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Speaker 1: At the end of the day, will people stand up

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Speaker 1: and vouch for you where they put their reputation on

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Speaker 1: the line to get you the money, to get you

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Speaker 1: a contract or a pilot at a large company, to

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Speaker 1: get you a partnership and stuff like that. And one

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Speaker 1: of the ways you can measure it is how fast

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Speaker 1: the decisions actually kind of play out. Non diverse founders

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Speaker 1: will get will get funded, whether with something on the

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Speaker 1: paper napping where you'll take the same exact concepts, take

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Speaker 1: the exact same exact concept with something much further along,

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Speaker 1: and diverse founders can't get it. So to me, that

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Speaker 1: speaks to a lack of trust, which is a much

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Speaker 1: larger issue to tackle. I'm Will Lucas and this is

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Speaker 1: black Tech, Green money. I'm gonna interpuce you to some

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Speaker 1: of the biggest names, some of the brightest fines and

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Speaker 1: brilliant ideas. I feel black in building or simply using

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Speaker 1: tech to secure your back. This podcast is for you.

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Speaker 1: Jill Burg Solomon is the head of Google for startups

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Speaker 1: in the US. It works to level the playing field

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Speaker 1: for underrepresenting start the founders and communities. Joey Wollmack started

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Speaker 1: and runs Goody Nation built to eliminate the relationship gap

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Speaker 1: that stands in the way of success for too many

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Speaker 1: promising entrepreneurs, particularly black and women entrepreneurs. Julius spearheading Google's

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Speaker 1: Black Founders Fund a five million dollar investment into black

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Speaker 1: entrepreneurs across the US, and Joey is a recipient of

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Speaker 1: some of that non delude of capital to grow as enterprise.

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Speaker 1: So I want to start this off with a question

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Speaker 1: for you, Julie. And so you've had this amazing career,

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Speaker 1: you know, having started to start up and sold it

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Speaker 1: to Amazon, and then you go on to run Google

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Speaker 1: for startups um as a few years ago, I want

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Speaker 1: to say two years maybe now it's been two years. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So how do you, like, how do you reconcile you know,

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Speaker 1: in your brain going from starting something this this idea

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Speaker 1: that you had with your partners to build this wonderful

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Speaker 1: technology too, then using a lot of those bruises and

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Speaker 1: war wounds that you had to go help other startups

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Speaker 1: and other black founders be able to build their things. Like,

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Speaker 1: how do you think about that in your mind? Like

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Speaker 1: with whatever your mission was with your career. Yeah, the

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Speaker 1: bruises were motivation. I didn't want other people to have

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Speaker 1: to have the same knocks that I had in my journey,

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Speaker 1: and so it was pretty clear to me what I

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Speaker 1: needed to do next. I saw that there were big problems,

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Speaker 1: the problems that I experienced when I was growing and

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Speaker 1: building my company, that I needed to go and solve,

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Speaker 1: and so being the entrepreneur that I am, I needed

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Speaker 1: to go and attack those problems. And I saw UM

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Speaker 1: taking on the role as Head of Google for Startups

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Speaker 1: as a great platform and a great way to attack

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Speaker 1: the problem head on and have the power and the

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Speaker 1: might of Google behind me UM. And so I've been

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Speaker 1: fortunate for the timing to be sitting in the seat

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Speaker 1: that I'm in as Head of Google for Startups at

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Speaker 1: this particular time where entrepreneurs UM, particularly black entrepreneurs you know,

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Speaker 1: have really needed the support. And so it's it's been

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Speaker 1: a big blessing to be in the seat that I'm

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Speaker 1: in and be able to create things like the Black

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Speaker 1: Founders fund Um to support our entrepreneurs and make sure

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Speaker 1: that they can not just make it through the pandemic,

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Speaker 1: but actually thrive UM and come out even stronger on

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Speaker 1: the other side. Yeah, I definitely want to talk about,

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Speaker 1: you know, the opportunity. We have to come out better

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Speaker 1: than we did going into the pandemic. UM. And We're

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Speaker 1: gonna certainly talk about the Google for startups, the funds

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Speaker 1: that you know, Google has committed to this initiative as well.

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Speaker 1: But I'm interested before we go there, you know, And

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Speaker 1: I asked this question of another recent guest on the show,

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Speaker 1: is we know that sexism exists in venture capital, we

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Speaker 1: know that racism exists in venture capital Jewel, Like, what

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Speaker 1: other things beyond racism and sexism would you would you

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Speaker 1: say black founders particularly perhaps have you know against us,

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Speaker 1: whether it be because we aren't getting the same level

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Speaker 1: of education, Like what other things are there that keep

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Speaker 1: us from raising significant amounts of money to be able

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Speaker 1: to fuel our ideas. I mean, racism and sexism are

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Speaker 1: pretty much the foundation to a lot of the problems

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Speaker 1: that we see in the industry. But I think offshoots

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Speaker 1: of that are the closed network that exists in the

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Speaker 1: venture capital space. UM. And you know, it's, like I said,

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Speaker 1: the ruth of it is in racism and sexism, But

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Speaker 1: if you look at it, it's really like, for so

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Speaker 1: long the industry has been based on who do you

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Speaker 1: know and who can vouch for you UM, and that

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Speaker 1: you know, has caused these very very insular UM networks,

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Speaker 1: and it's caused you know, the people that are able

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Speaker 1: to raise money and the people who are writing the

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Speaker 1: checks UH to to both look pretty much the same

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Speaker 1: for for a pretty long time. And so I think

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Speaker 1: that UM breaking that up and coming up with new

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Speaker 1: solutions that allow more people to have access in UM

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Speaker 1: and allow different types of problems to be sold all.

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Speaker 1: I think one of the things that I'm really proud

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Speaker 1: of in the work that that we do and that

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Speaker 1: Joey has led in particular UM, is that we're really

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Speaker 1: focused on entrepreneurs and founders who are solving real problems,

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Speaker 1: who are looking at you know, I think about an

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Speaker 1: entrepreneur like Jasmine Crow, who driving in downtown Atlanta saw

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Speaker 1: it homelessness was a huge problem and hunger was a

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Speaker 1: huge problem and set out to solve that particular problem.

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Speaker 1: I mean, hunger is crazy that that's still an issue

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Speaker 1: where we have so much UM here in the United States,

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Speaker 1: but we still have so many people that are going

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Speaker 1: hungry UM, and so, you know, looking at solving those

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Speaker 1: types of problems, and so I think that's something that

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Speaker 1: UM we as black founders in particular, we have even

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Speaker 1: more insight into some of the deep societal issues and

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Speaker 1: are building great technology and that's what needs to be funded.

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Speaker 1: And so that's really the motivation behind a lot of

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Speaker 1: the work that I do. And joeyous as such a

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Speaker 1: great segue, as Jewel does so eloquently often is that,

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Speaker 1: you know, the relationships thing, and the relationships is why

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Speaker 1: you started Goody Nation, and it was to you know,

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Speaker 1: provide ecosystem for entrepreneurs, particularly black entrepreneurs, to be able

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Speaker 1: to have the relationships that help them you know, get funded,

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Speaker 1: you know, get the education they need to you know,

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Speaker 1: build the partnerships that they need for their their ideas,

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Speaker 1: to their startups to thrive. You know, if you talk

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Speaker 1: about what Goody Nation has been able to do, first

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Speaker 1: of all, let's let's explain what Goody Nation is for

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Speaker 1: this audience, So for people people in Atlanta though, and

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Speaker 1: people increasingly outside of Atlanta though, what good Nation is.

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Speaker 1: But let's let's talk about what this is first before

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Speaker 1: we go deeper. Yeah, so we are a nonprofit again

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Speaker 1: based in Atlanta, but with routes now nationally um that's

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Speaker 1: focused on closing what we call the relationship gap for

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Speaker 1: diverse founders and social entrepreneurs. So we're hyper focused on

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Speaker 1: introducing them to key influencers in tech for advice, for capital,

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Speaker 1: for professional development, and then also for for talent. So

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Speaker 1: how did you get over? It's one thing to know

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Speaker 1: people who have the keys to be able to get

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Speaker 1: you what you need. But as we've seen throughout the

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Speaker 1: last several years, particularly since COVID, we see a lot

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Speaker 1: of diversity theater. Right. We see a lot of people

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Speaker 1: who will say, you know, I'm gonna be in I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna do a ten thousand dollar grant program to founders

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Speaker 1: and you know how far ten thousand dollars to get

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Speaker 1: you jewels for some people. For some people that may

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Speaker 1: be okay, but it's it can be diversity theater in

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Speaker 1: so many respects because it's not meaningful to a trillion

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Speaker 1: dollar balance sheet. Google is doing something different though, But

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Speaker 1: before we talk about that, I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: the relationships and how key they are and how do

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Speaker 1: we know they're meaningful relationships? And in the beginning, when

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Speaker 1: we have so many people who well discount our ideas

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Speaker 1: before we get even an opportunity, because so often we

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Speaker 1: may not have the same amount of traction as some

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Speaker 1: of our count of parts might with our startups. So

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Speaker 1: how do we know, Joey, that these relationships um are

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Speaker 1: with pure intent? Yeah, I mean at the end of day,

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Speaker 1: And Jewel hinted at it's at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: will people stand up and vouch for you? Will they

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Speaker 1: put their reputation on the line to get you money,

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Speaker 1: to get you a contract or a pilot at a

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Speaker 1: large company, to get you a partnership and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: And one of the ways you can measure it is

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Speaker 1: how fast those relationships actually or how fast the decisions

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Speaker 1: actually kind of play out. I think it actually speaks

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Speaker 1: to a part of your earlier question around racism and

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Speaker 1: things like that. At the end of the day, what

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Speaker 1: we see if there's a lack of trust between black

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Speaker 1: founders and those that are influential in tech, and so

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Speaker 1: when there's not a lot of trust, and even going

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Speaker 1: by some of your previous podcast guests, you know, non

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Speaker 1: diverse bounds will get will get funded with with something

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Speaker 1: on the paper napkin, but you'll take the same exact concepts,

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Speaker 1: take the exact same exact concept with something much further

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Speaker 1: along and diverse founders can't get it. So to me,

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Speaker 1: that speaks to a lack of trust, which will a

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Speaker 1: much larger issue to tackle. So Joel, why is it

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Speaker 1: important for companies like Google to reach back into particularly

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Speaker 1: black startup founders And you know, is it a strategic

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Speaker 1: mission to build these companies help them grow because it's

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Speaker 1: socially good or is it a strategic mission because Google says,

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Speaker 1: you know, if we raise them up, we could potentially

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Speaker 1: have valuable partners. So if you if you think about

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Speaker 1: why Google gets involved, what's the mission here? I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think there is some kind of goodness behind it

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Speaker 1: and we want to help, but there's also a clear

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Speaker 1: business imperative. And just to say a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about the team that I lead specifically, you know, Google

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Speaker 1: for Startups. We didn't just show up during the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: The team has been around for almost ten years at

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Speaker 1: this point, I've been leading it for two years, and

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Speaker 1: with me coming in, we have UM a focus now

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Speaker 1: more in the US, whereas before the focus was primarily

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Speaker 1: on emerging ecosystems outside the US. So that's why the

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Speaker 1: name Google for Startups may be new to some people. UM,

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Speaker 1: but the mission has been the same for the entire time,

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Speaker 1: which has been around leveling the playing field UM and

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Speaker 1: particularly for diverse, underrepresented UM founders. And so with that

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Speaker 1: as the mission, that has led us to the work

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Speaker 1: that we're doing now and led us to say, Okay,

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Speaker 1: you know, we were doing a lot of UM support

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Speaker 1: for organizations that support entrepreneurs and not the direct support

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Speaker 1: UM working with entrepreneurs. But when I came in, we

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Speaker 1: decided that we wanted to make a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a shift and work directly with startup founders and understand

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Speaker 1: what their problems were and how we could be supportive

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Speaker 1: of them UM. And so that is what that insight

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Speaker 1: and that work that we were already doing with the

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Speaker 1: founders is what stuated us to be in perfect position

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Speaker 1: to say, oh wow, these founders are not getting p

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Speaker 1: PP loans at the same rates as their majority counterparts

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Speaker 1: or UM. These founders are having to make really difficult

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Speaker 1: decisions about what is their business gonna look like in

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Speaker 1: the midst of a pandemic, how are they going to pivot,

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Speaker 1: how are they going to make sure that they're online?

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Speaker 1: And so we were able to see that in real

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Speaker 1: time and put together this you know, black founder is

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Speaker 1: fun as an answer to some of the problems that

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Speaker 1: we were seeing that the founders were going through at

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Speaker 1: you know, last year. Um. And so the reason to

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Speaker 1: do that is because, of course, you know, my thought was, well,

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Speaker 1: I can't run programs if none of the companies are alive,

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Speaker 1: you know, I can't what what is my job gonna

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Speaker 1: be if if these companies aren't here? Um. And so

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Speaker 1: it was really in response to what I was seeing

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Speaker 1: and saying, okay, well we want to support, but we

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Speaker 1: have to do it in a bigger, a much bigger way, um.

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Speaker 1: And that where you get the Black Founders Fund. And

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Speaker 1: the other piece to it was in order for us

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Speaker 1: to sustain the support and not just do it as

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Speaker 1: a flash in the pan, you know, one time thing,

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Speaker 1: which to your point, we have seen from companies where

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Speaker 1: they made a big announcement or a big proclamation and

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Speaker 1: then we haven't heard anything from them. Um. In order

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Speaker 1: for us to sustain the support over time, that's where

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Speaker 1: I had to bring in the truths and call Joey

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Speaker 1: and say, hey, I need your help on this, because

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Speaker 1: I know that you are so good at providing this

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Speaker 1: kind of community support and cultivating community among founders and

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Speaker 1: so that's why we partnered together on this initiative. So

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Speaker 1: for you, for black founders who may not be creating

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Speaker 1: the next type of Google, you know, these big, massive companies.

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Speaker 1: So many of us feel like, you know, because I'm

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Speaker 1: not doing that, but because my you know, market is

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Speaker 1: you know, my community, we often don't feel like a

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Speaker 1: Google would be around to support us, right. And so

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Speaker 1: is it that we are not solving big enough problems

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Speaker 1: at scale that enough Black founders engage, or is it

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Speaker 1: that sometimes we as black founders don't really see how

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Speaker 1: big our market could be if we, you know, had

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Speaker 1: to support economically and support resource wise, uh to be

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Speaker 1: able to tackle a bigger problem than we even knew

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Speaker 1: we could uh tackle. Yeah, I mean one thing that

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Speaker 1: I love and I'm actually rocking the shirt today if

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Speaker 1: y'all can see from one of our companies, one of

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Speaker 1: our companies that we support called Just Add Honey UM

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Speaker 1: and they are actually a local business here in Atlanta

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Speaker 1: with brick and mortar stores, a really delightful tea shop

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Speaker 1: on the belt Line in Atlanta. UM and they were

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Speaker 1: one of those businesses when we first met them that

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Speaker 1: you know, would consider themselves not to be a tech company,

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Speaker 1: not to be a tech startup, but they were super

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Speaker 1: smart about how they made a pivot um during the

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Speaker 1: pandemic to get their products out of the math when

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Speaker 1: they had to shut their door there there you know,

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Speaker 1: local doors um. And so that was the spark that

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Speaker 1: made us say, Okay, this is a company that can

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Speaker 1: have the scale and can have the reach across the world.

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Speaker 1: When you think about how they're they're thinking about logistics

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Speaker 1: getting their their te out to everyone. And that's the

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Speaker 1: type of company that we want to support. So it's

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Speaker 1: not just the you know, the high tech starter. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we we focus our attention on those, but it also

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Speaker 1: is how as a local business are you thinking about scale?

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Speaker 1: That's really the determining factor as far as whether or

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Speaker 1: not Google for Startups particularly can support, or Goody Nation

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Speaker 1: can support, is how are you thinking about scale and

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Speaker 1: impact on a level that's beyond your street corner. And

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Speaker 1: not to say the businesses on the street corner aren't

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Speaker 1: worthy of support. We have something for that to Google

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Speaker 1: for startups may not be the right home, but we

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Speaker 1: have something called Grow with Google, where we have local

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Speaker 1: digital coaches that are in different community is like Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: like Houston. UM, like New Orleans who are there on

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Speaker 1: the ground helping those businesses figure out how do they

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Speaker 1: get online, how do they market to their customers. Um So,

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Speaker 1: my my overall message for all black owned businesses is

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Speaker 1: digital is now, and you have to figure out how

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Speaker 1: are you going to leverage the technology that's in front

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Speaker 1: of you to grow and scale your business, even if

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Speaker 1: scale for you does not look like, you know, getting

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Speaker 1: your product out worldwide, but it looks like getting your

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Speaker 1: product to the people in your neighborhood. Even that means

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Speaker 1: you have to take a look at what is available

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Speaker 1: to you, what resources can you pull in to maximize

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Speaker 1: the potential that's in front of you. Joey, I would

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Speaker 1: love your comments on this because you know I talked

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Speaker 1: about this often. You know, I grew up in the Midwest.

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Speaker 1: I grew up in toled Ohio, and it wasn't until

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Speaker 1: I moved to Atlanta, you know, forever ago. Um for

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Speaker 1: some time that I saw black people, black men, particularly

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Speaker 1: who were younger than I was, who were doing it

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Speaker 1: like they were. They had the big cars and nice

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Speaker 1: houses and the cent and they had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with music, nothing to do with sports, and they weren't

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Speaker 1: selling drugs, right, but becoming from where I came from,

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Speaker 1: I didn't see with my naked eye that type of

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Speaker 1: opportunity around me. And so with Joel mentioned this early

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Speaker 1: in her one of her opening comments about you know,

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Speaker 1: the opportunity COVID provided for potentially some of us to

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Speaker 1: be able to come out stronger than we went in

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Speaker 1: um with the company that she just mentioned. Just at honey,

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Speaker 1: how do we get to a place to where it

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Speaker 1: doesn't take a pandemic for us to realize that there's

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Speaker 1: a bigger opportunity for our businesses until we get no

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Speaker 1: other choice? Now A great question, and I want to

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Speaker 1: point out like that just add honey, team is is awesome.

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Speaker 1: I had a pleasure to get to know Jamaal over

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Speaker 1: the past year and one of the best leaders I

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Speaker 1: think I've ever seen, quite honestly, and he's and he

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Speaker 1: and and and he he and his wife are are

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Speaker 1: an amazing example of how we can take small businesses

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Speaker 1: which actually in many cases is in the tech space

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Speaker 1: are looked as looked down upon us and and I'm

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Speaker 1: actually want to mission to like eradicate that like we've

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Speaker 1: actually a good nation, You've actually uh have the turn

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Speaker 1: now multimillion dollar a year of business because at the

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Speaker 1: end of the day, to ninety none point none present

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Speaker 1: of all humans on this earth, you are successful. But

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Speaker 1: it's only in the scalable tech start up space where

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Speaker 1: you're looking upon as a failure. And so the interesting

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Speaker 1: opportunity is to take the just ad honeys of the world,

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Speaker 1: those who have made it, who have been successful, who

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Speaker 1: brought in revenue, but may not necessarily understand how to

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Speaker 1: scale a little bit more where the rats where that's

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Speaker 1: to the state level, national level or regional national and

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Speaker 1: then global, do some education there, provide them the tools

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Speaker 1: in order to do so, and then watch them grow.

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Speaker 1: I think we will actually create more black millionaires that

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Speaker 1: way than in some cases taking the tech startup because

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Speaker 1: you're gonna see you're gonna see awesome tech started founders

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Speaker 1: do their thing, right, that's fine, that's fine, But I

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Speaker 1: think there's a huge there's a huge opportunity, huge target market.

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Speaker 1: There are small business owners that we can not help grow. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but if I listen to the Jewels story, Let's say

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Speaker 1: I am you know that just that honey, or I

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Speaker 1: am that you know guy down the street who has

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Speaker 1: an amazing print shop, you know who printed the tea

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Speaker 1: that she's wearing. Right, But let's say I hear her story,

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Speaker 1: I'm automatically like, I'm never gonna build something as big

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Speaker 1: as she built to be able to sell to an Amazon.

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Speaker 1: I'm just you know, doing my couple hundred thousand dollar

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Speaker 1: a year, probably a couple of million dollar a year thing.

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Speaker 1: What do we have to do to amplify those same

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Speaker 1: sort of celebrity status? Is that it Joey has that

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Speaker 1: a Jewel has in small, smaller enterprises that are completely

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Speaker 1: viable as you to your point percent the people that success,

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Speaker 1: you know, For me, I think it's helping people understand

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Speaker 1: the reframing of the problem. And I love jewels story

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Speaker 1: because it's called what it's something that I called obvious

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Speaker 1: non obvious problem where you know, have the lived experience

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Speaker 1: through either yourself, a parent, a grandparent. You also marry

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Speaker 1: that experience with what you're seeing at work, something that

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Speaker 1: people see on a daily basis. For me, with with

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Speaker 1: part pickures, like we see that every single day we

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Speaker 1: passed by refrigerator or washing machine, so on and so forth.

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Speaker 1: But how many people thought to actually solve the problem

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Speaker 1: the way she started to solve it. So it's obvious,

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Speaker 1: but it's not obvious. And so for me, you're taking

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Speaker 1: the person with the print shop, helping them to understand

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Speaker 1: how to identify problems they're seeing on an everyday basis

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Speaker 1: and turn that into a scalable tech startup idea that

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Speaker 1: maybe worth fifty million, hundred million dollars a year one day.

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Speaker 1: Do I want you to chime in on this because

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Speaker 1: there is a thing about us feeling like because I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna it's like, you know, because I can't run

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Speaker 1: ten miles, I won't run one one mile, you know,

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Speaker 1: So if I can't build a billion dollar business, I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna spend the time to go build one that

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Speaker 1: could be a million dollar business. But both of them

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Speaker 1: have value. But I want to do I want I

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Speaker 1: want my story to be your story. When my story's

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Speaker 1: got to be my Yeah, that well, that's the thing

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Speaker 1: people who have to get out of. I want my

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Speaker 1: story to be your story, your story to be my story.

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Speaker 1: We are all running different races and we have different experiences,

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Speaker 1: but having the idea that there is value in what

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Speaker 1: I'm experiencing and what I've lived is so important and

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Speaker 1: to Joey's point, I was gonna reference my story too,

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Speaker 1: because if I had not observed my grandfather who was

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Speaker 1: a farmer and you know, on one side, and my

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Speaker 1: other grandfather who built convenience stores and laundromats and in regular,

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Speaker 1: every day, you know, businesses, I would definitely not be

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Speaker 1: in a position to understand that it was possible even

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Speaker 1: for me to start something. And so even if it's

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Speaker 1: not you, the person that has the barbershop on the

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Speaker 1: corner or you know, the print shop, even if you're

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Speaker 1: not the one that starts the multimillion dollar scalable tech company,

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Speaker 1: the person underneath you, the person the apprentice, or that

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Speaker 1: your child or whoever is looking up to you. They're

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Speaker 1: seeing that it's possible, and then they may be the one.

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Speaker 1: So you're planting seeds um or your your planning seeds

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Speaker 1: for yourself. To Joey's point, if you're in a business

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Speaker 1: and you've worked in in it, we're looking at a

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Speaker 1: company right now to invest in where the company has

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Speaker 1: been a family business for a long time and kids

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Speaker 1: are looking to spin out technology from that that kind

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Speaker 1: of regular, everyday brick and mortar family business. And so

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Speaker 1: you never know who you're inspiring and who's gonna come

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Speaker 1: up next. Um. And that's where we go back to

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Speaker 1: talking about legacy and what we need so much in

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Speaker 1: our in our community is that we not throw away

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Speaker 1: the stuff that we're good at and the stuff that

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Speaker 1: we've done for generations in service of you know, what

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Speaker 1: we see now is popular and flashy on tech Crunch

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Speaker 1: and all of that. We have these these fundamentals of business.

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Speaker 1: We are entreprene neur, real people, um. So making sure

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Speaker 1: that we maintain that and use that as experience and

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Speaker 1: leverage going into some of these technology ideas. You know,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned this a little bit ago, Joey, how you

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Speaker 1: got involved. You picked up the phone and said, Yo,

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Speaker 1: I got something. Um. You know, Google is big enough

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Speaker 1: to do this on their own. Why is it important

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Speaker 1: that Google said we're not going to do this on

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Speaker 1: our own. We're gonna put our tentacles out, you know,

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Speaker 1: in the community of people really doing the work to

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Speaker 1: you know, be part of this. Why was Why is

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Speaker 1: that important? To be clear? I asked myself the same

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Speaker 1: question when when they called me as well, this is

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Speaker 1: totally um, but no so so I think I think

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Speaker 1: there's there's a few things one it goes. It shows

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Speaker 1: the commitment of that it takes the village to to

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Speaker 1: do this thing correctly right, Google can do a lot

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Speaker 1: of a lot of great things. When we start bringing

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Speaker 1: in the community, you go from community building to ecosystem development,

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Speaker 1: and that's how we create a lot of impacts. But

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Speaker 1: also I think there's a hidden part of this. And

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Speaker 1: then in many cases that the story around black startup

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Speaker 1: founders get told all the time, right, and the lack

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Speaker 1: of funding for them before organizations lack a Goody Nation,

434
00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 1: black lead nonprofit, so on and so forth. In many

435
00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:18,440
Speaker 1: cases we face an even steep and steeper challenge when

436
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 1: it comes to funding and support and so many so forth.

437
00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:23,240
Speaker 1: So when a Google for startup comes in and puts

438
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,959
Speaker 1: the stamp of approval on a Goody Nation, it actually

439
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:28,880
Speaker 1: has the same effect when Google for start Up puts

440
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:31,760
Speaker 1: the stampuple approval on a nonprofit like a good or

441
00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,000
Speaker 1: excuming a start a start up startup like Gooder like

442
00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:37,400
Speaker 1: a many cities, so on and so forth, and create

443
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:42,240
Speaker 1: this interesting dynamic where where we really appreciate Google for startups,

444
00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,880
Speaker 1: the founders really appreciate Google for startups. Google for Startups

445
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:50,040
Speaker 1: creates an amazing model quite honestly for how to build

446
00:23:50,119 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: community and create impact and it's in a sustainable way.

447
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:55,919
Speaker 1: You know. You I wonder what Google thinks about like

448
00:23:55,960 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 1: this concept of a double bottom line, right, Like so

449
00:23:58,880 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: often we hear of black owned companies, black started companies

450
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:06,560
Speaker 1: that might be creating worthy enterprises. Um, it might be

451
00:24:06,600 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 1: socially viable, but maybe won't be the next school, right. Um,

452
00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:14,600
Speaker 1: But we play in the game of capitalism, and especially

453
00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:17,520
Speaker 1: if you're talking about getting venture capital dollars, and you

454
00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:20,120
Speaker 1: noticed vcs don't want their money back, they want ten

455
00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:22,360
Speaker 1: times their money back, they want a hundred times their

456
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:26,720
Speaker 1: money back. So how do we think about creating enterprises

457
00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,399
Speaker 1: that are socially viable but may not be you know,

458
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 1: the biggest exit for you know, the founders or the investors. Yeah,

459
00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 1: I mean the impact story and what happens when you

460
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,240
Speaker 1: fund Black Founders was a core design principle and that's

461
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:48,399
Speaker 1: putting together the Black Founders Fund. We interviewed all of

462
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:52,080
Speaker 1: the recipients and we saw a through line um that

463
00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,879
Speaker 1: was pretty much consistent across the board, which is every

464
00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,879
Speaker 1: single founder that we talked to, they had a reason

465
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 1: for being a reason for doing what they were doing.

466
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,680
Speaker 1: That was beyond what's on the surface. It was beyond

467
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 1: you know, wanting to make the next grade tech product.

468
00:25:08,880 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: And it had to do with the communities that they

469
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 1: came from. It had to do with, you know, wanting

470
00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,680
Speaker 1: to make sure that the road was a little bit

471
00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 1: easier for the person coming behind them, and had to

472
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:21,600
Speaker 1: do with wanting to make sure that UM, the industry

473
00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:23,880
Speaker 1: became more diverse. I just got off a call with

474
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:28,119
Speaker 1: Chisa who's building a company called Pedal, and he's created

475
00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:32,600
Speaker 1: this really unique way of diversifying large companies through scholarships

476
00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:37,639
Speaker 1: UM and so that through line that we saw where

477
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:41,960
Speaker 1: we knew if we give dollars to these companies, it's

478
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,800
Speaker 1: not gonna end there. These folks are going to multiply

479
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:47,080
Speaker 1: it because they're going to be successful in their business,

480
00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:50,040
Speaker 1: but they're also going to do something interesting in the

481
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:52,560
Speaker 1: communities that they come from. I mean, that's what we've

482
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,119
Speaker 1: already seen it. You know, we had the first round

483
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:59,000
Speaker 1: last year with seventy six founders, and we've already seen

484
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:04,159
Speaker 1: i mean in credible metrics and and stats and impact

485
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,240
Speaker 1: around what's happened since we were able to give them

486
00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: some dollars and some support UM and and really just

487
00:26:10,359 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: seeing it multiply and we expect the same thing from

488
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 1: the group that we just awarded. But something again, and

489
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,080
Speaker 1: how we designed this thing was we don't have any

490
00:26:19,080 --> 00:26:22,960
Speaker 1: expectations about getting money back. It's not a cash I mean,

491
00:26:22,960 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 1: it's not an equity UM exchange. And that's different than

492
00:26:26,359 --> 00:26:30,240
Speaker 1: what you'll see, of course with investment dollars UM from

493
00:26:30,280 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: other folks or you know, loan programs that other people have.

494
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,520
Speaker 1: People get this money out with the understanding that we're

495
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,360
Speaker 1: not going to get back you know, cash, but we're

496
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:44,119
Speaker 1: gonna get it back and the impact and get it

497
00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:46,919
Speaker 1: back and what these founders actually end up doing for

498
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:50,520
Speaker 1: the community and as folks that are in the community,

499
00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: and of course Google has tentacles everywhere, you know, that

500
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,080
Speaker 1: is what we're looking to see and that's what we're

501
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:58,879
Speaker 1: tracking UM. So that to me has been the beauty

502
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:02,080
Speaker 1: of this program. It's that UM there is no expectation

503
00:27:02,119 --> 00:27:04,800
Speaker 1: about getting the money back. The expectation is that these

504
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:07,360
Speaker 1: founders go on and build great businesses and do great

505
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:10,080
Speaker 1: things in their community. Let's go a level deeper than

506
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:13,719
Speaker 1: because I'm interested in Yes, it's the right thing to do.

507
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,359
Speaker 1: Quote unquote to invest in diverse founders and diverse leaders,

508
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:20,640
Speaker 1: whether that be executives or etcetera. But there's also a

509
00:27:20,680 --> 00:27:24,320
Speaker 1: real return on investment, you know, by by putting your

510
00:27:24,359 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 1: money in black people, right, And so can you talk

511
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: a little bit about how for people who still struggle

512
00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:33,919
Speaker 1: with Okay, yeah, we're gonna do it because it's the

513
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: right thing to do. We've gotta get some black people

514
00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: on our board of directors. We gotta get some black

515
00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:39,879
Speaker 1: people because if we don't, then the pitchforks will come

516
00:27:39,880 --> 00:27:42,359
Speaker 1: out at us. But talk about a little bit about

517
00:27:42,400 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: why it's great for shareholders, it's great for investors, it's

518
00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: great for business returns to have black people at the sea. Yeah.

519
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,480
Speaker 1: I mean this is work that has been in my

520
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 1: life for over a decade. When I first started at

521
00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,480
Speaker 1: Google over ten years ago, which I'm I'm aging myself,

522
00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:06,520
Speaker 1: are dating myself? Um, This was research that we were

523
00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,480
Speaker 1: doing as kind of our passion projects or twenty percent

524
00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:12,919
Speaker 1: time was what does Google's book of business look like?

525
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,280
Speaker 1: And what we found at that time was that it

526
00:28:16,320 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 1: wasn't extremely diverse and Google was missing um black advertisers,

527
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: was missing, um black small business owners for various reasons

528
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: the message wasn't reaching them UM, and so that research

529
00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:36,000
Speaker 1: has even now ten years later, it is so relevant

530
00:28:36,040 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 1: and true UM, where we see there is a disconnect

531
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:44,240
Speaker 1: between UM black owned businesses adopting Google products or black

532
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,400
Speaker 1: owned businesses knowing that you need to put your Google

533
00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:51,320
Speaker 1: places UM, you know, banner of to let people know

534
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 1: that you're in business and what your hours are and

535
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 1: all of this. And so with that in mind, there

536
00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:01,360
Speaker 1: is a business imperatives helping founders understand what they need

537
00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: to be doing online, and that's the business that we're

538
00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,200
Speaker 1: in at Google, but making sure that they have the resources,

539
00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: they have the tools, they have the knowledge UM, and

540
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,520
Speaker 1: by proxy they're growing and scaling their businesses and hopefully

541
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,160
Speaker 1: you know, becoming customers at Google, and we're supporting them

542
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 1: and we're building up that ecosystem. You know. That's the

543
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: kind of the give give on our side, is that

544
00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:28,040
Speaker 1: the more people that are building great businesses online, there

545
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:30,280
Speaker 1: is gonna be some funning back at some point into

546
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 1: the Google ecosystem UM. And so when I put together

547
00:29:33,440 --> 00:29:36,400
Speaker 1: the business case for it, I talked about the fact

548
00:29:36,400 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 1: that these businesses, as they grow in scale UM will

549
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:44,280
Speaker 1: be great customers at some point potentially will be great

550
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:47,560
Speaker 1: partners at some point hopefully you know, my my back

551
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:49,400
Speaker 1: go on the back of my head is that we

552
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:52,680
Speaker 1: have some companies from these batches that we that Google

553
00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:57,080
Speaker 1: acquires at some point. Um. So really building up the

554
00:29:57,120 --> 00:30:00,520
Speaker 1: ecosystem in such a way that we've done everything we

555
00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: can to support these businesses and now we know the

556
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:08,160
Speaker 1: founders that talent is there. Um It really just as

557
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:11,239
Speaker 1: a matter of can we find them? And I'm on

558
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 1: the job, so yes, we can find them, and then

559
00:30:13,960 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 1: what resources can we give them? Um? And so that's

560
00:30:16,800 --> 00:30:18,760
Speaker 1: what you know, if we look at what's the business

561
00:30:18,840 --> 00:30:21,120
Speaker 1: case for it, that's kind of what we put together

562
00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:24,600
Speaker 1: as the business case, Joey and in closing, and because

563
00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: at the risk of giving us another half an hour

564
00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:29,360
Speaker 1: long conversation, I'm gonna ask, let's let's do this in

565
00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:32,560
Speaker 1: three minutes, because it's it's a big conversation, but and

566
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:35,400
Speaker 1: it probably warrants its own podcast outside this, but I

567
00:30:35,440 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: want to start it here. There was a tweet that

568
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: you put up a few days ago and talked about

569
00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:42,360
Speaker 1: how we have this conversation about big tech needing to

570
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:45,040
Speaker 1: be broken up politically. This there's this conversation about that,

571
00:30:45,720 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 1: and you talk about how that could actually impact minority

572
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,520
Speaker 1: owned businesses, And I wonder if you could give us, like,

573
00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 1: you know, some caution to versus having these knee jerk

574
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:59,720
Speaker 1: reactions when we see the balance sheets of these big companies,

575
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: but actually to think strategically about how these political knee

576
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:09,760
Speaker 1: jerk reactions could have a devastating effect on black owned

577
00:31:09,800 --> 00:31:12,880
Speaker 1: companies because they want to do business with black owned

578
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:17,240
Speaker 1: businesses as well. Can you so can you talk about that? Yeah? Now, actually,

579
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, at the end of the day,

580
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,320
Speaker 1: if we're talking about creating you know, well for for

581
00:31:23,360 --> 00:31:26,160
Speaker 1: black entrepreneurs, we need to be able to sell to

582
00:31:26,320 --> 00:31:29,240
Speaker 1: large companies. And I think even going to a previous

583
00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 1: question you gave, I think we've seen the impact of

584
00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:36,440
Speaker 1: someone like like Jewel quite honestly impact not only in Atlanta,

585
00:31:36,480 --> 00:31:38,920
Speaker 1: but across the national I'm sure global you know ecosystem,

586
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,840
Speaker 1: And what what happens if if perhaps she doesn't sell

587
00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:44,960
Speaker 1: the department quite I'm seeing to to to another company

588
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,840
Speaker 1: to sell partmit through the company. And so, you know,

589
00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 1: we need more jewels and if we can create more

590
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 1: jewels of the world, quite honestly, just in America. The

591
00:31:53,360 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 1: impact is going to be ridiculous. You've seen You've seen

592
00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:58,960
Speaker 1: people going to become investors, You'll see people going to

593
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: become the next generation of ecosystem developers. You'll see them

594
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: launch programs and other large companies. You'll see people run

595
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:08,120
Speaker 1: for political office quite honestly, because now they have the

596
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:10,080
Speaker 1: cash they to make things happen. So the so the

597
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:12,560
Speaker 1: impact is tremendous. That we take the opportunity your way,

598
00:32:12,880 --> 00:32:15,280
Speaker 1: it's gonna hurt black black people in general, but especially

599
00:32:15,280 --> 00:32:18,840
Speaker 1: black entrepreneurs. So I'm super appreciative of both of you guys.

600
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:20,480
Speaker 1: Signed Jewel. If you can give kind of like a

601
00:32:20,480 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 1: closing statement on you know, the impact of the Google

602
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,560
Speaker 1: um fund, Startups for Black Founders Fund, and how people

603
00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: can get involved, how we can you know, potentially you know,

604
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:34,520
Speaker 1: join the programming. So give us kind of a rundown

605
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 1: if you could. Yeah, And I want to just hit

606
00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 1: on your point as far as the knee jerk reactions.

607
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,360
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, I see things on Twitter and

608
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 1: I see what people have to say, and mostly, of

609
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 1: course overwhelmingly it's positive, but people do have I think

610
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:56,480
Speaker 1: they've gotten a little bit wrong around what responsibility companies

611
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,160
Speaker 1: like Google have and what they're actually doing with it.

612
00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:01,680
Speaker 1: And I encourage people to really follow up and track

613
00:33:02,160 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: who are the beneficiaries of some of this work. And

614
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,520
Speaker 1: you know, we have our our website um G dot

615
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,320
Speaker 1: co slash Black Founders from where you can read up

616
00:33:11,360 --> 00:33:14,200
Speaker 1: on all one hundred twenty six black founders that have

617
00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: received this non dilutive equity free funding UM and the

618
00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 1: support and the cloud credits and the ad credits and

619
00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:23,760
Speaker 1: all of the different things that we've put together for

620
00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:26,880
Speaker 1: these founders. And you can track these founders and see

621
00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,120
Speaker 1: what's happening with their businesses and see that they're not

622
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:33,480
Speaker 1: just stopping with us, They're going on. The last cohort

623
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:36,760
Speaker 1: went on to raise over fifty million dollars collectively, and

624
00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 1: we expect this cohort to go on and raise hundred

625
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:42,680
Speaker 1: million plus UM. And so just track the work and

626
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 1: see what's really happening and then support the founders. It

627
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,000
Speaker 1: shouldn't stop with Google, it shouldn't stop with getting Nation.

628
00:33:48,040 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: It really should be a community effort to make sure

629
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,280
Speaker 1: that these businesses have what they need and there they

630
00:33:53,320 --> 00:33:57,920
Speaker 1: are successful. So UM for future, you know, for future cohorts,

631
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,920
Speaker 1: UM follow of course Google for Star that's follow me.

632
00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 1: I will always be posting about what we're doing, and

633
00:34:04,520 --> 00:34:07,040
Speaker 1: of course I want to expand the community, expand the

634
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:12,880
Speaker 1: family because we think that this is really impactful work.

635
00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,880
Speaker 1: And me and Joey we've been at this for a minute,

636
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:20,240
Speaker 1: so we should be awful about about putting you together

637
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 1: something that really is going to make a difference for

638
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:37,920
Speaker 1: the people for this generation of founders. Black Tech Green

639
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,759
Speaker 1: Money is the production to Blackvity, Afro Tech with Black

640
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 1: Effect Podcast Network and iHeart Media. It's produced by Morgan

641
00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:48,520
Speaker 1: Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by

642
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 1: Love Beach and Rusta Lewis. Special thank you to Michael

643
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,120
Speaker 1: Davis since the god savon jan you know like the Wine.

644
00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:58,600
Speaker 1: Yes that's his real name. Learn more about Marcus and

645
00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,359
Speaker 1: other tech thissru is an innovator. It's an afrotech dot com.

646
00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 1: The video version of this episode will dropped the Black

647
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,600
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money on YouTube next week, solf tapping enjoy

648
00:35:07,640 --> 00:35:09,960
Speaker 1: your Black Tech Green Money, leave us a five star

649
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:15,759
Speaker 1: rating on iTunes. Go get your money, Peace in Love,