- 6 months ago
A Panel discussion from small business owners about securing venture captial
Category
š ļø
LifestyleTranscript
00:00entrepreneurship is definitely too hard for black founders entrepreneurship is being not just a bear
00:12but being a grizzly bear entrepreneurship is staying ready so you never have to get ready
00:17entrepreneurship is a marathon not a sprint you have to be consistent persistent and never give
00:22up so it's definitely a journey entrepreneurship is all about leaning into all the things that
00:27make you uncomfortable your fears your worries all of that along your road to get to your glory
00:33you have to maintain that sense of self-efficacy and belief in what you're you're trying to build
00:40trying to do trying to conceive even when others on the sideline think you're out of the game and
00:47that's what being an entrepreneur is for me hi everybody welcome to our show me the money panel
00:53my name is eva mcnair i'm the ceo of captivate marketing group a full service event production
00:59company if you're a business owner like me then you know how challenging it can be to identify
01:04solid funding sources to help grow your business so today we're going to talk about exactly how to do
01:11that with a few very successful ladies that i'm excited to speak to um hi my name is kimberly bryant
01:16i'm the founder and ceo of black girl code hi my name is pinky cole i am the founder and ceo of
01:23slitty vegan atm hi i'm carrie schrader i am the ceo and co-founder of mixtrose hi i'm ashley
01:30ammons and i am the president at mixtrose as entrepreneurs we hear the term venture capitalists
01:35a lot to get us started i'd like each of you ladies to share one thing business owners should
01:40know about how venture capitalists operate and why they are so important to entrepreneurs
01:44i'd love to start with ashley and carrie i would say vc capital is something that you have to grow
01:51into because once you are able to identify or be identified by vc capitalists it's it's a whole
01:59different game from bootstrapping friends and family and an angel round but as you progress to
02:06that vc stage you're you're pretty much well on your way taking on venture capital is it's not a light
02:12decision it's not just like somebody is handing you money you should think about the relationship that
02:17you're going to have with that vc that investor as nearly a marriage because you're going to know
02:22that person that well they're going to want to know the ins and outs of your business and the other
02:27thing to remember is when you're trying to attract or court a vc there is a methodology to the madness
02:34and it is like very googleable you can read people's story how to get it done you need to do what you can
02:39do to follow that recipe that's already been set out for you raising capital is not a place where you
02:44need to reinvent the wheel that's what your business should be doing pinky your backstory is so inspiring
02:49and includes so many life lessons which clearly paid off since slutty vegan is now a nationwide
02:55success what's a valuable lesson that you had to learn the hard way about the best approach to
03:00seeking out venture capital funding my story is a bit different because i actually didn't have to go
03:04out to look for venture capital for the last two years even today i've created such a brand that's
03:10been so attractive to so many people including venture capitalists that i've had people flooding
03:15my inbox on wanting to be a part of my brand so what i've learned however is i learned that when you
03:20create something extremely strong and attractive to anybody who is who is a consumer or people who are
03:26interested in helping you to grow their brand it's not always you having to reach out sometimes they
03:30will reach out to you so i'm glad that i can offer a different point of view here because everybody's
03:35situation is different when it relates to garnering money from a venture capital kimberly what are some
03:40specific things to keep in mind for entrepreneurs who are seeking out venture capitalist funding
03:45for a business model that's unique to the market we are actually are a non-profit organization so we are
03:50not a for-profit venture so we don't traditionally tap into venture capital markets but being in the tech
03:57space and in the tech ecosystem we certainly engage with lots of venture capitalists venture capital
04:04it has really become a bit of a sexy method for raising capital but that's not the only way for black
04:12girls co one of the things that we did early on was a lot of crowd fundraising and it's been interesting to
04:19see even on the crowd fundraising side a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurs to raise funds there
04:27explore all your options bc is not the only one it's not for everybody they're looking for
04:34outsized returns and you can build a thriving business in many ways with you know alternative
04:40forms of capital just as well as you can with bc ashley and kerry first of all i want to congratulate
04:45you both on launching the business as a mother-daughter team we love to see family-owned businesses but how
04:51does working with or approaching a venture capitalist look different for you since you're a family-owned
04:56business and you don't have just one owner have you seen any differences certainly i would say so
05:01you know one thing that's interesting for us is you know my mom and i started a business where a
05:05technology company generally technology companies opposed to product companies they do need an infusion
05:11of capital so you can grow build the technology scale it build awareness for it and that sort of thing
05:17so it becomes a little bit more tricky i think having a software company that you're trying to grow and get to
05:24the masses uh you know for us as a family trying to go and raise funding it was difficult because i
05:30think that there are preconceived notions about how a family business is going to work like there are a
05:35lot of famous stories about families completely falling apart uh you know when they try to go into
05:40business together so what i would say about that is have a rock solid if you're gonna if you're gonna
05:46try to enter into business with a family member the relationship that you have before that business starts
05:51before day one it has to be rock solid and if that is the case building a business with a family
05:57member can be uh completely enjoyable i mean frankly it can be the best thing ever i mean i look at my
06:02mom and i and how we've grown as humans my mom and i have a relationship now that is not just based on us
06:08being mother and daughter and although that is the most important i also see my mom for the human that
06:13she is aside from being my mom aside from being you know the leader of the household all that kind of
06:18stuff i see her for the you know the excellent business woman that she is i see the hustle that
06:23she has had her whole life you know years and years before we started mixtrose and i appreciate
06:28those things about her i appreciate the knowledge that she's able to bring to the business uh you know
06:33she has such a well-rounded mindset that she brings to this business every single day you know i think a
06:39lot of the reason that we've been successful is because we have generational perspective my mom and i while
06:44similar we do excel at different things and so we're very comfortable talking to potential funders
06:49about that uh that relationship i mean we go as deep as we know that on the myers-briggs my mom and
06:55i are in the same quadrant uh but our personalities are different and we're actually very well suited to
07:01be in business with one another she must really want a great christmas present i mean what i will say
07:07is when we do get in front of vcs or found uh funders and i have to say and echo the vc thing is not you
07:15start a business tuesday and you're in front of a vc on wednesday because it's a whole different metrics
07:21uh around that so you do have to have a proven concept company business product what have you but
07:29what i will say is it's funny some of the questions that are asked because we are a mother-daughter team and
07:35because i tend to be just a couple years older than um ashley i almost feel like they're trying to give
07:41me the jedi mind trick like okay are you still coherent um are you really part of the company
07:49we've gotten that before i've actually had somebody come up like they didn't realize i was behind ashley
07:54and they were like it's so nice that you bring your mama out of the house and so you know that's kind
08:00of unsettling seeing that i have had an awesome 25 year career of my own so again we know what our
08:08objectives are and we understand how we both play into mixtrose and we just make sure that we dispel
08:15the it's so cute um really quick to we're working hard to to do what we have done when carrie and i
08:22started this business in 2015 the world was different the culture the climate was different so my mom and i
08:27we would literally go in these meetings with a lot of frankly old white men and we would have the
08:32discussion like ashley your hair is in dreads uh carrie you're gonna wear your hair flat ironed um
08:38we literally had those discussions and today what i would say to that is we walk into a room we take
08:44a page from bozeman st john's playbook and we'll give everybody a minute to adjust to the greatness
08:49that we have brought into that room so whoever you are everybody else can adjust yeah i think i think
08:54that's so important because i think as entrepreneurs as black women entrepreneurs we can all say that at
08:59some point we had to do that where we felt we had to show up and you know be a certain way as opposed
09:03to being our authentic self so another thing i wanted to talk about is follow-up one thing that's really
09:08important to scaling my business is my follow-up what are some of the strategies that you use or some of
09:13the tips that you can share to follow up with your you know potential customers prospects or your
09:18current clients i don't like things that are so transactional maybe transactional right um building
09:25relationships that are long lasting can get you a lot further than transactional situations when i was
09:30dealing with my venture capitalists um we we built a friendship right so i i would send things that are
09:38happening in my business i would follow up as how you're doing um talking to the family just
09:44communicating on a regular basis even if it didn't have anything to do with the transaction
09:49because i wanted them to understand that one i'm a human being right that we can talk about other
09:54things outside of business because like somebody said earlier this is a marriage so yeah you got
10:00the dating phase then you got the marriage so i want to make sure that the person and i'm about
10:04to marry because it's a two-way street right so if you can be yourself you will get a lot further
10:08any single room i go when i meet all day every day and people like that the most
10:12so when people see that and see that you're not transactional and you actually want to build a
10:16relationship it'll make them one-to-one either move faster two they'll be more prone to say okay
10:22all right cool this person is not a robot this person is bigger than just money because it's not
10:27always just about money because sometimes those relationships outweigh that money you really focus
10:32on building relationships so kimberly i want to jump to you can you talk about some of the tips
10:36on things that you shouldn't do when trying to you know build the relationship and following up
10:41with a venture capitalist one of the greatest strengths that i've been able to bring into
10:45my business at bgc is my network and you know we've heard this cliche your network is your net worth but
10:53like that's a fact and i think we have to be really conscientious as leaders and entrepreneurs even
11:00on how we build relationships how we work within relationships so i think doing what you say you're
11:08going to do when you say you're going to do it like that's important like you that is the quickest way
11:14to break those relationship bonds is to not deliver on your commitment so you're only as good as your word
11:22and people remember that so that's a key for me it's like being able to do what i say i'm going to do
11:29when i say i'm going to do it and being able to build that you know that commitment and relationship
11:36bond i'm built on trust is is keenly important when you're trying to create these relationships
11:42to help your business to grow carrie let me ask you a question how many times do you think you
11:46should follow up with a venture capitalist if when you're trying to secure funding i don't think it's
11:50a magic number i think it's just like pinky said it is about a relationship because if you go at
11:56somebody very transactionally like okay we had the conversation now i'm going to go to step two and
12:01three and four you can wear them out what i do is really approach people based on the vibe and how
12:09i want to be approached because everybody is not on my time schedule and specifically if they're not
12:16giving a vibe of a keen interest then we kind of let them go back to the back of the line because we are
12:24we have finally gotten to the point confident in our product and confident in our approach and our
12:30future that we we kind of do with a three strikes and you're out so you know we'll start that cadence
12:37but if we're not feeling it is well received or received with some type of priority then we go on
12:44pinky i wanted to ask you um when do you think it's time to move on it's kind of like you know right like
12:49i'm an empath so i feel the vibes i can tell when somebody's interested in me if they like me if they
12:54don't like me if they really want to help if they if they really want to invest in my company i can feel
12:58it and if the energy doesn't feel right then that's how you know to move on and i feel like we all have
13:02that spirit of discernment we all get busy right but sometimes you feel it right and when you follow
13:08that that innate gut inside of yourself and say you know what this doesn't feel right it's too hard
13:12one thing about me is anything that feels like too much of a push and too much of a pull i want to walk
13:17away from it because it doesn't feel natural everything that i've gotten in this business
13:20is because i've been in alignment and i didn't have to chase it beg borrow steal i ain't had to do none of that
13:26especially as black women we have a keen sense of intuition and like i i feel like in my intuition
13:33is like my superpower and it took me years i mean it took me years to to lean into that and accept that
13:42like i can depend on something other than just what i see in black and white on the paper and i think just
13:49being able to embrace that as we you know build these companies and and lean into the things that
13:56are unseen as well as the things that we can see i think that's a gift and if we really tap into that
14:02you know then the sky's the limit when i look back there was always a sign there was always something
14:07that i felt that either i didn't go with or i ignored but i think that we have that intuition
14:11there's always that little voice that's telling us and sometimes we ignore it i think that's very
14:15important you hear us all like saying these awesome things please know that on the other side of these
14:20awesome things there's a whole heap of hard work that went into that there's a lot of moments i cry
14:26in my closet sometimes because that's my personal space i don't cry in front of people but like know
14:31that like we're all going through it in some way but also let's celebrate the moments when guess what
14:37the hustle has paid off so often we forget to do that and so that's why it's amazing to be on a panel
14:42like this when we're all seriously like black girls rock that's it i have one thing of course you do
14:49i very rarely am on a panel that i do not give a plug for uh making sure that you're taking care of
14:56yourself i am a breast cancer survivor that was diagnosed during this crazy journey and had i not
15:03gone to a simple mammogram who knows what could have happened no matter what you got going planning
15:09starting a business starting a business business is blowing up make sure that you are taking care
15:13of yourself i'm yvonne mcnair again thank you so much for joining us today you can follow me on all
15:19social media platforms as well and i just want to thank you for tuning in and i wish that everyone
15:24um who is interested in being an entrepreneur that one you follow all of these successful ladies
15:28that's one that's the first thing i want you to do but secondly i want to make sure that you just
15:33stick to it and um we're wishing you much success and we thank you all for tuning in
15:38you
Comments