Speaker 1: Well, Lucas here. So this week we are in Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. For Afro Tech Executive number three this year. Wow,
Speaker 1: we've already landed in Miami and Brooklyn in two we
Speaker 1: did l A at the end, but our third stop
Speaker 1: this year, in particular, we're in d C with our
Speaker 1: folks for the biggest executive event series of the year.
Speaker 1: And I'll mention we'll be back in l A later
Speaker 1: this year, so put a bookmark there. So while we're
Speaker 1: out on the road, I wanted to run back in
Speaker 1: the episode we did in season one with the incredible
Speaker 1: Seviti Wilson, founder and CEO at resil You and this
Speaker 1: episode is for anyone who has an interest in utilizing
Speaker 1: technology to scale their nonprofit, even if you're not super technical.
Speaker 1: To kick this one off, I asked v T about
Speaker 1: the idea that was so many nonprofits out there? What
Speaker 1: are the bottlenecks that caused nonprofits to stay small and
Speaker 1: not make an impact at scale? So interesting enough, UM,
Speaker 1: there's a report release just talking about philanthropy UM and
Speaker 1: really talking about the disparity and philanthropy and where money
Speaker 1: goes and how that money UM is just dispersed, right, UM,
Speaker 1: and so for certain nonprofits we're talking about, like nonprofits
Speaker 1: run by black and brown people, UM, there's a disparity
Speaker 1: and like them being able to access resources to grow
Speaker 1: their nonprofit organizations. UM. And particularly as we are in
Speaker 1: the age, but even in the day where we're heavily
Speaker 1: focused on uh equity and equality and UM, how we
Speaker 1: can fix the things that have just historically been wrong
Speaker 1: UM related to ensuring that people of color, particularly black
Speaker 1: people right, because we're not gonna like blanket all of
Speaker 1: us over people of color uh any longer. UH. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that the study was essentially staying
Speaker 1: UM and this is by Eco Green and Bristband, is
Speaker 1: that a lot of times nonprop organizations one don't have
Speaker 1: access to the rollodex of organizations that can give them
Speaker 1: resources UM once they get to table, if they ever
Speaker 1: get to the table, UM, then they don't have the
Speaker 1: right tools resources are able to essentially display the information
Speaker 1: the way funders want it, right. And so they're at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage that way. And what it takes to do
Speaker 1: that type of data UM, type of analytics to pull
Speaker 1: those type of reports takes a lot of time and
Speaker 1: money which they don't have because they're on the ground
Speaker 1: working every day in and out of their nonproper organizations. UM.
Speaker 1: And so we think about how nonprofits are just like
Speaker 1: less resource like that's one of the biggest hindrances that's
Speaker 1: holding organizations back from growing. UM. And then also, how
Speaker 1: do you move beyond just being a nonprofit leader but
Speaker 1: thinking of yours yourself as like a business leader like
Speaker 1: you are you this organization is incorporated. You should be
Speaker 1: thinking about like a business. You should operate like a business. UM.
Speaker 1: How do you move from just taking on funding? How
Speaker 1: do you begin to diversify into services? Um? And So
Speaker 1: these are definitely I could go on and on, but
Speaker 1: I would kind of wrap it up there. We can
Speaker 1: definitely continue to talk about what are like the blocks
Speaker 1: for nonprop organizations. Yeah, I think about UM. I live
Speaker 1: in a place where we and where at my city
Speaker 1: we have more nonprofits per capita than anywhere else in
Speaker 1: the country, right, which tells me we're stepping on all
Speaker 1: of our toes. Yeah, and UM, do you think we
Speaker 1: consider collaboration at the level we should? UM? Because I mean,
Speaker 1: you get it, with territorial the pies aren't as big
Speaker 1: for you know, people to be able to fund these
Speaker 1: efforts in etcetera, Like, how do you think so we
Speaker 1: can't so we can't belong to each other? How do
Speaker 1: you think about when you see nonprofits who that just
Speaker 1: pop up because somebody's passionate about something? Um? How do
Speaker 1: you process that? Yes? Um, even with the side of
Speaker 1: our software, we're always trying to benchmark for um. Does
Speaker 1: this organization need to exist? Right? Um? And even as
Speaker 1: a consultant like many moons ago working with nonproper organizations UM,
Speaker 1: and people used to come to me like, oh, I
Speaker 1: want to start this organization U. First, I always act
Speaker 1: like this organization like this exists in your community art
Speaker 1: and they're like, yeah, but have you volunteered yet? If
Speaker 1: you spoke to the organizational leader yet, have you see
Speaker 1: have you had a conversation with them yet to understand
Speaker 1: like what are your challenges? Um? And if I don't
Speaker 1: feel like you're effecting my community, do you have the bandwidth? Um?
Speaker 1: And you should be could you probably started to move
Speaker 1: non profit to help them get to where they're trying
Speaker 1: to go without being the founder of CEO of it right? Um?
Speaker 1: And So I'm a big believer of trying to bring
Speaker 1: organizations together and even UM have seen situations where large
Speaker 1: funders would look atorganizations that they were funding and they're like,
Speaker 1: you were basically doing the same work. If you guys
Speaker 1: actually came together, UH meaning like formed right UM together,
Speaker 1: we would give you more money and we think you'd
Speaker 1: be more effective. UM. But of course what comes in
Speaker 1: a way with that, right, so a little bit of
Speaker 1: like pride and ego, Uh, who's gonna run the organization?
Speaker 1: Wor world or I you know, get are my issues
Speaker 1: gonna be UM heard? And so there are a lot
Speaker 1: of barriers to that UM. But you know, we know
Speaker 1: because we've been punching those forever UM. Not just in
Speaker 1: your community, but we've seen a four x increase of
Speaker 1: nonprop organizations over the past uh teamed years UM, not
Speaker 1: only and counting across the world. And so we know
Speaker 1: there's a lot of reasons for this UM, not just
Speaker 1: like the Googles in our community that want to create
Speaker 1: no prop organizations, but there are a lot of as
Speaker 1: we consider like legacy foundations being created UM. And so
Speaker 1: with that that there's morgan there's been created, there's also
Speaker 1: more philanthropic dollars being deployed than we've ever seen before.
Speaker 1: And so that could also be a reason, right that
Speaker 1: these organizations are forming to actually go after some of
Speaker 1: these new funds that are coming out, which is the
Speaker 1: case of COVID nineteen um and is also the case
Speaker 1: now with saving Black lives right. Right, So, how how
Speaker 1: do you inspire or help people who are passionate about
Speaker 1: a thing get the business side under them. Because I
Speaker 1: think about um too often when we think about impact
Speaker 1: and being passionate about a particular issue, whether it be
Speaker 1: social justice, whether it be COVID, the product or the
Speaker 1: offering maybe lacking. You know, we we have so much heart,
Speaker 1: but so little business sophistication in too many instances, not
Speaker 1: every instance, but in too many instances. So talk talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about what you those folks who you ask,
Speaker 1: you know, does this already exist in your community or
Speaker 1: have you volunteer there? How do you, you know, advise
Speaker 1: them to not only you know, pump the brakes a
Speaker 1: little bit, but get that work done in the right way. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The same things that set back, hold back, keep down
Speaker 1: nonprofits are the same things that hold back, setback, keep
Speaker 1: down us from building businesses as well, right, um, And
Speaker 1: so I think that many many of those things I've
Speaker 1: obviously worked with a lot of BIS small business owners
Speaker 1: to help them get there ups off the ground. I've
Speaker 1: worked with a lot of nonprofits to get them to
Speaker 1: get their organizations off the ground. And I tell you
Speaker 1: there's so many parallels that run between the two. UM.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and it really is, it's so very similar UM.
Speaker 1: And so for nonprofits, it's always about what are you
Speaker 1: gonna focus on, right, So what can you get really
Speaker 1: good at? What People are like, oh, we go to
Speaker 1: them for this, And I think that just our nature
Speaker 1: we want to help everybody and be everything and everybody,
Speaker 1: and we can't be that way if we want to
Speaker 1: get things done, and if we want to grow our organizations,
Speaker 1: we have to figure out, like what is that thing
Speaker 1: that we really we might care about a lot of things,
Speaker 1: we got to really hone down that one thing that's
Speaker 1: gonna allow us, UM to be able to not only
Speaker 1: gain the expertise right around, but to also gather support
Speaker 1: around so that that one thing people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: I got that person for you. UM. And even when
Speaker 1: we talk about resources, because generally speaking we look get funders,
Speaker 1: they are looking at their trying to put together pieces
Speaker 1: too right, And so it was like, what piece are
Speaker 1: you solving for that's going to make this equation come together? UM?
Speaker 1: And you don't. And because you are strapped for resources,
Speaker 1: you probably don't want to go out there talking about
Speaker 1: you solve all these others. They're like, well how because
Speaker 1: you only got a budget of twenty dollars a year,
Speaker 1: so you can't yourself all these things all that at up.
Speaker 1: Let's math that up. So really trying to get organizations
Speaker 1: like focused in and I deal it on, like what
Speaker 1: can you solve and be the best at UM at
Speaker 1: doing UM? And then how can you begin to look
Speaker 1: at individuals that support that specific cause or create ambassadors
Speaker 1: UM and champions of that cause because it's attached to
Speaker 1: things that other people believe about UM and so there
Speaker 1: is so many parallels man to like it's being like
Speaker 1: a founder. Uh, it is the same, right. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: if if I can condense what you said into a nutshell,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ask you, this is what you're saying, UM,
Speaker 1: that I should really just get really really really good
Speaker 1: at one thing or this narrow vertical yeah, and then
Speaker 1: bring it in, bringing in, bring it in, right? And
Speaker 1: with that does that cause me to have more success? Ultimately,
Speaker 1: because that's I think what people don't see is they
Speaker 1: see if what if I only do this one thing,
Speaker 1: then how am I gonna get bigger? Yes? And the
Speaker 1: thing is it's like it's once you do that thing
Speaker 1: very well, then you can branch out and do other things. Right, um,
Speaker 1: And you're right about that, but I do. I mean,
Speaker 1: such a good example is like what's happening in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: right now, right in Minnesota, UM and in Minnesota and
Speaker 1: just like framing around UM the murder of George Floyd. UM,
Speaker 1: people started to get into the Minnesota UM Fun, right,
Speaker 1: and so everybody was giving to the Minnesota Fun. And
Speaker 1: when we go to the website, I was kind of
Speaker 1: like I gave him to him too, you know. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, boom, we gotta place we go get into.
Speaker 1: That's what we're gonna get someone in message. It was like,
Speaker 1: well you need to give to the black lead organizations.
Speaker 1: I was like, thing, wait, let me go look at
Speaker 1: the website and I looked. I was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: like that's the people like what was black And I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm giving money to these people will go
Speaker 1: help black people and they don't have black people their
Speaker 1: regulation and so I was like, okay, now that for
Speaker 1: other organizations. But then I double back and I realized that, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me see what they're doing. So they were essentially
Speaker 1: um targeting cash bail and bill bond, so they were
Speaker 1: trying to eradicate that, like that was their mission. So
Speaker 1: from Jump, immediately I knew that the money that we
Speaker 1: were giving wasn't going to just go back to the protesters,
Speaker 1: you know, who were out there, although some of it would,
Speaker 1: but they raised so much money that now they're going
Speaker 1: to enter should be able to eradicate cash bail in there.
Speaker 1: I think that's crazy to me, right, So they they're
Speaker 1: gonna eradicated. However, they raised so much money that they
Speaker 1: said that started giving to these other organizations. This specific
Speaker 1: organization is looking to defund the police, This specific organization
Speaker 1: is working on the ground, specifically helping with housing, this
Speaker 1: specific you know, these are organizations where I'm like, Okay, yes,
Speaker 1: we want to get protesters out of jail boom, we
Speaker 1: need to fund boot you know. And so it's becomes
Speaker 1: very clear because of their mission. So whose responsibility is
Speaker 1: it then? Because you know, I think about when the
Speaker 1: social um uprisings occur you'll see this proliferation of messages
Speaker 1: on social media on who you should be giving to,
Speaker 1: right and so so to your point, like, whose responsibility
Speaker 1: is it to make sure that that is clearly defined
Speaker 1: for the end user who's just wants to give fifty
Speaker 1: dollars or a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: an organization, Because can we expect the consumer or the
Speaker 1: donator or the that benevolent person to go do all
Speaker 1: that research? That's a vegtuable Well, I do think that
Speaker 1: we do got to do a little bit better on
Speaker 1: for sure. UM. And then also I think that you
Speaker 1: know someone inside the community, right, and so that that's
Speaker 1: how I've foune about all the other funds. It's but
Speaker 1: has someone from that community said, oh, here are some
Speaker 1: other funds that are like black lead. UM. I do
Speaker 1: think that there's an opportunity to vet organizations and maybe
Speaker 1: that somebody you know who's listening, they're like, Oh, this
Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna actually create a
Speaker 1: platform and UM. And so that's why I was like, dang,
Speaker 1: I should have like did more. I should have went
Speaker 1: to the website. I should have looked at UM the
Speaker 1: people that have associated with it. If you want to
Speaker 1: take it a little bit further than you can go
Speaker 1: to like Candice's website and do with search of them.
Speaker 1: But the only problem when you start really doing that
Speaker 1: is that you begin to exclude black organizations who again
Speaker 1: going back to maybe they don't have the data points,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't have information into these platforms. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that they're not doing the work and they can't
Speaker 1: get the work done, And so you have to be
Speaker 1: like really careful and mindful of trying to like vet
Speaker 1: organizations as well. Um, but I do feel that, you know,
Speaker 1: you go looking to commune, you come to New Orleans
Speaker 1: and we'll let you know who to get who you
Speaker 1: know who are really doing what they're supposed to do
Speaker 1: with the money. Yeah, so I think about you know,
Speaker 1: you're solving um, a lot of issues for I would
Speaker 1: and Layman's terms like a lot of back office issues
Speaker 1: for nonprofits. Is that ad a quick statement? Yeah, for
Speaker 1: nonprofits and for as we consider our enterprise customers. So, um,
Speaker 1: we work with OXYDA in America, we work through a
Speaker 1: United Way and so we essentially are too like the
Speaker 1: one app connector between the nonprofit or grantee, because it
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be a nonprofit. It can also be
Speaker 1: a vendor, which can be a for profit UM to
Speaker 1: the Grand Tour or that entity that's deploying capital. So
Speaker 1: if you're a city of prior foundation of corporation, we
Speaker 1: work with them all UM and so we essentially manage
Speaker 1: that process of how they give money to organizations or
Speaker 1: vendors who essentially do the work right because these fundations
Speaker 1: they're not actually doing them really, you know, they're not
Speaker 1: on the ground doing the work. They're funding organizations and
Speaker 1: vendors to do the work UM, and our platform essentially
Speaker 1: is that connected tissue between both where not only we're
Speaker 1: monitoring information that's coming in the data around it, we're
Speaker 1: doing the reporting and evaluations, and then we're also on
Speaker 1: the nonprofit side provided them with capacity building tools and
Speaker 1: technical assistance so that they can be better stores are
Speaker 1: not only the money, but also better stores of how
Speaker 1: they run their organizations UM as well as how they
Speaker 1: train their team members. We essentially have draftedly reduced what
Speaker 1: we were doing as consultants and productized it right. And
Speaker 1: so we took everything that we were doing as consultants
Speaker 1: for these large grant tours and these grantees and these nonprofits,
Speaker 1: and we began to productize it into software and deliver
Speaker 1: it through a subscription based platform. That's what we do. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I'm super interested in your take on this thing
Speaker 1: because I think about, um, the importance of wealth in
Speaker 1: our community, and the I find with my you know,
Speaker 1: in context to you, my uneducated, right UM perspective on
Speaker 1: this is at some point we have to move past
Speaker 1: waiting for someone to write us a check for our
Speaker 1: good work because they may feel like, oh again to
Speaker 1: your point, like, you know, who's doing good work, let
Speaker 1: me give them some money, And you have the person
Speaker 1: who's trying to do the good work always with their
Speaker 1: hand out, always what they had in their hand, like,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to raise money somewhere. And how can
Speaker 1: we think about other ways to support and put fuel
Speaker 1: in the tank for our good work or is it
Speaker 1: could be going to be value exchanged? Yes, for sure,
Speaker 1: I think that, um, there is value exchange for particularly
Speaker 1: like nonprofits. UM. Most people think that most nonprofits their
Speaker 1: money comes from like product foundations and corporations and um,
Speaker 1: you know, these other philanthropic resources. But that's not the case.
Speaker 1: The majority of most nonprofits, their money is coming from
Speaker 1: contracts um services are from individuals. And so I think
Speaker 1: that that's like a MythBuster, right because most people think
Speaker 1: like philanthrothy is controlling which to start to start to
Speaker 1: sit they are because they can also entirely fun and
Speaker 1: nonprofit right to do their work, to do the work
Speaker 1: that they want them to do. But most nonprofits in
Speaker 1: the US at least actually don't sustain themselves off philanthrophic
Speaker 1: dollars um and so that's a very important to like note.
Speaker 1: But like one of the things even with our software,
Speaker 1: what we want to do is since we own both
Speaker 1: relationships the Grand Tour and the grantee, more organizations that
Speaker 1: come into our platform, we want to essentially begin recommending
Speaker 1: them to our the Grand Tours because we know they're
Speaker 1: giving history, we know the type of organizations they like
Speaker 1: to give to the causes, etcetera. And we can essentially
Speaker 1: take organizations that would never get opportunity to get in
Speaker 1: front of them and essentially scout on their behalf right um,
Speaker 1: by just knowing their data. And so by doing that
Speaker 1: we're able to remove the biases that have prevented these
Speaker 1: organizations from getting in front of these other dollars for
Speaker 1: a very long time. And that's not just philanthropy, but
Speaker 1: that's government meant right, because we UM our customers are
Speaker 1: also government UM corporations, uh and so on. So when
Speaker 1: we think about that UM, it's about like diversifying UM.
Speaker 1: And so like one of my UM customers, like Metromorphosis,
Speaker 1: when we first came in contact with them, they were
Speaker 1: doing me like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a
Speaker 1: year in natural and annual budget. They had like one
Speaker 1: full time person a contracted person UM and today they
Speaker 1: have like a full suite of team fast forward. They're
Speaker 1: doing a budget about one point eight million UM, and
Speaker 1: we allow them to get there that they started going
Speaker 1: after city contracts, right, and so they went after the
Speaker 1: DV which is essentially a set aside that says like
Speaker 1: thirty percent of this opportunity of this large billion dollar
Speaker 1: project has to go to minority businesses, and they went
Speaker 1: after that contract and so they essentially are overseeing that
Speaker 1: deployment and where that money goes. And so now they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now they're going at the more government contracts and a
Speaker 1: non profit and they're going to ask the government contracts
Speaker 1: in the same way, business will be going after those contracts,
Speaker 1: and they got more power because they got the community.
Speaker 1: And so somebody like, oh, who do we may we're
Speaker 1: gonna physical part of all the resources, and so nonprofits
Speaker 1: could win like that when they started thinking like that.
Speaker 1: But I do think that we're coming into a different
Speaker 1: age of corporate giving, um, where people are beginning to
Speaker 1: hire people that are a little bit more in tune
Speaker 1: right uh to trying to make an impact. Um. In
Speaker 1: addition to that, I do feel that, um, we know,
Speaker 1: we know when people be instanced, you just not hear
Speaker 1: about stuff. We're like, all right, get there girl here.
Speaker 1: I've been very critical like Gucci, right, Gucci, they been
Speaker 1: the back people and then they was like BOI million
Speaker 1: dollars like the owners a Gucci, I think behind almost
Speaker 1: and it's just like, that's the insult to my intelligence.
Speaker 1: You're now like, that's just been ins off to my
Speaker 1: intelligence right there. But you know, there are other institutions
Speaker 1: like you will say like a j people organ Chase
Speaker 1: right where they have essentially deployed billions at this point, um,
Speaker 1: And people will say Jack Morgan Chase, like, oh, we
Speaker 1: don't like this site for corporate philanthropy because they're essentially
Speaker 1: disrupting where some people would say, um, and they're rebuilding
Speaker 1: and redesigning, say black cities like Detroit, And so what
Speaker 1: do we feel about that? Right? Are we paying attention?
Speaker 1: Like are we really paying attention to what's going on
Speaker 1: and who's involved? Now? I will say, um on JP Morgan,
Speaker 1: um for if you look at their team in Detroit,
Speaker 1: very like it's a lot of black people there, but
Speaker 1: also holding black people accountable for doing things with black people,
Speaker 1: right and um, being sincere about that is important. Um.
Speaker 1: But you do see corporations now who are really putting
Speaker 1: a huge steak into not just like oh we're gonna
Speaker 1: give here, We're gotta give these organizations, but they're trying
Speaker 1: to actually transform um um entire um consider like sectors, um, communities, cities,
Speaker 1: and so we also have to be very mindful of
Speaker 1: what that means go So not just for nonprofits, but
Speaker 1: do you have a proficiency in helping people figure out
Speaker 1: how to charge for their stuff their value? Right? And
Speaker 1: so I would imagine that most entrepreneurs will look at
Speaker 1: the landscape of the market and say, Okay, what is
Speaker 1: the closest person to what I'm doing charging and let
Speaker 1: me base my price upon that. Like, is that in
Speaker 1: your mind the best way to go about this? So
Speaker 1: I think that that is like the easiest way to
Speaker 1: go about it, um, but it might not be what's
Speaker 1: best for your work right UM. And so I do
Speaker 1: think that we have a problem with like pricing in general,
Speaker 1: UM in a way that it actually takes us under
Speaker 1: And so I think that when we think about pricing,
Speaker 1: it's from an organizational standpoint, it's like, can you also,
Speaker 1: you know, make a living? Can you get the work done?
Speaker 1: Can you hire people? Um effectively? When you scope out
Speaker 1: your entire budget, you know, is it actually related to um,
Speaker 1: your demographics, who you're serving, um, the additional need that
Speaker 1: may exist around them, right. And so I think you
Speaker 1: have to take into consideration all the complexities that may
Speaker 1: impact your price that may not impact the person across
Speaker 1: from use price. So when when you say I'm going
Speaker 1: to charge X, and it's probably more money than a
Speaker 1: lot of people may be comfortable with charging for something,
Speaker 1: how do how do you get over the internal like, oh,
Speaker 1: how do I put this number in front of folks? Well,
Speaker 1: me today, I mean say today you probably like, look
Speaker 1: this is the number. Family, This is the number, because
Speaker 1: you know your numbers changed with experience too, right, Um,
Speaker 1: and so that's something about like your numbers changed with
Speaker 1: your experience and teen years ago in my experience a
Speaker 1: lot different than it is now. And what I have
Speaker 1: to bring to the table, but the resources that I bring,
Speaker 1: the partners that I bring, um, the network that I bring.
Speaker 1: And so you're bringing to the table more than just
Speaker 1: what you can do, uh pin the paper right uh.
Speaker 1: And so you take an account all those things when
Speaker 1: you're setting your price, and I know I do at least.
Speaker 1: Uh So I think that the only things that people
Speaker 1: have to consider, do you to that point? Is it
Speaker 1: is it that people are just paying for the service
Speaker 1: that you're offering, or they're paying for the value of
Speaker 1: being able to work with you? So Resilia, Yeah, for
Speaker 1: the Resilia, they're paying for the service, right. So because
Speaker 1: we're sass business model, Um, what you paying with the
Speaker 1: next person pay, it's not going to change, right. So
Speaker 1: we have like set numbers. If you're on the enterprise
Speaker 1: platform and you're paying per sit um, if you are
Speaker 1: a nonpromporranization, you're paying specifically for your subscription. So those
Speaker 1: numbers were unchanged, UM now in solid ground. So my
Speaker 1: other business that is based on you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: setting my fees and UM anything related to my expensive
Speaker 1: for UM, I'll tell you like now when I'm actually
Speaker 1: be a part of projects. It's kind of if when
Speaker 1: you start planning sees, those seeds are going to start
Speaker 1: to grow UM and it may not come to fruition immediately,
Speaker 1: but over time it will. And so today I literally
Speaker 1: get acts to be a part of UM projects and
Speaker 1: on like pull into like RPS responses for work that
Speaker 1: I never you have to touch. They just need to
Speaker 1: use my name and my resume in my background and
Speaker 1: they they just want me on the team. And literally
Speaker 1: I do something consulting and I get a check like
Speaker 1: I don't have to do so, but that's what ten
Speaker 1: plus years of work now force me to be a
Speaker 1: part of teams who are going at the montimillion dollar
Speaker 1: contracts and they're like, we need to beech you our team,
Speaker 1: and so, uh, how much you're gonna charge us to
Speaker 1: be on our you know, well, boom, that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna charge and we all we all started doing the
Speaker 1: work they call them and like all right, what do
Speaker 1: you think about this is and this because then you know,
Speaker 1: I have to actually do some work as a part
Speaker 1: of the contract. Um. But for the most part, I
Speaker 1: don't have to chase business on my solid ground for
Speaker 1: my consulting company. The business comes to me back now
Speaker 1: like it comes to me now. Uh. And so like
Speaker 1: that's where that's like we think about like buildings stuff
Speaker 1: for ourselves, as you mentioned earlier, So we don't have
Speaker 1: to go ask these people for money. Um, then we
Speaker 1: become the philanthropists, right, and so then we can direct
Speaker 1: money organizations that look like us and they don't have
Speaker 1: to go chase money from these organizations that don't look
Speaker 1: like them. And so like we're talking about like the
Speaker 1: ultimate goals, like that's what we're building for. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna come back. We're gonna come back to that.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, we might close on that topic. But
Speaker 1: I want to there's a couple of things I want
Speaker 1: to I want to make sure I pull out of here.
Speaker 1: And it's you know you talked about you know, over
Speaker 1: ten years, you've built up a reputation in the name
Speaker 1: and integrity and all these things that say, you know, look,
Speaker 1: if we're trying to do X Y, and Z we
Speaker 1: need to v treet on the team, right. And so
Speaker 1: you've got so many people um in our audience. Who
Speaker 1: are you know building um you know, for lack of
Speaker 1: a better phrase, you know boutique services, consulting services, you know,
Speaker 1: personal services and etcetera. And how how is it that
Speaker 1: you saw the long game in that? Because I would
Speaker 1: I would imagine that you knew one day it would
Speaker 1: pay off, but you might and don't. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but you perhaps didn't know that you know one day
Speaker 1: it will be people just call me and I'll set
Speaker 1: my price. And I stepped before a meeting in a
Speaker 1: bounds You may have no I'm I'm assuming I shouldn't
Speaker 1: do it. I don't know if I knew that. I
Speaker 1: think that when it started to happen to me, I
Speaker 1: think that it became very obvious. Why right? And so
Speaker 1: when I think about and you know, I have like mentors, etcetera.
Speaker 1: You know, my mentors got contracts with Chevron and this person,
Speaker 1: this person, and they get twenty five dollar monthly retainers
Speaker 1: and they people might call them for our months. Like
Speaker 1: there's levels to this, right, I hate that that level yet,
Speaker 1: but there are levels of this and so when you
Speaker 1: hear stuff like that, and you know, people are kind
Speaker 1: of like trying to show you, like how this works,
Speaker 1: right and how UM your ability people think that social
Speaker 1: media influencing and something no being able for public affairs
Speaker 1: from a gas oil company to call you once a mother,
Speaker 1: you can twenty five dollars per hour. That's influence, Like
Speaker 1: you what do I understand? Like it's level of that
Speaker 1: lovels UM. And so when I think about influence, that's
Speaker 1: like the sphere of influence. I think about like things
Speaker 1: that can drive elections, people that can drive people to pose,
Speaker 1: people that can help influence someone getting into a position UM.
Speaker 1: Like those are type of influences that I think about.
Speaker 1: And when you begin to have those type of influences
Speaker 1: in your community UM and in your sphere or your
Speaker 1: business circles, people begin to reach out to you because
Speaker 1: that makes you you make them more competitive. Right. And
Speaker 1: So for me starting out, I was just you know,
Speaker 1: coming I was so young when I started my first
Speaker 1: business that I was just like so green. So in
Speaker 1: twenty two I was just out here first very small
Speaker 1: contracts UM doing consulting like marketing, public relations UM, digital advertising,
Speaker 1: stuff like that UM from there, we started getting contracts,
Speaker 1: starting off with like nonprop organizations doing work for them,
Speaker 1: then law firms, you know, building their website stuff like that. Um,
Speaker 1: and then those contracts started to like increase. Then I
Speaker 1: went to a conference and at that entrepreneurs conference, they
Speaker 1: basically talking about government contracting. And then I was like,
Speaker 1: government contract this is interesting. And then this woman, um Nicole,
Speaker 1: she was talking about how she was living in her
Speaker 1: mother's basement, she was a single mother, um, and she
Speaker 1: got into government contracting and she was going as a
Speaker 1: junior partner. So she was basically subcontracting, right. And so
Speaker 1: that's another hack for any entrepreneurs out there who were
Speaker 1: trying to get started. Sometimes our eyes been on the
Speaker 1: Big Pride. We'd be like, oh, we're about to go
Speaker 1: after this large contract. What you really need to be
Speaker 1: going after is this this the company that's gonna get
Speaker 1: the contract? And then yes, because that's see what because
Speaker 1: that's just the things that we just don't know yet, right,
Speaker 1: And so we will be going to large contract with
Speaker 1: no capabilities, not enough proof, like none of this, and
Speaker 1: it's just because we're just not we're not there yet.
Speaker 1: Um as we know somebody that's gonna right right as
Speaker 1: a check, which is very seldom UM. And so going
Speaker 1: and subcontracting and learning the game from these larger companies
Speaker 1: is something that I got hit to UM pretty earlier.
Speaker 1: And the same thing with Hole in government contracting. Once
Speaker 1: she got hit to that then allowed her to like
Speaker 1: go after these larger contracts as the prime and then
Speaker 1: subcontract other consultants and agencies gonna meet UH. And so
Speaker 1: that's essentially how I started building my company UM as
Speaker 1: a whole. But then when I started Resilia, I had
Speaker 1: to like pull back from s g I and I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, we're gonna like maintain these contracts over here.
Speaker 1: But from that just sitting a little bit, you know,
Speaker 1: letting marinate, other stuff started happening, and people try to
Speaker 1: just coming to me UM. And so I think that
Speaker 1: that's something that you know, this this dot here and
Speaker 1: aren't working, Like get out here and work out and
Speaker 1: like just make it happen. Because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, the door is gonna store can open. UM.
Speaker 1: You just have to understand how what's the code? Right?
Speaker 1: You have to figure out the code, UM. And once
Speaker 1: you figure out the code is gonna lock your door,
Speaker 1: then you gotta unlock another door? Do you unlock another door? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just like kind of the process. So I would
Speaker 1: be remiss if I didn't ask you, Like, you're building
Speaker 1: in a community that is not historically known for technology, right,
Speaker 1: you know, you're the biggest ecosystem in the world, and
Speaker 1: you just raised um, you know, eight million dollars series
Speaker 1: A Series A recently, and talk to me a little
Speaker 1: bit about because I think sometimes we take for granted
Speaker 1: that the large part, the largest portions of people trying
Speaker 1: to build tech companies are not in Silicon Valley, right,
Speaker 1: But they're in Oklahoma, and they're in New Orleans, and
Speaker 1: they're in Ohio, and they're in you know, these other communities,
Speaker 1: And you've got people with different lifestyles trying to do
Speaker 1: this thing, and we don't always speak to them, but
Speaker 1: we speak the language of a Silicon Valley. And so
Speaker 1: talk to me about, um the challenges you've had to
Speaker 1: overcome with building in the community that's not a traditional
Speaker 1: tech home. Yes, so, um so building in the industry right.
Speaker 1: Interesting because when I first started building the company um Resilia, nobody,
Speaker 1: nobody believes me. Nobody believes that we could build a
Speaker 1: company in this space, and it honestly hasn't been. You
Speaker 1: have like the black bots out there, UM, you have
Speaker 1: like these grand manager systems, which were quite a bit
Speaker 1: different than grants managing systems who have been dominating the
Speaker 1: space for like twenty plus years. So and that this
Speaker 1: old school technology they're using UM. And so when we
Speaker 1: started coming into the space, people like, oh, this is
Speaker 1: how big is this space? You know, is it really
Speaker 1: is a too niche, etcetera. So the same thing they
Speaker 1: were telling the companies like Carter and everybody else who
Speaker 1: now worked billions of dollars UM. And it to me
Speaker 1: it was actually sales scores that began, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: to open up like just the BC world around like
Speaker 1: selling to philanthropy, because they began to aggressively start acquiring
Speaker 1: companies in our space UM. And like over the past
Speaker 1: year and a half they probably acquire on what was
Speaker 1: like a billion a half companies in our space UM
Speaker 1: to build out suite of products for nonpark organizations. And
Speaker 1: so if you follow us for as, they had like
Speaker 1: a one percent pledge and all these other things going
Speaker 1: on UM that they've kind of pushed in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: And so when we came into the space earlier than that.
Speaker 1: Before they started happening, no one really felt it. But
Speaker 1: now we get so much outreach from investors like, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: we've been following the nonprofit world technology and we feel
Speaker 1: like there's so much room for improvement UM and technology
Speaker 1: advancements in this space. But that wasn't the case a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Uh, and so now we don't
Speaker 1: really have to prove that part of it anymore. But
Speaker 1: had I not had the opportunity to keep going, we
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't exist anymore, right um. And for us, we
Speaker 1: began to really evaluate how we can expand, right, how
Speaker 1: can we expand beyond nonprofits? And that gave birth like
Speaker 1: our enterprise platform, which targets obviously three core verticals um.
Speaker 1: But it was definitely like really challenging. And then in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, the tech space is definitely We've had like
Speaker 1: a few um success stories here and there, but really,
Speaker 1: ain't nobody come in scout in the New Orleans you know,
Speaker 1: like that's just what it is. And for me, at
Speaker 1: one point, I was like, oh man, do I have
Speaker 1: to move to San Francisco to husband Silicon Valley And
Speaker 1: was actually legitimately like thinking about it, and I just
Speaker 1: realized how much that would have like completely drastically changed
Speaker 1: my entire journey, like my old journey a little different
Speaker 1: had I done that. And so I am happy that
Speaker 1: I stayed in the South and began to like find
Speaker 1: people who were investing in founders outside Silicon Valley, which
Speaker 1: now I believe, like particularly like sas companies, people are
Speaker 1: doing like more of that than they were several years ago.
Speaker 1: So one of the things that um, you know, these uprisings,
Speaker 1: these social justice uprisings and the not only did the
Speaker 1: George Floyd's with Amy Cooper's and them out our berries
Speaker 1: or Amy Coopers who was on the other side of
Speaker 1: this conversation, Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And so
Speaker 1: these situations brought me to is you know, when I
Speaker 1: think about being a founder and being in the technology
Speaker 1: industry and trying to generate wealth, right, we're obviously we're
Speaker 1: not just doing this to do stuff, but we're trying
Speaker 1: to build west wealth for our communities and for our families.
Speaker 1: And it started to make me think more about what
Speaker 1: is like, Okay, we want to build well take care
Speaker 1: of our people, but like what is how are we
Speaker 1: activating that. So, and what I mean by that is
Speaker 1: we can't just be silent anymore. In my opinion, I believe,
Speaker 1: and I'm wondering your take on this is because we
Speaker 1: see so many people who will be in it for
Speaker 1: the bag but won't speak up or maybe they're afraid
Speaker 1: to speak or don't know how to speak up. Um.
Speaker 1: And maybe maybe I don't want to be unfair because
Speaker 1: not everybody's public about how they do things and how
Speaker 1: they move. But I do feel like there's a there
Speaker 1: is a new day upon us where we have to
Speaker 1: be vocal about these issues. And I'm wondering how you
Speaker 1: think about things as your feelings changed about how we
Speaker 1: behave as black entrepreneurs who are building wealth and who
Speaker 1: are impacting our communities in a certain way, because I've
Speaker 1: really been thinking about that and how like what is
Speaker 1: the purpose of wealth? Yeah? Yeah, So I mean let's
Speaker 1: like unpack that a little bit, right, and so well
Speaker 1: we think about I think about, first of all, this
Speaker 1: conversation I was having recently, um about some of the
Speaker 1: issues that I had with like black investors, right, Um,
Speaker 1: when I was first going out to raise money, how
Speaker 1: difficult it was to raise money from black investors like
Speaker 1: UM kind of coming up. And what I began to
Speaker 1: realize is that because we are so new to well,
Speaker 1: we're so new to money, that we're so risuverse UM.
Speaker 1: And so I started thinking about that right as far
Speaker 1: as like investors worth with their money. You know, black investors,
Speaker 1: they like real estate and you know, things that they
Speaker 1: have a historically to life and say a lot of
Speaker 1: them are new to technology investor technology and idea that oh, man,
Speaker 1: like I could lose my money like you though, like
Speaker 1: a lot of them have a hard time been wrapping
Speaker 1: their around that UM and just now kind of being
Speaker 1: pulled into it, whether they're like private equity space UM.
Speaker 1: And so we think about like how we challenge UM
Speaker 1: from that perspective to helping our businesses or businesses around
Speaker 1: us to get the res they need internally so that
Speaker 1: they can build their companies. I think that that's one
Speaker 1: challenge UM. But as we create more millionaires, and I
Speaker 1: think generally like our generation, as we accumulate more UM,
Speaker 1: we'll do more by way of the generation that we
Speaker 1: were born in and how we kind of came through
Speaker 1: society UM. And so I think that that's something thing
Speaker 1: about like generationally, what does wealth look like, um, how
Speaker 1: it's passed down, how it's held onto and then what
Speaker 1: is the thought process around that is it's something that
Speaker 1: oh I'm holding well to pass it down to my
Speaker 1: kids versus oh, I have wealth. So now I can
Speaker 1: ensure I made this wealth via my company, and I
Speaker 1: want to ensure that um tend other individuals become millionaires
Speaker 1: through ensuring their companies are successful. Right, And so it
Speaker 1: also becomes like what becomes our legacy that we internally
Speaker 1: hold around wealth in our communities, and then how do
Speaker 1: we begin to build upon that legacy? Um And it
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily have to be by me exchanging money. It
Speaker 1: can be by another form if you're if you one
Speaker 1: thing I say about cities, right, black people opportunity and
Speaker 1: contracting inside of cities because a lot of times, particularly
Speaker 1: these large urban cities, black people have the power of
Speaker 1: the pen. Black people are mayors and cities and we
Speaker 1: have to hold them accountable to ensuring that black businesses
Speaker 1: get these contracts because that creates wealth as well. And
Speaker 1: so there's so many ways we can build wealth in
Speaker 1: our communities by holding each other accountable and creating a playbook.
Speaker 1: And if these people don't care. You know, they don't
Speaker 1: want us to do that. You you didn't vote me
Speaker 1: in here. To be honest, it's so like why do
Speaker 1: you nevers? And so I feel like there's so many
Speaker 1: ways to come at wealth that we just have to
Speaker 1: create this collective um just like planning to do it,
Speaker 1: and we gotta put the right people in the right
Speaker 1: positions to make it happen UM. And we can't no
Speaker 1: longer as you stay stay quiet, and we can no
Speaker 1: longer take positions in which we are just a diversity
Speaker 1: face for company and so be you are ways that
Speaker 1: we can incrementally help each other feel well and begin
Speaker 1: to make a pathway to financial freedom because financial freedom
Speaker 1: unlocked so many doors for us in our communities. Black
Speaker 1: Tech Green Money is a production to blackt the Afro
Speaker 1: Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeart Media
Speaker 1: is produced by Morgan D. Bond and me Well lucas well.
Speaker 1: Then listen to Productive supported by Love Be Tim and
Speaker 1: Risa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael David's Jim Main
Speaker 1: Hall of in nessa Serrano. Learn more about my guests
Speaker 1: and other tech thiss RRE's an innovators at afrotech dot com,
Speaker 1: joining black Tech. Green Money leave us a five star
Speaker 1: rating on nine tunes, look at Your Money, Peace and love,