July 20, 2021 • 36 mins
Jeff Osuji is a serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder at Eventnoire, a technology start-up and event ticketing platform that seeks to support and promote Black enterprises and cultural events.
On this episode, Jeff speaks with Will Lucas about discrimination in the events industry, how startups can make power moves in the same waters with bigger fish, and how promoters can leverage data to engage bigger audiences.
Follow Will Lucas on Instagram at @willlucas
Learn more about other Black tech disruptors and innovators at AfroTech.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Term sheets Afro Tech miniseries available on YouTube about venture capital.
In New York City, February, I'm talking to my Issia League,
head of Founder and Studio Operations, a human ventures adventure fund,
part studio, part enterprise agency. Midway through our conversation in
(00:22):
her Park Avenue office, I asked Mysia about the opportunity
she might see for startups not situated in a major
tech hub to ultimately find success and what needs to
happen in the ecosystem to ensure it. It's our game
to lose invariably, right, what will happen is you can't
stop a person on a mission with a clear vision.
(00:43):
It is like a freight train. You can't stop it,
right'll it'll take them longer to get there if they're
not network and all that, but you can't stop it,
and it's really our game to lose. I think that
venture itself as a as a space UM is not
as wanted as it once was. It's not as admired
as it once was. People are getting more and more
creative at what it takes to fund their companies UM,
(01:05):
and so really I would flip the question the real
concern or the real urgency is on the part of
investors and whether or not they are racing to get there,
because those folks are going to build, right like that,
just like it's not what it was twenty years ago, right,
they have the capability to build. And I want to
encourage those folks, those founders in Oklahoma, in Philadelphia, Mississippi,
(01:28):
you know, in Dayton, Ohio, to like, yes, it's hard, right,
it's harder to find capital, it's hard to find people
you want to collaborate with, but it's not the end
of the world. People in New York are building offshore
engineering teams. That means that people in date In, Ohio
can too. And those offshore engineering team teams are cheaper
than you can find New York in San Francisco, which
means they're also cheaper for you in date In, Ohio.
(01:50):
You follow like it's it's just a whole new world.
And if you believe that your product, your technology should
live in the world, there is a a to get there.
There are coal hugs and communities in Denver, Colorado. Right,
there's a community and built in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Like that's what's happening because smart people are waking up
with the fact that that you guys are out there
(02:12):
and that it's arguing us if we don't get in it,
we should be rushing. Uh, we should be rushing to you. Um.
I think that that would be the case for for
a period of time and and and you can't encourage
people to do the smart thing. We just set to
figure it out. And that's what I mean that to
investors who are overlooking those communities. I'm Will Lucas and
(02:33):
this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna answer this
you to some of the biggest names, some of the
brightest minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building
or simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast
is for you. Jeff O Sugi is a serial entrepreneur
and co founder at e Venu, are technology startup in
(02:56):
even ticketing platform based in Chicago that seeks to some
more and promote black enterprises and cultural events. It startup
recently wandered one million dollars started up contests. A large
part of the value proposition is that for every ticket
sold on their platform, a large percentage goes back into
communities and nonprofits working to uplift those communities. I used
(03:18):
to DJ so I was excited to speak with Jeff
since he's also an event promoter about his experience behind
the scenes went throwing events for black events, particularly, it
might be harder than you imagine going from an idea
for throwing a party to opening the doors at the
gate dust Lee. I wondered how Jeff thought building a
technology platform helps to stave off the discrimination that happens
(03:41):
behind closed doors. One of the things that we found
out hosting events refits two years, especially in the Metroro
area urban area. Right. Um, we found you know, most
of us in terms of black folks, we didn't own
any of the venues downtown, so we're going to try
to get those venues for events. You get those questions
like Okay, what kind of crowd is gonna be? Right, Uh, okay,
(04:02):
who's gonna be And um, you show up and they
find out you are black. Neither get charged to the
higher rental as some of the premier spots. We wanted
to get an opportunity to the party, they'll tell you
the date, it's not available, et cetera. Um, So it's
just a lot of frustration. We realized that we were
making the venues that we did partner with a lot
of money, but we owned those and we're making the
liquor brands that we help support a lot of money
(04:24):
and we own any of that. And so for us,
we just want to create a way for us to
own a piece of the event ecosystem because we know
the influence that like people have on arts, culture, entertainment,
especially as it as it relates to events. What would
you say, are something like the non obvious discriminatory practices
that might happen, like the things that the consumers may
(04:46):
not even realize they don't have the opportunity to take
advantage of because we don't have the opportunities in the
actual production space. Yeah, so if you this is one
thing that I always like to point out where we
talk about events and just around our colleagues and we're
getting ready to take group about thirty of us out
to dinner UH in the event space here in Chicago,
or getting a tour together just to UH speaks to
(05:07):
different event promoters. But think about this, if you go
to a party where it's predominantly Caucasian folks, they're never
you're never gonna hear somebody say, man, it needs to
be more diverse. In here. What we would hear during
our black events. We're like, man, can you guys don't
make a little bit more diverse, like you need, you know,
try to get some some some mighty folks and Latin
(05:28):
folks here. That's something that we never heard, you know
when we write other events where we were always the minority.
So you know here in Chicago where I'm from, i'd
say that when you get about twenty five thirty percent
of African American crowd in your party, all of a
sudden becomes a black party. And um, and so what
(05:49):
happens is you'll hear managers and owners of time say,
look a it's it's getting little. You know, we gotta stop.
You see doorman, stop letting in black people and using
the dress code. Um. So we see the all types
of things in our in our fifty years. And then
you get kicked off of nights as a promoter. They say, hey,
we're not gonna be able to business anymore. The neighbors
are complaining. Um. Of course we're catering to doctors, lawyers,
(06:11):
all professionals. So we hear complaints about neighbors complaining about
people being there. We know this just because they see
a group of black folks and they see us as
an eyesore. And so for us, again, we just knew
ownership was away and the first thing we thought about
was ticketing UM and really being able to own UM
that piece because we looked at the general market ticket
(06:32):
partners out there, we know that they weren't truly event partners.
They didn't do anything and support our events UM, And
we're like, you know what, what if we can start
to get the platform actually part of where people help
them get venues, but also just a central marketplace where
black people could find events wouldn't be welcomed and embraced
instead of being turned away at the door, uh, instead
of being told that they're uh not gonna be able
(06:53):
to get in, just a place where we can be ourselves.
I think we all have the experience as as black
folks when you get out of work and you want
to just be around people that look like you, oftentimes
you have to go searching UM here and here in
Chicago for instance, where I'm from, Uh, there's a lot
of great venues downtown that are upscaled, but in our neighborhoods,
you know, we don't have those rooftops, right we don't
(07:15):
have those uh super luxury events basis, and we've you know,
we've talked to some of the seed leaders about getting
those going. But we want to be able to direct
folks to places where they're gonna be embraced instead of
spending our money and uh venues and in places where
you know, we're just being tolerated. There's this quote, because
(07:35):
I do want to talk about the technology behind vent Noua,
but there's this quote before we do that. Um it
comes from Steve Jobs, and it says technology is nothing.
What's important is that you have faith in people that
they're basically good and smart and if you give them
the tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. And when
I think about what you've been doing, it's like you're
(07:55):
utilizing tech book, like you're not just building tech for
tech sake, like you do. We get to solve real
problems in the community. Could you speak to that a
hundred percent. When we first started out, we had the
uh the earliest, you know, the worst platform in the world,
and we're still far from where we want to be
where actually, uh you know, we just closed our free
seat l you're gonna see see around to really get
(08:15):
our technology we wanted to be. But for us, this
is one thing we knew. If you can move people,
you can move to the world. And so we knew
that we had an influence. UM and any given time
on the Friday night, if you can tell people to
go somewhere and you can put have five hundred people
pull up, there's power and influence in that. And so
for us, it was just all about praying that central
marketing place, at central place where people go and they
(08:37):
see any event on that platform, they know it's for us.
I had the experience traveling out of the town where
I go on UM say event right, amazing platform. When
I go there, I'm like, Okay, what's what's one of
these sponses for me? Right? Which one of my gonna
see some people that look like me? If I just
want to see some beautiful women, where am I gonna go?
And I couldn't tell, all right, And so I go.
(08:59):
When I was a york I said, Okay, what's going
on harm what's going on Brooklyn? I'm hoping I don't.
I'm gonna see some more diversity there. So you know
we our plans are replicate just for the Latin next
communities for the We've already been approached by some LGBTQ
organizations here. Um, we all had that sense of want
to be like people, be around people where we can
create that sense of community. Uh. And so for us
from a from a tech perspective, we're working on some
(09:21):
things such as AI. We can be able to recommend
events for folks. But anytime somebody go out of the town,
they say, hey, Jeff, who's the Jeff of d C
New York Atlanta? And I just got tired of getting
these text messages. So I knew it was important for
us to create created platform for that. Let's talk about
building the platform. You talked about how you know, non glamorous.
(09:42):
It was in the beginning, and so often, you know,
we think, especially because we already get discounted as black people,
building technologies and building platforms, that has got to be
beautiful by the time we launch. I'll talk about a
little bit about how we can get away. We're putting
up a WordPress site that does X, Y Z or
launching something you know on squares or whatever, but that
(10:03):
we don't have to go always and go hire engineers
or learn how to code, but we can get out
our data or m v P was using existing technologies. Definitely, definitely.
You know, I have a couple of friends and that
have some no code apps UM that they've been able
to build on. What's the bubble? That was a great
platform out there. Whether you already have so many templates
(10:25):
in any idea you think of, somebody has probably already
done it right. Ticket is not a novel idea, but
we have a twist on it that that's able to
serve our our communities needs UM And the most important
thing for us was that those the revenue that we
get from ticket fees were able to get that back
to our event partners and organizations we work with so
or keep that money within the black community. But you know,
(10:45):
for us, we had we did hire off shore developer
and India and they created the most horrible platform out
there luck to be tested on our events and we
had to scrap it within a couple of weeks. So
we we threw dollars down the drain when we first
started UM. And had I known that we could have
gone for a bubble or or gone to any of
these platforms out there, are actually part of with another
(11:07):
ticketing company the same way Jay z when it found
a Norwegian uh, you know, streaming platform that he purchased
forty million dollars and then rebrider his title. You know,
there's people out there who already have platforms that you're
working on and they might just work with you to
license it for us. We decided to build it from
for scratchers and needs a horrible, horrible decision um, because
(11:28):
y'all the times find these developers that are building your platforms,
some of them don't know what they're doing and they're oversell.
So I really encourage people to look at bubble Um,
to identify fid it and companies that are already doing
what you're doing and reach out to them and say, hey, um,
you know, can I leverage your technology uh and and
put a you know, leverage my marketing and my branding
(11:48):
to to do something a little bit different but still
create a win win. So you've got a little bit
of money now, congratulated on on the mountain do thing,
and so talk to me about what you learned about
how to hire technical talents as you have the capital
to do some of that. Now, Like, what did you
learn in the process of making those mistakes that you
can now have have as part of your tool kit
so that when you interview in technical tality, you know
(12:11):
how to ask these questions. So, as a CEO, as
a founder, your job once you have some funds just
to figure out how to hire people smarter than you. Right,
I'm not a tech founder. I'm somebody that's news to
the tech space. UM and so it's important for us
to be able to speak to individuals who can make
your products better. UM. So I interview the folks of
the biggest thing I'm looking for is people that can
(12:31):
tell me how wrong my platform is, how wrong my
technology is, and what are the possibilities of what it
could be. And of course looking at the experiences that
they've had. It's important for us to understand the user
experience of black consumers. You know, we are very active
users digitally and I've I've worked in digital marketing for years,
and we produce the internet differently, you know, we navigate
(12:52):
information differently. So it's important for us to hire folks
who understand the user experience UM and just how you
know black folks access to information and what we prefer UM.
So two things making sure that they have the experience
UM and working with similar types of the industries. Uh.
And then then number two making sure that they understand
(13:13):
the black consumer because we're marketing to to black event
attendees and event organizers and they have unique needs. One
of the best things about us starting was that we
were our own customer. We tested the platform out on
ourselves for a year and a half before we released
it to anybody else. So a lot of the kinks
that we experienced, you know, that we knew about, we
(13:33):
were able to jump ahead of. And so we're actually
almost finished building out the third iteration of the platform,
which released the next month, and it just really has
all the feed that we got from ourselves, but everything
we took to learn and during the pandemic um talking
to our our consumers, So making sure that person has
real world experience, and you know, it really has the proof.
Because everybody's gonna sell you, especially devs, on what they
(13:55):
can do. They all say they can do everything. So
and from the other side at the table, you know
a lot of developers are in high demand. Like these
people can go a lot of different places, especially the
good ones, the ones that you're talking about trying to
recruit and retain. What is the cell, Like, what is
the big idea that you found that gives people say,
(14:16):
you know what, Yeah, I got these other offers, but
I'm rocking with you. Um from our perspective, you know,
you know, equities of borting, all right, So we're looking
for people that want to be a part of the
law around on the journey for the Law Hall. And
so we're actually looking for a developer right now, and
we're looking for somebody that wants to understands where we
can go and we were trying to go. We're talking
(14:38):
about five ten years down the road. We're not just
looking to be an event platform. We want to be
the BT of events for selling merchandise. Right. We realized
during COVID we have to have incremental revenue streams. We're
launching the subscription based model. People don't just want to
have ticketing and access to more capital. They want they
want to know about how they can get more sponsorship
(14:58):
for their events. They understand how they can build a
six figure event. I mean, you guys have done amazing
things with after Protect. It's it's a place you have
to be if you're in the tech space, right, um,
b T you have to go to the BT awards.
If you're an entertainment you want a network. And so
we're trying to help event organizers become smarter along with UM,
you know, selling tickets and getting a piece of their
(15:19):
their fees. So UM it's importing they had somebody that's
there for the long call, somebody that UM for me.
I like when people say, hey, you know what, I'll
take a little bit less money because I want equally
I want to I want to get money on the
back end because it shows us that they understand the
business and understand what the real opportunity is here. You know,
I think about UM, I have this oculus right, and
so I've read stories about oculus and like in the future,
(15:42):
like you'll be able to sit courtside at an NBA
game and not even be at the game, but you
got your you save it's on. And I wonder your
thoughts on how the future of events might look. And therefore,
where does event and new our play when artificial and
artific when virtual reality, augmented reality I'm sorry, become more
(16:04):
prevalent and accessible for consumers to be able to take
advantage of UM real real world. In any other case,
UM Entertainment, it's it's super important that in the future
we have a super hybrid platform that can leverage um,
you know, digital events, but just from a founder experience
where my co founders and I are. One thing we
(16:25):
realized during the pandemic was that there's nothing that can
replace it in person event. Uh and so you no,
down the line, we're definitely gonna have that the AI piece,
but sitting down with somebody looking into our eyes, being
able to dance with somebody, being able to to talk
to a DJ for question your favorite song, those are
experiences you can't mimic in the in the digital space.
(16:47):
UMS don't always like that, by the way, they hate it, right,
they hated, but just big able to get that, get
that frown from them, like and so get away right Like,
there's nothing that can replace that. I'm me seeing that
once the events have returned with the surgeon revenue of course,
but just the number of people that are out. Everything's
for all organizers. They're making more money they ever made.
(17:09):
Everything is sold out. People want to meet in person.
So I basically said that to say that we're creating
more opportunities for folks to have those in personal events.
Understanding that down the line, we're going to have to
have that hybrid technology. For now, we're making sure that
all the zooms um, all of those digital platforms can
be easily integrate with our platform. People can send their
(17:29):
tickets out to their virtual link UH and they can
be able to actually for zoone for instance, we're working
on integration where you can you know, hold true your
life events right on our interface. So you either have
to be able to integrate and work with those guys
that have the proper API s, or you're gonna have
to build out your own uh platform that can can
manage the digitals uh digital space as well. So I
(17:50):
mentioned that you guys got a little bit of money
now having one a Mountain Dude challenge or congratulations on that, Like,
what did you learn about winning a competition when you
because you've got so many people who signed up for
these things and this is a million dollar challenge. So
having going through that process, having pitched over and over
and over again getting through different levels of this competition,
(18:10):
what did you learn that could potentially be a key
for other people who are trying to get through processes
and competitions and get picked for boot camps and get
picked for accelerators. What you learned in that process that
this might be the thing that people are missing and
why they get rejected man special thanks to Mountain dude Man.
So many corporations, uh you know put their black boxes
(18:32):
on Instagram and made their statements last year and so
for then they come through and and really uh support
O relations like they did and our supports like ourselves amazing,
So thank you to pets Key, thanking the blabty bright
as of all. But to answer your question on that part,
they were over two hundred startups that applied and there
were some amazing starters to break technology. And what I
(18:54):
realized is that when you have an idea, it's not
about you know, how amazing your idea is to you.
It's a out how easy it is for other people
to understand what you're trying to do, and how easy
is to understand the impact that you can have and
where you can take it to. So you know, we're
an event ticketing platform, but our mission is you want
to recycle a million dollars annually back into community organizations,
(19:15):
event organizations, event partners, just to keep that money within
the community and um for us, if we believe that
that that impact piece tied in with just the fact
that everybody has that same problem. Right, you have to
be able to solve a problem that everybody around you
was experiencing and or that people can understand. Um, when
I pitched in the pandemic to folks and they weren't
(19:38):
people that understood black culture and the fact that our
event ecosystem is different, very promoter driven. They just couldn't
resonate with the problem. Right. If I'm a eight year old,
seven year old, uh, you know, white male, I may
not understand that I can't get into certain venues because
I'm black. You know, I'm not welcome in certain areas
because I'm black. And they definitely don't care about going
(19:59):
anybody's party, right or their their their gala. So I
think that for us, we had an audience of folks
who truly understood the pain point and problem uh and
the fact that there was a need in the community,
but also really resonated the impact. So my advice is
simplify your pitch. Um anytime my talks point ad that's true.
They didn't understand exactly what we did. It was almost
(20:20):
like I lost them. And as they've never able to
get them back. So definitely simplify your pitch and make
sure that you're really making sure that that problem that
you're solving is something that people can relate to. Um
and so just know your audience too, right, Like, not
everybody is going to be a good audience for you
when you're pitching nobody. So if you know your audience,
know who you're talking to, we just happened, I believe
(20:41):
to have folks that really understood the problem where we're
trying to tackle. So how do you how do you
simplify that pitch when you could also run the risk
of opening up yourself for questions of like, okay, how
where is the unique value here that you offer that
other people in the space can't offer or not as well? Well,
you definitely have to address to that you're in your problem,
(21:02):
and I think that the way to simplify your pitch
you should always be able to say that. I think
my my one of my mentors, Gary Cooper, CEO reply,
I think he just raised about twelve million, and you
gotta five or six words, the less you'd be. It
should be able to say what your company is and
people should had to get like that, right, even noirs
is essentially event Right for the culture, right. Um, we
(21:23):
want to be where culture and events intersect, but we
also want to be a ticking platform. That's of course
the black community. And you've got to be able to
say that easily and simply. So you have some folks
that you know, you talk about what they're doing and
they're have an amazing, amazing product, but people just can't
get it. You should be able to say it like that, um.
And I think it's always good to be able to
(21:43):
compare that too way a similar company. I think I
think he said his company is Google for supply chain, right,
People can always relate to Google, Amazon of event right, right.
So I think that's the easiest thing. Who are you
trying to be because there's always somebody doing something similar
what you're trying to do and communicate what you're doing differently.
Is there a way to say I'm event pride for
(22:08):
the culture and still not get pigeonholes into this way? Well,
they're just they're doing the same thing if it's just
for black people, Like, how do you communicate the value
there or is there a different mode that that simple
pitch doesn't communicate? I mean, you do have to be
able to elaborate how you're different, like when you first
present who you are, when that quick, you know, thirty
(22:30):
second pitch, you should also talk about how you're different, right,
aren't we're taking up and and to take a backstrack,
there's a number of companies that have done exactly what
other companies have done, and done in a separate in
a different way. When you know what Bob Johnson did
with BT you know, the MTV existed already, right, and
he could create a billion dollar company focusing on the
(22:50):
consumer that he knew the best. Um So for us,
so we talk about event Noir. We have a couple
of things that make us different that can't easily be
mimicked by larger companies. And that's one of sharing service fees. Now,
most companies are too big and they don't want to
give away that revenue. Right, We're gonna share those fees
with our community partners. We're giving away of our revenue
and that's kind of unheard of. Or we're doing it
(23:10):
because it's near new to our hearts to make sure
that we're recycling dollars back into the black community. Right,
we know, beneath for the economic empowerment. And we know
that when an event partner has an event and they're
getta extually check for five thousand dollars, right, you know
we're there. We're their event partners for life. Right. So
you know, I think that communicating how you're doing things
(23:31):
differently is just as apport is as communicating uh, simply
what you're doing and comparing that just somebody else. So
it's it's all part of your pitch. So when I
when I hear things like you know, we're giving away
forty of our revenue to community organizations, and all the
conversations I've had, I think about, Okay, what would a
VC say to that? And there? Because you know, as
(23:51):
you know, like vcs want ten x x returns, they
want big you know, market opportunity ease and billion dollar companies.
How does an event and you are get to billion
dollar opportunity when you when you give away the revenue,
but you have to introduce incremental revenue streams. And for us,
(24:11):
we knew that what we're doing in terms of giving
away all that revenue isn't sustainable without charging a subscription.
So later on in we're gonna charge the prescription for
all the added value that we're providing our our users. Um.
But we're leveraging our incentive based program right now to
correct that stickiness and really drive those relationships. But in January,
(24:33):
we're gonna charge a subscription piece that Hey, you know,
it's gonna make sense for you to pay the subscriptioncy
because the return investment is so big for you to
share within those royalties. But now you can also sell
merchandise and make extra way doing that. Now we can
also push you in front of event sponsors. So figuring
out how you consistently add value to your consumer base
and be able to charge for that value add um
(24:54):
is how we're gonna get to the billions. How how
important is it for us to own the entire supply change?
So I think about this like, you're an event promoter,
like your guy who throws events all over the country,
and then you also you built the platform so you
can sell tickets to these events, and then at some
point you may own a spot. At some point you
(25:16):
might you know, on the I s P that helps
people get online to get to So this this whole
value change I think about. We try to do so
many good things for our communities, but then we have
to leverage technologies that we didn't build. Therefore, we spend
money with other companies that doesn't come back to our communities. Like,
what is your thoughts on how we can own the
(25:40):
entire ecosystem and keep that dollar circulating in black black communities.
I will say this huge, huge uh power in data. Right.
We spend a lot of money hosting and promoting events
and on Facebook ads and Google ads. But if you
create a comprehensive ecosystem of folks who are more likely
(26:01):
to attend your event anyway, because it's mostly black volks
are events, you know, why shouldn't we be able to
allow our partners to tap into that database to push
their products, push their events. So I think of it
at like Google and Facebook, Um, how we can create
our own Google's are on facebooks are on amazons and
there is a big part of that, and there's no
more of an active and engaged audience than somebody that's
(26:22):
tens events. Um. So what we're essentially doing is looking
to tie in the black diaspora in the US, the UK, Africa.
There's very similar experiences as relates to events and even
racism in the UK, as you see in Paris, France.
I went to Paris and it was the one place
in the world I went to where I felt like, Wow,
(26:43):
this is just like being in America in terms of
the racism that I that I felt. Um, you know,
we got turned away from a from a nightclub and
the guys like Luke, you know, you know you're black.
It's no no women with you. It's like you know,
he got he basically tell me why you couldn't get
into the club, and the real the reason was that
we were black, and you know we have baseball caps
(27:03):
on and so, um, I feel like there's a unique
experience that black people have. And it's also this connectedness
that we need to have that makes into our global opportunity.
And uh and I think it's an opportunity to connect
all of us internationally, right the whole Black Day aspor.
My parents are both born in Nigeria. And when I
go home, I see probably three guys in the y
(27:25):
you will, all right, I would see three or four
people like my one of my friends back home, and
so we're all connected, but we don't have an opportunity
or platform that connects us. So I want folks to
be able to go to Nigeria and and find an
event on a ven noir that they can attend when
they travel there. So again we're looking to create our
own Google right where now, if you want to reach
(27:46):
more black folks from the asper M, we have the
data to be able to do that. So it's it's
a larger, larger data player. It's I'm so glad you
mentioned data because when I think about you and people
who do what you do well, one asset that you
have that you can never be round up is the
data that you have. The email list, you know, so
(28:07):
you could throw a party and you already got fifty
thou people on this list, and you don't have to
spend as much money, you know, because I remember I
remember the story and I think it was Tyler Perry
and how he built his audience and he had an
email list like a hundred thousand people, and so when
he went to go through a play in Chattanooga, he
already had the consumers there who are already bought in
(28:28):
by supplying that email address. Built in audience. Talk about
that and in the importance of people who do things
that are not necessarily technical, like building like throwing events,
how they leverage data to do that better. Definitely, UM,
and think about that, right. I work in health care
for for quite some time, and I think about this.
(28:50):
The same message data that we're using this promote events
magic here to send that out to people, UM, to
get information about access to capital, uh, about homeownership, about healthcare,
sharing the resources that we all have and make it
easier to share share that information. So UM in terms
of monetizing data, that's what all these companies are doing, right.
(29:11):
And I looked at and this is one of the
reasons why we're bringing together curators, promoters, curators, event party hosts,
whatever you want to call us. Right. Some promoters don't
like to be called promoters, but I talked to promoters
all the time. It's it looks on what you are,
but make sure that you're not just known for throwing parties.
The data that you have is super, super powerful. Right.
(29:32):
There's only we've been approached and work with politicians for
their political campaigns. Um. I maybebe was a party promoter, right, UM,
A j from one of those six parks start off
as a party promoter. You're learning how to interact with
people every single day, and for people like myself to
just love bringing people together. You can use that for
so much good, right, and so there's I think that
(29:53):
most people who are curators and promoters have to make
sure they don't they understand their influence and understand that
their power, and understand that data can be used for good,
to add value to the people around you, your you know,
your consumers lives and that's all we're trying to do.
We're trying to serve our consumers in a in a
different way and leverage that the data to improve the
quality of their lives. Um and so I plan to
(30:15):
launch a number of of of companies that focus just
on doing the data leveraging data to do it. What's
unique about building tech in Chicago? Man? Uh So, Chicago's
a unique place because most people understand it's one of
the most beautiful countries I'm a city, excuse me, in
the world, right, But it's also one of the most
(30:36):
racist cities in the world. And people understand that there's
these huge racial divides. We are a city of neighborhoods,
and we have some of the brightest people in the world.
And I know you guys have seen an influence of
a lot of Chicago wins in on the culture in
terms of music. But it's a place where the story
has always been its you gotta get out of Chicago
to make it, you got to go to one of
(30:56):
the coast But there's a new generation of folks who
have said, no, I'm not doing that. We're gonna stay
right here and we're gonna build against all odds. And
so it's a world class city with world class resources
that unfortunately, if you're on the South and the West Side,
where the primary primarily African American neighborhoods are, you don't
necessarily get access to those resources downtown unless you work
(31:19):
very hard to do that. And I'm excited about there
being a change. We have a black mayor right now. Um,
there's a number of black founders who have been able
to successfully raise money, and there's organizations like eighteen seventy
one uh pul sky as a University of Chicago, and
we just I was on the steering committee for Black
Founder Accelerator. So there's this big surge and I think
(31:40):
it's happening around the country right now of folks that
are saying, you know what, it's time for change. Um,
if you look at you know John Monopoly, who's Kanye
West manager. He was the you know, helped discover Virgil
as well as done. See he's on our board. He's
passionate about making sure that he's up within folks from
the city. Um So it's one of those places where
it's a certain greatness that if you have, you know
(32:03):
that you can you can do anything. I mean, it's
the home Michael Jordan's. It is the home of you know,
arguing one of the hottest rappers right now, a little dirt,
but it's a place where you have to have that
balance of of greenness and just you know, business acumen,
and if you have that, you can really succeed. So
I don't think I like this that when you go
anywhere people gotta point out folks from Chicago. You know,
(32:23):
I believe we have a certain certain sweat to us
and it you know, we were used to getting the
job done by by any bees necessary. So m Chicago
to Chicago wins. But you know, luckily I've been able
to travel in l a lived in in New York,
and you know, leverage network and bringing those things that
I've learned back to Chicago has allowed me to do
well here. What would you say because you are building,
(32:47):
you know, in a vertical that has big sharks in
the water, And there are a lot of us in
our community who have an idea, but because these big
sharks are in the water, we say, you know, maybe
I should go do something else, or maybe this ain't
for me, or maybe because people are asking about the sharks,
maybe they're trying to tell me I shouldn't be playing
(33:09):
in these waters. What would you say to people who
have ideas and want to do their thing, But there
are those big players. Man. You know, every in my opinion,
you know, every every giant was fall right, you know.
I mean there's amazing companies out there. But you know
every day that you're building, you're you're faster than you're
(33:29):
a leaner than they are. Um, you're probably more hip.
They can move faster than they can. Uh, you probably
have your ear more to the street because sometimes those
folks get comfortable also supporting to learn from their moves.
And there's enough And this is one thing I want
to say about us as being black founders and organizations
in general. Um, there's enough money out there for all
(33:50):
of us. So don't think that you can't carve out
your niche. Um I have there. There's a lot of
folks that say, hey, there's this person is already doing that.
This person is already doing this. There's a number of
kicking companies out here right, some of them, um, you know,
are are in the same area as us. And my
thing is, you can always carve out your niche. You
can always carve out start with twenty people within your circle,
(34:13):
or that to a thousand, or that's a fifty thousand.
It's possible. Um, there's McDonald's, there's Wendy's. All right, it's
Burger King. I think that you often find that people
try to pin black organizations either against each other and
see their competition. I can't collaborate. The reality is the
opportunity is to collaborate, to figure out how you guys
(34:33):
can work together and make sure that you're more powerful.
It's all about giving each other a seat at the table.
Because there's enough money out there for for everybody, and
they're they're not as you guys know, with a lot
of our friends who've gotten are you know, access a
lot of resources out there. And there's a lot of
jokes about the p P loans. But I hope that
folks access that, but there's a lot of money out there.
They're not gonna stop pretting it and um, you know,
(34:54):
so don't definitely gonna be scared of the big guys.
Black Tech Green Money is the production of Black of
the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and
(35:16):
I Hired Media, and its produced by Morgan Dabon and
me Will Lucas, with additional production supported by Love Beach
and Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis. Since
the carsa von Jan you know like the wine. Yes
that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and
other tech disruptors the intervators an afro tech dot com.
(35:38):
The video version of this episode would drop the Black
Tech Green Money on YouTube next week. So cop in
enjoying Black Tech Green Money, leave us a five star
radio Nunes go get your money, Peace and love
Term sheets Afro Tech miniseries available on YouTube about venture capital.
In New York City, February, I'm talking to my Issia League,
head of Founder and Studio Operations, a human ventures adventure fund,
part studio, part enterprise agency. Midway through our conversation in
(00:22):
her Park Avenue office, I asked Mysia about the opportunity
she might see for startups not situated in a major
tech hub to ultimately find success and what needs to
happen in the ecosystem to ensure it. It's our game
to lose invariably, right, what will happen is you can't
stop a person on a mission with a clear vision.
(00:43):
It is like a freight train. You can't stop it,
right'll it'll take them longer to get there if they're
not network and all that, but you can't stop it,
and it's really our game to lose. I think that
venture itself as a as a space UM is not
as wanted as it once was. It's not as admired
as it once was. People are getting more and more
creative at what it takes to fund their companies UM,
(01:05):
and so really I would flip the question the real
concern or the real urgency is on the part of
investors and whether or not they are racing to get there,
because those folks are going to build, right like that,
just like it's not what it was twenty years ago, right,
they have the capability to build. And I want to
encourage those folks, those founders in Oklahoma, in Philadelphia, Mississippi,
(01:28):
you know, in Dayton, Ohio, to like, yes, it's hard, right,
it's harder to find capital, it's hard to find people
you want to collaborate with, but it's not the end
of the world. People in New York are building offshore
engineering teams. That means that people in date In, Ohio
can too. And those offshore engineering team teams are cheaper
than you can find New York in San Francisco, which
means they're also cheaper for you in date In, Ohio.
(01:50):
You follow like it's it's just a whole new world.
And if you believe that your product, your technology should
live in the world, there is a a to get there.
There are coal hugs and communities in Denver, Colorado. Right,
there's a community and built in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Like that's what's happening because smart people are waking up
with the fact that that you guys are out there
(02:12):
and that it's arguing us if we don't get in it,
we should be rushing. Uh, we should be rushing to you. Um.
I think that that would be the case for for
a period of time and and and you can't encourage
people to do the smart thing. We just set to
figure it out. And that's what I mean that to
investors who are overlooking those communities. I'm Will Lucas and
(02:33):
this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna answer this
you to some of the biggest names, some of the
brightest minds and brilliant ideas. I feel black and building
or simply using tech to secure your bag. This podcast
is for you. Jeff O Sugi is a serial entrepreneur
and co founder at e Venu, are technology startup in
(02:56):
even ticketing platform based in Chicago that seeks to some
more and promote black enterprises and cultural events. It startup
recently wandered one million dollars started up contests. A large
part of the value proposition is that for every ticket
sold on their platform, a large percentage goes back into
communities and nonprofits working to uplift those communities. I used
(03:18):
to DJ so I was excited to speak with Jeff
since he's also an event promoter about his experience behind
the scenes went throwing events for black events, particularly, it
might be harder than you imagine going from an idea
for throwing a party to opening the doors at the
gate dust Lee. I wondered how Jeff thought building a
technology platform helps to stave off the discrimination that happens
(03:41):
behind closed doors. One of the things that we found
out hosting events refits two years, especially in the Metroro
area urban area. Right. Um, we found you know, most
of us in terms of black folks, we didn't own
any of the venues downtown, so we're going to try
to get those venues for events. You get those questions
like Okay, what kind of crowd is gonna be? Right, Uh, okay,
(04:02):
who's gonna be And um, you show up and they
find out you are black. Neither get charged to the
higher rental as some of the premier spots. We wanted
to get an opportunity to the party, they'll tell you
the date, it's not available, et cetera. Um, So it's
just a lot of frustration. We realized that we were
making the venues that we did partner with a lot
of money, but we owned those and we're making the
liquor brands that we help support a lot of money
(04:24):
and we own any of that. And so for us,
we just want to create a way for us to
own a piece of the event ecosystem because we know
the influence that like people have on arts, culture, entertainment,
especially as it as it relates to events. What would
you say, are something like the non obvious discriminatory practices
that might happen, like the things that the consumers may
(04:46):
not even realize they don't have the opportunity to take
advantage of because we don't have the opportunities in the
actual production space. Yeah, so if you this is one
thing that I always like to point out where we
talk about events and just around our colleagues and we're
getting ready to take group about thirty of us out
to dinner UH in the event space here in Chicago,
or getting a tour together just to UH speaks to
(05:07):
different event promoters. But think about this, if you go
to a party where it's predominantly Caucasian folks, they're never
you're never gonna hear somebody say, man, it needs to
be more diverse. In here. What we would hear during
our black events. We're like, man, can you guys don't
make a little bit more diverse, like you need, you know,
try to get some some some mighty folks and Latin
(05:28):
folks here. That's something that we never heard, you know
when we write other events where we were always the minority.
So you know here in Chicago where I'm from, i'd
say that when you get about twenty five thirty percent
of African American crowd in your party, all of a
sudden becomes a black party. And um, and so what
(05:49):
happens is you'll hear managers and owners of time say,
look a it's it's getting little. You know, we gotta stop.
You see doorman, stop letting in black people and using
the dress code. Um. So we see the all types
of things in our in our fifty years. And then
you get kicked off of nights as a promoter. They say, hey,
we're not gonna be able to business anymore. The neighbors
are complaining. Um. Of course we're catering to doctors, lawyers,
(06:11):
all professionals. So we hear complaints about neighbors complaining about
people being there. We know this just because they see
a group of black folks and they see us as
an eyesore. And so for us, again, we just knew
ownership was away and the first thing we thought about
was ticketing UM and really being able to own UM
that piece because we looked at the general market ticket
(06:32):
partners out there, we know that they weren't truly event partners.
They didn't do anything and support our events UM, And
we're like, you know what, what if we can start
to get the platform actually part of where people help
them get venues, but also just a central marketplace where
black people could find events wouldn't be welcomed and embraced
instead of being turned away at the door, uh, instead
of being told that they're uh not gonna be able
(06:53):
to get in, just a place where we can be ourselves.
I think we all have the experience as as black
folks when you get out of work and you want
to just be around people that look like you, oftentimes
you have to go searching UM here and here in
Chicago for instance, where I'm from, Uh, there's a lot
of great venues downtown that are upscaled, but in our neighborhoods,
you know, we don't have those rooftops, right we don't
(07:15):
have those uh super luxury events basis, and we've you know,
we've talked to some of the seed leaders about getting
those going. But we want to be able to direct
folks to places where they're gonna be embraced instead of
spending our money and uh venues and in places where
you know, we're just being tolerated. There's this quote, because
(07:35):
I do want to talk about the technology behind vent Noua,
but there's this quote before we do that. Um it
comes from Steve Jobs, and it says technology is nothing.
What's important is that you have faith in people that
they're basically good and smart and if you give them
the tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. And when
I think about what you've been doing, it's like you're
(07:55):
utilizing tech book, like you're not just building tech for
tech sake, like you do. We get to solve real
problems in the community. Could you speak to that a
hundred percent. When we first started out, we had the
uh the earliest, you know, the worst platform in the world,
and we're still far from where we want to be
where actually, uh you know, we just closed our free
seat l you're gonna see see around to really get
(08:15):
our technology we wanted to be. But for us, this
is one thing we knew. If you can move people,
you can move to the world. And so we knew
that we had an influence. UM and any given time
on the Friday night, if you can tell people to
go somewhere and you can put have five hundred people
pull up, there's power and influence in that. And so
for us, it was just all about praying that central
marketing place, at central place where people go and they
(08:37):
see any event on that platform, they know it's for us.
I had the experience traveling out of the town where
I go on UM say event right, amazing platform. When
I go there, I'm like, Okay, what's what's one of
these sponses for me? Right? Which one of my gonna
see some people that look like me? If I just
want to see some beautiful women, where am I gonna go?
And I couldn't tell, all right, And so I go.
(08:59):
When I was a york I said, Okay, what's going
on harm what's going on Brooklyn? I'm hoping I don't.
I'm gonna see some more diversity there. So you know
we our plans are replicate just for the Latin next
communities for the We've already been approached by some LGBTQ
organizations here. Um, we all had that sense of want
to be like people, be around people where we can
create that sense of community. Uh. And so for us
from a from a tech perspective, we're working on some
(09:21):
things such as AI. We can be able to recommend
events for folks. But anytime somebody go out of the town,
they say, hey, Jeff, who's the Jeff of d C
New York Atlanta? And I just got tired of getting
these text messages. So I knew it was important for
us to create created platform for that. Let's talk about
building the platform. You talked about how you know, non glamorous.
(09:42):
It was in the beginning, and so often, you know,
we think, especially because we already get discounted as black people,
building technologies and building platforms, that has got to be
beautiful by the time we launch. I'll talk about a
little bit about how we can get away. We're putting
up a WordPress site that does X, Y Z or
launching something you know on squares or whatever, but that
(10:03):
we don't have to go always and go hire engineers
or learn how to code, but we can get out
our data or m v P was using existing technologies. Definitely, definitely.
You know, I have a couple of friends and that
have some no code apps UM that they've been able
to build on. What's the bubble? That was a great
platform out there. Whether you already have so many templates
(10:25):
in any idea you think of, somebody has probably already
done it right. Ticket is not a novel idea, but
we have a twist on it that that's able to
serve our our communities needs UM And the most important
thing for us was that those the revenue that we
get from ticket fees were able to get that back
to our event partners and organizations we work with so
or keep that money within the black community. But you know,
(10:45):
for us, we had we did hire off shore developer
and India and they created the most horrible platform out
there luck to be tested on our events and we
had to scrap it within a couple of weeks. So
we we threw dollars down the drain when we first
started UM. And had I known that we could have
gone for a bubble or or gone to any of
these platforms out there, are actually part of with another
(11:07):
ticketing company the same way Jay z when it found
a Norwegian uh, you know, streaming platform that he purchased
forty million dollars and then rebrider his title. You know,
there's people out there who already have platforms that you're
working on and they might just work with you to
license it for us. We decided to build it from
for scratchers and needs a horrible, horrible decision um, because
(11:28):
y'all the times find these developers that are building your platforms,
some of them don't know what they're doing and they're oversell.
So I really encourage people to look at bubble Um,
to identify fid it and companies that are already doing
what you're doing and reach out to them and say, hey, um,
you know, can I leverage your technology uh and and
put a you know, leverage my marketing and my branding
(11:48):
to to do something a little bit different but still
create a win win. So you've got a little bit
of money now, congratulated on on the mountain do thing,
and so talk to me about what you learned about
how to hire technical talents as you have the capital
to do some of that. Now, Like, what did you
learn in the process of making those mistakes that you
can now have have as part of your tool kit
so that when you interview in technical tality, you know
(12:11):
how to ask these questions. So, as a CEO, as
a founder, your job once you have some funds just
to figure out how to hire people smarter than you. Right,
I'm not a tech founder. I'm somebody that's news to
the tech space. UM and so it's important for us
to be able to speak to individuals who can make
your products better. UM. So I interview the folks of
the biggest thing I'm looking for is people that can
(12:31):
tell me how wrong my platform is, how wrong my
technology is, and what are the possibilities of what it
could be. And of course looking at the experiences that
they've had. It's important for us to understand the user
experience of black consumers. You know, we are very active
users digitally and I've I've worked in digital marketing for years,
and we produce the internet differently, you know, we navigate
(12:52):
information differently. So it's important for us to hire folks
who understand the user experience UM and just how you
know black folks access to information and what we prefer UM.
So two things making sure that they have the experience
UM and working with similar types of the industries. Uh.
And then then number two making sure that they understand
(13:13):
the black consumer because we're marketing to to black event
attendees and event organizers and they have unique needs. One
of the best things about us starting was that we
were our own customer. We tested the platform out on
ourselves for a year and a half before we released
it to anybody else. So a lot of the kinks
that we experienced, you know, that we knew about, we
(13:33):
were able to jump ahead of. And so we're actually
almost finished building out the third iteration of the platform,
which released the next month, and it just really has
all the feed that we got from ourselves, but everything
we took to learn and during the pandemic um talking
to our our consumers, So making sure that person has
real world experience, and you know, it really has the proof.
Because everybody's gonna sell you, especially devs, on what they
(13:55):
can do. They all say they can do everything. So
and from the other side at the table, you know
a lot of developers are in high demand. Like these
people can go a lot of different places, especially the
good ones, the ones that you're talking about trying to
recruit and retain. What is the cell, Like, what is
the big idea that you found that gives people say,
(14:16):
you know what, Yeah, I got these other offers, but
I'm rocking with you. Um from our perspective, you know,
you know, equities of borting, all right, So we're looking
for people that want to be a part of the
law around on the journey for the Law Hall. And
so we're actually looking for a developer right now, and
we're looking for somebody that wants to understands where we
can go and we were trying to go. We're talking
(14:38):
about five ten years down the road. We're not just
looking to be an event platform. We want to be
the BT of events for selling merchandise. Right. We realized
during COVID we have to have incremental revenue streams. We're
launching the subscription based model. People don't just want to
have ticketing and access to more capital. They want they
want to know about how they can get more sponsorship
(14:58):
for their events. They understand how they can build a
six figure event. I mean, you guys have done amazing
things with after Protect. It's it's a place you have
to be if you're in the tech space, right, um,
b T you have to go to the BT awards.
If you're an entertainment you want a network. And so
we're trying to help event organizers become smarter along with UM,
you know, selling tickets and getting a piece of their
(15:19):
their fees. So UM it's importing they had somebody that's
there for the long call, somebody that UM for me.
I like when people say, hey, you know what, I'll
take a little bit less money because I want equally
I want to I want to get money on the
back end because it shows us that they understand the
business and understand what the real opportunity is here. You know,
I think about UM, I have this oculus right, and
so I've read stories about oculus and like in the future,
(15:42):
like you'll be able to sit courtside at an NBA
game and not even be at the game, but you
got your you save it's on. And I wonder your
thoughts on how the future of events might look. And therefore,
where does event and new our play when artificial and
artific when virtual reality, augmented reality I'm sorry, become more
(16:04):
prevalent and accessible for consumers to be able to take
advantage of UM real real world. In any other case,
UM Entertainment, it's it's super important that in the future
we have a super hybrid platform that can leverage um,
you know, digital events, but just from a founder experience
where my co founders and I are. One thing we
(16:25):
realized during the pandemic was that there's nothing that can
replace it in person event. Uh and so you no,
down the line, we're definitely gonna have that the AI piece,
but sitting down with somebody looking into our eyes, being
able to dance with somebody, being able to to talk
to a DJ for question your favorite song, those are
experiences you can't mimic in the in the digital space.
(16:47):
UMS don't always like that, by the way, they hate it, right,
they hated, but just big able to get that, get
that frown from them, like and so get away right Like,
there's nothing that can replace that. I'm me seeing that
once the events have returned with the surgeon revenue of course,
but just the number of people that are out. Everything's
for all organizers. They're making more money they ever made.
(17:09):
Everything is sold out. People want to meet in person.
So I basically said that to say that we're creating
more opportunities for folks to have those in personal events.
Understanding that down the line, we're going to have to
have that hybrid technology. For now, we're making sure that
all the zooms um, all of those digital platforms can
be easily integrate with our platform. People can send their
(17:29):
tickets out to their virtual link UH and they can
be able to actually for zoone for instance, we're working
on integration where you can you know, hold true your
life events right on our interface. So you either have
to be able to integrate and work with those guys
that have the proper API s, or you're gonna have
to build out your own uh platform that can can
manage the digitals uh digital space as well. So I
(17:50):
mentioned that you guys got a little bit of money
now having one a Mountain Dude challenge or congratulations on that, Like,
what did you learn about winning a competition when you
because you've got so many people who signed up for
these things and this is a million dollar challenge. So
having going through that process, having pitched over and over
and over again getting through different levels of this competition,
(18:10):
what did you learn that could potentially be a key
for other people who are trying to get through processes
and competitions and get picked for boot camps and get
picked for accelerators. What you learned in that process that
this might be the thing that people are missing and
why they get rejected man special thanks to Mountain dude Man.
So many corporations, uh you know put their black boxes
(18:32):
on Instagram and made their statements last year and so
for then they come through and and really uh support
O relations like they did and our supports like ourselves amazing,
So thank you to pets Key, thanking the blabty bright
as of all. But to answer your question on that part,
they were over two hundred startups that applied and there
were some amazing starters to break technology. And what I
(18:54):
realized is that when you have an idea, it's not
about you know, how amazing your idea is to you.
It's a out how easy it is for other people
to understand what you're trying to do, and how easy
is to understand the impact that you can have and
where you can take it to. So you know, we're
an event ticketing platform, but our mission is you want
to recycle a million dollars annually back into community organizations,
(19:15):
event organizations, event partners, just to keep that money within
the community and um for us, if we believe that
that that impact piece tied in with just the fact
that everybody has that same problem. Right, you have to
be able to solve a problem that everybody around you
was experiencing and or that people can understand. Um, when
I pitched in the pandemic to folks and they weren't
(19:38):
people that understood black culture and the fact that our
event ecosystem is different, very promoter driven. They just couldn't
resonate with the problem. Right. If I'm a eight year old,
seven year old, uh, you know, white male, I may
not understand that I can't get into certain venues because
I'm black. You know, I'm not welcome in certain areas
because I'm black. And they definitely don't care about going
(19:59):
anybody's party, right or their their their gala. So I
think that for us, we had an audience of folks
who truly understood the pain point and problem uh and
the fact that there was a need in the community,
but also really resonated the impact. So my advice is
simplify your pitch. Um anytime my talks point ad that's true.
They didn't understand exactly what we did. It was almost
(20:20):
like I lost them. And as they've never able to
get them back. So definitely simplify your pitch and make
sure that you're really making sure that that problem that
you're solving is something that people can relate to. Um
and so just know your audience too, right, Like, not
everybody is going to be a good audience for you
when you're pitching nobody. So if you know your audience,
know who you're talking to, we just happened, I believe
(20:41):
to have folks that really understood the problem where we're
trying to tackle. So how do you how do you
simplify that pitch when you could also run the risk
of opening up yourself for questions of like, okay, how
where is the unique value here that you offer that
other people in the space can't offer or not as well? Well,
you definitely have to address to that you're in your problem,
(21:02):
and I think that the way to simplify your pitch
you should always be able to say that. I think
my my one of my mentors, Gary Cooper, CEO reply,
I think he just raised about twelve million, and you
gotta five or six words, the less you'd be. It
should be able to say what your company is and
people should had to get like that, right, even noirs
is essentially event Right for the culture, right. Um, we
(21:23):
want to be where culture and events intersect, but we
also want to be a ticking platform. That's of course
the black community. And you've got to be able to
say that easily and simply. So you have some folks
that you know, you talk about what they're doing and
they're have an amazing, amazing product, but people just can't
get it. You should be able to say it like that, um.
And I think it's always good to be able to
(21:43):
compare that too way a similar company. I think I
think he said his company is Google for supply chain, right,
People can always relate to Google, Amazon of event right, right.
So I think that's the easiest thing. Who are you
trying to be because there's always somebody doing something similar
what you're trying to do and communicate what you're doing differently.
Is there a way to say I'm event pride for
(22:08):
the culture and still not get pigeonholes into this way? Well,
they're just they're doing the same thing if it's just
for black people, Like, how do you communicate the value
there or is there a different mode that that simple
pitch doesn't communicate? I mean, you do have to be
able to elaborate how you're different, like when you first
present who you are, when that quick, you know, thirty
(22:30):
second pitch, you should also talk about how you're different, right,
aren't we're taking up and and to take a backstrack,
there's a number of companies that have done exactly what
other companies have done, and done in a separate in
a different way. When you know what Bob Johnson did
with BT you know, the MTV existed already, right, and
he could create a billion dollar company focusing on the
(22:50):
consumer that he knew the best. Um So for us,
so we talk about event Noir. We have a couple
of things that make us different that can't easily be
mimicked by larger companies. And that's one of sharing service fees. Now,
most companies are too big and they don't want to
give away that revenue. Right, We're gonna share those fees
with our community partners. We're giving away of our revenue
and that's kind of unheard of. Or we're doing it
(23:10):
because it's near new to our hearts to make sure
that we're recycling dollars back into the black community. Right,
we know, beneath for the economic empowerment. And we know
that when an event partner has an event and they're
getta extually check for five thousand dollars, right, you know
we're there. We're their event partners for life. Right. So
you know, I think that communicating how you're doing things
(23:31):
differently is just as apport is as communicating uh, simply
what you're doing and comparing that just somebody else. So
it's it's all part of your pitch. So when I
when I hear things like you know, we're giving away
forty of our revenue to community organizations, and all the
conversations I've had, I think about, Okay, what would a
VC say to that? And there? Because you know, as
(23:51):
you know, like vcs want ten x x returns, they
want big you know, market opportunity ease and billion dollar companies.
How does an event and you are get to billion
dollar opportunity when you when you give away the revenue,
but you have to introduce incremental revenue streams. And for us,
(24:11):
we knew that what we're doing in terms of giving
away all that revenue isn't sustainable without charging a subscription.
So later on in we're gonna charge the prescription for
all the added value that we're providing our our users. Um.
But we're leveraging our incentive based program right now to
correct that stickiness and really drive those relationships. But in January,
(24:33):
we're gonna charge a subscription piece that Hey, you know,
it's gonna make sense for you to pay the subscriptioncy
because the return investment is so big for you to
share within those royalties. But now you can also sell
merchandise and make extra way doing that. Now we can
also push you in front of event sponsors. So figuring
out how you consistently add value to your consumer base
and be able to charge for that value add um
(24:54):
is how we're gonna get to the billions. How how
important is it for us to own the entire supply change?
So I think about this like, you're an event promoter,
like your guy who throws events all over the country,
and then you also you built the platform so you
can sell tickets to these events, and then at some
point you may own a spot. At some point you
(25:16):
might you know, on the I s P that helps
people get online to get to So this this whole
value change I think about. We try to do so
many good things for our communities, but then we have
to leverage technologies that we didn't build. Therefore, we spend
money with other companies that doesn't come back to our communities. Like,
what is your thoughts on how we can own the
(25:40):
entire ecosystem and keep that dollar circulating in black black communities.
I will say this huge, huge uh power in data. Right.
We spend a lot of money hosting and promoting events
and on Facebook ads and Google ads. But if you
create a comprehensive ecosystem of folks who are more likely
(26:01):
to attend your event anyway, because it's mostly black volks
are events, you know, why shouldn't we be able to
allow our partners to tap into that database to push
their products, push their events. So I think of it
at like Google and Facebook, Um, how we can create
our own Google's are on facebooks are on amazons and
there is a big part of that, and there's no
more of an active and engaged audience than somebody that's
(26:22):
tens events. Um. So what we're essentially doing is looking
to tie in the black diaspora in the US, the UK, Africa.
There's very similar experiences as relates to events and even
racism in the UK, as you see in Paris, France.
I went to Paris and it was the one place
in the world I went to where I felt like, Wow,
(26:43):
this is just like being in America in terms of
the racism that I that I felt. Um, you know,
we got turned away from a from a nightclub and
the guys like Luke, you know, you know you're black.
It's no no women with you. It's like you know,
he got he basically tell me why you couldn't get
into the club, and the real the reason was that
we were black, and you know we have baseball caps
(27:03):
on and so, um, I feel like there's a unique
experience that black people have. And it's also this connectedness
that we need to have that makes into our global opportunity.
And uh and I think it's an opportunity to connect
all of us internationally, right the whole Black Day aspor.
My parents are both born in Nigeria. And when I
go home, I see probably three guys in the y
(27:25):
you will, all right, I would see three or four
people like my one of my friends back home, and
so we're all connected, but we don't have an opportunity
or platform that connects us. So I want folks to
be able to go to Nigeria and and find an
event on a ven noir that they can attend when
they travel there. So again we're looking to create our
own Google right where now, if you want to reach
(27:46):
more black folks from the asper M, we have the
data to be able to do that. So it's it's
a larger, larger data player. It's I'm so glad you
mentioned data because when I think about you and people
who do what you do well, one asset that you
have that you can never be round up is the
data that you have. The email list, you know, so
(28:07):
you could throw a party and you already got fifty
thou people on this list, and you don't have to
spend as much money, you know, because I remember I
remember the story and I think it was Tyler Perry
and how he built his audience and he had an
email list like a hundred thousand people, and so when
he went to go through a play in Chattanooga, he
already had the consumers there who are already bought in
(28:28):
by supplying that email address. Built in audience. Talk about
that and in the importance of people who do things
that are not necessarily technical, like building like throwing events,
how they leverage data to do that better. Definitely, UM,
and think about that, right. I work in health care
for for quite some time, and I think about this.
(28:50):
The same message data that we're using this promote events
magic here to send that out to people, UM, to
get information about access to capital, uh, about homeownership, about healthcare,
sharing the resources that we all have and make it
easier to share share that information. So UM in terms
of monetizing data, that's what all these companies are doing, right.
(29:11):
And I looked at and this is one of the
reasons why we're bringing together curators, promoters, curators, event party hosts,
whatever you want to call us. Right. Some promoters don't
like to be called promoters, but I talked to promoters
all the time. It's it looks on what you are,
but make sure that you're not just known for throwing parties.
The data that you have is super, super powerful. Right.
(29:32):
There's only we've been approached and work with politicians for
their political campaigns. Um. I maybebe was a party promoter, right, UM,
A j from one of those six parks start off
as a party promoter. You're learning how to interact with
people every single day, and for people like myself to
just love bringing people together. You can use that for
so much good, right, and so there's I think that
(29:53):
most people who are curators and promoters have to make
sure they don't they understand their influence and understand that
their power, and understand that data can be used for good,
to add value to the people around you, your you know,
your consumers lives and that's all we're trying to do.
We're trying to serve our consumers in a in a
different way and leverage that the data to improve the
quality of their lives. Um and so I plan to
(30:15):
launch a number of of of companies that focus just
on doing the data leveraging data to do it. What's
unique about building tech in Chicago? Man? Uh So, Chicago's
a unique place because most people understand it's one of
the most beautiful countries I'm a city, excuse me, in
the world, right, But it's also one of the most
(30:36):
racist cities in the world. And people understand that there's
these huge racial divides. We are a city of neighborhoods,
and we have some of the brightest people in the world.
And I know you guys have seen an influence of
a lot of Chicago wins in on the culture in
terms of music. But it's a place where the story
has always been its you gotta get out of Chicago
to make it, you got to go to one of
(30:56):
the coast But there's a new generation of folks who
have said, no, I'm not doing that. We're gonna stay
right here and we're gonna build against all odds. And
so it's a world class city with world class resources
that unfortunately, if you're on the South and the West Side,
where the primary primarily African American neighborhoods are, you don't
necessarily get access to those resources downtown unless you work
(31:19):
very hard to do that. And I'm excited about there
being a change. We have a black mayor right now. Um,
there's a number of black founders who have been able
to successfully raise money, and there's organizations like eighteen seventy
one uh pul sky as a University of Chicago, and
we just I was on the steering committee for Black
Founder Accelerator. So there's this big surge and I think
(31:40):
it's happening around the country right now of folks that
are saying, you know what, it's time for change. Um,
if you look at you know John Monopoly, who's Kanye
West manager. He was the you know, helped discover Virgil
as well as done. See he's on our board. He's
passionate about making sure that he's up within folks from
the city. Um So it's one of those places where
it's a certain greatness that if you have, you know
(32:03):
that you can you can do anything. I mean, it's
the home Michael Jordan's. It is the home of you know,
arguing one of the hottest rappers right now, a little dirt,
but it's a place where you have to have that
balance of of greenness and just you know, business acumen,
and if you have that, you can really succeed. So
I don't think I like this that when you go
anywhere people gotta point out folks from Chicago. You know,
(32:23):
I believe we have a certain certain sweat to us
and it you know, we were used to getting the
job done by by any bees necessary. So m Chicago
to Chicago wins. But you know, luckily I've been able
to travel in l a lived in in New York,
and you know, leverage network and bringing those things that
I've learned back to Chicago has allowed me to do
well here. What would you say because you are building,
(32:47):
you know, in a vertical that has big sharks in
the water, And there are a lot of us in
our community who have an idea, but because these big
sharks are in the water, we say, you know, maybe
I should go do something else, or maybe this ain't
for me, or maybe because people are asking about the sharks,
maybe they're trying to tell me I shouldn't be playing
(33:09):
in these waters. What would you say to people who
have ideas and want to do their thing, But there
are those big players. Man. You know, every in my opinion,
you know, every every giant was fall right, you know.
I mean there's amazing companies out there. But you know
every day that you're building, you're you're faster than you're
(33:29):
a leaner than they are. Um, you're probably more hip.
They can move faster than they can. Uh, you probably
have your ear more to the street because sometimes those
folks get comfortable also supporting to learn from their moves.
And there's enough And this is one thing I want
to say about us as being black founders and organizations
in general. Um, there's enough money out there for all
(33:50):
of us. So don't think that you can't carve out
your niche. Um I have there. There's a lot of
folks that say, hey, there's this person is already doing that.
This person is already doing this. There's a number of
kicking companies out here right, some of them, um, you know,
are are in the same area as us. And my
thing is, you can always carve out your niche. You
can always carve out start with twenty people within your circle,
(34:13):
or that to a thousand, or that's a fifty thousand.
It's possible. Um, there's McDonald's, there's Wendy's. All right, it's
Burger King. I think that you often find that people
try to pin black organizations either against each other and
see their competition. I can't collaborate. The reality is the
opportunity is to collaborate, to figure out how you guys
(34:33):
can work together and make sure that you're more powerful.
It's all about giving each other a seat at the table.
Because there's enough money out there for for everybody, and
they're they're not as you guys know, with a lot
of our friends who've gotten are you know, access a
lot of resources out there. And there's a lot of
jokes about the p P loans. But I hope that
folks access that, but there's a lot of money out there.
They're not gonna stop pretting it and um, you know,
(34:54):
so don't definitely gonna be scared of the big guys.
Black Tech Green Money is the production of Black of
the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and
(35:16):
I Hired Media, and its produced by Morgan Dabon and
me Will Lucas, with additional production supported by Love Beach
and Rissa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael Davis. Since
the carsa von Jan you know like the wine. Yes
that's his real name. Learn more about my guests and
other tech disruptors the intervators an afro tech dot com.
(35:38):
The video version of this episode would drop the Black
Tech Green Money on YouTube next week. So cop in
enjoying Black Tech Green Money, leave us a five star
radio Nunes go get your money, Peace and love
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