January 21, 2025 ⢠39 mins
In this episode of Butternomics, Brandon sits down with Donte Miller and Hariett Williams, co-founders of Village Micro Fund, to discuss how they bridge the gap between culture and capital. They share innovative funding models like the Workers Equity Fund, their work empowering Black entrepreneurs, and the importance of culturally competent mentorship. From building sustainable businesses in Atlanta to expanding globally, this episode is packed with insights on creating generational wealth and reimagining Black entrepreneurship.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know, we're teaching people how the fundrais. We're also fundraising. Yeah,
when it comes to essentially having to talk to funders
and having to talk to employees, you have to act
like you know what's going on. You have to act
like you have it all together. And that's not always
the case. It's just anyone who's been an entrepreneurship before
I knows that you're constantly just trying to figure things out,
and so we run into a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
He everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Button Domics podcast.
I'm your host, Brandan Butler, founder and CEO of Butter
atl And today we got money in the building. We
have to We brought the check, said, but they ain't
bring no check with them. But they got the checks
though we already know. I have Dante Miller, co founder
and CEO of the Village Micro Fund, as well as
Harriet Williams, co founder and vice president of the Village
(00:51):
Micro Fund. How are y'all doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm doing great, doing great all things considered.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yes, it's been a week. We'll talk about that out there.
It's been a week.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
But that's why it's so important what you all are
doing though because we got a lot of undercapitalized founders
out here, it could be a challenge trying to you know,
raise money grow a business. So for those that don't know,
what does the Village Micro Fund do?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, so we're a social impact fund and we work
with black founders to teach and invest in them, but
also create alternative investment models because it's like, at the
end of the day, every investment is just a contract
between the investor and investee, and we really haven't like
revisited these contracts in some cases, like in over one
hundred years, and so we need to make contracts that
actually work for us and the people that we serve.
(01:36):
And so, you know, just creating alternative models.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
You know, when you say alternative models, what all does
that mean?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Though, Like it's like, what's the alternative venture capital? It's
the alternative private equity. Like, we don't need more black
vcs and more black private equity because they only work
for like a very small percentage of the population period.
You know, So what actually, how do we get money
to businesses in ways that actually makes sense for our
types of businesses. You know, you're not trying to be
the next uber, you're trying to run your mom pop shop.
(02:03):
You're trying to run you know, whatever businesses you have,
and so we just create like for example, our work
is equity fund. Yeah, it's like the alternative to a
private equity fund. We invest in business and then sell
the shares back to the employees and so that way
it's like actually an employee owned business. They can pay
for that with the profits that they now get from
owning a share of the business. And so just you know,
try our new models.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
No, that's interesting. Now, now what inspired y'all to get
into this work in the first place? Where you're working
in VC before it is just something that you saw
as an opportunity, Like what inspired this work?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I mean, it's a combination from our perspective. We actually
came up with the idea at on Wall Street and
so it was like and turning at gold Miss Sex
kind of saw how money moved up there, and it
was like, Okay, this system actually works really well and
it's doing exactly what it's intended to do. And so
this system works for the people that are up there,
what system actually works for us? And just that kind
(02:54):
of open mind to and then you know, Harriet c
as a whole family.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Well, yeah, like as black people, we have somebody an auntie,
uncle who is an entrepreneur, like has maybe a food
shop for My family were from the South, so we
had farms and just seeing how when my grandmother got older,
she was unable to tend to the farm. And now
if she had a Village micro Fund, we could have
leveraged and helped her to find other black farmers who
(03:20):
need to do a land lease or whatever so that
she continued to get money. But she had to go
back to work at an older age because she just
wasn't able to work the land anymore. And so there's
a lot of stories, especially with succession, like a lot
of great atls staples like miss Anne's or She and
Trail's like that have disappeared and people loved them.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I still wish I had a ghetto burger.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
But you know, like when we think about our community
and the people that are really there, like they're just
really good at what they do. They're really good at
making burgers, they're really good at making whatever their their
craft is. But here at Village micro Fund, we just
want to help our businesses to continue to live through
generations and have the resources that they need in education,
that they need outside of just doing what they do well.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, I mean for a lot of small businesses, you know,
getting capital is difficult, and especially we're in a space
where a lot of businesses aren't necessarily considered to be investable, right,
you know, so we talk about these like small businesses,
mom and pop shops, and you know, with these private
equity funds, they want to ten x one hundred x
something and that's not always the case, right, And so
there's kind of this white space, especially in our community,
around people that are just doing good work, that have
(04:27):
a good sustainable company, but they could use that you know,
infusion of cash here and there to kind of help
them achieve that. Now, what are you all seeing is,
you know, I hear a lot about these people that
have been running these businesses and you know now are
kind of getting to the point that we're getting ready
to retire and they're trying to figure out how they
want to hand that down to the next generation. You
got these pe companies trying to come in and scoop
them up. Do you all work with these companies when
they're kind of when the owners are ready to kind
(04:49):
of step away and say, you know, before you go
sell up to somebody else so they go out of business,
here's some other ways that you can kind of continue
this brand or do you all not get to that
part of the business.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Well that's part of where like the worker's equity fund
can come in. So say, if this is mss Anne's
and there's like a group of workers that are working there,
if of course miss Ann passed away, but say like
perfect scenario, ms Anne was like, I'm tired, i don't
want to work here anymore.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I'm ready to let it go.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Instead of selling it, which mister Ann never wanted to do,
her workers could buy a share, buy a portion of it,
and then actually be worker owners, and therefore it is
succeeding the business to the workers. But she's still able
to own her share and they're able to own their share.
So it kind of goes to what Dante was saying
about like different types of models. It's not the traditional oh,
(05:34):
we're just going to go find a buyer to come
buy this business, and then that buyer takes all the
culture out, takes all the ways that the business makes money,
and even takes the community care out of it. But
like having people who are already invested in these businesses
be able to invest that work there and care about
the mission of it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And did you all learn about those kind of because
I've never heard of that kind of model before personally, Right,
So did you learn about that kind of model with
your work on Wall Street? Did you see another version
that was working for another type of business? Say, this
is how we could apply it? Like, how do you
come up with an idea like the worker's equity fund?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I mean, it's really a combination of things. Private equity
funds exists, cooperatives exists. It's just no one had really
been thinking about how to bring those two things together.
And so a lot of like what you call innovation,
it's taking two old things putting together and now it's
a new thing. Right, So the Worker's Equity Fund was
really just an example of that. It's like, Okay, at
(06:26):
the end of the day, someone has to buy their business,
and who is just buying the business? And what are
their you know, ulterior motives? And it's like it's very
different when you're talking about an investor versus employees. So
it just made sense to us.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, and when you're looking for businesses that you want
to partner with an investor, Like, how do you evaluate
these types of businesses, because again, they might not have
traditional financials, they might might not follow you know, gap
accounting principles all the time. You know, mom might be
in the back writing stuff in a notebook or something
like that. Right, So, how do you all evaluate these
companies and figure out if they're you know, fundable investable
from the kind of work.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That you all do.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I mean a lot of that we actually do
through our Flores fellow. So the teaching part is pretty big.
We do evaluate businesses just on like you know, your financials,
but like you said, a lot of them don't actually
have you know, an accountant per se. They're really good
at what they do, they're not necessarily experts in the
back office part. And so one thing that we do
through our class is like, as we're teaching, we really
(07:19):
have an environment where they trust us enough to like
show us really what's under the hood. And so in
that says it's like, yeah, we might be helping them
actually get an accountant, which is why we know essentially,
like when we're looking at their books that what we're
seeing is actually accurate and it's just it's a few processes.
One of the things that we do that is like
(07:41):
when you talk about lending, it's like we talk about
credit scores. Credit scores are generally like lagging indicators of
what's actually seen as investworthy. Because one of the things
that I realized is that some of the best businesses
I know had to be like really stubborn to exist
and doing that, you know, may have messed up to
credit in order to just get money, and as a result,
(08:03):
they're punished for that five years down the line, because
you know, it's really difficult to bring your credit score
up once, you know, so we try not to consider
a lot of the factors that you know, really just
are a result of circumstance and not necessarily indicative of
what you're going into in the future.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Because most of these businesses have to start with a
credit card. So if you're starting with the credit card,
and you know that businesses usually are in the red
for the first few years, like that credit card statement
might not get paid. They're therefore, your credit by the
time you're now in the black might be a little crazy,
and so now you're trying to get more funding and
your business may be you know at a place to
(08:38):
do that, but your credit score is not, and so
that takes even more time. So like also, I think
one of the things we prot ourselves on is being
culturally competent and knowing what our businesses have to go
through even to get to the points that they're at.
And we learned a lot that we gave out over
two point seventy five million dollars in COVID nineteen relief funds,
and that's when we learned a lot of that because
(08:59):
they're some businesses that were making one point four million
dollars did.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Not have an accountant.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, and so it's just like we're not judging our
businesses by the cover of what it looks like because
we understand the struggle that they have to go through.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's amazing. And you all just celebrated a ten year anniversary, right, Yes,
we did. Congratulations on that. There's probably been a lot
of interesting things that have come out of that that
journey twenty fourteen and twenty fourteen when this got started.
What was your vision is is kind of what it's
manifested into similar to that, or things change a lot
different than what you kind of thought you were doing
back in that time.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I'd say the goals are still the same, the tactics
are different, yeah, you know, just because in the beginning,
it was like, okay, like we want to bank, you know,
because that's what we thought we wanted when we first
you know, came up with this idea, and that just
it was so far from what we actually needed in
order to be effective. So the first few years of
the village is just really trying to see if it
could be helpful, and a lot of the ideas that
(09:55):
we're doing now came out of trying to be helpful.
And so I mean, it's it's still aligned because I
actually looked in my notebook from like literally the first
year and saw a lot of the ideas that were
actually just now you know, getting to kind of implement,
and so yeah, I mean it's in some ways it's similar.
(10:15):
But I don't think we ever saw anything like the
work was Equity Fund or even the decentralized jah Thomas
organization not working on coming out of.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
This, not the doal know, what are y'all doing with
the dolls? And for those don't know, you mean that's
working in crypto and like how are y'all implementing DALs
into the village micro fulk.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, So the ideas like, imagine if your entire neighborhood
could actually share an account, whether you hold like real
estate assets or cashing and just to be a member
of this account, literally the only thing that you had
to do is verify that you live in a neighborhood.
And so we're working with organizations like Annie Casey, who
already invests you know, several million dollars into this neighborhood
Pittsburgh every year, and it's like, what does it look
(10:54):
like if instead of giving it to these nonprofits, you
just give it directly to the neighborhood, allow them to
decide what they actually need that money for. And so
just really you know, keeping transparency and accountability like just
at the forefront because you can see everything in real
time as it moves, and because we're a financial intermediary,
it's like we can just kind of facilitate a lot
(11:15):
of those funds a lot easier over the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
No, it's interesting especially and you know as they kind
of decentralized financial kind of open up new opportunities to
do new and unique things, what's like a really memorable
story of an entrepreneur that's kind of come through the
Village micro fund and had success that kind of comes
to mind.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
My favorite is just sat honey, Okay, your sad honey
there on the belt line near Crock Street. One of
my favorite stories. And Jamel will probably get me for this,
but he so. We have a lot of different businesses
that come through our fifteen week cohort, the Floor Tellowship,
and I remember he came in and he was like,
what are these two young kids going to teach me
about business?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That sounds like.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And so you know, but he was like, I'm to
be here and I'm going to see what it's about.
By the end of the cohort, this man was like,
this is the best program that I've ever experienced.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And some of the things that he said that he
realized that was necessary was one being vulnerable, like a
lot of times when we talk about business, a lot
of people have had business ideas stolen from them that
you know, it's been volatile for them. But we create
a place where businesses can really say, hey, like I'm
having this problem at this stage of business. Have you
all experienced that? And others being able to say hey,
(12:28):
use this, Hey let's collaborate here. I can help you
with this. Oh you need help with your website. I
got this after we have our session. So it gives
businesses a chance to work not only in their business
but on their business, which when you're an entrepreneur, you
don't have time sometimes to step away and say hey,
I need to do these things to improve. And so
just Ad Honey went into the cohort right before Covid
(12:48):
and one of their main things that they were working
on was their website to get online orders. Well, Covid
happens like six months later, and so they were like,
we're so thankful that we had time to work on
our website because now we're geared up. And they were
able to create these parties in a box concepts where
people were able to zoom and have parties all over
(13:09):
the nation.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
And so that's just an example.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Of how like our cohort like it's just really organic
and we're able to help people in ways and set
them up to think outside the box in ways that
they didn't even know were necessary until the time comes.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So that's it, and we were able to check.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yes, we were able to help provide them COVID nineteen
relief grants and then also partner them with access to
Capital for entrepreneurs ACE, which is another funder. They were
able to get a character grant from them, so they
were able to get some money as well.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's important.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I Mean one of the things you kind of hear
a lot of times, especially when it comes to like
black owned businesses, is the idea that we're kind of
over mentored and undercapitalized. Could both the mentorship element and
the capital element, you know, it's kind of that, you know,
that kind of like Barbeille approach right where you kind
of lift them up on both sides. Now with the
flourished fellowship, like what exactly does that cover over fifteen weeks?
Like what are they working on?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, we hit everything. So it's like we start
off with the business model canvas. It's like a one
page business plan. So I like that because it's visual
in the sense that if you are kind of like
lacking in one space, you can literally see on the
paper it's a blank space. And so as we go
through that, we hit on everything from finance, to marketing,
to branding to you know, what doesn't mean the fundraise
(14:35):
how to actually do public speaking and all that, and
so we also take our partners bring them in. We
have people that you know, can essentially like purchase from
some of these larger organizations. We also have mentors that
come in through a mentorship dinner, and we connect every
entrepreneur with an entrepreneur also in their space doing the work.
We have funders come in and speak to them, whether
(14:57):
it be invest Atlanta, whether it be a VC, or
whether it be an actual bank, you know, and so
we just kind of show them the entire suite of services.
And as we're working with them, we're also learning their
business so we know specifically what they need and we
can match them with the resources they need.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
That's great, that's great. How do y'all measure success when
you kind of work with these businesses?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Like they go through and what are some of the
factors that you all look at?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I mean the simplest is like do they make more
money money to make account but also like do they
bring on employees? And with our most recent cohort, we
did this in partnership with Walmart, So we had about
twenty businesses go through. All of them had products with
the goal of actually getting into Walmart, and you know
Walmart dot com is a step before you can do that.
(15:42):
But two of our businesses actually got into Walmart. Yeah,
so you know one was Kindred Papers and Color Chrome
and so yeah, I mean those are obviously whens. When
other people invest in our businesses that we kind of
took a chance on when no one else would, that's
all one for us.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
And when they collaborate, when they collaborate.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So last night at our ten year anniversary, just businesses
were coming up to me and just talking about like
I gained.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
A network of people that I work with.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I was able to use such and such to help
me get my website together. I was able to Maki
with black Space. He actually met his developer through our
like a reunion that we had from another cohort. So
like just being able to connect the dots for the
needs that our businesses need and they know that they've
(16:34):
been vetted by us, So it's a safer bet than
just finding somebody off the street to do those services.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I mean, look, entrepreneurship is lonely and and to your point,
a lot of times it's so referral based. There was
a time a previous down long, long, long time ago,
long time ago, Like my background was actually in software development,
web development, and so there was actually a point at
which I actually opened up what I called the website Shop.
It was a series of brick and mortar web design stores.
I literally put them in malls and you can reletally
(17:01):
walk in and pretty much order a website like you
could order anything else, and we basically build it over
a couple of weeks. But what I realized was it
was such a referral based business, like where do you
go find a web person? Where do you go find
a webit? Like it's all I know a guy that
did it, or I know somebody. Because again, people have
these big dreams and aspirations for like building websites and apps.
They don't really understand what it really takes to build something.
(17:22):
And so that's why I tell people, that's how you
get ripped off. You know, you think you think you're
gona build the next Facebook for a thousand bucks. I'm
gonna tell you right now, bro, if somebody's taking that
money from you, you're never gonna see them again.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And so that was what the idea for the website
shop came about.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Right, It's like people didn't know where to look, and
so I can definitely understand the importance of a network
because entrepreneurship is lonely, you know. I guess one of
my questions is is, like what's it like for you
all on the other side of that, Like you're mentaling
these businesses, but like what kind of you know, challenges
that you all run into as the co founders of
the Village micro.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Fund all the same things, all the same things. A
part of our cohort is actually we have a class
called Founder stre We actually have a you know, license
therapist come in and speak and just do group therapy
and a lot of what the entrepreneurs say is there
things that we experience ourselves. It's like, you know, we're
teaching people how to fundraise, we're also fundraising. When it
(18:15):
comes to you know, essentially having to talk to funders
and having to talk to employees, you have to act
like you know what's going on. You have to act
like you have it all together, and that's not always
the case. It's just anyone who's been an entrepreneurship before
knows that you're constantly just trying to figure things out.
And so I mean we run into.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
A lot of things and the growing pains and the
volatility of business. Like I think there's also this misconception that, oh,
you're going to become an entrepreneur and then when you
make your first million, like you're there and it's all.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
No baby, like that millions can go out greatest.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
So it's just like the real like roller coaster of
entrepreneurship has definitely been something that has has been quite
eye opening.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, I tell people all the time, it's like y'all
got to understand overhead, like you can make a million dollars,
you can also spend a million dollars making that million
dollars and like not make anything. And I think, yeah,
we we we hear about these numbers. We hear about
the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, and everybody thinks it
is that, But there's so many opportunities in between those things.
That was the biggest thing I learned when I got
(19:21):
my NBA. Like I remember, I used to think, you know,
because I went to Georgia Tech. I used to think
that like I had to build the next big web thing.
And when the biggest thing I came out of grad
school realizing was business is business and so I don't
care if it's a long long hair company. I don't
care if it's a you know, private services company. Right,
there's so many different ways that you can kind of
build things and kind of create value.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But in a city like Atlanta, where culture is at
the forefront of we always say culture is this Atlanta's
number on next port?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Atlanta influences everything.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Atlanta has culture, Like, how do you all integrate like
the Atlanta culture and leverage that into what you all
are doing with these businesses. I mean, I'm guessing you
at least I'm guessing you at least got limit pepper Wings.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
At the ten yearniversary, we have.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
We have black owned beer. We didn't there were no
Ways present. There are no Wings present, Yes there was.
I mean, I guess it even goes with our curriculum.
So we do have a curriculum that we wrote for
our Flourished Fellowship, and we feature stories from our entrepreneurs
to just give examples of how business different business principles.
(20:24):
So we make sure we pour back into the village
and everything is cyclical, so you are mentored by people
that are already here in Atlanta. Ironically, I feel like
most of our businesses, most of the people are actually
either natives or or have been here for a substantial
amount of time, which is not always the case because
everybody's moving here every day. We are no, we are
(20:46):
full Brandon, that is correct, but just making sure, like
to the point that you said, like business oftentimes can
be very seen in a very white lens, and so
trying to educate and and support businesses in a black
lens where it's easier for them to understand. And then
we're also we do field trips around Atlanta to different
(21:07):
black businesses, Like we just really want to immerse you
into like what it looks like and create these connections
and networks that are necessary. I think that's the Atlanta way.
And we always do it over foods, so that's definitely cultural.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, I mean at the graduation, it's like the cupca
Atlanta business, black on Atlanta business. To beer was a
Black on Atlanta business, the pizza was a Black on
Atlanta business, the cards or black on Atlanta business. So
like literally every part of when we plan events are
like intentional, intentional.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, but even beyond Atlanta. I know you all also
mentioned there. You know you just got back from Africa
and you're thinking about looking to expand, like how does
the mission of the Village micro fund start to expand globally?
Like what other opportunities exists beyond Atlanta based on you all.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
So it's really about connecting the diaspora. So one of
the things that we've learned in our research and our
travels in the last two years is that black people
are negatively impacted worldwide. It's not just in America, And
there's a lot of parallelism between our struggles. There's really
no safe place for a black person in the world.
Africa is probably the safest, but still it's not There's
(22:08):
really no safe place. And so it's just like, how
do we leverage the collective struggles that we all have
internationally to help each other and grow successful businesses and
create these pathways. And I think if we see that
we have more in common then we have different and
different culturally that we can really make a difference and
(22:29):
make some serious money and also change our communities.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, Like when people are thinking about international business, it's
always like europeer Asia and it's like okay one and
a lot of Asian companies actually get their things from
Africa in the first place, So it's just kind of
adding a middleman. It's like, why don't we just start there?
And so you have, you know, on this side, we
have just that honey a tea company, and then on
the South African side we have royvs. Tea farmer, you know.
(22:57):
And if we can connect the dots and make it
make sense for both parties, it's just like they get
a new customer base and access to new markets, and
they get the products that they need at actual process affordable. Yeah,
And so just creating as many relationships like that as
possible and kind of doing what we're doing over here
over there and making sure our entrepreneurs know each other.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
What's the biggest misconception about micro funding? Because again I
think when people here, you know, I don't want people
to think that these are like y'allin' cutting hundred.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Dollars checks, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So sometimes I feel like even the name is a
little you know, misdirection in a certain element, right, But
like when people think about it or what you all
have learned, like what do you think people don't fully
understand about micro funding specific to what you all do
for me?
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I think it's just like how early that is needed,
like our average loan size, And we're applying now to
become a CDFI to give larger loans and also changing
our name so we won't be micro fund anymore, be
VMF collective. But just realizing that fifteen thousand dollars might
be really necessary to jump start a business at the
(23:59):
very beginning. That might help you to get the supplies necessary,
to have someone to help you to make whatever your
product is, or even just to get a space. Unfortunately,
the thing that we've learned over time and especially with
this economy is micro loans just don't cut anymore. K
goes out the door quickly, very quickly, and so that's
(24:22):
why us becoming a CDIFI and having larger loans, we're
able to help businesses in a bigger way in the beginning.
Because for me, one of my dreams personally is I
want businesses to be able to walk in you know
how you have a dream, but like as a black business,
sometimes you have to kind of piece meal it together. Yeah,
like I want if you're like Harriet, come on, I
(24:43):
want to do X, y Z And this is my
big dream. I want to say Okay, Brandon, Well, here
here's five million dollars.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
That's this.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
We're gonna help you budget. We're gonna give you mentors
all the resources you need. You're gonna need this five
million dollars to complete your whole dream. We're not gonna
give you one hundred thousand. And you're gonna do this
little part and the you're gonna come back and do
this this second phase and third phase and fourth phase.
I dream for our businesses to be able to do
it all in one one step. Because other businesses fortune
five hundred companies when they started, they were able to
(25:12):
do that with investments from different sources, and I think
that's kind of what's missing. So changing the thought of
micro funds to larger loans to really afford businesses the
opportunity to dream and have their dreams actualized in one phase.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Here, I need five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So funny though, Like I was having a conversation with
a Jay Bailey, CEO of Russell's Center for Entrepreneurs, and
(25:51):
he kind of said the same thing to me because
he was asked me about some stuff, and you know,
I was telling him it's about some plans I had
and literally said, you're thinking too small.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
He was like, you know you if you're not thinking five, ten,
fifteen million dollars, Like he's like, that's the kind of
stuff that you deserve. So I think even just getting
businesses to even be comfortable and understanding, like that's really
what it kind of takes, right, Like there's a little
bit of a perception of like, maybe that's too much,
but when you really think about what it takes to
do business and grow and scale and be competitive and
and to the point you also made about employees, but
(26:18):
it's like over ninety percent, ninety five percent of black
businesses have like what one employer or less or something
like that, zero one employees, right, Like, so you know,
not only just that, but you're able to, you know,
employ people that can also impact neighborhoods. I think that's
a big thing that I even notice, and you know,
I'm not gonna get into policing and all that stuff
right now, but I notice how again people come and
they work in certain areas, they take that they take
(26:39):
that money and that revenue back to other neighborhoods. Right.
So it's important that these black businesses do not only
sustain but are able to employ people that can live
in the neighborhoods and you know, support of the businesses
and kind of grow like that and kind of keep
things going.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Cause it's going to take that same effort to get
one hundred thousand dollars to get five million, So you
might as well for your effort get the check that
you need.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Like the way you think, like the way you think,
what's a what's what's the challenge you all didn't expect
to anticipate, you know, when you're all launching this thing
back in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
This latest change of a financial environment, the Black Blackness.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
The Affirmative Action lawsuit, and the Fearless Fund that followed
right after that, Oh yeah, completely changed funding environment.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
It went from money raining from the sky.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, basically George flood happened, Like there was so much
money for black organizations and so much.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Like there's a lot of money promised to black orders, a.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Lot of money promised to blacks. Yeah actually, and so
just yeah, following that, the fact that so many of
our sponsors, so many of our funders, are just not
for of being sued. It just this might be the
worst funding environment that I've experienced since I've been a founder,
and so you don't really predict things like that, and
(28:02):
how things like that can kind of, you know, put
shackles on the mission a little bit, because it went
from everything being like, Okay, we want to invest in
black businesses to not like the hot things climate change,
and now I was like, okay, the president got in,
so now climate change might be you know, to you too.
And so the way that money flows is a lot
(28:22):
of times it is influenced by trends and you don't
you can't really predict those in the same way that
you can kind of predict business actions. And so that's
that's been surprising for me. What would you say?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I mean, I would say the same thing even pre
George Floyd, Like, we never really had a problem with fundraising,
and so this new environment has really caused it to
be a problem because I remember we had a strategic
session and for the first time we were really proud
to say that we serve black people and like black
with a capital B, like real strong, right, And so
(28:56):
now to be in this environment and that is criminal almost.
It's just like how do you continue your mission without
betraying the people.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
That you care about?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And of course you're going to still we're still going
to do black things. We're black, we're pro black, whatever
you want to say. But it's like, now there's a
potential legal ramifications that come with that capital be black.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It's like, how do you still get the money that
you need to actually help people without morphin or organization?
And it's something that it is. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I mean yeah, I mean well, even so you're saying
about the kind of the change in the types of
things that people want to invest in. When you all
look at that kind of stuff, does that make you
think more about the types of businesses that you want
to bring into the fund Because, like we talked about
in the beginning, a lot of these businesses are local
mount and pop shops.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
There's small businesses.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
But at the same time, we know AI is hot
right now, right, So are you all also kind of
coaching these businesses to say, let's integrate some of these
other elements into what you're doing to help make you
more attractive and more fundable. Is like part of the
consideration or is it still let's kind of stay focused
on helping a certain kind of company.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
It is a bit of both, because on one hand,
it's like those tools are tools that could help your
business grow exponentially. It's like, if you aren't using AI
for your business, you probably should be. Yeah, and the
people that you know really don't adapt to that are
generally the people that are left behind. So that piece
is important. But also at the same time, it's like, again,
(30:27):
we don't want to kind of morph our business into
something different just because of what's a trend at the moment.
And so you know, still working with the businesses that
we work with, but just applying them with the tools
that you know, come with the times cools.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
You know, what, how do you see you know, village
micro fund now, but VMF collective, you know, how do
you see that you know, kind of contributing to the
landscape for Land's businesses over the next five to ten years.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well one definitely helping retail business and service businesses with
their supply chain. So we talked about Africa before, but
really thinking outside of the box to help businesses to
grow in a more intentional way. Things that we've learned
is recently that retail, big mass retail can kill a
business quickly, right, yes, And I think that's a common
(31:13):
misconception because if you know you hear oh I got
into Target, it's like, oh, this is amazing, and it
is amazing. It's an amazing opportunity, but there's a lot
of pitfalls and black holes that are associated with that.
That again when we talk about we're really good at
what we do, but we don't always have the education surrounding.
So being intentional about helping black businesses to successfully scale
(31:34):
to a point where they can do mass retail or
even like increase their visibility nationally and internationally, but having
those coaches and that education that's coupled with that to
make sure everything is set up so the numbers make
sense so that you know, Okay, we're going to go
with a distributor, or we're going to go this route
because we don't want you to end up having to
pay these fees that could then you realize that you
(31:56):
need to have a million dollars on cash flow in
in hand to make sure you can get these purchase orders.
So I just see us continuing to think outside the
box and create these outside alternatives, including the workers that
could be fun making sure our businesses are able to
continue long term. We have a lot of boomers in
(32:17):
our community, and soon they're going to want to retire,
but we still want these businesses around, so helping to
educate them on like hey, like you can still sell
portions of your business and still be a part of it,
but like this happens.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
This is helpful for if you get sick, or if you.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Just say one day, I'm tired and I don't want
to go to work anymore. Just creating those communications and
options so that our businesses can continue to see past
one or two generations.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I was listening to something
a couple of weeks ago, and it was kind of
talking about, like, how do you build one hundred year business?
You know, I think again, like a lot of times, yeah,
we don't think past one generation. But yeah, that's where
that's where generational wealth comes from. Ye right, It's not
just me doing something, it's you know, how can I
pass this down, make this available or at least the
resources from it available for my you know, my my
(33:04):
kids kids and in those generations.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Right, Because when you think about it, like and this
is our story as well, a lot of black businesses
are created out of need. Someone got laid off, they
needed to make some cookies. We don't always have the
opportunity to just work in corporate America and dream up
a business.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh I'm gonna quit and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
To create this amazing tech company that I've created in
my mind and I have the capital and all. No,
it's I got laid off. I got to pay my
mortgage or rent. And on the first I'm really good
at baking, I'm really good at making a craftable item.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Let me do that.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Let me try to hustle some money together so I
can pay my bills. And then oftentimes that ends up
being wildly successful and you're like, Okay, we can create
a business. But that's how it was started. It wasn't
started off of a just dream.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Insight, right, It wasn't started off like doing this insight research.
And it's like, man, I was just trying to pay
some bills, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Staate like this whole moment, y'all.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
As y'all look back over, you know, the journey with
the micro fund, Like, what are kind of the top
two or three lessons that y'all have learned to kind
of God, how you do work now?
Speaker 5 (34:12):
Fire quickly, fire quickly immediately.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I agree, that is definitely any other ones. Is that one, two, and.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Three as such as a story behind it?
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, I mean to that point, I won't go into
the story, but to that point, as a smaller organization,
the culture of your company is very important, absolutely, and
you realize that your your human capital is also very important.
So if you have someone who is not either contributing
or is almost like a cancer within your your organization,
it kills your organization quick Yeah. So as a small
(35:06):
business owner, you have to fire quickly because otherwise if
you let that fester, it's like an infection. You look
up two years from now and you're like, I should
have just let them go because now we have all
these problems.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, and even something I've learned again because a lot
of you know, small businesses a lot of times are
getting started. You're kind of hiring who you can hire,
who's available. It's a friend, or it's just I don't
have that much money, and so this is the person
that will kind of help me out at that moment,
and that might not be the right person, right, Like,
you know, I had a Jasmine cron here and she
kind of said, it's like, you have the team that
got you to a million, probably might not be a
(35:39):
team to gets you to ten million, and you just
got to have those honest conversations about you know, how
do I edit the team and put the right people
on the field, and you know and understand, like again, everybody,
you know, every every person in the organization, nobody's gonna
be there forever.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, It's like just because they were the first one
in the department doesn't mean that they're the department.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Had, right, Yeah, and people even haveing like you know,
except that from a pride standpoint. You know, I've seen
again I've been in an organization. I mean I actually
have I'm a partner in another company. If we've experienced
that same thing too, right, where you have a person
come in early and they're great for certain things, but
at a certain point you need other skill sets and
so now you have to bring in somebody above that person.
And now you got to go talk to them and say, look,
I know you were here in the beginning, but like
(36:19):
we need another skill set and that person's gonna come
in more senior than you, right, So is this something
we're gonna be able to work There's gonna be a problem,
or we're gonna be able to work through this and again,
just managing people. My mom would always tell me, and
I didn't realize how I got older, She's like, if
you don't have to manage people, don't manage people. And
I can see now say, oh why because people going people.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Every single time, every single everything.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
You can have empathy, but you also need strong boundaries.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Yeah, bounty all right, extremely important?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I mean again, and that goes back and speaks
to just the culture of a business. Like I said,
it's it's it's really interesting. Again, people don't realize these
are the things like you can have a great product,
you can have you know, clients and all that stuff,
but to your point, you know, having the right team
or not be able to find the right team or
you know what I mean, it could be just as
detrimental as not making any money, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And the culture starts even before you have the team. Yes,
I either culture started with us, you know, so we
had to figure out our stuff and then we had
to you know, pass it on to the team.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Absolutely absolutely, But look, man, this has been amazing. Before
we get out of here, how can people learn more
about The Village micro Fund soon to be changed to
VMF Collective yes, Brandon, you know, but how can they
find out more about this and get involved and you know,
reach out to you all if they're looking for support, Well.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
You can follow us on Instagram at Village micro Fund.
You can go on our website village micro fund dot com.
We have like an inquiry form that you can fill
out there so we can be in contact with you.
Look forward to our next flourished fellowship will be which
will be next fall, so applications will drop next summer.
It'll be exciting to see who we partner with, so
(37:53):
maybe this time it will be a Wi Well formerly
a Wi Kindred Futures in Walmart or who else.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And also look forward to the dow which should be
popping up and on the neighborhood near you, most likely
mpub and t okay. I'm in the coming next year
quarter one, so January through March, well not January through March,
but starting next year.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
All right, Well, look, congratulations on all y'all accomplished. Congratulations
on ten years. I mean that's a huge accomplishment. We
can't wait to see what happens over the next ten
years and beyond. And you know, y'all doing amazing work.
So thank you for all the stuff y'all doing around
Atlanta and now soon to be globally. Yes, you know again,
we everybody appreciates it, and I know the companies that
(38:35):
you all work with really appreciative of it too, So.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Thank you all for that, and thank you all for
coming out.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Thank you for having us, appreciuch you for having us.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
And that's the pod we out.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You've been listing the buttter Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Comments feedback. Want to be a part of
the show, send us an email today at hello at
butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia
at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with acting support from Queen and Nike.
Music provided by mister Hankey. If you haven't already, hit
that subscribe button and never missed an episode, and be
(39:07):
sure to follow us on all our social platforms at
butter dot at l. Listen to button NoMix on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
O
You know, we're teaching people how the fundrais. We're also fundraising. Yeah,
when it comes to essentially having to talk to funders
and having to talk to employees, you have to act
like you know what's going on. You have to act
like you have it all together. And that's not always
the case. It's just anyone who's been an entrepreneurship before
I knows that you're constantly just trying to figure things out,
and so we run into a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
He everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Button Domics podcast.
I'm your host, Brandan Butler, founder and CEO of Butter
atl And today we got money in the building. We
have to We brought the check, said, but they ain't
bring no check with them. But they got the checks
though we already know. I have Dante Miller, co founder
and CEO of the Village Micro Fund, as well as
Harriet Williams, co founder and vice president of the Village
(00:51):
Micro Fund. How are y'all doing today?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I'm doing great, doing great all things considered.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yes, it's been a week. We'll talk about that out there.
It's been a week.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
But that's why it's so important what you all are
doing though because we got a lot of undercapitalized founders
out here, it could be a challenge trying to you know,
raise money grow a business. So for those that don't know,
what does the Village Micro Fund do?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, so we're a social impact fund and we work
with black founders to teach and invest in them, but
also create alternative investment models because it's like, at the
end of the day, every investment is just a contract
between the investor and investee, and we really haven't like
revisited these contracts in some cases, like in over one
hundred years, and so we need to make contracts that
actually work for us and the people that we serve.
(01:36):
And so, you know, just creating alternative models.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
You know, when you say alternative models, what all does
that mean?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Though, Like it's like, what's the alternative venture capital? It's
the alternative private equity. Like, we don't need more black
vcs and more black private equity because they only work
for like a very small percentage of the population period.
You know, So what actually, how do we get money
to businesses in ways that actually makes sense for our
types of businesses. You know, you're not trying to be
the next uber, you're trying to run your mom pop shop.
(02:03):
You're trying to run you know, whatever businesses you have,
and so we just create like for example, our work
is equity fund. Yeah, it's like the alternative to a
private equity fund. We invest in business and then sell
the shares back to the employees and so that way
it's like actually an employee owned business. They can pay
for that with the profits that they now get from
owning a share of the business. And so just you know,
try our new models.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
No, that's interesting. Now, now what inspired y'all to get
into this work in the first place? Where you're working
in VC before it is just something that you saw
as an opportunity, Like what inspired this work?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I mean, it's a combination from our perspective. We actually
came up with the idea at on Wall Street and
so it was like and turning at gold Miss Sex
kind of saw how money moved up there, and it
was like, Okay, this system actually works really well and
it's doing exactly what it's intended to do. And so
this system works for the people that are up there,
what system actually works for us? And just that kind
(02:54):
of open mind to and then you know, Harriet c
as a whole family.
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Well, yeah, like as black people, we have somebody an auntie,
uncle who is an entrepreneur, like has maybe a food
shop for My family were from the South, so we
had farms and just seeing how when my grandmother got older,
she was unable to tend to the farm. And now
if she had a Village micro Fund, we could have
leveraged and helped her to find other black farmers who
(03:20):
need to do a land lease or whatever so that
she continued to get money. But she had to go
back to work at an older age because she just
wasn't able to work the land anymore. And so there's
a lot of stories, especially with succession, like a lot
of great atls staples like miss Anne's or She and
Trail's like that have disappeared and people loved them.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
I still wish I had a ghetto burger.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
But you know, like when we think about our community
and the people that are really there, like they're just
really good at what they do. They're really good at
making burgers, they're really good at making whatever their their
craft is. But here at Village micro Fund, we just
want to help our businesses to continue to live through
generations and have the resources that they need in education,
that they need outside of just doing what they do well.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, I mean for a lot of small businesses, you know,
getting capital is difficult, and especially we're in a space
where a lot of businesses aren't necessarily considered to be investable, right,
you know, so we talk about these like small businesses,
mom and pop shops, and you know, with these private
equity funds, they want to ten x one hundred x
something and that's not always the case, right, And so
there's kind of this white space, especially in our community,
around people that are just doing good work, that have
(04:27):
a good sustainable company, but they could use that you know,
infusion of cash here and there to kind of help
them achieve that. Now, what are you all seeing is,
you know, I hear a lot about these people that
have been running these businesses and you know now are
kind of getting to the point that we're getting ready
to retire and they're trying to figure out how they
want to hand that down to the next generation. You
got these pe companies trying to come in and scoop
them up. Do you all work with these companies when
they're kind of when the owners are ready to kind
(04:49):
of step away and say, you know, before you go
sell up to somebody else so they go out of business,
here's some other ways that you can kind of continue
this brand or do you all not get to that
part of the business.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
Well that's part of where like the worker's equity fund
can come in. So say, if this is mss Anne's
and there's like a group of workers that are working there,
if of course miss Ann passed away, but say like
perfect scenario, ms Anne was like, I'm tired, i don't
want to work here anymore.
Speaker 5 (05:12):
I'm ready to let it go.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Instead of selling it, which mister Ann never wanted to do,
her workers could buy a share, buy a portion of it,
and then actually be worker owners, and therefore it is
succeeding the business to the workers. But she's still able
to own her share and they're able to own their share.
So it kind of goes to what Dante was saying
about like different types of models. It's not the traditional oh,
(05:34):
we're just going to go find a buyer to come
buy this business, and then that buyer takes all the
culture out, takes all the ways that the business makes money,
and even takes the community care out of it. But
like having people who are already invested in these businesses
be able to invest that work there and care about
the mission of it.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
And did you all learn about those kind of because
I've never heard of that kind of model before personally, Right,
So did you learn about that kind of model with
your work on Wall Street? Did you see another version
that was working for another type of business? Say, this
is how we could apply it? Like, how do you
come up with an idea like the worker's equity fund?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I mean, it's really a combination of things. Private equity
funds exists, cooperatives exists. It's just no one had really
been thinking about how to bring those two things together.
And so a lot of like what you call innovation,
it's taking two old things putting together and now it's
a new thing. Right, So the Worker's Equity Fund was
really just an example of that. It's like, Okay, at
(06:26):
the end of the day, someone has to buy their business,
and who is just buying the business? And what are
their you know, ulterior motives? And it's like it's very
different when you're talking about an investor versus employees. So
it just made sense to us.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Yeah, and when you're looking for businesses that you want
to partner with an investor, Like, how do you evaluate
these types of businesses, because again, they might not have
traditional financials, they might might not follow you know, gap
accounting principles all the time. You know, mom might be
in the back writing stuff in a notebook or something
like that. Right, So, how do you all evaluate these
companies and figure out if they're you know, fundable investable
from the kind of work.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That you all do.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yeah, I mean a lot of that we actually do
through our Flores fellow. So the teaching part is pretty big.
We do evaluate businesses just on like you know, your financials,
but like you said, a lot of them don't actually
have you know, an accountant per se. They're really good
at what they do, they're not necessarily experts in the
back office part. And so one thing that we do
through our class is like, as we're teaching, we really
(07:19):
have an environment where they trust us enough to like
show us really what's under the hood. And so in
that says it's like, yeah, we might be helping them
actually get an accountant, which is why we know essentially,
like when we're looking at their books that what we're
seeing is actually accurate and it's just it's a few processes.
One of the things that we do that is like
(07:41):
when you talk about lending, it's like we talk about
credit scores. Credit scores are generally like lagging indicators of
what's actually seen as investworthy. Because one of the things
that I realized is that some of the best businesses
I know had to be like really stubborn to exist
and doing that, you know, may have messed up to
credit in order to just get money, and as a result,
(08:03):
they're punished for that five years down the line, because
you know, it's really difficult to bring your credit score
up once, you know, so we try not to consider
a lot of the factors that you know, really just
are a result of circumstance and not necessarily indicative of
what you're going into in the future.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
Because most of these businesses have to start with a
credit card. So if you're starting with the credit card,
and you know that businesses usually are in the red
for the first few years, like that credit card statement
might not get paid. They're therefore, your credit by the
time you're now in the black might be a little crazy,
and so now you're trying to get more funding and
your business may be you know at a place to
(08:38):
do that, but your credit score is not, and so
that takes even more time. So like also, I think
one of the things we prot ourselves on is being
culturally competent and knowing what our businesses have to go
through even to get to the points that they're at.
And we learned a lot that we gave out over
two point seventy five million dollars in COVID nineteen relief funds,
and that's when we learned a lot of that because
(08:59):
they're some businesses that were making one point four million
dollars did.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Not have an accountant.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, and so it's just like we're not judging our
businesses by the cover of what it looks like because
we understand the struggle that they have to go through.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's amazing. And you all just celebrated a ten year anniversary, right, Yes,
we did. Congratulations on that. There's probably been a lot
of interesting things that have come out of that that
journey twenty fourteen and twenty fourteen when this got started.
What was your vision is is kind of what it's
manifested into similar to that, or things change a lot
different than what you kind of thought you were doing
back in that time.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I'd say the goals are still the same, the tactics
are different, yeah, you know, just because in the beginning,
it was like, okay, like we want to bank, you know,
because that's what we thought we wanted when we first
you know, came up with this idea, and that just
it was so far from what we actually needed in
order to be effective. So the first few years of
the village is just really trying to see if it
could be helpful, and a lot of the ideas that
(09:55):
we're doing now came out of trying to be helpful.
And so I mean, it's it's still aligned because I
actually looked in my notebook from like literally the first
year and saw a lot of the ideas that were
actually just now you know, getting to kind of implement,
and so yeah, I mean it's in some ways it's similar.
(10:15):
But I don't think we ever saw anything like the
work was Equity Fund or even the decentralized jah Thomas
organization not working on coming out of.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
This, not the doal know, what are y'all doing with
the dolls? And for those don't know, you mean that's
working in crypto and like how are y'all implementing DALs
into the village micro fulk.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, So the ideas like, imagine if your entire neighborhood
could actually share an account, whether you hold like real
estate assets or cashing and just to be a member
of this account, literally the only thing that you had
to do is verify that you live in a neighborhood.
And so we're working with organizations like Annie Casey, who
already invests you know, several million dollars into this neighborhood
Pittsburgh every year, and it's like, what does it look
(10:54):
like if instead of giving it to these nonprofits, you
just give it directly to the neighborhood, allow them to
decide what they actually need that money for. And so
just really you know, keeping transparency and accountability like just
at the forefront because you can see everything in real
time as it moves, and because we're a financial intermediary,
it's like we can just kind of facilitate a lot
(11:15):
of those funds a lot easier over the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
No, it's interesting especially and you know as they kind
of decentralized financial kind of open up new opportunities to
do new and unique things, what's like a really memorable
story of an entrepreneur that's kind of come through the
Village micro fund and had success that kind of comes
to mind.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
My favorite is just sat honey, Okay, your sad honey
there on the belt line near Crock Street. One of
my favorite stories. And Jamel will probably get me for this,
but he so. We have a lot of different businesses
that come through our fifteen week cohort, the Floor Tellowship,
and I remember he came in and he was like,
what are these two young kids going to teach me
about business?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
That sounds like.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And so you know, but he was like, I'm to
be here and I'm going to see what it's about.
By the end of the cohort, this man was like,
this is the best program that I've ever experienced.
Speaker 5 (12:06):
It was amazing.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
And some of the things that he said that he
realized that was necessary was one being vulnerable, like a
lot of times when we talk about business, a lot
of people have had business ideas stolen from them that
you know, it's been volatile for them. But we create
a place where businesses can really say, hey, like I'm
having this problem at this stage of business. Have you
all experienced that? And others being able to say hey,
(12:28):
use this, Hey let's collaborate here. I can help you
with this. Oh you need help with your website. I
got this after we have our session. So it gives
businesses a chance to work not only in their business
but on their business, which when you're an entrepreneur, you
don't have time sometimes to step away and say hey,
I need to do these things to improve. And so
just Ad Honey went into the cohort right before Covid
(12:48):
and one of their main things that they were working
on was their website to get online orders. Well, Covid
happens like six months later, and so they were like,
we're so thankful that we had time to work on
our website because now we're geared up. And they were
able to create these parties in a box concepts where
people were able to zoom and have parties all over
(13:09):
the nation.
Speaker 5 (13:10):
And so that's just an example.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Of how like our cohort like it's just really organic
and we're able to help people in ways and set
them up to think outside the box in ways that
they didn't even know were necessary until the time comes.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
So that's it, and we were able to check.
Speaker 4 (13:25):
Yes, we were able to help provide them COVID nineteen
relief grants and then also partner them with access to
Capital for entrepreneurs ACE, which is another funder. They were
able to get a character grant from them, so they
were able to get some money as well.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
That's important.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I Mean one of the things you kind of hear
a lot of times, especially when it comes to like
black owned businesses, is the idea that we're kind of
over mentored and undercapitalized. Could both the mentorship element and
the capital element, you know, it's kind of that, you know,
that kind of like Barbeille approach right where you kind
of lift them up on both sides. Now with the
flourished fellowship, like what exactly does that cover over fifteen weeks?
Like what are they working on?
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, we hit everything. So it's like we start
off with the business model canvas. It's like a one
page business plan. So I like that because it's visual
in the sense that if you are kind of like
lacking in one space, you can literally see on the
paper it's a blank space. And so as we go
through that, we hit on everything from finance, to marketing,
to branding to you know, what doesn't mean the fundraise
(14:35):
how to actually do public speaking and all that, and
so we also take our partners bring them in. We
have people that you know, can essentially like purchase from
some of these larger organizations. We also have mentors that
come in through a mentorship dinner, and we connect every
entrepreneur with an entrepreneur also in their space doing the work.
We have funders come in and speak to them, whether
(14:57):
it be invest Atlanta, whether it be a VC, or
whether it be an actual bank, you know, and so
we just kind of show them the entire suite of services.
And as we're working with them, we're also learning their
business so we know specifically what they need and we
can match them with the resources they need.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
That's great, that's great. How do y'all measure success when
you kind of work with these businesses?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Like they go through and what are some of the
factors that you all look at?
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I mean the simplest is like do they make more
money money to make account but also like do they
bring on employees? And with our most recent cohort, we
did this in partnership with Walmart, So we had about
twenty businesses go through. All of them had products with
the goal of actually getting into Walmart, and you know
Walmart dot com is a step before you can do that.
(15:42):
But two of our businesses actually got into Walmart. Yeah,
so you know one was Kindred Papers and Color Chrome
and so yeah, I mean those are obviously whens. When
other people invest in our businesses that we kind of
took a chance on when no one else would, that's
all one for us.
Speaker 5 (16:02):
And when they collaborate, when they collaborate.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
So last night at our ten year anniversary, just businesses
were coming up to me and just talking about like
I gained.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
A network of people that I work with.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I was able to use such and such to help
me get my website together. I was able to Maki
with black Space. He actually met his developer through our
like a reunion that we had from another cohort. So
like just being able to connect the dots for the
needs that our businesses need and they know that they've
(16:34):
been vetted by us, So it's a safer bet than
just finding somebody off the street to do those services.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
No.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
I mean, look, entrepreneurship is lonely and and to your point,
a lot of times it's so referral based. There was
a time a previous down long, long, long time ago,
long time ago, Like my background was actually in software development,
web development, and so there was actually a point at
which I actually opened up what I called the website Shop.
It was a series of brick and mortar web design stores.
I literally put them in malls and you can reletally
(17:01):
walk in and pretty much order a website like you
could order anything else, and we basically build it over
a couple of weeks. But what I realized was it
was such a referral based business, like where do you
go find a web person? Where do you go find
a webit? Like it's all I know a guy that
did it, or I know somebody. Because again, people have
these big dreams and aspirations for like building websites and apps.
They don't really understand what it really takes to build something.
(17:22):
And so that's why I tell people, that's how you
get ripped off. You know, you think you think you're
gona build the next Facebook for a thousand bucks. I'm
gonna tell you right now, bro, if somebody's taking that
money from you, you're never gonna see them again.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
And so that was what the idea for the website
shop came about.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Right, It's like people didn't know where to look, and
so I can definitely understand the importance of a network
because entrepreneurship is lonely, you know. I guess one of
my questions is is, like what's it like for you
all on the other side of that, Like you're mentaling
these businesses, but like what kind of you know, challenges
that you all run into as the co founders of
the Village micro.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Fund all the same things, all the same things. A
part of our cohort is actually we have a class
called Founder stre We actually have a you know, license
therapist come in and speak and just do group therapy
and a lot of what the entrepreneurs say is there
things that we experience ourselves. It's like, you know, we're
teaching people how to fundraise, we're also fundraising. When it
(18:15):
comes to you know, essentially having to talk to funders
and having to talk to employees, you have to act
like you know what's going on. You have to act
like you have it all together, and that's not always
the case. It's just anyone who's been an entrepreneurship before
knows that you're constantly just trying to figure things out.
And so I mean we run into.
Speaker 4 (18:34):
A lot of things and the growing pains and the
volatility of business. Like I think there's also this misconception that, oh,
you're going to become an entrepreneur and then when you
make your first million, like you're there and it's all.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
No baby, like that millions can go out greatest.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
So it's just like the real like roller coaster of
entrepreneurship has definitely been something that has has been quite
eye opening.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, I tell people all the time, it's like y'all
got to understand overhead, like you can make a million dollars,
you can also spend a million dollars making that million
dollars and like not make anything. And I think, yeah,
we we we hear about these numbers. We hear about
the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world, and everybody thinks it
is that, But there's so many opportunities in between those things.
That was the biggest thing I learned when I got
(19:21):
my NBA. Like I remember, I used to think, you know,
because I went to Georgia Tech. I used to think
that like I had to build the next big web thing.
And when the biggest thing I came out of grad
school realizing was business is business and so I don't
care if it's a long long hair company. I don't
care if it's a you know, private services company. Right,
there's so many different ways that you can kind of
build things and kind of create value.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But in a city like Atlanta, where culture is at
the forefront of we always say culture is this Atlanta's
number on next port?
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Atlanta influences everything.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Atlanta has culture, Like, how do you all integrate like
the Atlanta culture and leverage that into what you all
are doing with these businesses. I mean, I'm guessing you
at least I'm guessing you at least got limit pepper Wings.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
At the ten yearniversary, we have.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
We have black owned beer. We didn't there were no
Ways present. There are no Wings present, Yes there was.
I mean, I guess it even goes with our curriculum.
So we do have a curriculum that we wrote for
our Flourished Fellowship, and we feature stories from our entrepreneurs
to just give examples of how business different business principles.
(20:24):
So we make sure we pour back into the village
and everything is cyclical, so you are mentored by people
that are already here in Atlanta. Ironically, I feel like
most of our businesses, most of the people are actually
either natives or or have been here for a substantial
amount of time, which is not always the case because
everybody's moving here every day. We are no, we are
(20:46):
full Brandon, that is correct, but just making sure, like
to the point that you said, like business oftentimes can
be very seen in a very white lens, and so
trying to educate and and support businesses in a black
lens where it's easier for them to understand. And then
we're also we do field trips around Atlanta to different
(21:07):
black businesses, Like we just really want to immerse you
into like what it looks like and create these connections
and networks that are necessary. I think that's the Atlanta way.
And we always do it over foods, so that's definitely cultural.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, I mean at the graduation, it's like the cupca
Atlanta business, black on Atlanta business. To beer was a
Black on Atlanta business, the pizza was a Black on
Atlanta business, the cards or black on Atlanta business. So
like literally every part of when we plan events are
like intentional, intentional.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, but even beyond Atlanta. I know you all also
mentioned there. You know you just got back from Africa
and you're thinking about looking to expand, like how does
the mission of the Village micro fund start to expand globally?
Like what other opportunities exists beyond Atlanta based on you all.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
So it's really about connecting the diaspora. So one of
the things that we've learned in our research and our
travels in the last two years is that black people
are negatively impacted worldwide. It's not just in America, And
there's a lot of parallelism between our struggles. There's really
no safe place for a black person in the world.
Africa is probably the safest, but still it's not There's
(22:08):
really no safe place. And so it's just like, how
do we leverage the collective struggles that we all have
internationally to help each other and grow successful businesses and
create these pathways. And I think if we see that
we have more in common then we have different and
different culturally that we can really make a difference and
(22:29):
make some serious money and also change our communities.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, Like when people are thinking about international business, it's
always like europeer Asia and it's like okay one and
a lot of Asian companies actually get their things from
Africa in the first place, So it's just kind of
adding a middleman. It's like, why don't we just start there?
And so you have, you know, on this side, we
have just that honey a tea company, and then on
the South African side we have royvs. Tea farmer, you know.
(22:57):
And if we can connect the dots and make it
make sense for both parties, it's just like they get
a new customer base and access to new markets, and
they get the products that they need at actual process affordable. Yeah,
And so just creating as many relationships like that as
possible and kind of doing what we're doing over here
over there and making sure our entrepreneurs know each other.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
What's the biggest misconception about micro funding? Because again I
think when people here, you know, I don't want people
to think that these are like y'allin' cutting hundred.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Dollars checks, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So sometimes I feel like even the name is a
little you know, misdirection in a certain element, right, But
like when people think about it or what you all
have learned, like what do you think people don't fully
understand about micro funding specific to what you all do
for me?
Speaker 4 (23:37):
I think it's just like how early that is needed,
like our average loan size, And we're applying now to
become a CDFI to give larger loans and also changing
our name so we won't be micro fund anymore, be
VMF collective. But just realizing that fifteen thousand dollars might
be really necessary to jump start a business at the
(23:59):
very beginning. That might help you to get the supplies necessary,
to have someone to help you to make whatever your
product is, or even just to get a space. Unfortunately,
the thing that we've learned over time and especially with
this economy is micro loans just don't cut anymore. K
goes out the door quickly, very quickly, and so that's
(24:22):
why us becoming a CDIFI and having larger loans, we're
able to help businesses in a bigger way in the beginning.
Because for me, one of my dreams personally is I
want businesses to be able to walk in you know
how you have a dream, but like as a black business,
sometimes you have to kind of piece meal it together. Yeah,
like I want if you're like Harriet, come on, I
(24:43):
want to do X, y Z And this is my
big dream. I want to say Okay, Brandon, Well, here
here's five million dollars.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
That's this.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
We're gonna help you budget. We're gonna give you mentors
all the resources you need. You're gonna need this five
million dollars to complete your whole dream. We're not gonna
give you one hundred thousand. And you're gonna do this
little part and the you're gonna come back and do
this this second phase and third phase and fourth phase.
I dream for our businesses to be able to do
it all in one one step. Because other businesses fortune
five hundred companies when they started, they were able to
(25:12):
do that with investments from different sources, and I think
that's kind of what's missing. So changing the thought of
micro funds to larger loans to really afford businesses the
opportunity to dream and have their dreams actualized in one phase.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Here, I need five million dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So funny though, Like I was having a conversation with
a Jay Bailey, CEO of Russell's Center for Entrepreneurs, and
(25:51):
he kind of said the same thing to me because
he was asked me about some stuff, and you know,
I was telling him it's about some plans I had
and literally said, you're thinking too small.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Man.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
He was like, you know you if you're not thinking five, ten,
fifteen million dollars, Like he's like, that's the kind of
stuff that you deserve. So I think even just getting
businesses to even be comfortable and understanding, like that's really
what it kind of takes, right, Like there's a little
bit of a perception of like, maybe that's too much,
but when you really think about what it takes to
do business and grow and scale and be competitive and
and to the point you also made about employees, but
(26:18):
it's like over ninety percent, ninety five percent of black
businesses have like what one employer or less or something
like that, zero one employees, right, Like, so you know,
not only just that, but you're able to, you know,
employ people that can also impact neighborhoods. I think that's
a big thing that I even notice, and you know,
I'm not gonna get into policing and all that stuff
right now, but I notice how again people come and
they work in certain areas, they take that they take
(26:39):
that money and that revenue back to other neighborhoods. Right.
So it's important that these black businesses do not only
sustain but are able to employ people that can live
in the neighborhoods and you know, support of the businesses
and kind of grow like that and kind of keep
things going.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Cause it's going to take that same effort to get
one hundred thousand dollars to get five million, So you
might as well for your effort get the check that
you need.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Like the way you think, like the way you think,
what's a what's what's the challenge you all didn't expect
to anticipate, you know, when you're all launching this thing
back in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
This latest change of a financial environment, the Black Blackness.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
The Affirmative Action lawsuit, and the Fearless Fund that followed
right after that, Oh yeah, completely changed funding environment.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
It went from money raining from the sky.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah, basically George flood happened, Like there was so much
money for black organizations and so much.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Like there's a lot of money promised to black orders, a.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Lot of money promised to blacks. Yeah actually, and so
just yeah, following that, the fact that so many of
our sponsors, so many of our funders, are just not
for of being sued. It just this might be the
worst funding environment that I've experienced since I've been a founder,
and so you don't really predict things like that, and
(28:02):
how things like that can kind of, you know, put
shackles on the mission a little bit, because it went
from everything being like, Okay, we want to invest in
black businesses to not like the hot things climate change,
and now I was like, okay, the president got in,
so now climate change might be you know, to you too.
And so the way that money flows is a lot
(28:22):
of times it is influenced by trends and you don't
you can't really predict those in the same way that
you can kind of predict business actions. And so that's
that's been surprising for me. What would you say?
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I mean, I would say the same thing even pre
George Floyd, Like, we never really had a problem with fundraising,
and so this new environment has really caused it to
be a problem because I remember we had a strategic
session and for the first time we were really proud
to say that we serve black people and like black
with a capital B, like real strong, right, And so
(28:56):
now to be in this environment and that is criminal almost.
It's just like how do you continue your mission without
betraying the people.
Speaker 5 (29:05):
That you care about?
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (29:08):
And of course you're going to still we're still going
to do black things. We're black, we're pro black, whatever
you want to say. But it's like, now there's a
potential legal ramifications that come with that capital be black.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
It's like, how do you still get the money that
you need to actually help people without morphin or organization?
And it's something that it is. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
I mean yeah, I mean well, even so you're saying
about the kind of the change in the types of
things that people want to invest in. When you all
look at that kind of stuff, does that make you
think more about the types of businesses that you want
to bring into the fund Because, like we talked about
in the beginning, a lot of these businesses are local
mount and pop shops.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
There's small businesses.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
But at the same time, we know AI is hot
right now, right, So are you all also kind of
coaching these businesses to say, let's integrate some of these
other elements into what you're doing to help make you
more attractive and more fundable. Is like part of the
consideration or is it still let's kind of stay focused
on helping a certain kind of company.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
It is a bit of both, because on one hand,
it's like those tools are tools that could help your
business grow exponentially. It's like, if you aren't using AI
for your business, you probably should be. Yeah, and the
people that you know really don't adapt to that are
generally the people that are left behind. So that piece
is important. But also at the same time, it's like, again,
(30:27):
we don't want to kind of morph our business into
something different just because of what's a trend at the moment.
And so you know, still working with the businesses that
we work with, but just applying them with the tools
that you know, come with the times cools.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
You know, what, how do you see you know, village
micro fund now, but VMF collective, you know, how do
you see that you know, kind of contributing to the
landscape for Land's businesses over the next five to ten years.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
Well one definitely helping retail business and service businesses with
their supply chain. So we talked about Africa before, but
really thinking outside of the box to help businesses to
grow in a more intentional way. Things that we've learned
is recently that retail, big mass retail can kill a
business quickly, right, yes, And I think that's a common
(31:13):
misconception because if you know you hear oh I got
into Target, it's like, oh, this is amazing, and it
is amazing. It's an amazing opportunity, but there's a lot
of pitfalls and black holes that are associated with that.
That again when we talk about we're really good at
what we do, but we don't always have the education surrounding.
So being intentional about helping black businesses to successfully scale
(31:34):
to a point where they can do mass retail or
even like increase their visibility nationally and internationally, but having
those coaches and that education that's coupled with that to
make sure everything is set up so the numbers make
sense so that you know, Okay, we're going to go
with a distributor, or we're going to go this route
because we don't want you to end up having to
pay these fees that could then you realize that you
(31:56):
need to have a million dollars on cash flow in
in hand to make sure you can get these purchase orders.
So I just see us continuing to think outside the
box and create these outside alternatives, including the workers that
could be fun making sure our businesses are able to
continue long term. We have a lot of boomers in
(32:17):
our community, and soon they're going to want to retire,
but we still want these businesses around, so helping to
educate them on like hey, like you can still sell
portions of your business and still be a part of it,
but like this happens.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
This is helpful for if you get sick, or if you.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Just say one day, I'm tired and I don't want
to go to work anymore. Just creating those communications and
options so that our businesses can continue to see past
one or two generations.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I was listening to something
a couple of weeks ago, and it was kind of
talking about, like, how do you build one hundred year business?
You know, I think again, like a lot of times, yeah,
we don't think past one generation. But yeah, that's where
that's where generational wealth comes from. Ye right, It's not
just me doing something, it's you know, how can I
pass this down, make this available or at least the
resources from it available for my you know, my my
(33:04):
kids kids and in those generations.
Speaker 4 (33:06):
Right, Because when you think about it, like and this
is our story as well, a lot of black businesses
are created out of need. Someone got laid off, they
needed to make some cookies. We don't always have the
opportunity to just work in corporate America and dream up
a business.
Speaker 5 (33:22):
Oh I'm gonna quit and I'm going.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
To create this amazing tech company that I've created in
my mind and I have the capital and all. No,
it's I got laid off. I got to pay my
mortgage or rent. And on the first I'm really good
at baking, I'm really good at making a craftable item.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Let me do that.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
Let me try to hustle some money together so I
can pay my bills. And then oftentimes that ends up
being wildly successful and you're like, Okay, we can create
a business. But that's how it was started. It wasn't
started off of a just dream.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Insight, right, It wasn't started off like doing this insight research.
And it's like, man, I was just trying to pay
some bills, exactly.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Staate like this whole moment, y'all.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
As y'all look back over, you know, the journey with
the micro fund, Like, what are kind of the top
two or three lessons that y'all have learned to kind
of God, how you do work now?
Speaker 5 (34:12):
Fire quickly, fire quickly immediately.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
I agree, that is definitely any other ones. Is that one, two, and.
Speaker 6 (34:26):
Three as such as a story behind it?
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Well, I mean to that point, I won't go into
the story, but to that point, as a smaller organization,
the culture of your company is very important, absolutely, and
you realize that your your human capital is also very important.
So if you have someone who is not either contributing
or is almost like a cancer within your your organization,
it kills your organization quick Yeah. So as a small
(35:06):
business owner, you have to fire quickly because otherwise if
you let that fester, it's like an infection. You look
up two years from now and you're like, I should
have just let them go because now we have all
these problems.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, and even something I've learned again because a lot
of you know, small businesses a lot of times are
getting started. You're kind of hiring who you can hire,
who's available. It's a friend, or it's just I don't
have that much money, and so this is the person
that will kind of help me out at that moment,
and that might not be the right person, right, Like,
you know, I had a Jasmine cron here and she
kind of said, it's like, you have the team that
got you to a million, probably might not be a
(35:39):
team to gets you to ten million, and you just
got to have those honest conversations about you know, how
do I edit the team and put the right people
on the field, and you know and understand, like again, everybody,
you know, every every person in the organization, nobody's gonna
be there forever.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
Yeah, It's like just because they were the first one
in the department doesn't mean that they're the department.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
Had, right, Yeah, and people even haveing like you know,
except that from a pride standpoint. You know, I've seen
again I've been in an organization. I mean I actually
have I'm a partner in another company. If we've experienced
that same thing too, right, where you have a person
come in early and they're great for certain things, but
at a certain point you need other skill sets and
so now you have to bring in somebody above that person.
And now you got to go talk to them and say, look,
I know you were here in the beginning, but like
(36:19):
we need another skill set and that person's gonna come
in more senior than you, right, So is this something
we're gonna be able to work There's gonna be a problem,
or we're gonna be able to work through this and again,
just managing people. My mom would always tell me, and
I didn't realize how I got older, She's like, if
you don't have to manage people, don't manage people. And
I can see now say, oh why because people going people.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Every single time, every single everything.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
You can have empathy, but you also need strong boundaries.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
Yeah, bounty all right, extremely important?
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Yeah, I mean again, and that goes back and speaks
to just the culture of a business. Like I said,
it's it's it's really interesting. Again, people don't realize these
are the things like you can have a great product,
you can have you know, clients and all that stuff,
but to your point, you know, having the right team
or not be able to find the right team or
you know what I mean, it could be just as
detrimental as not making any money, you know exactly.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
And the culture starts even before you have the team. Yes,
I either culture started with us, you know, so we
had to figure out our stuff and then we had
to you know, pass it on to the team.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
Absolutely absolutely, But look, man, this has been amazing. Before
we get out of here, how can people learn more
about The Village micro Fund soon to be changed to
VMF Collective yes, Brandon, you know, but how can they
find out more about this and get involved and you know,
reach out to you all if they're looking for support, Well.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
You can follow us on Instagram at Village micro Fund.
You can go on our website village micro fund dot com.
We have like an inquiry form that you can fill
out there so we can be in contact with you.
Look forward to our next flourished fellowship will be which
will be next fall, so applications will drop next summer.
It'll be exciting to see who we partner with, so
(37:53):
maybe this time it will be a Wi Well formerly
a Wi Kindred Futures in Walmart or who else.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
And also look forward to the dow which should be
popping up and on the neighborhood near you, most likely
mpub and t okay. I'm in the coming next year
quarter one, so January through March, well not January through March,
but starting next year.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
All right, Well, look, congratulations on all y'all accomplished. Congratulations
on ten years. I mean that's a huge accomplishment. We
can't wait to see what happens over the next ten
years and beyond. And you know, y'all doing amazing work.
So thank you for all the stuff y'all doing around
Atlanta and now soon to be globally. Yes, you know again,
we everybody appreciates it, and I know the companies that
(38:35):
you all work with really appreciative of it too, So.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Thank you all for that, and thank you all for
coming out.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Thank you for having us, appreciuch you for having us.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
And that's the pod we out.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
You've been listing the buttter Nomics and I'm your host,
Brandon Butler. Comments feedback. Want to be a part of
the show, send us an email today at hello at
butterdomics dot com. Butter Nomics is produced in Atlanta, Georgia
at iHeartMedia by Ramsey, with acting support from Queen and Nike.
Music provided by mister Hankey. If you haven't already, hit
that subscribe button and never missed an episode, and be
(39:07):
sure to follow us on all our social platforms at
butter dot at l. Listen to button NoMix on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (39:16):
O
Host
Brandon Butler
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