OPEN TRANSCRIPT

00:01
thanks for attending the disruption now
00:03
summit
00:04
2020 we are proud to bring you this
00:08
first meeting family feud style
00:12
today's summit has been brought to you
00:14
in a partnership with
00:16
fifth third bank google
00:19
and proctor and gamble
00:23
today's feud will be team founder versus
00:27
team capital
00:31
now let's meet today's moderators
00:37
an experienced data software and
00:39
technical product account executive
00:41
currently working at quest software her
00:43
roles encompass data analytics
00:45
disaster recovery performance monitoring
00:47
and cloud optimization
00:50
among her many leadership engagements
00:52
you can find her championing for
00:53
underrepresented groups in stem while
00:56
also presenting businesses with
00:58
impact data on the importance of driving
01:00
social change in the columbus technology
01:03
community
01:04
she is mimi salash
01:07
working with her we have the six foot
01:09
six big man in the middle
01:11
elected as the youngest chair in the
01:13
history of the university of cincinnati
01:15
he was responsible for leading the
01:17
search for the 30th president of the
01:19
university
01:20
he also established the uc scholars
01:22
academy which helps in leadership
01:24
development
01:25
and academic preparedness for students
01:27
in the cincinnati public schools
01:29
he's raised hundreds of thousands of
01:31
dollars for student scholarships
01:32
including the largest corporate
01:34
diversity scholarship
01:35
at uc he's also run as the statewide
01:38
democratic nominee
01:40
for ohio treasurer and championed his
01:42
vision of
01:43
economic equality and innovation and
01:45
continues
01:46
to disrupt common narratives as the host
01:49
of the disruption now podcast
01:52
rob richardson
01:54
[Music]
02:02
[Applause]
02:03
[Music]
02:11
welcome to the family feud style
02:14
disruption now
02:15
disruption now summit we are happy you
02:16
can join us here today
02:18
you know we are one of our most
02:20
important things we want to focus in
02:22
this conference is about
02:23
access to capital and we want to disrupt
02:25
the narrative we know that
02:26
unfortunately one percent of venture
02:28
capital funds goes to
02:30
uh black businesses and then it's even
02:31
less when you talk about black women
02:33
businesses i think it's some
02:34
dismal stat of like .006 anyway
02:37
unacceptable numbers that we are here to
02:39
disrupt and change you're going to learn
02:41
from people that have
02:42
done it that have gotten past the
02:44
constructs that have succeeded and the
02:46
people that are here to help you but we
02:47
want to do so
02:48
in a fun way don't you think it's a good
02:49
idea mimi what do you think i'm excited
02:52
i think it's also important to clarify
02:54
that we want it to be collaborative and
02:56
engaging
02:56
so not only do we have the expertise of
02:59
our contestants today but we also have
03:01
the survey data
03:02
from all the registrants who had an
03:05
opportunity to take it so
03:07
let's get started all right so we got a
03:10
chance i'm gonna be
03:11
i'm gonna give you my best version of
03:12
steve harvey i don't have the i don't
03:14
have the flashy suit so
03:15
but i'm gonna try to give you guys the
03:17
best version i can of it and we got a
03:19
chance to survey
03:20
uh entrepreneurs investors really all
03:23
across the country to get
03:24
to get a real insight into the struggles
03:27
the opportunities that
03:28
uh that it actually means to be a
03:30
diverse founder to be a black and brown
03:32
founder
03:33
and struggles they've had but also
03:35
opportunities they've had in that
03:36
because we don't want to just accept the
03:38
narratives that have been
03:39
assigned but we want to figure out how
03:40
to overcome them and really kind of
03:42
reject them so
03:43
that's why i'm excited and we have two
03:45
teams here today we're gonna have
03:47
team founder i'm gonna start with team
03:48
founder who is uh
03:50
travis holloway and carmen west they are
03:52
the founders they've started their own
03:54
companies they got their own gigs so
03:56
that's team founder i wanna introduce
03:57
you to them everybody say hello
03:59
say hello team founder hey hi
04:02
looking forward all right in team
04:05
capital we have kevin cadet kevin how
04:07
you doing with black angels miami
04:09
i'm good i'm good happy to be here
04:12
all right and of course we have collage
04:14
gibson with fifth third bank one of our
04:16
partners
04:17
one of our sponsors we're glad to have
04:19
him cola how you doing man
04:20
hey i'm doing great rob thanks for
04:22
having me all right you are
04:23
you ready to win we are ready to win all
04:26
right all right that's what you're
04:27
supposed to say be confident all right
04:29
all right so one of our one of our first
04:31
questions we surveyed
04:32
uh we asked we asked participants what
04:35
is the hardest part of accessing capital
04:37
that was the question we had and here
04:40
are some of the results of the answers
04:41
that mimi's going to read that i will
04:42
show on the screen
04:44
so you guys could uh see it so the
04:46
audience can see it
04:47
and but mimi will read the answers to
04:49
you and then we're going to let team
04:50
founder go first on this one
04:53
to get first shot at telling us who
04:55
which answer do they think
04:56
ranked the highest so mimi yes and so to
05:00
clarify there will be five options
05:02
and we did ask everyone to just pick one
05:06
so overcoming rejections
05:09
lack of resources and or network
05:13
uncertainty of income
05:16
developing a business strategy or
05:19
identifying a competitive advantage
05:22
so out of the five what do we believe is
05:25
the hardest
05:26
obstacle to overcome uh team founder you
05:30
get first shot at saying what is the
05:32
what is what is the answer that was
05:33
picked most often so
05:35
um carmen i i think that the majority of
05:39
black and brown founders don't first
05:41
attempt to raise venture capital
05:43
i think that the majority of them first
05:45
go to traditional banks to obtain some
05:47
type of business loan
05:49
or financing uh a lot of times
05:52
the issue there is if they go to a big
05:55
bank
05:55
um such as colas bank um
05:59
they are usually turned down because
06:01
they don't have enough
06:03
income um or enough revenue there's like
06:06
very very you know stringent revenue
06:08
requirements
06:08
uh income requirements et cetera that
06:10
many small businesses just don't have
06:12
um so i would say that it's probably
06:15
that
06:18
i concur with you um however i think
06:21
there's one that may be just as
06:22
significant
06:23
and that is the lack of resources you
06:25
know as as an ethnic-owned businesses
06:28
we don't always know where to go uh
06:30
especially when it comes to debt and or
06:32
equity
06:33
because we have never had a relationship
06:35
with money we tend to go to what we see
06:37
and what we know
06:38
which is normally our family and friends
06:41
um so
06:42
i think you have a great point i'm with
06:44
you the uncertainty of income
06:46
we have to choose um at least one
06:50
you have to choose one you have to
06:51
decide which one you're going to choose
06:52
between the two
06:53
so so happy happy too happy to to to
06:57
follow your
06:58
your lead uh partner uh we can go with c
07:02
uncertainty of income final answer
07:05
that's our final answer all right final
07:08
answer are okay
07:09
all right team capital tell me what you
07:11
think
07:14
what do i think i am 100 sure of this
07:18
answer
07:19
all right 100
07:22
because we're going to win right with
07:24
the money side i am 100
07:26
sure that the answer is b lack of
07:30
resources network
07:32
um for for the for the same reasons uh
07:36
already outlined if we don't know where
07:40
to go
07:41
then we we can't get there and if you
07:44
don't have that relationship
07:46
you're not going to get there this is b
07:49
100 you're with me
07:52
i would say rob uh 100 agree with my
07:55
partner
07:56
all right um i would tell you and i'll
07:59
use a recent example with ppp
08:01
um we saw a lot of uh minority-owned
08:04
businesses women-owned businesses
08:06
and particularly african-american home
08:08
businesses and african-american owned
08:09
women owned businesses
08:11
struggled to get access um to that money
08:14
and the reason they struggled was
08:15
because they didn't have
08:16
the resources of the network to actually
08:18
get in with these banks so
08:20
they thought they had a relationship but
08:22
then when push came to shove
08:23
realize they didn't often happens with
08:26
that doesn't it yeah
08:27
oh yeah no absolutely absolutely and i
08:29
think the second piece too because we've
08:30
talked about access to capital
08:32
and to your point kevin before you get
08:34
to the capital piece it has to be access
08:37
to the resources in the network
08:38
to actually figure out and find out
08:40
where these capital sources are so
08:42
i'm going with my partner would be okay
08:45
so that's
08:46
we got our answers so we have uh uh team
08:49
capital chose lack of resources
08:51
uh team founder chose was it uncertainty
08:54
of income correct
08:55
so you know let's go let's put up what
08:57
was the highest
08:58
what was the highest rated answer for
09:00
this for this question was what
09:02
i need a drum roll so overwhelmed with
09:05
almost
09:05
54 percent agree
09:09
lack of resources and network now i do
09:12
want to call out that the second
09:14
highest was actually uncertainty of
09:16
income yep
09:17
that's next what was the third and
09:19
fourth go let's go to the list that was
09:20
second
09:20
third is third is developing a business
09:24
strategy
09:26
fourth is identifying a competitive
09:28
advantage and what i don't think anyone
09:30
is surprised to hear
09:32
is that overcoming rejections was less
09:34
than five percent
09:36
meaning marginalized entrepreneurs
09:40
are very well versed with adversity and
09:42
overcoming religions
09:49
one point to teeny capital so look
09:51
carmen you were you were right you were
09:52
right with your instinct
09:54
i mean i don't want to i'm trying to i'm
09:57
not doing that i'm not trying to do that
09:59
i'm not trying to cause drama
10:01
too late i have to be a good team player
10:04
you know
10:05
i've been doing this for a very long
10:07
time so
10:08
you know i i i want to be a good partner
10:10
and i did see value
10:12
uh in his response
10:16
it was the second one it was the second
10:18
one and it was close
10:20
hey hey we gave them one but that'll be
10:22
the last one
10:23
[Laughter]
10:26
we'll we'll dig out of the hole we'll
10:27
dig out so
10:29
yeah i am curious to hear everyone's
10:31
feedback because
10:32
one of the other questions that was
10:34
listed on the survey is
10:35
how important is having a network
10:38
and social connections as it relates to
10:41
accessing capital and almost
10:42
70 percent said it's extremely important
10:45
they rate it at the highest
10:47
so there's a clear understanding that
10:49
resources and network is number one
10:51
and yet it is also the biggest hurdle
10:54
why
10:54
[Music]
10:56
that's for anybody well i know why what
10:58
do you think
11:00
well i i think the the again it goes
11:04
back to what i said before is that
11:05
you know we are not most small
11:08
businesses are not accustomed to having
11:10
relationships with money
11:12
and so in order for them to be able to
11:14
find that level of success they have to
11:16
build through those relationships
11:17
and so if they're not in your immediate
11:19
circle then you become almost
11:21
nascent when it comes to trying to
11:23
identify who and where to go
11:25
so um i i think that it's you know
11:28
exactly going back to
11:29
you know my first premise is that you
11:31
know you you have to have
11:32
the game plan the platform the guide the
11:34
road to be able to get there
11:36
and if you're not accustomed to it you
11:38
can't find it without that network
11:39
and carmen you had experience in this i
11:41
mean speak a little bit to that the fact
11:43
that you've
11:44
you've raised before come and get some
11:45
barriers and had to
11:47
figure out how to get past that like
11:48
speak to your experience on that because
11:50
i think
11:50
i think i think it's very informative to
11:52
this point sure sure
11:53
absolutely you know as a small business
11:55
owner who who
11:56
raised 40 million dollars and you know
11:59
who's had 40 million dollars in in
12:01
revenue
12:01
i thought raising capital would be quite
12:03
easy um and to be honest with you
12:06
i'm one of those unique individuals i'm
12:07
a member of five stone country club uh
12:10
you know i go to all the the places
12:12
where other people
12:13
that you would think would navigate and
12:15
be able to congregate in those spaces
12:16
so i thought raising funds would be easy
12:18
and it was not
12:20
um you know even though i had a very
12:21
robust relationship and and partnerships
12:24
with people in this space
12:26
but i lucked up and found a single
12:28
investor that said hey you know i'll
12:29
give you 4 million because i like what
12:31
you need to do
12:32
but because we need to be able to trust
12:34
you you got to raise another 21 million
12:36
before you can use it
12:38
and i just thought to myself wow you
12:40
know
12:41
does the other non-minority individuals
12:44
get the same type of
12:45
treatment and this was this was pre
12:47
arlen hamilton right
12:49
so arlen camp comes in and busts open
12:51
the doors and provides
12:52
you know better a better pathway for
12:55
people like me
12:56
but yeah you know i think in my mind i
12:58
did everything right
12:59
um but it goes to show you that again
13:02
even those
13:02
who think that they have the right
13:04
relationships you may not
13:07
yeah yeah anybody else want to speak to
13:09
that point before we move on to the next
13:11
question i think these are
13:12
really kind of important i would throw
13:15
something in there just from
13:17
your traditional kind of financial
13:19
services so some of this
13:20
has been systemic you know when you just
13:22
go back to
13:23
how financial institutions were lying as
13:25
we go back in the 70s and some of that's
13:27
still happening now quite frankly right
13:29
so there's been a group of people who've
13:31
been cut out of the entire financial
13:33
system
13:34
right and so they just don't have the
13:36
relationships
13:37
let alone just the knowledge base to be
13:39
able to take their business to that next
13:41
level so
13:42
it's really going to take kind of what
13:43
you mentioned carmen people actually
13:45
coming in and trying to open up those
13:47
doors for folks
13:48
you know we need people i always say
13:49
this i'm always trying to recruit
13:51
more folks that look like me at the bank
13:53
because the more you have at the bank
13:54
the more you'll be able to open up those
13:56
doors but
13:57
it's going to be hard and it's trying to
13:58
reverse i mean years and years and years
14:01
of institutional discrimination and
14:03
racism towards a specific group of
14:05
people
14:06
to actually get there yeah i'd like to
14:09
i'd like to add so i work primarily with
14:12
c
14:12
precede companies companies that haven't
14:15
reached the stage of being a small
14:17
business
14:18
pre-revenue or even a little bit of
14:20
revenue and and and you're
14:22
building something it could be a tech
14:24
idea
14:26
mostly for the most part why would we
14:28
think that this entrepreneur
14:31
would have their rolodex of angel groups
14:35
or venture capital to to go to if you if
14:38
you're not
14:38
connected in that space if you don't
14:41
know
14:42
about the space so you don't have no
14:43
segway in then
14:45
this is going to be the challenge you're
14:47
not even in a position to present
14:48
never mind all the things you need to do
14:50
to present
14:52
you're not even at the first step um if
14:55
you went to you know an ivy league
14:56
institution you might
14:58
have infinity groups or come from an
15:00
institution where there's some
15:01
things close to you where you might get
15:04
a little step
15:05
but then you still got a challenge of
15:06
actually talking to the right people
15:08
um different angel groups different
15:11
different groups of people
15:13
invest in different ways some may say
15:15
you need to have a certain amount of
15:16
revenue even if you're small
15:18
some may say that i do convertible notes
15:21
or different
15:23
amounts of equity i mean there's so much
15:25
to go through
15:26
before you even start pitching
15:30
but if you don't know who to pitch to
15:32
you don't have a chance
15:34
so i mean this is good i mean that's why
15:36
i was 100
15:37
sure like i've been through it i mean
15:40
i've been
15:40
i've pitched from 1998 it was the first
15:43
time i i've gone in front of angel
15:45
investors
15:46
um did i know what i was doing back then
15:49
absolutely not but i had the opportunity
15:52
and
15:52
and you know all the way up through
15:54
today i mean
15:56
when i think of how much i've learned it
15:58
it's
15:59
this is a big challenge for people who
16:00
are just trying to get started
16:02
yeah there's no connection between main
16:04
street and wall street
16:06
and i think that's what plagued us as
16:08
minorities is because
16:09
we we've nev we've not been to wall
16:12
street
16:13
because our wall street no longer exists
16:16
so because there's no connection between
16:18
the two
16:19
then navigating that road you know makes
16:21
it a little bit more difficult
16:23
i concur yeah no i mean i think
16:26
you know one of the final points as we
16:27
move on to the next one let's travis you
16:29
have something else on this
16:30
um this is why this is why we're doing
16:33
this summit
16:34
and this is why we're starting uh this
16:36
network to really
16:37
uh capitalize on the virtual uh
16:40
technology that we can do we can't we
16:42
can now create
16:43
our recreate because we did have a black
16:46
wall street but we can recreate that
16:47
right now
16:48
and really really figure out ways to
16:50
build empower connect
16:52
and really get to that next level
16:54
because it's you know i think if all of
16:56
us do what we need to do in the places
16:57
that we're in we can get there because
16:59
there's no
17:00
you've probably heard me say this before
17:01
on my shoulder captain america is not
17:02
coming black panther's not coming
17:04
the hulk's not coming like that's all
17:06
for the comic books like we have to we
17:08
have to create wakanda we have to create
17:10
that and be intentional about actually
17:12
doing that
17:13
and the tools are there the ability is
17:15
there for us to at least know how to
17:17
get access to those who are who have who
17:20
want to be intentional about this
17:21
because lots of people don't
17:22
but we just want to focus on those who
17:23
do and then actually teach people how to
17:26
build their network to go out and
17:28
actually do
17:29
they can do crowd funding too there's
17:31
the way you can now fundraise you know
17:33
this karma you're in politics you can
17:34
fundraise you have to go through some
17:35
things but
17:36
we're going to help people there you can
17:38
fundraise now through your network and
17:40
get people to invest
17:41
and you don't have to just rely on you
17:43
still need institutional
17:45
backing but if you're able to get some
17:47
of those millions in other ways without
17:49
having to just rely on that
17:51
uh i think it increases our chances so
17:53
look this is why we're doing this is why
17:54
we're having these conversations so
17:56
i mean i think it's a really important
17:57
point so let's go to the next question
17:59
all right
18:00
uh the second question we asked is what
18:03
advantages
18:04
do entrepreneurs of color have over
18:06
non-marginalized groups so we asked the
18:08
we put this survey out and these were
18:10
the what were the five options for
18:13
uh answers mimi four options four
18:16
okay i got it wrong see help me out
18:18
correct me it's okay
18:20
overcoming adversity is a frequently
18:23
used
18:24
skill diversity of thought
18:27
in creativity and market strategy
18:30
diverse research and buying demographic
18:35
or representation in drastically growing
18:38
among socially conscious buyers and
18:41
influencers
18:42
so again out of the four what is the
18:44
greatest
18:45
advantage so to clarify when we say for
18:48
example
18:50
the third one which is diverse research
18:52
and buying demographic
18:53
that would be identity and
18:55
representation meaning
18:57
if you are a marginalized group
18:58
therefore your buying demographic
19:00
would identify with such
19:04
all right so going first on this is
19:06
actually team capital because team
19:08
founder went first
19:09
the last time so team capital you guys
19:12
have at it
19:14
what's your answer i'm gonna have to
19:17
lean forward
19:18
but but i'll let my my partner speak
19:20
first
19:22
i'll go with diversity of thought and
19:25
creativity and market strategy
19:29
okay what's your thoughts kevin
19:32
agreement yeah you guys
19:36
this one is definitely not a hundred
19:37
percent
19:39
um no i i could see b
19:42
um
19:47
good thing you haven't got me in like a
19:48
10 second timer um you might be a good
19:52
idea the way i'm thinking right now
19:54
um
20:01
i don't think it's c
20:05
i don't know i don't think it's a
20:09
i agree um all right we're going
20:13
we're together i can see
20:16
some people saying d
20:20
um and i think all of these are going to
20:22
get a better percentage than than last
20:24
time
20:25
um
20:29
um i'm going with my partner b
20:32
final answer all right
20:36
all right cool team founder where we at
20:39
what are you guys doing no pressure this
20:41
time um
20:44
carmen i'll let you leave
20:50
[Laughter]
21:00
i i definitely have input but i'm going
21:02
to let you let you like kind of give
21:04
your feedback first right
21:05
ladies
21:08
well thank you so much so so i have i
21:10
have i am between
21:12
actually c and d and i'll tell you why
21:15
one of the things that we as
21:17
african-americans or minorities have
21:19
over
21:19
non-minorities is that there are
21:21
set-aside programs
21:22
specifically for us so when you're
21:24
talking about buying power strategic
21:26
decisions
21:27
what we have is the ability to
21:29
participate in
21:30
different types of programs that may
21:32
give us a leg up
21:34
not a handout but a leg up so
21:37
c kind of makes sense but deet was also
21:41
just that significant because we do have
21:43
the ability
21:44
to have some of those social structures
21:46
in place um
21:47
hence you know you right now you have uh
21:50
organizations that are
21:51
committed to a mission of helping
21:53
diverse owned businesses expand and grow
21:55
um you see a lot of uh of
21:58
uh content now being created
22:00
specifically for ethnic founders
22:02
um etc so i'm between c
22:05
and d um the average person
22:09
probably wouldn't see the set-asides
22:12
you know as an advantage like i do so i
22:15
would lean for the masses to be d
22:18
um but i think it's cnd travis what do
22:21
you think
22:22
yeah um i think when we look at this
22:24
from the masses uh
22:26
i'm gonna go with d so i think
22:29
i think your your intuition on the
22:30
masses thought is correct so let's go d
22:33
all right so what do we have we had d
22:36
for
22:37
team founder and what did team capital
22:39
choose
22:40
e that's what they chose is b you guys
22:43
need
22:43
the results because you're both
22:44
incorrect yeah so at least though let's
22:47
put the toppers off
22:48
the top is all right we'll see who got
22:50
the point but what was the top result
22:52
i'm gonna i'm gonna say the order from
22:54
kind of highest ranking to lowest
22:56
ranking so
22:57
overcoming adversity as a frequently
22:59
used skill was
23:00
almost 50 percent of responders so 48.7
23:05
said that that was their main advantage
23:08
the second is b which is diversity of
23:11
thought and creativity
23:12
strategy the third is representation
23:16
drastically among socially conscious
23:18
buyers and then
23:19
the least which was actually at less
23:21
than three percent 2.4 percent
23:23
said diverse research and buying
23:25
demographic as it related to them
23:28
yeah interesting thing i think i think
23:31
the correct answer
23:32
is b um but
23:38
um that's interesting but tell me why
23:40
tell me why because
23:41
this is obviously a survey it's not uh
23:44
so it's but there's different
23:45
perspectives that
23:46
that you all have being actual people on
23:49
the ground dealing with this as
23:50
investors as founders travis tell me
23:53
tell me why you believe
23:55
b is the right answer at least from your
23:56
perspective yeah i mean i think b is the
23:58
right answer because
24:00
a lot i think what our competitive
24:01
advantage is is that we see the world
24:03
from a different lens because we've been
24:05
marginalized in different ways
24:07
um so there's different pain points that
24:09
we feel you know as
24:10
you know black and brown people um
24:12
collectively that
24:14
i think give us a different perspective
24:16
on things that we know
24:17
should be uh optimized and should be
24:20
changed
24:20
um and i i just i think about
24:24
just examples such as like twitter is
24:26
one of the biggest companies in the
24:27
world today but what about black planet
24:29
or you know youtube versus worldstar
24:33
um there's just so many examples um
24:36
of what we saw first those companies
24:39
were before
24:40
those other companies or facebook even
24:41
you know when you look at black planet
24:43
um you know those were all first but we
24:46
were unable to take advantage
24:48
take advantage of of certain
24:50
opportunities because we either lacked
24:52
resources or
24:53
um or just didn't you know really know
24:56
how to bring those
24:57
products and and things to life but you
24:59
know the final example of that would be
25:01
like the number of barbershop apps that
25:03
you know are created now because
25:05
it's very different when you grow up in
25:07
a black community and you're used to
25:08
spending three to four hours five hours
25:10
in a barber shop
25:11
waiting to get your hair cut that is
25:14
very different
25:15
than the experience at best cuts so you
25:17
know i know of people who have started
25:19
platforms to make scheduling your
25:20
haircut
25:21
you know easy easier um and i think you
25:24
know
25:24
having that pain point that experience
25:27
gave them the advantage to do that
25:29
before covet happened
25:30
where we're having a lot of issues with
25:32
people you know getting
25:33
grooming appointments and things like
25:35
that um so that's uh that's
25:38
that's my that's my thought process no
25:40
that's a great point
25:42
yeah with that i would agree with that
25:44
i'm shocked by the overcoming adversity
25:47
as being number one
25:48
because that appears to be one like
25:51
you're going to get some business
25:52
because i believe you can take a beating
25:54
better than everyone else right
25:56
he comes back but the diversity the
25:59
diversity of thought is we think about
26:01
creativity and innovation it comes from
26:03
different perspectives right and
26:04
different perspectives
26:05
is where diversity comes in right so i i
26:08
jump right at that one and then
26:10
the idea about the demographic piece i
26:12
mean people can hire folks for that in
26:14
research
26:15
that may not be an entrepreneur of color
26:17
right i mean research is research
26:19
yeah they did the last piece around the
26:21
representation of
26:22
socially conscious all black folks
26:25
aren't
26:26
socially conscious this is to be happy
26:28
that's right
26:29
so it's kind of hard to say that but if
26:32
if you're an entrepreneur of color the
26:33
one thing we
26:34
say is that you're diverse you're going
26:36
to have a diverse perspective based on
26:38
um based on your skin and where you're
26:40
from and you're gonna be able to use
26:42
that
26:43
to help a company to be better right in
26:45
all different
26:46
kind of channels right so not just
26:48
marketing but just overall
26:50
innovation um and ideation um
26:53
if you have a diverse group of people
26:55
working for you or working with you
26:57
i'm aligned yeah i would say like
27:00
when i think about this and how i viewed
27:03
it
27:04
a doesn't surprise me because i think a
27:06
and b
27:07
actually tie together overcoming
27:08
adversity is a frequently used skill and
27:10
at having to overcome adversity means
27:13
that you're going to have to figure out
27:14
how to maneuver situations and come from
27:16
different perspectives that others don't
27:18
think of
27:19
so i can see a and b really closely tied
27:21
together
27:23
because i honestly think if you're able
27:25
to process this is the hard part to be
27:27
able to process and get past the
27:28
adversity
27:30
you're able to go back deconstruct it
27:32
and figure out ways to
27:34
be innovative and from a different
27:36
perspective that others
27:37
can't so i do think that i think i think
27:41
partly a feeds into b like overcoming
27:43
adversity
27:44
helps you to become more creative in
27:46
solving problems because you know
27:47
if you have to survive how to how to how
27:49
to live how to how to eat
27:50
how to do things and then you get to
27:52
this point where you're solving business
27:53
problems people like you can do it the
27:54
problem is most people
27:55
it's very hard to get past that point
27:57
but if you've if you've if you've been
27:58
able to overcome a lot of adversity
28:01
it helps you to be creative in solving
28:02
problems you figure like look there's
28:03
going to be a way like i know it's we're
28:05
up against the wall now
28:06
but hell i've been through much worse so
28:08
i can we're going to figure out
28:09
if option a doesn't work we'll go to
28:11
option b if option b doesn't work we'll
28:12
go to c d
28:13
e f there's always another option so i
28:15
think they kind of play into each other
28:17
a little bit but maybe
28:18
maybe maybe i'm overthinking it i do
28:20
want to highlight one point
28:21
that mimi and i saw and i think i want
28:24
to discuss that about the the diverse
28:27
uh the the the diverse research and the
28:30
buying demographic because it's
28:31
i mean that was almost nothing and i say
28:33
like when you talk about that question
28:35
it's like
28:35
are people going to be uh just because
28:39
you're black does that mean people are
28:40
going to help you more
28:41
are you going are they going to buy from
28:43
you uh i i think
28:45
people's experience with that that's why
28:47
i got almost nothing was no
28:49
talk to me about why you think that is
28:51
and is there any opportunity to improve
28:53
that
28:54
loaded question but go i'll let anybody
28:56
go
28:58
well i i think the reason why it is is
29:01
because of experience
29:03
um you know historically um
29:06
you know we left the um
29:10
we never got chances in corporate
29:12
america to be the ceo right that's why
29:14
you see so many
29:15
black businesses where they we've
29:17
created our own opportunity to be ceo
29:19
and so
29:20
out of you know out of mere experience
29:23
we're accustomed to being rejected
29:24
however my lens from that is that
29:28
there are opportunities specifically for
29:30
us
29:31
um that we can again get that leg up
29:34
but again it's just being able and being
29:37
ready to be able to debate on it so
29:39
you know in short it's it's just again
29:41
it's it's how how we see the world
29:44
i can see why no one uh thought to
29:46
thought to
29:47
um you know choose that as as one of
29:49
their primary reasons but i think it's
29:50
more experience
29:52
yeah i have a quick question carmen
29:54
because i'm interested in kind of the
29:56
perspective as it relates to women
29:58
so with women do you find that as a
30:01
woman
30:02
founder that other women are more likely
30:05
to support because
30:06
it's a marginalized group so i i i would
30:09
say from my personal experience
30:11
and some of the survey data that we've
30:13
seen is that it is not
30:15
kind of an immediate correlation that
30:16
women are therefore going to support
30:18
other women or that marginalized groups
30:19
are therefore going to support other
30:21
marginalized groups is there something
30:23
systemic there is there a barrier
30:25
whether it's conscious or unconscious
30:28
that says
30:29
i don't know if i want to support until
30:30
i see that they're successful
30:32
or i don't know if i want to support
30:34
because i wasn't able to go
30:36
and pursue something of that nature do
30:38
do we believe that there is more to it
30:40
than just
30:41
maybe experience
30:44
from that lens i think yes i think that
30:47
we are conditioned
30:48
to want to see something be great first
30:51
before giving it an opportunity
30:53
and that's what make investing so hard
30:56
because you're you're really
30:58
going off of risk and it's how much risk
31:01
you really want
31:02
to participate in but as women you know
31:05
we are uh we we have been conditioned to
31:08
be very hard on ourselves
31:10
um and therefore we're hard on each
31:11
other um
31:13
but i do see that changing uh you know
31:15
believe it or not
31:17
um and you know not to have a political
31:19
stance one way or another
31:21
but um i think that as we've seen some
31:23
of the things that's happened
31:24
with civil unrest and you know the
31:27
current um
31:28
political environment um with you know
31:31
women of color getting opportunities
31:33
that they haven't in the past
31:34
we've become more appreciative of each
31:37
other and we've become
31:38
more interested in supporting one
31:40
another
31:41
so in short i think that you know um
31:45
we we we are you know i think
31:48
almost always a little bit harder on
31:50
ourselves which caused us to transfer
31:51
that but i see that changing
31:53
and i see greater opportunities for us
31:55
working together yep and i think that
31:57
carries across
31:58
to black and brown communities as well
31:59
we are i think we are tougher on each
32:02
other and we need to
32:03
re-examine why that is uh i i
32:06
i know travis we had this conversation
32:08
like you did get black investors but not
32:11
before
32:12
white investors or other people
32:13
validated the process i can tell you
32:15
running for office
32:16
it was the same thing like i i certainly
32:19
got
32:19
some black support but it was i got a
32:22
lot of support from a lot of other
32:24
people first and it was like this effort
32:26
where he had this well
32:27
you go out and prove yourself first you
32:29
go out and you know raise
32:31
three million dollars and then i believe
32:33
if other people believe in you
32:34
but that's not how it works for other
32:35
communities i say this is that's not how
32:37
we're for jewish communities right
32:38
there's a reason
32:38
people work together and that's a good
32:40
thing and they trust each other they're
32:42
willing to take the risk and that is how
32:43
we build and i'll say
32:45
uh to travis's earlier point about you
32:47
know uh you know
32:48
black planet and some of the other
32:50
things that we came up with
32:52
there there was enough money probably to
32:54
invest in that
32:55
because we're not all poor we're just
32:57
sometimes poorly organized when it comes
32:59
to
32:59
investing in each other so i just like
33:01
to just reiterate that point and i look
33:03
collague
33:03
you had some some points you want to
33:05
make on that so uh
33:06
look like you are agreeing or no yeah no
33:09
i'm 100 agreeing and you're right and
33:11
we we are so hard on ourselves and you
33:14
know we we think about how we used to be
33:16
so back when you talked about the old
33:18
black wall street right in tulsa a lot
33:20
of that was created because there
33:22
weren't any options you aren't going
33:23
anywhere
33:24
right and now we're trying to bring that
33:26
back and it's so difficult because
33:27
you're right we're just
33:28
extremely hard on ourselves and you
33:31
always use this analogy and it happens
33:33
all the time that you'll go to a black
33:35
owned restaurant
33:36
and they'll mess up something and you'll
33:38
say you wouldn't say i'll never come
33:40
back to this restaurant you're like i'm
33:41
never going to another black restaurant
33:43
like no black restaurant not that black
33:45
version right no black restaurant
33:48
why would we do that right no one really
33:50
does that if you go to mcdonald's you
33:52
just i'm not going to that mcdonald's
33:53
again right you're not saying i'm never
33:55
going to mcdonald's ever so
33:56
i i don't know where that comes from but
33:58
you're right we have to reverse that
34:00
piece
34:00
and if we're going to do this and do
34:02
this together we do have to show each
34:04
other some grace
34:05
right and work together to get to a
34:08
better outcome versus just
34:10
canceling people out like i'm done i'm
34:12
not going back to that place
34:14
yep yeah yeah i would say
34:18
i know where it comes from i mean it's
34:19
something that's been conditioned on
34:21
this show
34:22
about disrupting narratives and
34:23
constructs and that's why it's so
34:25
important to identify them and identify
34:28
uh the things that we accept and say why
34:30
do we accept this and
34:31
we and we shouldn't and because it's not
34:33
true we are harder on ourselves
34:36
uh in two ways and i had this on on on
34:38
one other panel i was on i said you know
34:40
we also put this thing up that we have
34:41
to work
34:42
and we say this twice as hard to get
34:44
half as much i'm like no
34:45
we should work twice as hard to get
34:47
twice as much like we should work hard
34:49
and expect that we're going to get twice
34:50
as much when we work hard like
34:52
changing how we view these things
34:54
matters
34:55
uh because it it i need to think about
34:57
it to someone pointed out to me i'm like
34:58
yeah that's a that's a really good point
34:59
i mean it's actually
35:01
kind of destructive to think of it like
35:03
okay i have to work hard and just expect
35:04
that half is coming like no i'm not
35:06
expecting i want
35:07
if i work hard and i work just as hard
35:09
as a billionaire i want a billion
35:09
dollars like
35:10
yeah what's wrong with that yep
35:14
all right so all right our third
35:15
question so we got right now you know
35:18
all right team founder y'all gonna have
35:19
to bring yourselves back here give me
35:21
some points
35:21
you know you guys got a shot it's two
35:23
nothing but we increased the points a
35:24
little bit so you got a chance
35:26
to still maybe pull this off how does it
35:28
go on
35:36
[Laughter]
35:40
this is the only time being wrong still
35:41
makes you right i got you
35:45
oh man all right so this is all right so
35:48
look
35:48
the third question we asked the survey
35:50
is what paths have you experienced as
35:52
most resourceful
35:54
when assessing extra capital for your
35:55
businesses and
35:57
mimi will go through the answers yep
35:59
there are five options and again
36:01
our registered attendees could only pick
36:04
one so mbe funding
36:08
small business grants equity
36:11
financing credit cards or online
36:15
lenders or alternative lenders
36:19
all right team founder this is all this
36:21
is on you guys all right let's
36:22
let's take one no pressure let's try to
36:24
get a point man let's make it happen
36:25
come on
36:26
carmen you guys travis you know i i'm
36:29
gonna let i'm gonna let you
36:30
start since you were so gracious to
36:32
start with me i i have my own
36:34
perspective but looking forward to
36:36
getting yours
36:37
who who went first on the oh yeah it is
36:40
you guys
36:40
sorry carmen you
36:44
you actually might have more insights on
36:46
this particular question than me but
36:48
like i i've only raised venture capital
36:51
um that's kind of all i really know um
36:55
i have heard about experiences with
36:58
you know small business grants
37:01
but particularly um you know experiences
37:04
trying to obtain
37:05
loans from you know banks which which
37:08
i've heard is very difficult
37:09
i've just never attempted um i
37:12
i would say what i don't think it is i i
37:15
don't think
37:16
that it's equity financing uh
37:19
understanding that one percent of that
37:21
goes to people that look like us
37:23
um i i don't think that
37:26
it's mbe funding um
37:30
if i had to guess i would say that
37:33
it's either b small business grants
37:37
uh or d credit cards um
37:40
and if i were betting my own money i
37:43
think i would probably go credit cards
37:44
but
37:45
um i i just know the number of small
37:48
business grants has to be
37:50
few and far between as well so i don't
37:52
know that's my thoughts i definitely
37:53
don't think it's online lenders either
37:55
yep yep i'm in line you know access to
37:58
capital is the number one impediment for
38:00
ethnic-owned businesses and you know
38:02
when you look at all of these items that
38:04
are in the group
38:06
um it's really hard to access all of
38:07
them but most of us have a credit card
38:10
you know and and most of us have been
38:12
able to you know
38:14
obtain one even if it's one with higher
38:16
percentage rates so
38:18
i'm going to agree with you and i'm
38:19
going to say credit cards
38:21
all right final answer that's our final
38:25
answer
38:26
all right team capital you're next
38:29
so i'm a little disappointed right now
38:32
because
38:34
i was going to say credit cards as well
38:36
but
38:38
and you guys do nothing man you're
38:40
greedy don't be greedy
38:42
but one of the one in the uh
38:46
a natural question it said extra cat it
38:48
said extra
38:49
and it's it's when i'm thinking extra
38:51
you know when i'm looking for a small
38:52
grant i'm not looking
38:54
extra i'm looking for capital to you
38:57
know operate my business
38:58
when i when i need a little bit of extra
39:00
cash or i need some cash quickly
39:01
i'm thinking credit card and i think
39:03
it's universal
39:05
uh significantly more people have credit
39:07
cards and not
39:08
um so but you know what do i think could
39:12
be
39:12
the crazy wild card right or the one
39:15
that
39:16
sneaks up and surprises us
39:27
maybe c
39:31
and and the only or oh it's going to be
39:33
something crazy like doesn't make too
39:35
much sense i think everything else
39:36
doesn't make sense but
39:37
you know maybe people looking at this
39:40
forum and this disrupt now thinking okay
39:42
how do people get
39:43
capital it's going to be something more
39:45
mainstream than
39:46
maybe credit card yeah so
39:49
um so credit card you're right credit
39:52
card was my
39:53
number two actually uh tied right
39:56
i i think in in this environment because
39:58
you you just recently took this poll
40:00
right this was a recent poll
40:02
it's a recent poll um you know one of
40:03
the hottest things that's out there
40:05
right now
40:06
is alternative finance options so online
40:09
lenders
40:10
cabbage what have you so i'm uh
40:13
i'm thinking e because equity i mean
40:16
nobody's getting equity it's like
40:21
it's a little it's a little bit harder
40:23
right yeah
40:25
so so i i was thinking it was e
40:29
but um i mean what's your thoughts
40:31
priorities i think no
40:33
i don't think i don't think it's equity
40:34
i agree i don't think it's equity but i
40:36
don't
40:37
but the question is what second so i'm
40:40
yeah i mean the other ones i don't
40:42
they're not i don't see them but i i i
40:44
agree
40:45
let's go the alternative that's what the
40:47
wild guy is out there
40:49
i don't know what mbe financing is
41:00
that's why i just said mbe because i was
41:02
like i don't even know what that is
41:06
i will say a fun fact my first job out
41:09
of college was at toyota and i was hired
41:12
as a diversity
41:13
supplier specialist my job was to ensure
41:16
that toyota sourced five percent of all
41:18
indirect and direct procurement
41:20
from minority business enterprises
41:22
believe it or not
41:25
you know what's funny i agree with that
41:27
maybe so i sit on the national minority
41:28
supply and development council's board
41:30
and there's another connected to it
41:32
organization
41:34
the business consortium fund which is
41:36
mbe financing
41:37
yes that's what exists so it actually
41:38
does exist i think
41:40
i think toyota is probably the leader in
41:42
that i don't think that's
41:43
good for all and just it's interesting
41:46
the way our experiences shape our
41:48
narrative because that was my first job
41:50
out of college i was like this is great
41:51
all corporate america loves and
41:54
i'm excited that's not reality that was
41:57
my experience
41:58
what i was thinking what i was thinking
42:02
oh sorry what i was thinking at first
42:04
was that it was
42:05
minority depository institutions right
42:08
so we have 179
42:09
black owned or woman-owned banks across
42:12
the country
42:13
and so i was thinking that maybe that
42:16
was you know dollars specifically for
42:19
you know set aside
42:20
that uh you know or maybe i know here in
42:24
the state of ohio
42:25
uh we have a capital access fund where
42:28
those are specifically for
42:30
you know minority-owned businesses so i
42:31
was thinking of something like that
42:34
at first but then i started thinking
42:36
that yeah no that that would be too easy
42:40
all right so we want to see what the
42:42
survey says somebody says
42:44
highest right to answer is what did you
42:45
do drum roll
42:47
so the highest rank is actually small
42:50
business grants
42:51
came in at 30 percent 34
42:56
okay
43:03
um credit cards is the second so that
43:06
was 27.3
43:08
and believe it or not equity finance
43:10
scored higher than online
43:12
or ultimately oh wow wow
43:15
i'm shocked by the small business grants
43:17
because i for you know being in the
43:19
industry
43:21
there aren't any they don't really exist
43:24
right i need to find out when your
43:27
audience comes in rob i want to talk to
43:29
him
43:32
every source falls yeah yeah i could
43:36
i was going to say the mbe funding as
43:38
you all kind of
43:40
allude it was the absolute minority at
43:43
three percent so i don't think anyone
43:45
knows about mbe funding
43:46
i even know who the three percent was
43:49
because
43:51
you got someone who works at a bank you
43:53
got you got
43:54
you got other founders you got you got
43:56
angel um
43:57
you got people running angel networks i
43:59
worked in finance for almost eight years
44:01
and i run a fintech now i've never heard
44:03
of it
44:03
um
44:04
[Laughter]
44:06
i
44:09
[Laughter]
44:13
oh man that's true that's pretty funny
44:15
so wait who won that round who do we get
44:16
who would get the poop clothes
44:18
the credit ralph okay yeah i thought you
44:20
guys wanted i want to make sure
44:22
all right good all right good well we
44:23
get to make it interesting because
44:25
you know this one we're going to make
44:26
worth more of the points so we'll make
44:28
it worth three points so whoever wins
44:29
this wins
44:30
the next question so there's some real
44:32
pressure some real
44:33
so you know team capital don't you know
44:35
don't don't get sloppy
44:36
all right all right you guys ready for
44:38
the final all right let's let's see who
44:40
takes home the prize all right
44:41
our fourth question that we asked that
44:43
we asked the audience in the survey is
44:46
what do entrepreneurs do wrong when
44:48
approaching investors and mimi will give
44:50
the answers yes so we have a few
44:53
different options so again keep in mind
44:55
what do entrepreneurs do
44:56
wrong is it lack of information
44:59
regarding
45:00
the investor or fund that they're
45:02
pitching
45:04
underestimating the amount of capital
45:06
needed
45:07
in the initial proposal could it be
45:10
lacking
45:10
a clear and concise vision for the
45:14
business
45:15
is it limitations or resistance with
45:18
accepting
45:18
or asking for constructive feedback
45:21
all right this one is for this is uh
45:23
this is team was a team
45:25
was team capital on this one right first
45:28
yep wait which one is listed twice i
45:30
don't see it oh actually yeah that was
45:32
my oversight so it looks like
45:35
resistance with accepting constructive
45:37
feedback
45:38
or not asking for rejection
45:41
feedback or why they were rejected yep
45:45
good catch travis yep worse
45:48
all right so this one is on this is this
45:52
is team capital this one
45:54
yep yep team capital go ahead
46:00
well first i'll say that all of these
46:04
answers are very valid um
46:08
which one do i think won out
46:11
with this poll um i would say the
46:17
i would say
46:18
[Music]
46:22
see
46:26
i i think the other ones are pretty
46:28
specific but
46:29
i think c is a little bit universal in
46:33
that
46:33
it may be not being able to
46:37
well one not having a clear vision not
46:39
having a clear understanding of the
46:40
financials not
46:41
having a clear understanding of the
46:43
market they're going into
46:45
um i think it covers more bases than the
46:48
others
46:49
um and i think it's just a general lack
46:53
of not being ready to pitch
46:56
um so i'm i think
46:59
c panna what are you thinking
47:02
you know what i was thinking c as well i
47:05
was i was
47:06
jumping between c and b because i'm also
47:10
saying again
47:11
it's difficult because it's approaching
47:12
investors so then i kind of put banks in
47:14
there i'd say
47:15
you know yeah and so i i was thinking
47:18
that
47:19
um you know underestimating the amount
47:21
of capital that they actually need
47:23
which then kills the deal altogether but
47:25
i think to your point
47:26
all of that ties into c with the lack
47:28
and a clear vision for the business so
47:30
where the business is going
47:32
what's going to be the value prop their
47:34
competitive advantage
47:35
and then what's going to be the capital
47:37
source to actually make this work so
47:39
i'm going with my partner on c
47:42
all right all right
47:48
okay okay partner travis
47:52
i've done this a lot and i do this on
47:54
investment so i'd love to hear your
47:56
perspective
47:58
um i likewise but i think we do it in
48:02
slightly different ways so i definitely
48:03
am looking for your feedback on this um
48:06
in a significant way
48:07
i mean i i know for a fact the the
48:10
answer that you know a
48:12
is it happens a lot you know people are
48:15
going to investors that they think
48:17
could be like you know you're like oh
48:19
andreessen horowitz is a great investor
48:21
let me go talk to them but
48:22
you you all you have is a pitch deck um
48:26
and you look like me and that will never
48:28
happen with andreessen you need to go to
48:30
the angel group first
48:32
um but so they're actually knocking on
48:35
doors that actually can't be helpful to
48:36
them yet
48:37
um because of the stage that they're at
48:39
um
48:41
and they also might not know what
48:42
industry that
48:44
or or yeah is that investor industry
48:47
agnostic or are they specialized um
48:49
we don't know that um a lot of times um
48:52
when i look at b i do think
48:54
underestimating or overestimating
48:57
um the amount of capital needed um in
48:59
their proposal
49:02
they might people might say i'm just
49:04
thinking of what people might say
49:06
i don't think that they would say hey i
49:07
think i don't think that they know that
49:09
um for b i think that they might have
49:12
gotten that feedback where
49:14
you know they went somewhere and said
49:15
hey i need to raise this much money or i
49:17
need a loan for this much and
49:19
either they're told you don't need that
49:20
much or you actually need
49:22
more um and maybe gotten that feedback i
49:25
do think c is a strong answer but d
49:28
uh i don't think d and e from my
49:31
perspective
49:31
people are self-aware maybe you're not
49:34
honestly self-aware
49:36
enough to say that in a survey
49:40
so where they don't accept taking
49:42
constructive feedback
49:43
most people think that they take
49:44
constructive feedback well but many
49:46
don't
49:47
uh and then as far as e um
49:50
i don't know if the people who don't ask
49:52
for rejection feedback know that they
49:53
should
49:54
um so i don't know those are those are
49:58
my thoughts i think personally i think b
50:01
might be the strongest answer but i
50:03
think that we could be surprised by any
50:05
one of these
50:07
no i totally concur um you know you're
50:10
exactly right
50:11
with a um often times what i see
50:15
is that a lot of founders don't know
50:18
that there are
50:19
institutional investors they're private
50:21
equity groups
50:22
there's venture and then there's vc
50:24
right and so each one of those
50:26
have a different uh industry in mind as
50:28
well as risk return
50:30
and so not often are early stage
50:33
businesses even taught to think about
50:35
evidence or cash flow and so when you
50:38
don't understand the financial
50:40
workings of a business then you tend to
50:42
go to people that you think have the
50:43
largest purse
50:44
not knowing that that purse isn't open
50:46
for you so
50:48
um i'm with you with a um but b
50:52
you know we also don't know how much to
50:55
ask for
50:56
sometimes we go in saying okay i just
50:58
want to you know pay myself for five or
51:00
six years
51:01
so that i can create this type of
51:03
product um you know or
51:05
use that money for whatever the
51:07
technology need
51:09
is uh to help grow it they may not think
51:11
about
51:12
back office uh travel and
51:15
you know other uh significant um
51:18
line items uh on the balance sheet so
51:21
i'm between
51:22
a and b as well um
51:25
so what do you think about this for b um
51:28
what i've also seen
51:29
is that we are so nervous
51:32
to secure capital that we tend to ask
51:35
for less
51:36
just because we think it'll give us a
51:37
better chance of actually securing it
51:40
um so i think that that's where the
51:42
underestimate
51:43
underestimation um could also play
51:46
yep oh i totally agree with that we do
51:48
the same thing for contracts
51:50
we just want a deal so we'll bid on a
51:52
contract knowing that we're going to
51:53
lose money just to say that we got it
51:55
so yeah i i i'm with you on that um
51:58
so you want to let's go with me then i'm
52:00
with i'm with you on that all the way
52:02
partner
52:02
okay win or lose we're together final
52:06
answer then all right b is the answer
52:09
so we got c for team capital and b for
52:12
team founder is that correct
52:14
all right we're there uh let's go
52:16
through the survey says what are the
52:17
results mimi
52:19
drum roll so just to clarify this was
52:22
actually a question that had a sliding
52:23
scale where people could say never
52:26
sometimes or often so i'm going to base
52:29
these readouts off of the often
52:32
column and indeed it was b with 54.8
52:36
percent
52:37
of everyone saying underestimate the
52:40
amount of capital
52:41
needed in their proposal now it's
52:43
interesting team founder found a way to
52:45
pull it out
52:46
all right
52:49
[Laughter]
52:57
is travis you made a comment about kind
53:00
of
53:00
our ability to have introspective
53:01
analysis well almost 50 percent
53:04
48.4 of people said not asking for
53:07
rejection feedback or why they were
53:09
rejected
53:11
interesting very interesting you've got
53:14
some very special people taking this
53:18
that is that is a very mature
53:21
very important thing to do and and i'm
53:24
pleasantly surprised
53:25
so that's great yeah yeah or it could be
53:27
a lot of investors that were answering
53:29
the questions
53:33
you know it could be that people take
53:35
that but you know what was interesting
53:36
because
53:37
back to how i was trying to figure it
53:38
out with cnb and so take
53:40
like as i take the investor out and when
53:42
people are coming to banks asking for
53:44
money
53:45
one of the things is that particularly
53:47
for small businesses and i would say
53:48
even more minority businesses that we
53:50
borrow less
53:51
than non-minority businesses and a lot
53:54
of that is
53:55
we don't think we're going to get it or
53:57
again sometimes we just grossly just
53:59
underestimate what we're going to
54:01
leave and when i'm meeting with people
54:03
and i meet with folks you know on my own
54:05
to try to help people on the side
54:07
and i'm always just turned away by how
54:09
their capital analysis of what they're
54:11
looking for is like way off
54:13
it's like way off so then you start to
54:14
question the rest of the business plan
54:17
you're like okay well now
54:18
if you don't know how much money you
54:19
actually need to run your business
54:21
now explain to me how you gonna make
54:22
this business actually work right so
54:25
then this is downhill after that so
54:27
i i can see that i can see that how that
54:29
can occur
54:30
i would say but so my i have a challenge
54:32
on that so how do you how do we go about
54:34
that
54:35
let's say you have someone that is has a
54:38
good idea
54:39
but perhaps they have to build the right
54:40
team around them and a bank might not be
54:42
where they start
54:44
uh but if they're starting with venture
54:45
capital like venture capital
54:47
like no one has this stuff tested no one
54:49
no one knew
54:50
that mark zuckerberg was going to create
54:52
a multi-billion dollar business
54:54
approaching trillion dollar business
54:56
like no one knew that going in google
54:58
google almost sold their business for a
54:59
little over a million dollars they just
55:00
people just didn't give them enough so
55:02
like people
55:02
don't always know uh you know everything
55:06
in advance sometimes people bet on
55:08
people based upon their vision
55:09
and based upon being able to put the
55:11
right people around them so
55:12
how do we get to the point where we're
55:14
able to i mean this is all risk
55:16
but this is less for a bank point of
55:18
view because the bank point of view is
55:19
you know you guys are risk adverse just
55:21
by your nature
55:22
but how do we change the perspective in
55:25
investing in people from the same
55:26
perspective as you would a
55:28
mark zuckerberg if you believe this
55:30
person believe
55:31
travis's idea and his concepts and his
55:34
in his in his
55:35
past align with what he's doing how do
55:38
we
55:38
i guess change the narrative and and
55:40
create more opportunities for people so
55:41
they don't have to have
55:42
because everybody somebody can be great
55:44
at a vision
55:45
but i consider myself in this camp but
55:47
not necessarily in the operations
55:49
and so like how do we how do we also
55:51
help people to make sure that we are
55:53
setting them up for success
55:55
um before they get to those places
55:57
because if you don't know
55:59
how do you get there so like what so
56:01
this is the question unpack
56:02
from your experience as investors when
56:05
you've seen this
56:06
or even as entrepreneurs when you've
56:07
done this
56:09
what would you advise people to do
56:11
differently
56:12
now and what would you advise people not
56:14
to do that you've seen done
56:16
in terms of when you when people
56:17
approach you for
56:19
money for advice so on and so forth so
56:22
what would you like to see what would
56:24
you have them do differently what have
56:25
you seen done right that's actually
56:26
sealed the deal so anybody can do that
56:30
then so in my experience i mean you
56:33
brought up facebook right
56:35
i remember when i was doing my nba one
56:39
we actually had the facebook right and
56:41
it was a very simple site and
56:44
and i you know i'm not sure how the
56:47
financing happened for the company
56:48
but the site was very very simple i
56:51
could have built i mean it was simple
56:53
very simple but the vision and where it
56:55
went to
56:56
um was obviously immense so
57:00
you're saying you know what do you need
57:02
to be able to get that capital
57:04
well i would say at the very beginning
57:05
do as much as you can without raising
57:07
capital
57:08
right latent capital is the last thing
57:10
you want to do
57:12
um now the issue is
57:15
if you've got a if you've got a great
57:17
idea and you're trying to
57:19
get capital and you're looking for the
57:21
small amount of capital
57:23
people in finance recognize that you
57:25
know
57:26
you're probably gonna need more than a
57:28
little bit to really
57:29
capitalize on a small idea that's why i
57:31
say do as much as you can before asking
57:33
for that capital
57:34
but once you're at the point where you
57:36
need capital
57:38
you need enough capital to actually um
57:41
get over the hump and i think
57:42
that's the issue we have in in
57:45
our community where we don't have as
57:46
much access to friends and family and
57:48
the money at the early stage
57:50
to put just put yourself in the position
57:52
to get the bigger rounds of capital
57:54
so you have this great idea you maybe
57:56
have a little bit of traction
57:58
and you need you now need a lot of
58:01
capital so how do we bridge that gap
58:04
well you know the institutions are
58:07
looking to put in growth capital
58:09
as opposed to you creating
58:12
you creating that that mvp
58:15
to get the mvp you need to be talking to
58:18
different people and not the
58:19
institutions
58:21
not all money is the same so you know if
58:24
you got friends and family great if you
58:25
don't have friends and family you're now
58:27
in the angel space angel space really is
58:31
a little bit broad from
58:32
pre-seed to seed and maybe series a
58:35
but you're not going to vcs
58:38
forget vcs by the time you're really
58:40
turning the vcs you have an mvp
58:43
you may be having a little bit of
58:44
attraction and and
58:46
you you know you're in a different space
58:49
so taking a step back
58:52
you need to be talking to the right
58:54
people and
58:55
i think it was a very first question is
58:57
that access to those to those networks
58:59
and resources which we lack
59:01
that's why we can't make that jump yep
59:04
so networking
59:06
connecting always networking you don't
59:08
know which conversation is going to open
59:10
that door for you to get that capital
59:12
or even that relationship which is you
59:15
know
59:16
going to support what you're doing it
59:18
may not even be capital
59:19
what your company needs may not be a
59:22
check it may be a relationship it may be
59:24
one introduction so just if you're in
59:27
the mindset of transaction transaction
59:29
transaction
59:30
you're in the wrong mindset you're going
59:32
to be in the mindset of connecting
59:33
connecting connecting because it's all
59:35
based on relationships
59:37
for you to get money you need to have
59:39
relationships you have to have network
59:40
and then once you have something that's
59:42
going to be special
59:44
you're going after bigger money you got
59:46
to have that that foundation there to
59:48
get there and that's the hump
59:50
we need to get over yeah completely 100
59:53
yeah nope no this hundred percent he
59:56
said it all i mean kevin
59:57
killed it it's relationships man you got
59:59
to have those before
60:00
you know before you do anything and and
60:03
to your point rob you said
60:04
you know where did we get that knowledge
60:05
base and where did we get that help
60:07
you get it from your relationships right
60:09
and again i mentioned this earlier about
60:11
giving each other grace when you have
60:12
relationships
60:13
people listen to your story they tell
60:14
you where you know the ropes to skip and
60:16
the ropes to know
60:18
to help you get prepared for when it's
60:19
game time right
60:22
you know you know rob you know i'll say
60:24
this um
60:26
uh only because i i've been there and um
60:29
you know when i started my business in
60:30
my dorm room i started it off of a vcr
60:33
tape
60:34
it was a beta tape i'm telling my age
60:35
right now because i'm really 25.
60:37
um but i i claim
60:41
ordered a beta tape off of tv at late
60:44
night for 29.99
60:46
uh in ore hall at the university of
60:48
akron and that video tape told me that i
60:51
can live the american dream
60:52
and become a millionaire so that my
60:54
family my future family
60:56
could be able to live the american dream
60:58
as well when i made my first 20 million
61:01
dollars after buying the house the
61:02
bentley's and all the shoes
61:04
i didn't have a mentor to help guide me
61:08
and to help teach me how to be more
61:10
financially resourceful
61:12
right when i hit the 30 million dollar
61:15
mark
61:15
we think we were thinking what did we do
61:17
oh my goodness this is great
61:19
by that time the real estate market was
61:21
getting ready to clash
61:22
crash it was near 2008. in 2008
61:26
all of my mortgages i was a real estate
61:28
investor at 200 pieces of property all
61:30
over the world
61:31
all of the lenders said we're calling
61:33
your notes due we need that money now
61:35
i called my accountant he said you got
61:37
about 355
61:38
in the account which one would you like
61:40
me to take it from
61:42
it was devastating to me because i said
61:44
okay who's going to help me get out of
61:46
this rut
61:48
who's going to help me so i went to the
61:50
governor's office and said i need help
61:53
as a business owner
61:54
he sent me to an organization i'm not
61:56
going to say their name
61:57
but he sent me to an organization that
61:59
provided technical assistance
62:01
my ex-husband told me not to do it but
62:04
being
62:05
missed woman that i am i said no i'm
62:06
gonna do it anyway because i think it
62:08
makes sense
62:09
um but that person on the other side rob
62:12
had never been
62:13
ceo cfo had never been responsible for
62:16
anybody's livelihoods they couldn't read
62:18
a p l statement
62:20
and for us that is what we did on the
62:22
daily basis
62:23
we were responsible for people's lives
62:25
their health insurance paying their rent
62:27
their mortgage
62:28
feeding their families making their kids
62:30
have options for going to school
62:32
so it was the council that i received
62:34
that helped me go further downhill
62:37
i went to every organization that you
62:39
can think of i drove from cleveland to
62:41
cincinnati
62:43
and it was a young man his name was ani
62:46
martin
62:47
and i don't know if you know ani but ani
62:50
was a business development guy and he
62:53
basically
62:54
showed me how to turn my business
62:57
into a whole new entity and use
63:00
a sales model not a financial model a
63:03
sales model to pull myself
63:05
out so it saved me from going into
63:07
foreclosure 200 times
63:09
but what i learned through that process
63:12
rob is that it's really about the
63:14
council we receive
63:15
that's why one in five businesses fail
63:18
we don't have enough people like myself
63:20
who's actually done it
63:22
out here teaching these people what to
63:24
do and what not to do
63:25
we have neophytes and those neophytes
63:28
have great ideas
63:30
but sometimes they're too far from the
63:31
mark someone said it very well
63:34
we don't always need money we need to
63:37
learn how to be better operators
63:39
and we need to understand sales and so
63:42
if i was to give an answer to that and
63:45
tears are running down my face so i'm so
63:47
glad that you can't see me right now
63:49
um but it's because i live and i breed
63:52
this
63:53
every single day and it pains me
63:56
that we spend billions of dollars on
63:58
resources and technical assistance
64:01
but we don't think to add those people
64:03
who have some valid
64:04
and real experience to help us do it
64:06
right so it's not an ethnic issue
64:09
it's a business issue and if i had
64:12
one request it would be that more people
64:15
like me stand up
64:17
and give back so for the past seven
64:19
years i've been doing that
64:21
i've been giving back making sure that
64:23
businesses don't lose their business
64:25
make sure that people still have a way
64:27
to pay for people's livelihoods
64:29
because it's the right thing to do yeah
64:30
well that was a good way to that's a
64:32
good way to end listen
64:33
so you can you can preach whatever yeah
64:35
that was good it's a good way to end so
64:37
uh we want to take questions from the
64:38
audience we're going to get a chance to
64:39
do this so we want to
64:40
see what you agree with and disagree
64:42
with we're taking some of the uh
64:43
questions we got
64:44
we're going to make sure that we get
64:46
back to you and we'll be able to talk to
64:47
you and actually meet with you live but
64:48
thank you for your time team team
64:51
founder congratulations you pulled it
64:52
out i was worried about you
64:54
so team capital you gave it a good run
64:56
but you know
64:57
you can't win them all but until next
64:58
time we'll see we'll see everybody next
65:00
time we're going to continue to disrupt
65:02
common narratives and constructs