Speaker 1: I'm with Lucas and this is black tech, green money.
Speaker 1: Culture Wireless is a black owned Internet service provider which
Speaker 1: delivers fast, reliable, affordable Internet solutions, and Jerome Howard is
Speaker 1: chief operating officer, working to empower communities with high quality
Speaker 1: and affordable Internet service. Surprisingly, at least to me, the
Speaker 1: digital divide is still a thing. There are still communities
Speaker 1: all across our nation that do not have access to
Speaker 1: high quality, high speed Internet service, and the twenty nineteen
Speaker 1: COVID pandemic exacerbated many of these issues, disconnecting families from
Speaker 1: each other and friends from community. Culture Wireless and shies
Speaker 1: that won't happen again. So I asked Jerome about the
Speaker 1: founding story of this company and how the pandemic provided
Speaker 1: an opportunity for these innovatives.
Speaker 2: An idea that was born out of the pandemic.
Speaker 3: Myself being a technologist, our CEO being a technologist, and
Speaker 3: our friend, our co founder, Bam Sparks, being a culture innovator.
Speaker 3: We saw how our community was impacted by the pandemic,
Speaker 3: and then we discovered that the fastest fiber or Internet
Speaker 3: in Atlanta ran up under this one particular Internet or
Speaker 3: up under this one particular community, and we said, hey,
Speaker 3: these are the kind of problems that arose from the pandemic,
Speaker 3: and this is what we should be solving. So what
Speaker 3: does it look like if we provided internet for the hood.
Speaker 3: And so from there, our CEO went to work and
Speaker 3: started building out the designs and saying, hey, this is
Speaker 3: something doable.
Speaker 2: I think we can do this, and that's how culture
Speaker 2: Willis was born.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want to start I want to start to
Speaker 1: talk with talking about the digital divide. You know, is
Speaker 1: that's still a thing in twenty twenty four, Like what
Speaker 1: is the landscape like geographically for connectivity in the United States.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that is definitely something that is still a thing.
Speaker 3: And you talk about AI and all of these things
Speaker 3: that are being introduced, and that the gap is just
Speaker 3: even going to grow. So right now, as you can imagine,
Speaker 3: even our colleges are in danger. I'm sure you've seen
Speaker 3: the post that Robert Smith made that eighty two percent
Speaker 3: of our HBCUs are still in broadband deserts. And then
Speaker 3: if we know the makeup of those HBCUs, they usually
Speaker 3: sit in a community that is full of you know,
Speaker 3: our people. And so now you think about that and
Speaker 3: growing out not even just limiting to HBCUs and urban areas.
Speaker 3: Think about the rural areas of America, your South Georgia's
Speaker 3: your Mississippi, where things are even worse than we've predicted.
Speaker 2: You know, people having to drive to.
Speaker 3: A local grocery store or McDonald's just to have Wi
Speaker 3: Fi for internet.
Speaker 2: So it's definitely still a thing.
Speaker 1: How I mean, there seems to be so many businesses
Speaker 1: and companies that want to take advantage of the market opportunity.
Speaker 1: How how is the digital divide where you can get
Speaker 1: high speed internet in so many places? How is that
Speaker 1: still a thing these days?
Speaker 3: So you have to look at the companies that are
Speaker 3: providing internet right now. So there are three major companies
Speaker 3: and their focus is to find their their their customer profile,
Speaker 3: so they have to go where that bill makes sense.
Speaker 3: So if you're looking at going to a fluent neighborhood
Speaker 3: versus you know, a mixed income neighborhood, you're going to
Speaker 3: make the best business decision for your company. And that's
Speaker 3: kind of what has driven us to this this pandemic
Speaker 3: or this area that we're in right now. It's not
Speaker 3: just about providing and making sure that access is available
Speaker 3: for everyone.
Speaker 2: It's about the bottom line.
Speaker 3: So by us being a smaller company having the ability
Speaker 3: to be flexible with technologies and not have such large overhead,
Speaker 3: we can find opportunities where these major, large corporations can.
Speaker 1: Is there is there a difference between being able to
Speaker 1: connect to the Internet from a cell phone versus like
Speaker 1: a laptop, And what I mean by that is a
Speaker 1: difference in the opportunities and how you're able to take
Speaker 1: advantage of resources. And here's why I bring that up.
Speaker 1: I have a small business and somebody who works in
Speaker 1: my company, we were in a team meeting and we
Speaker 1: were talking about how, you know, you can access a
Speaker 1: certain app that we use, certain piece of software that
Speaker 1: we use through you know, an app or a laptop,
Speaker 1: right because she was having a difficulty getting access to
Speaker 1: a certain thing from her phone. I'm like, well, just
Speaker 1: use a laptop. And she's like, you know, I'm not
Speaker 1: rich like that to where I've got, you know, just laptops,
Speaker 1: you know, sitting around, And I'm like, to me, like
Speaker 1: it was it was I almost took for granted that
Speaker 1: like everybody doesn't have a laptop sitting around, and it
Speaker 1: was just like revealing to me as somebody who I
Speaker 1: try to be, you know, understanding of what's happening around me.
Speaker 1: It just never clicked that most people don't have a laptop.
Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, most people don't have a laptop.
Speaker 3: And you think about now, most of the kids that
Speaker 3: are growing up now probably have never used a laptop
Speaker 3: outside of their class where when we grew up, having
Speaker 3: a laptop was necessary to do your classes and to
Speaker 3: do anything.
Speaker 2: But now that's not the case anymore.
Speaker 3: And then when you go out to affordability, most of
Speaker 3: these laptops are.
Speaker 2: Not they're not cheap. They're not cheap.
Speaker 3: So you know, without the ACP and those affordable programs
Speaker 3: to help subsidize that costs, the gap grows even wider
Speaker 3: because our community doesn't have the access nor do we
Speaker 3: have a lot of those funds just to allocate to
Speaker 3: buying all of these devices. If you think about most
Speaker 3: of our community or most of the people that suffer
Speaker 3: from the pandemic, their their own subsidized living or subsidized income.
Speaker 2: And so that's been the challenge over the couple of
Speaker 2: past years.
Speaker 1: And so when you decide, hey, we're going to go
Speaker 1: start a new ISP, like, like how does like what's
Speaker 1: the first step you take. And it's like because I'm thinking, like, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, if I want to go create new app,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll just you know, pull out, you know,
Speaker 1: a text editor and start coding and just get to it.
Speaker 1: Like it's super touper simple, because like nothing to get started.
Speaker 1: But if you want to start at ISP, like there's structural,
Speaker 1: infrastructural things you got to do, I imagine, And so
Speaker 1: like what's the first things you do when you try
Speaker 1: to try to start a company like this?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so this place was new to me.
Speaker 3: I came from security, I mean joined you know, our
Speaker 3: co founders and building this company and our CEO who
Speaker 3: comes from the telecom industry and over thirty years of
Speaker 3: experience from AT and T to bail South to you know,
Speaker 3: the various companies. And the first thing he did was
Speaker 3: to look at the lay of the fiber, seeing what's
Speaker 3: available in the area, seeing where the towers are, seeing
Speaker 3: where you know, the last company has laid fiber, Where
Speaker 3: would we be able to access it, and if we did,
Speaker 3: how how far is that from the actual community that
Speaker 3: we wanted to connect to. So that's the first thing
Speaker 3: you have to do is just understand the lay of
Speaker 3: the land. And then the second thing you have to
Speaker 3: do is just get your LLC. It's really that simple.
Speaker 3: It's really that simple.
Speaker 2: Like it's not a permit that you need to start
Speaker 2: an ISP.
Speaker 3: It's not like you have to have so many certifications
Speaker 3: to do this type of technology.
Speaker 2: You just really have to start. And that's exactly what
Speaker 2: we did.
Speaker 3: And we said, you know, putting our expertise together and
Speaker 3: putting out wheel and you know how bad we want
Speaker 3: this to happen, we can do it. And so it
Speaker 3: was just that simple figuring out what was available, figuring
Speaker 3: out and trying to find partners that were able to
Speaker 3: help us, and then just doing it and staying committed
Speaker 3: to the task.
Speaker 1: We recognize in our community that there's a value in
Speaker 1: having really strong partnerships with companies that an't bigger, you know,
Speaker 1: and they're more establishing, etc. I know, you guys are
Speaker 1: partners with Verizon, T Mobile and probably others. Can you
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, some of the critical things you
Speaker 1: needed to do to be prepared for those opportunities when
Speaker 1: those opportunities presented themselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So first we had to show that we had growth,
Speaker 3: we had an actual business, and we had a customer
Speaker 3: base to actually market to, and then they wanted to
Speaker 3: see our marketing strategy. How are we activating in the community,
Speaker 3: How are we getting these customers to be interested in
Speaker 3: culture Wirelens.
Speaker 2: So that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 3: Show our commitment and show our actual numbers of you know,
Speaker 3: what our predictions.
Speaker 2: Were and just from all of the groundwork we've laid.
Speaker 3: So it had to be interesting to them in order
Speaker 3: to even be interested in our partnership. And then we
Speaker 3: had to show them our commitment to just investing into
Speaker 3: the community. So while we do have those partnerships, we
Speaker 3: feel that it is valuable for us to own the
Speaker 3: infrastructure that we're laying into these communities. So we're actually
Speaker 3: spending our own dollars and not depending on these partnerships
Speaker 3: our major networks to lean on their infrastructure solely, but
Speaker 3: actually developing and investing our own dollar to have this
Speaker 3: infrastructure for ourselves so that we can build upon that
Speaker 3: as well. And I think that helps our message to
Speaker 3: show that you know, these guys are serious, these guys
Speaker 3: are committed to their goals, and why wouldn't we want
Speaker 3: to partner with someone who's from the community, knows the
Speaker 3: community and it just the message has traveled very well.
Speaker 1: Where there certain programs that they had or when you say,
Speaker 1: you know, well, look Verizon has this one particular program.
Speaker 1: If we reach out to them about this, we can
Speaker 1: find our way in. Like what was that relationship introduction?
Speaker 2: Like well, so.
Speaker 3: They all have a sort of situation or a partnership
Speaker 3: set up where any small carriers can partner with larger
Speaker 3: major carriers to resell their services. So that is the
Speaker 3: thing it's called MBN or where smaller companies can resell
Speaker 3: those packages. But what most people don't know is those
Speaker 3: connections are many where you have direct connections to like
Speaker 3: a T Mobile or Verizon, those are very few where
Speaker 3: you have to have some type they have to feel
Speaker 3: connected to your brand.
Speaker 2: In order to have a direct connection.
Speaker 3: They'll let you resell all day, But to get the
Speaker 3: wholesale numbers or to get the best numbers that are
Speaker 3: very possible, you have to have a direct connection to
Speaker 3: the major providers, and for that, your messaging has to
Speaker 3: align with their company goals. And I think we fit
Speaker 3: a lot of the things and places that they're looking
Speaker 3: to expand into. And I think, like I said, the
Speaker 3: message has carried very well, whenever we're out pitching cultural violence.
Speaker 1: In solving the digital divide, I find this quote that
Speaker 1: you had mentioned sometime ago in another interview where you said,
Speaker 1: we know that solving the digital divide is more than
Speaker 1: just about having internet. We have to look a look
Speaker 1: at this from a holistic approach. In order to solve
Speaker 1: the divide, we have to create a pipeline, pipeline for
Speaker 1: kids to enter into STEM fields, even at an early age.
Speaker 1: And I want to talk about that particular thing, because
Speaker 1: there is one thing to get them connected, it's another
Speaker 1: thing for them to be able to see the opportun
Speaker 1: t unity that technology allows them to have and not
Speaker 1: just be consumers, which we over index as consumers only
Speaker 1: internet and not building products. Can you talk about what
Speaker 1: culture Wireless is doing and what you guys as are
Speaker 1: serious about in order to you know, make sure that
Speaker 1: we're getting educated in STEM fields.
Speaker 3: Right, so you know, we're very passionate about this, just
Speaker 3: because that's that's exactly what I experienced growing up. So
Speaker 3: I'm from a rural town in Georgia by the name
Speaker 3: of Alimo, Georgia. I was I think I was the
Speaker 3: only kid on my block that had a computer and
Speaker 3: if it wasn't for my parents, you know, being educators,
Speaker 3: I probably wouldn't have had the opportunities that I had,
Speaker 3: just going to different camps and actually experiencing different technologies,
Speaker 3: and that's what grew my my my excitement about the field.
Speaker 3: And it's all about exposure and so growing up knowing
Speaker 3: that how can you start a company that is about
Speaker 3: technology and not being able to trigger them early to
Speaker 3: want to start something, and so we had to find
Speaker 3: partners in the community where we've gone ahead and thrown
Speaker 3: these stem labs where we teach people how to you know,
Speaker 3: we teach them about technology, but doing it in a
Speaker 3: way where it is interesting to them. So for young
Speaker 3: ladies having a STEM lab where you're making lipsticking and
Speaker 3: you're building apps. What you're doing dragging code, but you're
Speaker 3: playing music at the same time and to the app.
Speaker 3: You have to make it interesting for them to be
Speaker 3: attracted to it. You have to show them how it's
Speaker 3: connected to something that they want to do. Like on
Speaker 3: the NBA Games, there's a statistician that is giving the
Speaker 3: person all of the numbers that stem and so you
Speaker 3: have to make that connection where you don't think of
Speaker 3: it or technology or stem being an office job.
Speaker 2: Or someone in a lab in a white.
Speaker 3: Cod doing running experiments and you're never talking to anybody.
Speaker 3: Technology is much more than that, but you have to
Speaker 3: give them that exposure and so culture Wildy we understand
Speaker 3: that and we have to develop that pipeline very early.
Speaker 3: So we seek out partners in the community that are
Speaker 3: holding those type of events so that we can bring
Speaker 3: in engineers and it not be the first time that
Speaker 3: you know, you see an engineer whenever you get to college,
Speaker 3: but you see them when you're in elementary school in
Speaker 3: the middle school, so you can expire to be that person.
Speaker 3: And then we also do the same thing with seniors,
Speaker 3: letting them know that hey, you still can have a
Speaker 3: bunty for life and you know, still be active with
Speaker 3: computer skills. So we go from grade school to the elderly, like,
Speaker 3: you know, you don't have to sit in your home
Speaker 3: and just not be tech savvy. We can teach you
Speaker 3: how to interact with different games or how they interact
Speaker 3: with your family, be a zoom or find some type
Speaker 3: of remote job. So that's the basis of how we
Speaker 3: connect to the community, just finding different partners on how
Speaker 3: we could get in there.
Speaker 2: And actually let them.
Speaker 3: Experience, have hands on labs teaching them about ACP whenever
Speaker 3: it was available. How do you get those codes or
Speaker 3: get those discounts to apply?
Speaker 1: And what is the ACP like, talk to me more
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 3: So ACP was a program that the government had called
Speaker 3: Affordable Affordable Connectivity Program. It actually ended yesterday and hopefully
Speaker 3: the bill gets passed that it is extended. But that
Speaker 3: was a discount program for anyone that qualified. Pretty much
Speaker 3: anyone that seek government assistance would get thirty dollars a
Speaker 3: month off of their technology bill or out for their
Speaker 3: internet bill.
Speaker 2: And if you're on tribal.
Speaker 3: Land that that cut down that that discount increased to
Speaker 3: seventy five dollars. So, like I said, that funding actually
Speaker 3: ran out and so the end of that program is able.
Speaker 3: But the last day to sign up was yesterday, which
Speaker 3: was February seventh, and we are waiting to see if
Speaker 3: that bill is gonna be passed. But you know, we
Speaker 3: use programs like that to incentivize and get people to
Speaker 3: come out. So you know, hey, participate in the STEM lab.
Speaker 3: We can give your a discount of device and then
Speaker 3: you get internet service from that. And so that's kind
Speaker 3: of how we drove engagement to get people interested in
Speaker 3: the technology and then connecting them and then just showing them.
Speaker 3: You know, first of all, they had to be about
Speaker 3: community service, you know, helping them and and going a
Speaker 3: little bit above the extra mile just to get them
Speaker 3: connected and say hey, we're with you through this entire process.
Speaker 3: We're not just gonna let you give your device and
Speaker 3: throw you out there and call us if you need
Speaker 3: help accessing that device. We can do that and that's
Speaker 3: how we've been able to grow throughout the community.
Speaker 1: And so can you talk about where the needs are
Speaker 1: when we talk about as you mentioned AI and coding,
Speaker 1: we talked about you know, when we talk about some
Speaker 1: of our most vulnerable like because a lot of the
Speaker 1: times and brought up seniors, they get left out of
Speaker 1: the conversation when we talk about technology. Can you talk
Speaker 1: about where the needs are and what you're seeing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, as far as in the industry, if you're
Speaker 3: if you're like I said, if you're not aware, there's
Speaker 3: a big push and I'm just gonna talk about it
Speaker 3: from a for an ISP standpoint, there's going to be
Speaker 3: a lot of companies going out and installing fighter around
Speaker 3: the country right now, So there's going to be a
Speaker 3: big need for technicians in the field to do this work,
Speaker 3: from construction work to land fiber optics, understand how fiber
Speaker 3: options work works, and then going to the communities installing
Speaker 3: those fiber option services throughout the community.
Speaker 2: So that's one a space.
Speaker 3: If you have no desire to sit in the office,
Speaker 3: or if you have no desire to be on a
Speaker 3: computer all day, if you're an outside person, there's a
Speaker 3: need for you in that space if you're coming and
Speaker 3: you want to learn more technical skills. One of the
Speaker 3: biggest growing areas right now is security. How do we
Speaker 3: secure these networks, how do we secure their devices, how
Speaker 3: do we secure the apps? How do we secure our
Speaker 3: programs that are connected to credit cards and financial institutions.
Speaker 3: Security is one of the most the highest growing spaces
Speaker 3: in now, and so those are the real two big
Speaker 3: areas that I see a need in AI of course,
Speaker 3: but you know AI. Everyone is talking about AI right now,
Speaker 3: but you're still gonna need security on top of any
Speaker 3: technology that is being released. So those are going to
Speaker 3: be my two. And I'm always gonna leave security because
Speaker 3: that's my background. But I've seen that space is spanning
Speaker 3: over time like crazy man.
Speaker 1: It was another quote I found from you where you said,
Speaker 1: you know, America is made up of different cultures, but
Speaker 1: our culture just so happens to be black. But that's
Speaker 1: not the only culture that we're trying to connect. When
Speaker 1: you think about the vulnerable people in our country and
Speaker 1: who could take advantage of the things that you provide,
Speaker 1: where's like, how do you direct the market opportunity because
Speaker 1: this is culture wi, So do you talk about we
Speaker 1: are building for black people by black people, or this
Speaker 1: is for just people. Talk to me about how you
Speaker 1: think about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this is a black company, but we're not
Speaker 3: a black company, if that makes sense. We're not only
Speaker 3: trying to connect black people. The connectivity problem. Our issue
Speaker 3: is not just for black people. We have rural America
Speaker 3: where most those people don't look like us. Those farming
Speaker 3: communities are those communities that are not located anywhere near city.
Speaker 3: All of those don't look like black people, but they
Speaker 3: still have culture.
Speaker 2: That's their culture.
Speaker 3: If I like going out and hunting and being in
Speaker 3: a wilderness or farming, that's a culture. That's not my culture,
Speaker 3: but that is a culture. So we wanted to make
Speaker 3: something a brand that lets you know, like, hey, we're
Speaker 3: all about culture is what makes us. It doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be one specific culture, but culture is what makes America.
Speaker 3: Culture is what connects us. And so, you know, while
Speaker 3: I'm very proud and supportive but my culture, I recognize
Speaker 3: and understand that other cultures have needs and it just
Speaker 3: doesn't look like one thing or another. We have connectivity
Speaker 3: issues in the hood, but we also have connectivity issues
Speaker 3: in the country.
Speaker 2: It's all culture, and we're here to solve that need.
Speaker 2: This is a black company, but we're not a black company.
Speaker 1: So so how does like a remote workforce change the
Speaker 1: dynamic when you talk about, you know, the digital divide
Speaker 1: and our lack of connectivity in so many areas, you know,
Speaker 1: because I imagine it would widen the gap of the
Speaker 1: digital guide.
Speaker 3: So if you think about it, if you have a
Speaker 3: community that is sixty eight percent black and most of
Speaker 3: those guys are are most of those people are want
Speaker 3: team or only have available warehouse jobs or working at
Speaker 3: the prison, they have no option to even apply for
Speaker 3: a remote job because one they don't have the connectivity
Speaker 3: that supports it.
Speaker 2: Two they don't have the device to even apply for
Speaker 2: those jobs. Let alone hold those jobs.
Speaker 3: So that even widened this gap and limits what income
Speaker 3: they can have they have and that speaks to my
Speaker 3: hometown as well.
Speaker 2: Like most of the people there and they are limited.
Speaker 3: To working at the warehouse, or working at the prison,
Speaker 3: or working at the factory, and they don't have the
Speaker 3: option to apply for a remote job. So what does
Speaker 3: it look like if we go to that community and
Speaker 3: now we provide four G cbrs five G network called
Speaker 3: fiber network, so that they now can apply for those
Speaker 3: type of jobs.
Speaker 2: They can sit at home home and.
Speaker 3: Have a job that is above memum wage without leaving
Speaker 3: the comforts of their home. So it's very important that
Speaker 3: we touch these communities and provide the communications or the
Speaker 3: technologies for them in order to just expand the horizon.
Speaker 2: And it's not and it's not the only thing limit
Speaker 2: to them is where they live.
Speaker 3: That that shouldn't be. That shouldn't be, not an America,
Speaker 3: not in twenty twenty four, It shouldn't be. So that's
Speaker 3: that's that's that's why we feel our mission is so important.
Speaker 1: When you're doing the work that you're doing, you know,
Speaker 1: community service, word, job training, you know you're assisting in.
Speaker 2: Areas like that.
Speaker 1: How does a startup do so many things successfully?
Speaker 3: It goes back to partnerships. You know, we understand that
Speaker 3: we're good at what we're good at. We have to
Speaker 3: have great partners that understand the makeup of the community.
Speaker 3: They know the residents a little bit more than we
Speaker 3: would in a particular area. So you have to go
Speaker 3: where you have to partner with people who know how
Speaker 3: to do the things that you're not good at. And
Speaker 3: so that has been a successful cultural Wireless, making sure
Speaker 3: that we partner with organizations that you know, are from
Speaker 3: the communities that we're looking to serve, and then asking
Speaker 3: them how can we be of help? How can we
Speaker 3: be of service to you so that we can help
Speaker 3: everyone in the community achieve a goal. And so it's
Speaker 3: all about it's all about partnerships. It comes down to partnerships.
Speaker 1: And you know, congratulations, you recently started a fiber roll out.
Speaker 1: You know you're not just mobile anymore. You talk about
Speaker 1: what that means. I have an imagination of what it
Speaker 1: might mean to be in the fiber, but can you
Speaker 1: tell me about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so fiber right now is the fastest connection that
Speaker 3: you can get. But understandably that is also the expensive
Speaker 3: the most expensive technology or expensive process in order to
Speaker 3: deliver services or deliver technology to a community.
Speaker 2: So we've been lucky to one join an.
Speaker 3: Open access network down in Clayton County where we partner
Speaker 3: with an infrastructure company that recently bought up one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirteen miles a fiber and then they wanted to
Speaker 3: connect the residents of that area, so they actually had
Speaker 3: the foundation and we came on as the ISP to
Speaker 3: operate as the service for that company. So we didn't
Speaker 3: build in that way, but we also just want a
Speaker 3: project in Crenshaw Destination Crenshaw where they're looking to connect
Speaker 3: twenty seven thousand residents and businesses along that development, where
Speaker 3: we will be rolling out and building our own fiber.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 3: Like again, that's one of those things where we take
Speaker 3: pride and owning the infrastructure of these communities so that
Speaker 3: we can figure out the best way to advance technologies
Speaker 3: or advance that community. Maybe it's providing sensor so that
Speaker 3: crime goes down, or we can under stand the air
Speaker 3: quality and the areas that we're living in. Owning that
Speaker 3: infrastructure and laying that fiber allows us the ability to
Speaker 3: expand and really develop some type of community as a
Speaker 3: service and platforms that we could really change our neighborhoods upon.
Speaker 2: And you know, the fiber it allows you to do
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 3: It gives you the ability to do so much in
Speaker 3: our communities, from smart cities to you name it, and
Speaker 3: so owning that infrastructure and putting that in the ground
Speaker 3: has been a great asset for our company.
Speaker 1: You know, I want to talk about pivots a little bit,
Speaker 1: because you know, almost every startup has to. You know,
Speaker 1: we come in the game with a certain idea of
Speaker 1: what might work in the marketplace, and you know, you
Speaker 1: you you do a little bit thing, a little bit
Speaker 1: different over here, you change a little bit over there
Speaker 1: to find that product market fit. Talk to me about
Speaker 1: things that you guys assumed in the be and things
Speaker 1: that you said, you know what, let's let's kill this
Speaker 1: over here and focus more on what's working over here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll say one thing that we probably assumed is that,
Speaker 3: you know, because we're going to areas where no internet
Speaker 3: service provider is that people would automatically just signed up
Speaker 3: like Hey, this is the fascinating that here, this is
Speaker 3: the thing, this is the newest hottens. These guys are
Speaker 3: you know, really a part of the community. We're just
Speaker 3: gonna go ahead and sign up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Nah.
Speaker 3: Now, so you know, we had to really educate people.
Speaker 3: So you know, we had to tell what is fiber,
Speaker 3: what does fiber look like? What is the difference between
Speaker 3: five grand wireless? Is our network built by somebody else?
Speaker 3: Or we are we owned by somebody else? Those are
Speaker 3: the type of questions that you know, we had to
Speaker 3: go and really just sit in front of the community
Speaker 3: and say, hey, you know, we are trying to build
Speaker 3: this ourselves. We're not on by anyone, We're not a
Speaker 3: face for anyone. We're coming in the community and building
Speaker 3: this ourselves. These are the type of programs know, whenever
Speaker 3: we sign you up from ACP, no, we're not inviting
Speaker 3: the government into your home to click on to see
Speaker 3: what you're watching and clicking on.
Speaker 2: We have to have those type of conversations.
Speaker 3: So we really had to embed ourselves and make sure
Speaker 3: that we were answering those little bitty questions that we
Speaker 3: never thought anybody would ask. We have to answer those
Speaker 3: and make and show them like, hey, you know, we're
Speaker 3: a part of the community. We're gonna answer every question
Speaker 3: that you have. But we're providing this technology for.
Speaker 1: You because you're doing things in communications. I wonder you
Speaker 1: know what your experience has been like having to work
Speaker 1: with governments and how that is navigating it and getting support.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so, you know, I'm in Atlanta, so uh so
Speaker 3: a lot of our government officials look like us. And
Speaker 3: you know, Atlanta is one of the few cities where
Speaker 3: I feel like everyone support everyone, you know, as long
Speaker 3: as you have a good mission or right a good business.
Speaker 3: I feel like Atlanta is one of those places where
Speaker 3: we have a good mixture between business and the government,
Speaker 3: the school system, the entrepreneurs of the city, like we
Speaker 3: all work together, and just being able to have that
Speaker 3: one on one relationship or knowing someone that you went
Speaker 3: to high school with or for Andre Mayor Dickens. He
Speaker 3: was an advisor at Georgia Take while I was there,
Speaker 3: so I had him prior to being a mayor. So
Speaker 3: whenever he came to our grand opening or our kickoff,
Speaker 3: our lunch party, and so it's having those type of
Speaker 3: relationships in the government that you know, it's beneficial whenever
Speaker 3: you're trying to grow a company or trying to do
Speaker 3: something in the community. Because they know you, they know
Speaker 3: they've seen the work you've put in, they've known the.
Speaker 2: Things that you've done in the community. So that definitely helps.
Speaker 3: On the federal side, we've started working with this and
Speaker 3: what we found there is it's all about relationships. Making
Speaker 3: sure that your your face is seen, making sure that
Speaker 3: your voice is heard, attending those meetings, and actually being
Speaker 3: involved even if it doesn't benefit you. You know, hey,
Speaker 3: you might have to volunteer for something, or you might
Speaker 3: need to go to an event that has nothing to
Speaker 3: do with your business, be seen, be an asset, and
Speaker 3: those are the ways that you you know, you are
Speaker 3: able to partner with the government. Now, the process is long.
Speaker 3: You may not get paid on something that you know
Speaker 3: for a while, but that's that's procurement. That's the process
Speaker 3: that they have. You know, it takes some time to
Speaker 3: get paid by the federal government. You have to build
Speaker 3: a business that you're not just solely depending on that.
Speaker 3: But you just have to make sure you have a
Speaker 3: good relationship, networking, make sure you attend those events. Like
Speaker 3: I said, make sure your face is seen and your
Speaker 3: voice is being heard, and doing positive things things throughout
Speaker 3: the community. And that's the only way that you'll be
Speaker 3: able to have some type of relationship or some type
Speaker 3: of great partnership with government entities.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a quote that I love, and maybe
Speaker 1: it's not a quote, but it's more philosophy in that
Speaker 1: you can do well while doing well. You can do
Speaker 1: good while doing good. And you know a lot of
Speaker 1: what I hear you talking about is passion for you know,
Speaker 1: helping communities who deserve and should have a right to
Speaker 1: be connected and have an equal playing field like many
Speaker 1: of us. Do you know you and I are on
Speaker 1: a high speed internet right now. I assume you're on,
Speaker 1: and so there are communities who are held down because
Speaker 1: they don't have that access. At the same time, you're
Speaker 1: building a business that hopefully, you know, becomes humongous in time,
Speaker 1: and so can you talk to me and I guess
Speaker 1: talk to entrepreneurs who are listening to this in your
Speaker 1: thinking about doing well while doing well?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that, like you said, you can do
Speaker 3: well while doing well making sure that your money does good.
Speaker 2: Good capital a good use of capital.
Speaker 3: I let me see the best way to ask this
Speaker 3: question from from from our standpoint or from how I
Speaker 3: look at it.
Speaker 2: Our community has been one.
Speaker 3: Of the least developed areas and most oftentimes everything that
Speaker 3: is associated to our community or our group or our demographic.
Speaker 3: You know, we get the last bit or we get
Speaker 3: the last portion of it.
Speaker 2: So we have the biggest room to grow.
Speaker 3: We have the best margins that you can think of
Speaker 3: because we are the least development and so there's opportunity
Speaker 3: in that. But at the same time, you have to
Speaker 3: make sure that you're not using our people and just
Speaker 3: trying to come and get money out of the community
Speaker 3: and go do something else with it. And I think
Speaker 3: when you have an authentic message, our community really sees that.
Speaker 3: We can tell that, and we can tell who is
Speaker 3: really just coming to take from the community or who's
Speaker 3: really really trying to invest and make sure that the
Speaker 3: community as.
Speaker 2: A whole does better.
Speaker 3: And whenever you have that authentic voice along with the
Speaker 3: good product, I believe that the community sees that and
Speaker 3: you can definitely do well once you invest in your
Speaker 3: people or in these communities, because we haven't we haven't
Speaker 3: had that development I heard I had.
Speaker 2: I went to a.
Speaker 3: A session where Ambassador Andrew Young was speaking and he
Speaker 3: was talking about, you know, look at everybody wanting to
Speaker 3: have interest in Africa. Right now, everybody is trying to
Speaker 3: move to Africa or have some type of business set
Speaker 3: up in Africa because it's been the least development. And
Speaker 3: so now it's about making sure that we have the
Speaker 3: right companies that are going to Africa, we have the
Speaker 3: right partnerships that are going to so that we can
Speaker 3: build an actual connection and expand the community there. But
Speaker 3: with the right intentions and so there are a lot
Speaker 3: of ways that you can do well while doing well,
Speaker 3: and you know, I feel like there's a lot of margin,
Speaker 3: a lot of opportunity in our companies and we just
Speaker 3: hope that everyone that comes or tries to work in
Speaker 3: this space has an authentic Going.
Speaker 1: To Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity
Speaker 1: Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast network in night
Speaker 1: Heart Media. Is produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas.
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