Ep. 207 Megan Holston-Alexander is a partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she leads the Cultural Leadership Fund (CLF), Silicon Valley’s first venture capital fund consisting exclusively of Black cultural leaders and organizations committed to Black wealth generation. Megan oversees CLF’s dual missions of connecting the world’s greatest cultural leaders including athletes, entertainers, musicians and C-level executives, to the best new technology companies and engaging and elevating African Americans in the technology industry.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money.
Megan Holst and Alexander is a partner at Andries and Horowitz,
where she leads the Cultural Leadership Fund, Silicon Valley's first
venture capital fund consisting exclusively of black culture leaders and
organizations committed to black wealth generation. Megan oversees colf's dual
(00:22):
mission of connecting the world's greatest cultural leaders, including athletes, entertainers, musicians,
and sea level executives, to the best new technology companies
and engaging in elevating African Americans in the technology industry.
Black culture has long influenced global trends and you talk
about dance, music, food, you know, across the board fashion,
(00:43):
We influence all of it, but the economic participation hasn't
always been there, has lagged, And I wonder what your
thoughts are on how black investors and entrepreneurs can better
capitalize on the culture that we helped create.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, absolutely so, So that's a really good question, and
you are that is all factual and we've seen it,
you know, from even back in the day, in the
early days of in the early days of music in
different genres and hip hop like that has persisted that
the early contributors, quite frankly, were not kind of paid
and compensated equal to their input into the success of
(01:23):
that thing. And so for us, you know, we specifically
invest in tech. So my lens is around wealth generation
in technology, especially for black people. And I think there's
there's three way to do that in tech. Three ways
to do that in tech. The first is investing early
into the best new companies. And so when you think
(01:44):
about companies that have grown and IPO that we all
talk about, the you know, the facebooks and ANBs and
instacarts of the world, a lot of people who made
money when those companies went public were investors ten years
before that, right, So they were in and the seed
and the Sea and the Series B. So one of
the core things that I do in my role is
(02:04):
help black investors get on those early cap tables. How
do you invest in Facebook in two thousand and five?
So that's the first thing. You have to be an
investor early. The second thing is early employeehood. It's kind
of in a similar fashion, the folks who go and
work at the company when it's ten or fifty or
one hundred people have the opportunity to earn early employee
(02:27):
equity and that grows over time and turns into something
meaningful should that company have a really great liquidity event.
So working in tech early and sometimes that can be
a big risk. You never know how it will turn out.
But the reward of something like that, especially if it's
an area you're passionate about, can pay off immensely you
having that impact early with that company. And then the
(02:50):
final thing is actually putting capital into the hands of founders.
We love seeing them be able to build and grow
their businesses. And that's one of the true ways to
build wealth from your contributions and tech is it is
starting a company.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And so I want to touch on Megan first. Of course,
there's a lot of ways I'm going to go off
of what you just said, but I want to make
I should people people understand who Megan is first. And
so you know you grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, correct, yes, sir,
deep history that city does in civil rights, deep deep history.
How did that How to growing up in that environment
(03:24):
influence who you are today?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That is a big question because but I guess the
answer is simple, because it's like everything. The things that
people read about in books are the things that I
saw growing up. It was in the water I drank
growing up as a kid, Right folks read about the
bus boycott and rows of parks. I would be walking
downtown and there's a sign of this is where Rosa
(03:49):
Parks did not get off the bus, right, this is
where this happened. This is where this happened. So it
was really in front of my face on a constant basis.
And so when I left to go off to college
to Clark Atlanta, I very much carried those things with me.
Also important kind of part of growing up in Alabama
is that both of my parents went to HBCUs. So
(04:11):
this culture around black evolution and black empowerment and black
independence has kind of been a part of my story
for a very long time, and I still very much
hang on to that now and use it in the
way that I work. I am very focused on how
do I support this community, in the words of Beyonce
(04:31):
getting everything that came for? How do I support growth?
How do I support wealth generation and economic development? And
that's also one of the really I think special reasons
about why I came back. So I left in two
thousand and six to go to college in Atlanta. Shout
out to CAU And I was gone until twenty twenty two.
(04:53):
I didn't live here anytime in between that, and when
COVID hit, a really great opportunity to move back home
bubbled up where I could still do this work in
Silicon Valley and with this this this fund, while also
doing it from home and contributing here. Because a lot
of brain drain happens across the South, whether it's Mississippi
or Alabama or Louisiana. How can I come back and
(05:16):
be a contributing member because I have a home here
and I know that there's so much potential in the
things that it could be. So a special shout out
also to our mayor, the first black mayor of our city,
Stephen Reid, is also a product of someone coming back
and really wanting to make a difference, and so I
appreciate his support and have loved tapping in with him
(05:36):
on ways to make our city better and help it grow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You know, I want to touch on this Threugh. You
just mentioned the line there, you know, being able to
make a difference. I want to touch on that thread
because like you started off in like nonprofit work and
you still sit on some boards today. I believe in
the nonprofit world. And at the risk of putting this
the wrong way, so I'm gonna I'm going to preface
this for the audience. I'm trying to make the I'm
trying to figureut how to say this. So, sometimes we
(06:01):
pursue nonprofits when we should as a people be building companies,
like and like where I'm from, like we over we
have more nonprofits per capita. That's just a fact that
we have. We have more nonprofits per capita than anywhere
else in the country. And too often, like we as
just a people, in my view, pursue nonprofit work when
we could go build a company and put resources back
(06:24):
in the community. Is that is that? Okay? Just say
it that way. I think that's okay, okay, okay. So
with that, now that you're doing you're making a difference.
I think about doing well while doing well. And so
with that said, like, what are the yes? Yes, And
she's one of the people out there talk about it.
It's like, what are some of the mindset shifts for
(06:46):
the people who should be pursuing business. What are some
of the mindset shifts that need to happen in order
to be successful there, Like, what do you say to
all the things I just put in that gumbo right there.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, that's really important because a lot of times when
we think about helping people or supporting the community, we
automatically think of nonprofits because that's who we see out
active doing the work, right if you're if you're doing
a direct service nonprofit, where you're in schools, et cetera.
(07:20):
We grow up and we see those things, and so
it's very easy easy to think that that that's the
only way, Like with most things in life, as you
continue to go through you find out new versions of
a story and you start a big company and you
can give to nonprofits or you can do that sort
of thing, or you can be sure that you're I
don't know, running a sustainable company that's not you know,
(07:40):
damaging the water in your city, or you know, there's
all these things that you can do that are contributing
to bettering where you live. I do want to say that,
you know, nonprofits are companies, They're essentially the same. It's
just that that profit margin doesn't come back into into
the business. In terms of a mindset shift, I think
it's just about thinking about early what are the many
(08:01):
ways that I could do this. Oftentimes it's like a
like an association game. It's like I want to give back,
I have to do nonprofit. It's about maybe taking a
pause and thinking about what are the structures and what
are the different ways, and what are the things that
my community actually needs because it may not actually be
a specific, you know, new nonprofit. The other thing that's
(08:24):
very important about that conversation is, and this is what
we work on a lot with our group, and when
I worked with athletes early on, and they're kind of
philanthropy and that work. Everybody doesn't have to start a nonprofit.
You can just support one. A lot of really great
nonprofits already exist, and what people don't realize is when
they start one, either you have to fund it yourself
(08:46):
or you got to go out and raise money. And
that tends to be the most difficult part, because the
capitals to sustain a nonprofit and do the work you're
constantly fundraising, constantly fundraising. So I often encourage people you
don't have to not do nonprofit work, but how do
you exponentiate your impact by doing it in a meaningful way,
(09:09):
doing it together? And so that's usually what I what
I try to encourage.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, I want to because you like when you say,
you know, it's a lot of work going to raise
money for these nonprofits. I think what I hear when
people go to start a nonprofit is they believe it's
easier to pull on the heartstrings and get you to
write a check to support this cause, and it is
to sell a product to a customer, which.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Is debatable, right, I'm sure it's one side is easier
to pull on the heart strings because some people are
great storytellers or you know, some people when you have
personal experience in a thing, Because what you often find
people want to start nonprofits that are focused on things
that they know about and they have experience, and it's
(09:51):
you experienced homelessness, or you experienced a certain disease. Telling
that story comes very naturally to you, which I think
sometimes can be a little bit more difficult in starting
your own company. But I would argue they're both probably
equally difficult. It depends on what your strengths are as
a person and as a storyteller. But I really encourage
people again, it's okay to start a nonprofit if that
(10:14):
essentially is the best way to actually do what you
want to do and that's not that may not always
be the case. And as we work, you know, in CLF,
we our second mission is how do we get more
young African Americans into the technology industry. We think a
lot of companies could benefit from having some of these
really great talented folks in them. And we do that
(10:39):
work through a donation program. So one hundred percent of
our management fee, all of our carrier, so every dollar
of profit that CLF makes goes back to organizations that
are specifically focused on that mission. And we tried early
on to build out our own program and we found
it like, that's not our zone of genius. There are
people who've been working to get more young African America
(11:00):
can then take for years and are doing it successfully
while we're over here trying to string something together. And
we would be better off and the students and the
people who we want to serve would be better off
if we put that capital into those companies, into those
those nonprofits. And so it really just is about how
to have the impact and the way that you are.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You know, I remember listening to I think it was
metro Boom and the producer talking about how difficult it
was to get other rappers and artists who come from
where they come from to think about investing in a
certain way because they wanted to see the return like
right now quick? Yeah yeah, And so how so you
work with but.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We want to see the return quick and then also
don't want to take the risk.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah yeah, so speak on that. So because you work
with athletes, musicians, et cetera, you know, you help them
find deals, source deals, get into deals like how is it? Mindset?
You know, things that you have to work with them
more and to figure out, Okay, this is a different
type of investing where you're not going to see it.
You know, you may not ever see it, you know,
but you may not for years.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. So I would say a huge percentage of my
job is education. A lot of athletes and entertainers get
really lucky when they have a great team around them
that say like, yes, you need to do your public
market investing in your stocks, but also let me show
you this thing and are really teaching them kind of
the breadth of everything that they can be doing financially.
(12:24):
But most of my job is teaching people about investing
in technology, specifically at the early stage and what you
brought up is actually one of the most common important
things that I have to hammer in from the beginning
is that venture investing is a long term game. It's
we tell people eight to ten years, your money is
(12:46):
locked up. It's not a very liquid hasset where you
can come back and get it in a couple of years.
I tell people when they're thinking about investing in the fund,
I say, if you're going to be looking for this
money in two years, don't give it to me. Don't
give me your money if you're going to need it
in two to three years, because the likelihood is that
you're not going to be able to get it. Because
(13:09):
you know, when you think about the biggest companies when
they go public, there's usually a ten year period between
when they get ten years plus from when they get
their investment to when they actually have exit meaning a
liquidity event IPO, which is an initial public offering, are
called going public or m and a activity meaning they
(13:29):
get acquired or bought by a company ten years so
that money starts coming back to the investors. So that's
the biggest thing is venture is very much a long
term game, and venture is also risky. So depending on
what your risk profile is as an investor should determine
where you want to start investing. Maybe like you want
(13:49):
to be a little bit safer and you want to
put your money into two stocks or into you know,
some of the more lesser yielding opportunities. Venture it is
high risk, high reward, So you're investing your money into
companies that may not be operationally proven yet a lot
(14:10):
of times investing in companies that have no product. You
don't know if people gonna like it, people are gonna
hate it, but maybe you really believe in the team, etc.
And so teaching them about the holding period, teaching them
about the level of risk, meaning most of your companies,
most that you invest in will fail, you know, in
the early stage, but you're hopeful that you know, those
two or three or five that you invest in out
(14:34):
of the fifty will really knock it out of the park.
That is the goal. And then we also tell people third,
like the lingo. Once you learn the lingo of venture
and of tech and of investing, you're really ninety percent
of the way there. You can start making some really
thoughtful decisions around where you want to put your money.
Once you know how all of these things work. Together.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You mentioned something earlier about how the people who made
the money on facebooks and etc. Like we're either like
super dorouper early investors or early employees and those were
deals like we are people in our community weren't getting
in on those deals.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and now they are with cl Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yes. And this is the question because I think about
I'm gonna give you the question that I'm gonna give
you the back of why I'm asking this question, like
how do you evaluate a cultural leader to you know,
have that opportunity? Who are the athletes, the and entertainers executives?
And here's why I ask is because you know, there's
a difference between like what you're doing in like a
reg CF, like you know, a crowdfunding campaign to where
(15:29):
we can get on you know, on those deals. But
you're not necessarily and you can clarify this like there's
not everybody can't go and put money in you know CLF,
but you're picking you know, you guys are finding strategic
partners that make sense for this fund. How how does
this make a difference over time to to where there's
(15:49):
more of us that are able to get involved.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yep. So that's a really good question. Because when it
comes to investing in venture, there's a couple of things
that makes matter really great candidate. One kind of a
non negotiable is you have to have the capital to
invest and that requires either you know, obviously a certain
level of success or a certain level of of experience
(16:15):
over time that you're able to invest in venture. So
there's different requirements that you have to hit legally through
a government to invest in like a venture fund, et cetera.
The second thing is, uh, how useful and helpful and
supportive can you be of a tech company like this,
(16:36):
because that's what's going to get you access you have.
You have to have the capital, that's a non negotiable,
and then you have to get the access to the
companies to be able to put that capital. And usually
access comes from either having some expertise. Right, somebody's building
an auto company.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you used to be a NASCAR driver at.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
GM, you know what I mean? What are the ways
that you're aligned with the company that are also going
to get you into the door, So that can be
you know, on the entertainment side, that you have a
really great audience and people really maybe you're a big
time gamer and we have a bunch of games companies, right,
there's a lot of alignment. There's a lot of our
athletes are gamers, and we have a really we have
(17:16):
two games funds at the firm, and so there's a
lot of interesting alignment there. So I would say the capital,
the access the other thing that was important. I think
there was another part of your question, No.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I was talking about over time, how do more of
us have fine opportunities to be getting in on the
next facebooks, the next insta cards.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yep. Absolutely. The other thing that's really exciting, and I
think a way that a lot of people are going
to become investors is there have been so many, I'm
sure you've noticed over the past probably four or five years,
so many new venture firms popping up. Obviously, you have
big ones like Injuries and Horrowitz, right, we've got forty
four billion dollars under management, But most funds are smaller
(17:59):
funds that have a specific focus. Maybe they only do
precede companies, maybe they only do fintech companies. And really
building relationships with the funds where you have a level
of expertise where you can get that access, I think
is going to be critical. It really is about doing
the research because I can't tell you how many people
waste time going to funds that maybe they've just heard
(18:21):
the name, but they have no idea what they do.
There are hundreds of venture firms out there that are
really looking for folks for their port codes to join
advisory boards, which also can get you a little bit
of equity. So that's a way to also earn actual
boards of directors. So say you're an executive in a
specific area, you can come on as like a pre
(18:44):
IPO board director. There's I think a lot of interesting opportunities.
It's just about getting in with really great founders and
then also figuring out which venture firms might align with
your investment interests. It's all about, I think, the capital
and then the access. A lot of access comes through
the people that you know and the founders that are
(19:04):
doing that work.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Can you talk about an example.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because will now me and you know each other, and
if will you say to me like, oh, Magan, I've
got the capital, I've got a big podcast, I've got
a huge platform. I love to invest in tech. Now
I can keep you in mind for opportunities that come up.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Okay, we might have to talk here you go. Can
you talk about, like, can you share an example of
like a strategic partnership between like a cultural leader and
a technology company startup that has worked so far exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Two that I would probably share. Patrick Mahomes is actually
one of our LPs, and it feels really timely because
you know, they were just in the super Bowl. But
he plays golf and was really looking for a way
to support his nonprofit work and his philanthropy through he
has a golf tournament. We also have this other portfolio
(19:58):
company called Whatnot. I don't know if you've heard of them,
but it's like an online kind of live shopping company,
and they had mentioned they're like, we really want to
do more kind of in our impact work on our
nonprofit side. We're looking for the right opportunity, and we're like,
you know, kind of antenna's going off because we also
(20:19):
knew what Patrick was interested in doing, and so we
put those two together. They had a number of conversations
that over time evolved into a live streaming event. Obviously
you know through the fund that their investors, but he
had a live streamed his charity golf tournament and he
(20:39):
had a hole in one challenge and it was in
order to raise money for his nonprofit. He had it
was like twenty or twenty five chances to get a
hole in one to win for his nonprofit. And one
it's really great for the company because who doesn't want
to tune in and watch Patrick Mahomes try to hit
twenty five hole in one and obviously, you know, missing
(21:01):
every single one. That's really exciting for the company and
for that team to have him involved, but also really
great for Patrick because he wants to bring more attention
to his nonprofit it's called fifteen in my Homies, and
he wants to raise more money for them. And so
it's about matching the right person with the right company
on the right initiative, and they ended up raising Uh.
(21:22):
I want to say, I don't remember the exact number.
Don't quote me. I'll get it for you maybe after this.
But for his nonprofit, and it was really a win
win for both of them.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I love it. There is a there's a a learning
out there. I don't want to call it a fact
because there's depending on where you go, you find different numbers.
But they say the black dollar circulates in our community
for about six hours while you can go all the
way to you know, white communities and then the Jewish communities.
(21:51):
It's like thirty something days.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know, what is the calculation.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Don't come
for me, don't cover me. I've already set the stage
for this.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
And funny story, this is actually remember I told you
so background Will and I were talking about some time
I lived in Toledo before. I was actually studying sociology,
so it was a social science and I focused on
metrics and outcomes and like data. So all of my
work was statistics. Yeah, and so anytime somebody gives me
numbers like that, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Like, and again, I told you there's there's a lot
of different ones out there. I did not say that
this was a fact. I will not say as a fact.
But if you do people say this is only banks,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I'm giving you a we're good.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We're good because I did. I did a good preface
on that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
I feel like you did it was appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I appreciate that. So the conversation around like the
power to black dollar and venture, how can we be
more intentional about circulating wealth? No matter if for six hours,
six days, whatever it is. How can we be more intentional?
Because and the reason I asked that is because we
are I would say, decently good at economic protests. And
(23:07):
then there's another conversation to be had on Okay, look,
where are we going to do instead? So are we
going to be buying from actively black? Are we going
to be buying from you know, these other black owned companies?
Like it's one thing to take the money away and
make it out of the system, but where are we
going to put it?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So how can we be more intentional? Is the question?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Uh huh uh. I think there's probably a lot of
opinions about how we could be more intentional. But you
know how, I don't mean to make a probably a
bad joke. You know how when somebody is dating somebody
and they say, oh, they never call me, and they say, well,
they make time for what they want.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
That's great, that's good.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Similar to our dolls. It's probably the most random example,
but that's the best one I could think of. Is
if people want to buy black, they can. There's a
way to do it. Sometimes it takes a little bit
of work, right to find, you know, it's easy to
find maybe a black owned fashion brand. Maybe it's hard
to find black owned bathroom cleaner. Who knows, But if
(24:17):
you want to make that transition, you can. And one
of the probably in terms of like actually investing, if
somebody wants to make a percentage of their portfolio where
they focus on that. It doesn't mean you have to
only do that. But if you say, okay, I've got
one hundred dollars to invest, I'm going to put fifty
in the public mark and fifty over here, and I'm
(24:38):
eight percent adventure because venture should really only be a
single digit percentage of your total portfolio. Your whole portfolio
should not be venture. And then you say, of that
eight percent, I'm going to put four percent of that
into it to black companies. That's a decision that someone
could make, and so I think you know, I would
venture to say for those who are committed to it,
are doing it also this decision, like any other decision.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I love to hear that as that's encouraging. Actually, so
how do you think AI blockchain of emergency? Real quick?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I just also want to add there are actually quite
a few even if you just google, give me black
owned X, Y and Z companies, right am I hallucinated
a little bit, but like it'll probably get you some
good answers. There's actually a couple of websites also that
list out different types of black businesses that you can
(25:32):
support us purchasing from or investing in. We're actually doing.
We just recently launched a partnership. I don't know if
you're familiar with the fifteen Percent Pledge. Yes, I am, okay, wonderful.
So fifteen Percent Pledge founded.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
By I want to say, we had them on here,
We may have had them on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
For Oh Perfect, My Girl, Roa James. We just launched
this thing called the AI Illumination Grant and the goal
is and this actually might get into your next question.
So I'm sorry because I already heard you say AI
and crypto. But the fifteen Percent Pledge supports black businesses
both in beauty fashion, CpG, Perfume jewelry who are black owned,
(26:11):
getting shelf space in large retailers. They got several hundred brands,
if not thousands of brands on their website that people
can search and go support. We created grant together us,
the Cultural Leadership Fund, the fifteen Percent Pledge and Kevin
Hart's Heartbeat Ventures called the AI Illumination Grant, and it
(26:32):
is specifically focused on ensuring that the black founders that
are part of the fifteen Percent Pledge program don't get
left behind in the usage of AI because everybody's talking
about it, but it's not really clear where you start
and it's not really clear how to supercharge your business
using AI. And so we're doing thirty five thousand dollars grant.
(26:53):
We're hosting two webinars, one webinar on using AI for storytelling,
the second webinar on using AI product design for all
of the founders hundreds of founders that are part of
that program. And actually the first session is on March thirteenth.
I believe and like people are doing the work to
highlight black brands and now it's just a matter of
supporting them and being sure they're set up for success.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, it wasn't the podcast we had Aura at Afrotech
in twenty twenty two. That's what it was. I knew
would say, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
The roar is about it.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah. Yeah. So emerging technologies, how can we, as you know,
black people interested in creating generational wealth participation? How what
should we be focused on with AI, blockchain, other emergency
emerging technologies, like where should our attention be on learning
and getting involved?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
The first thing is, don't be scarred. I'll be scared
because that's the number one thing I hear is the fear. Now,
I want people to have healthy skepticism, because we can't
just let people tell us any old thing. Have a
healthy amount of skepticism, but be open to learning and
taking a couple of risks because we saw it very
(28:01):
early on in the crypto space of it was a
learning curve for a lot of people, not just black people.
But how do I engage with the technology? How do
I begin to use it? How do I just get started?
You have to just get started, because a lot of
it is a rabbit hole, you know what I mean.
(28:21):
You learn one thing and learn the next thing, and
then you see this other link. And so people leaning
in versus letting the fear consume them. And I would say,
you know, we saw a huge change over the last year,
even in the AI conversation, because even last spring you
bring up AI, people are so hesitant. They're like, oh no, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
(28:42):
But the tech is coming. It's coming. You can either
you know, join the movement and figure out how to
make it work for you or are gonna get run over.
And I want to figure out how do we encourage
people to utilize the technology to their benefit. Which is
part of the reason why we're doing this whole grant
program in these webinars is because we want people to
(29:04):
learn how to supercharge themselves, their productivity, their their output,
et cetera. So that's one of the things we should
be doing is quelling our fears as best we can
with a healthy dose of skepticism, and then learning AI
is changing and improving every day. You got to stay
on top of it. I think that's the most important thing.
(29:27):
One of the big questions we always get is uh,
where do I start? Because that's the hard part because
there's a lot out there. So we kind of came
up with this this acronym called Gucci P shout out
to Davars over at Maroksa who we were on a
panel together, and I came up with these six companies
(29:49):
that people to start, you know, their journey. And I'm
talking to the audience and I'm like, yeah, I was
trying to come up with like a you know, cute
little acronym to make it easy for y'all. And I
was like, but I don't have like I was thinking
about it for a week, will a week trying to
come up with something good. And I was like, I'm sorry,
I'm just gonna give you all the letters. I was like,
see I you see g whatever and Devars goes Gucci
(30:12):
P and I was like, Gucci pie. They're nice and easy,
so so usually I think that these six are a
good place to start. So it's Gamma, it's ud Oh,
it's captions, it's chat GPT, which is a good one.
It's ideogram Elizabeth. You remember my pee? My p is
(30:34):
escaping me? Do you remember the Pliabeth community? And then
I'll just I'll just say it all again. I'll say
it all again. He escaping me. I don't know, but
now why is it escaping me? I know this, I've
said this nine million times. I don't know. We can
(30:57):
just cut this.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Part out, but keep just in. I love this, I know.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Hang on, oops, I feel like it's it's uh, I
don't know. It'll come to you and I'll just say
it all again. Photom chas or on your phone. Thank you,
But that was about to make me crazy. That was
getting hot, like make it in the thirty seven My
age is hit me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I want to keep I want to keep that in.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
We'll get that should I should I back up and
start that hour.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, you get academ again if you want.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Okay, wonderful. So the six companies are Gucci, PI so,
it's Gamma, It's Udio, Captions, Chat, gpt, Idea, gram and
Photo Room. So that's a great six to kind of
just start tinkering with so you can get familiar with
the tech and figure out the ways that it can
work for you, and then you'll be in a you'll
(31:50):
be on a journey from there.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I love it. I want you to talk about it.
You mentioned the programs you guys are doing to help people.
You want to talk a little bit about that while
we got two minutes left.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, totally. So really, when you think about the work
of CLF, it's twofold. So the first mission of CLF
is connecting the world's greatest cultural leaders to the best
new technology companies, and for us, that includes athletes, entertainers, musicians,
and C level executives who may not be in tech,
but they're excited about tech, they're interested in innovation. They
(32:25):
want to play a role on the things that are
being built across this industry, and we get to be
their arm ramp into doing that. And the interesting piece
is that kind of ties back to what you mentioned
earlier about how do we get more of us involved
in tech as investors, et cetera. Because like we're not
all athletes and we're not all entertainers. We have more
executives as CLF LPs than anything. Our executive network is
(32:50):
a huge pillar of CLF and the capital that we deploy,
and so if you're an exit, you could be a
marketing executive, you could be kind of in any space
that is valuable to startups, and that's a huge part
of our LPBA. So I want to be sure folks
know you don't have to be an entertainer, you don't
have to be an athlete to invest. And then the
(33:11):
second mission of CLF is how do we get more
young African Americans in tech? So we support over thirty
organizations through CLF who are doing the work of getting
more young African Americans in tech. We kind of do
it in three stages. So the first group that we
fund are called our ecosystem Partners. So these are partners
who are nationwide who have proven over time that they're
(33:34):
putting talent into that tech pipeline, and we fund them.
What we say is the life of the fund, meaning
eight to ten years. We are committing to funding them
every year. That's really unheard of in the nonprofit space.
If you get a three year grant, you're like, ah, yes,
if you get a five year grant, you're like even better.
But an eight to ten year grant is not normal.
(33:55):
And we're doing that very intentionally because we want to
have a long term relationship and we want people to
feel like again they don't constantly have to chase dollars,
as tough as it could be to run a nonprofit.
The second group we have is our community builders, and
this became really important because we realized as technology changes
(34:18):
AI Crypto, there's not going to be organizations that have
been around for twenty years that are helping people earn crypto.
Crypto ain't even been around for twenty years, So how
do we support organizations that are doing something new and
ensuring that black people aren't getting left behind? So these
are more so one time grant to help you kind
of get that vision over the line, to start proving
(34:40):
out that, you know, you're helping to get more people
in crypto, or you're helping to teach folks how to
design through AI. And so we wanted to fund new
and innovative programs. And the third thing we do is
kind of our big project, big swing initiatives. During the
kind of NFT craze back in maybe twenty twenty one
(35:01):
twenty twenty two, one of the things we noticed is
that there weren't a lot of projects being done on
black art. They were all artists who did not look
like us. And I said, I'm you know, the whole
team actually said, now we know there are black artists
creating things, how do we ensure that they're part of
this kind of new movement in the web three space.
(35:22):
So we created the Black Digital Art Collective. We committed
about four hundred thousand dollars to that program over three
years in order to buy black digital art, help HiPE
it up, help it grow, help the artists get some
note of writing to then sell those pieces at you know,
once they get marked up, and then use that money
(35:42):
to buy more black art. And so those are kind
of big swing things that we try to do to
support our community, both in business and on the nonprofit side.
So that second mission is really important to us. And
we kind of make a joke that that's not a joke. Honestly,
that's the real reason why we come to work every day.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I love it. I want to learn more about what
you're doing. Where can they find you? Where can they
follow you?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yes? So they can find us on Instagram. Our Instagram
is at a sixteen z clf. I'm on Instagram at
Meghan h Alexander. No extra h, no extra am Megan,
So it's just m E g A n H Alexander.
Also online a sixteen z dot com slash clf. It's
(36:25):
really important work. Please go check it out, and we
hope to keep kind of evangelizing the story of investing
in tech to our community.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Heart Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the digital production support by Kate McDonald, Sarah Erga and
Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Love Beach.
Learn more about my guests, Other Tech that shows an
innovators at afrotech dot com. Video version this episode will
(36:54):
drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap
it enjoin your Black Tech Green Money. Somebody took your money.
Peace and love,
I'm Will Lucas and this is Black Tech, Green Money.
Megan Holst and Alexander is a partner at Andries and Horowitz,
where she leads the Cultural Leadership Fund, Silicon Valley's first
venture capital fund consisting exclusively of black culture leaders and
organizations committed to black wealth generation. Megan oversees colf's dual
(00:22):
mission of connecting the world's greatest cultural leaders, including athletes, entertainers, musicians,
and sea level executives, to the best new technology companies
and engaging in elevating African Americans in the technology industry.
Black culture has long influenced global trends and you talk
about dance, music, food, you know, across the board fashion,
(00:43):
We influence all of it, but the economic participation hasn't
always been there, has lagged, And I wonder what your
thoughts are on how black investors and entrepreneurs can better
capitalize on the culture that we helped create.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, absolutely so, So that's a really good question, and
you are that is all factual and we've seen it,
you know, from even back in the day, in the
early days of in the early days of music in
different genres and hip hop like that has persisted that
the early contributors, quite frankly, were not kind of paid
and compensated equal to their input into the success of
(01:23):
that thing. And so for us, you know, we specifically
invest in tech. So my lens is around wealth generation
in technology, especially for black people. And I think there's
there's three way to do that in tech. Three ways
to do that in tech. The first is investing early
into the best new companies. And so when you think
(01:44):
about companies that have grown and IPO that we all
talk about, the you know, the facebooks and ANBs and
instacarts of the world, a lot of people who made
money when those companies went public were investors ten years
before that, right, So they were in and the seed
and the Sea and the Series B. So one of
the core things that I do in my role is
(02:04):
help black investors get on those early cap tables. How
do you invest in Facebook in two thousand and five?
So that's the first thing. You have to be an
investor early. The second thing is early employeehood. It's kind
of in a similar fashion, the folks who go and
work at the company when it's ten or fifty or
one hundred people have the opportunity to earn early employee
(02:27):
equity and that grows over time and turns into something
meaningful should that company have a really great liquidity event.
So working in tech early and sometimes that can be
a big risk. You never know how it will turn out.
But the reward of something like that, especially if it's
an area you're passionate about, can pay off immensely you
having that impact early with that company. And then the
(02:50):
final thing is actually putting capital into the hands of founders.
We love seeing them be able to build and grow
their businesses. And that's one of the true ways to
build wealth from your contributions and tech is it is
starting a company.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
And so I want to touch on Megan first. Of course,
there's a lot of ways I'm going to go off
of what you just said, but I want to make
I should people people understand who Megan is first. And
so you know you grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, correct, yes, sir,
deep history that city does in civil rights, deep deep history.
How did that How to growing up in that environment
(03:24):
influence who you are today?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That is a big question because but I guess the
answer is simple, because it's like everything. The things that
people read about in books are the things that I
saw growing up. It was in the water I drank
growing up as a kid, Right folks read about the
bus boycott and rows of parks. I would be walking
downtown and there's a sign of this is where Rosa
(03:49):
Parks did not get off the bus, right, this is
where this happened. This is where this happened. So it
was really in front of my face on a constant basis.
And so when I left to go off to college
to Clark Atlanta, I very much carried those things with me.
Also important kind of part of growing up in Alabama
is that both of my parents went to HBCUs. So
(04:11):
this culture around black evolution and black empowerment and black
independence has kind of been a part of my story
for a very long time, and I still very much
hang on to that now and use it in the
way that I work. I am very focused on how
do I support this community, in the words of Beyonce
(04:31):
getting everything that came for? How do I support growth?
How do I support wealth generation and economic development? And
that's also one of the really I think special reasons
about why I came back. So I left in two
thousand and six to go to college in Atlanta. Shout
out to CAU And I was gone until twenty twenty two.
(04:53):
I didn't live here anytime in between that, and when
COVID hit, a really great opportunity to move back home
bubbled up where I could still do this work in
Silicon Valley and with this this this fund, while also
doing it from home and contributing here. Because a lot
of brain drain happens across the South, whether it's Mississippi
or Alabama or Louisiana. How can I come back and
(05:16):
be a contributing member because I have a home here
and I know that there's so much potential in the
things that it could be. So a special shout out
also to our mayor, the first black mayor of our city,
Stephen Reid, is also a product of someone coming back
and really wanting to make a difference, and so I
appreciate his support and have loved tapping in with him
(05:36):
on ways to make our city better and help it grow.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
You know, I want to touch on this Threugh. You
just mentioned the line there, you know, being able to
make a difference. I want to touch on that thread
because like you started off in like nonprofit work and
you still sit on some boards today. I believe in
the nonprofit world. And at the risk of putting this
the wrong way, so I'm gonna I'm going to preface
this for the audience. I'm trying to make the I'm
trying to figureut how to say this. So, sometimes we
(06:01):
pursue nonprofits when we should as a people be building companies,
like and like where I'm from, like we over we
have more nonprofits per capita. That's just a fact that
we have. We have more nonprofits per capita than anywhere
else in the country. And too often, like we as
just a people, in my view, pursue nonprofit work when
we could go build a company and put resources back
(06:24):
in the community. Is that is that? Okay? Just say
it that way. I think that's okay, okay, okay. So
with that, now that you're doing you're making a difference.
I think about doing well while doing well. And so
with that said, like, what are the yes? Yes, And
she's one of the people out there talk about it.
It's like, what are some of the mindset shifts for
(06:46):
the people who should be pursuing business. What are some
of the mindset shifts that need to happen in order
to be successful there, Like, what do you say to
all the things I just put in that gumbo right there.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, that's really important because a lot of times when
we think about helping people or supporting the community, we
automatically think of nonprofits because that's who we see out
active doing the work, right if you're if you're doing
a direct service nonprofit, where you're in schools, et cetera.
(07:20):
We grow up and we see those things, and so
it's very easy easy to think that that that's the
only way, Like with most things in life, as you
continue to go through you find out new versions of
a story and you start a big company and you
can give to nonprofits or you can do that sort
of thing, or you can be sure that you're I
don't know, running a sustainable company that's not you know,
(07:40):
damaging the water in your city, or you know, there's
all these things that you can do that are contributing
to bettering where you live. I do want to say that,
you know, nonprofits are companies, They're essentially the same. It's
just that that profit margin doesn't come back into into
the business. In terms of a mindset shift, I think
it's just about thinking about early what are the many
(08:01):
ways that I could do this. Oftentimes it's like a
like an association game. It's like I want to give back,
I have to do nonprofit. It's about maybe taking a
pause and thinking about what are the structures and what
are the different ways, and what are the things that
my community actually needs because it may not actually be
a specific, you know, new nonprofit. The other thing that's
(08:24):
very important about that conversation is, and this is what
we work on a lot with our group, and when
I worked with athletes early on, and they're kind of
philanthropy and that work. Everybody doesn't have to start a nonprofit.
You can just support one. A lot of really great
nonprofits already exist, and what people don't realize is when
they start one, either you have to fund it yourself
(08:46):
or you got to go out and raise money. And
that tends to be the most difficult part, because the
capitals to sustain a nonprofit and do the work you're
constantly fundraising, constantly fundraising. So I often encourage people you
don't have to not do nonprofit work, but how do
you exponentiate your impact by doing it in a meaningful way,
(09:09):
doing it together? And so that's usually what I what
I try to encourage.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah, I want to because you like when you say,
you know, it's a lot of work going to raise
money for these nonprofits. I think what I hear when
people go to start a nonprofit is they believe it's
easier to pull on the heartstrings and get you to
write a check to support this cause, and it is
to sell a product to a customer, which.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Is debatable, right, I'm sure it's one side is easier
to pull on the heart strings because some people are
great storytellers or you know, some people when you have
personal experience in a thing, Because what you often find
people want to start nonprofits that are focused on things
that they know about and they have experience, and it's
(09:51):
you experienced homelessness, or you experienced a certain disease. Telling
that story comes very naturally to you, which I think
sometimes can be a little bit more difficult in starting
your own company. But I would argue they're both probably
equally difficult. It depends on what your strengths are as
a person and as a storyteller. But I really encourage
people again, it's okay to start a nonprofit if that
(10:14):
essentially is the best way to actually do what you
want to do and that's not that may not always
be the case. And as we work, you know, in CLF,
we our second mission is how do we get more
young African Americans into the technology industry. We think a
lot of companies could benefit from having some of these
really great talented folks in them. And we do that
(10:39):
work through a donation program. So one hundred percent of
our management fee, all of our carrier, so every dollar
of profit that CLF makes goes back to organizations that
are specifically focused on that mission. And we tried early
on to build out our own program and we found
it like, that's not our zone of genius. There are
people who've been working to get more young African America
(11:00):
can then take for years and are doing it successfully
while we're over here trying to string something together. And
we would be better off and the students and the
people who we want to serve would be better off
if we put that capital into those companies, into those
those nonprofits. And so it really just is about how
to have the impact and the way that you are.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You know, I remember listening to I think it was
metro Boom and the producer talking about how difficult it
was to get other rappers and artists who come from
where they come from to think about investing in a
certain way because they wanted to see the return like
right now quick? Yeah yeah, And so how so you
work with but.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We want to see the return quick and then also
don't want to take the risk.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Yeah yeah, so speak on that. So because you work
with athletes, musicians, et cetera, you know, you help them
find deals, source deals, get into deals like how is it? Mindset?
You know, things that you have to work with them
more and to figure out, Okay, this is a different
type of investing where you're not going to see it.
You know, you may not ever see it, you know,
but you may not for years.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah. So I would say a huge percentage of my
job is education. A lot of athletes and entertainers get
really lucky when they have a great team around them
that say like, yes, you need to do your public
market investing in your stocks, but also let me show
you this thing and are really teaching them kind of
the breadth of everything that they can be doing financially.
(12:24):
But most of my job is teaching people about investing
in technology, specifically at the early stage and what you
brought up is actually one of the most common important
things that I have to hammer in from the beginning
is that venture investing is a long term game. It's
we tell people eight to ten years, your money is
(12:46):
locked up. It's not a very liquid hasset where you
can come back and get it in a couple of years.
I tell people when they're thinking about investing in the fund,
I say, if you're going to be looking for this
money in two years, don't give it to me. Don't
give me your money if you're going to need it
in two to three years, because the likelihood is that
you're not going to be able to get it. Because
(13:09):
you know, when you think about the biggest companies when
they go public, there's usually a ten year period between
when they get ten years plus from when they get
their investment to when they actually have exit meaning a
liquidity event IPO, which is an initial public offering, are
called going public or m and a activity meaning they
(13:29):
get acquired or bought by a company ten years so
that money starts coming back to the investors. So that's
the biggest thing is venture is very much a long
term game, and venture is also risky. So depending on
what your risk profile is as an investor should determine
where you want to start investing. Maybe like you want
(13:49):
to be a little bit safer and you want to
put your money into two stocks or into you know,
some of the more lesser yielding opportunities. Venture it is
high risk, high reward, So you're investing your money into
companies that may not be operationally proven yet a lot
(14:10):
of times investing in companies that have no product. You
don't know if people gonna like it, people are gonna
hate it, but maybe you really believe in the team, etc.
And so teaching them about the holding period, teaching them
about the level of risk, meaning most of your companies,
most that you invest in will fail, you know, in
the early stage, but you're hopeful that you know, those
two or three or five that you invest in out
(14:34):
of the fifty will really knock it out of the park.
That is the goal. And then we also tell people third,
like the lingo. Once you learn the lingo of venture
and of tech and of investing, you're really ninety percent
of the way there. You can start making some really
thoughtful decisions around where you want to put your money.
Once you know how all of these things work. Together.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You mentioned something earlier about how the people who made
the money on facebooks and etc. Like we're either like
super dorouper early investors or early employees and those were
deals like we are people in our community weren't getting
in on those deals.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, and now they are with cl Yes.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Yes. And this is the question because I think about
I'm gonna give you the question that I'm gonna give
you the back of why I'm asking this question, like
how do you evaluate a cultural leader to you know,
have that opportunity? Who are the athletes, the and entertainers executives?
And here's why I ask is because you know, there's
a difference between like what you're doing in like a
reg CF, like you know, a crowdfunding campaign to where
(15:29):
we can get on you know, on those deals. But
you're not necessarily and you can clarify this like there's
not everybody can't go and put money in you know CLF,
but you're picking you know, you guys are finding strategic
partners that make sense for this fund. How how does
this make a difference over time to to where there's
(15:49):
more of us that are able to get involved.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yep. So that's a really good question. Because when it
comes to investing in venture, there's a couple of things
that makes matter really great candidate. One kind of a
non negotiable is you have to have the capital to
invest and that requires either you know, obviously a certain
level of success or a certain level of of experience
(16:15):
over time that you're able to invest in venture. So
there's different requirements that you have to hit legally through
a government to invest in like a venture fund, et cetera.
The second thing is, uh, how useful and helpful and
supportive can you be of a tech company like this,
(16:36):
because that's what's going to get you access you have.
You have to have the capital, that's a non negotiable,
and then you have to get the access to the
companies to be able to put that capital. And usually
access comes from either having some expertise. Right, somebody's building
an auto company.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
And you used to be a NASCAR driver at.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
GM, you know what I mean? What are the ways
that you're aligned with the company that are also going
to get you into the door, So that can be
you know, on the entertainment side, that you have a
really great audience and people really maybe you're a big
time gamer and we have a bunch of games companies, right,
there's a lot of alignment. There's a lot of our
athletes are gamers, and we have a really we have
(17:16):
two games funds at the firm, and so there's a
lot of interesting alignment there. So I would say the capital,
the access the other thing that was important. I think
there was another part of your question, No.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I was talking about over time, how do more of
us have fine opportunities to be getting in on the
next facebooks, the next insta cards.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Yep. Absolutely. The other thing that's really exciting, and I
think a way that a lot of people are going
to become investors is there have been so many, I'm
sure you've noticed over the past probably four or five years,
so many new venture firms popping up. Obviously, you have
big ones like Injuries and Horrowitz, right, we've got forty
four billion dollars under management, But most funds are smaller
(17:59):
funds that have a specific focus. Maybe they only do
precede companies, maybe they only do fintech companies. And really
building relationships with the funds where you have a level
of expertise where you can get that access, I think
is going to be critical. It really is about doing
the research because I can't tell you how many people
waste time going to funds that maybe they've just heard
(18:21):
the name, but they have no idea what they do.
There are hundreds of venture firms out there that are
really looking for folks for their port codes to join
advisory boards, which also can get you a little bit
of equity. So that's a way to also earn actual
boards of directors. So say you're an executive in a
specific area, you can come on as like a pre
(18:44):
IPO board director. There's I think a lot of interesting opportunities.
It's just about getting in with really great founders and
then also figuring out which venture firms might align with
your investment interests. It's all about, I think, the capital
and then the access. A lot of access comes through
the people that you know and the founders that are
(19:04):
doing that work.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Can you talk about an example.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Because will now me and you know each other, and
if will you say to me like, oh, Magan, I've
got the capital, I've got a big podcast, I've got
a huge platform. I love to invest in tech. Now
I can keep you in mind for opportunities that come up.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Okay, we might have to talk here you go. Can
you talk about, like, can you share an example of
like a strategic partnership between like a cultural leader and
a technology company startup that has worked so far exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Two that I would probably share. Patrick Mahomes is actually
one of our LPs, and it feels really timely because
you know, they were just in the super Bowl. But
he plays golf and was really looking for a way
to support his nonprofit work and his philanthropy through he
has a golf tournament. We also have this other portfolio
(19:58):
company called Whatnot. I don't know if you've heard of them,
but it's like an online kind of live shopping company,
and they had mentioned they're like, we really want to
do more kind of in our impact work on our
nonprofit side. We're looking for the right opportunity, and we're like,
you know, kind of antenna's going off because we also
(20:19):
knew what Patrick was interested in doing, and so we
put those two together. They had a number of conversations
that over time evolved into a live streaming event. Obviously
you know through the fund that their investors, but he
had a live streamed his charity golf tournament and he
(20:39):
had a hole in one challenge and it was in
order to raise money for his nonprofit. He had it
was like twenty or twenty five chances to get a
hole in one to win for his nonprofit. And one
it's really great for the company because who doesn't want
to tune in and watch Patrick Mahomes try to hit
twenty five hole in one and obviously, you know, missing
(21:01):
every single one. That's really exciting for the company and
for that team to have him involved, but also really
great for Patrick because he wants to bring more attention
to his nonprofit it's called fifteen in my Homies, and
he wants to raise more money for them. And so
it's about matching the right person with the right company
on the right initiative, and they ended up raising Uh.
(21:22):
I want to say, I don't remember the exact number.
Don't quote me. I'll get it for you maybe after this.
But for his nonprofit, and it was really a win
win for both of them.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I love it. There is a there's a a learning
out there. I don't want to call it a fact
because there's depending on where you go, you find different numbers.
But they say the black dollar circulates in our community
for about six hours while you can go all the
way to you know, white communities and then the Jewish communities.
(21:51):
It's like thirty something days.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
You know, what is the calculation.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Don't come
for me, don't cover me. I've already set the stage
for this.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
And funny story, this is actually remember I told you
so background Will and I were talking about some time
I lived in Toledo before. I was actually studying sociology,
so it was a social science and I focused on
metrics and outcomes and like data. So all of my
work was statistics. Yeah, and so anytime somebody gives me
numbers like that, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Like, and again, I told you there's there's a lot
of different ones out there. I did not say that
this was a fact. I will not say as a fact.
But if you do people say this is only banks,
et cetera.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I'm giving you a we're good.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
We're good because I did. I did a good preface
on that.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
I feel like you did it was appropriate.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Yeah, I appreciate that. So the conversation around like the
power to black dollar and venture, how can we be
more intentional about circulating wealth? No matter if for six hours,
six days, whatever it is. How can we be more intentional?
Because and the reason I asked that is because we
are I would say, decently good at economic protests. And
(23:07):
then there's another conversation to be had on Okay, look,
where are we going to do instead? So are we
going to be buying from actively black? Are we going
to be buying from you know, these other black owned companies?
Like it's one thing to take the money away and
make it out of the system, but where are we
going to put it?
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:27):
So how can we be more intentional? Is the question?
Speaker 2 (23:29):
Uh huh uh. I think there's probably a lot of
opinions about how we could be more intentional. But you
know how, I don't mean to make a probably a
bad joke. You know how when somebody is dating somebody
and they say, oh, they never call me, and they say, well,
they make time for what they want.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
That's great, that's good.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Similar to our dolls. It's probably the most random example,
but that's the best one I could think of. Is
if people want to buy black, they can. There's a
way to do it. Sometimes it takes a little bit
of work, right to find, you know, it's easy to
find maybe a black owned fashion brand. Maybe it's hard
to find black owned bathroom cleaner. Who knows, But if
(24:17):
you want to make that transition, you can. And one
of the probably in terms of like actually investing, if
somebody wants to make a percentage of their portfolio where
they focus on that. It doesn't mean you have to
only do that. But if you say, okay, I've got
one hundred dollars to invest, I'm going to put fifty
in the public mark and fifty over here, and I'm
(24:38):
eight percent adventure because venture should really only be a
single digit percentage of your total portfolio. Your whole portfolio
should not be venture. And then you say, of that
eight percent, I'm going to put four percent of that
into it to black companies. That's a decision that someone
could make, and so I think you know, I would
venture to say for those who are committed to it,
are doing it also this decision, like any other decision.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
I love to hear that as that's encouraging. Actually, so
how do you think AI blockchain of emergency? Real quick?
Speaker 2 (25:11):
I just also want to add there are actually quite
a few even if you just google, give me black
owned X, Y and Z companies, right am I hallucinated
a little bit, but like it'll probably get you some
good answers. There's actually a couple of websites also that
list out different types of black businesses that you can
(25:32):
support us purchasing from or investing in. We're actually doing.
We just recently launched a partnership. I don't know if
you're familiar with the fifteen Percent Pledge. Yes, I am, okay, wonderful.
So fifteen Percent Pledge founded.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
By I want to say, we had them on here,
We may have had them on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
For Oh Perfect, My Girl, Roa James. We just launched
this thing called the AI Illumination Grant and the goal
is and this actually might get into your next question.
So I'm sorry because I already heard you say AI
and crypto. But the fifteen Percent Pledge supports black businesses
both in beauty fashion, CpG, Perfume jewelry who are black owned,
(26:11):
getting shelf space in large retailers. They got several hundred brands,
if not thousands of brands on their website that people
can search and go support. We created grant together us,
the Cultural Leadership Fund, the fifteen Percent Pledge and Kevin
Hart's Heartbeat Ventures called the AI Illumination Grant, and it
(26:32):
is specifically focused on ensuring that the black founders that
are part of the fifteen Percent Pledge program don't get
left behind in the usage of AI because everybody's talking
about it, but it's not really clear where you start
and it's not really clear how to supercharge your business
using AI. And so we're doing thirty five thousand dollars grant.
(26:53):
We're hosting two webinars, one webinar on using AI for storytelling,
the second webinar on using AI product design for all
of the founders hundreds of founders that are part of
that program. And actually the first session is on March thirteenth.
I believe and like people are doing the work to
highlight black brands and now it's just a matter of
supporting them and being sure they're set up for success.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Yeah, it wasn't the podcast we had Aura at Afrotech
in twenty twenty two. That's what it was. I knew
would say, yeah, there you go.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
The roar is about it.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah. Yeah. So emerging technologies, how can we, as you know,
black people interested in creating generational wealth participation? How what
should we be focused on with AI, blockchain, other emergency
emerging technologies, like where should our attention be on learning
and getting involved?
Speaker 2 (27:41):
The first thing is, don't be scarred. I'll be scared
because that's the number one thing I hear is the fear. Now,
I want people to have healthy skepticism, because we can't
just let people tell us any old thing. Have a
healthy amount of skepticism, but be open to learning and
taking a couple of risks because we saw it very
(28:01):
early on in the crypto space of it was a
learning curve for a lot of people, not just black people.
But how do I engage with the technology? How do
I begin to use it? How do I just get started?
You have to just get started, because a lot of
it is a rabbit hole, you know what I mean.
(28:21):
You learn one thing and learn the next thing, and
then you see this other link. And so people leaning
in versus letting the fear consume them. And I would say,
you know, we saw a huge change over the last year,
even in the AI conversation, because even last spring you
bring up AI, people are so hesitant. They're like, oh no, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
(28:42):
But the tech is coming. It's coming. You can either
you know, join the movement and figure out how to
make it work for you or are gonna get run over.
And I want to figure out how do we encourage
people to utilize the technology to their benefit. Which is
part of the reason why we're doing this whole grant
program in these webinars is because we want people to
(29:04):
learn how to supercharge themselves, their productivity, their their output,
et cetera. So that's one of the things we should
be doing is quelling our fears as best we can
with a healthy dose of skepticism, and then learning AI
is changing and improving every day. You got to stay
on top of it. I think that's the most important thing.
(29:27):
One of the big questions we always get is uh,
where do I start? Because that's the hard part because
there's a lot out there. So we kind of came
up with this this acronym called Gucci P shout out
to Davars over at Maroksa who we were on a
panel together, and I came up with these six companies
(29:49):
that people to start, you know, their journey. And I'm
talking to the audience and I'm like, yeah, I was
trying to come up with like a you know, cute
little acronym to make it easy for y'all. And I
was like, but I don't have like I was thinking
about it for a week, will a week trying to
come up with something good. And I was like, I'm sorry,
I'm just gonna give you all the letters. I was like,
see I you see g whatever and Devars goes Gucci
(30:12):
P and I was like, Gucci pie. They're nice and easy,
so so usually I think that these six are a
good place to start. So it's Gamma, it's ud Oh,
it's captions, it's chat GPT, which is a good one.
It's ideogram Elizabeth. You remember my pee? My p is
(30:34):
escaping me? Do you remember the Pliabeth community? And then
I'll just I'll just say it all again. I'll say
it all again. He escaping me. I don't know, but
now why is it escaping me? I know this, I've
said this nine million times. I don't know. We can
(30:57):
just cut this.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Part out, but keep just in. I love this, I know.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Hang on, oops, I feel like it's it's uh, I
don't know. It'll come to you and I'll just say
it all again. Photom chas or on your phone. Thank you,
But that was about to make me crazy. That was
getting hot, like make it in the thirty seven My
age is hit me.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
I want to keep I want to keep that in.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
We'll get that should I should I back up and
start that hour.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, you get academ again if you want.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Okay, wonderful. So the six companies are Gucci, PI so,
it's Gamma, It's Udio, Captions, Chat, gpt, Idea, gram and
Photo Room. So that's a great six to kind of
just start tinkering with so you can get familiar with
the tech and figure out the ways that it can
work for you, and then you'll be in a you'll
(31:50):
be on a journey from there.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I love it. I want you to talk about it.
You mentioned the programs you guys are doing to help people.
You want to talk a little bit about that while
we got two minutes left.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Yeah, totally. So really, when you think about the work
of CLF, it's twofold. So the first mission of CLF
is connecting the world's greatest cultural leaders to the best
new technology companies, and for us, that includes athletes, entertainers, musicians,
and C level executives who may not be in tech,
but they're excited about tech, they're interested in innovation. They
(32:25):
want to play a role on the things that are
being built across this industry, and we get to be
their arm ramp into doing that. And the interesting piece
is that kind of ties back to what you mentioned
earlier about how do we get more of us involved
in tech as investors, et cetera. Because like we're not
all athletes and we're not all entertainers. We have more
executives as CLF LPs than anything. Our executive network is
(32:50):
a huge pillar of CLF and the capital that we deploy,
and so if you're an exit, you could be a
marketing executive, you could be kind of in any space
that is valuable to startups, and that's a huge part
of our LPBA. So I want to be sure folks
know you don't have to be an entertainer, you don't
have to be an athlete to invest. And then the
(33:11):
second mission of CLF is how do we get more
young African Americans in tech? So we support over thirty
organizations through CLF who are doing the work of getting
more young African Americans in tech. We kind of do
it in three stages. So the first group that we
fund are called our ecosystem Partners. So these are partners
who are nationwide who have proven over time that they're
(33:34):
putting talent into that tech pipeline, and we fund them.
What we say is the life of the fund, meaning
eight to ten years. We are committing to funding them
every year. That's really unheard of in the nonprofit space.
If you get a three year grant, you're like, ah, yes,
if you get a five year grant, you're like even better.
But an eight to ten year grant is not normal.
(33:55):
And we're doing that very intentionally because we want to
have a long term relationship and we want people to
feel like again they don't constantly have to chase dollars,
as tough as it could be to run a nonprofit.
The second group we have is our community builders, and
this became really important because we realized as technology changes
(34:18):
AI Crypto, there's not going to be organizations that have
been around for twenty years that are helping people earn crypto.
Crypto ain't even been around for twenty years, So how
do we support organizations that are doing something new and
ensuring that black people aren't getting left behind? So these
are more so one time grant to help you kind
of get that vision over the line, to start proving
(34:40):
out that, you know, you're helping to get more people
in crypto, or you're helping to teach folks how to
design through AI. And so we wanted to fund new
and innovative programs. And the third thing we do is
kind of our big project, big swing initiatives. During the
kind of NFT craze back in maybe twenty twenty one
(35:01):
twenty twenty two, one of the things we noticed is
that there weren't a lot of projects being done on
black art. They were all artists who did not look
like us. And I said, I'm you know, the whole
team actually said, now we know there are black artists
creating things, how do we ensure that they're part of
this kind of new movement in the web three space.
(35:22):
So we created the Black Digital Art Collective. We committed
about four hundred thousand dollars to that program over three
years in order to buy black digital art, help HiPE
it up, help it grow, help the artists get some
note of writing to then sell those pieces at you know,
once they get marked up, and then use that money
(35:42):
to buy more black art. And so those are kind
of big swing things that we try to do to
support our community, both in business and on the nonprofit side.
So that second mission is really important to us. And
we kind of make a joke that that's not a joke. Honestly,
that's the real reason why we come to work every day.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I love it. I want to learn more about what
you're doing. Where can they find you? Where can they
follow you?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Yes? So they can find us on Instagram. Our Instagram
is at a sixteen z clf. I'm on Instagram at
Meghan h Alexander. No extra h, no extra am Megan,
So it's just m E g A n H Alexander.
Also online a sixteen z dot com slash clf. It's
(36:25):
really important work. Please go check it out, and we
hope to keep kind of evangelizing the story of investing
in tech to our community.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Heart Media.
It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me Well Lucas, with
the digital production support by Kate McDonald, Sarah Erga and
Jaden McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Love Beach.
Learn more about my guests, Other Tech that shows an
innovators at afrotech dot com. Video version this episode will
(36:54):
drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap
it enjoin your Black Tech Green Money. Somebody took your money.
Peace and love,
Host
Will Lucas
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