Speaker 1: Let's get this started. I'm super glad to be here
Speaker 1: with you today because then this first conversation that we're
Speaker 1: going to have is about corporate responsibility and closing the
Speaker 1: wealth gap. Who realizes that actually corporations do have a
Speaker 1: responsibility in making this my man? One person knows that
Speaker 1: corporations have a responsibility. Here the blueprint presented by Northwestern
Speaker 1: Mutual Misfireside Discussion will delve into the critical role of
Speaker 1: corporate responsibility and addressing the wealth gap through real time
Speaker 1: examples of how Northwestern Mutual is doing it. Especially they
Speaker 1: have this SARE task Force, which is a sustained action
Speaker 1: for Racial Equity task Force, or they're putting people whose
Speaker 1: jobs it is to make sure this thing happen happens
Speaker 1: in collaborations with global partners. These speakers will explore successful strategies,
Speaker 1: actionable frameworks, and best practices that companies can adopt to
Speaker 1: actively participate in closing the wealth gap, ultimately promoting economic equity,
Speaker 1: financial literacy, and inclusive financial well being for all. So
Speaker 1: we're going to have this conversation with Abim Kola, who
Speaker 1: is vice president, chief audit executive and a member of
Speaker 1: the company's Enterprise Leadership Group and was appointed executive sponsor
Speaker 1: for the CEO led Sustained Action for Racial Equity initiative
Speaker 1: aimed at helping to close the racial wealth gap. And
Speaker 1: the moderator here today is Dennis Kale, co founder and
Speaker 1: CEO of Zert You and So Zert You So. And
Speaker 1: he's also a Navy veteran. Any veterans in the building
Speaker 1: right now, any families of veterans, I like that, thank
Speaker 1: them and thank you guys for your service. He's an
Speaker 1: SMU Graduate Bank board member and award winning entrepreneur, including
Speaker 1: afro Tech Future fifty honoree this year Forbes Next one thousand,
Speaker 1: d CEO five hundred n Ey Entrepreneur of the Year winner.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the stage, moderator Dennis Kale and our panelist
Speaker 1: Abim Cola.
Speaker 2: All right, Rondover pause here is.
Speaker 3: But I knew of Ben would hold it down for us.
Speaker 3: So thank you, sir.
Speaker 4: That's what we do as military veterans, right, Thanks for
Speaker 4: your service.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Happy to serve and happy to be here.
Speaker 3: So let's get it kicked off ready, start with you. You
Speaker 3: know Northwestern Mutual Financial Services Company founded in eighteen fifty seven,
Speaker 3: been around one hundred and sixty six years. You guys
Speaker 3: are big backers and supporters of black businesses, of black companies, founders,
Speaker 3: underrepresented founders. Can you talk a little bit about how
Speaker 3: that support fits into your overall mission from an organizational standpoint? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, But before I get started, I just want to
Speaker 4: take a moment to say thank you so much for
Speaker 4: having us.
Speaker 2: It's always a pleasure.
Speaker 4: I was here in March of last year and the
Speaker 4: energy in the room was palpable. It's just incredible to
Speaker 4: see a sea of African Americans here and to be
Speaker 4: able to have this conversation with you is phenomenal. So thanks,
Speaker 4: thanks for having us to the point you made. Northwestern
Speaker 4: Mutual is a financial services company based out of Milwauka, Wisconsin.
Speaker 4: I moved here from New York City to go join
Speaker 4: that company for a variety of reasons. One of the
Speaker 4: principal reasons was exactly the commitment what we're going to
Speaker 4: be talking about today. I saw a company that was
Speaker 4: so committed. The vision of the company is to eliminate
Speaker 4: financial anxiety from Americans in particularly. We know that undersilved communities,
Speaker 4: there's this gap within other SILF communities and I could
Speaker 4: see at that time twenty years ago when I was
Speaker 4: packing up from New York City, I'm moving to Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
Speaker 4: that I was going to connect with a company that
Speaker 4: had a deep vision and mission around financial security fall.
Speaker 2: Now fast forward.
Speaker 4: Through the ten twenty years that I've been at the company,
Speaker 4: the company's been involved in a variety of things in
Speaker 4: the community, trying to improve the lives of the community
Speaker 4: because it matters to us in terms of how we
Speaker 4: developed the communities. Fast forward to unfortunate mode of George Floyd.
Speaker 4: We decided to really really double down in a very
Speaker 4: sustained way to really begin to uplift communities, particularly the
Speaker 4: Black and African American community.
Speaker 2: And I'm sure we're going.
Speaker 4: To be going a lot deeper into the sustained action
Speaker 4: for racial equity. But our CEO basically took it upon
Speaker 4: himself post the George Floyd Murdim to actually conduct one
Speaker 4: on one interviews. How many people do that one on
Speaker 4: one interviews with Black and African Americans to deeply understand
Speaker 4: the experiences not only within the community but our advisors.
Speaker 4: And he came away really committed even more committed building
Speaker 4: on all the things that he had been doing, that
Speaker 4: we had been doing for years to really make sure
Speaker 4: that we have a program which I'm very proud of
Speaker 4: to be the executive sponsor today that is leading the charge.
Speaker 4: And again I'm sure we'll get into the details, but
Speaker 4: high level, we created the Sustained Action for Racial Equity,
Speaker 4: a task force cheered by the CEO, and I say
Speaker 4: cheered by the CEO because in this day and age,
Speaker 4: there's nothing more important in my opinion, that leadership courage.
Speaker 4: I was reading a little about Joon Sanders day and
Speaker 4: they talked about the audacity to be brave, and I
Speaker 4: am just so proud to work for a CEO who
Speaker 4: is so brave to be in a position like this
Speaker 4: myself to recognize that people are waiting for us to
Speaker 4: take a step back an instead we're leaning forward. So
Speaker 4: I'm sure we're getting too a lot of the programmatic
Speaker 4: aspects of the things that I'm very proud of how
Speaker 4: we're leading and supporting black businesses, But just want to
Speaker 4: say that this commitment we've had is built on generations.
Speaker 4: But we're even more committed to make sure that we
Speaker 4: are reaching and touching lives, particularly in the underrepresented communities.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that, and thank you for your courage too.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, and now I'm going to flip it back to you.
Speaker 4: Right, we're here talking about one of the things that
Speaker 4: inspired us as part of some of the initiatives was
Speaker 4: this notion of access to capital.
Speaker 2: We wanted to make.
Speaker 4: Sure that as part of building on how we've been
Speaker 4: supporting black businesses and underrepresented communities for decades, we knew
Speaker 4: that obviously the gap in terms of access to capital
Speaker 4: is real.
Speaker 2: This has been studied, and we talked about three things.
Speaker 2: I like to say.
Speaker 4: It's getting in the game, so access to capital, to
Speaker 4: get in the game, to start a business, thriving in
Speaker 4: the game in terms of fall and financing, and then
Speaker 4: you know, obviously creating the opportunity to scale businesses such
Speaker 4: that they could be supplies to companies. So what's your experience, Dennis,
Speaker 4: in terms of getting in the game, staying in the game,
Speaker 4: and thriving in the game.
Speaker 2: You have a business that is doing pretty well, You're
Speaker 2: thriving right now.
Speaker 4: Why do you talk a little bit about your business model,
Speaker 4: what you do and then speak to some of those categories.
Speaker 3: Sure, thanks, abim So, just by way of quick background,
Speaker 3: Dennis kel founder CEO at Zertu. We have a mission
Speaker 3: to drive financial equity and inclusion, one relationship at a time,
Speaker 3: and we do that by simplifying loans between friends and
Speaker 3: family and baking in and bill pay transparency. So if
Speaker 3: I borrow three hundred dollars from a BIM to pay
Speaker 3: my pass do AT and T bill. Once a BIM
Speaker 3: approves that loan, instead of the money coming to me,
Speaker 3: Zrchu sends that money straight to AT and T minus
Speaker 3: our success fee. So that's how we make money. And
Speaker 3: came up with this idea probably ten plus years ago
Speaker 3: because my sister and other family members would borrow money
Speaker 3: from me and I had limited success in getting that
Speaker 3: money back, and so my thought process was, how do
Speaker 3: I take the awkwardness out of this but also help
Speaker 3: make them more accountable. But the big issue I had
Speaker 3: was not really knowing that the money was being used
Speaker 3: for the intended purpose. And so I give you that
Speaker 3: context because my background started and my career started in
Speaker 3: the Navy as a systems engineer sett an up shift
Speaker 3: to shore ship to ship communications. But prior to that,
Speaker 3: I grew up in very humble beginnings. I grew up
Speaker 3: in low income public Housing and Monroe, Louisiana. We didn't
Speaker 3: have banks or credit unions or financial services companies in
Speaker 3: my neighborhood, but we had several liquor stores and pawn
Speaker 3: shops that would cast your check for thirty percent of
Speaker 3: whatever your check was. So even at seven years old,
Speaker 3: I knew that was bad math. And so you fast
Speaker 3: forward walked outside the naval base after boot camp. There
Speaker 3: was a lot of payday lenders, etc. And so I
Speaker 3: say that to say me founding Zertu and starting this
Speaker 3: company is really mission driven, but it also goes go
Speaker 3: back to making sure that I was being intentional about
Speaker 3: finding investors like Northwestern Mutual that are aligned with our mission,
Speaker 3: because that is extremely critical and it's not ever about
Speaker 3: just taking money from anyone. One of the first questions
Speaker 3: I ask any investor is what do you bring beyond
Speaker 3: the capital? I think that's important, and I think you
Speaker 3: have to have people around the cap table, around the
Speaker 3: table that are in it with you for the mission
Speaker 3: and understand that you can do good. You can do
Speaker 3: well by doing good. And so that's what ZRCHU sets
Speaker 3: out to do. And I think it really starts with
Speaker 3: those early checks from investors and partners like Northwestern Mutual
Speaker 3: that are willing to take a risk on you and
Speaker 3: then understand that you're going to do everything you can
Speaker 3: not to make a liar out of them and make
Speaker 3: sure you have a strong ROI. And so for us,
Speaker 3: it's really about aligning yourself with the right partners early,
Speaker 3: because I do think that has a lot to do
Speaker 3: with your success. And by the way, they've made several
Speaker 3: introductions from a corporate standpoint, so we can drive our
Speaker 3: revenue as well, and so there's so much more that
Speaker 3: they bring to the table. And that's what I encourage
Speaker 3: any founder of Color to seek out, is those investors
Speaker 3: that are aligned with you, that understand you, that understand
Speaker 3: the bridge that you're trying to build, because that's going
Speaker 3: to drive your success. And so I take very little
Speaker 3: credit for the success we've had to date and give
Speaker 3: most of that to the support system that we have
Speaker 3: around us.
Speaker 2: It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you back to you so post George Floyd. Okay,
Speaker 3: a lot of companies, corporations made a lot of commitments,
Speaker 3: a lot of promises. Most of those have been broken
Speaker 3: at this stage, and I'm sure everyone in this room
Speaker 3: can tell you some of those promises have been broken.
Speaker 3: Can we talk or can you tell us a little
Speaker 3: bit about Northwestern Mutual and your commitments then and now
Speaker 3: and sort of where you guys are and really what
Speaker 3: advice would you give to other corporations.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really like the topic of this conversation in
Speaker 4: terms of corporate social responsibility to close the wealth gap
Speaker 4: because we are all uniquely positioned to be able to
Speaker 4: do our you know, a path a part in helping
Speaker 4: to close the racial wealth gap. You know, I'm just
Speaker 4: going to share a little bit about the why, the what,
Speaker 4: and the how. So you know, I talked a little
Speaker 4: bit about the why that this is uniquely aligned to
Speaker 4: our vision. But we recently had another conversation with our
Speaker 4: CEO and where we landed is this is simply a
Speaker 4: growth strategy. It is good for business. It's more than
Speaker 4: just being altruistic. Investing in your communities, doing what you
Speaker 4: can to really enable black business is good for business.
Speaker 4: We want to grow, we want to be relevant, we
Speaker 4: want to be competitive. Marketplaces have a change in and
Speaker 4: if you stick with your old business model, you will
Speaker 4: never grow, you will not be relevant, and you will.
Speaker 2: Not be competitive.
Speaker 4: So, Barnan, this is grounded in the business imperative. So
Speaker 4: that was sort of the initial kind of the why.
Speaker 4: And it's always very important, not that this is not
Speaker 4: important for social good, but from a corporate standpoint, to
Speaker 4: be really grounded in the why. And we are so
Speaker 4: ground in the why unanimously around the company.
Speaker 2: Now, what did we decide to do?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 4: Again post George Floyd, the CEO pulled a number of
Speaker 4: us together and said, I want you to think innovatively.
Speaker 4: I heard the word innovation used here, and my colleagues
Speaker 4: and I went to the drawing board and we started
Speaker 4: thinking about all kinds of ideas and what was behind
Speaker 4: our minds was the sustained action.
Speaker 2: And that was very, very deliberate.
Speaker 4: The CEO wanted to make sure this was not just
Speaker 4: the fleeting thing because I've read all the articles about
Speaker 4: where all the commitments that companies made to grow black
Speaker 4: businesses and really foster the development of underrepresented the businesses,
Speaker 4: and so we said, it's action. But we went through
Speaker 4: the drawing board and we said what are we going
Speaker 4: to do? And there were a number of levers that
Speaker 4: we created, but we said, let's make this very strategic.
Speaker 4: So we created a strategy and we make sure we
Speaker 4: allocate funds on par with every other corporate strategic initiative.
Speaker 4: And I was asked to be the executive sponsor, So
Speaker 4: I was given a portfolio, I was given the money
Speaker 4: allocated to be able to do that, and that gave
Speaker 4: everybody the confidence that this is not just some bite
Speaker 4: side but again that spoke to kind of the sustained
Speaker 4: aspect of it. So getting into the exactly what we did,
Speaker 4: we recommended that we created we created a hundred million
Speaker 4: dollar impact investing fund.
Speaker 2: Now, these things are.
Speaker 4: Not easy, but we had to create the case for that,
Speaker 4: and ultimately that past muster and the focus for one
Speaker 4: hundred million dollar impact Investing fund was around affordable housing,
Speaker 4: healthy sustaining with.
Speaker 2: Neighborhoods, and access to capital.
Speaker 4: So step number one, Step number two is we have
Speaker 4: a corporate venture capital fund about one hundred and fifty
Speaker 4: million dollars, and that fund is broadly deployed across all races,
Speaker 4: Ethnicsi's gender. But we wanted to make sure we had
Speaker 4: a little set aside again for black businesses, and that
Speaker 4: was green lips.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's do that.
Speaker 4: We wanted to make sure that the entrepreneurs that we
Speaker 4: will be funding were strategically aligned to the company of fintech,
Speaker 4: insured tech, Digital, heald AI, that kind of stuff, So
Speaker 4: that was a second bucket. We then my colleague and
Speaker 4: I then said, but we can't stop there. We have
Speaker 4: to make sure we start creating an ecosystem. Why don't
Speaker 4: we create an accelerator, And we studied the Northwest Mutual
Speaker 4: Black Fund Accelerator as a complement of that, and we're
Speaker 4: in the process of graduating the thirtieth cohort sorry thirty
Speaker 4: members from the accelerator. It's a twelve week program. People
Speaker 4: coming to the program get one hundred thousand dollars, they
Speaker 4: get an executive mentor from Northwest Mutual and they graduate
Speaker 4: from the program and gone to get other funding sources.
Speaker 4: As part of the Impact Investing Fund, we've also been
Speaker 4: partnering with local community development financial Institutions CDFIs in the
Speaker 4: local area to make sure that they are able to
Speaker 4: loan to make loans to local business because they have
Speaker 4: the expertise on the ground game. And then we decided
Speaker 4: that also we wanted to take a look at our
Speaker 4: supplied diversity program to make sure we come brought in
Speaker 4: that program.
Speaker 2: So these are efforts.
Speaker 4: And initiatives, key initiatives that I'm very very proud of
Speaker 4: that we're driving as hard as possible. On top of that, obviously,
Speaker 4: we're paying very close attention to the culture that we're creating.
Speaker 2: As part of the strategy.
Speaker 4: We had a cultural aspect of it, We had a
Speaker 4: talent aspect of it, and then we had an aspect
Speaker 4: of it that relates to being relevant in the marketplace.
Speaker 4: How do we show up in the marketplace? What would
Speaker 4: make people trust us, particularly again underrepresented communities. So I
Speaker 4: share the strategic approach with you, and I know it's
Speaker 4: a little painstaking to go through all the initiatives, but
Speaker 4: they say, this was a very well thought out strategy
Speaker 4: that's resourced with specific initiatives and people aligned with those initiatives.
Speaker 4: And then we're beginning to measure proof points, and the
Speaker 4: proof points that are material, how do we know we
Speaker 4: actually make an impact. We want to make sure that
Speaker 4: the businesses we're funding actually growing revenue. We want to
Speaker 4: count the number of people they're hiring because obviously they're
Speaker 4: creating jobs, and we want to for the accelerators the
Speaker 4: founders come in, we want to track sort of full
Speaker 4: on funding among many other ways of tracking actual, real impact.
Speaker 2: So we're very, very proud of the work we've been doing.
Speaker 4: But I just want to underscore exactly the question you asked,
Speaker 4: which is we're not seeing as many proof points. And
Speaker 4: I've read a number of articles about people leaving, you know,
Speaker 4: the commitments they've made, But there's no better time for
Speaker 4: us to double down the commands we're made. And I'm
Speaker 4: just really proud of how we're going about this.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that. I'm going to double click on something.
Speaker 3: Is there a call to actually you would have for
Speaker 3: other companies just based on the ecosystem you just walked
Speaker 3: through and talked us through. You're not just throwing money
Speaker 3: at these companies or these founders. You're in saying, you know,
Speaker 3: go make it happen and then wondering why they fail.
Speaker 3: You're actually building a support system, an ecosystem around this.
Speaker 3: Is there a call to action you would have for
Speaker 3: other organizations?
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, the call to action
Speaker 4: is across. So I would say about three dimensions. I mean,
Speaker 4: the first is, frankly, from whatever your vantage point is,
Speaker 4: the call to action is that courage, the audacity to
Speaker 4: be bold, to continue to think outside of the box
Speaker 4: because you know, it's hard, you know, and there are
Speaker 4: times when you doubt it. There are times when people would,
Speaker 4: you know, impede the progress drying makes. So that's number
Speaker 4: one call to action. Let's be bold, let's be audacious.
Speaker 4: Obviously we have to think constructed and make sure it's
Speaker 4: grounded in the business. So that's number one. Number two
Speaker 4: is it's beyond just activity. Even though I mentioned a
Speaker 4: number of things that are very positive. I talked about
Speaker 4: how we want to measure progress at the end of
Speaker 4: the actual impact you're making, and let's make sure that
Speaker 4: the programs we're doing actually tailored to deliver actual impact
Speaker 4: and not just activity.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: Lastly, you know, I would just basically say, closing the
Speaker 4: wealth gap for many may seem like boiling the ocean.
Speaker 4: It's a giant wealth gap, and there's so many doors
Speaker 4: you can open, so many dimensions you can take, and
Speaker 4: sometimes it may feel frankly overwhelming, like how do I
Speaker 4: know if I'm scratching the surface, how do I know
Speaker 4: if I make an impact? I'm just gonna go back
Speaker 4: to my tried and true ways or traditional ways. The
Speaker 4: third call to action here is for you know some
Speaker 4: of us are from corporations, but within your vantage point,
Speaker 4: within your power, construct find ways to determine the kind
Speaker 4: of impact you can make, what door you can open.
Speaker 4: Even if you're an entrepreneur, you probably have a network
Speaker 4: that you can expose other entrepreneurs too. And I'm sure
Speaker 4: you have thoughts around this, Dennis, but it's a universal
Speaker 4: call to action for us or to believe that as
Speaker 4: a as a community, we're much better off if we
Speaker 4: uplift one another.
Speaker 2: That would be my call to action.
Speaker 3: Thank you for that, Thank you for your leadership too.
Speaker 4: Absolutely all right, I'm going to ask you also what
Speaker 4: advice you have for people from your vantage point as
Speaker 4: an entrepreneur. Granted it's been it's not easy to build
Speaker 4: a business. I'm sure most people in this room recognize
Speaker 4: the number of times you get told no, the amount
Speaker 4: of time it takes to be able to get something
Speaker 4: started and then scale it. But my question is on
Speaker 4: a twofold you asked me about from a corporate standpoint,
Speaker 4: and I would ask from a corporate standpoint, from a
Speaker 4: VC standpoint, and from an entrepreneurial standpoint. I'm sure you've
Speaker 4: experienced a little flavor between all those three, what advice
Speaker 4: would you have from your unique vantage point given some
Speaker 4: of the challenges and nuances of experience for each one
Speaker 4: of those constituents.
Speaker 3: I think it's a great question, and I've talked to
Speaker 3: all of those organizations and entities, and what I would
Speaker 3: say is, I'll start with corporate. You touched on this Corporate.
Speaker 3: I think if and when corporate comes to the table
Speaker 3: and they're looking at investing in black founders or underrepresented founders,
Speaker 3: if if they come to that with the spirit of
Speaker 3: this is a charity versus this is an investment, I
Speaker 3: think it's the wrong start. I think you know that
Speaker 3: conversation doesn't go far and those commitments are going to
Speaker 3: fall off fairly quickly. So that's what I'm encouraged by
Speaker 3: what you guys are doing at Northwestern Mutual in terms
Speaker 3: of understanding, you know, and vetting deals. Right. So when
Speaker 3: I'm talking with corporate investors and you guys know this,
Speaker 3: it's the same diligence process as it would be if
Speaker 3: I'm talking to a VC. So for me, I approach
Speaker 3: it as if you know, it's the same common conversation.
Speaker 3: But when I hear organizations sort of give me clues
Speaker 3: that you know they're viewing this as a nice sort
Speaker 3: of thing to do because it's the right thing to
Speaker 3: do in the moment, versus this being baked into their culture.
Speaker 3: I shy away from those corporate investors because I know
Speaker 3: they're not really committed to me, to investing in black
Speaker 3: founders and really helping us be successful. So that's one thing.
Speaker 3: And I never got that impression with north with Northwestern Mutual,
Speaker 3: So I would I would say to corporations, organizations, bake
Speaker 3: it into your culture. Okay, make sure that founders of
Speaker 3: color and not underrepresented founders know that they have just
Speaker 3: as much of a shot as getting an investment, assuming
Speaker 3: they're button up, you know, and they can sort of
Speaker 3: demonstrate demonstrate the ROI from there. Vcs are very very different.
Speaker 3: They're different animal corporations. From a corporate venture standpoint, that's
Speaker 3: not your core business. So you kind of have that
Speaker 3: luxury of sort of not living and dying off of
Speaker 3: these investments, but yet you approach it like it's a
Speaker 3: true investment. And I think this is important for founders
Speaker 3: in this room to understand how the vcs think. I have.
Speaker 3: I had two term sheets earlier in the year. I'll
Speaker 3: give you an example that I turned down from VCS
Speaker 3: because I felt like there was a lot of overreach
Speaker 3: in those term sheets and felt like they were just
Speaker 3: sort of taking advantage of the market and you know
Speaker 3: where we are collectively, and that's hard to do, as
Speaker 3: any one of you in this room will know, that's
Speaker 3: hard to do in this this market. You know, when
Speaker 3: you're burning through capital, you have a certain number of
Speaker 3: months in runway and all that. But I did it
Speaker 3: because it was the right thing to do. But I
Speaker 3: also knew I had other investors around the cap table
Speaker 3: that I can go to and say, look, I'm not
Speaker 3: feeling this deal. I don't like it. I don't think
Speaker 3: it's good for the company long term. And we had
Speaker 3: a couple investors, including Northwestern Mutual, that stepped up and
Speaker 3: led and co led this recent round of funding our
Speaker 3: Series A that we've done. So that's a that's you know,
Speaker 3: this is a real time example of making sure you
Speaker 3: have the right investors on your cap table early because
Speaker 3: you're going to need them later, right, And so sort
Speaker 3: of looking at it from a what would I recommend
Speaker 3: to corporate venture as well as founders, And I think
Speaker 3: from a founder standpoint, as well as vcs. If I'm
Speaker 3: giving any founder in the room advice. When you're talking
Speaker 3: with vcs, I typically like to give them permission. And
Speaker 3: this may be counterintuitive, but I give them permission early
Speaker 3: on to say no. Now. The reason I do that
Speaker 3: is because I need them to I need to have
Speaker 3: an objective conversation with them, and I need them to
Speaker 3: be able to actually hear my pitch right, because a
Speaker 3: lot of times these vcs feel like they're under pressure
Speaker 3: because you're a black founder and oh, you know it,
Speaker 3: maybe taking the wrong way if I say no to them. No,
Speaker 3: first thing I say to them is, look, you know
Speaker 3: I'm viewing this first call. It's just an introduction call.
Speaker 3: You know. Whether it goes anywhere or not, that's okay.
Speaker 3: You know this is you and I getting to know
Speaker 3: each other. And I think more of us need to
Speaker 3: look at these investor conversations like dating, right, And I
Speaker 3: always compare talking to investors as if I'm dating because
Speaker 3: and what you don't want to do is ask an
Speaker 3: investor to marry you on the first date, right now.
Speaker 3: True story. I actually wanted to ask my wife to
Speaker 3: marry me on our first date, but I knew she
Speaker 3: would have run away, right, you know, and that would
Speaker 3: have been a bad thing for both of us. But
Speaker 3: so I had to get to know her.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: The only thing I was working on with her was
Speaker 3: the second date. And I say to you, that's the
Speaker 3: only thing you should focus on with investors, the second date,
Speaker 3: getting to know them, because it's important that you both
Speaker 3: feel like you have permission to say no to each other.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I've said no to a lot
Speaker 3: of investors. But when you say no to investors, guess
Speaker 3: what they do introduce you to other investors. So it's
Speaker 3: important to understand. And I'm not even talking about how
Speaker 3: the game works. I'm just talking about how psychology work
Speaker 3: and how people are. You know, meet people where they
Speaker 3: are because at the end of the day, investors, especially
Speaker 3: venture capital investors, and what I've learned is two things
Speaker 3: that's important to them. They don't want to be embarrassed
Speaker 3: by making a bad investment, and they always want to
Speaker 3: look smart by making great investments. Right, So understand that
Speaker 3: psyche going in and just kind of humble yourself and say,
Speaker 3: let's just have a conversation and get to know each
Speaker 3: other and never go into an investor deal. Thinking I
Speaker 3: need you guys to invest in the next two to
Speaker 3: three weeks. Not going to happen. I started relationships with
Speaker 3: Northwestern Mutual about a year before they actually made an investment,
Speaker 3: and that's likely true for most of our investors now.
Speaker 3: So give yourself time, give yourself enough runway to make
Speaker 3: the right decisions. Don't marry the first investor you meet.
Speaker 4: Awesome, I'm sure we have Do we have time for questions?
Speaker 2: If we do?
Speaker 4: Were certainly open to that, But there was one thing
Speaker 4: that will just double down one.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I can see we have time for two questions.
Speaker 2: You understand it.
Speaker 1: Say where are you from?
Speaker 5: Y Nika, I'm haughty and I'm from Brooklyn. Okay. My
Speaker 5: question is for you, Dennis, all right, how what's the
Speaker 5: percentage that you're invested with venture capitalists versus like companies
Speaker 5: like Nimus, like Northwestern?
Speaker 6: Like?
Speaker 5: What what's the breakdown?
Speaker 3: That's a great question. Didn't think about that until you
Speaker 3: asked me that, right, But just visual our cap table.
Speaker 3: It's about seventy thirty corporate, seventy percent thirty percent VC.
Speaker 3: In fact, our entire Series A, with exception of one investor,
Speaker 3: was corporate. We had one VC and I barely let
Speaker 3: that VC in. I was actually hell bent on not
Speaker 3: taking any money from venture capital as part of our
Speaker 3: Series A, because I really want to show other founders
Speaker 3: that there's a different path to get where you're going, right,
Speaker 3: And so many times we put so much dependency on
Speaker 3: venture capital, which, look, we need venture capital, but at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, they're still only investing one
Speaker 3: percent into black founders, right, So that's just a data
Speaker 3: point we can't ignore. So we need to get creative
Speaker 3: and start thinking outside of the box. And corporate partners
Speaker 3: are just stepping up more and more, but you have
Speaker 3: to deliver too at the end of the day. So
Speaker 3: it's about seventy thirty.
Speaker 2: You say your name noon away.
Speaker 6: From Mariah and I'm from Brooklyn, but I live in
Speaker 6: Jersey now, So my question is for both or either
Speaker 6: of you. We talk a lot about mentorship, but then
Speaker 6: also sponsorship and when you're looking at people looking to
Speaker 6: become entrepreneurs. There's a lot of research obviously in resources online,
Speaker 6: but I find it more helpful when you can find
Speaker 6: a sponsor or someone to mentor you. Where would you
Speaker 6: suggest people go for those kind of interactions build obviously
Speaker 6: like networks like this, you can build, you can build relationships,
Speaker 6: but like, are there programs or are there certain avenues
Speaker 6: you suggest new or young entrepreneurs to spaces.
Speaker 2: To be in. I can take that first, and that
Speaker 2: you can comment.
Speaker 4: I mean, for us, it's uniquely within Accelerator program and
Speaker 4: we match executives to the founders, executives that have done
Speaker 4: all kinds of jobs and have the unique skill sets,
Speaker 4: whether it's a CTO, whether it's CIO, whether it's the
Speaker 4: head of digital product, whatever the case may be, that
Speaker 4: can really advise and counsel. We have cohorts of only five,
Speaker 4: so we're able to deploy executives who bring that skill set.
Speaker 4: So that's what we've been doing. But I'm sure you
Speaker 4: can speak to kind of a broad up mentorship.
Speaker 3: I have very little to add to that because I
Speaker 3: think that's the route, that's the path, right. And so
Speaker 3: my only one ad is that early on when we
Speaker 3: were raising our seat funding, I literally pitched every accelerator
Speaker 3: program there is. I didn't turn down, as my uncle
Speaker 3: used to say, I wasn't turning down nothing but my collar, right,
Speaker 3: And so for me, I showed up. I made the pitch.
Speaker 3: You know, in most cases we got in, but it
Speaker 3: was really about getting access to those resources, as you're
Speaker 3: alluding to, right, because that's what we want. We want
Speaker 3: those resources, we want those introductions, We want the opportunity
Speaker 3: to be in the room to at least make our
Speaker 3: business case right. And some people are going to say no,
Speaker 3: some are going to say yes, please get us in
Speaker 3: the room.
Speaker 1: So y'all make some noise for dinners in the beam.
Speaker 2: Thank you, gentlemen telling me where have you been