WEBVTT - BLACK VC'S PLACING BIG BETS w/ ELLIOTT ROBINSON 0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:07.280 Afro Tech World. Will Campbell, the CEO at Quantity and 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:11.960 Associates and award winning creative agency. He's on the virtual stage. 0:00:11.960 --> 0:00:15.480 He discussed how M and A mergers and acquisitions can 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:18.280 play a pivotal role in helping you grow your business 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:23.120 and achieve your vision. I want to talk about why, um, briefly, 0:00:23.680 --> 0:00:28.800 mergers and acquisitions were so important, especially for multicultural companies 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.599 and for the black businesses. Is we need to create larger, 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:39.199 more influential companies. So you might say, as an entrepreneur 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:43.919 or a founder, UM, hey, you know, my goal is 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:48.560 not to be some massive company. UM. I really just 0:00:48.600 --> 0:00:51.600 want to pursue my passion. You know, I really want 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:55.600 to just um if I could change one life, UM, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.279 I've done my job. UM. I just want to make 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:01.880 something that's right for you know, my family. And that's 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.520 all great. But at the same time, the business community 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.480 needs you. We need your ideas, we need your hustle, 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:16.840 we need your innovation, and we need you to create larger, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.640 more influential companies. UM. No matter what type of company 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.920 you are, is it helps you deepen the capacity that 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:30.319 drives your mission. UM. So as a visionary, as a 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.520 person with an idea m n A can become an 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:39.080 incredible growth strategy that gives more capacity, of more foundation 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:45.600 to what your overall missions. I'm will Lucas, Mrs Black Tech, 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.160 Green Money. I want to answer this you to some 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.520 of the biggest names, some of the brightest minds in 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.000 brilliant ideas. If you're black in building or simply using 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.880 tech to secure your bag, this podcast is for you. 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.240 Elliot Robinson, his partner had Best of Me Invented Partners. 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:09.040 He has fifteen years of international experience investing and partnering 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.960 with world class entrepreneurs and the technology companies that they lead. 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:16.880 He spent six years focused on Series A and B investments, 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.520 followed by seven years and county focused on growth stays, 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:25.200 Series C, D and E opportunities. I asked Elliott about 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.919 how cloud computing in the Asia COVID might accelerate innovation 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:34.000 in stubborn industries. So I oftentimes like to to leverage 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.520 a quote from one of my favorite CEOs. You know, 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.480 before I joined best Mer as a partner in twelve Ventures, 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.400 which was Microsoft Global Venture punt and in that role, 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:45.800 I was lucky to spend some time with Sashi Nondella, 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.880 who's still the CEO of Microsoft, and it was probably 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:51.960 maybe like three months ago after earnings follower. During an 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:55.440 earnings follower, Satia said, you know, we've seen more digital 0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:59.919 transformation decisions and initiatives being taken by our client base 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.280 and customers in the last two months than we have 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.160 in the last two years. And what does that really mean. UM, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.880 that means there's been some kind of legacy industries that 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.560 have bought software in a certain way for two plus decades, 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.000 you know, on prim software where people still have to 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.639 come to your premise, sit there and like swap out 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.240 the CDs or download things onto your system. UM. But 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.680 now with with you know, the proliferation of cloud computing, 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.760 you can do all of that remotely. You can continuously 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.400 update and release new software. So when Satia says he's 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:36.520 seen more digital transformation in the last two months in 0:03:36.560 --> 0:03:39.640 the last few years, what he's really saying is, you know, 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:44.480 powered by UM, things like AWS and Azure and g CP, 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.400 folks are just really pushing cloud software applications to the forefront, 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:52.920 every every part of the stack, remembrastructure to platform to 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.000 kind of the software front inside UM. So for me, 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.160 you know, COVID has been an interesting thing because cloud 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.880 was already moved quickly. But now everyone's working from home. 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:06.000 You know, we're working from home now, at least on 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.400 the tech company side, we might be working from home 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.680 like indefinitely or at least this remote first kind of 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.200 work from home virtual world. So the areas that we're seeing, um, 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.080 you know, a lot of movement is you know, we 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.560 call it future of work, but what does that really mean. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:24.520 That means, you know, people that are building distributed teams, 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.360 startup founders in the ecosystem today, there was this thing 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:29.120 where you know, you might have to move to a 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.880 really cool city like l a to find, you know, 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:34.279 talent that you can hire and build your team. That's 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:37.120 not necessarily the case right now or the future. It's 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:38.880 kind of been like that the last few years. It's 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.640 been some companies that started that way. But now you 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:47.239 can build a team be totally distributed. Just in the stakes. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:49.880 You could have you know, headquarters quote unquote in l 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:53.320 a Iron, New York, Austin. You know, there's some great 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.040 tech clubs like Detroit and Atlanta that are really bubbling up. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.040 So there's a bunch of software tools that most startups 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.400 need to help man, is that how do you do 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:05.240 remote learning, remote sharing? Of course, I think we're on 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.000 Zoom today, and you know, they just announced a bunch 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.560 of new kind of integrations and tool sets to make 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.640 you know, more of a remote office environment, UM even 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.159 more effective. So we think about things like future of 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:23.440 work with productivity tools, UM, knowledge sharing tools, even down 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.640 to the back office. That's actually one area that I'm 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.440 really excited about. So companies that are dealing with UM 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.560 international payroll, which is a space that we've been spending 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:35.679 a lot of time, or distributed payroll, distributed hr UM, 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.400 distributed you know, accounting software. All of these things are 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.440 now going from in office to in the cloud, and 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.360 the whole definition of what is an office, I think 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.000 is changing. The last thing I'll say on this this topic, 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.280 UM knowing a couple of folks from the Afrotech team. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.919 One of the coolest things about afro Tech for me 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:56.720 has just been as an outsider looking at the office culture. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.200 It looks like the most fun place to work UM 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.400 at the African American venture capitalists. I can go weeks 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:06.360 without you know, necessarily seeing someone else that looks like 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:08.960 it was a remarkable place. Often if I could work 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.479 out of it's probably Afro text office, but now they're remote. 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:16.159 So how do you take such a unique culture, UM. 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.160 I think it's called like wind down Wednesdays or Fridays 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:21.279 or something something really cool like that. But how do 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.359 you pull that into zoom? How do you pull that 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.560 into you know, like a hopping and environment and make 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.680 it cool, bring the music in, bring the culture in. Um. 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:31.760 And I'm really excited about some of the opportunities that 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:36.560 are coming there. It's in that respect, UM, how fast 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:40.000 our companies growing today? You know, beat with the ability 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:44.719 that the efficiencies that cloud computing provides. And how does 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:47.440 COVID change that? So if you look at two years ago, 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:51.359 how fast companies? How does that scale? Exceptional question? And 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:52.880 you said two things that I'm going to pick on. 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.880 Not only are companies able to move faster? Uh and 0:06:57.000 --> 0:06:59.520 kind of a remote first environment if you're will in 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.080 the hustle, you know, I actually think it's it's kind 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.440 of a unique time. UM. For underserved founders. I don't 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:08.120 like the whole underrepresentative or minority. I think it's a 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.680 it's a trash term. We're just underserved. UM. So for 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.600 underserved founders, I actually you know, you can take two 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:17.880 sides of the coin. From a funding perspective, it's always 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:20.920 been tough for us, right um, and perhaps in a 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.760 world where you can't necessarily spend time face to face 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:25.800 teams to know people, that will be tougher. But from 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:28.760 an operational standpoint, you can actually take a lot more 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.960 meetings now. Um. You know, if I think about companies 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.280 here in the Bay Area, in in l A. For example, 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:36.720 when I used to fly into l A, I can 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.600 only take three to four meetings a day because traffic 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:42.400 was crazy. I try to stay at Vennis Panta Monica 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:45.800 kind of a hub, but I love places like Culver City. 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.400 I still love West Hollywood, and it would take me 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.200 forever to get around. Now with with Zoom and more 0:07:51.240 --> 0:07:53.800 of the remote work culture, you can bang out calls 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.040 from seven am to seven pm any time zone. I'm 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.840 on calls at eleven pm with my team and you're 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:02.840 been tel Aviv. I started my day at six am 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.960 with my partner in Tel Aviv. We've got you know, 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:08.160 um folks in China. Now we've got two offices in 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:11.080 New York. So the whole idea of what your schedule 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.160 looked like has changed. So typically where you are time 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:17.880 constrained in a physical, face to face environment. All those 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:20.720 things have moved. So again, picking on your first word 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.200 of growth, I think you can you can take more 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.600 business development, more potential customer pipeline meetings, and a way 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:29.560 you could before. And then the second word that you use, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.040 I'm gonna pick on his efficiency. Um, so I think 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:38.200 everyone's business from like just a fixed cost basis has changed. Right, 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:41.480 Like you know, you you might not need that office space. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.760 While it might be advantageous for you to have face 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.880 to face time with your employees and your employee base 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.160 to build that culture, maybe doing it remote is easier. 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.599 People certainly aren't flying nearly as much last year. I 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.520 think I logged like a hundred twenty nights and hotels. 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.720 I'm I'm at zero. Well, actually I'm ethnically at like 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:03.800 a couple. Um my wife, I took a little bit 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.160 of a vacation just to get a change of scenery. 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:09.760 But um, you know a lot of the fixed costs 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.520 that are in an operation are now changed. It's not 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.280 that they're gone, it's just changed. So where founders may 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:19.880 have raised a million dollars in their seed round or um, 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:22.200 maybe a super angel around a year ago, and you 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.320 have these like fixed costs to build things out. Now 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.400 if everything remote and your ability to hire and lower 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:31.480 costs gels and cities where the talent pools are just 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.360 as good or sometimes even better, you know you can 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.760 pull that money out and you knows is under served founders. 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:40.200 That's that's kind of like one of our skill sets 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.320 we've always made more apt less. So I'm pretty excited 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.600 about some of those prospects as well. That's a great 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.360 um t up to my next question, because it was 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.440 seem that because of the scale and relatively low cost 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:56.400 of cloud computing, um in the efficiencies that it provides, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:02.600 it would that startups may need less to do more things. Right. Um, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:08.240 but is that capital just being redeployed elsewhere versus how 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:11.679 it would have historically been deployed against those fixed costs etcetera, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.120 you know, travel or those things because the prices aren't 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.400 necessarily going down. Yeah, that's a good point. Um. The 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:22.480 way I look at it is, Uh, if you're cutting 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.520 let's just say your annual budget for your startup is 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:30.160 let's just say that salaries for a couple of people. Um, 0:10:30.440 --> 0:10:33.760 maybe you've reduced your office space or gotten rid of it. 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.640 And if you've freed up just even a hundred brands 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:40.040 out of your budget year over year in COVID versus 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.800 pre COVID, there's a bunch of different things you can 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:45.760 do with that. Um. You know, what I've really liked 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.079 is the whole gig economy has always been a thing, 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.360 but I think in COVID it's even different. So you 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.160 can try new things on the marketing side, on the 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.000 biz dev side, on the pr side, that perhaps you 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.520 couldn't have done before because you either needed it in 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:03.719 how or you know, the business has been working a 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:05.840 certain way for a couple of years, so a smaller 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.280 business couldn't have got the attention of a marketing or 0:11:08.440 --> 0:11:10.880 pr um kind of shop in the way that it 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.080 can't now where everything is discerned mediated. So I think 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.319 it's it's down to the business. To your comment of 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:21.200 prices haven't come down, that's certainly the case because everyone 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.839 is trying to meet their their top line revenue goals. 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.480 So while prices haven't changed, the one thing I can 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.080 say is negotiating terms have changed. So in this world 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:32.720 have been certainty. There's a lot of software and cloud 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.240 software tools that said hey, this is a minimum one 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:38.640 year commitment. A lot of things have changed in COVID 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:40.880 where they said, okay, well, everyone's business is kind of 0:11:40.960 --> 0:11:43.480 up in the air. You know, why don't we give 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.240 the first three months away free, or why don't you 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:47.880 sign up for a year, but you don't have to 0:11:47.920 --> 0:11:50.280 pay us anything for the first six months. We just 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:52.800 want to keep you locked in UM. If you're on 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.920 kind of the accounting or controller side of a business, 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.240 as as some of these software licenses come up to renew, 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.640 a certainly be thinking about, you know, renegotiating. I'm never 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.559 gonna tell you that you know hard renegotiating and think 0:12:05.559 --> 0:12:07.920 you're gonna get fifty off. But you know a lot 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:12.120 of companies that weren't potentially working UM with customers a 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:14.400 year ago, and in COVID there are a lot more 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.839 open to negotiating. So not just the fixed costs that 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:20.679 have come out during COVID of of being virtual, but 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:23.439 even though those same kind of virtual class software tools 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.080 I've talked about, and you're I've been discussing, you can 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.559 go back to the drawing board and say, hey, beyond 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.319 just a ten or fifteent haircut until things get back 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:35.000 to normal, maybe we can change some of the payment terms, 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:37.319 and that's another way to kind of extend your your 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.040 cat lun way. So let's think about like prices coming 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.000 down from a different perspective own, because I'm not a VC, 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.240 but it would appear to me that you know, buy 0:12:45.360 --> 0:12:47.360 in to get in on these deals hasn't come down 0:12:47.440 --> 0:12:50.719 either with regards to you know that capital being more 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:55.199 flexibly UM deployed. So how how can you how do 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:59.280 you read that? Look, we're not doing as much you 0:12:59.320 --> 0:13:03.040 know in these FI cost these travel expenses, you know, UM, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:08.160 but the prices of getting in on deals hasn't reduced. Yeah, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.240 there's this weird macro thing that happened, and it's really 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.040 a dual side of equation. So one UM, the last 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.160 six to twelve months, more capital has been raised, are 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:22.719 bigger funds have been raised than ever before UM. And 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:24.920 then the other thing that happened on the other side 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:28.480 of the equation is unfortunately in COVID there's a lot 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.599 of businesses that were impacted, but it's super VOLADI. So 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.600 what I mean by that is UM an aggregate businesses 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.520 are just dealing with uncertainty. So that means there's less 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:43.320 companies that are still either hitting plan or beating plan. 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.200 So on one side, you've got more capital that needs 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.800 to go into these companies than ever. On the other side, 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.640 you might have it's not that like companies are failing, 0:13:51.679 --> 0:13:53.760 but you might have a smaller basket of companies that 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.120 are really thriving in COVID who would be either figured 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.800 it out. They might be in a market or industry 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:02.480 vertical that's actually got a COVID tailwind versus a headwind. 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:06.079 So there's more capital than other going after a smaller 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:09.760 subset of opportunities. Therefore, you know, just to find demand. 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:13.240 The prices have come up um, but look at the 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:18.360 end of the day, like valuations, um, they're certainly meaningful 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:22.040 in every company's like every entrepreneurs, like every term early 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.760 team's life, because it has to do with delution in 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:27.360 your own equity and what you own. What I would 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:32.840 really be advising founders on is and this doesn't necessarily 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.200 change in COVID. But if some of the funds that 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:38.040 one spend time with you pre COVID, now all of 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:40.200 a sudden one has spend time with you, like you 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:42.520 need to ask yourself why that is and that could 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.560 be on both sides. That could be they think you're um, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:48.320 you know, you're seeing some COVID headwinds and now it's 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:50.800 like a good opportunity to get in cheap or cheaper 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:52.920 than they think it would be, or you're really seeing 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:55.360 some tail winds and now they're all over you. I'm 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.640 just like a very values based person. So the question 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.840 is if they weren't spending time with you when things 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:04.680 were good, like you know, perhaps that's not the right 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.280 fit for you and your company and your your core 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:10.200 founding team for the next two or three years. Just 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:13.600 really try to think about that fit and we're also 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.160 The last comment I'll make on this is we're going 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.760 into a really unique time in this country. Has been 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:22.120 the craziest year I think all of the experience, certainly 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.160 in my adult life, and all that means is uncertainty, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.360 and every kind of CEO and sea level are co 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.880 founding team is thinking about, you know, what does the 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.360 next six months look like for us, and that that 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:37.160 impacts everyone's business. So I think, you know a lot 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.120 of founders are just you know, trying to stay conservatives, 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.280 stay the course, but also be flexible as the next 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.840 three or four months are gonna be really um follatl 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:48.840 when it comes to change. Is it possible startups maybe 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:53.280 taking more capital? Do they need? Oh? For sure? All right, well, 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.400 actually let me I hate that I answered that so strongly. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.360 I'm not sure if it's a fore shore, but it's 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.320 certainly proving. Um you know, I think I had written 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:03.840 a tweet a week or two ago all caps are 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:07.040 saying why is every company in America raising right now? 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:10.200 And it actually is my last comment, which is why 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.640 we're about to enter a period of uncertainty that we've 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:18.200 never seen. Um So, if you're a company that's performing 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:21.600 relatively well to plan or or even beating it, why 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.200 not do it now before we enter into this kind 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.960 of desert of uncertainty. Um So, I certainly understand that, 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.360 but I will make sure I address your question, which is, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:34.040 do I think companies are raising too much money? I 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.400 think some companies certainly are. Um there's this mentality um 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:44.280 and and just kind of a behavioral norm that happens 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.800 when you raise enough capital to have twelve to maybe 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.560 eighteen months of cushion and you can just crank that 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.720 business out. You're thinking about efficiencies, You're always thinking about 0:16:53.760 --> 0:16:56.680 your balance and your bottom line. Where sometimes if you 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:00.040 raise so much capital ahead of plan, you know, not 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:01.800 only are you sitting there thinking that what am I 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:03.840 gonna do with all this extra money I raised, but 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.639 your investors are also thinking, well, look the I R 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:09.960 our clock is still ticking on my money that I 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.879 gave you. I need to generate a return faster. So 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.840 now we we start adding onto fits and variable costs 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:20.119 at a rate that wasn't necessarily the original plan. Right. 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.000 And then you know the term that I always uses. 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:25.520 I never want to put a founder or an executive 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.960 team in a position and of doing unnatural things. Um, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:32.440 you know, an expel plan is just numbers and excel. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.359 But if your balance sheet is now boosted to a 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:38.199 point where you know it doesn't reflect the plan, now 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.399 now everyone feels it's pressured to change, and that's not 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:55.680 good for either side. Or be black meals seeing people 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.439 of other ethnicities and backgrounds realize the value of our sauce. 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:04.200 They capitalize what we create, they monetize the culture we 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.960 move as a creative I'm interested in the take of 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.679 a VC like Elliott on how we as the global 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.160 leaders and was Hadden music, fashion, food, sports and more 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.359 might finally be able to realize the reward in the 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.800 marketplace for the ideas that we bring to the table. 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.359 Elliot Robinson speaks on it. So I'm gonna take a 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:26.800 thirty thousand feet and then probably go down to like 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:30.920 ten thousand maybe and on the street level, UM, I 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:36.160 think thirty thousand feet view. UM. What I'm really excited 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:40.320 by is the growing number of enterprise software and cloud 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.879 software opportunities that I'm seeing founded by UM, not just 0:18:44.040 --> 0:18:49.040 black founderis, but UM latin X founders and women founderis. Traditionally, 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:53.040 for whatever reason, it actually makes a lot of sense. UM. 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.359 At least the last five to ten years, a lot 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.000 of the start up opportunities have been focused at UH 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.159 consumer opportunities because while founders that look like me and 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.920 you are underserved, you know, consumers are underserved. Right, there's 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:09.040 this this age old adage. You know. I started my 0:19:09.160 --> 0:19:12.639 career to all black venture firm in DC called Singcom 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:17.760 Venture Partners, and we were the first investors in bt SO, 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.280 first investor in bt UM. You know, Bob Johnson says 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:24.960 all the time that's Sincom and HERB Wilkinson exists, b 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:27.800 T one exists, we're the only investor who served the 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:31.680 board from first investment until it was sold to Viacom. 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:34.480 And then you know, in the middle of that, we 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.760 invested in Kathy Hughes who started Radio one in TV 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.120 one all right. You know a lot of people said 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.320 to us, well, there's already b t like why on 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:46.040 earth would you invest in radio one TV one, And 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.359 we said, dude, I mean, you know, we're talking about 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.159 fifteen million people and you give them one channel and 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:54.720 then we got three hundred channels serving the rest of 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.320 the communities. Doesn't make any sense. UM. So you know, 0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:03.080 I think historic lee because our consumer base is seen 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.720 as one very homogeneous, which it's not. There's all different 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.960 types of lanes and tide of the black consumer opportunity. 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.359 But because we're under served, there's just so much like 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:19.920 clear obvious opportunity to go after the consumer market. But 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:24.560 I think in the enterprise space, you know, it's it's 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.200 like it would take a whole another zoom to really 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:30.280 break down my views on on UM why we're just 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.960 naming these opportunities and these on noors now. But I'm 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:38.080 really excited by the diversity UM that's influencing kind of 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:42.159 cloud and enterprise software. And that's where I as a 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.240 cloud investor UM and spending my time now on the 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:47.280 on the later stage investor. We can talk about that 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.960 a little bit, but you know, I I spend a 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.399 lot of time with the early side, even down to 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:55.879 the seed team of going through all the lists of 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.640 UM kind of black and brown founders going after enterprise 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.720 and make sure that that vessels meeting with UM and 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.239 making sure that we're we're funding. We just funded one 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:07.960 that we haven't announced yet, which I'm really excited about 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:11.920 coming around, but one is certainly not enough. UM. You know, 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.200 we don't have a set number, but in my own mind, 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:17.160 I've got a number of where I'd like to see 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.800 the portfolio go and I'm really excited about that. On 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:26.600 the street level, UM, you know, I just I think 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.800 that we and then this is gonna I want to 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.240 make this very nuanced. I think that one thing that 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:35.040 has to change on the street level is like we 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:42.440 as a UM underserved entrepreneur base and underrepresented investor base, 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:46.879 we just gotta think bigger UM. And And that's like 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.800 a really nuanced thing because sometimes people hear me say 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:51.840 that and they take it the wrong way. I'm not 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:55.880 saying that we're not thinking big now. It's just that, um, 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.080 many times we're just trying to get from point zero 0:21:59.280 --> 0:22:01.840 or point nega in one because the whole industry is 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:05.440 backed against us to like getting through those first blocking 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:08.159 and tackling, and we got to do that right, Like, 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:10.760 we've got to focus on getting out of the blocks, um, 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:13.440 you know, getting the business up, getting the first customers, 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:17.320 getting the first users. But sometimes we focus so much 0:22:17.440 --> 0:22:19.680