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Speaker 5: All right, guys, welcome back, e y l. We are
Speaker 5: in our Atlanta headquarters. Yes, yes, yes, So this is
Speaker 5: episode that is going to be extremely educator. I already
Speaker 5: know off the rip. So we talk about funding a business.
Speaker 5: A lot of times people hear about like venture capital
Speaker 5: or they know, like you know, just liquidate the money
Speaker 5: that they have. But equity crowdfunding is something that we
Speaker 5: spoke about a while ago. Shout out to Mike Brown.
Speaker 5: He think it was the first person on our platform.
Speaker 5: He was on a perspective of actually raising money, so
Speaker 5: he came in, he spoke about equity crowdfunding. But it
Speaker 5: hasn't been something that we really have touched on. So Pierre, Yeah,
Speaker 5: the l person sorry, yeah, so actually came to our
Speaker 5: event in La, right, so he has an interesting stories
Speaker 5: from La originally but then was a ten year veteran
Speaker 5: of Wall Street or the Wall Street for ten years
Speaker 5: as a banker and now actually has a startup company
Speaker 5: called Seat at the Table where it's a black owned,
Speaker 5: a black owned equity crowdfunding platform similar to like Republic
Speaker 5: or something like that, right where now you can actually
Speaker 5: go on the platform and a if you're a business,
Speaker 5: you can be listed, and if you're an investor, you
Speaker 5: can look for opportunities to invest in the business. Because
Speaker 5: that's something a lot of people always talking about like, well,
Speaker 5: how can I find these deals to invest in early
Speaker 5: if I'm not you know, So that's what the equity crowdfunding.
Speaker 5: So we'll explain what equity crowdfunding is your platform, all
Speaker 5: of that stuff. But this is extremely important episode for
Speaker 5: a business owners but also from investors as well to
Speaker 5: be educated on how to invest in startup company. So
Speaker 5: this is going to be dope. Shots to my man
Speaker 5: lu Tucker for putting this together.
Speaker 4: The last Lewis, He's going by Lewis now.
Speaker 5: And first and foremost, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4: Appreciate it. We said, La, but specifically Compton.
Speaker 6: Yeah, well since we Compton, Long bea chairs my dad
Speaker 6: is from Compton.
Speaker 4: We wanted we got to make that I want I
Speaker 4: want the Polly eyes.
Speaker 6: So like when you're from LA, like the delineating factors,
Speaker 6: where'd you go to high school? Like really like dudes,
Speaker 6: like you said, like where'd you go to the Poly High?
Speaker 6: I'm like a long beach kid, thro and through. As
Speaker 6: you mentioned, I was in New York for for ten years.
Speaker 6: I was a banker at Goldman. As we talked about,
Speaker 6: I never got rid of my California I d uh, yeah, man,
Speaker 6: it's just kind of like ears of the Streets always
Speaker 6: tapped in, which has kept me grounded. But it was
Speaker 6: definitely frustrating in New York working on Wall Street, just
Speaker 6: in terms of like fit perspective.
Speaker 4: But we can talk about that.
Speaker 5: Let's talk about that now, let's get into it. So
Speaker 5: all right, so coming from from a Long Beach and
Speaker 5: that's a long way from Wall Street. Yeah, so how'd
Speaker 5: you make your way from from California? And he was
Speaker 5: working at Goldman Sachs right, correct, What was your exactly?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I think I think what's important life, man,
Speaker 6: is like when you hear about these stories like what
Speaker 6: can be replicated, people tell you like, oh, I did
Speaker 6: this all that, So you're like, let me know how
Speaker 6: you started, so I can know if it's like attainable
Speaker 6: to me. So I went to public on the Polly
Speaker 6: High four thousand kids on MLK to kind of give
Speaker 6: you perspective, right right next.
Speaker 4: To the poly apartment.
Speaker 6: It's like projects at the time, went to Long Beach
Speaker 6: State undergrad public school. I went to University of Virginia
Speaker 6: for business school, right, and so got an MBA. So
Speaker 6: that allowed me to pivot to banking. But before that, man,
Speaker 6: when I was an undergrad. I was a social science major.
Speaker 6: I wanted to be a I was a psychology anthropology major.
Speaker 6: I wanted to get a PhD in psychology, like health
Speaker 6: the community.
Speaker 4: And I was like my first job out of undergrad.
Speaker 6: Actually, so when I went to business school, that's when
Speaker 6: I found out about banking, investment banking, and you know,
Speaker 6: on the West Coast, banking isn't dig at all. It's like,
Speaker 6: I know, entertainment and so forth. Had a bank account
Speaker 6: at a regular bank. But like you know, even today,
Speaker 6: my parents still don't understand what bank is, my sister.
Speaker 6: But to answer your question, I managed money when I
Speaker 6: was in when I was in New York, so I
Speaker 6: worked at Goldman. I was in their investment management division.
Speaker 6: So I managed money for individuals, you know, ballplayers, people
Speaker 6: that prayed note pass and made thirty forty million dollars
Speaker 6: wealth management, wealth management and then foundations as well. So
Speaker 6: you know, it's a very and so that the minimum
Speaker 6: at that time. This is back from like eight twenty
Speaker 6: nineteen because things have changed. The firm was like a
Speaker 6: twenty million dollar liquid though so not real estate, right
Speaker 6: when you think about people that I have twenty million
Speaker 6: dollars of liquid capital. They walk a very different form
Speaker 6: of life, right, So my job was to get to
Speaker 6: know them, build relationships, but actually to really manage their
Speaker 6: I was their guy. It was like I was reporting
Speaker 6: to somebody else.
Speaker 4: Like so my firm.
Speaker 6: My first account was he was a Frenchman. He's probably
Speaker 6: that I was. I'm not French. She thought I was
Speaker 6: friends who thought about this, you know, the last thing
Speaker 6: may have but shout today's out there. But nonetheless he
Speaker 6: thought I was French. But he was a founder of
Speaker 6: a publicly traded company.
Speaker 4: Ex.
Speaker 6: McKenzie guy like real cerebral. He would call it a
Speaker 6: desk bro and he would literally say it's Pierre there.
Speaker 6: It wasn't like any of the older white dudes was
Speaker 6: like this Pierre. So I was this guy was trading
Speaker 6: de rivert this form, managing markets and so in that
Speaker 6: seat though, it allowed me to see so much deal
Speaker 6: flow and from a context perspective. You know, at that time,
Speaker 6: in my group there were about four hundred of US advisors.
Speaker 6: They're probably about fifteen black advisors. I was one or
Speaker 6: two in New York. But I was very much I
Speaker 6: was more so street facing, right like I was you know,
Speaker 6: I kind of knew everybody.
Speaker 4: It was being helpful to everybody.
Speaker 6: So when there was when it came to like having
Speaker 6: a relationship at Goldman, it was like Pierre was one
Speaker 6: of the first guys you would reach out to, even
Speaker 6: if it wasn't a fit, just to be a resource.
Speaker 4: So you know, it was.
Speaker 6: It was a great experience to that extent in terms
Speaker 6: of being a resource for the people, but in terms
Speaker 6: of managing money for a profile that was drastically different
Speaker 6: than mine, Like that was I wasn't going I wasn't
Speaker 6: going to the Hampton's one.
Speaker 4: I didn't roll crew. Yeah, like you know, it's very different.
Speaker 2: So like when you said fit, that's automatically thinking right,
Speaker 2: Like you have a salary with your managing millions and
Speaker 2: billions of dollars, so like going to work on a
Speaker 2: daily basis, Like what's that like? Because a lot of
Speaker 2: us have never even seen that type of money and
Speaker 2: I had to manage it, So what's that life?
Speaker 6: So when I got the gig, I had to literally
Speaker 6: describe it to my home and my friends like, yo,
Speaker 6: it's like the equivalent getting drafted by the Lakers, because
Speaker 6: dudes don't really get like they didn't really get it right,
Speaker 6: Like all the people that like are b school, like
Speaker 6: all the book smart dudes, like they get it. Like
Speaker 6: all you work at moment one of the best firms
Speaker 6: at the time, Like I got to say, like it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, getting drafted by a Lakers.
Speaker 4: So for me, I was just happy to be there. Also,
Speaker 4: the challenge was.
Speaker 6: Like, especially within our community, like I don't want to
Speaker 6: I don't want to mess things up, right, It's like
Speaker 6: you kind of like keep your head down. You're not
Speaker 6: really loud and vocal. So it was more of a
Speaker 6: surreal feeling being there. I would say one of the
Speaker 6: benefits though, is that although it was frustrating, I saw
Speaker 6: so much deal flow, Like I'm like, so now when
Speaker 6: you think about it, literally talking to somebody that makes
Speaker 6: like notepads and so their business for thirty million dollars,
Speaker 6: like I can make a notepad, right, So, like you
Speaker 6: see so many ideas and how people have accumulated wealth
Speaker 6: and are are are creating businesses and transacting on those businesses.
Speaker 6: But then you also learn the derby in terms of
Speaker 6: like how they're actually starting their businesses right, in terms
Speaker 6: of like where did they start from? Did you kind
Speaker 6: of building from ground up or did somebody cut you
Speaker 6: that check? You know, they give you the first million
Speaker 6: dollars so you can scale. So it was definitely an
Speaker 6: eye opening experience for sure. So you said, working on
Speaker 6: Wall Street seeing deal.
Speaker 5: Flow, you saw that the black house black companies weren't
Speaker 5: being funded.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, so yeah, So my friend network man literally
Speaker 6: is like older black man from like fifty to seventy
Speaker 6: and like a bunch of my young boys and obviously
Speaker 6: our peers, our age group. And the reason why I
Speaker 6: bring that up is that when I was in New York,
Speaker 6: like I used to work with a bunch of like
Speaker 6: senior partners at law firm because I was always giving them,
Speaker 6: like a firm reach out to me.
Speaker 4: It's like, hey, I'm doing seven million dollars on revenue.
Speaker 6: Came home at IPO me and it was like, now
Speaker 6: you finally need like two zeros behind you. But I
Speaker 6: can introduce you to a middle market banker, or I
Speaker 6: can introduce you to you know, an attorney, right they
Speaker 6: can like actually structure the deal. So I was always
Speaker 6: given out opportunities that weren't necessarily a fit for the firm.
Speaker 6: And you know, when you think about the minimums in
Speaker 6: terms of transacting, and they were looking at deal on
Speaker 6: a hundred million dollar companies, right, and like we don't
Speaker 6: work not in.
Speaker 4: That space yet.
Speaker 6: Minimum yeah, yeah, because they got to get their fees
Speaker 6: in terms of like the investments.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So my group is always about trading on information, like
Speaker 6: literally positioning people to get deals done. So the goal
Speaker 6: is you help them sell their business and then when
Speaker 6: they sell their business, they bring the money back to
Speaker 6: you and you manage it. But I saw so many businesses, man,
Speaker 6: that are out there. They're doing you know, three to
Speaker 6: five million dollars that cauldn't get funding from a bull
Speaker 6: back investment bank, let alone funding from some of the
Speaker 6: other resources or other like pipe our other access points
Speaker 6: of capital. We'll love to talk to you guys about that.
Speaker 6: What that looks like from entrepreneurs respective.
Speaker 2: So in terms of funding, right, we got golden up here,
Speaker 2: one hundred millions to the minimum.
Speaker 4: But what's that mid rate?
Speaker 2: It did like a number a scale that that like
Speaker 2: wealth managers use that like if it's ten million, it
Speaker 2: has to be this level.
Speaker 4: Bank it's fifty million, so it's this level.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So let me let me differentiate it too, so
Speaker 6: to having your assets managed. At the time, it was
Speaker 6: like twenty million dollars a liquid network, right. But then
Speaker 6: when you think about a business that may not even
Speaker 6: be liquid yet that wants to sell their business. They
Speaker 6: want to sell that NOTEPAC company for three hundred million dollars,
Speaker 6: it has to be at least one hundred million dollars transaction, right, So,
Speaker 6: like that's the difference between the two. So one is
Speaker 6: getting your assets managed and the other is when you
Speaker 6: when you're trying to engage an investment bank of that
Speaker 6: caliber to do the deal.
Speaker 4: It has to be worth a certain amount, it has
Speaker 4: to be worth their time.
Speaker 6: But there are tons of middle what's called middle market bankers, right,
Speaker 6: So the middle market bankers are typically you know, regional
Speaker 6: smaller banks still notable, Maan, I think there's like excellence everywhere, right,
Speaker 6: you don't got to be at a certain firm.
Speaker 4: I think there's like brilliance.
Speaker 6: Everywhere, but nonetheless they're situated where they can take on
Speaker 6: those size deals. But yeah, but there's just like in
Speaker 6: the equal you got to see more deals than I
Speaker 6: do now. But right, like in the eCos, like there's
Speaker 6: so many interesting companies out there that are looking for
Speaker 6: access to capital, and it's been a challenge, right and
Speaker 6: for a number of varying reasons we can dig into,
Speaker 6: but that when I worked in that capacity, it was
Speaker 6: more so like I have a company that's worth a
Speaker 6: hundred million.
Speaker 4: Helped me sell it? If you help me sell it
Speaker 4: or your firm sells and not bring you the asset.
Speaker 5: So all right, so talk about let's get into equity
Speaker 5: crowdfunding conversation. What made you want to start set at
Speaker 5: the table?
Speaker 6: Yeah, man, it's I think I caught the interview with
Speaker 6: the brother's name was Mike.
Speaker 4: I think I caught the interview. Like, yeah, I think
Speaker 4: I caught that interview.
Speaker 7: Mat.
Speaker 4: It's like I was randomly in a.
Speaker 6: Starbucks and I was just frustrated because like I would
Speaker 6: always when whatever I get it, whenever I would get
Speaker 6: a deal, I would reach out to my network of
Speaker 6: angel investors, wealthy individuals.
Speaker 4: It's a small handful.
Speaker 6: Why, it's not a lot of us, And I'm sure
Speaker 6: they got tired of receiving They appreciated the call, but
Speaker 6: you know, we all get tired of being hit up
Speaker 6: at the same time. So I spent a year working
Speaker 6: at a commercial bank, so it was different about like
Speaker 6: commercial banking, thinking about like a Bank of America where
Speaker 6: you have your deposits or whatever. Right, I worked at
Speaker 6: a commercial bank on the West Coast, Like, well, I'm
Speaker 6: working at the small regional commercial bank. Now I can
Speaker 6: really extend capital and help people get loans and so forth.
Speaker 4: And I realized how hard it was in that space, right,
Speaker 4: So I was watching it. So I was at Starbucks.
Speaker 4: I was frustrated.
Speaker 6: I was watching like YouTube videos, and like randomly, equity
Speaker 6: crowdfunding poppeduble I knew nothing about it. I've never even
Speaker 6: invested in equity crowdfunding portal before that. We all, I mean,
Speaker 6: most of our community knows about gofund me and kickstarted
Speaker 6: for varying reasons, right, but equity clowd funding was different
Speaker 6: at the time. So I saw like this episode from
Speaker 6: this other one of the competing portals, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 6: this is interesting, and I points like raised capital at
Speaker 6: lower dollar amounts right where everybody the community can participate.
Speaker 6: There are tons of research, and I quickly realized that
Speaker 6: there was no portals that was intentionally focused on black
Speaker 6: and brown entrepreneurs. Right, So the name is called it's
Speaker 6: called Seed at the Table and it's a play of
Speaker 6: having a seat at the table or a lack thereof, right,
Speaker 6: so we don't often have a seat at the table.
Speaker 4: For guil flow.
Speaker 6: So gather the group of my friends who call family
Speaker 6: with the process of getting approved by the SEC and FENRA.
Speaker 6: So like all the portals are listed, they're approved. It's
Speaker 6: like equivalent to explain with FINRA's yeah, thank you, because
Speaker 6: sometimes you get caught up ye wait yeah. So FINRA
Speaker 6: is the regulatory agency, right, So like any investment bank
Speaker 6: that is our chartered bank has to deal with the
Speaker 6: regular So the SEC is the Securities Exchange Commission. FINRA
Speaker 6: was an additional regulator. And what they do is they're
Speaker 6: making sure that everything is in proper place, right, so documentation, auditing,
Speaker 6: when companies come to the portal, we have a process
Speaker 6: in place and run diligence and so forth. So seat
Speaker 6: at the table. The team we meet with fineral on
Speaker 6: an annual basis. They're they're monitoring everything on a monthly basis,
Speaker 6: you know, whether it's media, whether it's it's what we
Speaker 6: put on the website, whatever the case they need. But
Speaker 6: they're they're there to ensure the safety of the public.
Speaker 6: Right to make sure that, because what they don't want
Speaker 6: is like anybody just to pop up and create an
Speaker 6: equity crowdfunding portal and start aggregating dollars, right and not
Speaker 6: be uh, you know, good stewards of capital.
Speaker 4: So that's what they do. So they basically regulate the process.
Speaker 5: Can you talk about what equity crowdfunding is for people
Speaker 5: that might not understand?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 6: So I mentioned uh, Kickstart and go Homeie. Those are
Speaker 6: donation based crowdfunding sites. And actually, you know what I
Speaker 6: should mention fun Black Founders is another donation I've got
Speaker 6: to start thinking about us, right, I continue to think
Speaker 6: about fund Black Founders is another donation based crowdfunding site.
Speaker 6: And what they do is that they'll donate. An investor
Speaker 6: can donate, us as a community can donate to the
Speaker 6: companies that we like.
Speaker 4: And when you donate, you may.
Speaker 6: Get some swag or like a T shirt, right, just
Speaker 6: like some kind of like perks.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: But with equity crowdfunding, you literally own a piece of
Speaker 6: the businesses that you're investing in.
Speaker 4: Right. So so it's when President Obama was in office,
Speaker 4: he signed what's called the Jobs Act. Jobs Act took
Speaker 4: many different forms.
Speaker 6: One of the benefits was it allowed for non accredited
Speaker 6: investors now describe a credit versus not non a credit
Speaker 6: investors to be able to invest in businesses. So historically,
Speaker 6: when you think about you always hear people talk about
Speaker 6: VC like I want to give mention capital access, private
Speaker 6: equity access. Historically that was the only available to wealthy individuals,
Speaker 6: so people that made two hundred thousand dollars or more, right,
Speaker 6: or they had a household income of three hundred thousand
Speaker 6: dollars or they have assets of a million dollars, right,
Speaker 6: So you would hear these crazy stories like oh, I
Speaker 6: invested in Uber ten years ago for five thousand dollars
Speaker 6: and now I'm worth fifty million. But the reason why
Speaker 6: you were able to do that because you were an
Speaker 6: a credit investor. I'm sure I can start a five
Speaker 6: thousand dollars among many of my friends right to have
Speaker 6: that opportunity. But when President Obama signed the Jobs Act,
Speaker 6: it allowed for non credit investors, so people that make
Speaker 6: less than that amount to literally invest in the companies
Speaker 6: that they consume, the products that the consumer as well.
Speaker 4: So equity crowdfunding is more broadly.
Speaker 6: Is the ability to invest in companies that lower dollar
Speaker 6: amount too, So you can come to the portal see
Speaker 6: at the table. You can invest in a company for
Speaker 6: a little as one hundred dollars per investment. Two hundred
Speaker 6: fifty dollars per investment are one thousand dollars per investment,
Speaker 6: which is different from the old world when you have
Speaker 6: to cut a twenty five thousand dollars check to be
Speaker 6: invested in one particular company. So now as investors, whether
Speaker 6: creditor or non accredited, you can actually spread those chips around, right,
Speaker 6: It's like that's the cool part about it too. It's
Speaker 6: like now you get to diversify your venture capital portfolio
Speaker 6: and you really do have the opportunity to be an
Speaker 6: investor early stage investor in early stage companies and experienced
Speaker 6: that growth as well.
Speaker 2: So when you are non incredited is there it's still
Speaker 2: a limit amount of assets.
Speaker 4: So fin or sec is on it.
Speaker 6: So typically like ten percent of of your income or
Speaker 6: your net worth. Right, So like when you go to
Speaker 6: sea at the table, there are a couple of questions
Speaker 6: and they'll ask you, like what's your networth? Have you
Speaker 6: invested in equity crowd funding in the past? Because you
Speaker 6: are capped, they tracked that information as well. It's such
Speaker 6: a new space equity crowd funding. So last year companies
Speaker 6: can raise up to a million dollars. This year you
Speaker 6: can raise up to five million. But what's consistent about
Speaker 6: the space is that the regulators are trying to protect
Speaker 6: the investors right.
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Speaker 4: Like why don't want to be limited?
Speaker 6: I want to invest all my bread in this particular startup,
Speaker 6: but they want to make sure when you think about
Speaker 6: venture capital that this is my just recommendation that you
Speaker 6: only invest what you can afford to lose and not
Speaker 6: really be bothered or are constantly focused on right. And
Speaker 6: so you know, there's a lot of intentionality in terms
Speaker 6: of like the disclaimers that you have to check, the
Speaker 6: education that you have to check with navigating the website
Speaker 6: to make sure that you're not going above your means
Speaker 6: in terms of investing in that quek crowd.
Speaker 5: Fund, because like venture capital, what we've been learning is
Speaker 5: that most of the time it's not going to work
Speaker 5: out at all. Like if you invest in ten deals,
Speaker 5: nine might not go anywhere, but the one that does
Speaker 5: work out that can make up for all of the
Speaker 5: ones that don't work out within even more so.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 6: So you know, my day to day I work with
Speaker 6: venture capital firms and like due diligence and like look
Speaker 6: at help them evaluate the comings that they're getting ready
Speaker 6: to invest in. But that's the VC model, right, So
Speaker 6: like they get they raised they have a fifty million,
Speaker 6: one hundred million million dollar fund and they literally are
Speaker 6: making a million dollar investments across one hundred names whatever
Speaker 6: the math works, and they're spreading their chips and they
Speaker 6: just want one investment or hopefully, you know, whatever the
Speaker 6: case can be, to be like one hundred x return.
Speaker 6: They know that the majority of those investments aren't going
Speaker 6: to turn out to anything, but all you need is
Speaker 6: want to be one hundred x. So you know, what
Speaker 6: you just described is the VC approach, where you know,
Speaker 6: day to day investors should take the same approach where
Speaker 6: it's like, all right, you have ten thousand dollars that
Speaker 6: you want to invest. You could invest in one company,
Speaker 6: but in terms of like ease of mind, why not
Speaker 6: invest in a thousand dollars across the table, right, and
Speaker 6: like in the hope that one hits. And obviously, like
Speaker 6: at a twenty x or thex i'll set the math
Speaker 6: just got a bad ten percent.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So, like as far as for people to have an understanding,
Speaker 5: like when they're actually invested in equity crowdfund, can you
Speaker 5: talk about like a safe note.
Speaker 6: Or like yeah, so I think so there's there are
Speaker 6: two audiences, right, So there's the investors that come to
Speaker 6: the portal that want to invest in startup ideas, right
Speaker 6: when you come to our portals, primarily diverse, unpacked entrepreneurs.
Speaker 6: And then there are the entrepreneurs themselves that are trying
Speaker 6: to raise capital. So what you were just describing is
Speaker 6: a vehicle a safe note. It's a vehicle to race cap.
Speaker 6: So you can do a safe note, you can do
Speaker 6: a revenue note, you can do it. You can do
Speaker 6: we're talking about equity. You can also do loans as well. Right,
Speaker 6: So as a business owner, i own XYZ company, what
Speaker 6: I'll do is I'll say I'm going to raise a
Speaker 6: million dollars.
Speaker 4: It's going to be in the form of a safe note.
Speaker 6: So it's basically, I forgot what the S is for,
Speaker 6: but it's up for agreement for future equity, right, And
Speaker 6: so it's a document that says, hey, you invested.
Speaker 4: Ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: Right, it's all contracted up and you know what's important
Speaker 6: on a safe note. This document you can go to
Speaker 6: y combinator dot com. They have them available for companies
Speaker 6: that are thinking about issuing THEBLE. It outlines the specifics
Speaker 6: of the investment the company is worth ten million dollars.
Speaker 6: That's often considered a valuation cap.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: It has a conversion trigger a million dollars, right, and
Speaker 6: then has what's a conversion yep, and it has your
Speaker 6: investment ou so a ten million dollar company, right, evaluation cap,
Speaker 6: you invest ten thousand dollars, right, or you invest one
Speaker 6: hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Right, I'm a ten million dollar company.
Speaker 6: What you'll do is you'll take your investment amount and
Speaker 6: you'll do buy by the valuation cap, and that's your ownership.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So it's you know, it's that one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 6: to buy to buy ten million. That's so much of
Speaker 6: the company that you own. But you're not on what's
Speaker 6: considered to be the cap table, Like you're not listed
Speaker 6: as an owner until it actually converts into real equit.
Speaker 6: You just have this document that the safe note that
Speaker 6: entitles you to equity. So the conversion trigger is you
Speaker 6: you're just a paper holder until I do my next
Speaker 6: round of funding, right, and it has to be a
Speaker 6: million dollars or more because your trigger was a million dollars.
Speaker 6: So once you do a next raise, or maybe you
Speaker 6: get bought out, or maybe somebody comes in and invest
Speaker 6: three million dollars. That's when you convert to equity. But
Speaker 6: what ends up happening is when somebody comes in they say,
Speaker 6: you know what, I'm going to give you five million
Speaker 6: dollars for We'll say ten percent of your business, right,
Speaker 6: So that means that you're worth you know, if you
Speaker 6: can't think of fifty million dollars or whatever, it's going
Speaker 6: to be right. Your math is still divided by the
Speaker 6: ten million dollar valuation cap. You're not diluted. So what
Speaker 6: the safe note does is just really outlines within what's
Speaker 6: inteled in the investment.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: Sometimes when people raise capital, they literally let you come
Speaker 6: in and be on the cap table, right, and you
Speaker 6: are like from day one, an equity owner.
Speaker 4: What's hard about kind of cap table management.
Speaker 6: It's a very expensive process because you have to get
Speaker 6: evaluation on it.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So when many startups are starting their business, they don't
Speaker 6: want to pay forty fifty k to get the business
Speaker 6: our thirty k. Howe you work the math to get
Speaker 6: the business value. They rather extend these safe notes, which
Speaker 6: allow me to say, hey, I'm able to raise capital.
Speaker 6: It's a contract between you and I that says you're
Speaker 6: entitled to the x amount of dollars of exposure right
Speaker 6: cap because you have that evaluation cap. But it's something
Speaker 6: that just documents the process. So there are other ways
Speaker 6: to document it. But safe notes are fairly popular. We
Speaker 6: see the table. We don't endorse one vehicle over the other.
Speaker 6: But when you think about, like in the early VC
Speaker 6: stage Eschal, when you're trying to minimize startup costs or
Speaker 6: minimize legal costs, and safe notes play one a.
Speaker 4: Revenue note, right, are just a debt note.
Speaker 6: So what's interesting to me in the space is that
Speaker 6: so when you think about your business, right, you can
Speaker 6: go to you can try to go to the bank.
Speaker 6: I want to talk about that process. You can try
Speaker 6: to go hit a bag and get a loan and
Speaker 6: they'll give you their terms or whatever the case and be.
Speaker 6: They'll look at your financials for two years and want
Speaker 6: to make sure that you have reoccurring revenue and so forth,
Speaker 6: and they'll give you a standard loan. You're going to
Speaker 6: borrow a million dollars and you're going to pay ten
Speaker 6: percent interest.
Speaker 4: Right So, and you guys know this better than I do.
Speaker 6: Like, as as a debt holder, you are constantly worried
Speaker 6: about paying that the monthly payment or whatever whatever the
Speaker 6: payment may be on that ten percent. Right, with a
Speaker 6: revenue note, you can often structure the repayment based on
Speaker 6: the revenue that you make. So as opposed to saying like, hey,
Speaker 6: every year, I'm paying one hundred thousand dollars ten percent
Speaker 6: on a million dollar loan, I'm only paying, what I'm
Speaker 6: going to do is I'm going to take twenty five
Speaker 6: percent of my you know, yearly revenue, right, and I'm
Speaker 6: going to allocate that twenty five.
Speaker 4: Percent to paying down the debt. Right.
Speaker 6: And so for entrepreneurs that are just getting started that
Speaker 6: are cast strapped, it's like, all right, when money didn't
Speaker 6: come in, I still got to pay the bank. That's
Speaker 6: ten percent. It alleviates that burden where it's like you're
Speaker 6: only paying based when based on the amount of revenue
Speaker 6: that you've accumulated for that year or that month. So
Speaker 6: what the revenue note does it once again and documents
Speaker 6: the process, but it allows the entrepreneur to pay back
Speaker 6: capital based on their revenue as opposed to like the
Speaker 6: monthly are the time frame perspective of it.
Speaker 2: You said something about evaluations and process and how expensive
Speaker 2: that is.
Speaker 4: We've spoken about evaluating before in terms.
Speaker 2: Of how profitable it could be if your company has
Speaker 2: all these things in terms of how they'll be evaluated.
Speaker 4: But what's the actual process, Like, yeah, I think it's
Speaker 4: I think it's worthwhile.
Speaker 6: I managed to talk about like the entrepreneurs process and
Speaker 6: turns the game to access to capital because.
Speaker 4: It's hard man, Like, it's it's I think you know.
Speaker 6: We are encouraging entrepreneurship, and I will continue encourage entreprenship
Speaker 6: entrepreneurship for the people that it works out for.
Speaker 4: But there are four main verticals.
Speaker 6: One is we exhaust our own savings form one case,
Speaker 6: credit cards, balance sheees, and so forth.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: Two is that if you are fortunate to have like
Speaker 6: a robust friends and family network of wealthy individuals, you'll
Speaker 6: tap your friends and say, hey, I'm doing this friends
Speaker 6: and family around. We're doing it via a safe note.
Speaker 6: We'd like to raise one hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: Third is that you go to a bank and you're like, hey,
Speaker 6: I have this business that's revenue generating or not, that's
Speaker 6: profitable or not the things like that's great, but there's
Speaker 6: no recourse, there's no assets to serve as collateral, like
Speaker 6: if the loan were to fall apart, how does the
Speaker 6: bank get paid back?
Speaker 4: Right, So it's a very frustrating process.
Speaker 6: They want to see like two years of income statements, right,
Speaker 6: And like with any instance that they can bank, you'll say, okay,
Speaker 6: well you can put your house up as a former recourse,
Speaker 6: and we still need a second signature as well as well.
Speaker 6: So like access from a banking a traditional banking perspective
Speaker 6: is very challenging. And then fourth is venture capital and
Speaker 6: so with VC we talk about it often, but it's
Speaker 6: hard for anybody to get VC capital, and it's particularly
Speaker 6: hard for black and brown entrepreneurs to get it. And
Speaker 6: in all fairness, the VC community is my clients. I
Speaker 6: work with them on a day to day basis. What
Speaker 6: they're often saying is that, you know, not just like
Speaker 6: it's not a fit. What they're realizing more importantly is
Speaker 6: that we as a community rush the venture capital too quickly, right,
Speaker 6: because once you what ends up happening, it's like I
Speaker 6: have a business. You know, money is going out, no
Speaker 6: money is coming in. I tapped all my sayings, you know,
Speaker 6: kind of with the friends of family around. I can't
Speaker 6: get a loan from a bank. I hear that VC
Speaker 6: is cutting checks, right, like, how do I go about
Speaker 6: getting that money? And so, but you still have an
Speaker 6: established product market fit yet you still haven't got your
Speaker 6: business up and running yet. So we don't necessarily have
Speaker 6: the luxury of operating in the red, right, whereas my
Speaker 6: majority counterparts they can be down for a year or
Speaker 6: two years and they can still operate because somebody's going
Speaker 6: to inject capital. But to your question about the process
Speaker 6: of beginning, you know, valuation or just like that how
Speaker 6: arduous like documenting stuff is right, So we think about
Speaker 6: the restaurant owner, bar owner, or the you know, the
Speaker 6: widget manufacturer. You know, they're operating their business, but when
Speaker 6: they're trying to raise capital, they got to get their
Speaker 6: paperwork documented. So obviously, you know formation in terms of
Speaker 6: the type of company it is, there has to be
Speaker 6: an audit that takes place.
Speaker 4: In equity crowdfunding.
Speaker 6: If you raise zero to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 6: it can be self reported financial so like, hey, I'm
Speaker 6: the CEO, this is my income statement, this is my
Speaker 6: balance sheet, and so forth. When it's two fifty to
Speaker 6: a million, it has to be CPA reviews. So you
Speaker 6: have to pay a CPA to review it over the
Speaker 6: last two years. If it's a million to five million,
Speaker 6: it's a full CPA audit, Right, So to your point,
Speaker 6: like what's the process, Like what is it about the
Speaker 6: cpaud It can be very expensive, right, somebody's going to
Speaker 6: charge you twenty thousand dollars fifteen thousand dollars just to
Speaker 6: evaluate your business and to really get an understanding of
Speaker 6: the financials of the business so you can submit it
Speaker 6: to the SEC. So if you're raising a million dollars
Speaker 6: and maybe you're not even revenue generating yet, and I'm
Speaker 6: saying like, hey, and what are to raise that million dollars?
Speaker 6: You got to do a CPA audit. That's going to
Speaker 6: cost you twenty k. You got to create your safe
Speaker 6: note with an attorney, which we advise. Right, that's going
Speaker 6: to cost you another fifteen to twenty k.
Speaker 4: Right, and then there are some other you know, ancillary costs.
Speaker 6: Well, it's a very expensive process in addition to the
Speaker 6: fees that any equity cloud funding portal will charge.
Speaker 4: You for providing space to facilitate that transaction.
Speaker 6: Right, So you know you may raise and this is
Speaker 6: like getting talked about the legislation how expensive it is
Speaker 6: for folks in general to raise capital, especially for you know,
Speaker 6: startup companies and diverse entrepreneurs, Like we just don't have
Speaker 6: the cash available. Like we're in this process as we
Speaker 6: as an entrepreneur, we're in this process to get access
Speaker 6: to capital. But now in order to get it, I
Speaker 6: got to pay out so much, so much. And in
Speaker 6: all fairness though, you know, when you go to a bank,
Speaker 6: that's what they want to see. They want to see statements,
Speaker 6: they want to see your inventory, right, they want to
Speaker 6: make sure that your affairs are in order. Although with
Speaker 6: equity crowdfunding it's just as rigid and like the diligence.
Speaker 4: Process is the same. But at the same.
Speaker 6: Time that we are not asked particular about who we
Speaker 6: allow them to access capital, right because once again we're
Speaker 6: just a platform that allows individuals to raise from their network.
Speaker 4: So and that's one thing we didn't talk about.
Speaker 6: It's like the beauty of equity crowdfunding is that it
Speaker 6: allows you to monetize your customer base your followers as well. Right,
Speaker 6: if you're a popular person and you have a business
Speaker 6: or an idea, it's like, yeah, you can go to
Speaker 6: a bank or try to go VC, because that's what
Speaker 6: we're talking to people, like why not.
Speaker 4: Start at home?
Speaker 6: And like, now you know, many black folks haven't been
Speaker 6: in a position where we can literally call that wealthy.
Speaker 6: I don't have a wealthy uncle, right, But it's like
Speaker 6: you don't necessarily call that wealthy all, like call your
Speaker 6: friends as opposed to doing a three hundred dollars dinner
Speaker 6: for a person, like have.
Speaker 4: Them investing in your company, right, And then.
Speaker 6: What's also beautiful about it, beyond actually raising the capital,
Speaker 6: is that now you get a form of add you
Speaker 6: can see, right, So it's like, now you have you
Speaker 6: think about your your customers. They love your product, they
Speaker 6: love your show. They're gonna listen no matter what right,
Speaker 6: they're going to consume it. But imagine how vocal somebody
Speaker 6: would be to say, you know what, I love the show.
Speaker 6: I love the product. You should love it too. But
Speaker 6: also I'm an investor in the show. I'm an investor
Speaker 6: in the product.
Speaker 4: You should love the product, and you should think about
Speaker 4: investing as well. So now you've got.
Speaker 6: People carrying the flag on your behalf, right, as opposed
Speaker 6: to getting one check from one individual and like the
Speaker 6: money is good, Like.
Speaker 4: There's no advocacy.
Speaker 6: So I think that when you think about how to
Speaker 6: drive new customers new following, equity crowdfunding.
Speaker 4: Is a very is a viable like a viable outlet.
Speaker 6: In terms of from a dollar perspective and like a
Speaker 6: crowd you know, mobilization perspective.
Speaker 2: So you spoke about ancillary fees and you said that
Speaker 2: the the equity crowdfund platform that's hosting charges you have
Speaker 2: the platformt So is there like an industry standard that
Speaker 2: they charge to.
Speaker 6: Have your host So typically, based on research that our
Speaker 6: team is that it's about seven percent. It can range
Speaker 6: from five to ten, you know, but seven percent on average.
Speaker 6: I see at the table, we charge seven percent. The
Speaker 6: way that we do it, though, is a bit different
Speaker 6: from the industry. So let me kind of talk about
Speaker 6: the nuances of seat at the table. So I see
Speaker 6: the table or a portal like any other equity crowdfunding porto.
Speaker 4: But we tout this concept of family.
Speaker 6: Right, So when you go on the website, you'll see
Speaker 6: you twenty to forty different profiles, and so the family
Speaker 6: members consist of bankers, attorneys, people that worked in CpG
Speaker 6: for twenty years, you know, marketing, like the industry experts
Speaker 6: people that had exits on their end. So when you,
Speaker 6: as an entrepreneur, you come to the portal you're trying
Speaker 6: to raise capital, we provide you with access to the family.
Speaker 4: So now, if you have a.
Speaker 6: Haircare product, there's somebody in the family that worked at
Speaker 6: you know, are a make up probably somebody worked at
Speaker 6: like a Lorel for twenty years, so they can help
Speaker 6: you think through logistics, operations and things of that aguor
Speaker 6: So we charge seven percent just like anybody else does.
Speaker 6: But what we do is, if you're raised a million dollars,
Speaker 6: seven percent of the amount that's raised, you're raising a
Speaker 6: million dollars.
Speaker 4: That's seven thousand dollars in fees. Right.
Speaker 6: What we'll see that the table does that fifty thousand
Speaker 6: is a check, is in cash to see at the table.
Speaker 6: The other twenty thousand is in the form of equity,
Speaker 6: the same safe note that you extended to your community.
Speaker 6: Because what see this thinking is that hey, we are
Speaker 6: long term investors and we are long term partners with
Speaker 6: our community.
Speaker 4: It's not about the one off transaction.
Speaker 6: We're putting so much sweat equity and we're making so
Speaker 6: many introductions that we want to see you be successful
Speaker 6: beyond the actual like raise itself. So they answer your
Speaker 6: question seven percent standard I see the table, it's seven percent,
Speaker 6: but it's five percent cash and then two percent in
Speaker 6: terms of like equity two percent of.
Speaker 4: The raising out in terms exactly.
Speaker 5: So as far as for people that are looking to invest,
Speaker 5: what is some of the education they need to know?
Speaker 4: Like as far as to.
Speaker 5: You invest one thousand dollars, what does that equate to?
Speaker 5: As far as like a percentage breakdown, when should you
Speaker 5: expect to get your money back? How you know, just
Speaker 5: to kind of because I think a lot of times people,
Speaker 5: especially equity crowd fund, it's important for people to be educated, sure,
Speaker 5: so they don't have misleading expectations.
Speaker 6: I mean that's that's what's dope about your shows about
Speaker 6: education and like us, all I'm doing educating So funny
Speaker 6: shout out to the teacher I taught. When you're a
Speaker 6: high school math Domingus High School and Compton. Uh yeah,
Speaker 6: like holoiticing CHAML Yeah, exactly, a bunch of a bunch
Speaker 6: of stars the ingas roll. But you know something big
Speaker 6: on educations, Like I'm educating the investors what you were
Speaker 6: just asking about, But we're also educating the entrepreneurs about
Speaker 6: getting your paperwork or whatever, right, doing the audits, and
Speaker 6: like how do you structure, like what do you use
Speaker 6: a safe note revenue note? But to the question about
Speaker 6: educating the investors, So you're just like you're asking, like,
Speaker 6: so I talked about what's your ownership? So you got
Speaker 6: to take that if it's a safe note, member of
Speaker 6: the evaluation cap, divide and buy how much money you've
Speaker 6: put in, Right, that's your ownership in the company. When
Speaker 6: you think about investing in equity crowdfunding, you should only
Speaker 6: invest what your ones to part ways with.
Speaker 4: Right. It's not like a stock. You know, you're not
Speaker 4: tracking the ticker on a daily basis. Right.
Speaker 6: You know, typically with private and you got to think about,
Speaker 6: like with private investing in general, it's something that you're
Speaker 6: going to hold onto in perpetuity or hold on to forever, right,
Speaker 6: and so the way you get paid back. And this
Speaker 6: is like one of the questions you were like what
Speaker 6: should people think about You should always, regardless of if
Speaker 6: you're doing pe vc, any type of investments, you want
Speaker 6: to ask the person, like what is the exit opportunity?
Speaker 4: How am I getting? What does that look like? Right?
Speaker 4: If you're going to invest in a company.
Speaker 6: So typically it's either you know, the company that you've
Speaker 6: invested in has gotten bought by a strategic right that
Speaker 6: a company that's already in the space that says, hey,
Speaker 6: you're doing something really interesting, let me buy you. Are
Speaker 6: like more notably, we know like people call IPO right,
Speaker 6: are in many instances companies fail, right, And it's like
Speaker 6: that's like, so you have to like literally lock in
Speaker 6: on the possibility, a strong possibility that the company won't
Speaker 6: be successful.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So that's why the disclaimer about and that's only what
Speaker 6: you're willing to part with, know that you can't trade it.
Speaker 6: There's no secondary market. Like it's not like I buy
Speaker 6: a piece of my favorite coffee shop. I invest in
Speaker 6: a piece of my favorite coffee shop. I can sell
Speaker 6: it to you that the industry isn't there yet, they're
Speaker 6: still evolving, right, but it's like the benefit to me
Speaker 6: is like, hey, I own a piece of this coffee shop.
Speaker 6: Maybe the way it was either a debt note or
Speaker 6: maybe they destructure where they're giving our gibing is sometimes
Speaker 6: you can get paid cash, like the investments can give
Speaker 6: you dividends, but you are literally an owner in that bar.
Speaker 6: Or that coffee shop or any other you know probatly
Speaker 6: that you consume. But to answer your question or to
Speaker 6: be more concise about it, yeah, it's like there's no
Speaker 6: secondary market. You're going to own it for your ideally,
Speaker 6: you don't own it forever. You get paid when the
Speaker 6: business sells. Very similar to like, you know, a real
Speaker 6: estate transaction, like you know, when you own a piece
Speaker 6: of the house, when you own the house that you're
Speaker 6: living in, you don't actually make money on the house
Speaker 6: that you're living in until you sell it and you're
Speaker 6: hoping that you're selling it at a higher price, so
Speaker 6: it's what you bought it.
Speaker 5: It's really like two ways. How like in the VC
Speaker 5: world or in this world, you really make money, right
Speaker 5: so that a company goes public or a company is
Speaker 5: purchased Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6: Mean our purcha by strategic Yeah, so and.
Speaker 5: So Amazon boys PillPack for a billion dollars not make
Speaker 5: some money. Or a coin base goes public nots makes money.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And there's so many company there's so many transactions, man,
Speaker 6: that are occurring that you would never even know. Or
Speaker 6: another option is like a private equity firm comes in
Speaker 6: and they they buy eighty percent of your company. You're
Speaker 6: still selling to them, right, It's like, but there's so
Speaker 6: many in those like those transactions often don't get they're
Speaker 6: not in the press.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: We hear about the big names and the IPO companies
Speaker 6: that are doing transactions, but there are businesses. I think
Speaker 6: it's life for an entrepreneur manager to have a business
Speaker 6: doing a million a rev, ten million a rev. Whatever
Speaker 6: the case can be employing people like which is a
Speaker 6: big you know, kind of like delineating factor, having a
Speaker 6: decent lifestyle and maybe selling it to another you know,
Speaker 6: strategic for thirty million dollars whenever you choose to right,
Speaker 6: I mean that ever make the press, but like that
Speaker 6: is a notable transaction. And going back to the original point,
Speaker 6: a middle market banker, a smaller investment bank would do
Speaker 6: that transaction for you. But they're basically bringing capital to
Speaker 6: the table. They're from another institution.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, so you said employing, and so I know
Speaker 2: that's something that you know that you guys do very
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Speaker 4: Yep. Right, So you hire banker's attorneys.
Speaker 2: Talk about that process of not only investing in the community,
Speaker 2: but hiring from the community.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm all about us.
Speaker 6: So my dentist is blag, my attorney's are black, My
Speaker 6: state planners are black, my real estate you know, mortgage
Speaker 6: people are black. Right, Like, I'm very I'm very stern
Speaker 6: about us as a community, especially notable individuals, right, applying
Speaker 6: pressure to say that, Hey, if I'm giving you, if
Speaker 6: I'm working with you or engaging with you, I want
Speaker 6: to make sure that my coverage person is somebody that
Speaker 6: looks like me, are somewhat familiar, right, And so like
Speaker 6: we can't be embarrassed by that, because it's happening for
Speaker 6: everybody else for sure, right, And so in that respect, Yeah,
Speaker 6: like I'm tapped in. I have, you know, for people
Speaker 6: that are coming to the portal, we have you know,
Speaker 6: black and brown securities attorneys. We have black and brown
Speaker 6: CPAs that we like to recommend. We have black and
Speaker 6: brown operations consultants as well, but we try to keep
Speaker 6: it in house so they extend that we want to
Speaker 6: at least say that we made an effort to reach
Speaker 6: out to somebody like us. It doesn't always work that way,
Speaker 6: Like there are still some needs that I have, but
Speaker 6: we'll continue. Like we're like the way we're situated is
Speaker 6: that we're facilitating introductions, that we're facilitating capital. Right, So
Speaker 6: it's like, Hey, as an entrepreneur, I have this particular need.
Speaker 6: The first thing when I think about is like who
Speaker 6: within like the affinity network that I can position?
Speaker 4: So I see the table.
Speaker 6: The family is you know thirty to forty people that
Speaker 6: are industry experts, that are like well worked, resourced individuals,
Speaker 6: and we literally are bringing entrepreneurs into our ecosystem. Right,
Speaker 6: Maybe you didn't go maybe a neighborhood dude, you need
Speaker 6: to go to you know XYZ school, right, and you
Speaker 6: don't have access to like all these individuals. Like we
Speaker 6: make sure that regardless of what your background is, that
Speaker 6: we're actually inserting you into our ecosystems and the network
Speaker 6: that we have.
Speaker 4: That was going to be Earns.
Speaker 2: What's going on this Black History Month? McDonald's is kicking
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Speaker 2: Z leaders across the country who are making an impact
Speaker 2: on their communities. Right now, this generation may have the
Speaker 2: largest influx of young leaders since the Civil Rights Movement.
Speaker 2: They're starting their own organizations, finding ways to empower youth
Speaker 2: and culture, standing up and speaking out. McDonald's is showcasing
Speaker 2: their efforts and the impact they're having on the world.
Speaker 2: McDonald's isn't just a place that serves great food. Crew
Speaker 2: members learn basic business skills that can help them throughout life.
Speaker 2: Cruly leaders like Paricia Hutchison are dedicated to teaching and
Speaker 2: inspiring others. As a Howard student, she not only tutors
Speaker 2: kids to help them succeed, she volunteers at shelters to
Speaker 2: feed the homers and organizations that help the youth. See
Speaker 2: more stories like hers on Instagram at We Are Golden To.
Speaker 4: My next point was like, is there a criteria to
Speaker 4: be on the platform? Right?
Speaker 2: Maybe I didn't have this background and maybe I'm just
Speaker 2: started my business, my first business.
Speaker 4: Is there criteria to be on the plus? Yeah? We
Speaker 4: are we are we are a bit more. We are
Speaker 4: not a bit more.
Speaker 6: We are definitely more patient and friendly in terms of,
Speaker 6: you know, our process of onboarding companies. So I would like,
Speaker 6: we are tapped into the community. We are intentionally created
Speaker 6: for the community.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So when I say that, because there are other equity
Speaker 6: power funding portals that are very stern about seventy thousand
Speaker 6: dollars in revenue right before you before that you're able
Speaker 6: to come onto the portal. We don't have revenue minimums,
Speaker 6: I would say, And there's no education credentials or anything
Speaker 6: like that that's required.
Speaker 4: We are process is.
Speaker 6: That you'll apply, you come on the portal, your create
Speaker 6: a campaign. It's it's your submit your business plan or
Speaker 6: your pitch deck. We were viewing internally with our diligency.
Speaker 6: There's a bunch of interviews back and forth. We circle
Speaker 6: it up among the family and everybody can kind of
Speaker 6: like talk about the idea and then it was you know.
Speaker 4: Assess their interests and then we on board you.
Speaker 6: But like there's a lot of handholding that does not
Speaker 6: exist among other portals as well. So to go back
Speaker 6: to your question, there's no profile requirement.
Speaker 4: I find that.
Speaker 6: Companies that are like direct to consumer or e commerce
Speaker 6: companies perform better in equity crowdfunding more broadly because it
Speaker 6: allows for that advocacy fact, like not only does it
Speaker 6: taste good, right, like you should like it, it taste
Speaker 6: good as well, like.
Speaker 4: I'm also an owner in it. When it's like, yeah,
Speaker 4: it was that that shirt you and earn it? Yeah exactly, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: Like when it's B to B, it's like you can't
Speaker 6: really see it, right, and you can't really mobilize your base.
Speaker 6: So like if it's an app, I think apps work
Speaker 6: really well because now you already said, like I got
Speaker 6: one hundred thousand users, Like the first people you should
Speaker 6: be asked for capital is your one hundred thousand users, right,
Speaker 6: But the mindset is, yeah, asked for capital. But really,
Speaker 6: this is what I think is important for entrepreneurs. Really
Speaker 6: the stories you are making space for those one hundred
Speaker 6: thousand users that you have to participate in your growth
Speaker 6: journey as an entrepreneur, right, And I think that whens
Speaker 6: up happening in our community is that we get these
Speaker 6: dope businesses and I'll support any black business. I'll support
Speaker 6: you without even knowing you, right, Because like I'm all
Speaker 6: about us, right, And it's like you get these businesses
Speaker 6: that are coming up and like, you know what, we
Speaker 6: got to buy that productcause it's black owned, brown owned, right.
Speaker 6: But I think it's the entrepreneurship possibility to say, like, hey,
Speaker 6: support me because I'm black and brown and because you
Speaker 6: know the quality of the product is great. But in return,
Speaker 6: I'm going to provide space for you to invest. So
Speaker 6: as my company grows, you could say like, hey, you know,
Speaker 6: I was doing eight million dollars of revenue ten years
Speaker 6: ago and now I'm doing eighty million, and you were
Speaker 6: an investor there. And so when I sell to a
Speaker 6: strategic or IPO, you are an owner in the space.
Speaker 6: So it allows entrepreneurs to make space on their captable,
Speaker 6: to make space in their company for their community, their
Speaker 6: their family, their friends to be investors, and to like
Speaker 6: really be in the car with them as they're going
Speaker 6: down the road. In terms of you know, succeeding as
Speaker 6: a business.
Speaker 5: So like, what was the steps that you did to start?
Speaker 5: I know you had some speaking of funding, you had
Speaker 5: some like Baron Davis, friend of ours, Ryan from the
Speaker 5: gathering spots. What were the steps that you took to
Speaker 5: get seated at the table off the ground in the
Speaker 5: up and running.
Speaker 4: So a shout out to to Baron Davis la noble,
Speaker 4: like a.
Speaker 6: He's a human, like a normal like normal people man,
Speaker 6: Like I walked and yeah, I shared the room with
Speaker 6: many different people. And I think what's important in life, man,
Speaker 6: is that when you are not in the room, like
Speaker 6: how people are talking about you.
Speaker 4: If you said, like, oh I met Pierre, ninety.
Speaker 6: Nine percent of the time, they're going to say he
Speaker 6: tried to be helpful to me without asking anything back,
Speaker 6: and Barness, you know, equally yoked in that respect. No,
Speaker 6: A couple of other ball players, like it's another guy
Speaker 6: in Anthony Tolliver's known.
Speaker 4: Hooper played for a while in the league.
Speaker 6: And then the other investors are family, are just folks
Speaker 6: like us, like literally bankers, attorneys. Right that said like, hey,
Speaker 6: I know there's tons of entrepreneurs out there that want
Speaker 6: to get access to capital. How can I be of help? Right,
Speaker 6: So that's what that family looks like. Those are the
Speaker 6: vest For me. It was me finally making an ask
Speaker 6: of my network and saying like, hey, this is what
Speaker 6: we're putting together. I want to make space for you
Speaker 6: to participate, but also I want to, like, I need
Speaker 6: to like raise his capital to offset the costs, right,
Speaker 6: And so people came and they knocked on the door
Speaker 6: in abundance. I was like I was Humbolt man. It
Speaker 6: was oversubscribed in both instances where there was capital raise.
Speaker 6: But it was by virtue of the network that I created, right,
Speaker 6: and by virtue of like me managing relationships. And so
Speaker 6: for any entrepreneur, whether you're raising capital or not, like
Speaker 6: your management relationships, whether it's your vendors or your customers.
Speaker 6: So I created a very healthy network of just like
Speaker 6: solid individuals. And then I was fortunate to have people
Speaker 6: that were aligned to Seeds a mission to come in
Speaker 6: and you know, to provide capital and to provide insight. Right,
Speaker 6: So like providing capital in terms of dollars, but I
Speaker 6: think like network and expertise is just as important, right,
Speaker 6: And so we created something special.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: And so when you come and you partner with Seed
Speaker 6: at the table, it really does feel like you are
Speaker 6: sitting among family, like the handholding is needed. And it's
Speaker 6: true because I said, you know, being an entrepreneur is
Speaker 6: such a lonely part. There's so many things that you
Speaker 6: don't know, like I didn't know anything about the space
Speaker 6: right as an entrepreneur, and so like the best way
Speaker 6: to avoid pitfalls is to ask somebody that I already
Speaker 6: went through the process right and get to learn from
Speaker 6: their experience.
Speaker 4: So that's what the Seed family really serves. That.
Speaker 6: So they're not just like investors in terms of seed,
Speaker 6: but they're also the network that is available to every
Speaker 6: issuing company and available to me I got there.
Speaker 4: They're my sounding board as well.
Speaker 5: So navigating the platform from two different perspectives, I must
Speaker 5: if I'm a business owner, I want to get on
Speaker 5: your platform, what do I do?
Speaker 4: All? Right?
Speaker 5: So I created user name, passport log in, so I
Speaker 5: have to do like a bio of the company. I
Speaker 5: have to say, like how much money I'm looking to raise?
Speaker 4: Exactly? What's what's you have to say?
Speaker 6: Much money you're looking to raise, whether it's going to
Speaker 6: be debt or whether it's going to be equity, right,
Speaker 6: which investment vehicle you're gonna use, whether it's a safe
Speaker 6: note or a revenue note or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 6: You have to identify like the industry that the business
Speaker 6: is in, and then once again it is reviewed by
Speaker 6: our leadership team and and experts within that space, like
Speaker 6: we literally have expertise covering any industry right in terms
Speaker 6: of the family and or I've seen it in terms
Speaker 6: of the deal flow, the diligence work that I do
Speaker 6: and my other capacity. So you'll come in, you'll sign up.
Speaker 6: As I mentioned, it's reviewed. We'll have conversations. You pitch
Speaker 6: formerly to no family right or to the leadership team
Speaker 6: within the family, and they'll say that it's a get
Speaker 6: fit for the portal. So we're not the family is
Speaker 6: not a gatekeeper. You're not going to say, oh, you're
Speaker 6: not going to be and so it's hard. It's like
Speaker 6: we're not going to tell you that you're going to
Speaker 6: be a viable business or not, Like we're not nobody
Speaker 6: can do that.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: What we're really trying to assess is do you understand
Speaker 6: that it is an active process in turn of raising capital?
Speaker 6: So are you structured your thought process? Do you have
Speaker 6: your document your documents in order? Do you have the
Speaker 6: story in order so you can go out there and
Speaker 6: successfully raise capital?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: Because the challenges for many entrepreneurs is that we think
Speaker 6: it's easy, got the best idea, are not the best
Speaker 6: business and you should believe in your business, because nobody's
Speaker 6: gonna believe in your business more than you will, right,
Speaker 6: but we often are. We're often there's a misconception that
Speaker 6: you know, I'm gonna go out there and put my
Speaker 6: name on this portal and people are going to rush
Speaker 6: and droves. It's raising cab Like, nah, you gotta hand
Speaker 6: in hand. You got to go out there and literally
Speaker 6: like you know, uh, talk to folks, raise capital, tell
Speaker 6: them your story, right and so, and that's what we
Speaker 6: always whether that's that seed at the table or some
Speaker 6: of the you know, more kind of notable uh platforms
Speaker 6: out there, you're literally driving ninety five of the investors right.
Speaker 6: The portal is literally just legal space right for you
Speaker 6: to transact for to be documented by the SEC and fener.
Speaker 6: And so the best way to describe see it at
Speaker 6: the table versus the competitors, it's like us like throwing
Speaker 6: a party, right, so everybody have everybody all these portals
Speaker 6: have ballrooms at the rents.
Speaker 4: Four seasons or any other kind of venue.
Speaker 6: Right when you go to we go to WE funders,
Speaker 6: when you go to their their ballroom, it's going to
Speaker 6: have more people there because they are like they've been
Speaker 6: known for a while, but you.
Speaker 4: Don't really know what the music is going to be.
Speaker 6: Right when you go to see the table, it may
Speaker 6: be less, but you know they're gonna be playing nas
Speaker 6: They're gonna play a little bit of Kendrick right, a
Speaker 6: little bit of it right. It's like it's like I'm
Speaker 6: handing you the ox, right, and it's like it's like,
Speaker 6: you know, the community goose on the yeah, you know,
Speaker 6: you know, you know, it's literally the communities for us, right,
Speaker 6: and so, and people are going to be a bit
Speaker 6: more patient because what ends up happening is that when
Speaker 6: you do launch, you list on a port on a
Speaker 6: on a on a platform, you want to make sure
Speaker 6: the story that you're telling aligns with the audience, right.
Speaker 6: And so, you know, we are intentional about the people
Speaker 6: that we start black and round diverse entrepreneurs. We understand
Speaker 6: that there's a little bit more handholding that is required
Speaker 6: for that community. The audience and the ecosystem that we
Speaker 6: surround them with are reflective of that. So so hopefully
Speaker 6: Aswerr questions, yes, you all, you create a profile, we
Speaker 6: evaluate you. We're assessing fit more so in terms of
Speaker 6: your ability to raise capital, not in terms of like
Speaker 6: this is going to be like a hitter. Is this
Speaker 6: the ten X returns? It's a betting process. Yeah, it's
Speaker 6: a betting process. And so then we're submitting the documentation
Speaker 6: through the SEC for you and Finero for you. And
Speaker 6: then as an entrepreneur, so once you go and you're
Speaker 6: raising million dollars or one hundred thousand dollars and there's
Speaker 6: no investmental you were asking, there's no investment, there's no
Speaker 6: raised minimum, I should say, right, we typically like to
Speaker 6: stay above one hundred thousand dollars because it's like it's
Speaker 6: a lot of time. It's the cost to us, right,
Speaker 6: A million is like the sweet spot. But what I
Speaker 6: was getting at is when you're when you're raising capital,
Speaker 6: when you go through the equity profiting process, which are
Speaker 6: required as an entrepreneur besides being a good steward of
Speaker 6: that capital and operating your business, is that you have.
Speaker 4: To report to your investors once a year for two years.
Speaker 6: You just have it's your annual investor letter, like this
Speaker 6: is how the business is operating, this is what you know,
Speaker 6: what we're doing. You have to do that for two
Speaker 6: years and that's filed with the SEC. And after that
Speaker 6: you're done. And so then also excuse me, also as
Speaker 6: an entrepreneur, you can raise up to five million dollars.
Speaker 6: But for example, if you raise if you want to
Speaker 6: kind of get your feet wet and say, like, you
Speaker 6: know what, let me raise under two fifty. So I'll
Speaker 6: have to do the expensive audience, right, and just to
Speaker 6: kind of get a feel for the process. You can
Speaker 6: do that, and then when in that same year, you
Speaker 6: can still raise up to another four point seventy five
Speaker 6: million dollars. So it's five million dollars per year, and
Speaker 6: our next year you can go back and raise I
Speaker 6: wouldn't encourage us.
Speaker 4: You can go back and raise another five million, right.
Speaker 6: So that's the dynamical the structure of how things are situated,
Speaker 6: you said, and Charlie said this.
Speaker 2: He said, it's two ways in this business. Right, you're
Speaker 2: gonna get bullet. You're going to IPO and we haven't
Speaker 2: really fled all feel.
Speaker 4: Filfl to work.
Speaker 2: It has to work, it has to yeah, right, And
Speaker 2: so we don't really see many black and brown companies
Speaker 2: I po yep. And so when you're on brown in an event,
Speaker 2: are you looking at the company saying yes, this potentially
Speaker 2: you can sell one day or be bought one day
Speaker 2: or are you looking at it or in addition to
Speaker 2: are you looking at like I could see this company
Speaker 2: IP on one day?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I mean nine percent of all businesses in
Speaker 6: America are small businesses. That means that they're not like
Speaker 6: public trader, right. Yeah, we're definitely for companies that we
Speaker 6: believe in. The hitters we were. We understand how hard
Speaker 6: it is to get to that point, you know, hard like,
Speaker 6: So we're not saying we're not We're not only and
Speaker 6: that's always getting We're not only onboarding companies that we
Speaker 6: think are gonna be hitters, right, We're onboarding companies that
Speaker 6: are successful. They're providing service to the community, they're providing product.
Speaker 6: Maybe they have the opportunity to get sold by strategic
Speaker 6: I think. So what ends up happening is that the
Speaker 6: investors that come to the portal and invest those are
Speaker 6: the questions that they have to ask, right. So we're
Speaker 6: literally we're providing the menu of investments, right, but they
Speaker 6: have to run diligence on their end in terms of
Speaker 6: what success looks like. And I really assessed whether it's
Speaker 6: going to be the next big thing or it's going
Speaker 6: to be something that I own. That's kind of cool
Speaker 6: that I own it. I can kind of tell my
Speaker 6: friends and I own it as well, and hopefully it
Speaker 6: gets bought out by a.
Speaker 5: Strategic So is there any scenario where somebody is investing
Speaker 5: in a company and they can make money if the
Speaker 5: company isn't purchased or if it doesn't go public, like
Speaker 5: if the company just still remain private. But yeah, extremely
Speaker 5: profitable business like dividen Like, yeah, there's any scenario where
Speaker 5: you can still make money if the company is not
Speaker 5: purchased or if there's not co public.
Speaker 4: So twofold, So we.
Speaker 6: Decided to start a bar bar you know, whether whatever
Speaker 6: barrow you want to be in New York.
Speaker 4: But we just started to start a bar in Brooklyn. Right,
Speaker 4: we're gonna have everybody to go there.
Speaker 6: As owners, we can say like we're gonna do distributions, right,
Speaker 6: like you know, monthly distributions based on the revenue. So
Speaker 6: as an owner, as an as a as a founder,
Speaker 6: you have that.
Speaker 4: Ability to do distributions as well.
Speaker 6: I'll give you a more a better example when you
Speaker 6: think about like they're really you can do real estate
Speaker 6: through equity crow moundy as well. You're like you can
Speaker 6: think about all the people that are in that space,
Speaker 6: and you guys both know are better than I do. Right.
Speaker 6: It's like, hey, I want to go buy property outside
Speaker 6: of Tuskegee, Right, I want to buy a.
Speaker 4: Thirty million dollars ten million dollars you know, fifty unit
Speaker 4: it you piece of property.
Speaker 6: Right now, you can aggregate your friends and say, hey,
Speaker 6: we're going to buy this structure. We're going to raise
Speaker 6: but I know that is equity, get the rest in debt,
Speaker 6: whatever the case may be. We're going to create this
Speaker 6: entity to get to raise the equity. We're going to
Speaker 6: buy this property, and so the rent roll right can
Speaker 6: be sent out as distribution. So yes, you can do
Speaker 6: that through equity crowdfunding. We're looking at a franchise, like
Speaker 6: there's a food franchise company that we're a food company
Speaker 6: that's one that's franchising and they're getting ready to build
Speaker 6: a new location and there they want to create an
Speaker 6: LLC or identity that's going to allow them to raise capital, right,
Speaker 6: and so that entity is going to be a co
Speaker 6: owner in that food franchise, right, and there's going to
Speaker 6: be distributions that are paid. So it depends on how
Speaker 6: you as an entrepreneur, structure your business. It's literally equipment.
Speaker 4: I came to you. I'm like, hey, I own this bar,
Speaker 4: all right, Like how do we get paid?
Speaker 6: Well, we get paid by distributions back to the investors
Speaker 6: as well.
Speaker 5: So and then from all right, so we talked about
Speaker 5: it from a business owner, but from an investor.
Speaker 4: The process.
Speaker 5: They go on the website, yep, they create a using
Speaker 5: any password, they fill out a list of to make
Speaker 5: sure that they're not hurting themselves by doing stuff that's
Speaker 5: too risky. I like that if they unlimited, how how
Speaker 5: many companies they can invest in?
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a answer the last question.
Speaker 6: First, you can invest in many companies that keep people
Speaker 6: below that threshold based on your income right ten percent
Speaker 6: of whatever case may be. But the process the reason
Speaker 6: why I kind of got excited because.
Speaker 4: I'm just reminded.
Speaker 6: So when you go to the when you go to
Speaker 6: any portal, you're going to send you popular, your name,
Speaker 6: your birthday, They're going to ask you for your social right.
Speaker 4: And I'm many in our commune like yo, like why
Speaker 4: do they ask.
Speaker 6: Me for my social Like camps go on Amazon and
Speaker 6: go buy like and I was like buying a product
Speaker 6: on Amazon is different.
Speaker 4: And the reason why they ask you for your social
Speaker 4: because they.
Speaker 6: Are KYC laws like know your client laws right, and
Speaker 6: moneylaundrink and so forth. Once again, this is a thinra
Speaker 6: sec government process, right, So we want to make sure
Speaker 6: that the money is coming from exactly who they're who's
Speaker 6: supposed to be coming from and it's all in good standing.
Speaker 6: So they'll ask you for like that demo information. It's
Speaker 6: all safely secured. And then you go on the portal
Speaker 6: and you see whatever company that you like. You literally
Speaker 6: click invest now in a prompt and you want to
Speaker 6: pay by wire, you want to pay my credit card,
Speaker 6: you want to mail in a check. And then once
Speaker 6: you once you submit invest now, you make your payment.
Speaker 6: Then you receive a document that says you are an
Speaker 6: owner in the x y Z company. And then obviously
Speaker 6: that owner receives your information. They required to interface with
Speaker 6: you for the next two years at least once a year.
Speaker 6: But you can invest as many companies as you want,
Speaker 6: just to contingent upon your own balance sheet.
Speaker 2: Is there a number of companies that you're looking to
Speaker 2: have a whole each year? Yeah, like a quota like
Speaker 2: we this is the goal for the year, we want
Speaker 2: to have this many companies.
Speaker 4: So the family wanted to have ten, so they had
Speaker 4: ten this year. Who's the family?
Speaker 6: So the family is of thirty or forty individual So
Speaker 6: it's literally the network, right of people or resources that
Speaker 6: are available to every issuer.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So like there's a leadership team of seven like cmos
Speaker 6: you know, chief onboarding person and so forth. But in
Speaker 6: terms of the collective network, right, what they want to do,
Speaker 6: and like I said, it's like what you should think
Speaker 6: about it?
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: So I'm from I'm from La or Long Beach specifically,
Speaker 6: my parents, my grandparents came from Texas.
Speaker 4: Right when it came from Texas.
Speaker 6: My grandfather was a World War two vat when he
Speaker 6: came to when he came to Long Beach, they all
Speaker 6: pass I hold, people from Texas and his community all
Speaker 6: pass the hat to build a church, right, and so
Speaker 6: like the family effectively passed the hat to build the church.
Speaker 6: Seat at the table, right, and it's like a place
Speaker 6: where we can call home and so forth. So that's
Speaker 6: what I mean by that. Gotcha? So but no, what
Speaker 6: was I'm sorry, what was the question that I was
Speaker 6: going to do? That is the question as far as
Speaker 6: how many come.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So the goal was initially to have ten in the
Speaker 6: first year, and we've accomplished that. In twenty twenty two,
Speaker 6: we want to have at least twenty. Now with this
Speaker 6: show and some of the other media that we're starting
Speaker 6: to do, it's gonna be crazy, right, And so like
Speaker 6: I said, we are we're we're we're not going to
Speaker 6: tell people know without reason or wealth for well said,
Speaker 6: you know, probably it's not the right time. You got
Speaker 6: to think be a little bit more thoughtful about how
Speaker 6: you're going to raise your capital. But what we do
Speaker 6: is that we'll literally hand you to other resources that
Speaker 6: they get you ready. Right, Like we said, we asked
Speaker 6: the next question and we take the next step. So
Speaker 6: to answer your question, we want to have at least
Speaker 6: twenty companies on the part of twenty twenty two and
Speaker 6: then you know twenty three are probably twenty to forty. Right,
Speaker 6: But we don't want to make it like we're like
Speaker 6: we're focused on value, because we still want to be
Speaker 6: we want to have the ability to touch every company
Speaker 6: right to the extent that they want to be like
Speaker 6: touch and have the support.
Speaker 4: So like that it's a fair balance with ideally twenty
Speaker 4: twenty companies for this year.
Speaker 5: So I just want to ask a question about your
Speaker 5: day to day job. Yeah, you do venture capital, diligence
Speaker 5: evaluation or portfolio. Can you just talk like what exactly
Speaker 5: is that?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 6: Yeah, So so my day to day is it's pretty
Speaker 6: cool man a sense that like I'm no longer wearing
Speaker 6: a student tie.
Speaker 4: I'm like, hoodie, get to show my tattoos, airbag.
Speaker 6: I mean like, So, we're going to a digital marketing
Speaker 6: agency and they have this machine AI like that's been
Speaker 6: around for nine years, and what it can do is
Speaker 6: it can forecast revenue growth with ninety percent accuracy. So
Speaker 6: what it does it it'll latch onto a company's analytics
Speaker 6: like Google Analytics, Good Email, Shopify and so forth, and
Speaker 6: it'll say, based on this data, if you invest this
Speaker 6: dollar amount or this timeframe in digital marketing, it's going
Speaker 6: to produce ten x and dollar figures right return with
Speaker 6: once again ninety percent accuracy. So my clients are you
Speaker 6: know the Carlisles TPGs, you know, you know blackstones of
Speaker 6: the world, right venture capital names or capital sponsors. And
Speaker 6: what they do is they come to us and they
Speaker 6: pay us for the technology and they say, hey, can
Speaker 6: you evaluate this company that we're going to end up
Speaker 6: buying our investment in, right, and so we'll come at
Speaker 6: all I see is dell flow in terms of the
Speaker 6: companies that are doing a million dollars in revenue that's
Speaker 6: getting ready to get proper VC money. Our company that's
Speaker 6: doing one hundred million dollars in revenue that we consume
Speaker 6: are a billion dollars in revenue. But they'll take that technology.
Speaker 6: And what it does is that the tech is called Nova.
Speaker 6: What it does is that it'll de risk an investment.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So now it takes the guests work out of like
Speaker 6: how if we bought this company, how much we have
Speaker 6: to put into digital marketing?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: And so what's pretty what's cool about it for entrepreneurs
Speaker 6: and you know, we make sure that the seed family
Speaker 6: seed entrepreneurs that coming to the portal, they have access
Speaker 6: to that technology at.
Speaker 4: A discount and rate.
Speaker 6: Of course, what's cool about it is it takes the
Speaker 6: guest work out of your use of proceed slide. So
Speaker 6: when you think about like an investment pitch bus, I'm
Speaker 6: sharing you guys have seen plenty of them. They're typically
Speaker 6: like ten to fifteen slides. There's always that one slide
Speaker 6: where it's like use of proceeds, and like the US
Speaker 6: to proceed slide is like this pie chart's like, hey,
Speaker 6: I want to raise a million dollars, fifty percent is
Speaker 6: going to go towards head account, twenty five percent is
Speaker 6: going to go towards marketing. The other twenty five is
Speaker 6: like toards some other ancillary calls. That twenty five percent
Speaker 6: towards marketing is very vague, right, And so with Nova,
Speaker 6: it literally specifies which digital marketing channels, which subchannels that
Speaker 6: you're going to run, which time frame, and more importantly,
Speaker 6: what's the return.
Speaker 4: Of that investment.
Speaker 6: So you're raised a million, you're putting two hundred fifty
Speaker 6: thousand towards digital marketing. NOVA will tell you that if
Speaker 6: you put the two hundred and fifty thousand that you
Speaker 6: put into marketing, it's going to return a million dollars,
Speaker 6: like a four return or two million dollars.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 6: So, now you go to your investors and you're trying
Speaker 6: to raise cap when you're asking them for money, like, hey,
Speaker 6: so the investor knows that if I cut you a
Speaker 6: check for one hundred thousand dollars, twenty five percent of
Speaker 6: that is going towards digital marketing and it's going to
Speaker 6: result in you know, two hundred thousand dollars or whatever.
Speaker 6: Do whatever the row ass or the return on adsmen, maybe,
Speaker 6: so Nova is strong. AI been around for you know,
Speaker 6: for nine years. So all I do is talk to
Speaker 6: P and VC investors and literally attaching that technology to
Speaker 6: their investors their diligence process like they're doing like operations, logistic,
Speaker 6: financial diligence. They looking through the numbers that we purely
Speaker 6: coming in and looking at digital marketing diligence. So I
Speaker 6: don't know, I always like to come varying gifts and
Speaker 6: we talked about this a little bit earlier, man, But
Speaker 6: I'm a big fan of the show, a big fan
Speaker 6: of like the education and the mentoring that you all doing.
Speaker 6: So what I would like to do, so the technology
Speaker 6: no potically goes to like twenty to forty thousand, that's
Speaker 6: what I sell on a day to day basis. What
Speaker 6: I would like to do is I would like to
Speaker 6: extend note it's called Noba diligence. I will like to
Speaker 6: extend a noble diligence audit to one of your your students, right,
Speaker 6: and you guys can determine what that looks like and
Speaker 6: maybe you announced the winner.
Speaker 4: Maybe we go to the gathering spot, we go to
Speaker 4: hilltop in.
Speaker 6: La right, but like we announce the winning back once again.
Speaker 6: It's like you guys are worked with so many entrepreneurs,
Speaker 6: so you know it's an opportunity for them to get
Speaker 6: their use of proceeds slide together.
Speaker 4: Run this technology. If it's like a.
Speaker 6: B to B company, it can approximate lead leads like
Speaker 6: the lead lead generation with ninety percent accuracy as well,
Speaker 6: so it doesn't have to be e commerce D two C.
Speaker 4: It can also work in the B to B space.
Speaker 6: But to see the table family would like to cover
Speaker 6: the costs of one of the nova diligence for one
Speaker 6: of your students.
Speaker 5: So I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: I appreciate that.
Speaker 5: What we'll do with somebody from EO University because you
Speaker 5: have like twelve other people in there, so a lot
Speaker 5: of business owners in India, So we'll find a way
Speaker 5: to kind of see who would be the best fit. Sure,
Speaker 5: and then yeah, well we'll extend that and connected dots
Speaker 5: on it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I would say tap in with us seat
Speaker 6: to the table dot com. I'm at seat of the
Speaker 6: table on all social media platforms. You can find me
Speaker 6: on LinkedIn Pierre Leveo, L E, Space v A u X.
Speaker 6: I'm pretty active on there. If people don't know me
Speaker 6: that I'm always like about passing information, passing the balls,
Speaker 6: Like there's some way I can be helpful, even if
Speaker 6: it's not a fit for seating the table. Like, there's
Speaker 6: so many people in the network that I think that
Speaker 6: I just like to see us work together. Right, So
Speaker 6: if there is a company that you know is not
Speaker 6: in a position yet to raise equiprofit, and that's okay.
Speaker 4: There are tons of other resources that I know of.
Speaker 6: For example, the company that worked the nine to five
Speaker 6: Power Digital, we have an accelerator, right that I helped.
Speaker 4: I was instributed on creating.
Speaker 6: We're taking slots, like I've been positioning all my friends
Speaker 6: to get an accelerator, Like you know love takes send
Speaker 6: that to your network. So with that accelerator, what they're
Speaker 6: doing is they're the digital Marketing shop is donating two
Speaker 6: hours of free digital marketing services per month, right, and
Speaker 6: so like now you can talk about your paid search,
Speaker 6: paid media and you can like get.
Speaker 4: The expertise or have access to expertise.
Speaker 6: So we're taking, we're taking participants for that accelerator. There
Speaker 6: are tons of like resources that I've come across and
Speaker 6: then in the network as well, So I want to
Speaker 6: make sure that I continue to be an extension of
Speaker 6: all of you and extension of everybody else that's.
Speaker 4: In your network too.
Speaker 5: I appreciate that. So what's next? What's next? Seed at
Speaker 5: the Table?
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 6: We're trying to you know, onboard as many companies as possible,
Speaker 6: help them raise capital. You know, I can't go into
Speaker 6: too much detail in terms of like the financial trajectory
Speaker 6: of the firm, but ideally, you know, we think about
Speaker 6: our premises making space for the community to participate in
Speaker 6: the products that they are consuming. Ideally we will make
Speaker 6: space for the community to participate in you know, the
Speaker 6: economics of seat at the table. So that's definitely forthcoming
Speaker 6: within the next year. When what I mean by that,
Speaker 6: it's like the opportunity for the community to actually invest
Speaker 6: in skate at the table, right, and so like that
Speaker 6: is critical to us. You know, we pride ourselves on
Speaker 6: being communal. It's not about one person. And that's why
Speaker 6: you can hear me say family, family, it is you know,
Speaker 6: it's like it's like like making sure that everybody has space,
Speaker 6: so more users, more investors to come to the portal
Speaker 6: to invest in the amazing companies that we have, right
Speaker 6: but still being diligent about their processes, understanding that they
Speaker 6: can lose money and gotta get educated.
Speaker 4: Always got to give up this slavor.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: But also a company is coming to the portal that
Speaker 6: are raising capital and then you know, they raise capital
Speaker 6: and we continue to be helpful to them after the raise. Right,
Speaker 6: So five years from now we can say that we launch,
Speaker 6: or even three years, three or four years, we launch
Speaker 6: one hundred companies and one or two are bangers in
Speaker 6: a sense of like an IPO or maybe they need
Speaker 6: like a like a crazy series A for twenty five
Speaker 6: million or a B for fifty million.
Speaker 4: And I know that I was able to provide a platform.
Speaker 6: We were able to provide a platform where the community
Speaker 6: was able to like participate in that journey.
Speaker 4: Like that is success.
Speaker 6: It's the only black companies blackroun so you know, like
Speaker 6: anything of the diaspora.
Speaker 4: But but that said, we're opening.
Speaker 6: And so I just got an email from a gentleman
Speaker 6: who's like, hey, you know, I'm not a diverse entrepreneur,
Speaker 6: Can I come to the platform, Like, yeah, you definitely can.
Speaker 6: We're open to it. But we are just very intentional
Speaker 6: about making sure that there are space for focuses for
Speaker 6: black and yeah. So we don't like anybody can come
Speaker 6: on the portal, yeah, but the focus to make sure
Speaker 6: that we want the community to know that we exist,
Speaker 6: right and for the in comparison to the other portals
Speaker 6: that are out there, you know, we understand your journey, right,
Speaker 6: we understand your challenge because the ends up happening, man,
Speaker 6: especially with VC, for a lot of the service providers,
Speaker 6: they're like, oh, I want to raise xCE nine dollars.
Speaker 4: They're like, oh, just go ask your friends.
Speaker 6: It's like there's a lot of things that that business
Speaker 6: excuse me, that demo takes for granted, right, that isn't
Speaker 6: really relevant to our community. Right, It's like, oh, like
Speaker 6: legal costs are only fifty thousand dollars, Like that's expensive,
Speaker 6: Like don't I don't have that right now?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 6: And so we're a bit more patient in the sense
Speaker 6: that we understand like how burdens some are expensive that community.
Speaker 6: So we're going to try to provide a resource to
Speaker 6: you that is a little bit more cost friendly, right
Speaker 6: as well, But yeah, anybody can come to the portal.
Speaker 6: We just I think it's important, man. It'd be like,
Speaker 6: you know, intentional about the service that we're providing and
Speaker 6: that the community that we're focused on. And this is
Speaker 6: so what's crazy that this is before all the uprising
Speaker 6: and everything that happened over the past year. So c
Speaker 6: was actually approved by SEC and Fenera in December twenty
Speaker 6: twenty twenty. They didn't go to the public in terms
Speaker 6: of putting companies on the portal to July twenty one.
Speaker 6: So you think about that time frame, there was so
Speaker 6: much money slashing around in terms of like you know,
Speaker 6: guilt money, right in terms of yeah, all these firms
Speaker 6: like you gotta spend money, yeah, yeah, gotta Yeah. It's
Speaker 6: like so the team was like they're anxious, been like
Speaker 6: we should like really get it up, and that's the
Speaker 6: Clubhouse was still kind of popping a little bit, like
Speaker 6: like they're like, oh, we need something for us, like
Speaker 6: a portal for us and support our businesses.
Speaker 4: And we were anxious.
Speaker 6: We wanted to go to go to market, but we
Speaker 6: were very intentional on our end to make sure that
Speaker 6: the user experience flawless is very similar to like working
Speaker 6: like with the Goldman, right in a sense that we
Speaker 6: didn't want to rush the market and have any mishaps
Speaker 6: or any glitches. So we were very patient and and
Speaker 6: want to make sure that everything was in place the
Speaker 6: right way before we.
Speaker 4: Went to market.
Speaker 6: So opening anybody, but we were int to make sure
Speaker 6: that the community knows that we exist.
Speaker 2: Yea, rather than asking for a seat at the table,
Speaker 2: created the table literally and planning the seas yep.
Speaker 6: Literally, that's like that is that is the goal man
Speaker 6: and the name resident randomly. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 6: appreciate the album, like the or the song, but like
Speaker 6: the name resonate, like we literally don't have any seat
Speaker 6: at the table. And so when I was a banker
Speaker 6: in New York, I used to see so much, like
Speaker 6: I said, I used to see so much deal flow
Speaker 6: and so many opportunities to generate.
Speaker 4: Well, but I was the only dude in the room, right,
Speaker 4: and I didn't always have a.
Speaker 6: Bag enough to participate, right, But like I knew so
Speaker 6: many people that could, and I felt I.
Speaker 4: Was just frustrated by it.
Speaker 6: And I think that you know, now we're in a
Speaker 6: position that continue to ask you know institutional excuse me,
Speaker 6: ask the institutions for calvil. You can go that route,
Speaker 6: you should, right or at least consider it. But now
Speaker 6: be mindful of the fact that you can literally raise
Speaker 6: among your own community, right, and like that's like that's
Speaker 6: exciting to me, right to create something and allow space
Speaker 6: for your community to be involved in, but also to
Speaker 6: allow along those lines to allow them to like really
Speaker 6: participate in the growth journey, right, and like to really
Speaker 6: be an owner and something. So everybody doesn't have twenty
Speaker 6: five thousand dollars to make that minimum friends and family investment.
Speaker 6: You may have a thousand, right or you gonna you know,
Speaker 6: you can you can kind of accumulate it from a
Speaker 6: volume perspective as opposed to just being one person or
Speaker 6: cutting one check.
Speaker 4: That's dope.
Speaker 5: So I encourage everybody at least just to check it
Speaker 5: out for educational purposes. Go on the website, look, read,
Speaker 5: do get due diligence. You might say, okay, this this
Speaker 5: is a sports company. I find it's interesting. I find
Speaker 5: you know, this is a company that's specialized in how
Speaker 5: to you know, bring farming to the new age technology.
Speaker 5: You know, it's a good education Because I'm as soon,
Speaker 5: like they have bios you can actually.
Speaker 6: Read and you interface with them and everything. It's all
Speaker 6: like all so the pump, the comments have to be
Speaker 6: public sec can so like and I encourage you to
Speaker 6: go on you know, talk to the companies, ask them
Speaker 6: what their exit plan is, right and like I like
Speaker 6: ask us like get up to speed, educate Like you
Speaker 6: guys are all big about education, Like educate yourself. And
Speaker 6: you have the ability to interface on the portal as well. Yeah,
Speaker 6: go there and learn reach out to us. We are
Speaker 6: we continue to look for companies to onboard as well. Right,
Speaker 6: you know, I'm would never be overwhelmed by by the
Speaker 6: amount of companies that reach out to us, because at
Speaker 6: the end of the day, even if they are not
Speaker 6: a fit for us, again, you know, we're happy to
Speaker 6: hand them off to somebody else that we think is
Speaker 6: as another.
Speaker 4: As a better fit.
Speaker 6: So please continue to you know, keep us in mind
Speaker 6: when you know that when that person is asking you,
Speaker 6: like when your friend is asking to raise capital, say hey,
Speaker 6: have you ever thought about raising through sea at the table?
Speaker 6: And it's a great resources session for people that get
Speaker 6: hit up all the time in terms of being investors,
Speaker 6: Like now you have a platform where you can raise
Speaker 6: a word, entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: Can raise among their community, their friend networks and so forth.
Speaker 5: Appreciate it. Brother, can you tell them again.
Speaker 6: Like the West, Yeah, man, Www dot C at the
Speaker 6: table dot com. It's a seed S E E d
Speaker 6: on I G LinkedIn. It's at seed at the table.
Speaker 6: You know you can email us email us at info
Speaker 6: at sea to the table dot com. Uh, you know,
Speaker 6: I see all the emails. The team sees all the emails,
Speaker 6: but tap in with us.
Speaker 4: Man. We are we are among the community.
Speaker 6: You know, we are everywhere in terms of the family,
Speaker 6: like you know, you know, we're we're here to be
Speaker 6: a resource and I and that's one thing.
Speaker 4: And like I'm glad you know we're talking about this
Speaker 4: out a lot.
Speaker 6: We're trying to do more media right because we've been
Speaker 6: like very stealth bone and turns like you know, black
Speaker 6: posts work really hard, work really hard, and I'm show
Speaker 6: them in the end right now, or you know, making
Speaker 6: sure that we kind of show them now because it's
Speaker 6: important for us the community to know about us as
Speaker 6: opposed to one the competitors.
Speaker 4: Like had I known how to work with Sea at
Speaker 4: the Table. Yeah, see the table dot com at seats the.
Speaker 6: Table in all you know forms of social media. Please
Speaker 6: email us if you have any questions. Want to get
Speaker 6: up to speed. I want to learn a couple of things,
Speaker 6: and you know, do your research, you know, understand the
Speaker 6: risk of equity cloud funding, and just you know, make
Speaker 6: sure when you're talking to entrepreneurs you always.
Speaker 4: Ask, like what is the exit opportunity? Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: But I got a good feeling that those emails are
Speaker 2: gonna yeah after this, Yeah.
Speaker 6: I love it, man Like, I don't say that, Like
Speaker 6: I said, even if it's not a fit. Man Like,
Speaker 6: there's like there are other either donation based cloud funding
Speaker 6: portals or like incubators that I think are worth you
Speaker 6: know the conversation. Right, So, and there are tons like
Speaker 6: even like positioning firms to work with, you know, giving
Speaker 6: them access to besides the one that we were sponsoring for.
Speaker 4: You guys like them access to Nova. Right.
Speaker 6: It's like when man, when I was in banker at Goldman,
Speaker 6: like they let me in the shop. I used to
Speaker 6: always try to quoe uquote hook people up and put
Speaker 6: them in like to conferences that they part historically wouldn't
Speaker 6: been able to be in our rooms.
Speaker 4: That the historical wouldn't been able to be in.
Speaker 6: That's the same way like I navigate see at the table,
Speaker 6: that's the same way I navigate.
Speaker 4: You know, nova technology, Like.
Speaker 6: If I can be helpful and I know that, you
Speaker 6: know it's going to add value to somebody else, like
Speaker 6: and I know that the person I'm giving it to
Speaker 6: is gonna be responsible and it's not gonna be a waste.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna plug you for sure. Man. So shout out
Speaker 4: to the family. Yeah, shout out to the family.
Speaker 2: So like a mafia, right, It's like, Yo, it's almost
Speaker 2: like a syndic Yeah, shout out to the family.
Speaker 4: Shout out to all the ernest on Eyo University. I
Speaker 4: know we love y'all.
Speaker 2: It's over twelve thousand members there, so I definitely I'm
Speaker 2: sure they're gonna check theirself.
Speaker 4: And I shout out to the entire merch team.
Speaker 2: Obviously, you see, we got some some fripful ourselves might
Speaker 2: be who's been hooking us up with that We got
Speaker 2: some some real cool stuff coming and uh yeah, man,
Speaker 2: love is love.
Speaker 4: Thank you for all the support. Man. We'll be back
Speaker 4: with y'all next week.
Speaker 6: Gradulate you both on what you've accomplished and like I said,
Speaker 6: we we we we've come across each other and we
Speaker 6: like shared similar spaces. But what I mentioned what's important
Speaker 6: is like what people say outside of you, right, and
Speaker 6: it's like obviously you're doing this, but like at the
Speaker 6: same time people are like other good dudes. It's like humans. Right,
Speaker 6: It's like like that's like that's capital, that's welcomed me now.
Speaker 4: Like I saw that.
Speaker 6: I saw a form of aspect of the bag when
Speaker 6: I was working on washing, like I got little ones. Man,
Speaker 6: it's all about that legacy. Like you know, I want
Speaker 6: somebody to pull up on my son and my daughter like, yo,
Speaker 6: I need your dad. He was he did X y
Speaker 6: Z and didn't ask in the back man. So tend
Speaker 6: my hat to what you guys are accomplished and actually
Speaker 6: what's in store. So definitely want to make sure I'm
Speaker 6: tapping into Yeah.
Speaker 2: Shout out to my man lou Tucker once again, Lewis Lewis,
Speaker 2: Nice Eli, l Lewis, Thank you.
Speaker 5: Guys for rock West. Will see you next week.
Speaker 3: Peace, peace, my graduates from my school being forced bad
Speaker 3: drop drop drop drop drop.
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