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Speaker 1: Term sheets the Afro Tech miniseries available on YouTube about

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Speaker 1: Venture Capitol in New York City, February, I'm talking to

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Speaker 1: my Issia League, head of Founder and studio apps that

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Speaker 1: Human Adventures adventure fund, part studio, part enterprise agency. During

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Speaker 1: a conversation in her Park Avenue office. I asked my

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Speaker 1: issue about how to do good while doing good. Now,

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Speaker 1: savvy founders can safely navigate the terrain of building a

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Speaker 1: company that positively affects communities, changes lives, saves the whales,

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Speaker 1: and keeps the plastic out of the ocean while generating

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Speaker 1: a huge return for the investors and equity holders. It's

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Speaker 1: sort of like the Carnegie or Rockefeller mindset, right, Like

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Speaker 1: the idea that you can prioritize building great industry and

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Speaker 1: know that you have an obligation to the broader committee. Right. Um,

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Speaker 1: we straddle that line in that some of our companies,

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Speaker 1: our companies are solving problems for corporations, for customers, and

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Speaker 1: they also happen to have a social good impact. Right.

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Speaker 1: There's a way to like to do to solve a

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Speaker 1: problem that's affecting people in mass and let the commercial

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Speaker 1: outcome be one of the motivators and it's still do good. Right.

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Speaker 1: I think that the challenges that many companies I mentioned

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Speaker 1: before were built for a very small technology companies for

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Speaker 1: a very small group of people and their first world problems. Right.

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Speaker 1: There are actually more people that have myriad problems navigating

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Speaker 1: the United States and their community and services and all that,

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Speaker 1: and someone between the federal government that supports them their

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Speaker 1: own paycheck. They're willing to pay to have the friction

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Speaker 1: taken out of their lives. So I don't think it's

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Speaker 1: a I don't think you're making a choice about social impact.

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Speaker 1: I think that there are more social problems that you

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Speaker 1: can build technology to address that will generator return. I'm

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Speaker 1: Will Lucas and this is black Tech, Green Money. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna introduce you to some of the biggest names, some

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Speaker 1: of the brightest minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black

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Speaker 1: in building or simply using tech to secure your bag.

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Speaker 1: This podcast is for you. Pr Lager, CEO and founder

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Speaker 1: at Fleeting, a commercial fleet management and services company, and

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Speaker 1: the first black man to ever raise more than a

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Speaker 1: million dollars from a crowdfunding campaign. I asked Pierre that

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Speaker 1: since when we think about tech, we rarely think about trucking.

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Speaker 1: How can technology be leveraged to create bigger financial returns

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Speaker 1: into space? Where is their opportunity for innovators like you

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Speaker 1: listening to this episode. I think to often people think

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Speaker 1: that trucking is a cowdboard industry and that's the need technology.

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Speaker 1: And I think I'll telling people that you're definitely wrong about.

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Speaker 1: What technology can definitely do is one is to destigmatize.

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Speaker 1: First and foremost, truck can come with a lot of

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Speaker 1: existing stigmas. Right, average age of the truck driver is

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Speaker 1: fifty four years old. Drivers are spending on average two

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Speaker 1: undred and fifty nights away from their family. The food

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Speaker 1: option on the road is horrible, you know, pretty much

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Speaker 1: like trucking doesn't provide any upwoard mobility two truckers. So

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Speaker 1: by leverage of technology for me and my own person

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Speaker 1: or experience, what I've seen is one you can leverage

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Speaker 1: it to create a system to create the community where

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Speaker 1: you want give drivers better flexibility, better scheduling, where you

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Speaker 1: can understand the data points where ship may need to

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Speaker 1: be picked up, where they need to be delivered. That

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Speaker 1: data right here will allow truck and companies and drivers

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Speaker 1: to create better, more efficient systems around scheduling. As I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: drivers are spending two hundred nights away from their family.

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Speaker 1: That is something that we really need to think about.

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Speaker 1: How does leverage leverage technology allow these drivers because I

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Speaker 1: have more hometown. Another part of it also is on

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Speaker 1: the road. Like I mentioned, drivers cannot find good healthy

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Speaker 1: food on the road. Everything on the road is garbage

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Speaker 1: at truck stop. Well, technology can actually now got a

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Speaker 1: driver to tell a driver, well, there's a restaurant in

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Speaker 1: this area that serves some healthy foods. That's one way.

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Speaker 1: And I think for me, the most impactful way to

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Speaker 1: look at technology in the transportation space is the upward

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Speaker 1: mobility component of it. Right, a lot of truckers getting

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Speaker 1: truck in and what they're saying is that, hey, look

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Speaker 1: this industry, we operate under a seiling cap. We start

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Speaker 1: as a trucker, we die as a trucker. So I think,

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Speaker 1: for me, again, by building technology in the space one

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Speaker 1: and make the business a lot more efficient, it allows

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Speaker 1: anyone to become an operator and trucking and own a

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Speaker 1: fleet of trucks and be able to kind of run operation.

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Speaker 1: That creates more opportunities, create more job and create more entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 1: So definitely leverage of technology. There's a lot of um

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Speaker 1: different section and trucking that can be disrupted. Trucking is

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Speaker 1: very fragmented, and we're talking about we're still operating like

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Speaker 1: we're still in the eighties. So leverage of technology. One,

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Speaker 1: it can create better communication. Two, we can create better

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Speaker 1: efficient processes for these businesses. And three you can collect

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Speaker 1: real data around driver challenges and shipper challenges and build

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Speaker 1: better system to create a more efficient industry. So there

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Speaker 1: are and you know this better than me, there are

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Speaker 1: some drivers who make ninety, you know, a hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars a year and they make really good money. And

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Speaker 1: but still even those drivers who are doing very well,

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Speaker 1: where might they be leaving money on the table. If

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Speaker 1: they were to use technology a little bit better, they

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Speaker 1: could potentially capture more of that opportunity. Absolutely, drivers one

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Speaker 1: of the big challenge those are also, by the way,

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Speaker 1: those rivers that's making a hundred thousand, a hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand, Those drivers on their own trucks, right, so

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Speaker 1: they have to kind of outsource get on freight. They

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Speaker 1: have to make multiple phone calls to find a load

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Speaker 1: from that. If I'm even from Georgia, to North Carolina,

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Speaker 1: and I may have to make six seven calls to

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Speaker 1: find a load in Georgia. Now when I get to

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Speaker 1: North Carolina, I have got delivered that load, I may

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Speaker 1: have to make another eight seven calls to find another

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Speaker 1: load coming back to Georgia. So a leverage and technology,

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Speaker 1: what they will allow um for truckers to do one

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Speaker 1: is stop running empty miles. That's something that you here

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Speaker 1: all the time is when a driver get a load

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Speaker 1: going from one place than the other one, the challenge

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Speaker 1: that they're run into is finding them back. Absolutely, So

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Speaker 1: leveraging technology a lot of drivers to make better decision,

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Speaker 1: allow them to see exactly where he's going. So, for example,

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Speaker 1: I know there's nothing if Florida, but most drivers don't

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Speaker 1: know that. Right, there's really not much freight coming out

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Speaker 1: of Florida. Florida's a is an inbound state. That means

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Speaker 1: a lot of free coming into Florida, but there's not

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Speaker 1: too much free going out of Florida. So me as

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Speaker 1: a driver, if I book a load that's delivering to Florida,

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Speaker 1: how do I find the next load coming out of

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Speaker 1: Florida or neigboring cities in Florida. Well, you don't want

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Speaker 1: to make a thousand phone courts to find that. So

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Speaker 1: technology you can tell the driver through data point and say, okay, well,

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Speaker 1: if you willing to drive an hour away from the city,

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Speaker 1: you can find you a load in Jackson's there, you

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Speaker 1: can find you a little somewhere else. So that technology

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Speaker 1: helped the drivers to kind of really maximize the units

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Speaker 1: or the trucks. I would say, but I think again,

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Speaker 1: trumpers are afraid of technology because whenever they're here technology,

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Speaker 1: they're here autonomous, they're here trucking that's gonna drive themselves,

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Speaker 1: and that's gonna take away their jobs. So they become

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Speaker 1: a little bit defensive about technology. But I think for me,

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Speaker 1: I always tell trumpers is don't look at technology as

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Speaker 1: a tool that's gonna replace you. Look at technology as

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Speaker 1: a tool that's gonna make your days, your life, your

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Speaker 1: business a lot more efficient. So I think drivers leave

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Speaker 1: a lot of money on the table by not leverage

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Speaker 1: of technology to find exactly where's the hot areas to

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Speaker 1: find loads and where is the better area to go

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Speaker 1: into to find a little coming out of the area. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean you mentioned so many things that we're going

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Speaker 1: to be talking about today because it's it's I've been

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Speaker 1: looking forward to this conversation, but somebody who wanted to

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Speaker 1: talk to you for some time. Because we often think

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Speaker 1: of technology as industries, as being a building an app

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Speaker 1: or you know, being a software developer. But look, every

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Speaker 1: industry is impacted by technology. Whether you're in trucking, or

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Speaker 1: whether you're working in the medical, whether you're working in insurance.

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Speaker 1: Everybody is using technology. But if we don't see ourselves

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Speaker 1: as somebody you know that can use technology to help

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Speaker 1: us scale and do business more sustainably, we miss I

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Speaker 1: don't those opportunities. So if you could go in a

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Speaker 1: little bit more there, So folks who don't see themselves

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Speaker 1: as technologists, you know, truckers particularly for this for the

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Speaker 1: sake of his conversation, and people who are building things

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Speaker 1: to support uh, the trucking, the trucking employees or owner operators,

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Speaker 1: How can we number one change our minds to believe

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Speaker 1: that this is not something I should shy from technology

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Speaker 1: getting a better mobile phone because that phone may have

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Speaker 1: an app or that you know, that device may may

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Speaker 1: be able to better help me do my business better.

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Speaker 1: How do we first change our minds? So when you're

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Speaker 1: talking to truckers, what is that value proposition you're selling

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Speaker 1: them and say, look, this is not something that you

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Speaker 1: should be afraid of. This is something that you should

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Speaker 1: embrace because it's gonna help you absolutely. Well. The thing

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Speaker 1: is is that first we have to look at you know,

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Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, look at the average age of

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Speaker 1: a truck driver, right, fifty four years old, so a

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Speaker 1: lot of time, you know, got those truckers are a

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Speaker 1: lot older. You know, they're still operating with flip phones.

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Speaker 1: You know, they're still not really up into up on

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Speaker 1: technology like that. So I think that's a big challenge

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Speaker 1: and that's gonna take a big curve to actually shive that.

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Speaker 1: But I think let's take this further. I think for

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Speaker 1: us is the way I look at it is. I

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Speaker 1: don't think those drivers that exist today is going to

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Speaker 1: be the drivers that we're gonna see ten years from now,

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Speaker 1: fifteen years from there, right, because those drivers are retiring

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Speaker 1: out aliment rate and they're leaving trucking to forgo for

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Speaker 1: for gig economy. So although they're saying there against technology,

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Speaker 1: but they use technology every day, right, they go and

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Speaker 1: drop Uber, theyre using technology on social media, their own Facebook.

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Speaker 1: So drivers will tell you no, I don't use technology,

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Speaker 1: but you look at their phone they have so many

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Speaker 1: different apps. But the thing is, I think it's the

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Speaker 1: approach of the builder, the person that's building that technology. First,

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Speaker 1: how can you relate to that trucker on human level?

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Speaker 1: And I think that's what's missing, is that a lot

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Speaker 1: of tech companies. What I don't want to sell out

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Speaker 1: of tech companies, but I'm looking at let's look at

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Speaker 1: tech companies in the supply chainer justic space is that

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Speaker 1: you know, you have these smart, brilliant children, you know,

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Speaker 1: coming out of college, you know, coming out of Stanford University,

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Speaker 1: coming on Harvard, you know, so you know, coming with

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Speaker 1: these great ideas thinking that hey, look I'm gonna disrupt trucking.

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Speaker 1: But trucking is one of the last industries that still

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Speaker 1: stand with the human component of trucking is very important,

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Speaker 1: like it has to be there. So I would say

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Speaker 1: definitely when we're talking about those engineers, the builders, the

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Speaker 1: people that's actually thinking about building better tools for trucking,

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Speaker 1: first they have to put themselves in the trucker seat, right,

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Speaker 1: they have to understand what is the challenges offer truckers.

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Speaker 1: Then I think they're being a better position to build

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Speaker 1: something that drivers can relate to. Now there's something that

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Speaker 1: exists to their called ever apt fatigue. Right, there's so

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Speaker 1: many different companies building mobile platform in the transportation space,

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Speaker 1: but all they are is existing brokers freight brokers, added

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Speaker 1: a little piece of technology, and then they call it

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Speaker 1: the new disruptive the market. It's really not right. So

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Speaker 1: I think drivers have seen that and drivers thinking that, well,

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Speaker 1: the tech industry is taking them for a full And

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Speaker 1: that's what a lot of drivers are saying, because it's like, well,

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Speaker 1: how do I have Uber Free, how do I have Convoy?

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Speaker 1: How do I have Transfix? How do I have so

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Speaker 1: many different mobile apps that I can log into to

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Speaker 1: find a freight? But not one of these apps talks

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Speaker 1: directly about the challenges that I'm having as a human being,

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Speaker 1: not being able to see my son on his birthday

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Speaker 1: and not be able to attain my build a soccer game,

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Speaker 1: not be able to you know, be with my wife

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Speaker 1: when our anniversary next. So I think if we start

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Speaker 1: taking a different approach when we're talking about technology and

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Speaker 1: start understanding the human behavior that comes with trucking, I

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Speaker 1: think we'll have a better outcome. But I think the

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Speaker 1: main issue is that those UM entrepreneurs, that's intact, although

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Speaker 1: they're building great tools that don't have the driver best

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Speaker 1: interests at hard And that's just tire industry right then

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Speaker 1: the entire industry have come out of our struckers. They

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Speaker 1: don't look as truckers as a valuable partner. They look

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Speaker 1: at struckers as a commodity. I'll tell you go where

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Speaker 1: to go, I'll tell you when I come back home.

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Speaker 1: Nobody ever really put the thinking cap on the self

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Speaker 1: care well. The driver is by far the most valuable

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Speaker 1: asset you can have in trucking. You can have a

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Speaker 1: thousand trucks, a thousand of large shipping companies. If you

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Speaker 1: don't have a driver to move that truck from point

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Speaker 1: A to point B, you do not have a business.

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Speaker 1: So I think it's very important, it's critically important that

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Speaker 1: UM builders really think of drivers and think about their

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Speaker 1: challenges and think about what they go through on a

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Speaker 1: day to day basis to be able to build something

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Speaker 1: that's relatable to that trucker. And I think for me,

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Speaker 1: that's what makes me one of the great leaders in

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Speaker 1: the space because my background is that I've been a

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Speaker 1: trucker for the past, you know, um, fifteen years, been

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Speaker 1: in the space for eighteen years. But I've drove trucks

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Speaker 1: for fourteen years myself, so I understand the pain point

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Speaker 1: on a personal level. So this is why for us

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Speaker 1: when we build them, it's not just say hey, let's

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Speaker 1: go straight to software and build something. First, we want

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Speaker 1: to understand who are we building for, why are we

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Speaker 1: building it, and how can that too will help that

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Speaker 1: driver become a better an entrepreneur, because that's one of

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Speaker 1: the things drivers are asking is that you've seen all

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Speaker 1: these tech companies being you know, overvalued billion more top

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Speaker 1: billion dollar companies, but the drivers that's doing our hard work,

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Speaker 1: they don't see. They don't feel like the builders are

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Speaker 1: thinking about them. And this is why they feel like

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Speaker 1: they're not part of the industry. And I'm pretty sure

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Speaker 1: this is why it feels some type of way about technology. Yeah, yeah, God,

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Speaker 1: you're you're hitting on so many points. Um, so let's

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Speaker 1: let's go in there a little a little bit deeper,

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Speaker 1: because you know, I was gonna ask you about how

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Speaker 1: or what is the particular value proposition black people may

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Speaker 1: have with regards to opportunities for wealth creation and you know,

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Speaker 1: making you know, progress in logistics, but you gave me

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Speaker 1: a better one in that. So often when we think

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Speaker 1: about technology and building things that can be disruptive to

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Speaker 1: your point, we don't think about the the human impact

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Speaker 1: on the other side. But if we did talk to

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Speaker 1: those folks who will be impacted, we could potentially come

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Speaker 1: up with better solutions for everybody instead of trying to

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Speaker 1: throw people you know away. And so, how how is

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Speaker 1: it sold? Let me ask both those questions in one.

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Speaker 1: What is it that you think black entrepreneurs, black innovators,

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Speaker 1: black technologists could uniquely bring to solve that problem because

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Speaker 1: you're doing it yourself, Like, what what is it that

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Speaker 1: we could bring to the logistics industry that would both

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Speaker 1: be valuable but would also help, you know, not displace people. Man,

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Speaker 1: that's some great question and that's something that I talked

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Speaker 1: about all the time. If you look at the trucking industries,

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Speaker 1: the eight hundred billion dollar industry right and of the

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Speaker 1: workforce are minorities. And the things that keep us from

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Speaker 1: growing is like the lack of access to capital, lack

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Speaker 1: of access to partnership and corporate you know, bigger corporations

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Speaker 1: and definitely lack of a sense of innovation. Right, So

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Speaker 1: a lot of times, once again, we're not being exposed

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Speaker 1: to the opportunity technology is bringing into our world today. Right,

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Speaker 1: we always kind of like beyond the curve on when

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Speaker 1: changes are happening. And I think that's what we're seeing today.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of minorities in the trucking space that

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Speaker 1: all you know, running great manual businesses. But I think,

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Speaker 1: how do we get how do we trigger the innovation

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Speaker 1: side of their mind? Right? How do we get them

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Speaker 1: to think, Okay, well, I understand the challenges, I understand

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Speaker 1: those processes, but how do I become And what's the

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Speaker 1: word I'm looking for? Is not the right way, but

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna say lazy, right, because sometimes in order for

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Speaker 1: you to be a great innovator, you have to be

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Speaker 1: a lazy individual, not in a bad way, but in

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Speaker 1: a good way because you're thinking, Okay, well, how can

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Speaker 1: I automate this process. I'm tired of dealing with thousand PaperWorks.

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Speaker 1: I'm tired of dealing with, you know, a bunch of

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Speaker 1: phone calls, like you know, I'm tired of just you know,

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Speaker 1: just kind of hunting and looking for the next driver

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Speaker 1: and hunting and looking for the next best shipment. How

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Speaker 1: do I create innovation around that and build something that

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Speaker 1: can actually one First, they have to think about themselves

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Speaker 1: as an individual business to say, okay, well, if I

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Speaker 1: bring this system into my business, how can this system

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Speaker 1: also make trucking a lot more efficient? But that's the

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Speaker 1: problem right there, right is that. Okay, most carriers or

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Speaker 1: trucking companies operations that are pretty much operate very profit

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Speaker 1: is very slim to none, and trucking it may sound

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Speaker 1: very lucrative, but it's a lot of expenses and a

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Speaker 1: lot of time. These companies are very small nine of

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Speaker 1: this entire eight hundred billion dollar market or made a

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Speaker 1: small trucking companies that's running five trucks or less. So

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Speaker 1: when they make a profit, that don't have enough capital

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Speaker 1: to reinvest it into technology. They don't have enough capital

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Speaker 1: to invest it into new system, so they continue operating

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Speaker 1: the same old way. So I think the one way

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Speaker 1: to change that, first we have to expand the pipeline

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Speaker 1: of black entrepreneur that's getting into tack number one. Right,

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Speaker 1: we have to make it in the sense I'm not saying, hey, look,

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Speaker 1: just get head, open your check buck and right, everybody

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Speaker 1: a check. But I think we have to really change

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Speaker 1: the statistics on how many founders are raising capitals because

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Speaker 1: once they're head those statistics out of billions of dollars

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Speaker 1: being invested on you two percent and going a black,

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Speaker 1: that actually to motivates you to say, oh, I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: go into tech because you're gonna look at those numbers

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Speaker 1: and say, man, there's no way I'm gonna raise a

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Speaker 1: million dollars to build m v P. There's no way

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna even get to a point where i can

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Speaker 1: raised a Series eight. So that keeps a lot of entrepreneurs,

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Speaker 1: especially back black entrepreneurs, from getting into tech space. But

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Speaker 1: if you create, if we can create a better ecosystem

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Speaker 1: that give those entrepreneurs and truck and better access to capital,

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Speaker 1: better access to innovation labs, the way they can think

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Speaker 1: strategically and think about the challenges that they have in

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Speaker 1: their own perspective business and how they can build that

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Speaker 1: to solve a bigger problem, will then start seeing a change.

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Speaker 1: But I think that's start with you know, once again,

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Speaker 1: start with the big VC firms. You know, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about angel firms, and also for us, I'm gonna bring

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Speaker 1: this back. We're talking about our communities as well. Even

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Speaker 1: our communities it's not even fully exposed yet to the

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Speaker 1: power of investment, right, they don't even know yet about

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Speaker 1: the power of crowdfunding. So I think the more we

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Speaker 1: bring um vcs that look like us, the more they

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Speaker 1: see founders that look like is that are building great product,

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Speaker 1: the more we're gonna start changing their mind to thinking

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Speaker 1: the Okay, well, if Pierre can do it, then what

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Speaker 1: I can do it too. Yeah, And for the folks

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Speaker 1: who are African American black folks across the world, honestly,

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Speaker 1: because trucking doesn't mean this global industry, and maybe directly

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Speaker 1: getting involved in trucking may not be for them from

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Speaker 1: a tech perspective or otherwise, But what are those parallel

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Speaker 1: industries and opportunities that support logistics that they could probably

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Speaker 1: you know, find economic opportunity in. Well, I mean, because

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Speaker 1: you can see e commerce is a big thing to

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Speaker 1: in today's age, right, everybody is selling something online and

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Speaker 1: also everybody want to order something today and get it

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Speaker 1: in front of their doors tomorrow. So if you look

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Speaker 1: at that and think deeply, you can find one more

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Speaker 1: opportunities and two you can find ways that technology you

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Speaker 1: will make your business a lot more efficient. Let's say,

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Speaker 1: for example, you sell coffee. You know you own a

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Speaker 1: coffee shop. Roll. If there's no truckers to bring that

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Speaker 1: good from the manufacture to your front door, you don't

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Speaker 1: have a business right Your business will suffer it. Eventually

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Speaker 1: you will go out of business. So I think, looking

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Speaker 1: at those things and look at the value that truck

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Speaker 1: and bring into the industry is where you yourself can

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Speaker 1: become innovator. Yourself to Selky, well how do I create

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Speaker 1: a business