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Speaker 1: Season two of the Black Tech Green Money Podcast is

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Speaker 1: brought to you by Lexus, who's been celebrating driveway moments

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Speaker 1: for over thirty years with a Lexus December to Remember

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Speaker 1: Sales event, where you can find exclusive offers on the

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Speaker 1: most popular Lexus models. Experience Amazing at your Alexis dealer

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Speaker 1: Afro Tech World. Will Campbell, the CEO at Quantity and

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Speaker 1: Associates and award winning creative agency, He's on the virtual stage.

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Speaker 1: He discuss how M and A mergers and acquisitions can

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Speaker 1: play a pivotal role in helping you grow your business

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Speaker 1: and achieve your vision. I want to talk about why, um, briefly,

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Speaker 1: mergers and acquisis, since we're so important, especially for boticultural

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Speaker 1: companies and for the black businesses, is we need to

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Speaker 1: create larger, more influential companies. So you might say, as

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Speaker 1: an entrepreneur or a founder, UM, hey, you know, my

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Speaker 1: goal is not to be some massive company. UM. I

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Speaker 1: really just want to pursue my passion. You know, I

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Speaker 1: really want to just Um, if I could change one life,

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Speaker 1: I've done my job. UM, I just want to make

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Speaker 1: something that's right for you know, my family. And that's

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Speaker 1: all great, but at the same time, the business community

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Speaker 1: needs you. We need your ideas, we need your hustle,

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Speaker 1: we need your innovation, and we need you to create larger,

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Speaker 1: more influential companies. Um no matter what type of company

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Speaker 1: you are, is it helps you deepen the capacity that

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Speaker 1: drives your mission. UM So as a visionary, as a

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Speaker 1: person with an idea, M and A can become an

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Speaker 1: incredible growth strategy that gives more capacity, of more foundation

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Speaker 1: to what your overall mission is. I'm with Lucas Mrs

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Speaker 1: Black Tech, Green Money. I want to answer this you

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Speaker 1: to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest

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Speaker 1: minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black, in building or

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Speaker 1: simply using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is

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Speaker 1: for you. Elliot Robinson his partner at best Mere Vented Partners.

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Speaker 1: He has fifteen years of international experience investing and partnering

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Speaker 1: with world class entrepreneurs and the technology companies that they lead.

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Speaker 1: He spent six years focused on Series A and B investments,

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Speaker 1: followed by seven years and county focused on growth stays,

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Speaker 1: Series C, D and E opportunities. I asked Elliott about

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Speaker 1: how cloud computing in the agent COVID might accelerate innovation

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Speaker 1: in stubborn industries. So I oftentimes like to to weaverage

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Speaker 1: or quote from one of my favorite videos. You know,

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Speaker 1: before I joined best mers a partner and twelve Ventures

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Speaker 1: which was Microsoft Global Venture Fun and in that role,

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Speaker 1: I was lucky to spend time with Sasti Nudela, who

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Speaker 1: is still the CEO of Microsoft. And it was probably

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Speaker 1: maybe like three months ago after earnings caller. During an

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Speaker 1: earnings caller, Satia said, you know, we've seen more digital

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Speaker 1: transformation decisions and initiatives being taken by our client base

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Speaker 1: and customers in the last two months than we have

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Speaker 1: in the last two years. And what does that really mean. Um,

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Speaker 1: that means there's been some kind of legacy industries that

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Speaker 1: have bought software in a certain way for two plus decades,

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Speaker 1: you know on prim software where people still have to

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Speaker 1: come to your premise, sit there and like swap out

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Speaker 1: the CDs or download things onto your system. Um. But

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Speaker 1: now with with you know, the proliferation of about computing,

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Speaker 1: you can do all of that remotely. You can continuously

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Speaker 1: update and release new software. So when Satia says he's

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Speaker 1: seen more digital transformation in the last two months in

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Speaker 1: the last few years, what he's really saying, is you know,

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Speaker 1: powered by things like AWS and Azure and GCP. Folks

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Speaker 1: are just really pushing cloud software applications to the forefront,

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Speaker 1: every every part of the stack of infrastructure to platform

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Speaker 1: to kind of the software front inside. UM. So for me,

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Speaker 1: you know, COVID has been an interesting thing because cloud

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Speaker 1: was already moving quickly. But now everyone's working from home.

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Speaker 1: You know, we're working from home now, at least on

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Speaker 1: the tech company side, we might be working from home

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Speaker 1: like indefinitely, or at least this remote first kind of

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Speaker 1: work from home virtual world. So the areas that we're seeing, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, a lot of movement is you know, we

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Speaker 1: call it future of work, but what does that really mean.

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Speaker 1: That means, you know, people that are building distributed teams,

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Speaker 1: startup founders in the ecosystem today, there was this thing

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Speaker 1: where you know, you might have to move to a

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Speaker 1: really cool city like l A to find, you know,

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Speaker 1: talent that you can hire and build your team. That's

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Speaker 1: not necessarily the case right now or the future. It's

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Speaker 1: kind of been like that the last few years. It's

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Speaker 1: been companies that started that way. But now you can

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Speaker 1: build a team be totally distributed just in the States,

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Speaker 1: you could have you know, headquarters quote unquote in l

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Speaker 1: a Iron, New York, Austin. You know, there's some great

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Speaker 1: tech hubs like Detroit and Atlanta that are really bubbling up.

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Speaker 1: So there's a bunch of software tools that most startups

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Speaker 1: need to help manage that. How do you do remote learning,

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Speaker 1: remote sharing? Of course, I think we're on Zoom today

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Speaker 1: and you know, they just announced a bunch of new

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Speaker 1: kind of integrations and tool sets to make you know,

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Speaker 1: more of a remote office environment, UM even more effective.

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Speaker 1: So we think about things like future of work with

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Speaker 1: productivity tools, UM, knowledge sharing tools, even down to the

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Speaker 1: back office. That's actually one area that I'm really excited about.

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Speaker 1: So companies that are dealing with UM international payroll, which

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Speaker 1: is a space that that we've been spending a lot

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Speaker 1: of time, or distributed payroll, distributed hr UM, distributed you know,

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Speaker 1: accounting software. All of these things are now going from

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Speaker 1: in office to in the cloud, and the whole definition

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Speaker 1: of what is an office, I think is changing. The

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Speaker 1: last thing I'll say on this this topic, UM knowing

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Speaker 1: a couple of folks from the AFRO Tech team. One

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Speaker 1: of the coolest things about AFRO tech for me has

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Speaker 1: just been as an outsider looking at the office culture.

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Speaker 1: It looks like the most fun place to work at

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Speaker 1: the African American venture capitalists. I can go weeks without

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Speaker 1: you know, necessarily seeing someone else that looks like it

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Speaker 1: was a remarkable place office I could work out of.

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Speaker 1: It's probably Afro text office. But now they're remote. So

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Speaker 1: how do you take such a unique culture? UM? I

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Speaker 1: think it's called like wind down Wednesdays or Fridays or

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Speaker 1: something something really cool like that. But how do you

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Speaker 1: pull that into zoon? How do you pull that into

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Speaker 1: you know, like a hopic and environment and make it cool,

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Speaker 1: bring the music in, bring the culture in. Um. And

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Speaker 1: I'm really excited about some of the opportunities that are

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Speaker 1: coming there. It's in a respect um, how fast our

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Speaker 1: companies growing today? You know, beat with the ability that

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Speaker 1: the efficiencies that cloud computing provides, and how as COVID

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Speaker 1: changed that. So if you look at two years ago,

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Speaker 1: how fast companies? How does that scale? Exceptional question? And

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Speaker 1: you said two things that I'm going to pick on.

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Speaker 1: Not only are companies able to move faster? Uh and

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Speaker 1: kind of a remote first environment if you're willing the hustle.

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Speaker 1: You know, I actually think it's it's kind of a

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Speaker 1: unique time. Um for underserved founders. I don't like the

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Speaker 1: whole underrepresentative or minority. I think it's a it's a

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Speaker 1: trash term. We're just underserved. Um, So for underserved pounders. Actually,

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Speaker 1: you know, you can take two sides of the coin.

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Speaker 1: From a funding perspective, it's always been tough for us,

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Speaker 1: right um, and perhaps in a world where you can't

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Speaker 1: necessarily spend time face to face gems to know people

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Speaker 1: that will be tougher. But from an operational standpoint, you

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Speaker 1: can actually take a lot more meetings now. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: if I think about companies here in the Bay Area,

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Speaker 1: in in l A, for example, when I used to

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Speaker 1: fly into l A, I can only take three to

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Speaker 1: four meetings a day because traffic was crazy. I try

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Speaker 1: to stay Dennis Panta Monica kind of a hub. But

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Speaker 1: I love play is like Culver City. I still love

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Speaker 1: West Hollywood, and it would take me forever to get around.

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Speaker 1: Now with with Zoom and more of the remote work culture,

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Speaker 1: you can bang out calls from seven am to seven

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Speaker 1: pm any time zone. I'm on calls at eleven pm

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Speaker 1: with my team in Europe and Tel Aviv. I started

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Speaker 1: my day at six am with my partner in Tel Aviv.

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Speaker 1: We've got you know, um folks in China. Now we've

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Speaker 1: got two offices in New York. So the whole idea

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Speaker 1: of what your schedule looked like has changed. So typically

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Speaker 1: where you are time constrained in a physical, face to

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Speaker 1: face environment, all those things have moved. So again, picking

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Speaker 1: on your first word of growth, I think you can

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Speaker 1: you can take more business development, more potential customer pipeline meetings,

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Speaker 1: and a way you can before and then the second

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Speaker 1: word that to use, I'm gonna pick on his efficiency. Um,

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Speaker 1: So I think everyone's business from like just a fixed

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Speaker 1: cost basis has changed, right, Like you know you you

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Speaker 1: might not need that office space. While it might be

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Speaker 1: advantageous for you to have face to face time with

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Speaker 1: your employees and your employee base to build that culture,

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Speaker 1: maybe doing it remote is easier. People certainly aren't flying

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Speaker 1: nearly as much last year. I think I logged like

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Speaker 1: a hundred twenty nights and hotels. I'm I'm at zero. Well,

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Speaker 1: actually I'm technically at like a couple. Um, my wife,

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Speaker 1: I took a little bit of a vacation just to

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Speaker 1: get a change of scenery. But um, you know a

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Speaker 1: lot of the fixed costs that are in an operation

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Speaker 1: are now changed. It's not that they're gone, it just changed.

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Speaker 1: So where founders may have raised a million dollars in

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Speaker 1: their seed round or um maybe a super angel around

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Speaker 1: a year ago, and you have these like fixed costs

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Speaker 1: to build things out. Now with everything remote and your

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Speaker 1: ability to hire and lower costs geos and cities where

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Speaker 1: the talent pools are just as good or sometimes even better,

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Speaker 1: you know, you can pull that money out and you

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Speaker 1: know is under served founders. That's that's kind of like

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Speaker 1: one of our skill sets we've always made more less.

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Speaker 1: So I'm pretty excited about some of those respects as well.

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Speaker 1: That's a great um t up to my next question

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Speaker 1: because it would seem that because of the scale and

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Speaker 1: relatively low cost of cloud computing, um in the efficiencies

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Speaker 1: that it provides, it would that startups may need less

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Speaker 1: to do more things. Right. Um, but is that capital

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Speaker 1: just being redeployed elsewhere versus how it would have historically

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Speaker 1: been deployed against those fixed costs and etcetera. You know,

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Speaker 1: travel or those things. Because the prices aren't necessarily going down. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's a good point. Um. The way I look at

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Speaker 1: it is, Uh, if you're cutting let's just say your

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Speaker 1: annual budget for your startup is let's just say that

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Speaker 1: salaries for a couple of people. Um, maybe you've reduced

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Speaker 1: your office space or gotten rid of it. And if

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Speaker 1: you've freed up just even a hundred brands out of

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Speaker 1: your budget year over year in COVID versus free COVID,

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Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different things you can do with that. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know what I've really liked is the whole gig

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Speaker 1: economy has always been a thing, but I think in

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Speaker 1: COVID it's even different. So you can try new things

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Speaker 1: on the marketing side, on the biz DEEV side, on

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Speaker 1: the pr side, that perhaps you couldn't have done before

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Speaker 1: because either needed an in house or you know, the

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Speaker 1: business has been working a certain way for a couple

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Speaker 1: of years, So a smaller business couldn't have got the

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Speaker 1: attention of a marketing or pr um kind of shop

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Speaker 1: in the way that it can now where everything is

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Speaker 1: discerned mediated. So I think it's it's down to the

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Speaker 1: business to your comment of prices haven't come down that's

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Speaker 1: certainly the case because everyone is trying to meet their

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Speaker 1: their top line revenue goals. So while prices haven't changed,

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Speaker 1: the one thing I can say is negotiating terms have changed.

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Speaker 1: So in this world have been certainty. There's a lot

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Speaker 1: of software and clouds, software tools that said, hey, this

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Speaker 1: is a minimum one year commitment. A lot of things

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Speaker 1: have changed in COVID where they said, okay, well, everyone's

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Speaker 1: business is kind of up in the air. You know,

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Speaker 1: why don't we give the first three months way free,

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Speaker 1: or why don't you sign up for a year, but

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Speaker 1: you don't have to pay us anything for the first

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Speaker 1: six months. We just want to keep you locked in UM.

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Speaker 1: If you're on kind of the accounting or controller side

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Speaker 1: of a business, as as some of these software licenses

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Speaker 1: come up to renew, I would certainly be thinking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, renegotiating. I'm never gonna tell you to, you

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Speaker 1: know hard renegotiate and think you're gonna get fifty percent off.

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Speaker 1: But you know a lot of companies that weren't potentially

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Speaker 1: working UM with customers a year ago, and in COVID

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Speaker 1: there are a lot more open to negotiating. So not

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Speaker 1: just the fixed costs that have come out during COVID

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Speaker 1: of of being virtual. But even those those same kind

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Speaker 1: of virtual class software tools I've talked about, you and

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Speaker 1: I've been discussing, you can go back to the drawing

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Speaker 1: board and say, hey, beyond just a ten or fiftcent

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Speaker 1: haircut until things get back to normal, maybe we can

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Speaker 1: change some of the payment terms. And that's another way

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Speaker 1: to kind of extend your your catch lun way. So

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Speaker 1: let's think about like prices coming down from a different

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Speaker 1: perspective owned because I'm not a VC, but it would

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Speaker 1: appear to me that you know, buy in to get

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Speaker 1: in on these deals hasn't come down either with regards

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Speaker 1: to you know that capital being more flexibly UM deployed.

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Speaker 1: So how how can you how do you read that? Look,

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Speaker 1: we're not doing as much you know in these fixed costs,

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Speaker 1: these travel expenses, you know, UM, but the prices of

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Speaker 1: getting in on deals hasn't reduced. Yeah, there's this weird

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Speaker 1: macro thing that happened, and it's really a dual side

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Speaker 1: of equation. So one UM, the last six to twelve months,

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Speaker 1: more capital has been raised, are bigger funds have been

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Speaker 1: raised than ever before UM And then the other thing

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Speaker 1: that happened. On the other side of the equation is

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Speaker 1: unfortunately in COVID, there's a lot of businesses that were impacted,

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Speaker 1: but it's super volatible. So what I mean by that

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Speaker 1: is um an aggregate businesses are just dealing with uncertainty.

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Speaker 1: So that means there's less companies that are still either

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Speaker 1: hitting plan or beating plan. So on one side, you've

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Speaker 1: got more capital that needs to go into these companies

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Speaker 1: than ever. On the other side, you might have it's

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Speaker 1: not that like companies are familing, but you might have

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Speaker 1: a smaller basket of companies that are really thriving in

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Speaker 1: COVID who would be either figured it out, they might

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Speaker 1: be in a market or industry vertical that's actually got

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Speaker 1: a COVID tailwind versus a headlind. So there's more capital

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Speaker 1: than other going after a smaller subset of opportunities. Therefore,

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Speaker 1: you know, just to find demand. The prices have come

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Speaker 1: up um, but look at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: like valuations, UM, they're certainly meaningful in every company's li

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Speaker 1: every entrepreneurs, like every term early team's life, because it

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Speaker 1: has to do with delution in your own equity and

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Speaker 1: what you own. What I would really be advising founders

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Speaker 1: on is and this doesn't necessarily change in COVID. But

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Speaker 1: if some of the funds that one's been time with

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Speaker 1: you pre COVID, now all of a sudden one has

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Speaker 1: been time with you, like you need to ask yourself

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Speaker 1: why that is. And that could be on both sides.

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Speaker 1: That could be they think, thank your um, you know,

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Speaker 1: you're seeing some COVID headwinds and now it's like a

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Speaker 1: good opportunity to get in cheap or cheaper than they

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Speaker 1: think it would be. Or you're really seeing some tail

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Speaker 1: winds and now they're all over you. I'm just like

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Speaker 1: a very values based person. So the question is if

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Speaker 1: they weren't spending time with you when things were good,

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Speaker 1: like you know, perhaps that's not the right fit for

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Speaker 1: you and your company and your your core founding team

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Speaker 1: for the next two or three years. Just really try

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Speaker 1: to think about that fit. And we're also the last

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Speaker 1: comment on make on this is we're going into a

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Speaker 1: really unique time in this country. Twenty has been the

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Speaker 1: craziest year I think all of the experience, certainly in

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Speaker 1: my adult life, and all that means is uncertainty and

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Speaker 1: every kind of CEO and sea level are co founding

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Speaker 1: team is thinking about, you know, what does the next

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Speaker 1: six months look like for us? And that that impacts

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Speaker 1: everyone's business. So I think, you know a lot of

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Speaker 1: founders are just you know, trying to stay conservatives, stay

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Speaker 1: the course, but also be flexible as the next three

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Speaker 1: to four months are gonna be really um followl when

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Speaker 1: it comes to change. Is it possible startups maybe taken

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Speaker 1: more capital? Do they need? Oh? For sure? Right? Well, actually,

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Speaker 1: let me I hate that I answered that so strongly.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it's a foreshore, but it's certainly proving.

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Speaker 1: Um you know, I think I had written a tweet

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Speaker 1: a week or two ago all caps are saying why

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Speaker 1: is every company in America raising right now? And it

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Speaker 1: actually is my last comment, which is why we're about

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Speaker 1: to enter a period of uncertainty that we've never seen.

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Speaker 1: Um So, if you're a company that's performing relatively well

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Speaker 1: to plan or or even beating it, why not do

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Speaker 1: it now before we enter into this kind of desert

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Speaker 1: of uncertainty. Um So, I certainly understand that, but I

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Speaker 1: will make sure I address your question, which is, do

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Speaker 1: I think companies are raising too much money? I think

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Speaker 1: some companies certainly are. Um. There's this mentality um and

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Speaker 1: and just kind of a behavioral norm that happens when

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Speaker 1: you raise enough capital to have twelve to maybe eighteen

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Speaker 1: months of cushion and you can just crank that business out.

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Speaker 1: You're thinking about efficiencies. You're always thinking about your balance

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Speaker 1: sheet in your bottom line, where sometimes if you raise

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Speaker 1: so much capital ahead of plan, you know, not only

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Speaker 1: are you sitting there thinking that what am I gonna

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Speaker 1: do with all this extra money I raised, but your

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Speaker 1: investors are also thinking, well, look the I R our

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Speaker 1: clock is still ticking on my money that I gave you.

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Speaker 1: I need to generate a return faster. So now we

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Speaker 1: we start adding on to fits and variable costs at

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Speaker 1: a rate that wasn't necessarily the original plan. Right. And

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Speaker 1: then you know the term that I always uses. I

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Speaker 1: never want to put a founder or an executive team

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Speaker 1: in a position of doing unnatural things. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: an expel plan is just numbers and the excel. But

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Speaker 1: if your balance sheet is now boosted to a point

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Speaker 1: where you know it doesn't reflect the plan, now now

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Speaker 1: everyone feels it's pressured to change, and that's not good

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Speaker 1: for either side. Season two of The Black Tech, Green

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Speaker 1: Money Podcast is brought to you by Lexus, known for

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335
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Speaker 1: people of other ethnicities and backgrounds realize the value of

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Speaker 1: our sauce. They capitalize what we create, They monetize the

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Speaker 1: culture we move As a creator, I'm interested in the

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Speaker 1: take of a VC like Elliott on how we as

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Speaker 1: the global leaders and was hidden music, fashion, food, sports

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Speaker 1: and more might finally be able to realize the reward

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Speaker 1: in the marketplace for the ideas that we bring to

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Speaker 1: the table. Elliot Robinson speaks on it. So I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: take a thirty and then probably go down to like

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Speaker 1: ten thousand community and on the street level, UM, I

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Speaker 1: think thirty thousand feet view. UM. What I'm really excited

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Speaker 1: by is the growing number of enterprise software and cloud

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Speaker 1: software opportunities that I'm seeing founded by UM not just

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Speaker 1: black founders, but UM Latin X founders and women founders. Traditionally,

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, it actually makes a lot of sense um.

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Speaker 1: At least the last five to ten years, a lot

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Speaker 1: of the start up opportunities have been focused at consumer

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Speaker 1: opportunities because while founders that look like me and you

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Speaker 1: are underserved, you know, consumers are underserved. Right. There's this

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Speaker 1: its age, old adage. You know. I started my career

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Speaker 1: to all black mentuer firm in DC called Singcom Venture Partners,

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Speaker 1: and we were the first investors in bt SO, first

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Speaker 1: investor in bt UM. You know, Bob Johnson says all

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Speaker 1: the time at Singcom and herb Wilkinson exists bt when

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Speaker 1: it is. We're the only investor who served the board

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Speaker 1: from first investment until it was sold to Viacom. And

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Speaker 1: then you know, in the middle of that, we invested

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Speaker 1: in Kathy Hughes who started Radio one in TV one.

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Speaker 1: All right. You know a lot of people said to us, well,

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Speaker 1: there's already b t like, why on earth would you

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Speaker 1: invest in radio one TV one? And we said, dude,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we're talking about fifteen million people

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Speaker 1: and you give them one channel and then we got

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Speaker 1: three hundred channels serving the rest of the communities. Doesn't

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Speaker 1: make any sense, um. So you know, I think historically

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Speaker 1: because our consumer base is seen as one very homogeneous,

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Speaker 1: which it's not. There's all different types of lanes and

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Speaker 1: tide to the black consumer opportunity. But because we're underserved,

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Speaker 1: there's just so much like clear obvious opportunity to go

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Speaker 1: after the consumer market. But I think in the enterprise space,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's like it would take a whole

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Speaker 1: another zoom to really break down my views on on UM.

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Speaker 1: Why we're just naming these opportunities and these ong noors now.

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Speaker 1: But I'm really excited by the diversity UM that's influencing

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Speaker 1: kind of cloud and enterprise software. And that's where I

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Speaker 1: as a cloud investor UM and spending my time. Now

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Speaker 1: I'm on the later stage investor. We can talk about

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Speaker 1: that a little bit, but you know, I I spend

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Speaker 1: a lot of time with the early side, even down

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Speaker 1: to the seed team of going through all the lists

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Speaker 1: of UM kind of black and brown founders going after

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Speaker 1: enterprise and making sure that that vessel's meeting with UM

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Speaker 1: and making sure that we're we're funding. We just funded

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Speaker 1: one that we haven't announced yet, which I'm really excited

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Speaker 1: about coming around, but one is certainly not enough UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, we don't have a set number, but in

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Speaker 1: my own mind, I've got a number of where I'd

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Speaker 1: like to see the portfolio go, and I'm really excited

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Speaker 1: about that. On the street level, UM, you know, I

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Speaker 1: just I think that we and then this is gonna

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Speaker 1: I want to make this very nuanced. I think that

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Speaker 1: one thing that has to change on the street level

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Speaker 1: is like we as a UM underserved entrepreneur base and

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Speaker 1: underrepresented investor base, we just gotta think bigger UM. And

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Speaker 1: And that's like a really nuanced thing, because sometimes people

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Speaker 1: hear me say that and they take it the wrong way.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying that we're not thinking big now, it's

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Speaker 1: just that UM many times we're just trying to get

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Speaker 1: from point zero or point negative one because that the

405
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,120
Speaker 1: whole industry is backed against us to like getting through

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Speaker 1: those first blocking and tackling, and we got to do

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Speaker 1: that right, Like we've got to focus on getting out

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Speaker 1: of the blocks, um, you know, getting the business up,

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Speaker 1: getting the first customers, getting the first users. But sometimes

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Speaker 1: we focus so much on that that we don't think

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Speaker 1: about how big of an opportunity we are, not just

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Speaker 1: on the consumer side, but enterprise technology and now even

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Speaker 1: on the frontier textile. So I think on the street level,

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Speaker 1: I spend a lot of my time even with early

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Speaker 1: stage entrepreneurs that as a growth investor I can't invest

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Speaker 1: in now. And when we're tweaking the deck, of course,

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Speaker 1: the blocking and tackling has to be there. How are

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Speaker 1: we going to spend the first million, how do we

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Speaker 1: get the m v P of how do we get

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Speaker 1: the first paying customers? But oftentimes we leave out the

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Speaker 1: big picture of how big of an opportunity all of

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Speaker 1: these things are for us. UM. You know, I will

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Speaker 1: really feel great when we're not just talking about the

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Speaker 1: first UM black entrepreneurs that raised ten million dollars, but

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Speaker 1: the first that exit for a billion foot and it's coming.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying that sometimes you have to UM speak

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Speaker 1: it into existence and also reverse engineer into that success.

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Speaker 1: If we say that every time we raise a million dollars,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at a half billion to a billion dollar opportunity.

430
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,199
Speaker 1: You know, if that's letter Z and we know what

431
00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: letter A is, let's let's really map out the letters

432
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,919
Speaker 1: in between. All I'm saying is sometimes we um we

433
00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:04,400
Speaker 1: underestimate how big of an opportunity all these things are.

434
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 1: So on the street level. That's where I spent a

435
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:09,040
Speaker 1: lot of my time, particularly working with early stage down

436
00:24:09,040 --> 00:24:11,000
Speaker 1: there is that I'm just not positioning to invest in

437
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:13,840
Speaker 1: yet because I want to see them get there to

438
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:17,240
Speaker 1: that billion dollar that Series B, Series C, still thinking

439
00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,480
Speaker 1: about that billion dollars bus opportunity. I love that we're

440
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,679
Speaker 1: having this conversation because you know, we don't have this

441
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:25,840
Speaker 1: conversation enough at at this high level of you know,

442
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,880
Speaker 1: in late stage investing, because it's so hard to get

443
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,000
Speaker 1: capital in the first place, and for for black founders

444
00:24:32,040 --> 00:24:35,280
Speaker 1: and to that in that regard, what has to happen

445
00:24:35,320 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 1: in our ecosystem for more black founders to get to

446
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,800
Speaker 1: Series A because getting that seed is difficult, But you

447
00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: know they're we're out here in this in the seed

448
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,280
Speaker 1: stage getting the Series A and been beyond that. I mean,

449
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,480
Speaker 1: it's there's very few of us in that regardless. So

450
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: what has to happen in the ecosystem for us to

451
00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 1: get to Series A? See more of us as Series

452
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:59,600
Speaker 1: A and get post Yeah, it's a complex question and discussion.

453
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:04,800
Speaker 1: I mean, look, the reality is for more black founders

454
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:08,800
Speaker 1: to get to Series A, the venture capital industry has

455
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:13,120
Speaker 1: to change, like dramatically, um and that is not an

456
00:25:13,119 --> 00:25:18,320
Speaker 1: excuse for um, you know, underserved founders to not get

457
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,960
Speaker 1: to serious a But this is the conversation I have

458
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:25,560
Speaker 1: internally here at the fund and perhaps even more importantly

459
00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,879
Speaker 1: with our LPs, so our limited partners that invest in

460
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,760
Speaker 1: the space. So you're saying that the entrepreneurs are here

461
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:36,280
Speaker 1: that are capable oh one thousand percent. I mean we're

462
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:39,480
Speaker 1: actually like this, man, Like I don't know how much

463
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: time you have. It is something we gotta break down.

464
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,119
Speaker 1: So like, if you think about the last six months

465
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 1: of conversation, um, the unfortunate events so uh, you know,

466
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,400
Speaker 1: George Floyd and mont Audrey, Brianna Taylor, it goes on

467
00:25:53,040 --> 00:25:59,160
Speaker 1: has created this um uh kind of this movement of

468
00:25:59,320 --> 00:26:01,199
Speaker 1: venture capital trying to figure out like what are we

469
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,359
Speaker 1: doing wrong? Like why are these founders not getting fundid

470
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:09,120
Speaker 1: at levels Bestimer included quite frankly, and um, the one

471
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 1: thing I was just writing and tweeting about this uh

472
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: this week, like the black founders are the most over advised,

473
00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,399
Speaker 1: over cohorted, over mentor and over office our folks in

474
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,639
Speaker 1: the world. And sometimes it's like, hey man, we just

475
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:29,639
Speaker 1: want to lose your money at the same rate all

476
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:34,040
Speaker 1: of our cockade and college capital by design is kind

477
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: of a sport. Like of our investments either go sideways

478
00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:42,439
Speaker 1: or are lost. And many times those same founders that

479
00:26:42,480 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 1: lost your money into or three years come back to

480
00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:47,359
Speaker 1: the table and you give them money again because they learned.

481
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,520
Speaker 1: So again, that doesn't that's not saying that they're not

482
00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:54,959
Speaker 1: good founders, But the question is how come we're not

483
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:59,840
Speaker 1: being given that same kind of opportunity and credibility. So, yes,

484
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,840
Speaker 1: your point, um, the founders exist actually an overabundance. The

485
00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:08,760
Speaker 1: problem is that, um, it really takes like a bit

486
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:12,880
Speaker 1: of hearts and minds, longer conversation inside of the industry

487
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 1: to say, like, why don't we treat people equitably? Right, Like,

488
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,480
Speaker 1: that's a conversation that has been going for a long time,

489
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,840
Speaker 1: but I think in it's certainly been pulled to the

490
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:27,880
Speaker 1: forefront and then taking a step back, I do think

491
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:31,520
Speaker 1: there's a lot of responsibility that goes to limited partners

492
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,160
Speaker 1: or what we call LPs. So just to be clear,

493
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:38,080
Speaker 1: you know, as venture um investors, we manage for the

494
00:27:38,160 --> 00:27:41,520
Speaker 1: most part, other people's mind and that can behind net

495
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:45,000
Speaker 1: worth people, celebrities, family offices, But for the most part,

496
00:27:45,520 --> 00:27:49,199
Speaker 1: it's UM kind of state and federal government funds like

497
00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: pension funds, and if we just kind of focus on California,

498
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:57,040
Speaker 1: I can I can say, um, with some some pleasure,

499
00:27:57,040 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 1: I'll be it measured, Um that California's kind of been

500
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 1: on the forefront in terms of diversifying the way by

501
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: which they allocate those funds, but it's still kind of

502
00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:10,960
Speaker 1: less than one tenth of one. You know, us LP

503
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 1: dollars goes into the hands of venture investors that look

504
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: like the entrepreneurs that we're talking about, so they're just

505
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 1: like a fundamental mismatch. However, if you think about a

506
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:24,240
Speaker 1: state like California that's super diverse, I don't know what

507
00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:26,399
Speaker 1: the exact number is, but I think it's like roughly

508
00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:30,120
Speaker 1: thirty two or thirty three of the pension fund dollars

509
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:32,919
Speaker 1: created to then be put in the hands of venture

510
00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:36,919
Speaker 1: investors are created by black and brown people. So like

511
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,440
Speaker 1: it's it's weird, like Robin Hood story and reverse. Where

512
00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:44,480
Speaker 1: we create the dollars, it's then allocated for private equity

513
00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: and venture capital, then not allocated to the people that um,

514
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,800
Speaker 1: you know, represent how the dollars were created, and then

515
00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,280
Speaker 1: wealth creation is created in other communities like you really

516
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 1: got to take a second and like think about how

517
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,960
Speaker 1: crazy that is. So it's not saying that like, oh

518
00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,000
Speaker 1: there are dollars because they were created off of the

519
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,680
Speaker 1: hours and the careers of people that look like us,

520
00:29:06,720 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: but it kind of is at least that's that's the

521
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: mentality and philosophy I had. So I know we veered off,

522
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,640
Speaker 1: but it's just to say that, you know, I just

523
00:29:15,840 --> 00:29:19,600
Speaker 1: I think that UM, not only are our entrepreneurs over mentor,

524
00:29:19,720 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 1: but many times even our investors are over mentor and

525
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 1: over courted cohorted. I'm really excited by how many new

526
00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:29,920
Speaker 1: faces and backgrounds are getting into the venture capital and

527
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: investment game. But what I fear again is when I

528
00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:35,920
Speaker 1: look at UM many of my colleagues who are need

529
00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: industry that don't look like us, Like, how can they

530
00:29:38,400 --> 00:29:40,920
Speaker 1: don't have to go through all these hoops, you know

531
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,200
Speaker 1: to get allocated dollars. A lot of these people come

532
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: from non traditional backgrounds, have never invested before, maybe it's

533
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:49,240
Speaker 1: invested in the farm for a year or two, and

534
00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,760
Speaker 1: now they're off raising big funds UM and unfortunately we're

535
00:29:52,840 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: kind of put in a box. So you know, I

536
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: think I'm hoping UM turns into a bit of a

537
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 1: a paradigm shift or watershed moment for both underserved investors

538
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,360
Speaker 1: of color and certainly in entrepreneurs because where you started,

539
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,160
Speaker 1: like we're there in abundance. You just have to be

540
00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: blamed by an equal set of rules as the folks

541
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:17,760
Speaker 1: that don't. Yeah, and I know the numbers like less

542
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:19,960
Speaker 1: than a hundred, and it might be something like seventy five.

543
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 1: There's seventy five black vcs who have check writing authority, um,

544
00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 1: in these firms. And my friend Richard Kirby put out

545
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,880
Speaker 1: the numbers at fort of those went to Harvard or Stanford, right,

546
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,880
Speaker 1: And so you went to more house. Um, and how

547
00:30:34,920 --> 00:30:37,400
Speaker 1: do you then get more black vcs in the door?

548
00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:43,760
Speaker 1: When a the successful vcs have previous operational experience? Um?

549
00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,480
Speaker 1: Are they over index on previous operational experience and be

550
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 1: many come to the table with a check? Yeah for sure. So, UM,

551
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:58,000
Speaker 1: you said a bunch of things there that are really important. Um.

552
00:30:58,040 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 1: You know when when all the unfortunate events that we

553
00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:04,760
Speaker 1: referred to happen kind of March April may beyond, it

554
00:31:04,760 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 1: happen to us all the time. Unfortunately, UM, I saw

555
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:12,840
Speaker 1: a lot of my venture capital peers open these office hours, right,

556
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,480
Speaker 1: they said, like, oh, I'm gonna dedicate um ninety minutes

557
00:31:16,520 --> 00:31:19,000
Speaker 1: a week for the next six months to meet with

558
00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:24,560
Speaker 1: founders of Color objectively a good thing because typically like

559
00:31:24,720 --> 00:31:27,000
Speaker 1: we want to make it into their calendar. So what

560
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:28,920
Speaker 1: I did, I said, Well, I talked the founders of

561
00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:31,840
Speaker 1: Color all the time, right, like, just by the nature

562
00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:33,880
Speaker 1: of who I am, my networking what I care about.

563
00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,920
Speaker 1: The question is, you know, how can I impact the

564
00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,160
Speaker 1: industry as one of the few black partners at a

565
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: at a large venture pound with check writing authority. I

566
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: kind of flipped it and said, Okay, well, I'm gonna

567
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,640
Speaker 1: do office hours ninety minutes twice a week and speak

568
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:55,200
Speaker 1: to any venture fund in the country that doesn't have

569
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 1: a black investor to really talk through why don't you

570
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,320
Speaker 1: have a black investor, stir um and what are the

571
00:32:02,360 --> 00:32:05,920
Speaker 1: benefits of having a black investor. Venture capital by definition

572
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,520
Speaker 1: is about um making non consensus investments and really high

573
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 1: performing and high potential entrepreneurs. So you know, referencing my

574
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,320
Speaker 1: my dear friend Richard's analysis, it's the same thing that

575
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,760
Speaker 1: we talked about or I talked to my partners here investment,

576
00:32:21,800 --> 00:32:26,480
Speaker 1: which is if we hire another Caucasian male from Harvard

577
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,840
Speaker 1: and Stanford, Like, what's the r O I partner with

578
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,720
Speaker 1: that profile? Like, if we don't have those networks covered already,

579
00:32:32,720 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: then we're not doing our job. So I'll say a

580
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,360
Speaker 1: couple of things. And this is kind of the framework

581
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:40,640
Speaker 1: of the discussion of these ninety minutes. And I think

582
00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 1: I've talked to now forty three firms and I'm gonna

583
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:45,400
Speaker 1: be putting out at the end of the year kind

584
00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: of a medium process and slides around best practices. But

585
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:50,880
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cherry pick one thing that talks to these

586
00:32:50,880 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: firms about, which is um, my entire career, uh, having

587
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,040
Speaker 1: interviewed with probably twenty five firms, you know, at different

588
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:03,479
Speaker 1: points of my career, outreach, outbound. UM. This term of

589
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 1: like cultural fit has always been a big thing. It's

590
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,040
Speaker 1: actually I can't stand it. Um, you know, I don't

591
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:14,120
Speaker 1: bring this up. Yeah, I don't fit the culture of

592
00:33:14,400 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 1: venture capital. And I guess technically most founders that look

593
00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,440
Speaker 1: like me and you don't fit whatever culture of their portfolio,

594
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: their typical investment. So UM, here a bestimer, particularly on

595
00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: the growth fund side. We've we've totally built in a

596
00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:32,840
Speaker 1: new hiring philosophy and process. And it's something I talked

597
00:33:32,840 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: to all our venture peers about, which is, um, cultural

598
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: fits gotta go like that's that. Um, what I really

599
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:42,880
Speaker 1: care about is values fit and values aligne not just

600
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,000
Speaker 1: with the founders but my colleagues. And I think if

601
00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:48,480
Speaker 1: you take a step back and you do some work

602
00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 1: to figure out, like what are the values that define

603
00:33:51,520 --> 00:33:54,360
Speaker 1: a really good investor at your firm or in my case,

604
00:33:54,400 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: at Bessemer, that's a different conversation. And when we're hiring

605
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,880
Speaker 1: and when we're interview these people, if I'm aligning for

606
00:34:02,040 --> 00:34:04,800
Speaker 1: values and I'm not talking about you know, do you

607
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:09,880
Speaker 1: wear all birds are better? Yeah? I mean all birds

608
00:34:09,880 --> 00:34:12,479
Speaker 1: are at trashed to Um, I wear Jordan's to work

609
00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:15,160
Speaker 1: every day. That's hey, I can pick my foot up

610
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:19,680
Speaker 1: right now, you'd see. Yeah. I just uh scored those

611
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 1: new bladers on the sneakers atmosphere and I woke up

612
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 1: early at seven as I've been taking on the sneakers

613
00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,319
Speaker 1: app By the way, I should invest in Nike and

614
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,080
Speaker 1: make them fix the sneakers at me. How about right?

615
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 1: If I if I would, I could, Um, So we

616
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:35,360
Speaker 1: we eliminate cultural fit, we bring in values fit and

617
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,960
Speaker 1: score candidates on them. And then what we substitute in

618
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,879
Speaker 1: is um something we call cultural ad. Yes, right, that's

619
00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:48,479
Speaker 1: been probably like the most um lightbulb moment for most

620
00:34:48,520 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 1: of my close friends who work at fear firms in mind,

621
00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:53,799
Speaker 1: which is like, oh ship, like you've never actually thought

622
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,800
Speaker 1: about that. I don't really care as a venture capitalists

623
00:34:56,800 --> 00:34:59,880
Speaker 1: to go deeper into networks and patterns that we know.

624
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 1: We talked about pattern matching, but like the way we

625
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: generate outside of the urns is the pattern matching places

626
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 1: that we aren't already. Um, So we talk about cultural

627
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,560
Speaker 1: ad and if you really do score people on cultural ad,

628
00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:15,240
Speaker 1: and this goes for entrepreneurs in your portfolio as well,

629
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:18,520
Speaker 1: you really start to ask different questions. You know, what

630
00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,360
Speaker 1: is it unique about your background? What is it about

631
00:35:21,360 --> 00:35:24,400
Speaker 1: your perspective your experience that you bring not just to

632
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 1: the portfolio, but but um, you know, in my case,

633
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: to the investment team. And I'll add ill endo it here.

634
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,320
Speaker 1: So I did go to Morehouse. Um, I'm from small

635
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:38,480
Speaker 1: town Reston, Virginia. My brother went to HbCO at Hampton

636
00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:42,160
Speaker 1: and both my parents were the first integrated class advandabile.

637
00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,120
Speaker 1: So education is a big thing in my family. It

638
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,400
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you have to have quote unquote traditional education

639
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:52,239
Speaker 1: to be a great startup founder. UM. But you know,

640
00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:55,440
Speaker 1: I think what I bring to not just Bestimer, but

641
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:58,400
Speaker 1: any firm UM that I've worked at, and probably the

642
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 1: broader venture capital in the street is just a different perspective,

643
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,240
Speaker 1: you know. And then on on, like the the venture

644
00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 1: capital side we do, you'll hear firms talk a lot

645
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:13,280
Speaker 1: about UM learnings from the community, which is like putting

646
00:36:13,719 --> 00:36:19,440
Speaker 1: functional leaders CEOs, head of sales CFOs from throughout your portfolio,

647
00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,160
Speaker 1: you know, ten twenty in our case over two companies

648
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:25,919
Speaker 1: together and pulling out best practices. But many times if

649
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:30,360
Speaker 1: your founder base isn't diverse, like there's an exchange of

650
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 1: learnings and perspectives that like are just being left out.

651
00:36:34,520 --> 00:36:38,480
Speaker 1: And not only does that damage UM or leave kind

652
00:36:38,480 --> 00:36:42,200
Speaker 1: of opportunity on the table for underserved and underrepresented founders,

653
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 1: but actually it leaves opportunity on the table for the

654
00:36:46,160 --> 00:36:48,439
Speaker 1: folks in our portfolio where they don't get to see

655
00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:52,280
Speaker 1: our perspective as operators, Like you can't tell me we

656
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:54,520
Speaker 1: we don't hustle more than anyone else. We've had to

657
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 1: our whole lives like we've always been pulled by our parents.

658
00:36:57,680 --> 00:37:00,160
Speaker 1: You've gotta be twice as good as everyone else us

659
00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 1: to get a fair shot. Um So in terms of

660
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:06,560
Speaker 1: like we're underinvested, but we still are expected to generate

661
00:37:06,600 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 1: the same return. There's like an exchange of learning that

662
00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 1: that even across the portfolio. Um, we don't get So.

663
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:16,360
Speaker 1: The last thing I'll say on this you know, um

664
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:20,439
Speaker 1: you mentioned that the statistics semi five percent or I'm sorry,

665
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,680
Speaker 1: lesson semi five or seventy five in total venture capitalists

666
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 1: have steck writing authority. That is very true, and I

667
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:33,279
Speaker 1: actually think the the number might be way smaller than

668
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:35,960
Speaker 1: seventy five because check writing authority of me and its

669
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:39,240
Speaker 1: different things to different people. But luckily the number is

670
00:37:39,239 --> 00:37:50,759
Speaker 1: is slowly through the Season two of the Black Tech

671
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:53,600
Speaker 1: Green Money podcast is brought to you by Lexis for

672
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,360
Speaker 1: over thirty years. Lexus May Driveway is the place to

673
00:37:56,400 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: celebrate with the December to Remember Sales event to find

674
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:03,399
Speaker 1: its offers on popular Alexis models Now through January four,

675
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:07,120
Speaker 1: experience amazing at You Alexis dealing. You put up a

676
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 1: tweet a little while ago that I thought it was

677
00:38:10,200 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 1: amusing but at the same time, you know, it'll make

678
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:15,240
Speaker 1: sense why it was a shame to me in a second.

679
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,479
Speaker 1: So you said, VC right now is basically a never

680
00:38:18,680 --> 00:38:22,640
Speaker 1: ending episode of ninety day fiance, tons of online dating,

681
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,760
Speaker 1: mostly people you've never met who don't need to share

682
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,239
Speaker 1: much because they have multiple rings already. And while that

683
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,920
Speaker 1: was amusing, you know what the part of it and

684
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:35,759
Speaker 1: you're saying, and you said you ended it with and

685
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: hoping they pick mine. And so what I thought was

686
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:42,680
Speaker 1: unfortunate about that is when you see our counterparts are white,

687
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:48,400
Speaker 1: you know, entrepreneurs and etcetera, who may have all kinds

688
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:50,279
Speaker 1: of term sheets on the table, and they're just trying

689
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 1: to fix you know, who they like better, you know

690
00:38:52,560 --> 00:38:55,480
Speaker 1: which terms they like better, etcetera. So they're interviewing you

691
00:38:55,560 --> 00:38:58,640
Speaker 1: and more than you're interviewing them to give you, to

692
00:38:58,680 --> 00:39:01,680
Speaker 1: give them money. When we come to the table, we're

693
00:39:01,719 --> 00:39:05,279
Speaker 1: hoping Elliott picks us to invest in. And we have

694
00:39:05,600 --> 00:39:09,440
Speaker 1: way less in in too many cases, way less um

695
00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:12,319
Speaker 1: leverage to get deal terms that are good for us.

696
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,719
Speaker 1: And so while it was amusing, you know, I thought

697
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:18,360
Speaker 1: it was also a shame that we don't come to

698
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:21,839
Speaker 1: the table with the same you know, hutzpah as as

699
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:27,280
Speaker 1: they might. And what's your response to that? And how

700
00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,160
Speaker 1: do we make Elliott And this is no disrespect to you,

701
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:32,480
Speaker 1: but how do we make you less the prize and

702
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:37,360
Speaker 1: the startup the prize? Yeah? Sure so. UM. What's interesting

703
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:42,000
Speaker 1: about that is, Uh, the startup that I've thought about

704
00:39:42,040 --> 00:39:46,360
Speaker 1: the most, probably the last month, UM is a startup

705
00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:49,000
Speaker 1: led by a dear friend of mine, you know, is

706
00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:53,600
Speaker 1: an African American founder. UM. I can't talk about it

707
00:39:53,640 --> 00:39:55,520
Speaker 1: just because I don't want to steal the thunder of

708
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:59,800
Speaker 1: the company. But they're out raising UM. They're seriously and

709
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 1: out and it was that dynamic. UM. He had multiple

710
00:40:04,719 --> 00:40:08,520
Speaker 1: offers on the table UM, and two of them were

711
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:14,000
Speaker 1: unfortunately just kind of higher than I could go on price. UM.

712
00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,600
Speaker 1: And like that's the worst situation actually because to your point,

713
00:40:17,680 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 1: like that's not always the dynamic at the serious C

714
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:23,920
Speaker 1: or D stage where there's another black founder on the

715
00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:26,799
Speaker 1: other side of the table. For me, I'm sitting there, like,

716
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: talk to my wife about it. I talked friend about

717
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: I said, what do I do here? Like the market

718
00:40:32,160 --> 00:40:35,680
Speaker 1: is so crazy and the business is performing really well,

719
00:40:35,680 --> 00:40:38,200
Speaker 1: and I've I've actually known this founder now for four

720
00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:42,799
Speaker 1: years talked to him off cycle. Um, you know, I

721
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:46,040
Speaker 1: hope he hears this or he'll be laughing. At the

722
00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 1: same time, we're texting on the plane and I just

723
00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:51,560
Speaker 1: couldn't get there on price. So I'll say this. That

724
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:54,400
Speaker 1: influences that tweet a bunch, But it also makes me

725
00:40:54,520 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 1: really happy because if that is the dynamic for him,

726
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:03,080
Speaker 1: then I know the pipeline is coming. Um. Unfortunately, pattern

727
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:06,760
Speaker 1: matching at the Series C is very different from pattern

728
00:41:06,800 --> 00:41:09,479
Speaker 1: matching and the seed or the Series A, like that's

729
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,879
Speaker 1: the unfortunate challenge at the SEA, like, there's more data

730
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:16,760
Speaker 1: to work with. You know, there's paying customers, there's revenue there,

731
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:21,400
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, it demystifies this disconnect between

732
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: UM black and brown founders and the majority of the

733
00:41:24,560 --> 00:41:27,359
Speaker 1: industry which doesn't look like them. So just so so

734
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,279
Speaker 1: I make sure I address your questionnaire comment. I think

735
00:41:31,280 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: that I think it's getting better, you know, when I

736
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:36,560
Speaker 1: when I you know, I talked to Richard Kirby a lot.

737
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,640
Speaker 1: He's my closest friend and adventure and oddly both of

738
00:41:40,640 --> 00:41:42,880
Speaker 1: our wives went to high school together well before we

739
00:41:42,960 --> 00:41:44,920
Speaker 1: ever looked, so I talked to him a lot. I

740
00:41:44,920 --> 00:41:49,120
Speaker 1: talked to him last night enough. Um, you know, he

741
00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,160
Speaker 1: spends time more time in the early stage and when

742
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:55,640
Speaker 1: we do text, like we'll talk about some early stage

743
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:58,840
Speaker 1: hot deals that are led by UH founders of color

744
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:02,120
Speaker 1: and the dynamic is way different than it was UM

745
00:42:02,239 --> 00:42:05,800
Speaker 1: ten years ago. Also shout out Austin Clements at Slawson

746
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:07,719
Speaker 1: and Co. In l A. He was tweeting about this

747
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,799
Speaker 1: other day, which is like back in the day, you know,

748
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:16,439
Speaker 1: particularly and underserved founders like you felt like you heard

749
00:42:16,440 --> 00:42:19,480
Speaker 1: about every deal, particularly a few are black venture capitalists

750
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 1: were now at a place where I don't, which is

751
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,680
Speaker 1: like good and bad because I want to hear about everyone.

752
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 1: But it's also good because the industry has expanded to

753
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,600
Speaker 1: the point where it's not just like the same ten

754
00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,239
Speaker 1: or fifteen or maybe even twenty folks that you talked to.

755
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:36,799
Speaker 1: It's actually more like fifty to a hundred. And that

756
00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,760
Speaker 1: that bleeds over to like you know, sports and entertainment

757
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:42,439
Speaker 1: where they're getting into the tech game, or they've got

758
00:42:42,600 --> 00:42:45,399
Speaker 1: kind of advisors and venture capitalists and angel investors that

759
00:42:45,480 --> 00:42:49,680
Speaker 1: represent them and it's kind of increased their umbrella, UM

760
00:42:49,719 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 1: in terms of how do we get it there? I

761
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 1: hate to throw this answer out again, But like there's

762
00:42:56,680 --> 00:43:00,160
Speaker 1: just a continuing hearts and minds conversation that pass that

763
00:43:00,239 --> 00:43:05,120
Speaker 1: happen really inside of the venture capital industry. Um. All

764
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,959
Speaker 1: in the answer here. You know, I write and speak

765
00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:11,399
Speaker 1: a lot about this thing called diversity theater UM. It's

766
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 1: something I've written about for a really long time. You know,

767
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,759
Speaker 1: the statistics came out about I think it was Q

768
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,879
Speaker 1: three Venture funding UM. And from a diversity standpoint, there's

769
00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:25,160
Speaker 1: all these like tweets going out and right and going

770
00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 1: around and mentoring and all that, but the numbers haven't

771
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:31,360
Speaker 1: shown up. What I'll say about that is it's unfortunate,

772
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:34,320
Speaker 1: but it takes some time, Like it takes time to

773
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:37,319
Speaker 1: actually connect from these office hours to getting to know

774
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 1: your business to making the investments. Unfortunately, those decisions are

775
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:45,160
Speaker 1: made slower when it comes to us. UM. But I

776
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: am you know, I have to hould that book at

777
00:43:47,480 --> 00:43:49,760
Speaker 1: the next quarter or two. Is different. But in terms

778
00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:53,640
Speaker 1: of diversity theater um, you know, all of us have

779
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 1: been in this place, you know, speaking personally about my

780
00:43:57,600 --> 00:43:59,960
Speaker 1: venture career and then you know, projecting some of the

781
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,800
Speaker 1: conversations I've had with black founders where you know pretty

782
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,680
Speaker 1: quickly whether someone just kind of bullshitting you on this

783
00:44:06,760 --> 00:44:10,080
Speaker 1: diversity thing, right, Like we're happy to meet with you,

784
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:14,000
Speaker 1: but like you didn't tell you you mentioned something around

785
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:18,480
Speaker 1: like um operating experience. I'll just put it in my example.

786
00:44:18,520 --> 00:44:20,200
Speaker 1: As I was going through my career, I used to

787
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:22,799
Speaker 1: always I'm from Virginia. Right, we use this term called

788
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:29,279
Speaker 1: better rock, and that's the term is better rock, and

789
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:31,920
Speaker 1: what that means is I'll put in my own experience.

790
00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 1: When I was interviewing for venture roles throughout my career,

791
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:39,120
Speaker 1: you would show up and the job description would say

792
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:41,480
Speaker 1: you need to have x y z in order to

793
00:44:41,520 --> 00:44:44,360
Speaker 1: get this job. You would have x y Z and

794
00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 1: then they throw a rock and say go get letter D.

795
00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:49,560
Speaker 1: It wasn't on the job description, but like go get

796
00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:51,680
Speaker 1: letter D. Then you go get letter D. You come

797
00:44:51,719 --> 00:44:53,799
Speaker 1: back and they throw that rock and they say go

798
00:44:53,840 --> 00:44:56,600
Speaker 1: get letter T. Right. And I think that happens with

799
00:44:56,719 --> 00:44:59,439
Speaker 1: founders to where they you know, a lot of Ventra

800
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:01,399
Speaker 1: bungle put on the website this is what we need

801
00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,120
Speaker 1: to see to make a seed investment, our serious investment.

802
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:06,680
Speaker 1: And you're looking at your debt. You are a product

803
00:45:07,040 --> 00:45:08,799
Speaker 1: some of your early tract and say, man, I've got

804
00:45:08,840 --> 00:45:11,759
Speaker 1: all that, and then within fifteen minutes they're telling you

805
00:45:11,760 --> 00:45:13,719
Speaker 1: you need to go find something else. That's when you

806
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,279
Speaker 1: should know, and that's when you don't want to go

807
00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 1: affect that rock. So we've got to we've got to

808
00:45:20,480 --> 00:45:23,680
Speaker 1: get to a point as an industry where we stopped

809
00:45:23,719 --> 00:45:27,759
Speaker 1: throwing that rock. And fortunately, I think the community is

810
00:45:27,800 --> 00:45:31,560
Speaker 1: talking about it enough. Where as as the faces um

811
00:45:31,880 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: become more diverse and check writing authority, you know where

812
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:38,400
Speaker 1: to go. But there's actually some um faces adventure that

813
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:41,880
Speaker 1: don't look like us, that are making these bets, treating

814
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: people effitably, and we actually need to like elevate them

815
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 1: too and speak about them because those are the folks

816
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:50,000
Speaker 1: you want to spend the time, but don't don't waste

817
00:45:50,040 --> 00:45:54,239
Speaker 1: your time infection that rock is the answer to create

818
00:45:54,280 --> 00:45:59,919
Speaker 1: our own firms, I think it's both UM and I'll

819
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: tell you why. And then that's a great question. So UM,

820
00:46:04,080 --> 00:46:08,080
Speaker 1: as someone who's been doing this fifteen years, I started

821
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,280
Speaker 1: my career to all black firms. Still today the largest

822
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:16,399
Speaker 1: black interre firm in the country to ever exist. Our

823
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:21,880
Speaker 1: Fund five is a two seventy five million dollar fund um.

824
00:46:22,040 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 1: So a huge part of the equation is certainly starting

825
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:30,960
Speaker 1: our own firms. However, until the LP community UM expands

826
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:35,279
Speaker 1: the aperture. My big fear, having started my career in

827
00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:38,120
Speaker 1: series A and Series B and seeing successes there is

828
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:42,560
Speaker 1: you know you, um, you kind of cross that chasm

829
00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:46,080
Speaker 1: of a Series A, Series B founder of color and

830
00:46:46,120 --> 00:46:48,560
Speaker 1: then you show up in the series C and it's like, well,

831
00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:50,560
Speaker 1: who's here to talk to you? Like who who can

832
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 1: actually right that twenty thirty million dollar check? That world

833
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:58,279
Speaker 1: gets real spooky, UM. And I can say that as

834
00:46:58,280 --> 00:47:02,080
Speaker 1: a dedicated growth etnly invest You know we talked about

835
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:05,880
Speaker 1: people with check rounding authority. I can name three um,

836
00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:09,680
Speaker 1: black venture capitalist later stage that I know who have

837
00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,920
Speaker 1: checked righting authority. That's like three um. So you know,

838
00:47:13,960 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 1: it goes back to that tweet and this experience I

839
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:20,160
Speaker 1: had with my dear friend who, thank thankfully he's about

840
00:47:20,160 --> 00:47:24,400
Speaker 1: to announce his seriously investment or his seriously around Like

841
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,080
Speaker 1: you feel that pressure where it's like damn unlike one

842
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,760
Speaker 1: or three people that can write that check, I can't

843
00:47:29,960 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 1: write all of them because like there's a larger pipeline

844
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:36,160
Speaker 1: and thankfully for him, he got an exceptional deal and

845
00:47:36,160 --> 00:47:39,919
Speaker 1: a great investor around the table. So I think, yes,

846
00:47:40,000 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 1: it is very important that we um master our masters

847
00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:47,280
Speaker 1: and determine our own faith. But unfortunately the LP community

848
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 1: is very happy to back us at kind of this

849
00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:55,000
Speaker 1: ten million to maybe forty million dollar fun size level.

850
00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:59,799
Speaker 1: Now there's been a couple of breakout successes, um, you know,

851
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:06,760
Speaker 1: kind of like fifty to level UM. So it's it's

852
00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:10,600
Speaker 1: expanding um. But for someone like myself, like my average

853
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:15,040
Speaker 1: check right now, however, somewhere between like thirty and fifty UM,

854
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:17,040
Speaker 1: and you've got to make sure that we've got people

855
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:22,480
Speaker 1: that can treat entrepreneurs effortably through the entire lifestyle. Um. Again,

856
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:24,840
Speaker 1: all the seed stuff is bubbling up, has been the

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00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:28,440
Speaker 1: last ten years, particularly the last two series as has

858
00:48:28,480 --> 00:48:31,719
Speaker 1: certainly gotten better. UM. But man, it is a it

859
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:34,239
Speaker 1: is a ghost can for me when I go to

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00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:37,640
Speaker 1: growth stage confidence. But I know it's coming right Like

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00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:39,479
Speaker 1: if you know the investors are there in the seed

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00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:42,040
Speaker 1: in the A and they're raising their bees, I know

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00:48:42,160 --> 00:48:44,359
Speaker 1: as they come to the seed, I'm hoping that I'm

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00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,759
Speaker 1: uniquely positioned to see all um and hopefully support those

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00:48:47,840 --> 00:49:06,360
Speaker 1: entrepreneur business scale black tech, green money and production to

866
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:08,759
Speaker 1: black of the afro tech. He was produced by Morgan

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00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:12,480
Speaker 1: Dabon and me Well Lucas, with additional production support by

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00:49:12,520 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 1: Love Beach and Raven Nearport. Special thank you to Michael

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Speaker 1: Davis since the car savon Jan you know, like the wine. Yes,

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00:49:19,080 --> 00:49:21,759
Speaker 1: that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and

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00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 1: other tech disruptors and innovators at afro tech dot com

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00:49:25,719 --> 00:49:28,160
Speaker 1: and go get your money. Peace and love,