July 29, 2025 • 37 mins
Ep. 226 Slauson & Co. is a Los Angeles based venture capital firm focused on early stage technology investments. The firm is driven by its mission of economic inclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for historically underrepresented founders. Founded in 2020, S&Co. is led by investors, Austin Clements and Ajay Relan and was born out of the idea that talent is evenly distributed but opportunity is not.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Will Lucas here another black tech, green money. So excited
for today's because I get to talk to guys who
are making a whole bunch of money in LA. Austin
and j are the managing partners as Lawson and Co.
And LA based venture capital firm based on focus on
early stage technology investments. The firm is driven by its
mission of economic conclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for
(00:24):
historically underrepresented founders. Jay aj In Austin, Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Thank you, absolutely so. I want to talk
first about, like you before we started recording here, Aj,
you had mentioned like you know, we're talking about the
art gallery, and you know you furnished your office with
art that was representative of the mission. Can you talk
(00:47):
about the mission, why it's, why it was important when
you started, and probably why it's even more important in
the climate within today.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, for sure. Thank you again for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You know, I think you already.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Kind of hit the nail on the head when you
kind of gave the overview and who we are when
we're about everything that Austin and I have ever talked
about in our careers, particularly as we both independently started
in venture capital, independent of each other a little.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Over a dozen years ago.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
As we would compare notes, we always talked about this
massive opportunity to build a more inclusive ecosystem that tapped
in a wider variety of perspectives. You know, having worked
in traditional investing myself at Queensbridge Venture Partners in Austin
at ten to one ten focused on enterprise SATs. Here
in LA there was just such a massive white space,
(01:34):
or as Austin you know so refers to it as
like everybody's fission.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
In this lake.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
And then there's a massive pond of perspective that is
just not represented in the products and the services that
we're consuming. And then the in passing conversations that we
would have over the better part of a decade that
somebody needed to build a firm that was natively built
to source and support the best and brightest of those perspectives,
not that come from anyone, just really into this idea
that there was innovation that exists it outside of white
(02:01):
men and six geographies, and that we wanted to build
a firm that was tapped into that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So everything that we do is a firm.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Every piece of content, the way that we build our office,
the way that we cured our team, the way that
we move, the way that we support our founders.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It really comes from that cloth you alluded to the art.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
You know, I think we we were able to kind
of pull together our first fund and started investing from
it in twenty twenty one, which was a seventy five
million dollar fund.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We were like, we can't be Slosson and Co.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
And our offices in Culver City, you know, but there
also always in a lot of office spaces on slast
And Avenue, So there's a space that we were familiar
with that kind of resembled an old school art gallery
and we were just fortunate enough to have friends that
got to put on artists the same way we hope to.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Put on entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
So we're blessed to be able to be in this
space with you know a bunch of talented folks that
are pushing the needle forward through art and culture and
kind of continue to find new ways to tell our
story on how we kind of integrate this intentionality without
compromising the quality of the outcome.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know, Austin, there is you know, looking at you.
Both of your backgrounds you know, obviously smart, obviously very
well trained in finance and economics and et cetera. But
there was a lot of things you could have done
with your brain power. There's a lot of things you
could have done with your intellect. There's a lot of
things you could have done with your networks. Why did
you choose venture Capital as the best place for you
(03:23):
to make your dent toward the things that mattered to you?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yeah, man, I tried a lot of things too, bro So.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
I wish I could tell you the story of it
being a crystal clear from day one, but you know
aj Guitel's story before. In my case, for me, I've
always been interested in technology, built a web development shop
when I was in high school, made a little bit
of pocket change from that, which sort of sparked my interest.
(03:55):
But I think going to college on to Morehouse in Atlanta,
and when I came back it was to La It
was always like trying to find I think I'm smart,
I think I'm ambitious, I think I'm driven, and trying
to sort of play this balance between like what my
friends are doing. We're all going to Wall Street making
a bunch of money and doing all that, but like
something about me has always been wired more entrepreneurial minded
(04:19):
and had an interest there, and so I think a
lot of my early career in my twenties in particular,
was just confusion of like, do I do I want
to follow this path where I could just get somebody
to cut me a big enough check and I could
live nice, or you know, do I want to create
something from scratch where I'm probably gonna be broke for
very long time and and and the messiness of trying
(04:40):
to find exactly what it was. But I think, uh,
you know, ended up so I ended up working in
investment management for a while.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
I also ended up.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Running a death shop post college for a while, and
so I think that continued that sort of back and forth,
if you will. But the thing that really clicked for
me is somewhere in my twin started to read more
articles about like technology companies that are getting funded and
really early stage technology and emerging technologies, which is what
(05:10):
I was into.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
And kind of the combination of.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Being able to work with technology, still continue to work
with investing, and then also working with entrepreneurs, which I
think of as the most passionate people on the planet.
And I love being around that like energy. Really that
made me say to myself that, like, oh, there's this
thing called venture capital that is the combination of all
those things. And once I saw that, it was crystal
(05:38):
clear that, like I was like, oh, I've had all
this confusion, but this is what I'm supposed to be
doing with the rest of my life, the rest of
my career. And I think from the first song that
I concluded that at this point probably you know, almost
certainly a decade and a half, probably closer to twenty
years ago, kind of haven't looked back since then, and
(06:01):
this is what I'll be doing forever.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, as far as I can tell, you know, Aja,
you know, being based where you are, how does that
how does your geography influence how you approach investing in
how you deploy capital?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I love that question.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So, you know, even geography is such an interesting uh
word when you kind of think about it. So Austin
and I we've actually been friends since high school. So
when he was kind of planning the seeds for that
dev shop, I was able to tap his be one
of the few people that I knew how to use
was proficient in computer and design language. I used to
throw parties and used to design my flyers. And we
(06:38):
both met right off of Glaston Avenue a little over
only twenty five years ago at this point when we
were in high school, and you know, when and when
we were kind of coming together and thinking about building
this firm, we couldn't help but think about, like, you know,
these these incredible networks and these ecosystems like Silicon Valley
which has had these compounding network effects of innovation and inspiration,
(07:00):
and why it's such a special place. But then really
thinking about the corridor and even like just the mainstay
of areas like South LA that are extremely culturally rich.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They just there's so much perspective.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
There's so much popular culture that is cultivated in areas
like the one that we're sitting across right now, but
then they kind of get repackaged and explorted to different
parts of the world without attributing the origin story. So
where a lot of that you know, art and music
and fashion kind of come from and ideas. So when
(07:33):
we think about even Slosson Avenue, as it is a
thirty mile stretch, is probably one of the more prominent thoroughfairs.
Everybody knows it, but they don't know it for they
use it to get from one end of the city
to the other. But when we thought about the mission
that we wanted to kind of encapsulate. When you're on
the east side of the street, it is a very
blue collar, industrial commercial area. Majority of the stretch as
(07:54):
you're traveling west, is extremely culturally rich but also under resource,
mostly communities of color, and it ends in kind of
one of the isn't one of the highest concentrations of
minority wealth or in the country, and that's how we
viewed the metaphor for our mission. So when we were
building it, we specifically wanted to be you know, we
(08:14):
can commonly say we're the only institutional grade VC firm
on Slawson Avenue. Uh TikTok actually exists at the end
of it. So that's probably the biggest brand name that
you'll know. But I think when we think about this
geography what inspires us the most, it really is communities
like the ones that exist alongside this corridor in every
major city and the municipality across the US.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And we're built to build a brand that kind of.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Speaks to folks that have historically been excluded and again
try to find the best inviteds to those levers in
perspective to build the next big category defining generational business.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, you know, and I'm gonna get us to either
of you guys who want to answer it. But I
remember got it had to be almost ten years ago now,
I wrote this blog post on LinkedIn that called and
it was called, hey, startup, you don't live in Silicon Valley.
And the point, the thesis of that you know post was,
at the time, especially most education about how to raise
(09:14):
money was coming from Paul Graham at y Combinator, you know,
and people like that. And that doesn't always apply in
Detroit or you know, pick a place outside of Silicon Valley.
The language, the terms that investors want, all these things
that may apply in San Francisco, different language, different conversations
(09:35):
somewhere else. And the reason I bring up that story
is I'm interested in your take on how I don't
know if forgiving is the right word, but how how
accepting of alternatives are twentative past to entry or do
you have to be if you're going to focus on
this population of founders because they weren't brought up going
(09:58):
to you know, U C l A or pick you know,
pick one of these schools, Stanford or you know, et cetera.
And they don't. They ain't grow up with the lexicon
of venture capital. They may have an idea that's worthy,
but may not be necessarily prepared to accept capital. And
you and you like you got something to let me
help you get there? How do you do that?
Speaker 6 (10:18):
That's a great question and kind of if I really
had to boil it down like that is the question
that we're kind of setting out to answer, and it's
the one that we wake up every morning thinking about
and working toward and trying to trying to figure out.
And for that matter, if we do figure out, sort
of create the playbook for others to follow our lead
(10:42):
doing so. And but the reality is so there are
a couple of things baked into that is such a
profound question. One is thinking about Silicon Valley as it stands,
and like the advice that was given, you know, by
the Paul Grams or whatever.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I have a ton of respect.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
For Paul Graham and what has been built in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Broadly, I think that there.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
Are a lot of people that kind of knock Silicon
Valley and in the grand scheme of things. It's it's
actually working fairly well for what it intends to do.
Who is not working for is the people that have
been you know, excluded, And to your point, it's it's
most people are not part of that network.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Most people aren't part of that access.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
And and often these people are people with really great
ideas and even pretty good networks and pretty good uh
like insights and experience and all that. And so I
think that when we think about how Slasonka was founded,
it was founded on the premise that that that there
are those people out there and that there's a really
(11:47):
great opportunity to back them. And so what happens when
you find somebody or somebody finds us in many cases
from from who's really talented, who is exceptional like this
is we're still looking for people with exceptional ideas that
can scale. This is not a we're taking Silicon Valley's leftovers.
(12:10):
We're just finding opportunities that either the biases or the
experience or whatever doesn't lend itself to the average VC
in Silicon Valley. One example I always use is, as
I mentioned, i' went to morehouse. Like if I meet
a founder that says they went to Morehouse or Spelman
or Howard or whatever.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
You know, that means something to.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Me that I have the proper context of understanding what
that means. But I expect somebody who went to Stanford,
you know, for for business school or whatever else and
never set foot on an HBCU, you know, to have
that or understand that, or have that mean anything to them,
positive or negative either way, of course not like that's
not their life experience, and the fact is that it
(12:55):
is mine. And so because it is mine, I could
take my own lived experience and sort of use that
as a competitive advantage, which is also not surprisingly in turn,
what we look for the founders that we back. I
think one of the first things listened on our website
is your lived experience is your competitive advantage. We think
of people as as what they go through and the
(13:15):
and and and being exceptionally good and standouts in their
particular category, in their particular lane and their particular geography,
uh as as the ones that we want to collaborate
with and work with to help them see their opportunity through. Uh.
I guess the second part of that question is, like,
you know, so, so what happens, like will will if
(13:38):
they don't have the lexicon. If they don't have all that,
then like what happens to them after we back them?
Speaker 5 (13:44):
You know?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
And And the reality is, like, I think that we
do have to I think a lot of people will
be surprised to know. Plenty of people would argue against
what I'm about to say. But I fundamentally believe that
a lot of people in Silicon Valley do want to
find these entrepreneurs, and they but they have a certain
way to your point of like, here's how I understand
(14:05):
what an entrepreneur to look like, sound like, have experience.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
With and so on and so forth.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
And if you tell me there's exceptional entrepreneurs out there
that don't look like or sound like that, I kind
of need help finding them. I kind of need help
understanding this and parsing this and what am I missing
looking at identifying my own blind spots. So I do
think that there is demand from Silicon Valley and large
and people with large capital to find opportunities that may
look non traditional.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I do believe that to be true.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
I also believe that there's demand from entrepreneurs to be
back by you know, very prominent eventually by very prominent
venture capital firms, and so where do I see Slawson.
It's somewhere as acting as a bridge or a conduit
between those two worlds. We have a lot of Silicon
Valley quote unquote royalty involved with what it is that
(14:54):
we do and advising and picking up the phone for
us and opening up doors for us. We also are
tapped into to all the cities that you know, boots
on the ground, you know, you're to the streets of
what's happening in Atlanta or in New York or wherever else.
So it's that balance in my view, and if we
could kind of sit in the middle of it, I
(15:14):
think there's lots of opportunity for us to create some
awesome returns for the lpis of backs.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Hey, Jay, I want you to come in on this.
I want to specifically focus on the part like, you know,
their deck may not be the most incredible deck you've
ever seen, you know there, you know, traction may be
different than other startups may be, Like, how do you
see through that to say there's a great horse there
I'm going to put my money on.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I think that what Austin alluded to her may be
explicitly said. I think it's just understanding the cultural context,
right and then obviously at the stage in which we
invest on the pre set and c stage level, you know,
even going back and back to say anything original heres
like really just understanding.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
The the great and.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The determination of the founder, and like really evaluating them
through the lens of like, what is the problem that
they're trying to solve and are they the person that
has been put on this earth to solve this problem?
You know, we very much view our role, particularly for
people that don't you know, or didn't grow up in
that ecosystem or aren't natural to it to you know,
provide them with the scaffolding to build a strong foundation
(16:23):
so that by the time they do go to a
blue chip firm down the road, you know their business fundamentals,
and candidly like they have to outperform because people are
being looked at through.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
A more a lens that is a bit more as
a bit more.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Scrutiny than your typical you know, Silicon Valley founder or
Stanford graduates. So you know, it's not it's the rough
around the edges or not necessarily talking the lingo. We
very much view you know, we're evaluating them for like
how what is their ambition?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Are they delusionally optimist?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Like?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Do they have the delusional vision that we want to back?
Are they pragmatic or are they coachable? How do we
determine them that they the information and the knowledge and
the networks that we provide them to help fill any gaps?
What is the pace of implementing and executing against that
those solutions that we figure that we provide from a
platform perspective to remove any bottlenecks? And God knows there
(17:19):
are a lot of bottlenecks and roadblocks, and building a
venture back company is the hardest ship that you could
possibly do.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
So we very much few our role.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
You know, somewhere between a coach, a cheerleader, and most
importantly an accountability buddy.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'll start with you on this aja since you got
your micro open, It's like, what's something you bought recently
that costs little but had a big impact on how
you do business or live?
Speaker 6 (17:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Man, I know that I did buy something and I
can't think of it anything off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I'll give you a moment. I'll give you a moment.
Think at.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Can you ask questions?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
As to ask a question? Again?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All right, what's something. What's something you bought recently that
didn't cost a ton of money, but it had a
really big impact on either your efficiency, your business, your lifestyle.
Pick a thing.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Yeah for me, my mine would easily be paying for
chat GPT.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Just in terms of, like the ROI on a product.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
That i've that I use, no question, in terms of
just being able to to think through business challenges, help
with research and diligence, and different opportunities to like family lifestyle. Yeah,
you know, recently took a trip with my family overseas
and like just to be able to walk through and
(18:45):
talk to that uh, financial planning, all these things I think.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
I think being able to work with a lot of
the AI models or.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Game twenty bucks a month right there. Ago you got.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Minus the complete opposite.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I bought a h An Accordion trapper keeper notes organizeran
very old school I am a I'm a pen and
paper guy.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
If you ever seen that old Antonio Benders movie Desperado,
I'm like Desperado, but with like notebooks. I got the
mini notebook on my ankle, I got the big moleskin
in the backpack, and like I am very much pen
to paper.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Type of guy the challenge. I'll tell you what story.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
One of our mentors, in a very catalytic portion of
why Slasonico exists, is a guy named Ron Conway Austin
alluded to Silka Belly Royalty UH, founder of SBI Angel,
legendary investor. We actually met him five years ago and
his his confidence really in us and being an early
believer in opening up his network, you know, innovating over
(19:51):
the past five decades and being part of all the
major movements. The funny thing about him is he prints
out all his emails and like it, and he writes
all and carries that you were yellow notepad, And I
thought I was the only person particularly is working in
this ecosystem that does that. And it gave me so
much confidence for not feeling like confidence. But I'm like,
(20:11):
didn't feel crazy. So this this eight dollars purchase I
made on Amazon to just rip out all these papers
and actually give them. You know, people got notion folders,
I got a trapper keeper.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I'm not mad at it. I'm not mad at I've
actually found out I'm better taking notes and actually helping
my brain process with an actual pen and paper and
so I feel where you're coming from on that. And
you actually answered two questions and didn't even know it.
So I'm gonna start with Austin on this one, and
if you have a different one, Aja will come back
to you. But what is in your eedc austin your
(20:45):
everyday carry like before you leave the house. It can
be your phone because obviously everybody got get you had
a home. But what is in the thing? What is
in your pocket and your backpack and the glove combined
well boxed a a car. What do you have to
have every day?
Speaker 5 (21:02):
My BA two plus?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
And uh, He's like, because it's funny, because because probably
any anybody that's watching this, there's a ten percent of
people that saw it and know what it B A
two plus. I just googled it, so yeah, it's a
financial calculator. I actually I actually literally carry it around.
(21:28):
It's on the other side of my backpack with me.
Everywhere you ever see me, I will have a B
A two plus.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That's probably the most unique answer I've ever gotten.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
I want you to understand that, like it is part
of my being and on my person. In the off
chance that it is not on me, I actually purchased
the app, so it is on my phone, so it
is on me at all times. But it's mainly because,
like I think in terms of investing in ROI and
(21:58):
things like that.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
All the time.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
It's hard to a lot of calculations or nearly impossible
to do some calculations in your head.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
And we're a financial calculator.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
You can think through like, oh, this is how fast
you know payback period is on this, or this is
the type of return. Is the growth rate that will
be required you know, or achieve this this particular run rate.
But obviously it speaks out my brain works as well,
which is just like you know, I think in terms
of uh numbers and uh and that's just and so
(22:32):
I carry my calculator.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
With me everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Ah you want anything, man.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, this is this is It is not a B
A two calculator. My wife makes fun of me, and
like any social setting, I'll be in the middle of
a concert, something pops into my head. I bust this
thing out down. She makes fun of me to our friends.
She causes, oh, here.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You gol mind again.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I just need to transcribe this in my brain before
kicks in, and I forget my brilliant.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Thought, I love it. I love it for both of you.
I'll let you guys pick who goes first. But what
is one thing you read or learned recently that you
feel worthy of sharing? Read or learned?
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Uh first, I recently.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I actually just contributed this last week.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I was just joined the board of a nonprofit call
they o Maga Institute in up State New York, and
they asked the same question and I read this article
and I'm having to afford it too.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
It was in the New York.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Times, and it was really just reaffirming people's need for
belonging and how this is something you know, whether it's
through religion or community. There's obviously a lot of things
kind of going on in the world, and it's in
a world of innovation and technology and chatgybt. You know,
we're becoming increasingly efficient and you know, as we you know,
(23:59):
we're both fathers, we have young children and we're.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Trying to raise We live in the community we grew
up in.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
But it was a firm reminder that people now more
than ever, need to feel they belong to something bigger
than themselves.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And it gives me, you know, it's the thing that
wakes me up every day.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
In addition to the work that we do is like,
how do you you know, build a brand or a
firm or businesses where people feel like they belong because
if they they and doing everything that in an power
to make everybody remove all of that mental friction that
might come from generations of feeling less than because for
whatever reason, you know, family dynamics or political dynamics or history,
(24:42):
and kind of leave all at the doors, show it
as their authentic self. And that is the thing that
I think about day in and day out. I'll mention
that article with you, but it really just reaffirmed my
belief in the things that you know, sometimes might be
a struggle to wonder if anybody cares or values.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, the NFL is people want to belong. About two
weeks ago July fifth, oh on, this was a yeah
fourth at July. It came out Laura and maybe maybe
the same thing New York Times. Is it the same one?
People just want to belong says people want to belong? Yeah,
(25:21):
it's morning moves that are yeat Laura and Jackson, people
just want to belong In New York Times. Go ahead, Austin, I'll.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Go with with Actually two quick things.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
UH.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
One the book that I probably recommended more over this
year than probably maybe any startup book I've ever recommended
is Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples. He's a VC Silicon
Valley based VC who I think it's the best articulation
of understanding how like essentially companies get big or what
(25:53):
really what's a good idea or or uh in the
context of finuer scale business. I think it's it's very
well written, very well well articulated. The other thing that
actually honestly answers your question about the thing that I.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Learned the most, that paid the most attention to most
recently was and it triggered it because you mentioned him earlier.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
It was one of Paul Graham's essays back from twenty ten.
He wrote an essay that I sent to some of
the members on our investment team called what we look
for in Founders, and I sent it to the team
earlier this week because it was you know, still held
to today.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
I encourage people to check it. Check it out.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
He's a great writer, very thoughtful, but it's aligned with
how we think about how slaws and when we talk
about founders.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
You know, fifteen years later, still a lot of the same.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Qualities that we're looking for, which is a very good
and solid articulation of that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
We can't get out of here. What I was talking
about fun too. What you announced recently in recent months
one hundred million dollars. Congratulations to be able to have
that kind of impact on our community is you know,
nothing short of amazing. What did you learn from Fund
one that you know shaped your approach to Fund two?
Speaker 5 (27:17):
There are probably a few things.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
I mean, you know, we're at a place we have
one hundred and sixty something million dollars under management, and
you know, so so so much of it. I think
it's just about the people that we have involved. I
guess if I had to talk about one thing that
stands out in terms of what we learned and what
(27:43):
we see every day is like how many people are
aligned with seeing this concept. It's not not just aj
or Austin, but like seeing this concept win basically it
would be a win for the culture, for the community,
for things like that to to basically prove the point
that we're setting out of the proof that, which is
(28:03):
that there's so much talent outside of where what what
what Silicon value is sort of taking advantage of right now.
And I think as a result of that, we poured
more and more into getting those folks that are aligned
involved into what we're actually doing. We created a thing
(28:24):
called Bosman Co Operator Network or s CON for short,
which is folks that are doing really amazing things all
around that and they and but they just feel aligned
with what we're doing and saying hey, you know, we
used to get or we still get people all the
time like, hey, let us know how we can help
out with your portfolio companies. I'm interested, I do this
and if you ever need help, let me know. And
(28:46):
we got kind of tired of saying yeah, we would
love to and then not doing anything about it. So
we created this operator network to get really those types
of people involved with supporting some of the companies in
our portfolio for that matter, of other companies even outside
of the portfolio, but are in the network that looked
to us to learn.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So feel very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, AJ, Like you have fewer limited partners, fewer people
who put checks in more institutional dollars in this one,
Like what's the what does that mean to the fund?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I mean, you know a few things.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I'll go back to answering your last question and throw
this into that answer. I think that the big thing
for us between Fund one and two, like we were
extremely grateful to kind of get in the game. I think, uh,
something that we were cognizant of is at the point
that we came into existence was a very rare moment
in time between COVID and everything that was happening in
(29:44):
the aftermath of George Floyd, where the work that we
have been talking about or doing kind of on the
side in our disposable time for which is now our
day to day focus, you know, became top of mind
for everybody, including a lot of you know, corporate folks
with program ms that we're designed to help firms like
ours and a lot of our peers kind of get
in the game.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
And then you know, the big obviously not so elephant
in the room is just the complete shift in the
pendulum swinging to the completely different end. The fact that
you know, firm, a firm like ours, is able to
weather that. You know, we're very intentional about the language
that we use to describe our mission. You know, this
(30:25):
isn't this is we have no quota or anything around diversity.
This is we're just investing through a lens is a
bit more representative of what the demographics of this country are.
So I think I think, you know, knowing that and
in the really just the being in a position where
you know, vast majority, damn near all of our LPs
(30:47):
in fund one in front two are people that you know,
are very much aligned with what we care about from
a value standpoint, uh and do not view us as
a concessionary vehicle to deliver out performance and generate alpha.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, I think we kind of shied.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Away from the term, you know, impact fund and always
talk thought of ourselves as having being able to have
a massive impact and develop a new what we like
to call internally this loss and standard of investing in
terms of building a brand not just for ourselves but
through the companies that we back, and being able to
highlight their work in a way that is a bit
more consumer facing, in a way that teaches people that
(31:24):
they can talk about what it is that they do,
and then as we succeed through their success, we can
kind of look back and and our performance and how
it correlates to the intention that we put into this.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So I think and having fewer LPs more.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
You know, institutional partner has got our first you know,
university partner USC right in our backyard to folks like
Fairview who have been doing this work for decades and
through this lens of generating outside returns for us, it's
just you know, just reminds us that we're on our
way and we're doing we're doing the right things and
we don't have to you know, code switch or change
the language to protect the work because of what's happening
(32:00):
in a macro political environment.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
I got to add on to that very quickly, will
you know A j talked about leaving the breadcrumbs for
others to follow. Like the part of how we do
that is every year we post an inclusion report on
our website. Talks about the demographics of who we're back,
talks about, you know, the vendors we use, talks about
the initiatives that we have and we want we do
(32:28):
it every year because we want to be very public
about how we get here in the in the you know,
hopefully when we see the success over time and and
uh and folks, when I ask the question about like
how do they do it? We want to make it
crystal clear how we did it and want other people.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
To follow suit.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
And that's really how we moved the needle in venture capital. Like, yes,
it's it's great if we if we produce some great returns,
But to me, it's it's not enough. It's when we
start inspiring other firms to open their aperture. You start
looking at different types of founders and different different types
of opportunities through a different lens or or through hiring
(33:10):
their own team, and how they think about their own team,
and like, oh, we need somebody who can understand, who
can speak to this community, who can find opportunities with
this community, so on and so forth.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
So again, the main takeaway.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Here is for Slawson, we're not just about producing great
returns for ourselves.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
It's about changing the whole industry.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
You know, you finally, you guys were a listed dynamic
investors on our Afro Tech Future fit lists. Congratulations. It's
a celebration of trailblazers who are shaping the future of
tech and culture. So thirty seconds a piece. You know,
as you guys find success with your mission, what does
(33:52):
the world look like when you finally like we did it?
What's the world look like?
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Well, on the on the Afrotech acknowledgement piece.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
This is always a full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
One of the platform that we actually announced our first
fund was Afrotech twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I remember Virtual Virtual Event.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
We were on the digital jumbo tron talking about our work.
And to be able to be here five years later,
or almost five years later talking about the work of
the day, I think, you know when it's also done,
uh to what Austin was actually alluding to, You know
that that slowsing is a meaningful contributor to opening up
what opportunity, what a good opportunity looks like outside of
(34:36):
the traditional channels and the ecosystems and the geographies and
the profiles and founders. And we do so in a
way where you know, it's it's just it's not a
diverse or any good that thing over there. It becomes
core for folks with way deeper pockets than ours, that
have a lot more have a way more capacity to
(34:56):
move the needle at our.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Stage, and that we can kind of help through through
our efforts.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Through our content or our events, to our investments, to
the outcomes of those investments. You know, when we think
about this from a legacy play and you know, in
terms of leaving it better than we found it. That's
not just you know, venture capital, that's not just Loston Avenue.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
That's just the world in general.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Yeah, what success looks like is you know, there is
no it's just consideration.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
It's not like again that thing.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Over there, austin thirty seconds. Feel what does the world
look like when you're successful?
Speaker 5 (35:32):
I mean Aj said it all and again he said
it all.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Man, If I could take twenty of my thirty seconds
just to give a huge shout out to you and
the Afrotech and what you guys are doing. Man, this
is this is this is what we need where people
where it's promoted in a way that people can understand
that it's positive, understand what's possible, and in align with
people that.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Could do it along with them.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
One of the things we always say, like whenever we
have an event or we host an event, and you know,
we know that there's entrepreneurs looking for money and trying
to get funded, and so folks were trying to talk
to us. But one of the things we always make
note of is like, uh, the people that are going
to help you out the most, and the people or
your peers that are in the room for like get
to know the people that are around. Those are the
people who come up with you have you know, founders
(36:22):
of Afrotech, Morian and Air and them like like a
lot of a lot when they think about you know, yes,
the VC's providers and capital or whatever, but it's the
it's the idea of being able to bounce ideas off
of your peers and the other people that are at
the same phase as you and just coming up together. So, uh,
I guess my encouragement is is like, take advantage of
(36:44):
afrotech the conference, take advantage of Afrochech and all the
other things that that afrotech is doing.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
To just find your.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Community and find your group and lean into it, pour
into everybody else. Because even though it may feel like
blind leaving, leading the blind on some level happens as
folks start sharing resources and getting hints and getting intros
and getting doors open and.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Then pulling the people along with them.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
So it's just, uh, we've all we've all got to
come up together.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It has to be an ein.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
A lot of the appreciation.
Speaker 7 (37:18):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking night Hire Media
and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
with the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sah Ergan
and Jayda McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and
Love Beach. Learn more about My Guess Other Technives. Up
is an innovators at afrotech dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
The video version of this episode will drop to Black
Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in enjoy your
Black Tech Green Money, share us to somebody go get
your money. Peace and love,
Will Lucas here another black tech, green money. So excited
for today's because I get to talk to guys who
are making a whole bunch of money in LA. Austin
and j are the managing partners as Lawson and Co.
And LA based venture capital firm based on focus on
early stage technology investments. The firm is driven by its
mission of economic conclusion and democratizing access to entrepreneurship for
(00:24):
historically underrepresented founders. Jay aj In Austin, Welcome to the show.
Thank you, Thank you, absolutely so. I want to talk
first about, like you before we started recording here, Aj,
you had mentioned like you know, we're talking about the
art gallery, and you know you furnished your office with
art that was representative of the mission. Can you talk
(00:47):
about the mission, why it's, why it was important when
you started, and probably why it's even more important in
the climate within today.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Yeah, for sure. Thank you again for having us.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You know, I think you already.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Kind of hit the nail on the head when you
kind of gave the overview and who we are when
we're about everything that Austin and I have ever talked
about in our careers, particularly as we both independently started
in venture capital, independent of each other a little.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Over a dozen years ago.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
As we would compare notes, we always talked about this
massive opportunity to build a more inclusive ecosystem that tapped
in a wider variety of perspectives. You know, having worked
in traditional investing myself at Queensbridge Venture Partners in Austin
at ten to one ten focused on enterprise SATs. Here
in LA there was just such a massive white space,
(01:34):
or as Austin you know so refers to it as
like everybody's fission.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
In this lake.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
And then there's a massive pond of perspective that is
just not represented in the products and the services that
we're consuming. And then the in passing conversations that we
would have over the better part of a decade that
somebody needed to build a firm that was natively built
to source and support the best and brightest of those perspectives,
not that come from anyone, just really into this idea
that there was innovation that exists it outside of white
(02:01):
men and six geographies, and that we wanted to build
a firm that was tapped into that.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
So everything that we do is a firm.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
Every piece of content, the way that we build our office,
the way that we cured our team, the way that
we move, the way that we support our founders.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It really comes from that cloth you alluded to the art.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
You know, I think we we were able to kind
of pull together our first fund and started investing from
it in twenty twenty one, which was a seventy five
million dollar fund.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We were like, we can't be Slosson and Co.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
And our offices in Culver City, you know, but there
also always in a lot of office spaces on slast
And Avenue, So there's a space that we were familiar
with that kind of resembled an old school art gallery
and we were just fortunate enough to have friends that
got to put on artists the same way we hope to.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Put on entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
So we're blessed to be able to be in this
space with you know a bunch of talented folks that
are pushing the needle forward through art and culture and
kind of continue to find new ways to tell our
story on how we kind of integrate this intentionality without
compromising the quality of the outcome.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You know, Austin, there is you know, looking at you.
Both of your backgrounds you know, obviously smart, obviously very
well trained in finance and economics and et cetera. But
there was a lot of things you could have done
with your brain power. There's a lot of things you
could have done with your intellect. There's a lot of
things you could have done with your networks. Why did
you choose venture Capital as the best place for you
(03:23):
to make your dent toward the things that mattered to you?
Speaker 5 (03:27):
Yeah, man, I tried a lot of things too, bro So.
Speaker 6 (03:32):
I wish I could tell you the story of it
being a crystal clear from day one, but you know
aj Guitel's story before. In my case, for me, I've
always been interested in technology, built a web development shop
when I was in high school, made a little bit
of pocket change from that, which sort of sparked my interest.
(03:55):
But I think going to college on to Morehouse in Atlanta,
and when I came back it was to La It
was always like trying to find I think I'm smart,
I think I'm ambitious, I think I'm driven, and trying
to sort of play this balance between like what my
friends are doing. We're all going to Wall Street making
a bunch of money and doing all that, but like
something about me has always been wired more entrepreneurial minded
(04:19):
and had an interest there, and so I think a
lot of my early career in my twenties in particular,
was just confusion of like, do I do I want
to follow this path where I could just get somebody
to cut me a big enough check and I could
live nice, or you know, do I want to create
something from scratch where I'm probably gonna be broke for
very long time and and and the messiness of trying
(04:40):
to find exactly what it was. But I think, uh,
you know, ended up so I ended up working in
investment management for a while.
Speaker 5 (04:47):
I also ended up.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
Running a death shop post college for a while, and
so I think that continued that sort of back and forth,
if you will. But the thing that really clicked for
me is somewhere in my twin started to read more
articles about like technology companies that are getting funded and
really early stage technology and emerging technologies, which is what
(05:10):
I was into.
Speaker 5 (05:11):
And kind of the combination of.
Speaker 6 (05:14):
Being able to work with technology, still continue to work
with investing, and then also working with entrepreneurs, which I
think of as the most passionate people on the planet.
And I love being around that like energy. Really that
made me say to myself that, like, oh, there's this
thing called venture capital that is the combination of all
those things. And once I saw that, it was crystal
(05:38):
clear that, like I was like, oh, I've had all
this confusion, but this is what I'm supposed to be
doing with the rest of my life, the rest of
my career. And I think from the first song that
I concluded that at this point probably you know, almost
certainly a decade and a half, probably closer to twenty
years ago, kind of haven't looked back since then, and
(06:01):
this is what I'll be doing forever.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Yeah, as far as I can tell, you know, Aja,
you know, being based where you are, how does that
how does your geography influence how you approach investing in
how you deploy capital?
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I love that question.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
So, you know, even geography is such an interesting uh
word when you kind of think about it. So Austin
and I we've actually been friends since high school. So
when he was kind of planning the seeds for that
dev shop, I was able to tap his be one
of the few people that I knew how to use
was proficient in computer and design language. I used to
throw parties and used to design my flyers. And we
(06:38):
both met right off of Glaston Avenue a little over
only twenty five years ago at this point when we
were in high school, and you know, when and when
we were kind of coming together and thinking about building
this firm, we couldn't help but think about, like, you know,
these these incredible networks and these ecosystems like Silicon Valley
which has had these compounding network effects of innovation and inspiration,
(07:00):
and why it's such a special place. But then really
thinking about the corridor and even like just the mainstay
of areas like South LA that are extremely culturally rich.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
They just there's so much perspective.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
There's so much popular culture that is cultivated in areas
like the one that we're sitting across right now, but
then they kind of get repackaged and explorted to different
parts of the world without attributing the origin story. So
where a lot of that you know, art and music
and fashion kind of come from and ideas. So when
(07:33):
we think about even Slosson Avenue, as it is a
thirty mile stretch, is probably one of the more prominent thoroughfairs.
Everybody knows it, but they don't know it for they
use it to get from one end of the city
to the other. But when we thought about the mission
that we wanted to kind of encapsulate. When you're on
the east side of the street, it is a very
blue collar, industrial commercial area. Majority of the stretch as
(07:54):
you're traveling west, is extremely culturally rich but also under resource,
mostly communities of color, and it ends in kind of
one of the isn't one of the highest concentrations of
minority wealth or in the country, and that's how we
viewed the metaphor for our mission. So when we were
building it, we specifically wanted to be you know, we
(08:14):
can commonly say we're the only institutional grade VC firm
on Slawson Avenue. Uh TikTok actually exists at the end
of it. So that's probably the biggest brand name that
you'll know. But I think when we think about this
geography what inspires us the most, it really is communities
like the ones that exist alongside this corridor in every
major city and the municipality across the US.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And we're built to build a brand that kind of.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Speaks to folks that have historically been excluded and again
try to find the best inviteds to those levers in
perspective to build the next big category defining generational business.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, you know, and I'm gonna get us to either
of you guys who want to answer it. But I
remember got it had to be almost ten years ago now,
I wrote this blog post on LinkedIn that called and
it was called, hey, startup, you don't live in Silicon Valley.
And the point, the thesis of that you know post was,
at the time, especially most education about how to raise
(09:14):
money was coming from Paul Graham at y Combinator, you know,
and people like that. And that doesn't always apply in
Detroit or you know, pick a place outside of Silicon Valley.
The language, the terms that investors want, all these things
that may apply in San Francisco, different language, different conversations
(09:35):
somewhere else. And the reason I bring up that story
is I'm interested in your take on how I don't
know if forgiving is the right word, but how how
accepting of alternatives are twentative past to entry or do
you have to be if you're going to focus on
this population of founders because they weren't brought up going
(09:58):
to you know, U C l A or pick you know,
pick one of these schools, Stanford or you know, et cetera.
And they don't. They ain't grow up with the lexicon
of venture capital. They may have an idea that's worthy,
but may not be necessarily prepared to accept capital. And
you and you like you got something to let me
help you get there? How do you do that?
Speaker 6 (10:18):
That's a great question and kind of if I really
had to boil it down like that is the question
that we're kind of setting out to answer, and it's
the one that we wake up every morning thinking about
and working toward and trying to trying to figure out.
And for that matter, if we do figure out, sort
of create the playbook for others to follow our lead
(10:42):
doing so. And but the reality is so there are
a couple of things baked into that is such a
profound question. One is thinking about Silicon Valley as it stands,
and like the advice that was given, you know, by
the Paul Grams or whatever.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
I have a ton of respect.
Speaker 6 (10:54):
For Paul Graham and what has been built in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 5 (10:59):
Broadly, I think that there.
Speaker 6 (11:02):
Are a lot of people that kind of knock Silicon
Valley and in the grand scheme of things. It's it's
actually working fairly well for what it intends to do.
Who is not working for is the people that have
been you know, excluded, And to your point, it's it's
most people are not part of that network.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Most people aren't part of that access.
Speaker 6 (11:24):
And and often these people are people with really great
ideas and even pretty good networks and pretty good uh
like insights and experience and all that. And so I
think that when we think about how Slasonka was founded,
it was founded on the premise that that that there
are those people out there and that there's a really
(11:47):
great opportunity to back them. And so what happens when
you find somebody or somebody finds us in many cases
from from who's really talented, who is exceptional like this
is we're still looking for people with exceptional ideas that
can scale. This is not a we're taking Silicon Valley's leftovers.
(12:10):
We're just finding opportunities that either the biases or the
experience or whatever doesn't lend itself to the average VC
in Silicon Valley. One example I always use is, as
I mentioned, i' went to morehouse. Like if I meet
a founder that says they went to Morehouse or Spelman
or Howard or whatever.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
You know, that means something to.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Me that I have the proper context of understanding what
that means. But I expect somebody who went to Stanford,
you know, for for business school or whatever else and
never set foot on an HBCU, you know, to have
that or understand that, or have that mean anything to them,
positive or negative either way, of course not like that's
not their life experience, and the fact is that it
(12:55):
is mine. And so because it is mine, I could
take my own lived experience and sort of use that
as a competitive advantage, which is also not surprisingly in turn,
what we look for the founders that we back. I
think one of the first things listened on our website
is your lived experience is your competitive advantage. We think
of people as as what they go through and the
(13:15):
and and and being exceptionally good and standouts in their
particular category, in their particular lane and their particular geography,
uh as as the ones that we want to collaborate
with and work with to help them see their opportunity through. Uh.
I guess the second part of that question is, like,
you know, so, so what happens, like will will if
(13:38):
they don't have the lexicon. If they don't have all that,
then like what happens to them after we back them?
Speaker 5 (13:44):
You know?
Speaker 6 (13:44):
And And the reality is, like, I think that we
do have to I think a lot of people will
be surprised to know. Plenty of people would argue against
what I'm about to say. But I fundamentally believe that
a lot of people in Silicon Valley do want to
find these entrepreneurs, and they but they have a certain
way to your point of like, here's how I understand
(14:05):
what an entrepreneur to look like, sound like, have experience.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
With and so on and so forth.
Speaker 6 (14:11):
And if you tell me there's exceptional entrepreneurs out there
that don't look like or sound like that, I kind
of need help finding them. I kind of need help
understanding this and parsing this and what am I missing
looking at identifying my own blind spots. So I do
think that there is demand from Silicon Valley and large
and people with large capital to find opportunities that may
look non traditional.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
I do believe that to be true.
Speaker 6 (14:34):
I also believe that there's demand from entrepreneurs to be
back by you know, very prominent eventually by very prominent
venture capital firms, and so where do I see Slawson.
It's somewhere as acting as a bridge or a conduit
between those two worlds. We have a lot of Silicon
Valley quote unquote royalty involved with what it is that
(14:54):
we do and advising and picking up the phone for
us and opening up doors for us. We also are
tapped into to all the cities that you know, boots
on the ground, you know, you're to the streets of
what's happening in Atlanta or in New York or wherever else.
So it's that balance in my view, and if we
could kind of sit in the middle of it, I
(15:14):
think there's lots of opportunity for us to create some
awesome returns for the lpis of backs.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Hey, Jay, I want you to come in on this.
I want to specifically focus on the part like, you know,
their deck may not be the most incredible deck you've
ever seen, you know there, you know, traction may be
different than other startups may be, Like, how do you
see through that to say there's a great horse there
I'm going to put my money on.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:42):
I think that what Austin alluded to her may be
explicitly said. I think it's just understanding the cultural context,
right and then obviously at the stage in which we
invest on the pre set and c stage level, you know,
even going back and back to say anything original heres
like really just understanding.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
The the great and.
Speaker 4 (16:01):
The determination of the founder, and like really evaluating them
through the lens of like, what is the problem that
they're trying to solve and are they the person that
has been put on this earth to solve this problem?
You know, we very much view our role, particularly for
people that don't you know, or didn't grow up in
that ecosystem or aren't natural to it to you know,
provide them with the scaffolding to build a strong foundation
(16:23):
so that by the time they do go to a
blue chip firm down the road, you know their business fundamentals,
and candidly like they have to outperform because people are
being looked at through.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
A more a lens that is a bit more as
a bit more.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
Scrutiny than your typical you know, Silicon Valley founder or
Stanford graduates. So you know, it's not it's the rough
around the edges or not necessarily talking the lingo. We
very much view you know, we're evaluating them for like
how what is their ambition?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Are they delusionally optimist?
Speaker 5 (16:57):
Like?
Speaker 4 (16:57):
Do they have the delusional vision that we want to back?
Are they pragmatic or are they coachable? How do we
determine them that they the information and the knowledge and
the networks that we provide them to help fill any gaps?
What is the pace of implementing and executing against that
those solutions that we figure that we provide from a
platform perspective to remove any bottlenecks? And God knows there
(17:19):
are a lot of bottlenecks and roadblocks, and building a
venture back company is the hardest ship that you could
possibly do.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
So we very much few our role.
Speaker 4 (17:27):
You know, somewhere between a coach, a cheerleader, and most
importantly an accountability buddy.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'll start with you on this aja since you got
your micro open, It's like, what's something you bought recently
that costs little but had a big impact on how
you do business or live?
Speaker 6 (17:47):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Man, I know that I did buy something and I
can't think of it anything off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
I'll give you a moment. I'll give you a moment.
Think at.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
Can you ask questions?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
As to ask a question? Again?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
All right, what's something. What's something you bought recently that
didn't cost a ton of money, but it had a
really big impact on either your efficiency, your business, your lifestyle.
Pick a thing.
Speaker 6 (18:13):
Yeah for me, my mine would easily be paying for
chat GPT.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
Just in terms of, like the ROI on a product.
Speaker 6 (18:25):
That i've that I use, no question, in terms of
just being able to to think through business challenges, help
with research and diligence, and different opportunities to like family lifestyle. Yeah,
you know, recently took a trip with my family overseas
and like just to be able to walk through and
(18:45):
talk to that uh, financial planning, all these things I think.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
I think being able to work with a lot of
the AI models or.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Game twenty bucks a month right there. Ago you got.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Minus the complete opposite.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
I bought a h An Accordion trapper keeper notes organizeran
very old school I am a I'm a pen and
paper guy.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (19:12):
If you ever seen that old Antonio Benders movie Desperado,
I'm like Desperado, but with like notebooks. I got the
mini notebook on my ankle, I got the big moleskin
in the backpack, and like I am very much pen
to paper.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Type of guy the challenge. I'll tell you what story.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
One of our mentors, in a very catalytic portion of
why Slasonico exists, is a guy named Ron Conway Austin
alluded to Silka Belly Royalty UH, founder of SBI Angel,
legendary investor. We actually met him five years ago and
his his confidence really in us and being an early
believer in opening up his network, you know, innovating over
(19:51):
the past five decades and being part of all the
major movements. The funny thing about him is he prints
out all his emails and like it, and he writes
all and carries that you were yellow notepad, And I
thought I was the only person particularly is working in
this ecosystem that does that. And it gave me so
much confidence for not feeling like confidence. But I'm like,
(20:11):
didn't feel crazy. So this this eight dollars purchase I
made on Amazon to just rip out all these papers
and actually give them. You know, people got notion folders,
I got a trapper keeper.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I'm not mad at it. I'm not mad at I've
actually found out I'm better taking notes and actually helping
my brain process with an actual pen and paper and
so I feel where you're coming from on that. And
you actually answered two questions and didn't even know it.
So I'm gonna start with Austin on this one, and
if you have a different one, Aja will come back
to you. But what is in your eedc austin your
(20:45):
everyday carry like before you leave the house. It can
be your phone because obviously everybody got get you had
a home. But what is in the thing? What is
in your pocket and your backpack and the glove combined
well boxed a a car. What do you have to
have every day?
Speaker 5 (21:02):
My BA two plus?
Speaker 6 (21:05):
And uh, He's like, because it's funny, because because probably
any anybody that's watching this, there's a ten percent of
people that saw it and know what it B A
two plus. I just googled it, so yeah, it's a
financial calculator. I actually I actually literally carry it around.
(21:28):
It's on the other side of my backpack with me.
Everywhere you ever see me, I will have a B
A two plus.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That's probably the most unique answer I've ever gotten.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
I want you to understand that, like it is part
of my being and on my person. In the off
chance that it is not on me, I actually purchased
the app, so it is on my phone, so it
is on me at all times. But it's mainly because,
like I think in terms of investing in ROI and
(21:58):
things like that.
Speaker 5 (21:58):
All the time.
Speaker 6 (21:59):
It's hard to a lot of calculations or nearly impossible
to do some calculations in your head.
Speaker 5 (22:06):
And we're a financial calculator.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
You can think through like, oh, this is how fast
you know payback period is on this, or this is
the type of return. Is the growth rate that will
be required you know, or achieve this this particular run rate.
But obviously it speaks out my brain works as well,
which is just like you know, I think in terms
of uh numbers and uh and that's just and so
(22:32):
I carry my calculator.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
With me everywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
Ah you want anything, man.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Yeah, this is this is It is not a B
A two calculator. My wife makes fun of me, and
like any social setting, I'll be in the middle of
a concert, something pops into my head. I bust this
thing out down. She makes fun of me to our friends.
She causes, oh, here.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You gol mind again.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I just need to transcribe this in my brain before
kicks in, and I forget my brilliant.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Thought, I love it. I love it for both of you.
I'll let you guys pick who goes first. But what
is one thing you read or learned recently that you
feel worthy of sharing? Read or learned?
Speaker 5 (23:21):
Uh first, I recently.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
I actually just contributed this last week.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
I was just joined the board of a nonprofit call
they o Maga Institute in up State New York, and
they asked the same question and I read this article
and I'm having to afford it too.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
It was in the New York.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Times, and it was really just reaffirming people's need for
belonging and how this is something you know, whether it's
through religion or community. There's obviously a lot of things
kind of going on in the world, and it's in
a world of innovation and technology and chatgybt. You know,
we're becoming increasingly efficient and you know, as we you know,
(23:59):
we're both fathers, we have young children and we're.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Trying to raise We live in the community we grew
up in.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
But it was a firm reminder that people now more
than ever, need to feel they belong to something bigger
than themselves.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
And it gives me, you know, it's the thing that
wakes me up every day.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
In addition to the work that we do is like,
how do you you know, build a brand or a
firm or businesses where people feel like they belong because
if they they and doing everything that in an power
to make everybody remove all of that mental friction that
might come from generations of feeling less than because for
whatever reason, you know, family dynamics or political dynamics or history,
(24:42):
and kind of leave all at the doors, show it
as their authentic self. And that is the thing that
I think about day in and day out. I'll mention
that article with you, but it really just reaffirmed my
belief in the things that you know, sometimes might be
a struggle to wonder if anybody cares or values.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, the NFL is people want to belong. About two
weeks ago July fifth, oh on, this was a yeah
fourth at July. It came out Laura and maybe maybe
the same thing New York Times. Is it the same one?
People just want to belong says people want to belong? Yeah,
(25:21):
it's morning moves that are yeat Laura and Jackson, people
just want to belong In New York Times. Go ahead, Austin, I'll.
Speaker 5 (25:28):
Go with with Actually two quick things.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
UH.
Speaker 6 (25:32):
One the book that I probably recommended more over this
year than probably maybe any startup book I've ever recommended
is Pattern Breakers by Mike Maples. He's a VC Silicon
Valley based VC who I think it's the best articulation
of understanding how like essentially companies get big or what
(25:53):
really what's a good idea or or uh in the
context of finuer scale business. I think it's it's very
well written, very well well articulated. The other thing that
actually honestly answers your question about the thing that I.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Learned the most, that paid the most attention to most
recently was and it triggered it because you mentioned him earlier.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
It was one of Paul Graham's essays back from twenty ten.
He wrote an essay that I sent to some of
the members on our investment team called what we look
for in Founders, and I sent it to the team
earlier this week because it was you know, still held
to today.
Speaker 5 (26:34):
I encourage people to check it. Check it out.
Speaker 6 (26:36):
He's a great writer, very thoughtful, but it's aligned with
how we think about how slaws and when we talk
about founders.
Speaker 5 (26:45):
You know, fifteen years later, still a lot of the same.
Speaker 6 (26:48):
Qualities that we're looking for, which is a very good
and solid articulation of that.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
We can't get out of here. What I was talking
about fun too. What you announced recently in recent months
one hundred million dollars. Congratulations to be able to have
that kind of impact on our community is you know,
nothing short of amazing. What did you learn from Fund
one that you know shaped your approach to Fund two?
Speaker 5 (27:17):
There are probably a few things.
Speaker 6 (27:19):
I mean, you know, we're at a place we have
one hundred and sixty something million dollars under management, and
you know, so so so much of it. I think
it's just about the people that we have involved. I
guess if I had to talk about one thing that
stands out in terms of what we learned and what
(27:43):
we see every day is like how many people are
aligned with seeing this concept. It's not not just aj
or Austin, but like seeing this concept win basically it
would be a win for the culture, for the community,
for things like that to to basically prove the point
that we're setting out of the proof that, which is
(28:03):
that there's so much talent outside of where what what
what Silicon value is sort of taking advantage of right now.
And I think as a result of that, we poured
more and more into getting those folks that are aligned
involved into what we're actually doing. We created a thing
(28:24):
called Bosman Co Operator Network or s CON for short,
which is folks that are doing really amazing things all
around that and they and but they just feel aligned
with what we're doing and saying hey, you know, we
used to get or we still get people all the
time like, hey, let us know how we can help
out with your portfolio companies. I'm interested, I do this
and if you ever need help, let me know. And
(28:46):
we got kind of tired of saying yeah, we would
love to and then not doing anything about it. So
we created this operator network to get really those types
of people involved with supporting some of the companies in
our portfolio for that matter, of other companies even outside
of the portfolio, but are in the network that looked
to us to learn.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
So feel very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, AJ, Like you have fewer limited partners, fewer people
who put checks in more institutional dollars in this one,
Like what's the what does that mean to the fund?
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I mean, you know a few things.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I'll go back to answering your last question and throw
this into that answer. I think that the big thing
for us between Fund one and two, like we were
extremely grateful to kind of get in the game. I think, uh,
something that we were cognizant of is at the point
that we came into existence was a very rare moment
in time between COVID and everything that was happening in
(29:44):
the aftermath of George Floyd, where the work that we
have been talking about or doing kind of on the
side in our disposable time for which is now our
day to day focus, you know, became top of mind
for everybody, including a lot of you know, corporate folks
with program ms that we're designed to help firms like
ours and a lot of our peers kind of get
in the game.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
And then you know, the big obviously not so elephant
in the room is just the complete shift in the
pendulum swinging to the completely different end. The fact that
you know, firm, a firm like ours, is able to
weather that. You know, we're very intentional about the language
that we use to describe our mission. You know, this
(30:25):
isn't this is we have no quota or anything around diversity.
This is we're just investing through a lens is a
bit more representative of what the demographics of this country are.
So I think I think, you know, knowing that and
in the really just the being in a position where
you know, vast majority, damn near all of our LPs
(30:47):
in fund one in front two are people that you know,
are very much aligned with what we care about from
a value standpoint, uh and do not view us as
a concessionary vehicle to deliver out performance and generate alpha.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
You know, I think we kind of shied.
Speaker 4 (31:03):
Away from the term, you know, impact fund and always
talk thought of ourselves as having being able to have
a massive impact and develop a new what we like
to call internally this loss and standard of investing in
terms of building a brand not just for ourselves but
through the companies that we back, and being able to
highlight their work in a way that is a bit
more consumer facing, in a way that teaches people that
(31:24):
they can talk about what it is that they do,
and then as we succeed through their success, we can
kind of look back and and our performance and how
it correlates to the intention that we put into this.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
So I think and having fewer LPs more.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
You know, institutional partner has got our first you know,
university partner USC right in our backyard to folks like
Fairview who have been doing this work for decades and
through this lens of generating outside returns for us, it's
just you know, just reminds us that we're on our
way and we're doing we're doing the right things and
we don't have to you know, code switch or change
the language to protect the work because of what's happening
(32:00):
in a macro political environment.
Speaker 6 (32:05):
I got to add on to that very quickly, will
you know A j talked about leaving the breadcrumbs for
others to follow. Like the part of how we do
that is every year we post an inclusion report on
our website. Talks about the demographics of who we're back,
talks about, you know, the vendors we use, talks about
the initiatives that we have and we want we do
(32:28):
it every year because we want to be very public
about how we get here in the in the you know,
hopefully when we see the success over time and and
uh and folks, when I ask the question about like
how do they do it? We want to make it
crystal clear how we did it and want other people.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
To follow suit.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
And that's really how we moved the needle in venture capital. Like, yes,
it's it's great if we if we produce some great returns,
But to me, it's it's not enough. It's when we
start inspiring other firms to open their aperture. You start
looking at different types of founders and different different types
of opportunities through a different lens or or through hiring
(33:10):
their own team, and how they think about their own team,
and like, oh, we need somebody who can understand, who
can speak to this community, who can find opportunities with
this community, so on and so forth.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
So again, the main takeaway.
Speaker 6 (33:23):
Here is for Slawson, we're not just about producing great
returns for ourselves.
Speaker 5 (33:28):
It's about changing the whole industry.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
You know, you finally, you guys were a listed dynamic
investors on our Afro Tech Future fit lists. Congratulations. It's
a celebration of trailblazers who are shaping the future of
tech and culture. So thirty seconds a piece. You know,
as you guys find success with your mission, what does
(33:52):
the world look like when you finally like we did it?
What's the world look like?
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (33:59):
Well, on the on the Afrotech acknowledgement piece.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
This is always a full circle moment.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
One of the platform that we actually announced our first
fund was Afrotech twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I remember Virtual Virtual Event.
Speaker 4 (34:14):
We were on the digital jumbo tron talking about our work.
And to be able to be here five years later,
or almost five years later talking about the work of
the day, I think, you know when it's also done,
uh to what Austin was actually alluding to, You know
that that slowsing is a meaningful contributor to opening up
what opportunity, what a good opportunity looks like outside of
(34:36):
the traditional channels and the ecosystems and the geographies and
the profiles and founders. And we do so in a
way where you know, it's it's just it's not a
diverse or any good that thing over there. It becomes
core for folks with way deeper pockets than ours, that
have a lot more have a way more capacity to
(34:56):
move the needle at our.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Stage, and that we can kind of help through through
our efforts.
Speaker 4 (35:01):
Through our content or our events, to our investments, to
the outcomes of those investments. You know, when we think
about this from a legacy play and you know, in
terms of leaving it better than we found it. That's
not just you know, venture capital, that's not just Loston Avenue.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
That's just the world in general.
Speaker 4 (35:18):
Yeah, what success looks like is you know, there is
no it's just consideration.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
It's not like again that thing.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Over there, austin thirty seconds. Feel what does the world
look like when you're successful?
Speaker 5 (35:32):
I mean Aj said it all and again he said
it all.
Speaker 6 (35:38):
Man, If I could take twenty of my thirty seconds
just to give a huge shout out to you and
the Afrotech and what you guys are doing. Man, this
is this is this is what we need where people
where it's promoted in a way that people can understand
that it's positive, understand what's possible, and in align with
people that.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Could do it along with them.
Speaker 6 (36:00):
One of the things we always say, like whenever we
have an event or we host an event, and you know,
we know that there's entrepreneurs looking for money and trying
to get funded, and so folks were trying to talk
to us. But one of the things we always make
note of is like, uh, the people that are going
to help you out the most, and the people or
your peers that are in the room for like get
to know the people that are around. Those are the
people who come up with you have you know, founders
(36:22):
of Afrotech, Morian and Air and them like like a
lot of a lot when they think about you know, yes,
the VC's providers and capital or whatever, but it's the
it's the idea of being able to bounce ideas off
of your peers and the other people that are at
the same phase as you and just coming up together. So, uh,
I guess my encouragement is is like, take advantage of
(36:44):
afrotech the conference, take advantage of Afrochech and all the
other things that that afrotech is doing.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
To just find your.
Speaker 6 (36:51):
Community and find your group and lean into it, pour
into everybody else. Because even though it may feel like
blind leaving, leading the blind on some level happens as
folks start sharing resources and getting hints and getting intros
and getting doors open and.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Then pulling the people along with them.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
So it's just, uh, we've all we've all got to
come up together.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
It has to be an ein.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
A lot of the appreciation.
Speaker 7 (37:18):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking night Hire Media
and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas,
with the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Sah Ergan
and Jayda McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and
Love Beach. Learn more about My Guess Other Technives. Up
is an innovators at afrotech dot com.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
The video version of this episode will drop to Black
Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap in enjoy your
Black Tech Green Money, share us to somebody go get
your money. Peace and love,
Host
Will Lucas
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