

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Speaker 1: other people in the space can't offer or not as well? Well,

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Speaker 1: you definitely have to address to that you're in your problem,

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Speaker 1: and I think that the way to simplify your pitch

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Speaker 1: you should always be able to say that. I think

432
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:09,639
Speaker 1: my my one of my mentors, Gary Cooper, CEO reply,

433
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:12,359
Speaker 1: I think he just raised about twelve million, and you

434
00:21:12,440 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: gotta five or six words, the less you'd be. It

435
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,520
Speaker 1: should be able to say what your company is and

436
00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,160
Speaker 1: people should had to get like that, right, even noirs

437
00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:23,480
Speaker 1: is essentially event Right for the culture, right. Um, we

438
00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:26,240
Speaker 1: want to be where culture and events intersect, but we

439
00:21:26,280 --> 00:21:28,600
Speaker 1: also want to be a ticking platform. That's of course

440
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,960
Speaker 1: the black community. And you've got to be able to

441
00:21:30,960 --> 00:21:33,199
Speaker 1: say that easily and simply. So you have some folks

442
00:21:33,280 --> 00:21:35,199
Speaker 1: that you know, you talk about what they're doing and

443
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,920
Speaker 1: they're have an amazing, amazing product, but people just can't

444
00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:40,840
Speaker 1: get it. You should be able to say it like that, um.

445
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:43,720
Speaker 1: And I think it's always good to be able to

446
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:47,439
Speaker 1: compare that too way a similar company. I think I

447
00:21:47,440 --> 00:21:50,280
Speaker 1: think he said his company is Google for supply chain, right,

448
00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,439
Speaker 1: People can always relate to Google, Amazon of event right, right.

449
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,680
Speaker 1: So I think that's the easiest thing. Who are you

450
00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 1: trying to be because there's always somebody doing something similar

451
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:02,000
Speaker 1: what you're trying to do and communicate what you're doing differently.

452
00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:08,399
Speaker 1: Is there a way to say I'm event pride for

453
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: the culture and still not get pigeonholes into this way? Well,

454
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 1: they're just they're doing the same thing if it's just

455
00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:16,800
Speaker 1: for black people, Like, how do you communicate the value

456
00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:19,800
Speaker 1: there or is there a different mode that that simple

457
00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:24,320
Speaker 1: pitch doesn't communicate? I mean, you do have to be

458
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:26,640
Speaker 1: able to elaborate how you're different, like when you first

459
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,040
Speaker 1: present who you are, when that quick, you know, thirty

460
00:22:30,080 --> 00:22:32,399
Speaker 1: second pitch, you should also talk about how you're different, right,

461
00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:35,639
Speaker 1: aren't we're taking up and and to take a backstrack,

462
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:38,840
Speaker 1: there's a number of companies that have done exactly what

463
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: other companies have done, and done in a separate in

464
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:43,600
Speaker 1: a different way. When you know what Bob Johnson did

465
00:22:43,640 --> 00:22:46,439
Speaker 1: with BT you know, the MTV existed already, right, and

466
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:50,119
Speaker 1: he could create a billion dollar company focusing on the

467
00:22:50,160 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: consumer that he knew the best. Um So for us,

468
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,520
Speaker 1: so we talk about event Noir. We have a couple

469
00:22:55,560 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 1: of things that make us different that can't easily be

470
00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,919
Speaker 1: mimicked by larger companies. And that's one of sharing service fees. Now,

471
00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:02,440
Speaker 1: most companies are too big and they don't want to

472
00:23:02,440 --> 00:23:04,920
Speaker 1: give away that revenue. Right, We're gonna share those fees

473
00:23:04,960 --> 00:23:08,479
Speaker 1: with our community partners. We're giving away of our revenue

474
00:23:08,520 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: and that's kind of unheard of. Or we're doing it

475
00:23:10,359 --> 00:23:12,639
Speaker 1: because it's near new to our hearts to make sure

476
00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,400
Speaker 1: that we're recycling dollars back into the black community. Right,

477
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,000
Speaker 1: we know, beneath for the economic empowerment. And we know

478
00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:20,800
Speaker 1: that when an event partner has an event and they're

479
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:24,439
Speaker 1: getta extually check for five thousand dollars, right, you know

480
00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,040
Speaker 1: we're there. We're their event partners for life. Right. So

481
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,400
Speaker 1: you know, I think that communicating how you're doing things

482
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 1: differently is just as apport is as communicating uh, simply

483
00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: what you're doing and comparing that just somebody else. So

484
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:41,000
Speaker 1: it's it's all part of your pitch. So when I

485
00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,160
Speaker 1: when I hear things like you know, we're giving away

486
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:46,440
Speaker 1: forty of our revenue to community organizations, and all the

487
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:48,760
Speaker 1: conversations I've had, I think about, Okay, what would a

488
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,640
Speaker 1: VC say to that? And there? Because you know, as

489
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: you know, like vcs want ten x x returns, they

490
00:23:57,040 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: want big you know, market opportunity ease and billion dollar companies.

491
00:24:01,880 --> 00:24:05,359
Speaker 1: How does an event and you are get to billion

492
00:24:05,359 --> 00:24:08,400
Speaker 1: dollar opportunity when you when you give away the revenue,

493
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: but you have to introduce incremental revenue streams. And for us,

494
00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,160
Speaker 1: we knew that what we're doing in terms of giving

495
00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,320
Speaker 1: away all that revenue isn't sustainable without charging a subscription.

496
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 1: So later on in we're gonna charge the prescription for

497
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,280
Speaker 1: all the added value that we're providing our our users. Um.

498
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:28,800
Speaker 1: But we're leveraging our incentive based program right now to

499
00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:33,120
Speaker 1: correct that stickiness and really drive those relationships. But in January,

500
00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:35,679
Speaker 1: we're gonna charge a subscription piece that Hey, you know,

501
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 1: it's gonna make sense for you to pay the subscriptioncy

502
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 1: because the return investment is so big for you to

503
00:24:40,800 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 1: share within those royalties. But now you can also sell

504
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,160
Speaker 1: merchandise and make extra way doing that. Now we can

505
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:48,919
Speaker 1: also push you in front of event sponsors. So figuring

506
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: out how you consistently add value to your consumer base

507
00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:54,439
Speaker 1: and be able to charge for that value add um

508
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 1: is how we're gonna get to the billions. How how

509
00:24:57,840 --> 00:25:02,200
Speaker 1: important is it for us to own the entire supply change?

510
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:04,520
Speaker 1: So I think about this like, you're an event promoter,

511
00:25:04,720 --> 00:25:07,600
Speaker 1: like your guy who throws events all over the country,

512
00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,080
Speaker 1: and then you also you built the platform so you

513
00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:14,040
Speaker 1: can sell tickets to these events, and then at some

514
00:25:14,080 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: point you may own a spot. At some point you

515
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 1: might you know, on the I s P that helps

516
00:25:19,240 --> 00:25:22,480
Speaker 1: people get online to get to So this this whole

517
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: value change I think about. We try to do so

518
00:25:24,560 --> 00:25:26,960
Speaker 1: many good things for our communities, but then we have

519
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,840
Speaker 1: to leverage technologies that we didn't build. Therefore, we spend

520
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:35,080
Speaker 1: money with other companies that doesn't come back to our communities. Like,

521
00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:40,159
Speaker 1: what is your thoughts on how we can own the

522
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:44,960
Speaker 1: entire ecosystem and keep that dollar circulating in black black communities.

523
00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:50,520
Speaker 1: I will say this huge, huge uh power in data. Right.

524
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,440
Speaker 1: We spend a lot of money hosting and promoting events

525
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 1: and on Facebook ads and Google ads. But if you

526
00:25:57,560 --> 00:26:01,040
Speaker 1: create a comprehensive ecosystem of folks who are more likely

527
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,800
Speaker 1: to attend your event anyway, because it's mostly black volks

528
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:05,879
Speaker 1: are events, you know, why shouldn't we be able to

529
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:09,040
Speaker 1: allow our partners to tap into that database to push

530
00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:11,720
Speaker 1: their products, push their events. So I think of it

531
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,600
Speaker 1: at like Google and Facebook, Um, how we can create

532
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:18,119
Speaker 1: our own Google's are on facebooks are on amazons and

533
00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:19,919
Speaker 1: there is a big part of that, and there's no

534
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,879
Speaker 1: more of an active and engaged audience than somebody that's

535
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 1: tens events. Um. So what we're essentially doing is looking

536
00:26:26,200 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: to tie in the black diaspora in the US, the UK, Africa.

537
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:34,720
Speaker 1: There's very similar experiences as relates to events and even

538
00:26:34,800 --> 00:26:39,439
Speaker 1: racism in the UK, as you see in Paris, France.

539
00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: I went to Paris and it was the one place

540
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:43,440
Speaker 1: in the world I went to where I felt like, Wow,

541
00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:45,879
Speaker 1: this is just like being in America in terms of

542
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 1: the racism that I that I felt. Um, you know,

543
00:26:48,280 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: we got turned away from a from a nightclub and

544
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 1: the guys like Luke, you know, you know you're black.

545
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:56,159
Speaker 1: It's no no women with you. It's like you know,

546
00:26:56,280 --> 00:26:58,280
Speaker 1: he got he basically tell me why you couldn't get

547
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,160
Speaker 1: into the club, and the real the reason was that

548
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:03,639
Speaker 1: we were black, and you know we have baseball caps

549
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:06,800
Speaker 1: on and so, um, I feel like there's a unique

550
00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:10,160
Speaker 1: experience that black people have. And it's also this connectedness

551
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: that we need to have that makes into our global opportunity.

552
00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:16,600
Speaker 1: And uh and I think it's an opportunity to connect

553
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: all of us internationally, right the whole Black Day aspor.

554
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: My parents are both born in Nigeria. And when I

555
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,159
Speaker 1: go home, I see probably three guys in the y

556
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:27,000
Speaker 1: you will, all right, I would see three or four

557
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:29,000
Speaker 1: people like my one of my friends back home, and

558
00:27:29,040 --> 00:27:32,119
Speaker 1: so we're all connected, but we don't have an opportunity

559
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 1: or platform that connects us. So I want folks to

560
00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:37,680
Speaker 1: be able to go to Nigeria and and find an

561
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 1: event on a ven noir that they can attend when

562
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:44,360
Speaker 1: they travel there. So again we're looking to create our

563
00:27:44,359 --> 00:27:46,760
Speaker 1: own Google right where now, if you want to reach

564
00:27:46,760 --> 00:27:49,159
Speaker 1: more black folks from the asper M, we have the

565
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,600
Speaker 1: data to be able to do that. So it's it's

566
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:55,639
Speaker 1: a larger, larger data player. It's I'm so glad you

567
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:58,119
Speaker 1: mentioned data because when I think about you and people

568
00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: who do what you do well, one asset that you

569
00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,359
Speaker 1: have that you can never be round up is the

570
00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:06,840
Speaker 1: data that you have. The email list, you know, so

571
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:09,359
Speaker 1: you could throw a party and you already got fifty

572
00:28:09,359 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 1: thou people on this list, and you don't have to

573
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,240
Speaker 1: spend as much money, you know, because I remember I

574
00:28:14,240 --> 00:28:16,800
Speaker 1: remember the story and I think it was Tyler Perry

575
00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,159
Speaker 1: and how he built his audience and he had an

576
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: email list like a hundred thousand people, and so when

577
00:28:21,760 --> 00:28:25,199
Speaker 1: he went to go through a play in Chattanooga, he

578
00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 1: already had the consumers there who are already bought in

579
00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: by supplying that email address. Built in audience. Talk about

580
00:28:33,320 --> 00:28:37,040
Speaker 1: that and in the importance of people who do things

581
00:28:37,040 --> 00:28:40,400
Speaker 1: that are not necessarily technical, like building like throwing events,

582
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:45,400
Speaker 1: how they leverage data to do that better. Definitely, UM,

583
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,360
Speaker 1: and think about that, right. I work in health care

584
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: for for quite some time, and I think about this.

585
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,400
Speaker 1: The same message data that we're using this promote events

586
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: magic here to send that out to people, UM, to

587
00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:02,360
Speaker 1: get information about access to capital, uh, about homeownership, about healthcare,

588
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 1: sharing the resources that we all have and make it

589
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 1: easier to share share that information. So UM in terms

590
00:29:07,520 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: of monetizing data, that's what all these companies are doing, right.

591
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,320
Speaker 1: And I looked at and this is one of the

592
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: reasons why we're bringing together curators, promoters, curators, event party hosts,

593
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,480
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call us. Right. Some promoters don't

594
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:23,520
Speaker 1: like to be called promoters, but I talked to promoters

595
00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:25,240
Speaker 1: all the time. It's it looks on what you are,

596
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,160
Speaker 1: but make sure that you're not just known for throwing parties.

597
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 1: The data that you have is super, super powerful. Right.

598
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,800
Speaker 1: There's only we've been approached and work with politicians for

599
00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:40,000
Speaker 1: their political campaigns. Um. I maybebe was a party promoter, right, UM,

600
00:29:40,160 --> 00:29:41,880
Speaker 1: A j from one of those six parks start off

601
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,520
Speaker 1: as a party promoter. You're learning how to interact with

602
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 1: people every single day, and for people like myself to

603
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:49,959
Speaker 1: just love bringing people together. You can use that for

604
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 1: so much good, right, and so there's I think that

605
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 1: most people who are curators and promoters have to make

606
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,600
Speaker 1: sure they don't they understand their influence and understand that

607
00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: their power, and understand that data can be used for good,

608
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:04,440
Speaker 1: to add value to the people around you, your you know,

609
00:30:04,480 --> 00:30:07,680
Speaker 1: your consumers lives and that's all we're trying to do.

610
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: We're trying to serve our consumers in a in a

611
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 1: different way and leverage that the data to improve the

612
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:15,720
Speaker 1: quality of their lives. Um and so I plan to

613
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,959
Speaker 1: launch a number of of of companies that focus just

614
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,760
Speaker 1: on doing the data leveraging data to do it. What's

615
00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: unique about building tech in Chicago? Man? Uh So, Chicago's

616
00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,040
Speaker 1: a unique place because most people understand it's one of

617
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: the most beautiful countries I'm a city, excuse me, in

618
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,280
Speaker 1: the world, right, But it's also one of the most

619
00:30:36,400 --> 00:30:38,880
Speaker 1: racist cities in the world. And people understand that there's

620
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,720
Speaker 1: these huge racial divides. We are a city of neighborhoods,

621
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,880
Speaker 1: and we have some of the brightest people in the world.

622
00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:48,200
Speaker 1: And I know you guys have seen an influence of

623
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: a lot of Chicago wins in on the culture in

624
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: terms of music. But it's a place where the story

625
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:55,680
Speaker 1: has always been its you gotta get out of Chicago

626
00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 1: to make it, you got to go to one of

627
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 1: the coast But there's a new generation of folks who

628
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,560
Speaker 1: have said, no, I'm not doing that. We're gonna stay

629
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,200
Speaker 1: right here and we're gonna build against all odds. And

630
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 1: so it's a world class city with world class resources

631
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:11,200
Speaker 1: that unfortunately, if you're on the South and the West Side,

632
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:15,520
Speaker 1: where the primary primarily African American neighborhoods are, you don't

633
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,160
Speaker 1: necessarily get access to those resources downtown unless you work

634
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,120
Speaker 1: very hard to do that. And I'm excited about there

635
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: being a change. We have a black mayor right now. Um,

636
00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 1: there's a number of black founders who have been able

637
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,000
Speaker 1: to successfully raise money, and there's organizations like eighteen seventy

638
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: one uh pul sky as a University of Chicago, and

639
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,720
Speaker 1: we just I was on the steering committee for Black

640
00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: Founder Accelerator. So there's this big surge and I think

641
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:43,600
Speaker 1: it's happening around the country right now of folks that

642
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 1: are saying, you know what, it's time for change. Um,

643
00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:49,120
Speaker 1: if you look at you know John Monopoly, who's Kanye

644
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:52,240
Speaker 1: West manager. He was the you know, helped discover Virgil

645
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 1: as well as done. See he's on our board. He's

646
00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: passionate about making sure that he's up within folks from

647
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 1: the city. Um So it's one of those places where

648
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:03,360
Speaker 1: it's a certain greatness that if you have, you know

649
00:32:03,440 --> 00:32:04,959
Speaker 1: that you can you can do anything. I mean, it's

650
00:32:04,960 --> 00:32:07,360
Speaker 1: the home Michael Jordan's. It is the home of you know,

651
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: arguing one of the hottest rappers right now, a little dirt,

652
00:32:10,480 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: but it's a place where you have to have that

653
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,320
Speaker 1: balance of of greenness and just you know, business acumen,

654
00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:19,560
Speaker 1: and if you have that, you can really succeed. So

655
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:21,080
Speaker 1: I don't think I like this that when you go

656
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: anywhere people gotta point out folks from Chicago. You know,

657
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 1: I believe we have a certain certain sweat to us

658
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: and it you know, we were used to getting the

659
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 1: job done by by any bees necessary. So m Chicago

660
00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 1: to Chicago wins. But you know, luckily I've been able

661
00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: to travel in l a lived in in New York,

662
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: and you know, leverage network and bringing those things that

663
00:32:40,520 --> 00:32:42,840
Speaker 1: I've learned back to Chicago has allowed me to do

664
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 1: well here. What would you say because you are building,

665
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,440
Speaker 1: you know, in a vertical that has big sharks in

666
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,480
Speaker 1: the water, And there are a lot of us in

667
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 1: our community who have an idea, but because these big

668
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,240
Speaker 1: sharks are in the water, we say, you know, maybe

669
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:02,960
Speaker 1: I should go do something else, or maybe this ain't

670
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,800
Speaker 1: for me, or maybe because people are asking about the sharks,

671
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,320
Speaker 1: maybe they're trying to tell me I shouldn't be playing

672
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,360
Speaker 1: in these waters. What would you say to people who

673
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:14,760
Speaker 1: have ideas and want to do their thing, But there

674
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:20,560
Speaker 1: are those big players. Man. You know, every in my opinion,

675
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:23,040
Speaker 1: you know, every every giant was fall right, you know.

676
00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,239
Speaker 1: I mean there's amazing companies out there. But you know

677
00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: every day that you're building, you're you're faster than you're

678
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: a leaner than they are. Um, you're probably more hip.

679
00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: They can move faster than they can. Uh, you probably

680
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: have your ear more to the street because sometimes those

681
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,120
Speaker 1: folks get comfortable also supporting to learn from their moves.

682
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 1: And there's enough And this is one thing I want

683
00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 1: to say about us as being black founders and organizations

684
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 1: in general. Um, there's enough money out there for all

685
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,160
Speaker 1: of us. So don't think that you can't carve out

686
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 1: your niche. Um I have there. There's a lot of

687
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: folks that say, hey, there's this person is already doing that.

688
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: This person is already doing this. There's a number of

689
00:34:00,960 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: kicking companies out here right, some of them, um, you know,

690
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: are are in the same area as us. And my

691
00:34:05,440 --> 00:34:08,840
Speaker 1: thing is, you can always carve out your niche. You

692
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 1: can always carve out start with twenty people within your circle,

693
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:15,560
Speaker 1: or that to a thousand, or that's a fifty thousand.

694
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:20,120
Speaker 1: It's possible. Um, there's McDonald's, there's Wendy's. All right, it's

695
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:23,479
Speaker 1: Burger King. I think that you often find that people

696
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 1: try to pin black organizations either against each other and

697
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:30,520
Speaker 1: see their competition. I can't collaborate. The reality is the

698
00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:33,480
Speaker 1: opportunity is to collaborate, to figure out how you guys

699
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:36,640
Speaker 1: can work together and make sure that you're more powerful.

700
00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:39,120
Speaker 1: It's all about giving each other a seat at the table.

701
00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: Because there's enough money out there for for everybody, and

702
00:34:42,080 --> 00:34:44,080
Speaker 1: they're they're not as you guys know, with a lot

703
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:46,360
Speaker 1: of our friends who've gotten are you know, access a

704
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:47,759
Speaker 1: lot of resources out there. And there's a lot of

705
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: jokes about the p P loans. But I hope that

706
00:34:49,640 --> 00:34:52,279
Speaker 1: folks access that, but there's a lot of money out there.

707
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:54,759
Speaker 1: They're not gonna stop pretting it and um, you know,

708
00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:56,760
Speaker 1: so don't definitely gonna be scared of the big guys.

709
00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:13,759
Speaker 1: Black Tech Green Money is the production of Black of

710
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 1: the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and

711
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,840
Speaker 1: I Hired Media, and its produced by Morgan Dabon and

712
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:24,120
Speaker 1: me Will Lucas, with additional production supported by Love Beach

713
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:28,279
Speaker 1: and Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis. Since

714
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:31,200
Speaker 1: the carsa von Jan you know like the wine. Yes

715
00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 1: that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and

716
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,120
Speaker 1: other tech disruptors the intervators an afro tech dot com.

717
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:40,640
Speaker 1: The video version of this episode would drop the Black

718
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,200
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money on YouTube next week. So cop in

719
00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:47,719
Speaker 1: enjoying Black Tech Green Money, leave us a five star

720
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:53,279
Speaker 1: radio Nunes go get your money, Peace and love