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Speaker 1: May see you check us out of the first Black

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Speaker 1: Fact Podcast Festival, happening Sunday, August in Brooklyn, New York.

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Speaker 1: Tickets are available at black Effact dot com, Forward Last

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Speaker 1: Podcast Festival and live podcasts of your favorite shows are happening.

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Speaker 1: I'm so excited because this is the first time I've

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Speaker 1: ever been able to do I've been to a podcast

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Speaker 1: a long time, and this is my first ever time

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Speaker 1: being able to do one live in front of an audience.

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Speaker 1: So come through, come check us out. Eighty five South

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Speaker 1: is gonna be there, all the Smoke's gonna be there,

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Speaker 1: Black Tech, Green Money's gonna be there. Get tickets today

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Speaker 1: at black Fact dot com, Forward Last Podcast Festival. Well

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Speaker 1: you can see an Afro tech, Black Tech, Green Money.

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Speaker 1: And I want to take you back to a conversation

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Speaker 1: I had on this podcast with Mercedes Bent, who was

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Speaker 1: a partner at light Speed Venture Partners, a multi stage

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Speaker 1: venture capital firm with offices around the world including Valley, Israel, China, India, Europe,

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Speaker 1: Southeast Asia, on and on on arm. So we talked

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Speaker 1: on this episode about a lot of the accelerations that

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Speaker 1: happened because of the COVID nineteen pandemic, and I think

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Speaker 1: so many of the things she said in this episode

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Speaker 1: are still pertinent and relevant today, so I wanted to

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Speaker 1: run it back so you don't miss any of the keys. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's been so many accelerations. I think one of the

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Speaker 1: biggest ones that probably we all feel in our day

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Speaker 1: to day life is the e commerce acceleration. You know,

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Speaker 1: if as much as we all use Amazon, and think

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Speaker 1: about how big of a company that is, e commerce

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Speaker 1: and the penetration as percentage of total retail sales in

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Speaker 1: the US was actually really small even pre pandemic. You know,

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Speaker 1: we're talking single digits creeping into double digits, and during

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Speaker 1: the pandemic, depending on which category you look at, some

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Speaker 1: people will say it doubled. Some people will say it

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Speaker 1: when I went up to thirty some people today I

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Speaker 1: went up to it grew a lot. And and that's

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Speaker 1: we're still it's a minority of the of the sales

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Speaker 1: that are happening. That's a huge transformation. I think we

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Speaker 1: all probably saw it happening and continuing to happen in

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Speaker 1: the future. Another one is just around the way we

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Speaker 1: do work. You know, we've heard of the that this

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Speaker 1: phrase the future of work many times, or people talk

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Speaker 1: about distributed teams and remote teams and how people are

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Speaker 1: going to be able to work from anywhere in the

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Speaker 1: world and we won't need offices. And that was always

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Speaker 1: kind of a little bit of a pipe dream that

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Speaker 1: people talked about, and maybe a couple, you know, very lucky,

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Speaker 1: adventurous people were nomads and and worked wherever they wanted,

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Speaker 1: but it wasn't the reality for most of us. And nowadays,

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Speaker 1: now we're all working from home. People have you know,

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Speaker 1: at least where I'm at in San Francisco, people have

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Speaker 1: cut their you know, apartment rents, and and and and left.

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Speaker 1: And so I think this is something where we're fundingly

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Speaker 1: going to reimagine what the workplace is like and the

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Speaker 1: and and COVID has really accelerated what it means to

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Speaker 1: just do work. So those are two areas. There's a

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Speaker 1: lot more, but those, I mean even also as we

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Speaker 1: think about travel, um, that's another one that he actually

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Speaker 1: think is a little interesting to touch on because you know,

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Speaker 1: even when we think back to nine eleven in the

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Speaker 1: Sprina and eleven travel and postline eleven travel, how we

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Speaker 1: thought about security very differently. We're now going to think

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Speaker 1: about health as a very different requirement for travel. And

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm going actually somewhere in a few days

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Speaker 1: and had to go get a nasal swab, and so

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Speaker 1: I think it's just, you know, maybe was that the

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Speaker 1: acceleration of what we would think for travel. Actually a

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Speaker 1: lot of experts in the travel industry have been thinking

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Speaker 1: about this for years. How do you what is the

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Speaker 1: future of health and travel? And yeah, we've accelerated into

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Speaker 1: that really quickly too. For particularly, um, where's the opportunity then,

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Speaker 1: particularly when you talk about the future of work and

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Speaker 1: being distributed, and even the retail side. When I think

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Speaker 1: about UM, anybody building retail in director consumer or whatever,

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Speaker 1: you're competing against the amazon ification of everything because consumer

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Speaker 1: expectations are now so high. You know, you expect to

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Speaker 1: get it the same day or the next day. So

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Speaker 1: it continues to impress me. You know that you can

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Speaker 1: be on Etsy, and you know you can be all

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Speaker 1: the large following, you can be on shop you build

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Speaker 1: your own shopify and do your own thing because of

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Speaker 1: the expectation. I wonder how you look at if you're

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Speaker 1: if you're looking at retail opportunities and other um sort

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Speaker 1: of e commerce opportunities. What is required from those startups

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Speaker 1: or form from those entrepreneurs and inventors to be able

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Speaker 1: to compete in the landscape that is being in many

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Speaker 1: ways formed by Amazon. Yeah, I think it's I think

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Speaker 1: retail businesses have such a hard time right now. I mean,

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Speaker 1: depending on where they are in the country, some of

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Speaker 1: them can't even be open right now. There are startups

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Speaker 1: that are starting to focus on you know, and and

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Speaker 1: some of these have gotten quite big the shopifies of

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Speaker 1: the world that are tools and services that enable these

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Speaker 1: smaller businesses the at seas of the world, like you

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Speaker 1: spoke about, that allowed them to have a direct channel

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Speaker 1: with their customer and not to rely just on foot traffic.

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Speaker 1: There's also even a new trend of startups that are

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Speaker 1: focused on UM live streaming shopping. They actually these are

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Speaker 1: really big businesses in China. UM companies like h j

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Speaker 1: d Live and Talbao and Pindlo, dwell um. These are

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Speaker 1: companies that, you know, some of them allow the small

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Speaker 1: business owner to you know, video kind of like QVC.

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Speaker 1: I was thinking home shopping network That's what I was exactly,

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Speaker 1: and do it all via app and say hey, here's

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Speaker 1: what I have in my core. Do you like this,

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Speaker 1: how about this vintage jacket, how about this you know,

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Speaker 1: craftsman thing, and then just have people directly sell it

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Speaker 1: right from that. And so these ideas haven't taken off

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Speaker 1: in America quite yet, but there are startups that are

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Speaker 1: kind of working to even that playing field, particularly when

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Speaker 1: you think about education. I know you're big and you know,

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Speaker 1: very passionate about the education. Um. You had said the

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Speaker 1: future of K twelve is a world of personalized learning,

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Speaker 1: and you were and this was a post about COVID,

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Speaker 1: but K twelve technology adoption has lagged the broader what's

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Speaker 1: changing about education, particularly regards to the new opportunity at

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Speaker 1: COVID provides everything. Everything has changed about G twelve, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and I always used to kind of ponder

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Speaker 1: the question of why has education been slower to adapt

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Speaker 1: technology than other industries. Also, I think this is healthcare

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Speaker 1: is another industry where that's been the case. When there's

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Speaker 1: these industries that are very much so service based, very

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Speaker 1: heavily people oriented. You know, they employ between healthcare and education,

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Speaker 1: they employ some of the two of the largest professions

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Speaker 1: in the United States three million teachers, way more nurses

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Speaker 1: than that, and when you think about this, you know,

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Speaker 1: there their their service is actually hard to automate and

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Speaker 1: hard to replicate. When you, you know, go through a

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Speaker 1: top ten list of what are the jobs that are

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Speaker 1: going to be most AI or automation proof, teaching is

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Speaker 1: always out there and in the top because it's really

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Speaker 1: hard thing to do. I don't think people appreciate teachers

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Speaker 1: and you'rly enough for the multitude of tasks that they're

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Speaker 1: accomplishing it once. I mean they're caring for individual and

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Speaker 1: managing their emotional state. They're making sure that they are

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Speaker 1: paying attention and focused and engaged. They're trying to convey

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Speaker 1: information that in a way that's interesting and unique to them.

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Speaker 1: And they're doing that for people at once who often

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Speaker 1: are you know, so young that this is actually really difficult.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for them. Um so, so teachers do heroin, they're

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Speaker 1: they're heroes. They do amazing stuff. But I think I

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Speaker 1: think in terms of u uh, in terms of a

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Speaker 1: tech and where we're going with K twelve and what

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Speaker 1: COVID is gonna allow. I mean, everyone got sent home.

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Speaker 1: Now all these teachers are having to figure out all

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Speaker 1: these tasks I described they do, how do they do

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Speaker 1: that from the screen. It's actually almost impossible to do

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Speaker 1: a lot of that from the screen. But what I

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Speaker 1: think COVID does give us the opportunity that, and given

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Speaker 1: that the normal way they do their job is so hard,

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Speaker 1: we have to have technology, we have to have tools

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Speaker 1: come in to help aid them. And I do firmly

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Speaker 1: believe that to get to the goal of personalized learning,

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Speaker 1: which is a world where every child is met exactly

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Speaker 1: on their level for the information they need that's you know,

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Speaker 1: curated to their interests. For example, if someone was teaching me,

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Speaker 1: you know, back in elementary school, they would have done

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Speaker 1: a lot about like animals and nature, and they would

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Speaker 1: have done a lot about music and singing, and like

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Speaker 1: if they could have framed every chemistry lesson with those

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Speaker 1: type of you know, inputs, I would have probably been

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Speaker 1: really good at chemistry, but you know, like understanding what

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Speaker 1: everyone needs and being able to pull them along there.

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Speaker 1: So to go back to what I was saying, basically,

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Speaker 1: to really have that work with live people and teachers,

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Speaker 1: you're going to have to have one on one you know,

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Speaker 1: you would you can't do that to twenty people at once.

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Speaker 1: And since it's not possible to have one to one

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Speaker 1: teachers to students everywhere, and and unless every single adult

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Speaker 1: practically becomes a teacher, you know, we're gonna need technology

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Speaker 1: and tools, and I think what COVID is allowed is

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Speaker 1: opened up this possibility for people to use those tools

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Speaker 1: and for students to start interacting with technology in a

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Speaker 1: way that does curate their needs more to them. Their

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Speaker 1: parents are going, Okay, rather than just your one teacher

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Speaker 1: teaching you this, I have all of my you know,

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Speaker 1: lessons and all of the different resources I found online,

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Speaker 1: and I know which ones are best for my kids,

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Speaker 1: and so they're starting to pull those in. So everyone's

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Speaker 1: getting a little bit closer to personalized learning. UM. You

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Speaker 1: have a background in finance and obviously worked out a

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Speaker 1: VC back start up well in a very diverse cultural background.

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Speaker 1: And when you think about the unique value you may

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Speaker 1: bring to a company as an investor, I guess first

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Speaker 1: what verticals are you interested in? And then what do

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Speaker 1: you believe is the value you uniquely add to the

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Speaker 1: companies that you invest in. I hope I had a

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Speaker 1: lot of value. UM we opt to the founders I've

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Speaker 1: invested in, UM that I invest in fintech, ed tech,

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Speaker 1: ed tech, slash future of work and consumer consumers quite broad.

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Speaker 1: It can mean anything experience, economy, social media, e commerce,

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Speaker 1: new ways to do retail, all of that UM and

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Speaker 1: of those three sectors, I mean, I'm really passionate about

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Speaker 1: all of them. I worked, as you you know, talked

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Speaker 1: about earlier, in ed tech for several years. I've worked

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Speaker 1: in the space in one way or another, as academic

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Speaker 1: or as an operator, as investor for the last eight years.

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Speaker 1: Fintech is something I think that I'm super passionate about

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Speaker 1: just because financial inclusion, especially for our people, is such

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Speaker 1: an imperative. If we want to see equality and economic prosperity,

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Speaker 1: a lot of that is to come through an advasion

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Speaker 1: and finance, financial products, and consumer I mean most of

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Speaker 1: the businesses, all of the businesses I worked at as

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Speaker 1: a startup operator when I was, you know, leading UM

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Speaker 1: these big teams were all consumer businesses. So I just

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Speaker 1: understand and know their their play books a bit better.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of your second question, in terms of UM,

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Speaker 1: you know what what value right provide. I think it's

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Speaker 1: part of the value it provides one Having been an operator,

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Speaker 1: I you know, there's wonderful vcs that have done financed

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Speaker 1: their whole time. But for me, it's I don't I

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Speaker 1: don't know that you can truly have the empathy that

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Speaker 1: is really required to connect with the founder on that

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Speaker 1: level if you haven't gone through the trenches of what

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Speaker 1: they're going through. I think back to my early days.

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Speaker 1: I've worked at startups. Well, I've also founded my own

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Speaker 1: small business. Um it was a consulting business, not venture backed.

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Speaker 1: It's a little bit different. But I've worked at VC

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Speaker 1: backed startups that were you know, five people, ten people,

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Speaker 1: twenty people. When I started my own business it was

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Speaker 1: one person. So like the very very early stuff of

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Speaker 1: like wow, I have to be on the customer support

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Speaker 1: outline for eight hours today because there's no one else

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Speaker 1: to do it, you know, and just the drain. And

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Speaker 1: I remember working sixteen hour days, like starting at eight am,

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Speaker 1: working until three am. I guess that's longer than sixteen hours.

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Speaker 1: I mean working working these these crazy, crazy hours, And

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Speaker 1: I mean that empathy when you're talked to the founder

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Speaker 1: and you go, hey, like, you know, we gotta get

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Speaker 1: your KPIs in order, we gotta get your financial metrics

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Speaker 1: and everything. If you don't realize at the same time

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Speaker 1: they're sitting there super tired because they were up on

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Speaker 1: the customer support tickets until four am last night. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's hard to have that level empathy. So so so I

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Speaker 1: think that's one thing that I bring. And then too,

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Speaker 1: I think also for a lot of the founders that

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Speaker 1: I work with, UM, I don't know, I feel like

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Speaker 1: I have in some ways a bit of a under

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Speaker 1: dog mentality. I feel like I don't think I was

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Speaker 1: supposed to end up in VC. That definitely wasn't a

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Speaker 1: thing I was thinking about until a few years ago.

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Speaker 1: And so to me, a lot of the VC and

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Speaker 1: tech world, even though I've worked in you know, startups

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Speaker 1: for a while, it still feels very foreign. And so

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Speaker 1: I really connect with founders that I think don't find

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Speaker 1: themselves fully represented by the tech industry. And so a

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Speaker 1: lot of founders have told me I'm a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a more welcoming and uh, someone once said you're

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Speaker 1: a really nice VC to that point too. I'm glad

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Speaker 1: you mentioned that because I think about when people like

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Speaker 1: you are in a room. Let's say you're at an

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Speaker 1: AFRO tech or let's say you're not an advertech but

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Speaker 1: you're at any other conference tech conference, besides the afro

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Speaker 1: Tech honestly, and there's you know, two or three startup

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Speaker 1: founders in there and you're the only black VC and

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Speaker 1: probably many rooms that you go in. How is it

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Speaker 1: how do you manage the expectation of that person who

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Speaker 1: may assume that you get where they're coming from when

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Speaker 1: you have, like, how do you manage the savior part

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Speaker 1: of this because you're you may be the only person

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Speaker 1: that gets where they're coming from, and having to balance

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Speaker 1: that with you know, giving them what they need even

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Speaker 1: though they're they're ready for VC. If they're not ready

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Speaker 1: for VC, you being real with them, helping them gut

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Speaker 1: along the path when you can't be savior for everybody. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a really interesting question, and I don't think anyone's

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Speaker 1: asked me that before. I view it is. Look, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I get a ton of cold emails, a ton of

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Speaker 1: cold LinkedIn messages. There's there's a lot of outreach, and

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Speaker 1: especially for any cold emails, if I know it's somebody

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Speaker 1: from our community, I'm going to try and go out

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Speaker 1: of my way to make sure to respond to the message.

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Speaker 1: There's just not enough access and there's not enough people

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Speaker 1: that respond to the networks and VC that you need

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Speaker 1: to get in to even have someone look at your startup.

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Speaker 1: The barrier for that is so high that that's the

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Speaker 1: first thing I try and do is just at least

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Speaker 1: provide some access, even if it's not going to be

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Speaker 1: a yes, it's you know, going to be hey, let's

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Speaker 1: get feedback. If you want to, you know, hear more

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Speaker 1: about why it wasn't a fit. I'm happy to hop

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Speaker 1: on the phone and tell you more about that. And

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Speaker 1: I think there's a really delicate balance. I also try

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Speaker 1: and strike between you know, being real with someone and

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Speaker 1: telling them, hey, this isn't a fit, you're maybe not

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Speaker 1: ready for this stage of investing, and also just being real,

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Speaker 1: you know, nice and human and realizing not everyone wants

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Speaker 1: you to tell them, you know, like, no, this isn't

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Speaker 1: this isn't a bit, and this is very about some

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Speaker 1: people just wanted to talk. And I actually was on

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Speaker 1: the phone with a man from Louisiana a couple of

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Speaker 1: weeks ago, where very quickly into the call I realized, oh,

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Speaker 1: this there. They don't have really any context about Silicon Valley.

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Speaker 1: But you know, I think I realized like part way

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Speaker 1: through the call it wasn't exactly the purpose of what

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Speaker 1: he was trying to get out. You don't want to

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Speaker 1: hear about me telling him like the KPIs need to

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Speaker 1: be this, and this is what it needs to look like,

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Speaker 1: and this I need to present your pitch, Like sometimes

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Speaker 1: he just wants to be heard from somebody who in

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Speaker 1: his mind was a tech person and he was also

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Speaker 1: a tech person, and he wanted to just kind of

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Speaker 1: talk about business and and so sometimes I also try

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Speaker 1: to allow myself to have that compassion of just like,

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Speaker 1: don't try and go in with you know, yeah too muchly, Um,

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Speaker 1: what's your philosophy? Then? On those companies that you do

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Speaker 1: engage with, on how engaged you are with those companies,

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Speaker 1: because you know, some vcs can be super in the weeds,

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Speaker 1: you know, almost walking hand in hand with with the

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Speaker 1: executive team, you know, particularly at the early stages. And

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Speaker 1: I get that, and some just show it for board meetings,

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Speaker 1: you know, like what's worked well for you? I always

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Speaker 1: ask my founders what their preferred cadence and communication style is,

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Speaker 1: because sometimes they want to connect every week. Sometimes they

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Speaker 1: want to connect every two weeks every month. You know,

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Speaker 1: some founders more of the are more of the type

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Speaker 1: of like, hey, I got the capitol, I'll talk to

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Speaker 1: you before and others are you know, really want a

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Speaker 1: lot of feedback. And so I try and in the

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Speaker 1: first three months or so give them that option to

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Speaker 1: kind of set their own and then if I start

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Speaker 1: to feel like we're not talking enough, which this has

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Speaker 1: just happened with one of my founders, I'll be like, hey,

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Speaker 1: can we talk a little bit more? Can we chat

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Speaker 1: like set a standard call every week every other week

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Speaker 1: or so, um So, so I really try to let

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Speaker 1: them lead on that. And also I was just thinking

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Speaker 1: too to your your last question, um, just something else

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Speaker 1: I want to mention to about the access and um,

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Speaker 1: you know, speaking of founders. Actually, wasn't tech Crunch disrupt

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Speaker 1: a couple of days ago. I think one of the

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Speaker 1: things that I try and there's there's a language of

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Speaker 1: Silicon Valley, there's terminology, there's kind of expected rules of

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Speaker 1: engagement and norms, and I think those are things that

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Speaker 1: especially to anyone listening, you know, on on this if

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Speaker 1: if you're curious about you know, you're getting you feel

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Speaker 1: like you're getting stuck at a certain process with investors

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Speaker 1: are getting stuck in feedback cycles and you're not really

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Speaker 1: understanding why you're getting the same thing. I feel free

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Speaker 1: to reach out because there is there are these cultural

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Speaker 1: norms that are not obvious if you're you know, not

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Speaker 1: smacking Matt dabbed in the middle of VC every day.

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Speaker 1: And that's something I always also try and connect with

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Speaker 1: founders on is you know, demystifying what vcs mean when

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Speaker 1: they say different things. Yeah, I mean you make me

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Speaker 1: think about, um, I'm gonna say this the privilege, you know,

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Speaker 1: non melanated. You know, founders may come to VC with like, look,

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Speaker 1: they don't have maybe not have the same sentiment. You know,

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Speaker 1: black people and minorities come with you know, where we're looking.

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Speaker 1: We're hoping somebody gives us a deal, and you know,

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Speaker 1: our counterparts may feel like, you know, you're lucky if

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Speaker 1: you can get in on my deal. Right, And So

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Speaker 1: to that end, number one, I think we we do

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Speaker 1: have to work on changing that philosophy that we you know,

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Speaker 1: too many of us hold because it is an interview

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Speaker 1: you too, right as as a VC. So at with

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Speaker 1: that stated, what are good from your perspective? Interview you

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Speaker 1: questions because you're gonna be you know, spit balling questions

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Speaker 1: to the founder on again, what are those KPI s

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Speaker 1: you know, what's your runway look like it, what's what's

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Speaker 1: the hiring stack look like in et cetera, what's the

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Speaker 1: tech stacks look like? But what questions that in your

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Speaker 1: experience have you found really really good founders ask you

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Speaker 1: at the stages of when you're doing due diligence in etcetera.

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Speaker 1: That's such a good question. I think the you're right,

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Speaker 1: the best founders do create well. One, they're really good

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Speaker 1: at storytelling. They wrap people around their fingers. They have

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Speaker 1: investors tripping over each other to get into the rout,

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Speaker 1: like you said, and they're also really good um at

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Speaker 1: in addition to that storytelling kind of weaving this this

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Speaker 1: scarcity kind of sense of saying like, hey, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of people who want to like let me in

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Speaker 1: a in a kind way, not in a kind of

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Speaker 1: like bluffing way, but I think that the questions that

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Speaker 1: they tend to then have the leverage once they've you know,

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Speaker 1: laid some of this foundation to to really um and

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Speaker 1: I think people should do this anytime. But there are

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Speaker 1: founders who kind of set up this thing where they

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Speaker 1: have the upper hand by a long chat. Um that

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Speaker 1: you know, some of the questions I think that you

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Speaker 1: want to really ask and people point blank assets and

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Speaker 1: calls all the time. I think you always should have

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Speaker 1: like how do you help your founders? And that should

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Speaker 1: be super standard question that a VC should be able

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Speaker 1: to answer, Like watch if they have a ready answer.

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Speaker 1: First off, does it sounds like they're thinking while they're talking.

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Speaker 1: If they are, that's probably an issue, you know, And

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Speaker 1: are they also able to give specific tactical advice? And

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Speaker 1: then after you know, they'll probably talk in generalities. Some

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Speaker 1: of them might go into specifics, but after you try

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Speaker 1: to ask them how do you help your founders, ask

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Speaker 1: them for some examples. Okay, can you tell me about

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Speaker 1: a couple of examples from your portfolio where you know

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Speaker 1: you helped your founders on some of those things. And

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Speaker 1: you don't have to, you know, tell them all the specifics,

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Speaker 1: but you know, just give some some sense. Um. I

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Speaker 1: really love getting those questions from founders. The other thing

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Speaker 1: I that you actually asked me a question earlier that

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Speaker 1: a lot of founders asked in terms of like how

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Speaker 1: are you as a board member? How involved do you

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Speaker 1: want to be? Because there's especially this can be one

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Speaker 1: of the downsides of being a former operator VC. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: former operator vcs really want to get up in your

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Speaker 1: business building, all right. They want to be rolling up

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Speaker 1: their sleeves. They want to be on the you, which

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Speaker 1: can be nice, but it can be a little bit

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Speaker 1: too much. And so I think getting a sense of

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Speaker 1: like what are their expectations around how often they're going

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Speaker 1: to chat. I always say, like, I follow your lead.

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Speaker 1: A lot of bcs are going to say that They're

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Speaker 1: gonna say, well, look, this is I set meetings every

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Speaker 1: single week. You know, I'm gonna back in the pre

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Speaker 1: COVID times like I'll come by your office once a week,

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Speaker 1: and you know, and that might be not what you

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Speaker 1: want as a founder. Um So, I think those are

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Speaker 1: a couple of good questions to hit on. Mercedes is

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Speaker 1: an early stage investor. But what does that actually mean?

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Speaker 1: Early stage? For some it can mean idea stage, for others,

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Speaker 1: some traction or ten dollars a month in revenue. It

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Speaker 1: means different things that different people. Mercedes speaks, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: early stage for me is probably closer to what early

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Speaker 1: really the earliest founders would consider mid stage, even though

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Speaker 1: it's not a thing. Um So, I'm investing mostly at

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Speaker 1: this series A. That's kind of like my target investment area.

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Speaker 1: That's when you know, if you're enterprise sassed business, you

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Speaker 1: have one million and air are. If you're a consumer

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Speaker 1: business you you know e commerce, you might have six

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Speaker 1: to twelve million and the annual revenue. These are rough benchmarks,

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Speaker 1: not you know, set numbers um. And for me, what

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Speaker 1: it means that series A is that your post product

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Speaker 1: market fit. You've already found your sales engine and your

431
00:22:35,920 --> 00:22:38,720
Speaker 1: channel and you're starting to take off and you're really

432
00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:41,639
Speaker 1: growing the business. And now it's about how do I

433
00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:44,240
Speaker 1: add on resources? How do I add on talent to

434
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:47,960
Speaker 1: continue what's working and make it work. Other people, when

435
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,560
Speaker 1: they say early stage, they might mean seed, which a

436
00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: Silicon valley seed versus maybe a rest of the country

437
00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: or rest of the world seed can also mean different things,

438
00:22:57,320 --> 00:22:59,680
Speaker 1: or they might even now there's a new category precede

439
00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,200
Speaker 1: as now what are we going to call it next? Right,

440
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,720
Speaker 1: because seeds are at a million dollars now until looking valley, Yeah,

441
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,439
Speaker 1: I mean I see founders raising four million dollar seeds

442
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: all the time, um, and you know it, A lot

443
00:23:15,359 --> 00:23:17,560
Speaker 1: of people are also doing where they raise two seed

444
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:20,920
Speaker 1: rounds and then a series day because I just think

445
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:26,240
Speaker 1: the expectations for what people are expecting out of A

446
00:23:26,359 --> 00:23:28,879
Speaker 1: series they continue to grow and grow and girl. But

447
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,400
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, it depends on this sector actually in fintech,

448
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: where companies are raising at their raising Series A at

449
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:41,880
Speaker 1: much lower revenue threshold and benchmarks than than almost any

450
00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:44,719
Speaker 1: enterprise or consumer companies. But for most of the enterprise

451
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:48,040
Speaker 1: and consumer companies, they're you know, looking for later in

452
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:53,080
Speaker 1: later stage with particular respect to black founders um. And

453
00:23:53,160 --> 00:23:55,080
Speaker 1: you said, like you said, you're investing at you know,

454
00:23:55,119 --> 00:23:59,680
Speaker 1: the A round UM primarily with respect to black founders,

455
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: which I know you you got interventure to work with

456
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 1: marginalized communities in etcetera. Are there really enough black founders

457
00:24:07,760 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: at the A round stage to make that mission that

458
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 1: personal mission you have or you know, the global mission

459
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,160
Speaker 1: for our culture viable? Like, do we have enough black

460
00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:21,960
Speaker 1: founders that are positioning themselves for the A round And

461
00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 1: if if we're not, where are we falling off as

462
00:24:24,520 --> 00:24:28,440
Speaker 1: an equal system to prepare people for that? I think

463
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:30,960
Speaker 1: the A round is probably one of the hardest rounds

464
00:24:30,960 --> 00:24:33,760
Speaker 1: for black founders to raise. At least this is what

465
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: I'm seeing, and there are certain categories where there's more

466
00:24:38,280 --> 00:24:42,760
Speaker 1: black founders concentrated than others. For example, fintech. There's actually

467
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: a lot of black founders in fintech I feel relative

468
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,359
Speaker 1: to the rest, probably because they know the story firsthand

469
00:24:48,400 --> 00:24:52,719
Speaker 1: from their communities about financial inclusion and it's importance. Another

470
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 1: sector where I see a lot of black founders is

471
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 1: in a lot of things related to culture. Obviously, UM

472
00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 1: black itself, you know, in his Black founders, and I

473
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,320
Speaker 1: think that's another great space entertainment. UM. So when you

474
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:09,960
Speaker 1: in those sectors, No, there's not a dearth of founders.

475
00:25:10,119 --> 00:25:13,400
Speaker 1: At Series A, I see tons all the time, UM,

476
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 1: and a lot of the other sectors. It's a little

477
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:20,239
Speaker 1: bit more hit for miss UM. And you know, I

478
00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:23,960
Speaker 1: don't have the answer on why that round that is

479
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,560
Speaker 1: so difficult for for founders to raise, but my thought

480
00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:32,080
Speaker 1: is that it's because it's often the first big institutional round.

481
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:36,080
Speaker 1: Seed rounds can be you know, compromised of a lot

482
00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:37,879
Speaker 1: of angels. It can be a lot of kind of

483
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,080
Speaker 1: early funds. There's a lot of um, you know, fifty

484
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:46,520
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollar checks, two d fifty dollar checks that

485
00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,119
Speaker 1: make it into seed rounds. And so a lot of

486
00:25:49,119 --> 00:25:51,320
Speaker 1: black founders are able to do that. And then at

487
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:53,920
Speaker 1: the Series A, that's the first big round where it's

488
00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: like an established, normally Silicon Valley, you know, institution that's

489
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 1: been around for a while, and honestly, one I don't

490
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 1: think their their networks are at most of these big

491
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:07,720
Speaker 1: firms are conducive to black vote because there's no black

492
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: foot working at them. UM. And to you know, I

493
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 1: think that it's the scrutiny level is really high, and

494
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:17,879
Speaker 1: anytime the scrutiny level for around is really high, a

495
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,560
Speaker 1: lot of bias creeps in because you're purposely trying to

496
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: scrutinize everything hard and so you start making a lot

497
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: of like well, you know, like there's always something wrong

498
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:30,280
Speaker 1: with the car, say business. But it's how much you

499
00:26:30,320 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 1: get yourself to believe that it's okay that there's something

500
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,359
Speaker 1: wrong with that that that business. And I'm not sure

501
00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,679
Speaker 1: that all marginalized and and minority founders are given the

502
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt when there's is that thing that's

503
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,920
Speaker 1: wrong with the business. You mentioned in the previous interview

504
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:48,720
Speaker 1: that you wanted to be a VC too, among other things,

505
00:26:48,760 --> 00:26:50,960
Speaker 1: be a part of the change, UM, as you were

506
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,000
Speaker 1: introduced to the world of business finance, you know, cost

507
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:57,440
Speaker 1: of capital and etcetera. That things that you previously didn't know, right,

508
00:26:58,040 --> 00:27:01,159
Speaker 1: and but the white guys knew it. And how do

509
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,400
Speaker 1: you view your role as an investor to think more

510
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:08,399
Speaker 1: holistically about investments, particularly because you're targeting these, you know,

511
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:12,480
Speaker 1: um communities, marginalized communities. How do you think about that

512
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 1: when you have to think more than just about returns since,

513
00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,000
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, your passion is the marginalized community. Yeah,

514
00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually do believe. I'm very big of

515
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,600
Speaker 1: the double bottom line of the all of the BI corps.

516
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: I do believe that you can do build really big

517
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:30,760
Speaker 1: businesses by doing good. And so you know, when you

518
00:27:30,800 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: think about especially in education and fintech, two of the

519
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,960
Speaker 1: sectors where I invest the most. You to build a

520
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,199
Speaker 1: really big business, you have to serve the full population,

521
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:43,200
Speaker 1: you know. I'm I would never, not would never, because

522
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,520
Speaker 1: I don't want to say never, but I can't really

523
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:49,600
Speaker 1: I see myself investing in an education company that only serves,

524
00:27:49,640 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: you know, the top ten percent, because it's just going

525
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,000
Speaker 1: to be a small market, you know. And so I

526
00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 1: think that if you're going to build these outcome businesses

527
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,320
Speaker 1: that we're looking for a light speed, we're looking for

528
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:02,720
Speaker 1: one billion dollar businesses, billion five billion diar companies that

529
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 1: you have to be able to serve the whole population.

530
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:10,240
Speaker 1: So I don't view necessarily as a either or. UM.

531
00:28:10,040 --> 00:28:11,919
Speaker 1: I'm glad you. I'm glad you mentioned that because it's

532
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 1: segways nicely into another courte I heard you talk about

533
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 1: was from Jeremy lou who's your one of your bosses,

534
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 1: who who hired you. Um, he was interested in increasing

535
00:28:22,359 --> 00:28:25,679
Speaker 1: diversity among women investors, racial minorities in et cetera. And

536
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,720
Speaker 1: he's a consumer investor, and you talked about um, he

537
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:32,120
Speaker 1: was the first investor first check in the snapchat. Um,

538
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:35,040
Speaker 1: if a company has a large percentage of black women,

539
00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,080
Speaker 1: Latinos in their their audience space, is largely those things

540
00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:41,920
Speaker 1: they have the presented to drive culture and there's probably

541
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: you know, a great a lot of opportunity with those

542
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: And this was something that resonated with you, per you know,

543
00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,960
Speaker 1: the interview that I saw, And how has this sort

544
00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:54,560
Speaker 1: of you know, investing bias in this in this respect

545
00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:57,680
Speaker 1: of good bias, you know, impacted what's important to you.

546
00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: You really read my different bogats and interviews. I feel

547
00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:06,400
Speaker 1: very honored you read all these. Yeah, I mean that

548
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: was that was one of the things. And in the

549
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,120
Speaker 1: vein of what you were talking about earlier, you know,

550
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: make sure that founders you interview the v c s

551
00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:14,800
Speaker 1: when you're talking to them, because you're signing up for

552
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,000
Speaker 1: a tenure partnership really in marriage, and you want to

553
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:20,440
Speaker 1: know that you like this person too. I thought about

554
00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:22,840
Speaker 1: the same thing when I was going in and interviewing

555
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,160
Speaker 1: for VC firms. You know, I was looking for a

556
00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:31,200
Speaker 1: firm that was inclusive, that was going to view the

557
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 1: world in a somewhat similar way I did. I didn't

558
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 1: mean that we have to agree on everything, but I

559
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:38,240
Speaker 1: don't want to be shut down. You know, every single

560
00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:41,560
Speaker 1: time I mentioned the importance of working with black people

561
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 1: and trying to elevate black founders, like, if that was

562
00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: going to be the case, it wasn't gonna be the

563
00:29:45,200 --> 00:29:48,040
Speaker 1: right firm for me. And so actually, um, when I

564
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 1: was interviewing, I pitched they. You know, Jeremy asked me

565
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:53,640
Speaker 1: to pitch a couple of different companies, and I pitched,

566
00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 1: um what a couple of companies, one of which was

567
00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:00,640
Speaker 1: a hair weave company. And you know, for me, this

568
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 1: was kind of like one of my little test that

569
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: was in my interview process with a lot of firms,

570
00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:08,080
Speaker 1: was like, how, what's your response to me pitching you know,

571
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,080
Speaker 1: a hair weave company that's primarily used by black women,

572
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,760
Speaker 1: Like do you immediately question whether this is a market

573
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:18,120
Speaker 1: that has any potential or do you kind of are

574
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 1: you open minded and or do you or do you

575
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: go wow, yeah, I actually know the research and I've

576
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: seen the big businesses can be built in this space.

577
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,760
Speaker 1: And you know, I got a lot of varying responses,

578
00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: but particularly at light speed, I was really touched that

579
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,200
Speaker 1: there was a lot of enthusiasm and and kind of

580
00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,560
Speaker 1: the response I was looking for. In addition to that,

581
00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:39,480
Speaker 1: lights because a lot of women investors. Um, I think

582
00:30:39,480 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 1: we're at up to maybe ten or eleven out of

583
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:47,400
Speaker 1: nine investment partners in San Francisco that are women, which

584
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,760
Speaker 1: is totally different than a lot of firms. To start,

585
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 1: I'm getting a bit off track, but one that was

586
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,600
Speaker 1: what attracted to me and I related to your earlier

587
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: question and then in terms of sorry, just to make

588
00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:59,959
Speaker 1: sure I understood the rest of your question as well,

589
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking I think about the bias you know,

590
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:07,000
Speaker 1: of looking for you know, marginalized founders and how that

591
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,080
Speaker 1: plays into a part of how you think of it. Yeah, exactly.

592
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: So as consumer investors, what the quote kind of Jeremy

593
00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:18,400
Speaker 1: had said, and he said this well before I ever joined,

594
00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 1: was that what we're looking for a lot of the

595
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:24,240
Speaker 1: times is we're looking for a consumer company that has

596
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,760
Speaker 1: tapped into pop culture. Because often companies that are able

597
00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,520
Speaker 1: to gain a foothold and tap into an element of

598
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: pop culture are going to just have these natural lips.

599
00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:37,040
Speaker 1: It's going you know, they're going to sustain a lot better.

600
00:31:37,080 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 1: If you're fighting for every you know, user that you

601
00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: acquire and try to explain your relevance, it's a lot

602
00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,440
Speaker 1: harder of a business. But when you really tap that thread,

603
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:49,240
Speaker 1: businesses take off. And what we've seen time and time

604
00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:52,720
Speaker 1: again is that these companies that have very early in

605
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 1: their their user to your directorate, like maybe they are

606
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:59,160
Speaker 1: at ten thousand, maybe they're fifty thousand, a hundred thousand users,

607
00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,960
Speaker 1: that often times the user base tends to be more

608
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: heavily slanted toward women, and it tends to be more

609
00:32:05,600 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: heavily slanted toward black and Latino people. And so it's

610
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think it's a big, um shocking

611
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:15,640
Speaker 1: statement to say that a lot of the culture in

612
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 1: the US is driven by black and brown people. That's

613
00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: where a lot of the music Hollyowood Entertainment. It's not

614
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 1: the only one, but it's a large, large, outsized portion

615
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:29,440
Speaker 1: of the of the kind of sphere. And so as investors,

616
00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 1: we find the same thing to be true in consumer

617
00:32:32,920 --> 00:32:34,760
Speaker 1: businesses that take off. This is what we saw on

618
00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:38,600
Speaker 1: Snapchat early on, this is what we see in um

619
00:32:38,680 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: in Cameo, another investment of ours kind of all of

620
00:32:41,640 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 1: these companies that have this kind of you know, trend

621
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:47,560
Speaker 1: where they've just picked up and everyone's talking about it.

622
00:32:47,600 --> 00:32:50,280
Speaker 1: People are you know, it's in the becomes part of

623
00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 1: the lingua franca at at work. People are just talking

624
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,920
Speaker 1: about it. So that's something we always look for. I

625
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: think it's yeah, like you said, good by us. I

626
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 1: was talking with Tristan Walker Walker and co make Rebevel

627
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:04,680
Speaker 1: about the same thing about his statement was, as you

628
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 1: just mentioned, black culture drives all global culture. Um what

629
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,600
Speaker 1: you're thinking about music, fashion, food, and etcetera. And you know,

630
00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 1: particularly because of the audience that we're talking to, now

631
00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 1: it's how do you then, as a startup founder communicate

632
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 1: that to potential investors. You don't want to walk in like, Yo,

633
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,280
Speaker 1: I'm black, I got the thing, you know, and because

634
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:27,440
Speaker 1: we drive this, you got fund me? Like, how do

635
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,760
Speaker 1: you communicate that in a way? Um, because there are

636
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: still people that you have to educate right on on

637
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 1: our impact and our opportunity. Yeah, this is where you know,

638
00:33:37,280 --> 00:33:39,560
Speaker 1: going back to the point earlier, the translating and the

639
00:33:39,640 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: deciphering the Silicon Valley language kind of code switching, something

640
00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:44,960
Speaker 1: that a lot of black people are very familiar with

641
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,960
Speaker 1: and do in their everyday life when they're talking in there,

642
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,720
Speaker 1: you know, with their friends versus when they're speaking at work.

643
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 1: There's something's very similar for when you're speaking to Silicon

644
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 1: Valley investors versus when you're maybe talking about your business

645
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 1: to your customers. And I think you know, some of

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00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,000
Speaker 1: the ways that you can can phrase this is, you know,

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00:34:03,120 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: if you maybe you're not going to walk into the

648
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:08,759
Speaker 1: meeting thing exactly what you said, but you want to say, hey,

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00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:12,080
Speaker 1: we have a super engaged audience base. This is the

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00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 1: daily active users, this is a monthly active users. This

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00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:18,120
Speaker 1: is how much session time they're spending every day in

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00:34:18,160 --> 00:34:20,680
Speaker 1: the app. This is how many friends they're inviting, This

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00:34:20,760 --> 00:34:23,319
Speaker 1: is how you know, it's it's the type of things

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00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:27,040
Speaker 1: that are the effects and results of having a lot

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00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,200
Speaker 1: of this this culture. And you can also talk about

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00:34:29,200 --> 00:34:31,160
Speaker 1: that maybe some of the results, but here's also the

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00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:33,680
Speaker 1: way I have access to get to the right people

658
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:35,880
Speaker 1: a lot of times. You know, Black people are very

659
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,480
Speaker 1: very good at having access to a lot of different

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00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,440
Speaker 1: interesting people. And frame that is like, this is my

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00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 1: go to market strategy, this is my user acquisition channel.

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00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: You know, I'm using slightly different terms, but it's the

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00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,560
Speaker 1: same thing as saying I have a tight network of

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00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:51,439
Speaker 1: a ton of people that can hit them up any

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00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: time a lot and so and they got exactly and

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00:34:57,320 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 1: so you know, it's it's just being able to match

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00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:01,480
Speaker 1: up to those words and be like, I have a

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00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:04,920
Speaker 1: very sophisticated user requisition strategy where I will be able

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00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 1: to get a low customer cost of acquisition, you know it.

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00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:28,759
Speaker 1: So yeah, we just need some of that. Translating Black

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00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:31,359
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money is a production of Blackvity Afro Tech,

672
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:33,879
Speaker 1: and it is produced by Morgan Dubon and me Well

673
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:37,320
Speaker 1: Lucas with additional production support by Love Beach and Raven

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00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: near Bord. The special thank you to Michael Davis. It's

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00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,359
Speaker 1: the cars van Yan, you know, like the wine. Yes,

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00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,279
Speaker 1: that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and

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00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:50,520
Speaker 1: other technis represent innovatives at afro tech dot com. Go

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00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:52,839
Speaker 1: get your money, peace and love,