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Speaker 1: Somebody came up and asked me like, well, how did

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Speaker 1: you manage your time? And I'm like, I mean, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be very real. I slept about four and a

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Speaker 1: half hours every day, that's it. And then I hustled.

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Speaker 1: I did not take off any weekends. I worked every

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Speaker 1: single day. Every single day I worked in some capacity

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Speaker 1: for somebody. It's not like you are going to be

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Speaker 1: living a wonderful, beautiful balance life if you're trying to

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Speaker 1: work and also really get out the mud with a company.

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Speaker 1: But you could do it. Everybody.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another episode of Button Nomics. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Brandon Butler, found the CEO of Butter atl And Today.

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Speaker 1: We have a distinguished guest in the building.

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Speaker 2: I always say special guests. This guest is distinguished. Miss

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Speaker 2: it Khadija A Robinson. Kadija, how you doing today?

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Speaker 1: I ain't in the lovely today. Don't be using no,

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Speaker 1: be using your corporate voice. Usealos. Oh you won't be

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Speaker 1: a breakout by Sabana Tarja.

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Speaker 2: Oh good, good good, So Kadiji. We're doing something a

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Speaker 2: little different. Normally I ask people like tell me, tell

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Speaker 2: the people who you are. But I did something a

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Speaker 2: little bit different. I've been doing this for a while

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Speaker 2: for butter nomics. Okay, I asked chat Cheapt who you are?

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, Now I'm going I ain't gonna lie

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Speaker 2: to you. This is the most information chatty tea chat

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Speaker 2: is a chat is giving me back about anybody, Like

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Speaker 2: You've really got like five pages in here, and you

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Speaker 2: know what.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna read it. I don't care.

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Speaker 2: So I asked chat Cheapt who is Kadeja Robinson? Based

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Speaker 2: in Atlanta, Georgia. That's all I said.

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Speaker 1: Now I'm kind of stress out, okay. Kadija A.

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Speaker 2: Robinson is a distinguished attorney, entrepreneur, and advocate for black

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Speaker 2: entrepreneurship based in Atlanta, Georgia. Raising Savannah in Montgomery, Alabama.

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Speaker 2: She pursued higher education at Spelman College, earning a Bachelor

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Speaker 2: of Arts in English. She furthered her studies with a

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Speaker 2: Master of Science and International Public Policy from the University

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Speaker 2: of College London and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

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Speaker 2: Robinson's professional journey includes practicing law at Covington and Berling

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Speaker 2: LLP in Washington, DC. In twenty nineteen, she founded the

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Speaker 2: Nile List, an online platform designed to connect consumers with

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Speaker 2: black owned e commerce brands. This venture was acquired by

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Speaker 2: Empower Global, led by Sean Combs, where she served as

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Speaker 2: CEO for two years, overseeing fundraising, operations and development. Currently,

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Speaker 2: Robinson serves as a program manager for the Center for

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Speaker 2: Black Entrepreneurship's LIFT Incubator at Morehouse College. In this role,

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Speaker 2: she leads initiatives supporting black and brown tech founders in

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Speaker 2: Atlanta's startup ecosystem. The incubator's first cohort featured fourteen companies

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Speaker 2: with top applicants receiving grant funding to propel their growth.

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Speaker 2: Beyond her work at cbe Lyft, Robinson is involved in

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Speaker 2: several initiatives, The Pit, a coworking space for black founders

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Speaker 2: to collaborate, share resources, and build partnerships. The Black Ambition Fund,

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Speaker 2: an inaugural Entrepreneur in residence for Pharrell's Black Ambition Fund,

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Speaker 2: which she mentors black and LATINX founders gar guiding semi

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Speaker 2: finalists and finalists competing for significant fundraising prizes and fictive ventures.

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Speaker 2: Serving as general partner at this venture fund, Robinson invests

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Speaker 2: in early stage black startups, addressing the racial funding gap

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Speaker 2: and enabling broader participation from black investors. Additionally, Robinson offers

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Speaker 2: fractional chief operating officer and consulting services and startups seeking

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Speaker 2: to enhance their operations and scalability. Her expertise spans operations, strategy,

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Speaker 2: legal analysis, and product development. Robinson also owns super Host

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Speaker 2: Management Services, a company specializing in transforming properties into profitable

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Speaker 2: short terminals in Atlanta. Her dedication to community extends to

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Speaker 2: serving on the board of Students of Students Without Mothers

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Speaker 2: and Atlanta based nonprofit providing support and resources to college

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Speaker 2: bound students who have lost their mothers. And throughout her

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Speaker 2: multi faceted endeavors, Kadeja Robinson continues the champion economic empowerment

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Speaker 2: and create equitable opportunities for underrepresented founders and communities.

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Speaker 1: Damn chat GPT, No mean I want to say that, like, OK,

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Speaker 1: cause me feeling about so so how much of that

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Speaker 1: was true? That was That's crazy. It's always when they

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Speaker 1: pulled out the super host to that's crazy. I literally

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Speaker 1: like that's I have what I call my professional businesses

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Speaker 1: and like my main life and then my side businesses

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Speaker 1: that are like these are things that make money over here.

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, I have a I started rental property,

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Speaker 1: like my own airbnbs and then started this company to

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Speaker 1: manage other people's Airbnbs. And like, that's so random because

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Speaker 1: I don't talk about that at all. Know that I

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Speaker 1: didn't know that. I look telling you, chat knows, the

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Speaker 1: chat knows that's crazy. So yeah, that's me. Well, I mean,

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Speaker 1: but let's see because it was super professional and like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'm from Savannah Seaport all day. I am a Georgia girl,

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Speaker 1: and I am like, oh, the term that we used

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Speaker 1: to use back in the day was sophistic ratchet. Okay,

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Speaker 1: so like I love aa E bowls and I can

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Speaker 1: eating poke and sushi because I'm real classy or whatever.

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Speaker 1: But then I be like, oh, y'all, let's go to

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Speaker 1: Jr Creeky. It's about balance at midnight because it be

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Speaker 1: hiding and I remember when the Jr Creek is that

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Speaker 1: burnt down over by the Varsity used to have the

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Speaker 1: best oat group.

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Speaker 2: Yes, look, jail creeksa at midnight as a whole. There's

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Speaker 2: a whole experience it within itself. Like I know that's

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Speaker 2: when I normally go.

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Speaker 1: And then we be having a time. I be in

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Speaker 1: there eating so yes, well, look that that is a

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Speaker 1: that was a lot.

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Speaker 2: Again, I think that's the longest introduction Chat has given

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Speaker 2: me about anybody. But when you're at a party where

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Speaker 2: nobody knows you, how do you introduce yourself?

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Speaker 1: You know, if I'm at a party, I just be

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Speaker 1: talking shit and I just like, oh, yeah, I'm Codizially,

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Speaker 1: I'm from Savannah. I went to Spellman and it's so

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Speaker 1: funny because I was just telling so I decided I'm

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Speaker 1: suing my plumber. Okay last week. Last week, I was like,

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Speaker 1: you know what, I've had a note with his knee girl,

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Speaker 1: and so I am suing my plumber. And I was

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Speaker 1: talking to my dad and my sister and when I

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Speaker 1: was telling him what was going on, they were like, dude,

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Speaker 1: he know that you're a lawyer. And I'm like, no,

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure he don't, because I don't think that

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Speaker 1: the majority of people that just interact with me casually

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Speaker 1: in day to day life now know that I am

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Speaker 1: a lawyer with to Harvard Law School too, right, No,

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Speaker 1: none of that and be like, oh that can easy.

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Speaker 1: What's up? So I can't and they don't know, like

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Speaker 1: it's just not what I lead with necessarily, and so yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was like, I don't think the plumber knows what's

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Speaker 1: coming for him, but I'm about to mess his ass

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Speaker 1: up in court because I'm tired of these ghetto games.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: I was telling somebody a couple of weeks ago. I

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Speaker 2: was like, I like to suit people like because I

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Speaker 2: can't argue with y'all sometimes like I've I've you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Like I can argue so much, but at

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Speaker 2: a certain point it's like, you know what, I can

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Speaker 2: go to civil court, I can file and then I

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Speaker 2: ain't gotta talk to you no more. You can talk

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Speaker 2: to the judge, you can explain your side to them.

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Speaker 2: And so I tell people all the time it's like,

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Speaker 2: look like I don't have a problem with it.

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Speaker 1: It's there. Is there for a reason. As a distinguished

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Speaker 1: gentleman once say, I ain't going back and forth with you.

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Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not like I got somebody right now.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, if you don't send me this thing when

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Speaker 2: you say you go, see the next time, I'm gonna

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Speaker 2: block you. And the next thing you're gonna hear from me

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Speaker 2: is is the is the process server showing up at

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Speaker 2: your house?

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Speaker 1: And finally, a small claims court is not hard. Oh no,

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Speaker 1: they'll actually walk you through it, right, They'll actually tell me.

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Speaker 1: I have worked in small claims court, volunteering to help

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Speaker 1: people file lawsuits. As it's thirty and I literally like,

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Speaker 1: put this on the paper. Okay, you just staple this together.

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Speaker 1: You go put that Okay, now you got Now you

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Speaker 1: know where they live, okay, right, their address, and then

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Speaker 1: this person gonna serve them. That's fifty dollars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, boom, It's easy, you know. So o hey, look,

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Speaker 2: I'm just telling you so okay.

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Speaker 1: Now, So I'm in a suing ass mood this year.

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Speaker 1: So everybody who's pissed me off for the last few

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Speaker 1: years is about to be serves this year. And I

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Speaker 1: have two lawsuits teed up, and one of them I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I literally went back to an email that really pissed

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Speaker 1: me off, and I took everybody on that email chain,

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Speaker 1: and I'm suing them all individually. So IM about to

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Speaker 1: fuck everybody twenty twenty five. Uck, I got time, you

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Speaker 1: know what. I got time, and I got dollars reach

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Speaker 1: one of y'all. I have had enough. You don't want

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Speaker 1: to respond to my email, don't worry about it. Don't worry.

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Speaker 1: So you know, that's a good transition.

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Speaker 2: You we were talking off loud of you talking about

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Speaker 2: this book you read call Surrounded by Idiots.

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Speaker 1: Who. What was your biggest takeaway from that book? So

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Speaker 1: the goal the book is supposed to describe these different

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Speaker 1: behavioral archetypes. It categorizes people into four different archetypes. You

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Speaker 1: can be a red, a blue, a green, or yellow,

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Speaker 1: and it's supposed to help you understand people's behavior based

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Speaker 1: on their archetype and how you can interact with them better,

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Speaker 1: how you can work with them better and hopefully like

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Speaker 1: get along with less friction. So when I saw it,

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Speaker 1: I was like, surrounded by idiots. Yes, I need that

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Speaker 1: because I am, in fact surrounded by idiots. People are dumb.

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Speaker 1: And I read the book and I think it was

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Speaker 1: very helpful because there are I do fall prey to

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Speaker 1: the ideology that like, if you're not doing it the

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Speaker 1: way that I would do it, then it does not

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Speaker 1: make sense. So I know that I recognize that about myself.

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Speaker 1: So I did get a little bit of enlightenment, like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you know I'm a red, very very very clear read

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Speaker 1: Apparently we real aggressive ass motherfuckers and we just be like,

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Speaker 1: let's get the shit, done you doing all this talking

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Speaker 1: and we need to be doing the thing. So we're

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Speaker 1: very much like that. We are very cut and dry.

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Speaker 1: So a lot of people will be like, like Kadesian

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Speaker 1: even say thank you. I will say I am the

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Speaker 1: type of person who will send an email and whatever

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Speaker 1: I want is in the subject line and there's nothing

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Speaker 1: in the body and you just need to do the

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Speaker 1: thing and respond to the email, like yeah, that's it.

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Speaker 1: That's it. I'm not gonna be like, Hi, good morning,

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Speaker 1: how are you hope as well? You know, for well

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Speaker 1: email subjects, you know. So I'm that type of person.

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Speaker 1: It was helpful in the sense the understanding that some

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Speaker 1: people are different. However, there are still a lot of

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Speaker 1: stupid people. So I'm like, how do you deal with

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Speaker 1: people who, Okay, I'm they might be a blue but

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Speaker 1: then they're actually just still dumb, which is a lot

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Speaker 1: of people, Like we have a literacy crisis in America.

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Speaker 1: We do have a literacy crisis one, and especially amongst

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Speaker 1: the black community. Like I was going, I used to

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Speaker 1: be heavy on Twitter before Elon took it over and

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Speaker 1: like messed up the whole vibe. And I was going

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Speaker 1: back and forth with some black magamite, and they were like,

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Speaker 1: you know, black kids can't even read. We need to

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Speaker 1: focus on that before we focus on X. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, before I argue with somebody, I go and

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Speaker 1: research the facts to make sure that what I am

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Speaker 1: saying is actually based in fact. And when I went

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Speaker 1: and started looking up the literacy rates among the black children,

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Speaker 1: I was like, no, they really can't read. We really

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Speaker 1: can't read. They really can't read. Like half of black

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Speaker 1: kids in eighth grade are not literate. And I was

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Speaker 1: like wait what. So I was shook, and then I

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Speaker 1: was like, oh, everything makes so much more sense. As

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Speaker 1: I'm going about life and I'm interacting with people, I'm like, oh,

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Speaker 1: of course this is the way it is because you

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Speaker 1: can't read, so like duh, you know, Like I just

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Speaker 1: why would I expect anything different? Y'all negirls already literally

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Speaker 1: and I hate it for us and I want it

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Speaker 1: to be better. But I think it helps me temper

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Speaker 1: my expectations when I just already know that I'm about

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Speaker 1: to be walking into illiteracy.

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Speaker 2: I used to intern and work in radio for a while,

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Speaker 2: and I remember a very very well known radio host

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Speaker 2: who I was talking to, and I think he told me,

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Speaker 2: this is a long time ago. He was like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: like most people read it like best to like a

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Speaker 2: sixth grade level. And he was like, so you just

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Speaker 2: even when we when we put stuff together, like we

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Speaker 2: have to put it together because honestly, Brandon, like a

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Speaker 2: lot of people aren't gonna get this. We're talking about

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Speaker 2: the masses and that scale. And I think a lot

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Speaker 2: of times like we get in our bubbles. You know,

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Speaker 2: we got our friend is everybody's college educated and everybody,

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Speaker 2: and you know we got cousins too. You know, I've

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Speaker 2: got some cousins that but you know a lot of

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Speaker 2: times too when you don't think about it. And so

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Speaker 2: even I even put that into like a lot of

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Speaker 2: stuff that we do from a content and copy standpoint,

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Speaker 2: like not that you gotta dumb it down, but you

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Speaker 2: gotta simplify some things, right because if you really want

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Speaker 2: to catch fire, like it's got to be. I mean,

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Speaker 2: even when you look at just how the thing kind

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Speaker 2: of things go viral, like how things are like written

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Speaker 2: and positioned, it's like, yeah, like this is like at

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Speaker 2: a this this isn't this isn't like NBA or like

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Speaker 2: you know, you know, legal level, this is like ABC

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Speaker 2: one two three, bruh.

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Speaker 1: And I had to I had to even get myself

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Speaker 1: from like going back and forth with people online because

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wait a minute, you don't even know the

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Speaker 1: difference between there what an apostrophe and there like possess it?

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Speaker 1: Why about arguing with you? You don't know weather versus weather,

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Speaker 1: so you know, Oh my god, I'd be thinking about

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Speaker 1: in the dating context, I think about is Brandon because

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Speaker 1: I realized that I require a certain level of intelligence

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Speaker 1: in dating. When I was dating this guy, and this

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Speaker 1: is when I lived in DC. He was taking me

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Speaker 1: back home and he was like my GPS telling me,

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Speaker 1: y'all need to turn off Arkansas. And I was like, ooh, Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: That would be Arkansas. But you know, I'm not gonna

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Speaker 1: get I'm not gonna be too down on you because

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Speaker 1: if you ain't never said it, which means that you

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Speaker 1: never were in social STUDI it must have been handsome.

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Speaker 1: Then you don't know it's arc It's not Arkansas. It's Arkansas, Okay.

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Speaker 1: But then the first time this man entered my house

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Speaker 1: when he was taking me home the same trip, he

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Speaker 1: comes in and I have bookshelves with books, I read

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Speaker 1: a lot. I've always read a lot. I had a

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Speaker 1: book blog back in the day that was like my

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Speaker 1: little hobby. I'm in a book club and he walking,

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Speaker 1: he walks like, oh, you be reading now. I was like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'd be reading. Dennis Man proceeded to tell me with

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Speaker 1: his full chest, I ain't never read a whole book

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Speaker 1: in my life. And I was like, I can tell.

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Speaker 1: And then he got mad, and I was like, I

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Speaker 1: was just agreeable what you said. It's evident I wish

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Speaker 1: I was this handsome. It's evident you ain't never read

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Speaker 1: an old book. It was this from your bords. That

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Speaker 1: was the last time we saw. Definitely definitely hadn't read

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Speaker 1: of Matt before. Bro. This man said our Kansas and

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god. So yeah, the again,

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Speaker 1: it's hard on here in the street, business, personal everything.

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Speaker 2: When did you decide to like the corporate route you

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Speaker 2: want to kind of focus go on entrepreneurship. How did

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Speaker 2: you start to make that pivot?

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Speaker 1: Oh gosh, So when I was in law school, I

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Speaker 1: already hated it, and then I was like, I'm just

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Speaker 1: gonna graduate and work with all these same people, Like

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Speaker 1: we're all going to the same law firms. So that's

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Speaker 1: gonna be real lame and lo and behold it was Laane.

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Speaker 1: Soh god, you know what, I had an epiphany. I

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Speaker 1: had been going through all of these spaces growing up.

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Speaker 1: I was in the Magnet programs. I was always in

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Speaker 1: this like little group of smart kids. But even amongst

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Speaker 1: that group, I was always the smartest. So then I

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Speaker 1: go to Spelman. And when I went to Spelman, my

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Speaker 1: dad he's a professor, so he was like, you know,

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Speaker 1: this is not like high school. It's gonna be more

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Speaker 1: rigorous and things are gonna get hard. And I was like, okay,

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Speaker 1: get to college. I'm waiting for things to get hard.

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Speaker 1: They don't get hard. So then I go do my man,

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Speaker 1: I don't. I was just I was in London. That

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Speaker 1: was my party year, and I was outside, so I

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Speaker 1: did not apply myself at all. I wrote my entire dissertation,

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Speaker 1: which was like eighty pages in like a week, got

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Speaker 1: my master's cool, went to Harvard. I'm in law school,

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Speaker 1: and at that point I'm like, Okay, I am going

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Speaker 1: to Harvard. This is the time at which I have

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Speaker 1: to apply myself. I am going to be surrounded by

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Speaker 1: the smartest people from wherever they're from. This is like

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Speaker 1: the cream of across. And I got there and I

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Speaker 1: was like, this is I know you lying. I'm looking

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Speaker 1: around in these classrooms and I'm like, you're not. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's not a whole bunch of us. It's not a

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Speaker 1: whole bunch of black folks, obviously, so this coming isn't

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Speaker 1: even really about us. It's really the white majority. I

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Speaker 1: was like, you're not smart. You're white. You had tutors

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Speaker 1: your whole life, you had your parents investing thousands of

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Speaker 1: dollars into your lsat prap class and they basically strong

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Speaker 1: armed and shoehorned you in to this group of people.

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Speaker 1: But I know so many negroes in Savannah, Georgia who

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Speaker 1: ain't never left the city limits of Savannah from Yamacrol Village,

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Speaker 1: who's smarter than you, But they ain't never had nobody

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Speaker 1: paying for their education, they ain't never been to nobody

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Speaker 1: private school, they never been nobody capling class. So they're

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Speaker 1: not here at Harvard, but y'all are. And it would

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Speaker 1: be these same people that I'm like, Bro, you mediocre

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Speaker 1: as hell. Your parents just have money. And then you

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Speaker 1: got the nerve to turn around and be talking about meritocracy.

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Speaker 1: Are you serious? You're stupid bruh. So I just got

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Speaker 1: really really pissed, Like when I tell you next level,

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Speaker 1: my blood pressure high while I was in law school

336
00:19:03,840 --> 00:19:05,320
Speaker 1: because I was like, these people are dumb, and then

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00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:07,280
Speaker 1: they about to come out and run the world, and

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00:19:07,320 --> 00:19:10,560
Speaker 1: they're gonna continue to perpetuate this same ideology. They think

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00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:12,639
Speaker 1: they got here on merit so then they're gonna be

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00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,240
Speaker 1: go over here talking about and we see it now

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00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:17,760
Speaker 1: they all like mad about DEI. I'm like, baby, you

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00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:22,480
Speaker 1: are DEI. Let me tell you about how you got

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Speaker 1: into these spaces through money and means and a level

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Speaker 1: of structure and support and all the other things that

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Speaker 1: you need to do well academically and do well in

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Speaker 1: life that a lot of us never had. So it's

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Speaker 1: not like you literally just inherently are smart. You got

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Speaker 1: here with help, but now you are upset about the

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Speaker 1: other help that other folks are getting. So I got

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Speaker 1: real pissed. I got to my law firm. It was

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Speaker 1: extremely white corporate America, and I was upset the whole

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Speaker 1: time I was there. I was keeping like a little file.

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Speaker 1: I was literally just keeping my EOC file like in

354
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Speaker 1: case I just come and tell y'all about y'allselves. I

355
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Speaker 1: know they were so happy when I left. I just

356
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Speaker 1: know because I raised hell every single year I was there,

357
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Speaker 1: like why are y'all doing this? Why y'all don't have

358
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Speaker 1: a diversity a chief diversity officer, all of this stuff.

359
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Speaker 1: So I hated the law firm. I got there my

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Speaker 1: first year and I was already like how do I

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Speaker 1: get out of here? And I applied for a clerkship, which,

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Speaker 1: because of how competitive it is to clerk with the

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Speaker 1: Federal Court judge, we were on application cycles that were

364
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Speaker 1: two years out. So I applied in twenty sixteen and

365
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Speaker 1: interviewed and got a job that did not start for

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Speaker 1: two years. So I started that job in twenty eighteen

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Speaker 1: and it's a year long appointment to clerk with the judge.

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Speaker 1: And while I was clerking, I started my first company,

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Speaker 1: which was super haphazard because when I was doing it,

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Speaker 1: I just was like, this is my hobby on the side,

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Speaker 1: and I really don't even know how it really came

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Speaker 1: to life as a business, but yeah, it just kind

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Speaker 1: of grew. And what was that first company? That was

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Speaker 1: the nihilistic? That was okay? So I started with a

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Speaker 1: Google spreadsheet, and I was like, I am saving in

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Speaker 1: this spreadsheet black owned brands that I want to shop with.

377
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:25,359
Speaker 1: I want to buy black. I'm trying to buy black

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Speaker 1: as much as possible. And I got super like militant.

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Speaker 1: I've always been very militant like my parents. Like when

380
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Speaker 1: I grew up, when I went to school for the

381
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Speaker 1: first time and they was singing a national anthem. I

382
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Speaker 1: was like, what is the song? I had never heard

383
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Speaker 1: this somebody, and they were like, this is the national anthem.

384
00:21:42,080 --> 00:21:44,960
Speaker 1: I was like, no, it's not lift every voice and

385
00:21:45,080 --> 00:21:51,520
Speaker 1: sing it's the national anthom like what. I had literally

386
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:56,240
Speaker 1: never heard the US national anthem in my life, and

387
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,399
Speaker 1: I thought the black national anthem was a national anthem.

388
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Speaker 1: We were black as hell, Like we went through a

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Speaker 1: Rites of Passage program. We celebrated kwanto. We didn't celebrate

390
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:10,359
Speaker 1: Christmas like my parents were og black. They used to

391
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:18,479
Speaker 1: be wearing dice shaky sits a professor to professor of history.

392
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Speaker 1: So I grew up like not eating pork, the white

393
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:30,320
Speaker 1: man meat like all kinds of stuff. We were so militant.

394
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Speaker 1: I literally tell people like, y'all do not know how

395
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,960
Speaker 1: I grew up the childhood games that we used to

396
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 1: play were like mancla bruh b like literally like African

397
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,560
Speaker 1: American bingo. That's what we used to play at home.

398
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Speaker 1: So I was always militant, but then I clerked and

399
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:56,120
Speaker 1: I got extreme. I turned into like prison abolitionists. Police

400
00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:00,840
Speaker 1: need to be defunded. Like I became extreme, we militant,

401
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 1: which it will do it to you, like go sit

402
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,840
Speaker 1: in a courtroom every day for a year and see

403
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 1: the revolving door of black people and the way that

404
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:14,120
Speaker 1: they are treated in this system, and you will become

405
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 1: militant af because it's crazy. And so my stress reliever

406
00:23:19,280 --> 00:23:23,199
Speaker 1: was like I am going not stress reliever but like

407
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:27,159
Speaker 1: hobby and kind of stress reliever. Actually was like I

408
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:29,960
Speaker 1: am going to focus outside of work on what I

409
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:34,880
Speaker 1: can do for black people, and I be shopping online,

410
00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: so at minimum, I'm gonna spend my money with black entrepreneurs.

411
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,160
Speaker 1: And that was literally how the nohlist started. I started

412
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 1: putting people in a Google spreadsheet, and then I started

413
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,399
Speaker 1: telling people about it, and they were like, oh, I

414
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: want to buy black You got anybody on your list

415
00:23:50,480 --> 00:23:54,320
Speaker 1: that cells swimsuits? I'm like kid swimsuits. I got people,

416
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:59,160
Speaker 1: got batteries deodorant, all of the above, and like this jewelry,

417
00:23:59,160 --> 00:24:01,240
Speaker 1: everything with the except of my watch is from a

418
00:24:01,240 --> 00:24:06,119
Speaker 1: black company. Different ones too, So everybody in black like

419
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: and I got really, really, really just into finding different

420
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 1: black owned companies promoting them. I built a website, we

421
00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,240
Speaker 1: built an app, and we were just kind of in

422
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,120
Speaker 1: the right place at the right time because we launched it.

423
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:25,159
Speaker 1: It was all for online shopping with black brands. And

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00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 1: we launched March first, twenty twenty. Oh that's my birthday.

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00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:32,120
Speaker 1: That's why it was. You know, that's Pisce's gang. Yep,

426
00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 1: and I'm ripping Pisces. But yeah, we launched March first,

427
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, and then two weeks later, everybody was at

428
00:24:42,320 --> 00:24:45,119
Speaker 1: home shopping online, so we were well positioned for that.

429
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,080
Speaker 1: And then three months later everybody was trying to support

430
00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:52,040
Speaker 1: black people because they murdering like they always do. And

431
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:56,400
Speaker 1: then it was just like a very non linear, unexpected

432
00:24:56,520 --> 00:25:00,359
Speaker 1: I had no way of forecasting that, like my little

433
00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:04,640
Speaker 1: side project was gonna become what it did, but then

434
00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:09,760
Speaker 1: it did. Then I was like, do so to the

435
00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:16,479
Speaker 1: lawyer life. I'm an entrepreneur going on now. I I

436
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: was negotiating my acquisition for my company while I was

437
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: still practicing law at my law firm. And the day

438
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 1: after I signed my deal for this company to be sold,

439
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 1: I resigned and I sent out an email to everybody,

440
00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,159
Speaker 1: and I got so many responses for people who were like,

441
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 1: I have never seen a departure email like this in

442
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,040
Speaker 1: my life, because it was so normal at the law

443
00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,840
Speaker 1: firm for everybody to like at all and send out

444
00:25:56,840 --> 00:25:58,960
Speaker 1: a departure like, oh, thank you so much for my

445
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,919
Speaker 1: time here. It was lovely. I value all of my

446
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: wonderful colleagues. My journey continues. Yeah, this is where you

447
00:26:06,359 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: can find me next. And I basically was like, I

448
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:12,840
Speaker 1: don't want to find none of y'all, motherfuckers. I oh, y'all,

449
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,640
Speaker 1: don't call me. Fuck everybody. I ain't doing shit else

450
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:23,400
Speaker 1: for anybody unless you black bye. I did it more

451
00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: pc than that, but that was the extreme overtone, and

452
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:33,320
Speaker 1: people were like calling my office phone like since I'm dying,

453
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:36,840
Speaker 1: I'm like, wait, I am who I am? So? How

454
00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:37,359
Speaker 1: did that hold?

455
00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:39,159
Speaker 2: So you ended up getting reached out to you and

456
00:26:39,400 --> 00:26:41,600
Speaker 2: started working with Combs Enterprises now Golash.

457
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:42,240
Speaker 1: Nothing crazy.

458
00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:44,680
Speaker 2: We're just going to say you know that you was

459
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:47,840
Speaker 2: part of that group, Like, and then what you you

460
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:49,200
Speaker 2: you were so you were still working at the law

461
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:51,239
Speaker 2: firm when when the acquisition happened, So you were doing

462
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:53,119
Speaker 2: both these at the same time up until you completely

463
00:26:53,160 --> 00:26:54,240
Speaker 2: exited that business.

464
00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: I built and sold my first company while still working

465
00:26:57,840 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 1: at my law firm. Oh see, that's a superpower to

466
00:26:59,720 --> 00:26:59,919
Speaker 1: a lot.

467
00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 2: I'll just say that, just kind of say like, because

468
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:04,040
Speaker 2: a lot of people think they got to go completely

469
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:06,480
Speaker 2: all in, and I'm just telling people you can do

470
00:27:06,560 --> 00:27:09,400
Speaker 2: both at the same time. It's actually, if it could

471
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:10,880
Speaker 2: work out, right, it actually makes a lot of sense

472
00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 2: to kind of have that additional little safety net while

473
00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 2: you're building something, not just going all in and hoping

474
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:16,200
Speaker 2: it all works out.

475
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I've never been one, and I know even

476
00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,639
Speaker 1: other investors who are like, no, you got to be

477
00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,439
Speaker 1: full time entrepreneur for me to invest in you. And

478
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:26,440
Speaker 1: I'm like, br I'm not trying to give a little

479
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:28,399
Speaker 1: bit of money to somebody who out here starving and

480
00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 1: scraping otherwise because they're not focused. You can't be over

481
00:27:32,880 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: here focused on building your startup if you trying to

482
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:37,800
Speaker 1: figure out how you gonna pay rent this month. So

483
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:42,040
Speaker 1: I definitely don't have a problem with people working a

484
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: job and also building their company. But I also and

485
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,280
Speaker 1: I know you mentioned the pit earlier. We do coworking

486
00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:55,040
Speaker 1: days and we bring together black entrepreneurs, work together, do

487
00:27:55,520 --> 00:27:57,800
Speaker 1: hot seat sessions. We do a bunch of programming for

488
00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: black startup founders in Atlanta, And we had a coworking

489
00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 1: day last week and I was like, listen, I don't

490
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,159
Speaker 1: have no sympathy for people who are like, oh, I

491
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,520
Speaker 1: you know I'm working in trying to build this company

492
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:20,040
Speaker 1: because I built, bootstrapped, built scaled by myself, only person

493
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,760
Speaker 1: working in a company, and then sold an entire company.

494
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:25,879
Speaker 1: So I don't want to hear you ain't had time

495
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 1: to do this. I'm like, bruh. Somebody came up and

496
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 1: asked me, like, well, how did you manage your time?

497
00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I mean, I'm gonna be very real.

498
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:36,640
Speaker 1: I slept about four and a half hours every day,

499
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:41,680
Speaker 1: that's it. Yeah, And then I hustled. I did not

500
00:28:41,800 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: take off any weekends. I worked every single day. Every

501
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:49,680
Speaker 1: single day. I worked in some capacity for somebody myself

502
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: or the law firm. So like, it's not like you

503
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 1: are going to be living a wonderful, beautiful balance life

504
00:28:56,680 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: if you're trying to work and also really get out

505
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:01,320
Speaker 1: the mud with a company. But you could do it.

506
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: You can do it as possible.

507
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:04,360
Speaker 2: And yeah, I think again, you see the you know,

508
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:08,800
Speaker 2: you see the influences online with their morning routines and

509
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:11,600
Speaker 2: you know they're over here, and I'm like, no, no,

510
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,280
Speaker 2: that ain't what it's like. Like again, I'm look, I know,

511
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,040
Speaker 2: trust me. I was up last night working on stuff

512
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 2: till actually I had an emergency call because something happened.

513
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:21,560
Speaker 2: So I was literally on the phone with a you know,

514
00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:24,840
Speaker 2: PR team till like twelve thirty. Then you know, I slept,

515
00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,520
Speaker 2: you knows, about five am this morning, got up, sent emails,

516
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:32,200
Speaker 2: got my kids out the door, came back home, got

517
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,960
Speaker 2: on immediately, two calls for two hours, through some water

518
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 2: on my face, shutting the shower, and drove down here.

519
00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:40,720
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what it's like.

520
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:41,920
Speaker 2: And then you know what, I'm gonna do it this

521
00:29:41,960 --> 00:29:43,800
Speaker 2: evening too, and then this weekend I'm gonna be working

522
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:45,960
Speaker 2: on stuff and like, yeah, like when you get to

523
00:29:46,040 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 2: a certain point, and maybe, but I think even for

524
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 2: certain I think for like real entrepreneurs too at least,

525
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 2: but people are like working like I don't even necessarily

526
00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 2: see a place where I'm just not doing anything. I

527
00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:57,880
Speaker 2: think at a minimum, I'll probably ramp down. I'd like

528
00:29:57,960 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 2: to have something where at a certain point it's like,

529
00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:01,360
Speaker 2: you know, a couple hours on the week or something

530
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,840
Speaker 2: more of a passion project. But right now, YO, were working, we're.

531
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 1: Working, we grinding. And that's what I said. That's when

532
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 1: I think about who I invest in and when I

533
00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,640
Speaker 1: think about who I spend my energy on. I have

534
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: like two really big criteria for entrepreneurs, Like you got

535
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:22,400
Speaker 1: to number one, be willing to get it out the mudd.

536
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,440
Speaker 1: That's why we call the organization that we built the pit,

537
00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:28,720
Speaker 1: Like are you going to get in the pit and

538
00:30:28,760 --> 00:30:32,000
Speaker 1: build this shit? Yeah? You not building it from the rafters,

539
00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: Like this shit ain't cute, it's not like oh even entrepreneur,

540
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,240
Speaker 1: it's like bruh. Sometimes you fighting for your life in

541
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:45,479
Speaker 1: that pit, but you're making it happy. And then also,

542
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:48,040
Speaker 1: you cannot be hard headed, because it's a lot of

543
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: hard headed people out here who don't listen to shit

544
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: and then be trying to understand why the stuff they're

545
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: doing doesn't work. And I'm like, I mean, if you

546
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,680
Speaker 1: had to listen when somebody told you that that wasn't

547
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:02,400
Speaker 1: gonna work and you should think about doing it this

548
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:06,360
Speaker 1: way and maybe a different place. So yeah, I was

549
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: very big on seeking out other people when I was

550
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: starting up, in starting in my journey, seeking other people

551
00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:16,320
Speaker 1: who could help me, who had advice, who had been there,

552
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:20,520
Speaker 1: done that, built stuff. And then I was in the trenches.

553
00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:24,640
Speaker 1: I was a corporate lawyer. By the time I left,

554
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,600
Speaker 1: I was making over three hundred thousand dollars at my

555
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,520
Speaker 1: law firm, and that did not stop me from bootstrapping

556
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:37,840
Speaker 1: the hell out of my company. In my Jimmy choos

557
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:42,360
Speaker 1: walking around with my clipboard. I would go out on

558
00:31:42,440 --> 00:31:46,120
Speaker 1: weekends and canvas at different events and be like, I

559
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:47,880
Speaker 1: ain't building this, Can I sign you up for the

560
00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 1: mailing list? Going up talking to people at different black

561
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: business like pop ups and stuff, being like can you

562
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: will you consider getting on my platform? And I was

563
00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:01,000
Speaker 1: out here like us talking to people literally walking around

564
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: with my little produ bag, like let me get you

565
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:06,600
Speaker 1: to sign up, like the little Humane Society people to

566
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,719
Speaker 1: be trying to like Lady and Kroger trying to get

567
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,160
Speaker 1: me a sign off rat and t That was me.

568
00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 1: That was me, And now folks want to just be like, oh,

569
00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:20,520
Speaker 1: I've got to turn on some Facebook as I'm like, bruh, nah,

570
00:32:20,800 --> 00:32:21,960
Speaker 1: you gotta get out there.

571
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,920
Speaker 2: When I started Buttering, I remember, you know, because I

572
00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:39,320
Speaker 2: didn't even really do social media personally, so like for me,

573
00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:41,560
Speaker 2: a thousand followers was like all the people in Atlanta,

574
00:32:42,040 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 2: you know. I remember when we had our launch party.

575
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:45,440
Speaker 2: I just remember saying like, if we can just get

576
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:47,280
Speaker 2: the three hundred followers by the launch party, like this

577
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 2: thing is gonna be lit. I think we got like

578
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:51,040
Speaker 2: the three oh five and I was like, oh, yeah,

579
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 2: we going crazy, you know what I'm saying. But I

580
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:56,840
Speaker 2: remember we got like a thousand followers because I have

581
00:32:56,880 --> 00:32:59,640
Speaker 2: a background in like engineering and product management too, right,

582
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:02,440
Speaker 2: Like I literally set out an email one day and

583
00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:04,719
Speaker 2: was like and I saw a survey to like our

584
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,560
Speaker 2: followers on ig and I was like, look, fill this out,

585
00:33:07,560 --> 00:33:09,160
Speaker 2: like I want to know why y'all follow Butter. And

586
00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 2: the very last question was if you don't mind if

587
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,800
Speaker 2: I call you, what's your phone number? And I probably

588
00:33:14,800 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 2: got to maybe about thirty or forty people the game,

589
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,320
Speaker 2: and I literally called them and people were like wow,

590
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,600
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, I want to know, Like I want

591
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,560
Speaker 2: to understand, like what made you follow this social media

592
00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:27,400
Speaker 2: account and like what are we doing with like people

593
00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 2: Like I'm like, yeah, it literally takes like that level

594
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 2: of work, you know what I mean, actually get in

595
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:32,840
Speaker 2: and want to understand and like I say that like

596
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 2: hand hand com bit. I like when you talk about

597
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 2: the pit. Like one of my favorite books is this

598
00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 2: book by Seth Golden called The Dip, and it kind

599
00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 2: of talks about the same thing. It says, you know,

600
00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:43,760
Speaker 2: when you get ready to start anything, it's almost like

601
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 2: you're on a cliff. Right, whether you're graduating college and

602
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 2: graduate high school, about to go to college, or you're

603
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:50,200
Speaker 2: ready to start a business, you're on this cliff and

604
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,360
Speaker 2: everybody's like, congratulations, you did it. It's about to be amazing.

605
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,520
Speaker 2: And look over that edge and there's there's a dip.

606
00:33:56,560 --> 00:33:57,080
Speaker 1: There's a pit.

607
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 2: There's a valley, right and once you get into that valley.

608
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 2: But he basically talks about is He's like, look, if

609
00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 2: you don't want to do the work to get out

610
00:34:05,160 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 2: the other side, it's okay to quit. But at the

611
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 2: same time, once you're in there, you gotta go. You've

612
00:34:11,520 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 2: got to figure out how to get up the other

613
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 2: side of this mountain and get up back to the

614
00:34:14,480 --> 00:34:14,959
Speaker 2: other side.

615
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 1: Right.

616
00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:16,719
Speaker 2: So again, I think about it again when you talk

617
00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:18,400
Speaker 2: about the pit getting it out, like you get all

618
00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 2: the again, like you know, the world is really good

619
00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 2: at congratulating founders. I think I think things that aren't

620
00:34:23,640 --> 00:34:26,000
Speaker 2: really worth congratulating All the time they found out you

621
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 2: were raising a bunch of money, it's like great, now

622
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:27,920
Speaker 2: you're in.

623
00:34:29,400 --> 00:34:31,000
Speaker 1: Now you owe people a bunch of money. Now you've

624
00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: got their money and they got.

625
00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:34,279
Speaker 2: Xpect Now they can call you and be like, so

626
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:35,600
Speaker 2: what you're doing? You know they or they hit you

627
00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 2: for these or you started something. They say, great, now

628
00:34:37,280 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 2: you're not gonna be up You're gonna be staying up

629
00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:40,920
Speaker 2: that all night trying to build this thing. But they

630
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,120
Speaker 2: don't see like that messy middle part, right, And I think,

631
00:34:44,160 --> 00:34:45,440
Speaker 2: you know, I don't know. I think we got to

632
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:47,320
Speaker 2: like flip that around a little bit more. But even

633
00:34:47,600 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 2: in going through that process, like what are some of

634
00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:52,200
Speaker 2: the biggest lessons you learn going through an acquisition, because

635
00:34:52,200 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 2: a lot of people want to get to that part,

636
00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:56,440
Speaker 2: and you know, I don't think they really understand how

637
00:34:56,440 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 2: many deals fall apart in the acquisition process because you

638
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,800
Speaker 2: don't have paperwork together, or you know, just things again,

639
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:04,400
Speaker 2: things happen, right, Like, what are some of the biggest

640
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:06,640
Speaker 2: things you learned just going through that acquisition process?

641
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:10,439
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, okay, So the biggest thing that I talked

642
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,440
Speaker 1: to the entrepreneurs about is like, what do you actually

643
00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 1: want out of an acquisition? Now that I'm older and wiser,

644
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 1: I very strongly believe that I will not again in

645
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:28,879
Speaker 1: my life sell a company and myself with it. I'm

646
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,640
Speaker 1: not coming. So whatever it is that you want, it

647
00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,640
Speaker 1: got to be in the company itself. Yeah, I'm not

648
00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,640
Speaker 1: coming to work for you. I actually only know one

649
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:44,360
Speaker 1: founder who's ever had a good experience with the company

650
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:47,799
Speaker 1: that they sold to, going in and actually working in

651
00:35:47,840 --> 00:35:51,080
Speaker 1: that company as a part of the acquisition. Everybody else

652
00:35:52,400 --> 00:35:54,720
Speaker 1: in the startup round typically is put on a vesting

653
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:58,440
Speaker 1: schedule once they get right to the acquiring company. And

654
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:03,320
Speaker 1: what that means is you any equity that you get

655
00:36:03,360 --> 00:36:08,160
Speaker 1: in the new company vest over the course of typically

656
00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:12,960
Speaker 1: four years. So if you sell your company and you

657
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:16,440
Speaker 1: sell it for a mix of cash and also equity

658
00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 1: in the new company, Let's say Coca Cola buys your

659
00:36:20,200 --> 00:36:23,680
Speaker 1: company and they buy it for a million dollars and

660
00:36:23,760 --> 00:36:26,520
Speaker 1: half of it is cash and half of it is

661
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:31,000
Speaker 1: equity in Coca Cola, and that equity vest over four years,

662
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 1: then at any point before four years is up, you

663
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 1: actually do not have five hundred thousand dollars worth of

664
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:42,520
Speaker 1: equity in Coca Cola. You only have how much has

665
00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,760
Speaker 1: vested over time. Vesting can happen on a monthly schedule,

666
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:48,560
Speaker 1: cappen on a quarterly schedules, sometimes even rarely capp it

667
00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:52,080
Speaker 1: on a yearly schedule, which means they usually also put

668
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 1: in a cliff, a one year cliff, which means in

669
00:36:55,200 --> 00:36:57,920
Speaker 1: that first year, if you like, oh this shit sucks,

670
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,920
Speaker 1: I'm out, you don't get any all. You lose it

671
00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,880
Speaker 1: all because you didn't make it off the flip. So

672
00:37:07,400 --> 00:37:11,240
Speaker 1: I again, I only know one founder who's actually even

673
00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:16,640
Speaker 1: made it to the four year schedule. Everybody else I

674
00:37:16,719 --> 00:37:20,200
Speaker 1: know did not even stay for four years to get

675
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,040
Speaker 1: all their equity. And the point at which you are

676
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:29,480
Speaker 1: either kicked out, which happens a lot a lot, or

677
00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:32,560
Speaker 1: you are like, I just got to get out of here,

678
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:36,600
Speaker 1: and you're willing to leave money on the table because

679
00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:40,600
Speaker 1: you have unvested equity. You can just imagine what the

680
00:37:40,680 --> 00:37:46,400
Speaker 1: experience is like in that place. So going forward, I'm like,

681
00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 1: I might give people like a couple months transition to

682
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,479
Speaker 1: make sure everything is in place, and then I'm out.

683
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:55,400
Speaker 1: I ain't selling nothing else where. I got to be

684
00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,640
Speaker 1: working there because it's it's crazy out here in East Yes,

685
00:38:00,239 --> 00:38:04,200
Speaker 1: I always tell people that and also work backwards. What

686
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,600
Speaker 1: do you need to get out of an acquisition? And

687
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: understand that from the very beginning of building a company,

688
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:12,279
Speaker 1: And I ask founders out all the time. So like

689
00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:16,800
Speaker 1: I work with Black Ambition and I had a goal

690
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 1: setting and strategy a strategic planning session for Black Ambition founders,

691
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:24,320
Speaker 1: and one of the things I did with them was like, Okay,

692
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:26,280
Speaker 1: where do you want this company to end up? Ultimately?

693
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:28,719
Speaker 1: For the people who are like I want to sell it,

694
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, do you want to work again after?

695
00:38:32,320 --> 00:38:34,279
Speaker 1: Like are you going to go get another job? Are

696
00:38:34,280 --> 00:38:36,440
Speaker 1: you going to go do something else? Build another company?

697
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:38,360
Speaker 1: A couple of people are like, I don't want to

698
00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:41,560
Speaker 1: have to, and I'm like, okay, how much money do

699
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:43,240
Speaker 1: you need to live for the rest of your life

700
00:38:43,480 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: without working at all? Ever? Again? So oh, maybe they

701
00:38:50,719 --> 00:38:53,400
Speaker 1: ain't even thought that far. And I'm like, if you

702
00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:55,960
Speaker 1: think that this sale of this company is going to

703
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 1: pay for the entire rest of your life, you need

704
00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 1: to have a number in mind and you need to

705
00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,439
Speaker 1: be building towards that. So if you know you need

706
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 1: twenty million dollars to live how you want to live

707
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,520
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life, then you better make

708
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,360
Speaker 1: sure when you walk away from that company that you

709
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:16,120
Speaker 1: got twenty million dollars a yo pocket yep. Which means again,

710
00:39:16,200 --> 00:39:18,080
Speaker 1: like you said, people be raising all this money and

711
00:39:18,080 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 1: that's real cute or whatever. But if you brought in

712
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:24,680
Speaker 1: all these investors and they own fifty percent of the

713
00:39:24,719 --> 00:39:28,920
Speaker 1: company and you can only sell that company for twenty million, baby,

714
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:31,200
Speaker 1: you're not leaving out there with twenty million, right, because

715
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:35,040
Speaker 1: they own fifty percent, you get in ten. That's it.

716
00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:41,800
Speaker 1: So I definitely when I started my company, my first company,

717
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,000
Speaker 1: I did not have my exit in mind because I

718
00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: was just stumbling into entrepreneurship. And now anything that I'm

719
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 1: building or working on, I'm like, bro, what's the end

720
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:53,560
Speaker 1: go for this? Right? What are we doing this for?

721
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:56,439
Speaker 1: Cause I ain't about to be going back and forth

722
00:39:56,480 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 1: with you niggas whatever, Okay, Like no, So that is

723
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:05,640
Speaker 1: my key advice that and like just get the bookkeeper

724
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: real early and be doing the financial statements. People don't

725
00:40:08,960 --> 00:40:11,839
Speaker 1: have P and L, don't have balance sheet. Folks don't

726
00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 1: even know how much money they are spending in their

727
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:18,520
Speaker 1: business regularly. And it's one person I always make sure

728
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:21,799
Speaker 1: I pay. That's the bookkeeper. Yeah, all the time. And

729
00:40:21,880 --> 00:40:24,399
Speaker 1: I'm like, every month, I want to see my balance sheet.

730
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:25,800
Speaker 1: I want to see P and L. I want to

731
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,680
Speaker 1: see what's actually going on and actually understand. Like even

732
00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 1: last year, I was like, I need to spend some

733
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:35,120
Speaker 1: money because the taxes are about to be interesting. So

734
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:38,759
Speaker 1: I know in December, going into December, I got to

735
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,640
Speaker 1: get these business expenses in a lou I'm like, I

736
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:45,520
Speaker 1: need to go see some clients in California by this

737
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: ticket making business class. You know. So just being able

738
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 1: to actually plan cash flow huge a lot of people. Yeah,

739
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,440
Speaker 1: a lot of people who are making money still go

740
00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: out of business or mess themselves because they don't know

741
00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:02,640
Speaker 1: what their cash flow is like and they don't have

742
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:04,959
Speaker 1: a process for actually managing cash flow.

743
00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:10,760
Speaker 2: So yeah, one of my favorite of jay Z lines,

744
00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 2: he says, who deserves the Medal of Freedom? My accountant.

745
00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 2: I'm like y'all gonna play that part again, Like, y'all

746
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:21,960
Speaker 2: don't understand. He's like the Federal Allies would have been

747
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 2: had the townhouse surrounded, you know what I mean. But no,

748
00:41:24,640 --> 00:41:26,840
Speaker 2: it's like, you got to understand these things. And I

749
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,480
Speaker 2: agree with you one hundred percent. Like I think that's

750
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 2: a hard lesson I had to learn early on too.

751
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 2: It's like you got to get the books right, especially one,

752
00:41:34,160 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 2: just so you understand what you're doing, what's kind of

753
00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:37,439
Speaker 2: going in and going out. Even on a personal level,

754
00:41:37,440 --> 00:41:38,880
Speaker 2: you gotta have your own kind of personal p and

755
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,319
Speaker 2: L but specifically for business, but especially if you want

756
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:42,879
Speaker 2: to actually sell a business. There's a lot of things

757
00:41:42,920 --> 00:41:45,759
Speaker 2: that fall apart at closer to finish line because you

758
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:46,880
Speaker 2: don't have your paperwork together.

759
00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:54,040
Speaker 1: I spent hours with my accountant putting retroactively getting all

760
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 1: of my financial statements together in preparation for this acquisition

761
00:41:57,920 --> 00:42:00,200
Speaker 1: because I did not have that shit together. Yeah, and

762
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:02,360
Speaker 1: I had to get all these documents and I was like,

763
00:42:02,440 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 1: oh my god, never again. Now, baby, I could download

764
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:11,000
Speaker 1: that thing for quick, but was right now up to date.

765
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:12,399
Speaker 1: I got a buddy. I got a buddy of mine.

766
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 2: He actually came on and he was kind of saying

767
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,360
Speaker 2: something similar where when him and his wife built their business,

768
00:42:17,120 --> 00:42:20,120
Speaker 2: they actually did a lot of the upward upfront work

769
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:22,760
Speaker 2: with having an accountant. So when they actually got acquired,

770
00:42:22,800 --> 00:42:25,719
Speaker 2: he's like, it took like six weeks, which is crazy

771
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:26,479
Speaker 2: when you think.

772
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:27,239
Speaker 1: About the amount of time.

773
00:42:27,360 --> 00:42:29,319
Speaker 2: He was like, but the reason why is because I

774
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 2: had everything lined up. There weren't no crazy deals. I

775
00:42:32,719 --> 00:42:35,719
Speaker 2: had all the paperworking in place, and we just pulled it.

776
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:37,680
Speaker 2: They verified everything, and like he was like, the deal

777
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:39,399
Speaker 2: was done in like six weeks, And I mean, that's

778
00:42:39,520 --> 00:42:40,960
Speaker 2: the benefit of that stuff, right.

779
00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:45,759
Speaker 1: I'm working with an entrepreneur now who does not have

780
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:50,360
Speaker 1: any document storage system. I'd be asking forseff He's like,

781
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:51,960
Speaker 1: I gotta go back and find it in my email,

782
00:42:52,640 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 1: and I'm like, bruh, bruh.

783
00:42:57,640 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 2: Well, look, you're working with these folks, and that's one

784
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:01,560
Speaker 2: of the because you now you have a venture fund

785
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,040
Speaker 2: I do, and you know, we know that there's a

786
00:43:04,080 --> 00:43:06,799
Speaker 2: lot of challenge, especially for black founder, especially black women founder,

787
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,520
Speaker 2: is getting access to capital. You know, like, what's one

788
00:43:09,520 --> 00:43:11,799
Speaker 2: of the biggest misconceptions that people have about, you know,

789
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,160
Speaker 2: just fundraising at this level, especially on the VC side.

790
00:43:15,640 --> 00:43:19,520
Speaker 1: So the reason that my partner and I started as

791
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:23,840
Speaker 1: venture fund is because we wanted to change the landscape adventure.

792
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:29,560
Speaker 1: I think one of the biggest misconceptions about venture capital

793
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 1: is that it is a good, positive step in the

794
00:43:34,320 --> 00:43:37,880
Speaker 1: right direction for your company, and usually it's not for us.

795
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:42,279
Speaker 1: And I've been telling these black founders, I like, if

796
00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: you at all can avoid raising venture, avoid it. This

797
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:55,840
Speaker 1: landscape is predatory. It is like, it's worse than payday loans.

798
00:43:56,640 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 1: But they've glamorized it so much that these supposed to

799
00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:03,400
Speaker 1: be what looking at Forbes and tech Crunch and thinking

800
00:44:03,480 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 1: this is the goal, And I'm like, bruh, do you

801
00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,040
Speaker 1: know what founders deal with after they take adventure for

802
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,120
Speaker 1: their company? The road to get there, I think is

803
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:17,320
Speaker 1: so arduous for so many of us. It's so hard

804
00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 1: that we view it as an accomplishment in itself. But

805
00:44:20,680 --> 00:44:25,279
Speaker 1: raising money is not an accomplishment. That just means that

806
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: you have brought in money that your business couldn't bring

807
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:34,520
Speaker 1: in the revenue in order to grow, and now you

808
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 1: actually got to grow. That's the hard part. Yeah, a

809
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:42,040
Speaker 1: lot of people don't grow. So a lot of times,

810
00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,880
Speaker 1: like investing adventure is considered risky because of the number

811
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:49,120
Speaker 1: of companies that go out of business. I think, I

812
00:44:49,200 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 1: think that there are so many reasons why companies go

813
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:54,600
Speaker 1: out of business. But in a startup space, a lot

814
00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,319
Speaker 1: of times them people didn't never have no business even

815
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:02,280
Speaker 1: starting a company with whatever they do, but they convinced

816
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:06,000
Speaker 1: somebody to give them some money to turbocharge, and now

817
00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:11,319
Speaker 1: they're selling the most ridiculous nonsense stuff that nobody asked for.

818
00:45:11,640 --> 00:45:15,879
Speaker 1: Who asked for this? I ask founders all the time,

819
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: and they gets so offended viscerally when I'm like, well,

820
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:23,239
Speaker 1: who asked for this? I this is a I just

821
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:25,240
Speaker 1: came up with it because I'm solving my own problem.

822
00:45:25,320 --> 00:45:27,480
Speaker 1: They'd like to say it out the time. I'm solving

823
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:29,960
Speaker 1: my own problem. Okay, well, how many of yous is

824
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:34,160
Speaker 1: it in the world people have the same problem? Bruh,

825
00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:36,719
Speaker 1: And I'm just like y'all becoming any of y'all wonder

826
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 1: why their own work. So, first of all, venture is predatory.

827
00:45:41,520 --> 00:45:44,319
Speaker 1: Second of all, it puts you on a timeline. A

828
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,120
Speaker 1: venture fund and this is specific to venture investing, which

829
00:45:48,160 --> 00:45:51,319
Speaker 1: is a subset of the investment that you can bring

830
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:55,560
Speaker 1: into a company. But venture capital funds have a life.

831
00:45:55,960 --> 00:46:01,120
Speaker 1: The fund usually lives for ten years, typically eight to

832
00:46:01,200 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 1: ten years. They need to pay back the people who

833
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:07,160
Speaker 1: invested in the venture fund at the end of that

834
00:46:07,239 --> 00:46:12,600
Speaker 1: time period. So if that venture fund launched two years

835
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:16,040
Speaker 1: ago and they are on an eight year life and

836
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,839
Speaker 1: they invest in you, well, now you got six years

837
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:24,160
Speaker 1: and make some shit shape and a venture capitalists typically

838
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:28,040
Speaker 1: only gets their money back if there is a liquidity

839
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 1: event in a company. Liquidity event means you ipo, you

840
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:35,360
Speaker 1: go public on a stock exchange, or you sell the company.

841
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:40,040
Speaker 1: Those are the two liquidity events. Now people are starting

842
00:46:40,040 --> 00:46:44,680
Speaker 1: to do more with secondaries so that you don't necessarily

843
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:47,440
Speaker 1: have to sell, but they sell their equity to somebody

844
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,920
Speaker 1: else in a secondary market. But there doesn't have to

845
00:46:51,040 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: necessarily be a liquidity event with the company. But typically

846
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,319
Speaker 1: liquidity event like you ipo or you sell, that's it.

847
00:46:57,960 --> 00:47:01,279
Speaker 1: So if you are in you got six years and

848
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:05,799
Speaker 1: we in year five and you are over here like, oh,

849
00:47:05,920 --> 00:47:08,000
Speaker 1: you know we're doing this and we're growing study, But

850
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:10,880
Speaker 1: then's your capitalists that invested their money. He was like,

851
00:47:11,239 --> 00:47:15,520
Speaker 1: we need to sell them. You're a wrap it up

852
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 1: where's a wrap it up box? Like you need to

853
00:47:20,600 --> 00:47:24,880
Speaker 1: wrap this up? And they will force you to wrap

854
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:27,600
Speaker 1: it up if they have a certain level of control

855
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:32,440
Speaker 1: in your company and seats or your board. These vcs

856
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 1: don't have no qualms about putting your ass out if

857
00:47:35,600 --> 00:47:37,440
Speaker 1: you don't want to get with the program and putting

858
00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:41,359
Speaker 1: somebody in. And for us, it's usually some white boy,

859
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,480
Speaker 1: that day homeboy that comes to replace you, and they

860
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:46,680
Speaker 1: gonna make sure this shit gets sold within the next year.

861
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:50,520
Speaker 1: Whatever they gotta do to strong arm it so they

862
00:47:50,600 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 1: get their money back. That's what they need to do,

863
00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:56,479
Speaker 1: or they'll make you close the cobbedy down and they'll

864
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:58,920
Speaker 1: write it off on their taxes, which is better then

865
00:47:58,960 --> 00:48:02,080
Speaker 1: a little bit of money gonna get them back. So

866
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:04,640
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, we've rather this thing closed down, and

867
00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:09,800
Speaker 1: they will shut you down. So that is the typical

868
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:14,880
Speaker 1: landscape adventure. Not to mention, only zero point four percent

869
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:19,479
Speaker 1: of all venture capital dollars last year went to black

870
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,759
Speaker 1: leg companies, so like, not even a whole percent. I

871
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:27,160
Speaker 1: say point four, not four point four, so not even

872
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:32,640
Speaker 1: half a percent, So we struggling to raise when we

873
00:48:32,719 --> 00:48:35,880
Speaker 1: do raise. They got us on a leash literally and

874
00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:40,000
Speaker 1: they be walking us like dogs on at leash. And

875
00:48:40,080 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 1: then four percent of investors are black, so we not

876
00:48:44,239 --> 00:48:46,160
Speaker 1: getting in on the other side of the table either.

877
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:51,239
Speaker 1: And what that means is when these companies do have

878
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,359
Speaker 1: liquidity events, when they ipo, when they exit, we are

879
00:48:55,400 --> 00:49:00,120
Speaker 1: not partaking in that. When Uber IPOs and when and

880
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:06,880
Speaker 1: Calling Lee is acquired, we are not seeing that because

881
00:49:07,239 --> 00:49:10,239
Speaker 1: there are so few of us who're investing. So we

882
00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:15,840
Speaker 1: launched this fund to really address the gap in a

883
00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 1: holistic way, the gap with investors, the gap with companies,

884
00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:26,439
Speaker 1: and also because I very strongly believe after having sat

885
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:28,720
Speaker 1: in the courtroom for a year in addition to practice

886
00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:33,960
Speaker 1: of law, when I got radicalized, I realized that we

887
00:49:34,040 --> 00:49:37,799
Speaker 1: can't just put black people in the same place that

888
00:49:37,840 --> 00:49:40,000
Speaker 1: white people were and then think that things are going

889
00:49:40,080 --> 00:49:42,279
Speaker 1: to all of a sudden change. Just because it's a

890
00:49:42,280 --> 00:49:44,960
Speaker 1: black judge and a black bailiff and two black lawyers

891
00:49:45,000 --> 00:49:47,400
Speaker 1: in the courtroom don't mean that nigga not going to jail.

892
00:49:48,239 --> 00:49:52,319
Speaker 1: So I mean, I hate to say it like that,

893
00:49:52,400 --> 00:49:58,239
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. So in VC, I

894
00:49:58,280 --> 00:50:01,399
Speaker 1: don't think that we can just raise a fund as

895
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 1: black people with black people and invest in black people

896
00:50:04,080 --> 00:50:06,600
Speaker 1: and then everything's gonna be gravy. We also have to

897
00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:11,560
Speaker 1: change how we invest. We're coming in extremely early because

898
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:18,320
Speaker 1: typically before people go to VC funders, they will raise

899
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:21,360
Speaker 1: a family and friends round Black people do not be

900
00:50:21,400 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 1: having family and friends what capital to put it, So

901
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:27,479
Speaker 1: we not raising a couple hundred that we're not Jeff

902
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,720
Speaker 1: Bezos where our parents gave us a couple hundred thousand

903
00:50:30,000 --> 00:50:33,759
Speaker 1: to get started. So we're trying to solve that. We're

904
00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:37,680
Speaker 1: coming in earlier, and then we're also flexible with how

905
00:50:37,719 --> 00:50:41,560
Speaker 1: we invest, so we're using different tools. We will do

906
00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:45,440
Speaker 1: some debt investing, so investing on a convertible note as

907
00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:49,880
Speaker 1: opposed to just pure equity in the beginning, or using

908
00:50:50,080 --> 00:50:53,279
Speaker 1: a royalty or like revenue share basis to invest in

909
00:50:53,320 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 1: some companies so that we get paid back when that

910
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:00,759
Speaker 1: company starts generating revenue from their revenue, as opposed to

911
00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:04,239
Speaker 1: we are taking this level of ownership and you have

912
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:06,839
Speaker 1: to exit in order to pay us back. So we're

913
00:51:06,920 --> 00:51:11,880
Speaker 1: trying to reinvigorate and reorient this model so that it

914
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:15,000
Speaker 1: actually works for us, because there's a lot of black

915
00:51:15,040 --> 00:51:17,640
Speaker 1: folks that don't want to exit. They don't want to

916
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,960
Speaker 1: sell this company in ten years. We've big on trying

917
00:51:21,000 --> 00:51:24,279
Speaker 1: to find our way to generational wealth, and a lot

918
00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:28,000
Speaker 1: of people feel like what they're building is their legacy.

919
00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:30,399
Speaker 1: They want to be able to build that or run

920
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,000
Speaker 1: a for an extended period of time potentially pass that on.

921
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:37,080
Speaker 1: So how do we get financing to those people too?

922
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,239
Speaker 1: Those are the things that we're thinking about, Like, we

923
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,919
Speaker 1: can't just do what they've done and expect that it's

924
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:44,120
Speaker 1: just gonna work for us.

925
00:51:55,800 --> 00:51:57,200
Speaker 2: And real quick, I just had to go back and

926
00:51:57,239 --> 00:51:59,960
Speaker 2: look point four If you know what, point four percent

927
00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:03,440
Speaker 2: of a billion dollars is four million dollars?

928
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:07,399
Speaker 1: Zero point four percent? And can you believe that some

929
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,279
Speaker 1: folks out there are suing funds that are focused on

930
00:52:11,360 --> 00:52:13,920
Speaker 1: black people because they don't want us to get the

931
00:52:13,960 --> 00:52:16,799
Speaker 1: point four percent. I'm like, we barely even get shit,

932
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,680
Speaker 1: and they don't even want us say that. So you

933
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:21,279
Speaker 1: know what I realized when these lawsuits and when this

934
00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:25,479
Speaker 1: anti DEI push came, Like I conceptually knew that because

935
00:52:25,480 --> 00:52:27,320
Speaker 1: I grew up radical, when I grew up in Savannah,

936
00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:31,040
Speaker 1: Georgia slash Montgomery, Alabama. The bus boycott started there and

937
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:35,680
Speaker 1: they needed to come back because these people are just braces, bruh.

938
00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 1: They was busting. John Lewis on the head, and I

939
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:41,239
Speaker 1: promised you if he were alive, these people would be

940
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:44,839
Speaker 1: ready to bust him on the head today. So we're

941
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:48,759
Speaker 1: not out of that era. But what I really had

942
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 1: to come to grips with when I like, when this

943
00:52:53,760 --> 00:52:57,359
Speaker 1: anti DEI push really came about, and when all these

944
00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:01,080
Speaker 1: lawsuits started happening in the VC space, so that they

945
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: actually don't want us to have anything. Anything that we

946
00:53:05,719 --> 00:53:08,919
Speaker 1: have is too much. They don't want us to have shit.

947
00:53:09,520 --> 00:53:11,160
Speaker 1: So when they see us with our little.

948
00:53:10,960 --> 00:53:15,319
Speaker 3: Point four percent of a pie, they're like, not on

949
00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:22,680
Speaker 3: my watch, Like what who let the next slip by?

950
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:27,759
Speaker 1: Like it's legitimately? How I imagine that these people are

951
00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:31,480
Speaker 1: thinking and then O, Peter, what's up? Like well everything

952
00:53:31,520 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 1: needs to be decided or married and be like okay,

953
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:39,560
Speaker 1: well how about this. This black company was better than

954
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:41,759
Speaker 1: yours and that's why I'm putting money into them. Oh

955
00:53:43,000 --> 00:53:48,480
Speaker 1: the hold on. I'd be like, baby, I'm telling you

956
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:51,319
Speaker 1: my blood. Every day I just wake up and shake

957
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,320
Speaker 1: my head like this is America. But but yeah, we

958
00:53:55,320 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 1: we're we are trying to do something that hasn't been

959
00:53:59,520 --> 00:54:04,319
Speaker 1: done before, bringing this number of black investors into a fund,

960
00:54:05,239 --> 00:54:08,360
Speaker 1: bringing this type of capital to black entrepreneurs at the

961
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,480
Speaker 1: earliest stage, at idea plus stage, so you don't have

962
00:54:11,560 --> 00:54:16,440
Speaker 1: to have built anything yet to get funding from us,

963
00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 1: which has been accessible for the tech bros and you know,

964
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 1: the college drop out with an idea before, but not

965
00:54:25,080 --> 00:54:28,480
Speaker 1: for us. And we're trying to shake some shit up.

966
00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:31,480
Speaker 2: I love it, love it. Look we're getting ready to

967
00:54:31,520 --> 00:54:33,399
Speaker 2: get out of here in a minute. But before we do,

968
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:38,160
Speaker 2: what's one piece of advice that you'd give the next

969
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:44,040
Speaker 2: Cadeedra Robinson is getting ready to start her journey. If

970
00:54:44,040 --> 00:54:45,200
Speaker 2: you got two, that's fine.

971
00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:51,480
Speaker 1: One piece of advice I would definitely say, take better

972
00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:55,360
Speaker 1: care of yourself because these people will drive you crazy.

973
00:54:56,520 --> 00:55:02,640
Speaker 1: You will find yourself falling apart, and they gonna continue

974
00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:09,319
Speaker 1: with their lives. They're gonna continue with the incompetent, illiterate

975
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:15,160
Speaker 1: line preacher after they have drained you dry of everything

976
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:17,680
Speaker 1: you got. And as much as I love Black people

977
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:22,000
Speaker 1: and as much as I everything I do, is because

978
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:28,239
Speaker 1: I genuinely love us. I think we are the most ridiculous, hilarious,

979
00:55:28,640 --> 00:55:37,080
Speaker 1: joy felled, creative, ingenuitive, like just completely amazing set of

980
00:55:37,120 --> 00:55:40,960
Speaker 1: people who have ever lived. They've been trying to kill

981
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,960
Speaker 1: us for centuries and they can't do it. We still

982
00:55:45,000 --> 00:55:49,200
Speaker 1: two step and while they trying to kill lives dance,

983
00:55:49,400 --> 00:55:52,480
Speaker 1: we still learning new line. This is why they trying

984
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:56,520
Speaker 1: to take us out. At a macro level. We cannot die.

985
00:55:57,800 --> 00:56:03,120
Speaker 1: But as much as I love us, the saying that

986
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:06,240
Speaker 1: you cannot pour from an empty cup is actually really, really,

987
00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:09,840
Speaker 1: really real. And I've let myself over the course of

988
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:14,520
Speaker 1: my journey, get emptied out way too often, and it

989
00:56:14,600 --> 00:56:17,479
Speaker 1: just makes you resentful, It makes you mad, burns you out,

990
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:22,560
Speaker 1: and it doesn't actually move the needle for you or

991
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:27,240
Speaker 1: for black folks in general. So take better carry yourself,

992
00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:28,640
Speaker 1: no tak care of yourself.

993
00:56:28,680 --> 00:56:31,319
Speaker 2: I was actually just the other day, I was I

994
00:56:31,400 --> 00:56:34,080
Speaker 2: was very stressed out about something and some people and

995
00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 2: I was and I saw the people, like I was

996
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:38,600
Speaker 2: in this room and I saw the people, and I

997
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:41,120
Speaker 2: was like kind of sitting on this couch, and I

998
00:56:41,160 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 2: remember I was like laying down, I just have my hand.

999
00:56:42,960 --> 00:56:44,400
Speaker 1: Over my hair like this. And I was like, how

1000
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:46,400
Speaker 1: come I'm the only one to here stressed out like

1001
00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:49,640
Speaker 1: they should be stressed out too. Why is it just me?

1002
00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:53,000
Speaker 1: Why am I soul worrying over there? Laughing?

1003
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:56,520
Speaker 2: And Ki Ki and you know you can't, but I'm

1004
00:56:56,520 --> 00:56:58,680
Speaker 2: saying you can't carry that stuff. You gotta you gotta. Again,

1005
00:56:58,880 --> 00:57:02,600
Speaker 2: we don't talk about it, of just like the weight

1006
00:57:03,280 --> 00:57:06,200
Speaker 2: and the wear and tear that like building something from

1007
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:09,279
Speaker 2: nothing and again just getting up every day and to

1008
00:57:09,360 --> 00:57:12,080
Speaker 2: be in all consuming takes on you. So to your point,

1009
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:13,680
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, I know for me, I remember

1010
00:57:14,320 --> 00:57:16,520
Speaker 2: there were times when, like you know, I would respond,

1011
00:57:16,520 --> 00:57:19,400
Speaker 2: my body would respond. I would have back spasms and

1012
00:57:19,480 --> 00:57:22,040
Speaker 2: my hair started falling out a couple different times, and like.

1013
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I had no edges. At the end of

1014
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:24,840
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two.

1015
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:26,960
Speaker 2: I literally would developed alopecia, and like I would say,

1016
00:57:26,960 --> 00:57:28,840
Speaker 2: I had this. At one point, I had just like

1017
00:57:28,880 --> 00:57:31,520
Speaker 2: a nice little spot on my head that just completely bald,

1018
00:57:31,520 --> 00:57:32,240
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh, hell no.

1019
00:57:32,320 --> 00:57:32,680
Speaker 1: That's it.

1020
00:57:32,880 --> 00:57:34,479
Speaker 2: I was in there spraying the stuff on the little

1021
00:57:34,480 --> 00:57:36,160
Speaker 2: hair fibers. I was like, I ain't living like this

1022
00:57:36,240 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 2: no more. I got me some bioteaine, started drinking some water,

1023
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:42,880
Speaker 2: get me some some melon outside. I said, I can't

1024
00:57:42,960 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 2: do this. So no, man, you got to balance yourself.

1025
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,240
Speaker 2: You gotta you gotta take care of yourself. Because he's

1026
00:57:48,200 --> 00:57:51,320
Speaker 2: just been a great, great conversation. Please before we got

1027
00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:53,480
Speaker 2: out of here. Tell people how they can find out

1028
00:57:53,480 --> 00:57:55,480
Speaker 2: more about the you know, the stuff you're working on

1029
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:58,080
Speaker 2: the pit, how they can find you, support you, like,

1030
00:57:58,160 --> 00:57:59,240
Speaker 2: let them know where to go look.

1031
00:57:59,480 --> 00:58:05,640
Speaker 1: I am on social media at DJA don't because when

1032
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:12,880
Speaker 1: when Twitter first started, I was there literally and I

1033
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 1: grew up loving Queen Latifa character and uh living single

1034
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:20,360
Speaker 1: and her name was Kadija and her little line and

1035
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:22,600
Speaker 1: she used to save you all the time is Kadija

1036
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:25,880
Speaker 1: don't need you, honey. And I was like, yes, period,

1037
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:28,040
Speaker 1: I don't need y'all. I ain't going back and forth

1038
00:58:28,080 --> 00:58:31,440
Speaker 1: with you. So when I got on social media, Dija

1039
00:58:31,480 --> 00:58:35,240
Speaker 1: don't need you was my handle across all the platforms.

1040
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,479
Speaker 1: I'm heavy on LinkedIn. Now apparently I'll be cursing people

1041
00:58:38,480 --> 00:58:44,120
Speaker 1: out on LinkedIn. That's different kinds. They like all you

1042
00:58:44,200 --> 00:58:46,960
Speaker 1: do is politely curse people out on LinkedIn. I'm like, well,

1043
00:58:46,960 --> 00:58:50,440
Speaker 1: they decerned to be cursed. But I'm heavy on LinkedIn.

1044
00:58:50,760 --> 00:58:53,240
Speaker 1: And I also I own the domain name because you know,

1045
00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:55,640
Speaker 1: one thing entrepreneurs love to do is buy a domain.

1046
00:58:56,160 --> 00:58:58,960
Speaker 1: We have an idea, we buy a domain. So DJA

1047
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:01,919
Speaker 1: don't need you dot com you can find me there

1048
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:05,480
Speaker 1: you can find all my different ventures, everything I'm working on,

1049
00:59:06,240 --> 00:59:07,720
Speaker 1: and hit me up.

1050
00:59:08,720 --> 00:59:11,760
Speaker 2: The fact that you not only built a business but

1051
00:59:11,840 --> 00:59:16,920
Speaker 2: also got sold it all while being digital, Nieja, just again,

1052
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:20,000
Speaker 2: I can't, I can't. I can't top that, Kadija, Thank

1053
00:59:20,000 --> 00:59:21,440
Speaker 2: you so much for pulling up. This has been an

1054
00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 2: amazing conversation and we out. That's the pod.

1055
00:59:24,560 --> 00:59:24,840
Speaker 1: Y'all.

1056
00:59:25,920 --> 00:59:27,720
Speaker 2: You've been listening to button Nomics and I'm your host,

1057
00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:31,000
Speaker 2: Brandon Butler. Got comments, feedback? Want to be on the show.

1058
00:59:31,200 --> 00:59:34,240
Speaker 2: Send us an email today at hello at butternomics dot com.

1059
00:59:34,520 --> 00:59:37,560
Speaker 2: Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia at iHeartMedia by

1060
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:40,400
Speaker 2: Ksey Pegram, with marketing support from Queen and Nikki.

1061
00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:42,200
Speaker 1: Music provided by mister Hanky.

1062
00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:44,840
Speaker 2: If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button and never

1063
00:59:44,880 --> 00:59:46,960
Speaker 2: missed an episode, and be sure to follow us on

1064
00:59:47,000 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 2: all our social platforms at butter dot atl Listen to

1065
00:59:50,360 --> 00:59:53,440
Speaker 2: buttteron Nomics on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

1066
00:59:53,480 --> 01:00:01,200
Speaker 2: you get your podcasts.

1067
01:00:01,240 --> 01:00:01,439
Speaker 1: Five