October 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Ep. 238 Omi Bell is CEO of Black Girl Ventures
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eightstown, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty five
at the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech
has been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers,
creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,
though with fortyzery to ten hees expected. This year's conference
will feature five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages,
from discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from
industry leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top
ten engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly
two hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's
(00:38):
next with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech
and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether
you're launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role,
or scaling as an execut there's something here for you.
Tickets and moving fast to keep your spot nowt at
Afrotech Conference. Dot Com will lucas here, Black tech, Green money,
(00:59):
so good to be with you guys for another week,
and I got a special guest today. I've been looking
forward to this when we've been planning this for like
a month. It feels like and we are finally here.
I am here with Omi Vel, who is the CEO
of Black Girl Ventures. Has funded hundreds of companies.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Last it looks like five to fifty.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It might be more than that by now five hundred
and fifty underresource companies and positively impacted over twenty thousand
entrepreneurs small business owners, and that number is growing. Also,
she's got a partnership with TikTok, continuing that commitment since
twenty twenty four, I think is when you guys started this,
they committed originally a million dollars to support black entrepreneurs
(01:38):
by launching the Sword Together, which is again continue from
twenty twenty four. And these are efforts to support black
entrepreneurs and we're going to talk a lot about that today.
It's a business accelerated program that you know, she's so
critical to, especially for black creators, black businesses, black entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So Owe Peale, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thank you. I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's good to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So there's a quote I found from you where I
loved it, and I was like, I want to start
this conversation off from that. You said, a billion dollar
network equals a multimillion dollar company, and so I want
you to talk about, like where you got that concept
from and how do you like operationalize that concept until
like the decisions you make every day. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
So my book Originate, Motivate, and Innovate Seven Steps for
building a billion dollar Network, and get it on Amazon
bars and over wherever you bouy books also the audible
of you listening to books and it is my voice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So here's the thing that I learned, right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I think when we start businesses, we focus so much
on like, oh, I need to like get the product right.
I need to like, you know, figure out how this
product works and customers and things like that. But when
you hit a wall or when you are just stuck
in a place where you're trying to understand like how
to move, you got to have a network. And I
think like network also means like two different things. Like
(03:05):
you need your business network or people that you can
go ask questions of, but you also need to have
your like wellness network, because if you want to get
closer to God become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
That's a fact.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
But I came up with what that brought to mind,
Like coming up with that quote was I realized the
real moment that I started rocking and rolling as an entrepreneur,
really really bringing in impact and things like that is
when is when I connected my network to the work
that I'm doing by thinking about how can I leverage
(03:38):
you you want to have It's an asset. Your network
is an asset. Your ability to reach out and use
a free space. Your ability to think about like our
connection to TikTok means that we can connect creators to
different things we can We can also do things like.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Figure out how to support even the platform. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It's sometimes the the biggest thing you can do is
not asking for the thing that's right in front of you.
It is thinking of what else do they have? What
else going to offer? What else is available? In how
you're going to grow your network. I think billion dollar,
billion dollar network means you got enough people there where
you can operate something as a multimillion dollar thing. It's
like you need that. You can get all the capital,
(04:19):
but when you hit a wall, you need a person.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, I would put this on thread a couple of
weeks ago. It's like I used to believe everybody should
start a business, and I was like, I don't understand
why anybody would go get a job, And I don't
believe that anymore because like this, doing this is like
it takes a special kind of person to wake up
to just drama every day, stress every day. You know,
(04:43):
there's no guarantee paycheck on Friday, Like you gotta go hunt,
you gotta go find that paycheck, and so like what
kind of people do you And I'm saying that you're
not saying that, but I'm sure there's some something in
that you can probably relate to. But I wonder, like
what kind of people do you think are best suited
for this? Like what is a makeup of a person
who is best suited for this journey?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Oh my goodness, that's such a good question.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But to your point around like insight on that, I
think that your people ask me all the time, when
should I quit my job? How do I know when
to put my job? How do I know when I
should I just jump off, jump off the cliff and
build you know, willd up? No, absolutely not I do
not jump off anybody's cliff. Do not try to build
any wings or gain wings.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
None of that. You are not a parachute expert. Do
none of that.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
But what you should consider I always tell them, I
don't know how resilient you are. I don't know if
you get down to the wire, if you're willing to
go donate blood. I don't know if you're willing to
like pawn everything in your house for what you believe.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I don't know if you're you see what I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Saying, like have you had my journal? Like goodness gazeous like.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
A I don't know what you're willing to do for this,
So I think that you know.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And there's a lot of I've been seeing a lot
of podcasts commentary because I'm also wellness practitioner, and there's
a lot of podcasts commentary out there right now around
how work life balance is BS, and like we don't
need work life balance. I don't think work life balance
is purely BS. But what I'll say is the concentration
has to be on work life integration, like how everything
(06:19):
is worth when what time it is? It is now,
it's time for me to be doing something. It's how
do you think even with my staff, when I hire people,
I tell them you can make a mistake, that's fine.
But if you're thinking it's off, you're gonna constantly make
the same mistakes over and over. So I would say,
just to break that down, culchability.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Your ability to be culchable. Resilience. How resilient are you?
What are you willing to do for what you believe in?
And I mean that by.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
All legal means and safety needs necessary, But what are
you willing to do for what you believe in? I
don't know that right, Like, I can't desermine that that
your grind is kind of like the most predictable factor.
That's a part of you building a business as part
of your entrepreneurial repertoire is going to be like, I
(07:07):
don't know how far.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You're willing to go. Some people wally like sleep on couches.
Some people are like like, nah, I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So you got to know you. I think that's that's
the thing. Who are you exactly? And if you don't know,
you will find it out real quick? Will you try
to run a business?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, I'm gonna take that question one level deeper. Is
you know because they're running it. No matter what you're doing,
it's gonna be hard, and especially in those early days especially,
And so at what.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Point do you know it's hard. Yeah, because it's supposed
to be hard.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
But let me keep going, or it's hard because I
probably shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think the thing about strategy is time.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Like strategy is about time, so you can have like
good ideas you can have you say, I'm gonna you know,
you have a great to do list, but you're not
being strategic if you don't have time attached to it.
So when I started Black or Avengers, prior to this,
I had a T shirt company and I was doing that.
I was row and I worked myself out of poverty
with that TEACHHERT company. So backing up a scept to
(08:05):
my story, I'm I'm a computer scientist. I had great jobs,
but I had two children, have my first child when
I was seventeen, my second child when I was twenty one. Now,
I didn't grow up in any and the way I
grew up was very.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Middle of the most middle middle class.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
But as an adult, because I now had these two kids,
went to school all of that, I ended up on
Section eight ended up food stamps, government assistants, all of
that just to keep things going. America is not built
for a person, a single person with children.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
That's just the reality. And so. But I had good jobs.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I was a kay through stove educator, I worked at
a patent trademark office, you know, things like that. But
I still couldn't afford to live. Entrepreneurship was really my
way out. I had gotten laid off twice. Me and
my fiance broke up. I realized I'm not going to
get married now, I have three children, and I'm not
going to go back to anywhere where anybody can ever
come to me and say I'm laying you off. But
(08:58):
you know, people can only see your actions, they don't
have your vision.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I knew who I was.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
What it looked like on the outside was crazy, and
people like, what should you do? I build a TP
in my living room and rented it out on Airbnb.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
People was like, what is she doing?
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I said, I'm never going back to work for anyone
unless the conditions.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Make the most sense for me. But you won't be
able to come in and say you lay me off.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So in that case, I was looking at like, how
am I going to build with whatever I have, and
so I learned to print T shirts. I started a
T shirt line. It took off, We made Essence Magazine.
We traveled all up and down the East Coast vending
and I worked, and then I ended up getting deals
(09:40):
with like Google and Amazon. I worked myself off of poverty,
paid for my kids to go to school, like all
those kinds of things. And then black or Adventures came
up for me because I need a community. I'm not
a pro. I didn't just want to be head down.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
That never worked for me. But I had a contract
with Google.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
So I was doing work with Google, bringing in community,
training entrepreneurs, and I was starting up Black gir Avengers.
Blacker Adventures wasn't bringing in as much money, so I said,
I gotta give it. I'm gonna give it three months.
I'm gonna give it all I got for three months.
If you don't take off for three months, I'm letting
it go. And I think it's important for people to
wrap time around what you're trying. Yeah, so you and
(10:19):
don't keep trying the same thing for the whole time, right, Like,
give yourself a time window. Okay, I'm gonna go at
this while I work. Hello, please be working while I
have some inncome coming in. I'm gonna go at this
as hard as I can for six months.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah yeah, move it. Yeah. So I got to ask.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I'm formulating this question as I was speaking, because you
just said a couple of things that I want to
dig deeper on. Like you talked about like you worked
yourself out of poverty by building this business's T shirt line.
Then you talked about the work you do with Google
with training entrepreneurs. And my first thought was that on
me is different than the ow me that is now.
And what about that on me that was probably new
(11:04):
in business or hadn't been wildly successful yet, says to Google.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'm gonna go train entrepreneurs on your behalf.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
This is you're good at it, you know, like not
everybody's good at it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
The interesting what's interesting about the difference between that only
and this on me is I was way more willing
to take more.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Risks right now.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I have so many partners, I have so many alliances.
You're not gonna catch me on anybody's social media talking
bad about anybody, Yes, you know, and that and that's
a hard place to be in right, it's a privilege
because I get to I honestly have been blessed enough
for these brands to allow me to do the work
I feel like I want to do. That's a blessing.
Not everybody gets that. They're not dictating what I do.
(11:56):
They say, even with our relationship with TikTok, came to
them to say, hey, we like what you're doing. Let's talk.
We started talking. I said, look, this is what I
want to do. I want to put together a fund
that would give out marketing money to entrepreneurs because that's
the one thing that creators don't have, marketing dollars. They said, okay,
I said, I want to do storytelling around it. So
we did two seasons of a podcast called The weigh
(12:18):
In Series, and they also worked was We went through
a TikTok accelerator as well to learn how to use
a platform more so where that brands go through. So
all of these resources that came to me, I'm trying
to learn and give it back all the time. I'm
trying to like take what I got and give it
back so that me then didn't have anything. I had
nothing to lose. I had no money, I had no alliances.
(12:40):
I was like that mobile, I'm gonna do whatever. When
I started to work with Google, they were launching a
brand new program and again network I was already a
Google supplier.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So I was already doing business with them.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
The person I was doing business with them through said Hey,
we're starting this new program where we're going to train entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We would love to have you're part of it. I said, Okay,
the parameters will loose.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Now what a program is now is way different than
when I started, because they still have a digital coaching program.
But it's different now if they in fact, if they
still have it. But again, I've been privileged enough, busted enough.
I'll say to work with partners who say here's what
we want, go do that.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
At that moment, I got to create.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I got to think of how I wanted to do it,
and that was a space that honestly, working at Google
shifted a lot for me.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
It taught me how to be a leader. It also
helped me.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
They gave us access and privilege that our average contractors
didn't have.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So I've been a Google officers all around the world.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Also just looking at the way they have treated their
employees and I'm not here to. I'm not caving for Google,
but I'm just saying that, like, it taught me a
lot to see this idea of like we treat you well.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
And you'll do the work well. We'll feed you, you.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Can take a nap, you can go for a swim,
you could. You know, whatever you get in the work done,
We're gonna get things done for you.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
And that helped me adapt as a leaders. I was like,
who I am now.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Diet You said something about one thing creators and honestly
small business owners don't have is marketing dollars. And too
often we get into business and we think about every
expense or investment except.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Marketing dollars, advertising dollars, and.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
So can you talk about how important it is number
one to have the thinking that I need to set
aside resources to put my brand, my product, my stuff
in front of people and build awareness.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And how we get.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Those resources to be able to do that when we
already have limited resources one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I mean, part of what I want to bring up
here is the power storytelling. That's really what is in
that that your business has to sell things, you have
to sell yourself, and you have to sell yourself not
your soul, right, Like you have to sell your product,
you have to sell yourself, but the story you're telling
(15:02):
and the way you position that store is everything. And
this is you know, with our the way we use
our TikTok is all about like how do we help
these founders get positioned to tell the story. So if
you're local and you're like, I'm looking for that hair
braider or that skin caroline or that, and you're like, hey,
or it's at the nearest variety store, go buy it.
(15:23):
So to a mass of a two hundred thousand dollars
over thirty million impressions, and working with TikTok, the way
that we work, it's all about how can we tell
the best stories so that people can get access and
so in terms of marketing dollars, that's when I realized
that people are missing. If I could go if I
were to go back to twenty sixteen, we're gonna be
ten next year. If I were to go back to
twenty sixteen and launch BDV all over again, I would
(15:46):
launch a impact report. I would watch some kind of
white paper, some kind of report, and then I would
go on a narrative tour and I would build the
narrative first. So what I did was I went into
the I went off of the stat one percent of
black and mirond women are receiving venture capital, less than
two percent of women of receiving venture capital. And I
(16:06):
was looking at so much of that as problem. I'm
a solution problem, I'm a solution. But in the narrative
of this, all of all of this is what I
learned over time, which is we're talking about families. We're
not talking about some flippant just like, oh a VC
didn't give you funding. No, we're talking about your ability to.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Be economically sound. And I experienced that firsthand.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It still didn't see that tie into a way later
where I was like, shoot, had it not been for
me starting a business, I wouldn't been and put my
kids through college by myself on a teacher salary. It's
just not a reality, you know. So I think that
in terms of like where I have developed over time,
what I've learned over time is like I wish that
(16:50):
I could get out to founders because sometimes founders can't hear.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, sometimes creators they can't hear. They're doing what they're doing.
They're in it, that's all they see.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
That, and I probably was, like at some point I
was a hard headed teenager, you know what I mean.
So I mean they're not just better just saying that,
like the it's hard to hear, but if a narrative
storytelling position yourself, because I'm the kind of person that
if you if I'm on the list and they say, oh,
you only is the top one hundred people with glasses, honey,
(17:20):
you would have thought I was number one.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I was poking it. I'm the top person with glasses all.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know, you got to really maximize everything you get
when you're in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And I never let that go.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Which is why we are so well positioned with companies
like Nike or TikTok or pim Co is because that
narrative part.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I'm always focused on that.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So when you partner with a company slash brand like
a TikTok, and what are some of the things you
insist on, like non negotiable things that you know you authentic,
You come into this authentically and they have things that
they are trying to achieve. Also, like what are some
of the things that are like non negotiables for you
and that you insist on and where might you have
(18:05):
had to compromise if at all.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
We live in this crazy economic time, so I think
that it's shifted in terms of what I have the
ability to insist on, who we.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Serve and how we serve in a way.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
And it's not that, you know, it's not the brands
that are saying that to me, right, It's more like
the landscape that we are living in that causes us
to have to shift. Right, the brands are still doing
the work, I'll be honest, I have not the brands
that we work with behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
They still are doing the work.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
It's just that again from that storytelling us, of that
narrative piece, we all got to be talking different about it.
So I would say that now I feel like I
have to compromise because of where we exist the current landscape,
not because of the brands. I want to be clear
on that. I feel like I have to compromise with
how I want to refer to the audience that I serve,
and that pains me, if I'm being honest, it pains me.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I hate it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I don't want to do that, Like I don't want
to do that I want to loud and proud say
black and brown and not feel like I got to
worry about being sued or anything like that. We're just
not living in that kind of space right now. And
so I so I've been bullished on that though. I've
been bullished that, like, I want to serve who I
want to serve the way I want to serve them
(19:27):
where I need to serve them. I know I'm an entrepreneur.
I serve entrepreneurs, and I know exactly what I need
to do. Just fund us, tell us your wins. We
will make the winds happen for you, will make these
winds mutual. In terms of compromising, I can't say. I
can't say I've had.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
To make a lot of compromises.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I mean, maybe sometimes I compromise on location, Like somebody,
you know, maybe a partner wants to go to a
city that I don't that I'm like, we could go
to that city, but it is the best city for
us to be in.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Sometimes I'm lifting a city for.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
A partner, right so, and that's why they want me
to go there, because they're trying to lift the city themselves.
And so one of the things that we're good at
behind the scenes. This is something I want to share.
My entrepreneurship is reporting. Our reporting is a unique value
proposition for us in the ways that white people work
with us, because we really focus on how much impact
we can make and how we can report it to
(20:22):
you according to your wins. Yeah, you get money based
off of who needs a raise. If I can get
you a raise, I'm gonna get money.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So much sense.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah, I mean like that that but a me ultimately,
I haven't had to make a lot of compromises. Like
I said, I feel extremely blessed that the partners who
come to us say I am authentic, this is who
I am, And I'm like, hey, we're going to do
what we do and we want you to rock with us.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And they haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, So I want to go back to the point
you just made about you know, having to talk differently
about it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
This is like, this is.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So interesting to me because you know, I've also sat
in like seats to where you have impact and there
is a time to be vocal and also a time
to be quiet. And I wonder what your thoughts are on.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Is is the is the forced you.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Know, discussion that we have had to confine to a
way of speaking, is that not? Can we see that
as an opportunity?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And here's why. Here's what I mean by that.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It's because so when you're in a position of power
and it's not the time.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
To be vocal, you can, Hey, get through the door.
I'm gonna hold this door open. Just keep just get
through the door.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And yea, I'm gonna get as many y'all through this
door as possible, and we're gonna let them do what
they gotta do over there. But as many y'all get
through this door while I'm gonna be quiet. Sometimes being
too loud cause too much attention to what you're trying
to do. So I just wonder what your thoughts are
on how we can think about it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Can we shift our narrative the.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Thinking about opportunity also and fighting speaking true to power?
But how do we see opportunity in this? I guess
it's the point I'm making.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, So it's interesting because some people don't like these answers.
So you ask the question that I feel like a
lot of people are like, no, be radical, no, be loud,
no always like but I think what I tell people
when you're moving in realms of power, there's a few
different principles. It's pleasing, appeasing, proving, and adapting. No matter
how much money people have, they're doing those things. They're
(22:33):
pleasing each other, they're appeasing each other, they're proving to
each other, and they're adapting. So when people say like
I don't got nothing, I don't care about not nor
I don't got nothing to prove, well you that person
doesn't have a lot of power because everybody in power
got something to.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Prove, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
From the biggest billionaire you know to the smallest millionaire,
they all have something to prove. And it's just a
part of the game, right, So it doesn't always make
sense for you to speak up in a certain way
because you're gonna you're.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Gonna knock out one of those principles.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
You're not gonna be it's gonna cause you impede on
your appeasing of someone that you need to appease for
you to be able to help your community. So it's
always like a dance and in sil enough to where
you're asking. During the during the George Floyd when George
what was murdered and this big like worder fall moment,
we were not on social media running down like power
(23:29):
to the people kind of stats. Now we were addressing it,
we were saying what we were saying. We were, you know,
supporting people on the back end, but we were mindful
of what the narrative needed to because we knew this
day was coming, this day to where right now, this
day was inevitable. So it was like, we're not gonna
(23:52):
not stand for our people. So to your point, exactly
what the way you described it, that was my thought.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Let's get this.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Door open, let's hold it open, Let's pull as many
people through here as we can in this moment. Let's
get as much of this capital and give it away
like this, how much of this capital could be take
and giveaway.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's literally what my thought was.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
So I set up some system to be able to
have all the calls and the meetings and be able
to get the capitol in quickly, and it we scaled
exponentially through that serving virtually because of a band in it,
but also the level of capital that we were able
to get in because I knew I had something. I
think another thing is that if you know you have something,
(24:34):
that is more of the reason for you to figure
out the dance, because when you figure out the dance,
once you get in there, you know you got something.
All I needed was the money. I was already doing
the work. I knew I could impact people. I knew
I could put systems around getting the money out.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I knew that.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
So it would have did a disservice to me and
my community had I taken a certain route of discussion. Now,
I host a serious XM show, and I'm very vocal
about what are protesting what I'm not. I'm very vocal
about politics in the ways that I think about it.
I'm very vocal about service to others, and I don't
(25:10):
back down and compromise other those on those things, but
I do.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Think about how I say them.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So you talked about how you knew you had something
in The people that you target are the people who
need or raise Those are the people that can create
these opportunities. How do you know who has the budgets?
Like when you go knock on the door, Let's pick
a company, TikTok, Nike, Google, the one is the one
(25:40):
that you partner. How do you know where to go?
I got something I know I can affect my community.
Somebody here needs a raise. How do you know who
got the budget?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
So from a non we're a nonprofit, So from a
nonprofit standpoint, there's going to be a couple of roles
that match up with people who got a budget. It's
gonna be your CSR people, Corporate Social responsibility, your impact people.
So the impact side of things, which is usually the
philanthropic arms of the corporate regions.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
There's also marketing. Always got the money.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
By the way, like the marketing people, they always have
the budgets, but they're a little bit different to work with,
so you have to figure that out. Now, if it
comes to philanthropy, then you might be looking for program officers,
or you might be looking for people who.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Are launching something new. So sometimes I'm.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Looking for like who's like, who's launching a new thing,
and then who's ahead of that launch and what does
that look like and how does that align with our
with our with our entrepreneurs that we serve. I'm also
keeping my ear to the street, and this is where
your your this is where your network comes into play.
Now it's chilly enough, this this is a bit behind
the scenes that this question you're asking me right now,
(26:57):
because a lot of people try to figured this out.
We have worked networked our way through global affairs or
or political affairs. But that's because I was based in DC.
I'm in LA now, but I was based in DC.
And being based in DC, I would, you know, go
to Capitol Hill for different things, or because different companies
(27:19):
would we would go round tables things like that, or
I was in that ecosystem. So because so think about
one thing that people need to think about is your
proximity to what kind of thing in your local area.
Because I was in DC, my proximity to the government
was right there. Now, global affairs people don't directly have
a budget, but they know they know all the people
(27:40):
that got the budgets. So that's how we got some
of the deals that we got because I was working
my way through some of that Capitol Hill network. Also,
your trade associations or things that you're a part of,
things you're membership of. I'm a member of a couple
of different things where I've gotten a couple different opportun
It needs to meet different people navigate their different things,
(28:03):
I think. But one of the hardest things as the entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Really to know what you're looking for.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Once you land on that, you can kind of navigate
your way to the person who's the head of it
or the person who's the assistant of the person. Don't
take anybody for granny, that's for sure, don't. I tell
people all the time it was a janitor that let
Fantasia back into that American Idol in that American Idol
performance her initial time when she got selected. Don't take
(28:30):
anybody for granny. I'm speaking to everybody, from the clean
lady to the second like, whoever's the assistant. All those
people can get you where you need to go. You
just gotta be you gotta be a people person so we.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Can Goodness, I ain't got to none of the questions
I had because you're saying so much that it's like
I want to go dero all these things you're saying.
Like you just said, you know, marketing always has the budget,
and I wonder, like what are we missing as small
business owners because if these big companies, no marketing needs
the budget, they always delegating that budget. But we small
(29:04):
business are like marketing ain't never got the budget. We're
trying to, you know, always do something organically, always trying
to get it to go just hope they like share.
You know, we tweet whatever you know, organically, but we
starve marketing in our businesses. Like what are we missing
there with that thinking?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
So I think again, as the person who's creating the business,
you have so many things on your mind.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You're just trying.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
You're thinking my product needs to be great. You're thinking
my software needs to be great. You're thinking my service
needs to be great.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
How many mediocre things do we know? Like the little
kid juice box.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It's the worst invention. Every time you put that straw,
you're gonna get some juice out it. Like it, then
it barely straw barely goes in. You know, it's just
stop worrying so much about having the perfect product of
perfect service and just find the person who likes to
engage in imperfect things.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So well, that's the way to think about it.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
There's so many of us who will be To be honest,
sometimes we're shooting for such a high bar and most
people in mediocre.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I hate to say it, but like most people are
just like the average thing.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
And you know, and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that,
but we want like the perfect thing, the bigger thing
the batter thing, and it's like, find you a market.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And just take the stronghold over it.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Like if you know people who got locks and you
know and they go to church on Sundays and shoot,
just go market to them. Stop thinking you need the
people that got straight hair in locks and they go
to church on Saturday. Like, you got to get real specific.
I think what we're missing is specificity. We don't get specific,
we don't get particular, and we don't think about owning
(30:45):
the market that we can own. We think so broad
about owning every market. And I think it's the thing
where social media can be helpful. What platforms like TikTok
where you have the ability to kind of throw out
what you want and have people find you and run
ads TikTok shop people are making like a yeah, people
are making their annual salaries selling on TikTok shops.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
So I think we have to dig into where the
platform support us.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Finally, there is over time with this TikTok you know, partnership.
How do you envision it evolving, you know, whether that's
a deeper platform integration for our creators and entrepreneurs, maybe
revenue sharing models just or you know something like, what
do you imagine it looks like if you look out three, five,
(31:35):
ten years.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah, I mean I think we imagine what it was
like for meeting them or whatever.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Partnership and hopefully what the partnership outcomes are, even if
it's not you know, BGV a TikTok.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Yeah, yeah, I think understanding that digital marketing equals economic empowerment,
and so I think I'm looking forward to the the
tools that they're developing to continue to drive awareness, booth sells,
connect people to new markets. I think that you know,
BGV is equipment people were practical skill skills. We're also
(32:11):
looking at store We also focused on storytelling and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
But I think that.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Like one of the pieces of TikTok that's really interesting
to me is the ability the live selling part. I
think that like some of the platforms are trying to
do it, but they haven't been able to nail it
the way TikTok has it, Like the way that the
live selling connected to the TikTok shop connected to you've
been able to get like points on screen connected to
(32:36):
like So I'm looking I'm looking to the evolution of
that and how like even how can we raise money
for BGV but support our brands, right, Like, Okay, we
have all these founders that have come through rest with
Bunds is a product. Some of them are telling them
TikTok shop. So I'm looking forward to ways that we
can do things like that more partnerships that are with
(32:56):
TikTok is a player and a partnership, but we're working
with the creators to really help them get assets, help
them get up to speed. So we did a part
of that program that you mentioned earlier that we worked
on was a part of helping people with TikTok shops.
So we pulled in hay Seanceques. She's like got over
a million followers. She was actually one of our founders
early on. We knew her way before this moment, so
(33:18):
I think we get to see people early. So I'm
looking forward to to partnerships like TikTok continuing to help
us support like the longevity of founders through live selling,
through continue with storytelling. Ways that storytelling can take place
that maybe we haven't thought of yet.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So yeah, yeah, actually that wasn't the last question. I like,
so this this is the last question. So the because
you renewed from twenty twenty four. We're in the you know,
we're in twenty twenty five now deep into twenty twenty five,
So where does the partnership like, where are we in
this twenty twenty five cycle of this partnership and what's
the what's the plan.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
We are evolving? Okay, that's that we are coming back
to the table and thing and they're like, what makes sense?
Up next, we have I'm not exactly sure when this
will air, but we have a live fish competition that
we're doing. So we do a competition called pull Up
and Pitch. Pull Up and Pitch Tip is typically a
competition where we go into a city and anybody in
a city can literally pull up and pitch. You got
(34:18):
sixty seconds. There's three judges. You get a thumbs up,
thumbs down. You get one thumbs up, you get two
hundred dollars, you get two thumbs up, you get two
hundred and fifty dollars, you get three thumbs up, you
get five hundred dollars. You go to the next round
to pitch for up to ten thousand dollars have been
on with the partners at that time. We are going
to run that on TikTok and so in November November.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Eighteenth, I believe it is to be a zach We're.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Going to be running that and this will be our
first time experimenting with what it means to do a
live pitch competition. We'll work with them to help like
get some application on a platform, so the live goes
bigger and we're gonna see, like what does it look
like to live stream and give out capital.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I mean, if we can make.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
This work, I could see the partnership involved into MA
dollars evolving into what gap would take tak shop shop shop,
the you know, like shot the competition kind of stuff
is what we're looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Afro Tech Conference is back and return to Eights Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
the George R.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
For years, afro Tech has been the go to experience
for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators, investors. For twenty
twenty five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,
though with fortyzery tendees expected. This year's conference will feature
five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages from
discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry
(35:40):
leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top ten
engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly two
hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's next
with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and
health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're
mounting your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or
scaling out, that's an exact there's something here for you.
(36:02):
Take us and moving fast to keep your spot now
at afrotech Conference dot com. Black Tech Green Money is
a production of Blavity afro Tech on the Black Effect
podcast Networking.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Night Hire Media, and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Well Lucas, with the digital production support by Kate McDonald,
Sarah Ergan and Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael
Davis and Lovebeach. Learn more about my Guessing Other Technics
Up is an innovators at afrotech dot com.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
The video version of this episode will drop
Speaker 1 (36:28):
To Black Tech Green Money on YouTube, so tap it
in enjoy your Black Tech Green Money shot us to
somebody go get your money, peace and love.
Afrotech Conference is back and return to Eightstown, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seven through thirty first, twenty twenty five
at the George R. Brown Convention Center. For years, Afrotech
has been to go to experience for black tech innovators, founders, engineers,
creators and investors.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
In twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,
though with fortyzery to ten hees expected. This year's conference
will feature five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages,
from discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from
industry leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top
ten engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly
two hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's
(00:38):
next with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech
and health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether
you're launching your first startup, pivoting into a new role,
or scaling as an execut there's something here for you.
Tickets and moving fast to keep your spot nowt at
Afrotech Conference. Dot Com will lucas here, Black tech, Green money,
(00:59):
so good to be with you guys for another week,
and I got a special guest today. I've been looking
forward to this when we've been planning this for like
a month. It feels like and we are finally here.
I am here with Omi Vel, who is the CEO
of Black Girl Ventures. Has funded hundreds of companies.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Last it looks like five to fifty.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
It might be more than that by now five hundred
and fifty underresource companies and positively impacted over twenty thousand
entrepreneurs small business owners, and that number is growing. Also,
she's got a partnership with TikTok, continuing that commitment since
twenty twenty four, I think is when you guys started this,
they committed originally a million dollars to support black entrepreneurs
(01:38):
by launching the Sword Together, which is again continue from
twenty twenty four. And these are efforts to support black
entrepreneurs and we're going to talk a lot about that today.
It's a business accelerated program that you know, she's so
critical to, especially for black creators, black businesses, black entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So Owe Peale, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thank you. I'm excited.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It's good to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
So there's a quote I found from you where I
loved it, and I was like, I want to start
this conversation off from that. You said, a billion dollar
network equals a multimillion dollar company, and so I want
you to talk about, like where you got that concept
from and how do you like operationalize that concept until
like the decisions you make every day. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
So my book Originate, Motivate, and Innovate Seven Steps for
building a billion dollar Network, and get it on Amazon
bars and over wherever you bouy books also the audible
of you listening to books and it is my voice.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
So here's the thing that I learned, right.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
I think when we start businesses, we focus so much
on like, oh, I need to like get the product right.
I need to like, you know, figure out how this
product works and customers and things like that. But when
you hit a wall or when you are just stuck
in a place where you're trying to understand like how
to move, you got to have a network. And I
think like network also means like two different things. Like
(03:05):
you need your business network or people that you can
go ask questions of, but you also need to have
your like wellness network, because if you want to get
closer to God become an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That's a fact.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
That's a fact.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
But I came up with what that brought to mind,
Like coming up with that quote was I realized the
real moment that I started rocking and rolling as an entrepreneur,
really really bringing in impact and things like that is
when is when I connected my network to the work
that I'm doing by thinking about how can I leverage
(03:38):
you you want to have It's an asset. Your network
is an asset. Your ability to reach out and use
a free space. Your ability to think about like our
connection to TikTok means that we can connect creators to
different things we can We can also do things like.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Figure out how to support even the platform. You know.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
It's sometimes the the biggest thing you can do is
not asking for the thing that's right in front of you.
It is thinking of what else do they have? What
else going to offer? What else is available? In how
you're going to grow your network. I think billion dollar,
billion dollar network means you got enough people there where
you can operate something as a multimillion dollar thing. It's
like you need that. You can get all the capital,
(04:19):
but when you hit a wall, you need a person.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, I would put this on thread a couple of
weeks ago. It's like I used to believe everybody should
start a business, and I was like, I don't understand
why anybody would go get a job, And I don't
believe that anymore because like this, doing this is like
it takes a special kind of person to wake up
to just drama every day, stress every day. You know,
(04:43):
there's no guarantee paycheck on Friday, Like you gotta go hunt,
you gotta go find that paycheck, and so like what
kind of people do you And I'm saying that you're
not saying that, but I'm sure there's some something in
that you can probably relate to. But I wonder, like
what kind of people do you think are best suited
for this? Like what is a makeup of a person
who is best suited for this journey?
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Oh my goodness, that's such a good question.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But to your point around like insight on that, I
think that your people ask me all the time, when
should I quit my job? How do I know when
to put my job? How do I know when I
should I just jump off, jump off the cliff and
build you know, willd up? No, absolutely not I do
not jump off anybody's cliff. Do not try to build
any wings or gain wings.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
None of that. You are not a parachute expert. Do
none of that.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
But what you should consider I always tell them, I
don't know how resilient you are. I don't know if
you get down to the wire, if you're willing to
go donate blood. I don't know if you're willing to
like pawn everything in your house for what you believe.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I don't know if you're you see what I'm.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Saying, like have you had my journal? Like goodness gazeous like.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
A I don't know what you're willing to do for this,
So I think that you know.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
And there's a lot of I've been seeing a lot
of podcasts commentary because I'm also wellness practitioner, and there's
a lot of podcasts commentary out there right now around
how work life balance is BS, and like we don't
need work life balance. I don't think work life balance
is purely BS. But what I'll say is the concentration
has to be on work life integration, like how everything
(06:19):
is worth when what time it is? It is now,
it's time for me to be doing something. It's how
do you think even with my staff, when I hire people,
I tell them you can make a mistake, that's fine.
But if you're thinking it's off, you're gonna constantly make
the same mistakes over and over. So I would say,
just to break that down, culchability.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Your ability to be culchable. Resilience. How resilient are you?
What are you willing to do for what you believe in?
And I mean that by.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
All legal means and safety needs necessary, But what are
you willing to do for what you believe in? I
don't know that right, Like, I can't desermine that that
your grind is kind of like the most predictable factor.
That's a part of you building a business as part
of your entrepreneurial repertoire is going to be like, I
(07:07):
don't know how far.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
You're willing to go. Some people wally like sleep on couches.
Some people are like like, nah, I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
So you got to know you. I think that's that's
the thing. Who are you exactly? And if you don't know,
you will find it out real quick? Will you try
to run a business?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Yeah, I'm gonna take that question one level deeper. Is
you know because they're running it. No matter what you're doing,
it's gonna be hard, and especially in those early days especially,
And so at what.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Point do you know it's hard. Yeah, because it's supposed
to be hard.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
But let me keep going, or it's hard because I
probably shouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I think the thing about strategy is time.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Like strategy is about time, so you can have like
good ideas you can have you say, I'm gonna you know,
you have a great to do list, but you're not
being strategic if you don't have time attached to it.
So when I started Black or Avengers, prior to this,
I had a T shirt company and I was doing that.
I was row and I worked myself out of poverty
with that TEACHHERT company. So backing up a scept to
(08:05):
my story, I'm I'm a computer scientist. I had great jobs,
but I had two children, have my first child when
I was seventeen, my second child when I was twenty one. Now,
I didn't grow up in any and the way I
grew up was very.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Middle of the most middle middle class.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
But as an adult, because I now had these two kids,
went to school all of that, I ended up on
Section eight ended up food stamps, government assistants, all of
that just to keep things going. America is not built
for a person, a single person with children.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
That's just the reality. And so. But I had good jobs.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
I was a kay through stove educator, I worked at
a patent trademark office, you know, things like that. But
I still couldn't afford to live. Entrepreneurship was really my
way out. I had gotten laid off twice. Me and
my fiance broke up. I realized I'm not going to
get married now, I have three children, and I'm not
going to go back to anywhere where anybody can ever
come to me and say I'm laying you off. But
(08:58):
you know, people can only see your actions, they don't
have your vision.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I knew who I was.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
What it looked like on the outside was crazy, and
people like, what should you do? I build a TP
in my living room and rented it out on Airbnb.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
People was like, what is she doing?
Speaker 4 (09:11):
I said, I'm never going back to work for anyone
unless the conditions.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Make the most sense for me. But you won't be
able to come in and say you lay me off.
Speaker 4 (09:19):
So in that case, I was looking at like, how
am I going to build with whatever I have, and
so I learned to print T shirts. I started a
T shirt line. It took off, We made Essence Magazine.
We traveled all up and down the East Coast vending
and I worked, and then I ended up getting deals
(09:40):
with like Google and Amazon. I worked myself off of poverty,
paid for my kids to go to school, like all
those kinds of things. And then black or Adventures came
up for me because I need a community. I'm not
a pro. I didn't just want to be head down.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
That never worked for me. But I had a contract
with Google.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
So I was doing work with Google, bringing in community,
training entrepreneurs, and I was starting up Black gir Avengers.
Blacker Adventures wasn't bringing in as much money, so I said,
I gotta give it. I'm gonna give it three months.
I'm gonna give it all I got for three months.
If you don't take off for three months, I'm letting
it go. And I think it's important for people to
wrap time around what you're trying. Yeah, so you and
(10:19):
don't keep trying the same thing for the whole time, right, Like,
give yourself a time window. Okay, I'm gonna go at
this while I work. Hello, please be working while I
have some inncome coming in. I'm gonna go at this
as hard as I can for six months.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah yeah, move it. Yeah. So I got to ask.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
I'm formulating this question as I was speaking, because you
just said a couple of things that I want to
dig deeper on. Like you talked about like you worked
yourself out of poverty by building this business's T shirt line.
Then you talked about the work you do with Google
with training entrepreneurs. And my first thought was that on
me is different than the ow me that is now.
And what about that on me that was probably new
(11:04):
in business or hadn't been wildly successful yet, says to Google.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I'm gonna go train entrepreneurs on your behalf.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
This is you're good at it, you know, like not
everybody's good at it.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
The interesting what's interesting about the difference between that only
and this on me is I was way more willing
to take more.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Risks right now.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
I have so many partners, I have so many alliances.
You're not gonna catch me on anybody's social media talking
bad about anybody, Yes, you know, and that and that's
a hard place to be in right, it's a privilege
because I get to I honestly have been blessed enough
for these brands to allow me to do the work
I feel like I want to do. That's a blessing.
Not everybody gets that. They're not dictating what I do.
(11:56):
They say, even with our relationship with TikTok, came to
them to say, hey, we like what you're doing. Let's talk.
We started talking. I said, look, this is what I
want to do. I want to put together a fund
that would give out marketing money to entrepreneurs because that's
the one thing that creators don't have, marketing dollars. They said, okay,
I said, I want to do storytelling around it. So
we did two seasons of a podcast called The weigh
(12:18):
In Series, and they also worked was We went through
a TikTok accelerator as well to learn how to use
a platform more so where that brands go through. So
all of these resources that came to me, I'm trying
to learn and give it back all the time. I'm
trying to like take what I got and give it
back so that me then didn't have anything. I had
nothing to lose. I had no money, I had no alliances.
(12:40):
I was like that mobile, I'm gonna do whatever. When
I started to work with Google, they were launching a
brand new program and again network I was already a
Google supplier.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So I was already doing business with them.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
The person I was doing business with them through said Hey,
we're starting this new program where we're going to train entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
We would love to have you're part of it. I said, Okay,
the parameters will loose.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Now what a program is now is way different than
when I started, because they still have a digital coaching program.
But it's different now if they in fact, if they
still have it. But again, I've been privileged enough, busted enough.
I'll say to work with partners who say here's what
we want, go do that.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
At that moment, I got to create.
Speaker 4 (13:23):
I got to think of how I wanted to do it,
and that was a space that honestly, working at Google
shifted a lot for me.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
It taught me how to be a leader. It also
helped me.
Speaker 4 (13:31):
They gave us access and privilege that our average contractors
didn't have.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
So I've been a Google officers all around the world.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Also just looking at the way they have treated their
employees and I'm not here to. I'm not caving for Google,
but I'm just saying that, like, it taught me a
lot to see this idea of like we treat you well.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
And you'll do the work well. We'll feed you, you.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Can take a nap, you can go for a swim,
you could. You know, whatever you get in the work done,
We're gonna get things done for you.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
And that helped me adapt as a leaders. I was like,
who I am now.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Diet You said something about one thing creators and honestly
small business owners don't have is marketing dollars. And too
often we get into business and we think about every
expense or investment except.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Marketing dollars, advertising dollars, and.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
So can you talk about how important it is number
one to have the thinking that I need to set
aside resources to put my brand, my product, my stuff
in front of people and build awareness.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And how we get.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Those resources to be able to do that when we
already have limited resources one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I mean, part of what I want to bring up
here is the power storytelling. That's really what is in
that that your business has to sell things, you have
to sell yourself, and you have to sell yourself not
your soul, right, Like you have to sell your product,
you have to sell yourself, but the story you're telling
(15:02):
and the way you position that store is everything. And
this is you know, with our the way we use
our TikTok is all about like how do we help
these founders get positioned to tell the story. So if
you're local and you're like, I'm looking for that hair
braider or that skin caroline or that, and you're like, hey,
or it's at the nearest variety store, go buy it.
(15:23):
So to a mass of a two hundred thousand dollars
over thirty million impressions, and working with TikTok, the way
that we work, it's all about how can we tell
the best stories so that people can get access and
so in terms of marketing dollars, that's when I realized
that people are missing. If I could go if I
were to go back to twenty sixteen, we're gonna be
ten next year. If I were to go back to
twenty sixteen and launch BDV all over again, I would
(15:46):
launch a impact report. I would watch some kind of
white paper, some kind of report, and then I would
go on a narrative tour and I would build the
narrative first. So what I did was I went into
the I went off of the stat one percent of
black and mirond women are receiving venture capital, less than
two percent of women of receiving venture capital. And I
(16:06):
was looking at so much of that as problem. I'm
a solution problem, I'm a solution. But in the narrative
of this, all of all of this is what I
learned over time, which is we're talking about families. We're
not talking about some flippant just like, oh a VC
didn't give you funding. No, we're talking about your ability to.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Be economically sound. And I experienced that firsthand.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
It still didn't see that tie into a way later
where I was like, shoot, had it not been for
me starting a business, I wouldn't been and put my
kids through college by myself on a teacher salary. It's
just not a reality, you know. So I think that
in terms of like where I have developed over time,
what I've learned over time is like I wish that
(16:50):
I could get out to founders because sometimes founders can't hear.
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Yeah, sometimes creators they can't hear. They're doing what they're doing.
They're in it, that's all they see.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
That, and I probably was, like at some point I
was a hard headed teenager, you know what I mean.
So I mean they're not just better just saying that,
like the it's hard to hear, but if a narrative
storytelling position yourself, because I'm the kind of person that
if you if I'm on the list and they say, oh,
you only is the top one hundred people with glasses, honey,
(17:20):
you would have thought I was number one.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
I was poking it. I'm the top person with glasses all.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know, you got to really maximize everything you get
when you're in the early stages of entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And I never let that go.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
Which is why we are so well positioned with companies
like Nike or TikTok or pim Co is because that
narrative part.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I'm always focused on that.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
So when you partner with a company slash brand like
a TikTok, and what are some of the things you
insist on, like non negotiable things that you know you authentic,
You come into this authentically and they have things that
they are trying to achieve. Also, like what are some
of the things that are like non negotiables for you
and that you insist on and where might you have
(18:05):
had to compromise if at all.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
We live in this crazy economic time, so I think
that it's shifted in terms of what I have the
ability to insist on, who we.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
Serve and how we serve in a way.
Speaker 4 (18:24):
And it's not that, you know, it's not the brands
that are saying that to me, right, It's more like
the landscape that we are living in that causes us
to have to shift. Right, the brands are still doing
the work, I'll be honest, I have not the brands
that we work with behind the scenes.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
They still are doing the work.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
It's just that again from that storytelling us, of that
narrative piece, we all got to be talking different about it.
So I would say that now I feel like I
have to compromise because of where we exist the current landscape,
not because of the brands. I want to be clear
on that. I feel like I have to compromise with
how I want to refer to the audience that I serve,
and that pains me, if I'm being honest, it pains me.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
I hate it.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
I don't want to do that, Like I don't want
to do that I want to loud and proud say
black and brown and not feel like I got to
worry about being sued or anything like that. We're just
not living in that kind of space right now. And
so I so I've been bullished on that though. I've
been bullished that, like, I want to serve who I
want to serve the way I want to serve them
(19:27):
where I need to serve them. I know I'm an entrepreneur.
I serve entrepreneurs, and I know exactly what I need
to do. Just fund us, tell us your wins. We
will make the winds happen for you, will make these
winds mutual. In terms of compromising, I can't say. I
can't say I've had.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
To make a lot of compromises.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
I mean, maybe sometimes I compromise on location, Like somebody,
you know, maybe a partner wants to go to a
city that I don't that I'm like, we could go
to that city, but it is the best city for
us to be in.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Sometimes I'm lifting a city for.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
A partner, right so, and that's why they want me
to go there, because they're trying to lift the city themselves.
And so one of the things that we're good at
behind the scenes. This is something I want to share.
My entrepreneurship is reporting. Our reporting is a unique value
proposition for us in the ways that white people work
with us, because we really focus on how much impact
we can make and how we can report it to
(20:22):
you according to your wins. Yeah, you get money based
off of who needs a raise. If I can get
you a raise, I'm gonna get money.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So much sense.
Speaker 4 (20:36):
Yeah, I mean like that that but a me ultimately,
I haven't had to make a lot of compromises. Like
I said, I feel extremely blessed that the partners who
come to us say I am authentic, this is who
I am, And I'm like, hey, we're going to do
what we do and we want you to rock with us.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And they haven't.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
Yeah, So I want to go back to the point
you just made about you know, having to talk differently
about it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
This is like, this is.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
So interesting to me because you know, I've also sat
in like seats to where you have impact and there
is a time to be vocal and also a time
to be quiet. And I wonder what your thoughts are on.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Is is the is the forced you.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Know, discussion that we have had to confine to a
way of speaking, is that not? Can we see that
as an opportunity?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
And here's why. Here's what I mean by that.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
It's because so when you're in a position of power
and it's not the time.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
To be vocal, you can, Hey, get through the door.
I'm gonna hold this door open. Just keep just get
through the door.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
And yea, I'm gonna get as many y'all through this
door as possible, and we're gonna let them do what
they gotta do over there. But as many y'all get
through this door while I'm gonna be quiet. Sometimes being
too loud cause too much attention to what you're trying
to do. So I just wonder what your thoughts are
on how we can think about it.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Can we shift our narrative the.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Thinking about opportunity also and fighting speaking true to power?
But how do we see opportunity in this? I guess
it's the point I'm making.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Yeah, So it's interesting because some people don't like these answers.
So you ask the question that I feel like a
lot of people are like, no, be radical, no, be loud,
no always like but I think what I tell people
when you're moving in realms of power, there's a few
different principles. It's pleasing, appeasing, proving, and adapting. No matter
how much money people have, they're doing those things. They're
(22:33):
pleasing each other, they're appeasing each other, they're proving to
each other, and they're adapting. So when people say like
I don't got nothing, I don't care about not nor
I don't got nothing to prove, well you that person
doesn't have a lot of power because everybody in power
got something to.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Prove, I don't care.
Speaker 4 (22:48):
From the biggest billionaire you know to the smallest millionaire,
they all have something to prove. And it's just a
part of the game, right, So it doesn't always make
sense for you to speak up in a certain way
because you're gonna you're.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
Gonna knock out one of those principles.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
You're not gonna be it's gonna cause you impede on
your appeasing of someone that you need to appease for
you to be able to help your community. So it's
always like a dance and in sil enough to where
you're asking. During the during the George Floyd when George
what was murdered and this big like worder fall moment,
we were not on social media running down like power
(23:29):
to the people kind of stats. Now we were addressing it,
we were saying what we were saying. We were, you know,
supporting people on the back end, but we were mindful
of what the narrative needed to because we knew this
day was coming, this day to where right now, this
day was inevitable. So it was like, we're not gonna
(23:52):
not stand for our people. So to your point, exactly
what the way you described it, that was my thought.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
Let's get this.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
Door open, let's hold it open, Let's pull as many
people through here as we can in this moment. Let's
get as much of this capital and give it away
like this, how much of this capital could be take
and giveaway.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
That's literally what my thought was.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
So I set up some system to be able to
have all the calls and the meetings and be able
to get the capitol in quickly, and it we scaled
exponentially through that serving virtually because of a band in it,
but also the level of capital that we were able
to get in because I knew I had something. I
think another thing is that if you know you have something,
(24:34):
that is more of the reason for you to figure
out the dance, because when you figure out the dance,
once you get in there, you know you got something.
All I needed was the money. I was already doing
the work. I knew I could impact people. I knew
I could put systems around getting the money out.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
I knew that.
Speaker 4 (24:48):
So it would have did a disservice to me and
my community had I taken a certain route of discussion. Now,
I host a serious XM show, and I'm very vocal
about what are protesting what I'm not. I'm very vocal
about politics in the ways that I think about it.
I'm very vocal about service to others, and I don't
(25:10):
back down and compromise other those on those things, but
I do.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
Think about how I say them.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
So you talked about how you knew you had something
in The people that you target are the people who
need or raise Those are the people that can create
these opportunities. How do you know who has the budgets?
Like when you go knock on the door, Let's pick
a company, TikTok, Nike, Google, the one is the one
(25:40):
that you partner. How do you know where to go?
I got something I know I can affect my community.
Somebody here needs a raise. How do you know who
got the budget?
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, great question.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
So from a non we're a nonprofit, So from a
nonprofit standpoint, there's going to be a couple of roles
that match up with people who got a budget. It's
gonna be your CSR people, Corporate Social responsibility, your impact people.
So the impact side of things, which is usually the
philanthropic arms of the corporate regions.
Speaker 3 (26:14):
There's also marketing. Always got the money.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
By the way, like the marketing people, they always have
the budgets, but they're a little bit different to work with,
so you have to figure that out. Now, if it
comes to philanthropy, then you might be looking for program officers,
or you might be looking for people who.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Are launching something new. So sometimes I'm.
Speaker 4 (26:35):
Looking for like who's like, who's launching a new thing,
and then who's ahead of that launch and what does
that look like and how does that align with our
with our with our entrepreneurs that we serve. I'm also
keeping my ear to the street, and this is where
your your this is where your network comes into play.
Now it's chilly enough, this this is a bit behind
the scenes that this question you're asking me right now,
(26:57):
because a lot of people try to figured this out.
We have worked networked our way through global affairs or
or political affairs. But that's because I was based in DC.
I'm in LA now, but I was based in DC.
And being based in DC, I would, you know, go
to Capitol Hill for different things, or because different companies
(27:19):
would we would go round tables things like that, or
I was in that ecosystem. So because so think about
one thing that people need to think about is your
proximity to what kind of thing in your local area.
Because I was in DC, my proximity to the government
was right there. Now, global affairs people don't directly have
a budget, but they know they know all the people
(27:40):
that got the budgets. So that's how we got some
of the deals that we got because I was working
my way through some of that Capitol Hill network. Also,
your trade associations or things that you're a part of,
things you're membership of. I'm a member of a couple
of different things where I've gotten a couple different opportun
It needs to meet different people navigate their different things,
(28:03):
I think. But one of the hardest things as the entrepreneurs.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Really to know what you're looking for.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Once you land on that, you can kind of navigate
your way to the person who's the head of it
or the person who's the assistant of the person. Don't
take anybody for granny, that's for sure, don't. I tell
people all the time it was a janitor that let
Fantasia back into that American Idol in that American Idol
performance her initial time when she got selected. Don't take
(28:30):
anybody for granny. I'm speaking to everybody, from the clean
lady to the second like, whoever's the assistant. All those
people can get you where you need to go. You
just gotta be you gotta be a people person so we.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Can Goodness, I ain't got to none of the questions
I had because you're saying so much that it's like
I want to go dero all these things you're saying.
Like you just said, you know, marketing always has the budget,
and I wonder, like what are we missing as small
business owners because if these big companies, no marketing needs
the budget, they always delegating that budget. But we small
(29:04):
business are like marketing ain't never got the budget. We're
trying to, you know, always do something organically, always trying
to get it to go just hope they like share.
You know, we tweet whatever you know, organically, but we
starve marketing in our businesses. Like what are we missing
there with that thinking?
Speaker 4 (29:24):
So I think again, as the person who's creating the business,
you have so many things on your mind.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You're just trying.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
You're thinking my product needs to be great. You're thinking
my software needs to be great. You're thinking my service
needs to be great.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
How many mediocre things do we know? Like the little
kid juice box.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
It's the worst invention. Every time you put that straw,
you're gonna get some juice out it. Like it, then
it barely straw barely goes in. You know, it's just
stop worrying so much about having the perfect product of
perfect service and just find the person who likes to
engage in imperfect things.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
So well, that's the way to think about it.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
There's so many of us who will be To be honest,
sometimes we're shooting for such a high bar and most
people in mediocre.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
I hate to say it, but like most people are
just like the average thing.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
And you know, and that's okay, there's nothing wrong with that,
but we want like the perfect thing, the bigger thing
the batter thing, and it's like, find you a market.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
And just take the stronghold over it.
Speaker 4 (30:23):
Like if you know people who got locks and you
know and they go to church on Sundays and shoot,
just go market to them. Stop thinking you need the
people that got straight hair in locks and they go
to church on Saturday. Like, you got to get real specific.
I think what we're missing is specificity. We don't get specific,
we don't get particular, and we don't think about owning
(30:45):
the market that we can own. We think so broad
about owning every market. And I think it's the thing
where social media can be helpful. What platforms like TikTok
where you have the ability to kind of throw out
what you want and have people find you and run
ads TikTok shop people are making like a yeah, people
are making their annual salaries selling on TikTok shops.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:08):
So I think we have to dig into where the
platform support us.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Finally, there is over time with this TikTok you know, partnership.
How do you envision it evolving, you know, whether that's
a deeper platform integration for our creators and entrepreneurs, maybe
revenue sharing models just or you know something like, what
do you imagine it looks like if you look out three, five,
(31:35):
ten years.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Yeah, I mean I think we imagine what it was
like for meeting them or whatever.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Partnership and hopefully what the partnership outcomes are, even if
it's not you know, BGV a TikTok.
Speaker 4 (31:49):
Yeah, yeah, I think understanding that digital marketing equals economic empowerment,
and so I think I'm looking forward to the the
tools that they're developing to continue to drive awareness, booth sells,
connect people to new markets. I think that you know,
BGV is equipment people were practical skill skills. We're also
(32:11):
looking at store We also focused on storytelling and things
like that.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
But I think that.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Like one of the pieces of TikTok that's really interesting
to me is the ability the live selling part. I
think that like some of the platforms are trying to
do it, but they haven't been able to nail it
the way TikTok has it, Like the way that the
live selling connected to the TikTok shop connected to you've
been able to get like points on screen connected to
(32:36):
like So I'm looking I'm looking to the evolution of
that and how like even how can we raise money
for BGV but support our brands, right, Like, Okay, we
have all these founders that have come through rest with
Bunds is a product. Some of them are telling them
TikTok shop. So I'm looking forward to ways that we
can do things like that more partnerships that are with
(32:56):
TikTok is a player and a partnership, but we're working
with the creators to really help them get assets, help
them get up to speed. So we did a part
of that program that you mentioned earlier that we worked
on was a part of helping people with TikTok shops.
So we pulled in hay Seanceques. She's like got over
a million followers. She was actually one of our founders
early on. We knew her way before this moment, so
(33:18):
I think we get to see people early. So I'm
looking forward to to partnerships like TikTok continuing to help
us support like the longevity of founders through live selling,
through continue with storytelling. Ways that storytelling can take place
that maybe we haven't thought of yet.
Speaker 1 (33:35):
So yeah, yeah, actually that wasn't the last question. I like,
so this this is the last question. So the because
you renewed from twenty twenty four. We're in the you know,
we're in twenty twenty five now deep into twenty twenty five,
So where does the partnership like, where are we in
this twenty twenty five cycle of this partnership and what's
the what's the plan.
Speaker 4 (33:57):
We are evolving? Okay, that's that we are coming back
to the table and thing and they're like, what makes sense?
Up next, we have I'm not exactly sure when this
will air, but we have a live fish competition that
we're doing. So we do a competition called pull Up
and Pitch. Pull Up and Pitch Tip is typically a
competition where we go into a city and anybody in
a city can literally pull up and pitch. You got
(34:18):
sixty seconds. There's three judges. You get a thumbs up,
thumbs down. You get one thumbs up, you get two
hundred dollars, you get two thumbs up, you get two
hundred and fifty dollars, you get three thumbs up, you
get five hundred dollars. You go to the next round
to pitch for up to ten thousand dollars have been
on with the partners at that time. We are going
to run that on TikTok and so in November November.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
Eighteenth, I believe it is to be a zach We're.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Going to be running that and this will be our
first time experimenting with what it means to do a
live pitch competition. We'll work with them to help like
get some application on a platform, so the live goes
bigger and we're gonna see, like what does it look
like to live stream and give out capital.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I mean, if we can make.
Speaker 4 (34:58):
This work, I could see the partnership involved into MA
dollars evolving into what gap would take tak shop shop shop,
the you know, like shot the competition kind of stuff
is what we're looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Afro Tech Conference is back and return to Eights Town, Houston, Texas,
from October twenty seventh through thirty first, twenty twenty five
the George R.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Brown Convention Center.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
For years, afro Tech has been the go to experience
for black tech innovators, founders, engineers, creators, investors. For twenty
twenty five is shaping up to be the biggest year yet,
though with fortyzery tendees expected. This year's conference will feature
five days of dynamic programming across six curator stages from
discovery to executive leadership. Join us to hear from industry
(35:40):
leaders at the forefront of change, learn from top ten
engineers and designers, and connect with recruiters from nearly two
hundred companies. This year, we're digging deeper into what's next
with tracks exploring AI and machine learning, mad tech and
health equity, cybersecurity, climate tech, and much more. Whether you're
mounting your first startup, pivoting into a new role, or
scaling out, that's an exact there's something here for you.
(36:02):
Take us and moving fast to keep your spot now
at afrotech Conference dot com. Black Tech Green Money is
a production of Blavity afro Tech on the Black Effect
podcast Networking.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
Night Hire Media, and it's produced by Morgan Debonne and me.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Well Lucas, with the digital production support by Kate McDonald,
Sarah Ergan and Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael
Davis and Lovebeach. Learn more about my Guessing Other Technics
Up is an innovators at afrotech dot com.
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