Speaker 1: Afro Techies seventeen, San Francisco, California. Marlon Nichols, partner in
Speaker 1: MC venture Capital, is on the main state. He's talking
Speaker 1: about startup cap tables. He has asked the question by
Speaker 1: someone in the audience about how startups are valued by vcs.
Speaker 1: We've seen several black owned startup valuations get some serious
Speaker 1: love in recent months. Here's how Ventia capitalists decide what
Speaker 1: a company is worth when they're placing their bets to
Speaker 1: the questions how how is the valuation set? Right? Um,
Speaker 1: it's kind of ambiguous. Actually, um it it can be.
Speaker 1: You know, an entrepreneur feels that their their company is
Speaker 1: worth this amount um from an investor's perspective, if they
Speaker 1: are tangible things like revenue, right, I'll look at that
Speaker 1: um and then apply a multiple towards that that revenue.
Speaker 1: So let's say other companies in the space are let's
Speaker 1: call it trading at a COREX multiple. I would apply
Speaker 1: that four rex too to that revenue number, and that's
Speaker 1: how I get my my valuation. But then there are
Speaker 1: other things you gotta consider too, like, you know, is
Speaker 1: this a return founder um? Has she sold a company
Speaker 1: before for a lot of money? Has she taken a
Speaker 1: company public before. Is it's the same team. You give
Speaker 1: them some credit for that. So the valuation starts to
Speaker 1: inch up, right, Is it a UM? Is it a
Speaker 1: really new and hot space? Is this deal really competitive?
Speaker 1: Is UM you know Bryan overack k for Capital trying
Speaker 1: to steal the deal from me and I gotta and
Speaker 1: I gotta out price him or something like that, right,
Speaker 1: So UM, A lot of things go into it, but
Speaker 1: generally try to find markers and and uh industry markets
Speaker 1: to help you figure it out. I'm will lucas Mrs
Speaker 1: Black Tech, Green Money. I'm gonna introw this you to
Speaker 1: some of the biggest names, some of the brightness minds
Speaker 1: and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building simply using
Speaker 1: tech to secure your back. This podcast is for you.
Speaker 1: Janine Zealous an American global technology executive and CEO of
Speaker 1: NEBI National Society of Black Engineers. She previously served as
Speaker 1: Director of Healthcare Programs in Africa and Head of Women
Speaker 1: in Technology for GE and s c o oh of
Speaker 1: the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. As Janine about the
Speaker 1: global perspective and if traveling abroad is imperative for the
Speaker 1: success of a black engineer. Let me say that for
Speaker 1: a world class black engineer, it is a game changer,
Speaker 1: and I want to put it at the forefront of
Speaker 1: the way, um, black techies, black engineers prioritize their decision making. Um.
Speaker 1: My father, who is deceased, was a guy from the South,
Speaker 1: came up to New Jersey as a part of the
Speaker 1: Great Migration, saying some doot and then you know, hustled
Speaker 1: his way to raise a family, and he was like,
Speaker 1: I cannot afford to give you this world, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to give everything I have to educating you and
Speaker 1: you get yourself there. The career that I had at
Speaker 1: General Elector gave me an opportunity to say yes to
Speaker 1: things that black people traditionally we don't say yes to.
Speaker 1: And as a result, it took me around the world
Speaker 1: multiple times. Doing that as a black person makes a
Speaker 1: world of difference because you do not see us in
Speaker 1: those spaces internationally, We're not there. Yeah, so it changes,
Speaker 1: it changes everything, and so I mean it's different. I
Speaker 1: would imagine being a resident being from you know, domestic
Speaker 1: United States, and then you know, having the experiences we
Speaker 1: have here, you know, growing up and wherever whatever we
Speaker 1: grow up, you know, we deal with certain issues, and
Speaker 1: I wonder, you know, for black people who are working
Speaker 1: abroad and do get those opportunities that the kind that
Speaker 1: you've had an experience, um the privilege to experience, how
Speaker 1: do we prepare for those global assignments? I imagine you know,
Speaker 1: being in foreign lands. You know, how do you control
Speaker 1: your safety? How do you prepare before you get the opportunity?
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to say that, Unfortunately, there's there's
Speaker 1: no training ground for us in that space, right, the
Speaker 1: average black person, we probably don't. You know, my parents
Speaker 1: were members of any country club, and you know, we
Speaker 1: went to church and that was our social life, right.
Speaker 1: We went to church, we went acquire her sol and
Speaker 1: we had some family you know, some family events in
Speaker 1: the process. So there's there's not a way, honestly, to
Speaker 1: learn that unless those of us that experience it make
Speaker 1: ourselves available. And that's that's why I talk about it
Speaker 1: whenever I'm in our community. I'm like, you all need
Speaker 1: to say yes to some of these assignments and then
Speaker 1: you start to teach them, you know, how to go
Speaker 1: about it. One of my greatest mentors, who was one
Speaker 1: of my my dear friends to this day. Paula Madison.
Speaker 1: She the things that she coached me on when I
Speaker 1: was a leader in GE were things that I'd never
Speaker 1: heard before and I've never known we should learn. And
Speaker 1: those are things like how to ride on a corporate jet,
Speaker 1: the things that you're supposed to do, you know, be
Speaker 1: paying attention to, but you know, listening for ways to
Speaker 1: address as a woman in leadership, um, how to respond
Speaker 1: and act in different spaces. Those things did not happen
Speaker 1: for me until much further along in my career, and
Speaker 1: I'm very grateful that that she's been a part of
Speaker 1: that development. But we have to bring those into the
Speaker 1: conversations that we have. There's not many of us that
Speaker 1: get to do that, and so there's not many having
Speaker 1: the conversations. But what will need to happen is that, Um,
Speaker 1: whenever I speak, whenever I'm in front of audiences, I
Speaker 1: always talk about the global experience and what it can mean,
Speaker 1: because the training ground needs to be as intense as
Speaker 1: the actual leadership role that you have and as simple
Speaker 1: as how you pack and respond and talk and and
Speaker 1: carry yourself in in those environments. And I learned those
Speaker 1: all by default. Um, you know, but you you learn them.
Speaker 1: You know, when we think about engineering, were thinking about
Speaker 1: these these your people who build things or design systems
Speaker 1: or etcetera. And in the world we live in, and
Speaker 1: you call it yourself a globalist before I've heard you
Speaker 1: called yourself a globalists. And does having that global experience
Speaker 1: being across the world being you know, having actual firsthand experiences,
Speaker 1: is that required today of any engineer you can, like,
Speaker 1: can you make a case for if you want to
Speaker 1: be an engineer, if you're going to college, or if
Speaker 1: you're finding your first opportunity in school post school, can
Speaker 1: you make a case for traveling abroad? And why should
Speaker 1: those people prioritize getting that experience because you're not just
Speaker 1: building for domestic audiences anymore. We're building for the global world,
Speaker 1: right it is? Is it a requirement? No? Would I
Speaker 1: want to make it a requirement. Absolutely. My I have
Speaker 1: two female cousins that studied engineering, both of them. I said,
Speaker 1: you've got to go abroad. You have And I talked
Speaker 1: to their parents, who are my first cousins, like, you
Speaker 1: have to let them do this. I think it's imperative.
Speaker 1: It changes the way that you think, the way that
Speaker 1: you solved and engineering all they already gives you a
Speaker 1: very critical, strategic, different way of solving problems. So it's
Speaker 1: it's an incredible education and it's it's such a wonderful
Speaker 1: curriculum to study because you can use it whether you
Speaker 1: stay in the world of tech or not. Just the
Speaker 1: way that you think and you approach UM solving the problem,
Speaker 1: but when you take that and you partner it with
Speaker 1: UM a global perspective, the way that you lead, the
Speaker 1: way that you build and solve, I think, the way
Speaker 1: that you are as a person and a human human being,
Speaker 1: your perspective changes and it could be you know, I
Speaker 1: could give you tons of examples of what it what
Speaker 1: it meant to solve problems in India and Indonesia and
Speaker 1: Africa and Saudi as a black woman from you Jersey, UM,
Speaker 1: and it makes all the difference. The other thing that
Speaker 1: it does is it puts you in a very um
Speaker 1: unique and sometimes isolated space because you become so incredibly
Speaker 1: different and sometimes that that's UM, that's a lonely and
Speaker 1: sometimes difficult place to be. Let's talk about talk about
Speaker 1: what that what you mean by that? You know, it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, things change the way that the way
Speaker 1: that you might eat the things that you like. I
Speaker 1: fell in love with African fashion and design and maybe
Speaker 1: before it became popular, um, socially here you know, you
Speaker 1: may change some of your Western ways. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: I worked in Saudi had to wear burka every day.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you know, what does this mean to my faith?
Speaker 1: I thought I was cheating on Jesus, you know, I
Speaker 1: was like, should I be doing this? But culturally what
Speaker 1: I needed to do, um to fit into that space?
Speaker 1: You know? Um, what it means to work in a
Speaker 1: place where when the Internet goes out, it's not just
Speaker 1: like on your block, Like, no, the entire city of
Speaker 1: across is out of the Internet a while. How do
Speaker 1: we work? You know, if I'm not trying to build,
Speaker 1: I would imagine you would admonish folks. But if I'm
Speaker 1: not trying to build, you know, the next Facebook or
Speaker 1: the next Google. But let's say I just want to
Speaker 1: build a really good you know, we can call him
Speaker 1: lifestyle company. I just want to build something a great
Speaker 1: you know, or engineer systems for a small business, UM
Speaker 1: in my hometown. Doesn't having a global perspective matter to you?
Speaker 1: And that is if I'm not trying to build, you
Speaker 1: know these trillion dollar comp Well, again, I'm speaking to
Speaker 1: an audience of of of black techys, and I would
Speaker 1: say that any perspective that you bring, whether you bring
Speaker 1: it from New Orleans or Oakland, North New Jersey, it's
Speaker 1: almost going to be global too to the world that
Speaker 1: you're in because we're or from uh is all is
Speaker 1: often so very different. We're other than everyone that we're
Speaker 1: usually around. I would say that, Um, if you're given
Speaker 1: an opportunity, you're going to always hear me say that
Speaker 1: globalism is a way of life, and it is a
Speaker 1: way that not only the things that we bring to
Speaker 1: a place, um, the experiences that we bring back with
Speaker 1: the experiences that we take in. I was a Black
Speaker 1: American living in Africa. I was still a Black American, right,
Speaker 1: and I was home so to speak. Right, Africa is
Speaker 1: everything to me, but I was still a Black American,
Speaker 1: so I was bringing something to them as well. And um,
Speaker 1: it certainly isn't a bad thing to bring into anything
Speaker 1: you're trying to build from lifestyle. M a friend that
Speaker 1: has that runs a lifestyle business and she's focused on
Speaker 1: tease and and you know, some of her best products
Speaker 1: are international tea leaves, that she mixes with you know,
Speaker 1: American flavor. So I think that there's always UM a
Speaker 1: case for what we can bring to the world and
Speaker 1: what the world can give to us. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: I love that, you know, speaking UM about you know,
Speaker 1: our contributions to culture, like there are people who would
Speaker 1: be watching or listening to us who may be anywhere
Speaker 1: in the world. UM. And for black people, particularly black engineers,
Speaker 1: how can we better leverage our contributions to culture UM
Speaker 1: for our own wealth opportunity? Its specifically, like how can
Speaker 1: engineers take on like an owner's equity mentality and not
Speaker 1: just build something that makes other people wealthy? Well, it
Speaker 1: starts with an entrepreneurial mindset and as an engineer, Like
Speaker 1: when I was in school, I studied mechanical engineering and
Speaker 1: it's super hard, and I was just focused on trying
Speaker 1: to learn thermodynamics and and things like that. I wasn't
Speaker 1: thinking about what it could mean to build something that
Speaker 1: UM was going to be great for myself as an
Speaker 1: independent leader. Universities now offer entrepreneurial tracks, and I think
Speaker 1: that integrating that into UM the engineering and the tech
Speaker 1: platforms are critical. You'll see it UM maybe in software
Speaker 1: engineering and computer science because a lot of those folks
Speaker 1: move into that VC space. I think we need to
Speaker 1: put that same kind of trend, in that same track
Speaker 1: into the engineering mindset. I'm I'm trying to do that
Speaker 1: here at Nesby, where I'm the CEO. It's it's important
Speaker 1: for me to have us think in ways that can
Speaker 1: bring about independent design strategies. We have so many great solutions.
Speaker 1: We know how to take things down and rebuild them
Speaker 1: and bring them into better spaces for the world and
Speaker 1: for us. UM. But sometimes we as engineers can get
Speaker 1: so head down sleeves rolled up solve solve, solve soft solved,
Speaker 1: that we forget, uh to look at what this could
Speaker 1: mean for ourselves. I was very much like that, you know,
Speaker 1: and I think we we can miss that. So there's
Speaker 1: um there's an entrepreneurial training that I think would be
Speaker 1: relevant so that we can know what the opportunities are
Speaker 1: for us to create structures and solutions that will be
Speaker 1: just as independent or create an independent wealth for us,
Speaker 1: which is something that I'm so committed to now because
Speaker 1: I've had a chance to build wealth in a way
Speaker 1: that I wasn't thinking about when I was in college.
Speaker 1: I was just like get this degree graduate of probably
Speaker 1: working manufacturing, and I'm gonna have a great job and
Speaker 1: a great career one day and just work, you know,
Speaker 1: because it's so interesting hearing you talk about that, and
Speaker 1: I want you to correct me if I'm wrong. But
Speaker 1: I look at people, well, I find it interesting when
Speaker 1: I talked to folks who maybe engineers or you know,
Speaker 1: maybe their product designers or elsewhere, and they work on
Speaker 1: solutions at big companies and they help those companies get
Speaker 1: rewarded patents in et cetera. And I always have wondered
Speaker 1: like that, it feels like a giveaway. To me. It
Speaker 1: feels like you did all this work and now this
Speaker 1: big organization has this reward for your efforts. And I've
Speaker 1: never under I'm an entrepreneur first, like that's what I'm
Speaker 1: first at. And so help me understand from the thinking
Speaker 1: behind it is that erroneous or was like it was
Speaker 1: there something that was missing from the conversation. There's a
Speaker 1: greatness there when it comes to patents. I can't speak
Speaker 1: to how every company works, but many times there's a
Speaker 1: couple of things that happen. When you join a multinational.
Speaker 1: You know, you'll sign u and say, you know, these
Speaker 1: ideas that we build and here belong to the company.
Speaker 1: There are some companies that when you are in the room,
Speaker 1: depending when you're in the room, when concepts are developed,
Speaker 1: your name becomes a part of the design or the
Speaker 1: patent that's created for that product. And in some companies,
Speaker 1: when your name is on a patent, you receive what's
Speaker 1: called a patent bonus. So you're not giving it all away,
Speaker 1: because you can receive a patent bonus for the life
Speaker 1: of how of how that technology may be used. So
Speaker 1: imagine someone that's was in the room for the design
Speaker 1: of the electronic battery that that fuels you know, the
Speaker 1: electronic vehicles. Now they're still getting rewarded for that. So
Speaker 1: there are instances where, um, you know, my college room
Speaker 1: and she's got two or three patents of black female
Speaker 1: material science engineer and I'm not sure how the company
Speaker 1: she works for does it. But other companies will allow
Speaker 1: you to receive a bonus. Here here's the tricky piece,
Speaker 1: and this is where gender um and disparity and gender
Speaker 1: in the area of engineering comes into play will and
Speaker 1: that is because many times women are left out of
Speaker 1: conversations where the patent discussion or design is being held.
Speaker 1: We may be in the initial piece and then we
Speaker 1: may be towards the end. But that piece in the
Speaker 1: middle where the names get on that paper there and
Speaker 1: you're actually going to be a part of that design patent,
Speaker 1: there's a gap there and that sometimes comes from our
Speaker 1: inability to be brought in to discussion. Sometimes we don't
Speaker 1: push ourselves into the room um and and so we
Speaker 1: can miss out on that. So we always want to
Speaker 1: inspire and encourage women to make sure that they get
Speaker 1: in the room and stay in the room. Again, every
Speaker 1: company does it different, but there are many times when
Speaker 1: you can create a patent and you'll be given a
Speaker 1: bonus for that. The other thing that you always have
Speaker 1: to be mindful of, particularly you're an entrepreneur first, so
Speaker 1: when you build things, you're building them in your brand.
Speaker 1: Depending on who you work for, anything that you design
Speaker 1: or build, even if it's outside of that building, it
Speaker 1: could be a conflict of interest, and so you have
Speaker 1: to be very careful. It's why many times m will
Speaker 1: leave the workforce if we do get kind of bit
Speaker 1: by that entrepreneurial person. We're like, I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: lead from here because this is dipping into my right pocket. Right.
Speaker 1: My dad always told me, you can't let your right
Speaker 1: pocket know what your left pocket is doing. You gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta keep them both overflowing. Yeah, because that was
Speaker 1: always my thinking. I'm like, you're creating things, like why
Speaker 1: are you doing it there? Like you could be doing
Speaker 1: it under your own Well, now we know your show
Speaker 1: talks about this often. You know how hard it is
Speaker 1: for black people to start entities and to start businesses
Speaker 1: and technology companies labs, and what it costs to operate
Speaker 1: in a lab or two. If you're working with chemicals
Speaker 1: or machinery, that is expensive. So if you think about
Speaker 1: you're doing a startup and you're in a room co
Speaker 1: creating ideas, tossing stuff on the board, and imagine if
Speaker 1: you had to build a mechanical system to actually as
Speaker 1: a template for how that would work. These things are expensive.
Speaker 1: And so to say that we have the opportunity financially,
Speaker 1: and this is why we have to go back and
Speaker 1: be able to fund these types of businesses and ideas.
Speaker 1: You know, I long for the day when I'll be
Speaker 1: able to have a black tech accelerator and we'll be
Speaker 1: able to drive these engineering solutions through there and fund
Speaker 1: them ourselves and create something like that. That's the big
Speaker 1: dream for sure. And I was watching a talk you did,
Speaker 1: and you're talking about, you know, when you are doing
Speaker 1: that hard work, that's where the value like you do
Speaker 1: the work nobody else wants to do. And you spoke
Speaker 1: about when that work ultimately does then become sexy, those
Speaker 1: opportunities start to get taken away from us, and how
Speaker 1: we have to own our contributions to the creation of
Speaker 1: that value and be bold about it, be confident about it,
Speaker 1: and fight for you know, that value that we created.
Speaker 1: You know, what are some of the lessons you learned
Speaker 1: about how to show up boldly when others want to,
Speaker 1: you know, place you in or keep you in and
Speaker 1: inferior your position. You know, I had, Um, I've had
Speaker 1: so many disappointments, and honestly, I think I've I've not
Speaker 1: tried to live my life in a state of regret.
Speaker 1: But if I had to say something that I regret,
Speaker 1: it will always be not standing up for myself soon enough,
Speaker 1: not um taking a bold enough step to say regardless,
Speaker 1: this is you can't have this, this is mine. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we're just I was taught differently. I was
Speaker 1: young and I didn't know, you know, the fight or
Speaker 1: the pushback. There's a tipping point in something that happens
Speaker 1: when you just say, I'm not going to take it anymore.
Speaker 1: Um And sometimes me watching the younger generation show up
Speaker 1: in boldness around me has empowered me to to stand
Speaker 1: up very differently because I want to be something different
Speaker 1: for the generations that I speak to. And honestly, I
Speaker 1: started to take a look at what legacy was gonna
Speaker 1: look like for me, and I had to decide was
Speaker 1: legacy going to be for me an amazing career at
Speaker 1: a company, which is nothing wrong with that. I was
Speaker 1: raised that way, both my parents did that, or was
Speaker 1: it going to be an opportunity to take my brand
Speaker 1: and say that the groundbreaking work that I've been a
Speaker 1: part of has been done under the USEL watch and
Speaker 1: not every other entity that I've been a part of.
Speaker 1: And that was something I really wanted to do. I had,
Speaker 1: you know, my brother said to me once, I'm not
Speaker 1: sure why you show up every day like Daddy's name
Speaker 1: is on the side of that building. It's not. And
Speaker 1: he was and I was just like, He's like, why
Speaker 1: why are you so upset? These people aren't your aren't
Speaker 1: your parents. You know, if you're gonna do this, let's
Speaker 1: let's build something for us. And so now you know,
Speaker 1: even here at Nesby, it's because I want to bring
Speaker 1: back the information and the things that I've learned in
Speaker 1: the passion that I have and do something great for
Speaker 1: black people. And I think that, you know, if I
Speaker 1: can share some of the secrets and some of the
Speaker 1: lessons that I've learned, then I'll be able to say,
Speaker 1: this is a legacy that I wanted to take a
Speaker 1: look at. And I also believe that, you know, I've
Speaker 1: had an opportunity to create a pathway to wealth. Like
Speaker 1: I said that I was. I didn't even know I
Speaker 1: could think my way through at one point. And now
Speaker 1: I'm not letting anybody get in the way of that. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean when I met you, um a little over
Speaker 1: a month ago, maybe two months ago, and I saw
Speaker 1: you with your blue hair, your phoney glasses, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna forget her, right, I'm never gonna you
Speaker 1: can't forget her, you know. And I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: listening to this talk Jay Z gave about, you know,
Speaker 1: how he shows up in every room as himself he's
Speaker 1: not putting on any airs, and he is not, you know,
Speaker 1: changing the way he talks like he's and I'm and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking the one side, and it's like, yeah, well
Speaker 1: you're jay Z, like you don't have to, you know,
Speaker 1: do that. And then I look at you and I'm like,
Speaker 1: she's got her blue hair, And I would imagine there
Speaker 1: was a Daniel career where you couldn't walk in with
Speaker 1: blue hair. And I guess my question is, is at
Speaker 1: what point is it okay to completely show up as
Speaker 1: ourselves when we're walking in these corporate spaces, when we're
Speaker 1: walking in these you know, career roles. How do we
Speaker 1: get past the idea or can we get past the
Speaker 1: idea that we have to you know code switch like
Speaker 1: at at what has to happen so that we can
Speaker 1: just be who we are and provide value. So I
Speaker 1: no longer ascribe to the model that says I have
Speaker 1: to be different in other places. Um, I'm already different
Speaker 1: in every place. Because as as Shanna Ryan talks about this,
Speaker 1: the first, the only, the different, the five she talks
Speaker 1: about that particularly Black women, in most places we ever
Speaker 1: go to, we're usually the first, the first to trail
Speaker 1: blaze something we're usually the only when it comes to women,
Speaker 1: and we're always different. So if that's always the case,
Speaker 1: and if the one thing that the world is most
Speaker 1: conditioned to understand and relate to our white men, and
Speaker 1: I can never ever be that in my life, that
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna ascribe to being myself because I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna be what's the traditional world will always want in
Speaker 1: anything that they do. And while you can look at
Speaker 1: a photo montage of me throughout my career and see
Speaker 1: that it's only the past maybe five years or so
Speaker 1: that I've presented myself in that way, what I wish
Speaker 1: and now I ascribed to is being that person up front.
Speaker 1: You know, if if Nesbie didn't think that I could
Speaker 1: lead as CEO because of blue streaks in my hair,
Speaker 1: then I probably just didn't need to work here. They
Speaker 1: don't affect my ability to solve or the way that
Speaker 1: I think, and the way that I can is money
Speaker 1: and balance a budget and build a P and L
Speaker 1: and lead people um And as long as the way
Speaker 1: that I present is not offensive to a culture UM
Speaker 1: or a space where I work, or something that I'm
Speaker 1: bringing into a place where it's gonna create some sort
Speaker 1: of offense. You know, I'm not gonna wear a tube
Speaker 1: top shorts in the middle of Saudi. It's illegal, first
Speaker 1: of all, insufensive, right, But my intentions aren't to be
Speaker 1: offensive or to make people uncomfortable, to just to make me,
Speaker 1: to make me comfortable in a space where I'm always
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and no one is ever ascribing to make sure
Speaker 1: that I'm okay. And if all I need is a
Speaker 1: little bit of blue streak and one of my tattoos out,
Speaker 1: that's the worst that it can be, then we probably
Speaker 1: need to um to readdress the way that we prioritize
Speaker 1: how we take people seriously or not. I'm watching people
Speaker 1: in the world do some of the most amazing things,
Speaker 1: and they either have hair or don't have it, or
Speaker 1: it's whatever color it needs to be. I don only
Speaker 1: wish I had done that sooner. Yeah, I mean, we've
Speaker 1: got folk um inevitably watching this or listening to this,
Speaker 1: who are black techies who work for the Facebook's, the Google's,
Speaker 1: the you know, snapchats of the world or whatever. And
Speaker 1: you know, we live in a world where, at least
Speaker 1: in tech, we're often contributing the systems, products, processes or
Speaker 1: whatever that don't always totally align with our values to achieve.
Speaker 1: Let's say, you know, if if Mark Zuckerberg takes a
Speaker 1: position on something, that doesn't mean everybody at Facebook believes
Speaker 1: that thing, right, and so does that mean that you know,
Speaker 1: because we're building things that impact how the world works fundamentally, um,
Speaker 1: and I think most of us would agree with you know,
Speaker 1: spectically social media it impacts how we work, um. Regardless
Speaker 1: of how how do we having convictions continue to make
Speaker 1: impact there? Or is it like I don't believe in
Speaker 1: what this is doing to our us as a society
Speaker 1: or do we give in or do we continue to
Speaker 1: stay and continue to carve out our way of internally
Speaker 1: fighting the battle when they have global societal cultural implications.
Speaker 1: If we are going to throw in the town, well,
Speaker 1: then you know, we what's what? What on earth are
Speaker 1: we here for? Every day? And I believe that every
Speaker 1: day that we're giving life and breath, then we're giving
Speaker 1: purpose and we're called to do something that creates change.
Speaker 1: And that's in whatever area of your life, whether it's
Speaker 1: your your profession, your vocation, your advocation, your your familiar life,
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you're called to do. I believe that.
Speaker 1: You know, we all have a reason for why we
Speaker 1: get two ft on the floor each and every day.
Speaker 1: And I never ever thought that my life would be revolutionary.
Speaker 1: In fact, for the longest time I was working with
Speaker 1: my coach, I couldn't even say the word. I didn't
Speaker 1: want to use that word in a sentence because I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: that's not who I am. I don't want to rock
Speaker 1: the boat. But everything I've ever done in my career,
Speaker 1: even when I was just trying to not rock the boat,
Speaker 1: was rocking it and it was setting me up to
Speaker 1: being a position of leadership like where I am today,
Speaker 1: where I now get to say we're going to rock
Speaker 1: the boat and on my watch, we're gonna tip it,
Speaker 1: flip it, and do it again. And when when we're
Speaker 1: in these seats, it's not just being in the room,
Speaker 1: it's not just sitting at this seat. What are we
Speaker 1: going to do with the positions and the opportunity like
Speaker 1: how you're using your microphone, the stories we're going to tell,
Speaker 1: the influence that we're going to make. So no, we
Speaker 1: we cannot give up. I believe strongly in this. It's
Speaker 1: a little preachy, but this is this is what I believe.
Speaker 1: I believe that the black tech movement is positioned right
Speaker 1: now to move our community of people forward just as
Speaker 1: heavy and just as impactfully as um the days when
Speaker 1: our ancestors and family members were walking across bridges and
Speaker 1: pushing for voter rights and fighting in the same way.
Speaker 1: Technology and the impact of technology on black people and
Speaker 1: the influence that we need to have in the design
Speaker 1: of technology for solutions in the world is the movement, absolutely,
Speaker 1: and so we cannot stand down. We have to get
Speaker 1: into the movement, and we have to push our way
Speaker 1: in because the world doesn't want us in that space
Speaker 1: because they know what the outcome will be. And when
Speaker 1: technology goes wrong on our watch, will people die. It's
Speaker 1: not just a bad user experience. Oh I hate these earbuds.
Speaker 1: It is artificial intelligence. Is mixing your face up with
Speaker 1: someone else, and that impact your life. It's very dangerous
Speaker 1: and I'm very, very passionate about that. So I do
Speaker 1: not believe that we can stand out. I believe that
Speaker 1: we have to equip one another to stay in the fight.
Speaker 1: And that is tribal community. You know, work like this podcast,
Speaker 1: like this story, is like this, people like this that
Speaker 1: are coming together there's enough. There is so much out
Speaker 1: there world. There's enough for all of us. What we
Speaker 1: have to do is come together and be able to
Speaker 1: bring this revolution together ourselves. Yeah, so let's let's go
Speaker 1: a level deeper. Because you've you've achieved, you know, like
Speaker 1: as you describe, you know, a revolutionary career, you know,
Speaker 1: a revolutionary contribution to technology. You know beyond g I
Speaker 1: mean CEO at Wikipedia, you know, with rant Wikipedia, I
Speaker 1: mean one of the biggest websites in the world, and
Speaker 1: running nasby and you know, with the black spack. And
Speaker 1: I want to talk about that because you know, you've
Speaker 1: you're sitting in some seats that UM have a heavy
Speaker 1: contribution to UM. What what what you talked about earlier
Speaker 1: is that we should be a to fund other companies
Speaker 1: by black folks. We should we should be in a
Speaker 1: position of wealth that we can fund things that should
Speaker 1: exist for our people. I want to talk about how
Speaker 1: you feel or whatever responsibility you feel in roles such
Speaker 1: that you sit in and if you could speak on
Speaker 1: the black aspect um a little mixing this, how do
Speaker 1: you feel the responsibility of these roles too enable those
Speaker 1: coming beside you and behind you and UM opening up
Speaker 1: the doors of wealth, opportunity and leadership opportunity for them.
Speaker 1: So I feel, um a way of responsibility that I
Speaker 1: think is necessary, um to stay humble. I think there's
Speaker 1: something my parents taught me. I believe, similarly to the
Speaker 1: question you asked me earlier, that if I have to
Speaker 1: change something about me that's just you know, unique and
Speaker 1: critical to who our am, like the color of my hair,
Speaker 1: to be in a room, then I don't want to
Speaker 1: be in that room unless that room is like, you know,
Speaker 1: you should come in this room anyway. These people don't
Speaker 1: think we're all crazy. Okay, great, let's do it, um,
Speaker 1: because that's the kind of pot that I want to start.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do the traditional work, where I
Speaker 1: believe that I'm called to do some things that are
Speaker 1: going to be very, very different, and um, the experiences
Speaker 1: I've had it brought me here, and so I feel
Speaker 1: incredibly responsible. I don't have children of my own, but
Speaker 1: I have nieces and nephews and tons of cousins, and
Speaker 1: some of them have also studied engineering, and my push
Speaker 1: to get them to be global or to get them
Speaker 1: to do some other things. I believe that's a part
Speaker 1: of my responsibility. Whether I'm I volunteer on boards or
Speaker 1: you know, even my leadership role at Wikipedia. I was
Speaker 1: hired to be the CEO, and then when the Black
Speaker 1: community came and said, hey, we want to elevate um
Speaker 1: content on Wikipedia, I couldn't say that's not my job.
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to run operations. These are things that they
Speaker 1: just become a part of your responsibility because they've never
Speaker 1: seen anyone that looked like me in leadership. They've never
Speaker 1: had anyone advocate for the stories of black people on
Speaker 1: that platform less than of the stories and the content
Speaker 1: on Wikipedia is about women less than one percent or
Speaker 1: about black people. How could I say no just because
Speaker 1: it wasn't a part of, you know, delivering operational rigor.
Speaker 1: I had to say yes. And my my leadership role
Speaker 1: on the SPACK. So I'm a chairwoman of a SPAC
Speaker 1: and for audience members, you know, a SPACK is a
Speaker 1: special purpose acquisition company. It is a way to um
Speaker 1: be a part of building wealth. And I think that
Speaker 1: in the black community this is something that another way
Speaker 1: an opportunity for us to to create an avenue um
Speaker 1: to growth. The reason I chose to to chair Grade
Speaker 1: Ridge Acquisitions is because it's an all black spack. We
Speaker 1: have a strong own commitment to HBCUs where most of
Speaker 1: us were educated, and because we want to be able
Speaker 1: to create an opportunity that will continue to build wealth
Speaker 1: in the black communities. You know, we are under certain
Speaker 1: guidelines where I can't say as much as I would
Speaker 1: like to now, but what I do want to leave
Speaker 1: with this audience is that a spack is yet another
Speaker 1: way for us to close the racial at the gap
Speaker 1: in in wealth that can happen from a racial perspective.
Speaker 1: I think the other way is education. When we have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to go to college and you don't have debt.
Speaker 1: I was very fortunate to not have that, which means
Speaker 1: I have a ten year leap on anyone graduating because
Speaker 1: it usually takes about ten years to pay off your
Speaker 1: student loans. So that's one way. And what do we
Speaker 1: do with that wealth in the process. My dad was like,
Speaker 1: you got to buy a house, You gotta do things
Speaker 1: like we have to. We have to have people teaching
Speaker 1: us that being able to be a part of venture
Speaker 1: capital groups and organizations like um teams, like a spack
Speaker 1: or yet another way for us to disrupt the communities
Speaker 1: of color, and not just in how we solve a problem,
Speaker 1: but how we build wealth. And so these these are
Speaker 1: all really important to me because as black people, most
Speaker 1: of us and this is this is honorable, So I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not shooting down for most of us had
Speaker 1: the bulk of our wealth tied up in four O
Speaker 1: one case, which is you know, look great, have you've
Speaker 1: been able to build a four one K year over
Speaker 1: year for all these years? That is noble. It's just
Speaker 1: there's a there's a diversity that can come to our portfolios,
Speaker 1: where there's a tipping point for wealth. Um. And once
Speaker 1: you experience that, I believe that you you take on
Speaker 1: a different mindset and there's a that's where all the
Speaker 1: boldness and the leadership and wanting to bring others along,
Speaker 1: that's where tipped and shifted for me. You're one of
Speaker 1: the original concepts that got me into storytelling about technology,
Speaker 1: and particularly even via podcasting. UM, was that the rules
Speaker 1: of engagement regarding startups and fundraising weren't equal for everybody,
Speaker 1: and that the information that was coming out of Silicon
Speaker 1: Valley about how to fundraise wasn't working for me in Ohio, right,
Speaker 1: and when many of us you know, championed the genius
Speaker 1: of Steve Jobs and his and and tried to mimic
Speaker 1: the way he behaved. You know, we found out that
Speaker 1: would land us in jail. You know, we can't behave
Speaker 1: like Steve Jobs behaved or Elon Musk today. Um, the
Speaker 1: things that white startup founders can get away with, like
Speaker 1: repetitive failing, we don't have that luxury. And so how
Speaker 1: do we, you know, particularly black founders, black entrepreneurs, black engineers, UM,
Speaker 1: with the tools that we have helped to reshape that
Speaker 1: narrative so that because even still today in many respects,
Speaker 1: how to fundraise that education comes out of Silicon Valley? Well,
Speaker 1: we really in Silicon Valley, right, And so how do
Speaker 1: we with the tools that exist today? Let's take it
Speaker 1: from an engineering perspective, how do we create a new
Speaker 1: pathway so that our folks can get faster, so that
Speaker 1: engineers can get faster to what you talked about earlier,
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial mindset. You know, I love that you asked
Speaker 1: that because I like to think of NESBI as like
Speaker 1: one of the first black text startups. Because NESBI was
Speaker 1: founded by to Purdue undergraduates Edward Barnett and Fred Cooper.
Speaker 1: They founded Nesby back in nineteen seventy five. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be We're gonna be fifty years old in three years. So,
Speaker 1: you know, you have these two brothers that are like
Speaker 1: the Steve and Steve of of of of Silicon Valley startups.
Speaker 1: And they're sitting there at Purdue University, like, you know,
Speaker 1: this thing is hard and and there's no black people?
Speaker 1: Are there other black people studying this? And I can
Speaker 1: only imagine in the seventies what it looked like may
Speaker 1: have looked like to be at Purdue and a big
Speaker 1: afro the studying you know, quantum physics and and you
Speaker 1: know thermodynamic theories. And these two guys started Nesby and
Speaker 1: then they built a community. Nesby has you know, over
Speaker 1: twenty thou student members now and uh they cover we
Speaker 1: cover programs that start all the way from uh Nesby
Speaker 1: junior high school students all the way through UM your
Speaker 1: collegiate years. And then the professionals which are Nesby graduates.
Speaker 1: And you have this community and this tribe with people
Speaker 1: that are finding their way to how to solve and
Speaker 1: build and create teaching curriculum and ways to do that
Speaker 1: that have diverse mindsets and showing them early on that
Speaker 1: this is what technology looks like. Imagine you want you
Speaker 1: have to come to our convention in Marchville, because I
Speaker 1: want even as a hybrid, we're gonna have over six
Speaker 1: thousand black black engineers there on any and in any
Speaker 1: normal circumstances have over fourteen thousand. I just want to
Speaker 1: walk Silicon Valley through there and let them see that,
Speaker 1: look at look at what this community looks like. And UM,
Speaker 1: these are the types of people that you need on
Speaker 1: your teams, on your design teams, in your building UM obsessions,
Speaker 1: creating and strategizing and building ideas for the world, because
Speaker 1: this is what the world looks like, and so you know,
Speaker 1: we have to do more of that. We have to
Speaker 1: I'm I'm currently now collaborating with a group of women
Speaker 1: UM and and I'm speaking at Afrotech. Morgan is one
Speaker 1: of them, just to talk about what it means to
Speaker 1: be a group of black women leading these huge technology
Speaker 1: efforts and how do we create a tribe amongst ourselves
Speaker 1: in a community. I wish that we will have more
Speaker 1: of these and more opportunities for us to gather and
Speaker 1: UM to help create cohorts of of communities of color
Speaker 1: that are working in this as it's not. We're not
Speaker 1: far off. This isn't a dream that can't be achieved.
Speaker 1: We're literally here doing it. We just have to show
Speaker 1: the world more of us, because you're right, what can
Speaker 1: happen in Silicon Valley. Unfortunately doesn't. We can't get an
Speaker 1: idea and then all of a sudden, I just got
Speaker 1: this great idea and somebody tend into it out. You know,
Speaker 1: we've got to have the entire thing built with proof points.
Speaker 1: You know, har it is, it's an absolute fact. Right.
Speaker 1: You were doing a talk at a leadership summit. I
Speaker 1: don't remember the name of the leadership something, but I
Speaker 1: was watching the video. You were talking about how you
Speaker 1: were compelled to have a word of the year, and
Speaker 1: I want you to take us through this exercise. First
Speaker 1: on educate us on why it's important, and then how
Speaker 1: can we find our word and put it into practice
Speaker 1: so for the rest of you know, give us how
Speaker 1: we should do this and playing for the rest of
Speaker 1: the year, and then we can prep perhaps. Okay, So
Speaker 1: the word concept came from a group of friends. We've
Speaker 1: been friends for over twenty years and there was a
Speaker 1: group of us and we I think someone brought it
Speaker 1: to us and said, um, what's an area where you
Speaker 1: want to focus? And you know it starts out with
Speaker 1: these long note you know, overtime, me iterat and how
Speaker 1: can we get it down to word because we really
Speaker 1: like to make things a little extra little, a little harder,
Speaker 1: so we were trying to whittle down to one word.
Speaker 1: The framing of it came from my my business coach.
Speaker 1: Her name is Rhadayah Rhodes and she is a black
Speaker 1: engineer from Nesby that now has um a training business,
Speaker 1: Evoke and and she has been coaching me year after
Speaker 1: year and every quarter. Now we do this process where
Speaker 1: we beprint my life and um be printing your life
Speaker 1: is meaning you're setting the design for the things that
Speaker 1: you want to accomplish. And we do it quarterly because
Speaker 1: most businesses operate like that as well. And it could
Speaker 1: be everything from my business, my entrepreneurial work, my volunteerism,
Speaker 1: my family, my personal life. But um, what is it
Speaker 1: that I want to design and what is the name
Speaker 1: of the game or the thing that I'll be doing
Speaker 1: that quarter? And then for me, I like to whittle
Speaker 1: it into a word and I'm focusing on UM some
Speaker 1: of my goals spiritually, financially, socially, what I want to
Speaker 1: bring to the world, on what I want to receive
Speaker 1: and I actually do it at the start of my
Speaker 1: birthday will, which in my birthday was just last week.
Speaker 1: So I just NW, thank you. I just picked my
Speaker 1: word for the year and UM, and I'll share it
Speaker 1: because I'm fine. For the longest time I work was freedom.
Speaker 1: I have a tattoo of that word because it was
Speaker 1: so important for me to break through and be comfortable,
Speaker 1: like I said, being myself and environments that weren't comfortable
Speaker 1: with me and weren't trying to make me so comfortable. Right.
Speaker 1: So now my word for this year is abide um
Speaker 1: A B I D. And when you abide in something,
Speaker 1: it means like you kind of set up residents. It's
Speaker 1: like the difference between you know, CouchSurfing and moving into
Speaker 1: your own place and decorating it and making it look
Speaker 1: like the way you want it. And I chose that
Speaker 1: word because the work that I want to do right
Speaker 1: now and that i'm I know that I'm called to
Speaker 1: do in the space of black technology, whether it's at nesbe,
Speaker 1: whether it's on this fact that I'm a part of
Speaker 1: some of the boards that I'm gonna that I'm a
Speaker 1: part of. I want to abide in there. I want
Speaker 1: to be so confident, confident, and so comfortable and so
Speaker 1: assured with what I'm bringing into that space that I'm
Speaker 1: open to learning. I'm confident with limiting, I'm okay when
Speaker 1: we get it right, I'm humble when we get it wrong.
Speaker 1: And I'm abiding in this space so that I figured
Speaker 1: I'm able to bring my best self into the places.
Speaker 1: And this is where I'm called too. So I've had
Speaker 1: that word before, but it meant something different to me.
Speaker 1: Then it meant like not being so wigged out all
Speaker 1: the time. In this case, it means I'm bringing an
Speaker 1: assurance that that man comes with experience and with age
Speaker 1: and otherwise. Um. And that's that's how I did it.
Speaker 1: And I would say, if we get how we're going
Speaker 1: into the last two months of the year, and you know,
Speaker 1: next today when we're recording, the next week starts a
Speaker 1: new month, so I'm not sure when this will air,
Speaker 1: but you've got you know, sixty plus days to to
Speaker 1: close it out. I would pick something that would help
Speaker 1: you finish the year strong. What is and whatever finished
Speaker 1: strong means to you personally familiarized in your career. What's
Speaker 1: the word that's going to help you get to the
Speaker 1: end of the year. And then when you get a
Speaker 1: chance to reset in January, how do you want to
Speaker 1: to lead and to be um and everything that you
Speaker 1: do in that year? And here's the thing. If you
Speaker 1: decide you've accomplished it midway and you want to change,
Speaker 1: you know there's no rules here. You know, no one's
Speaker 1: gonna grade you on this. This is just something you
Speaker 1: get to do for yourself. So have some fun to
Speaker 1: the real quick intense seconds like how do we use it? Like?
Speaker 1: Is this a word that we write on our mirror?
Speaker 1: Like how do you stay reminded of it? I keep
Speaker 1: it in my phone. I often tie um either a
Speaker 1: scripture or a motivational quote or something to it. I
Speaker 1: put ideas around it, bullet points of this is what
Speaker 1: it means for me, because trust me, you will forget
Speaker 1: or you'll get so stretched in your your year that
Speaker 1: you'll you'll need to remember why you wrote that down.
Speaker 1: So you always have to write your why. And then
Speaker 1: I want to go back to it because I need
Speaker 1: to be reminded why I chose this who I want
Speaker 1: to be as I take on this word and what
Speaker 1: I want to give. As a result of having that experience,
Speaker 1: I keep in my phone or I use you know,
Speaker 1: electronic notes these days, you know, just as a way
Speaker 1: to keep reminded. And it's something I put into practice,
Speaker 1: I try anyway. The Internet at its core, you know,
Speaker 1: is like a system that provides access on a global scale,
Speaker 1: where there it be between people or between systems, you know,
Speaker 1: in the in the blink of an eye. I remember
Speaker 1: hearing the technologists say several years ago that there will
Speaker 1: come a day where we won't even call it the
Speaker 1: Internet because it'll be it'll just be. It'll be something
Speaker 1: that's so ingrained that we won't see it as separate
Speaker 1: from us. You know. Imagine what you know ten years,
Speaker 1: fifteen or twenty you pick um what it looks like.
Speaker 1: And how do we as black engineers play a role
Speaker 1: in creating that future. Well, I would say first of all,
Speaker 1: that we're already probably living in that world, right. Remember
Speaker 1: when we used to call it the worldwide When do
Speaker 1: we'd say we're getting online? Now we say we're googling stuff.
Speaker 1: Everything is I had to google that, I gotta do
Speaker 1: that or we're just doing and most of the time
Speaker 1: that means it's something related to the web. Right, that's
Speaker 1: how we do life now. It's what happens on our
Speaker 1: refrigerators and you know everything is electronic, Google Series, add
Speaker 1: to my shopping list, whatever. Right, it's just the way
Speaker 1: we do life now. Ten years from now. You know,
Speaker 1: twenty years ago they said there was a digital divide,
Speaker 1: that blacks were not going to be a part of
Speaker 1: the Internet and revolution because we didn't have access to WiFi,
Speaker 1: our phone lines and things like that. Now, anywhere you
Speaker 1: go in the world, Africa, anywhere, every black person's got
Speaker 1: two or three phones, difference carrier provider, smartphone. My ninety
Speaker 1: year old mom has her Star phone and tech and
Speaker 1: chat centers and little Champagne Smiley ass or whatever. So
Speaker 1: this is a part of our life, right, and she's ninety.
Speaker 1: I love that she's like always wants to learn and
Speaker 1: how to get in the zoom chats and work it.
Speaker 1: Ten years from now, when I'm using a certain platform
Speaker 1: and I won't name it because I don't want you
Speaker 1: to edit me out. When I'm on a platform and
Speaker 1: I can't find an automatic round thumbs up so that
Speaker 1: when we're in the chat in a meeting, you know,
Speaker 1: I refused to use any type of emoji in this
Speaker 1: one recular system because they only they don't have brown fingers.
Speaker 1: You can't change the shade right when those things, you know,
Speaker 1: and I hate it, and I'm like, so I refused
Speaker 1: the thumbs that I just write thumbs up. I have
Speaker 1: to write it because I refused to use it until
Speaker 1: they fix that tech. Those are things that that next generation,
Speaker 1: the teen year old that's born, the kid that's born
Speaker 1: today that will be ten, never experienced. Just like my
Speaker 1: nephew has never seen. You know, I don't know what
Speaker 1: he means to have a Reno t V. Everything is
Speaker 1: a smart TV. He thinks everything swipes left and right right.
Speaker 1: The Internet and the the tech world will speak to
Speaker 1: us in a way that is not a secondary source.
Speaker 1: We are primary as women people of color. We will
Speaker 1: be the dominant community in the world in ten years
Speaker 1: from now. So those are things that we should be
Speaker 1: held up by. They should just be formulated. It is
Speaker 1: a part of the design process. And um, when there
Speaker 1: are gaps in access to WiFi and things like that.
Speaker 1: There's so many open source and communities that are helping
Speaker 1: make sure that everyone everyone has that, and we have
Speaker 1: to continue to support and fund that because these should
Speaker 1: not be things that hold us back in the future,
Speaker 1: and they won't be. Black Tech Green Money is a
Speaker 1: production of Black of the Afro Tech on the Black
Speaker 1: Effect podcast Network and Ihearted Media. It's produced by Morgan
Speaker 1: Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production supported by
Speaker 1: Love v sim Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis.
Speaker 1: Adam Simms is the Carsavan young you know like the wine. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and
Speaker 1: other texts up as an innovator to afrotech dot com
Speaker 1: video versus of this episode, we'll drop the Black Tech
Speaker 1: Green Money on YouTube, So tapping enjoy your Black Tech
Speaker 1: Green Money, leave us a five star rating on iTunes.
Speaker 1: Go get your money, Peace and love