Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John Hobryant, a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey Hey, Hey,
this is John Hope Bryant of Money and Wealth podcast
(00:20):
series Season two. I want to thank everybody for making
this a top one hundred podcasts in the country, as
well as a top fifty podcast that's for business on
Apple and other platforms, the top fifty podcasts for entrepreneurship
that's amongst all categories. By the way, hey, people and
(00:41):
races and places. It's also been a hit internationally on
every continent, So I want to thank everybody for helping
us to get there on this silver rights movement in
the third reconstruction, taking people from the streets to the suites,
helping the unpack capitalism and free enterprise and help people
to do for themselves. It's the James Brown version of
(01:03):
affirmative action. Open a door, I'll get it my damnself.
Is the theme of the approach that I take of
giving you the tools to empower yourself to change your
own life, not have to wait for somebody else at
A friend of mine, CEO of Key Bank, once told
(01:25):
me that the only true freedom was financial freedom. That
every other freedom could be taken from you, and that
once you have financial freedom, unless you screw it up,
it is yours for life. That's what this podcast series
is about to set you free, to give you the
tools to be free in self determination. I'm going to
thank the Black Effect Network and iHeartRadio for their partnership here.
(01:48):
And we have a very special guest today, a friend
of mine, a bad, bad brother and in the normal
sense he'd be a bad brother because if you're black
in America, you got to get up twice as be
out of you, twice as intelligent, twice as smart, get
up twice as early a or twice as hard, stay
(02:09):
up twice as late to get half of the deserve rewards.
And you're born on probation in America if you're black,
and no one can feel bad about that because that
just puts a weight on your show.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You just get to the business.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But when you're from Africa, on top of the fact
that you're a person of color in America, it could
be even tougher because you're coming into an environment where
you don't know the rules, where you don't have friends,
you don't have relationship capital. You might have self esteem
because Africa have generally speaking, intact families, and you see
(02:45):
people around you who are aspiring, who look like you,
but you may have less confidence. Less confidence because you're
coming to the biggest economy on the planet where people
are hyper competitive, and you have nothing to play with,
no toys, no resources, no inherited wealth. No body's gonna
give you an internship or apprenticeship or a It starts
(03:08):
you out on second base basically through inheritance or through
again relationship capital. Because if you hang around nine broke people,
you'll be the tenth. And the opposite is also true.
So this individual is unique and singular.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
His name.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Is going to be famous one of these days, I
predict as an entrepreneur up from nothing. His name is
Memo Abbe. If I say that Nigerian pronunciation where Memo,
He's gonna correct me. If I don't get it right,
Where Memo Abbe? Did I get that close to right?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You got it?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
John, We got to welcome you to the euro about
culture in Nigeria. You know I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I got my African bracelets on.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
By the way, Nelson Mandela's prison numbers here, I got
my I wear it every day. He's a founder, co founder.
We're gonna give credit to his co founder. He's the
co founder of a company called is Susu, which he's
gonna explain where that comes from, where that name comes from.
And this podcast is important because now you're gonna see
(04:18):
somebody other than me who's gone from nothing, literally nothing
from and I won't argue actually worse you know, circumstances
than me. You'll explain it to the building. Hold on now, audience,
listen to me building a one billion dollar valuation company
(04:38):
that's right from nothing, literally a small African village, literally
coming here with the shirt on his back.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Again.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We're gonna unpack this and explain it, or my dad
would say, explain it. We're gonna explain this in details
so that no one's unclear what he went through, how
he got here. I don't want any excuses from anybody
of what they cannot do. Once this podcast is over,
he's going to unpack his entire story.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And now the company that you probably have never.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Heard of before today because it's business to business in
many ways. He's a business doing business with other businesses
and with governments, is not necessarily retail focused. But this
company you've never heard of. Maybe Issusu now has a
valuation on market on Wall Street, in market in the
marketplace of institutional investments of one billion dollars plus. Investors
(05:36):
are rewarding him for building a great enterprise. So this
topic today is from immigrant hustle to unicorn impact, how
to build a billion dollar business in a decade. Please
join me and welcome me, my good friend. When me
(05:56):
mo at Bay said properly in Nigerian diet.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You got it, you got it? Well, thanks a lot, John.
It's such a joy to be here today. And first stuff,
thank you for the work that you do for the community,
not just rhetoric, keeping it real and giving us a
pathway and above all a playbook to be successful in
any environment in this country. So it's really excited to
(06:24):
be here. And you know, share my story how I
did it, and the collective and the village, including people
like you that essentially made this happen.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He gives me outsize and probably undue credit. He keeps
saying that I helped inspire this business, et cetera, et cetera,
And we've hired them. We hired them actually at the
company I used to own that I've since sold the
built from zero one hundred and fifty million dollars, which
was the Promise Homes company. We hired him there and
(06:55):
then we partnered with them in Operation Hope. But we
tell you how good a business plan is. Businessman has
got is he says, oh John, you did this, you
did that, and you know, my got my heart all
open up and whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And he's the humble businessman. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So my speaking fee is about fifty grand and I
lose money and I go give speak to see I
got to make three hundred thousand svears a day for
my enterprises, three three fifty. But you know when I
accepted a commercial speaking fee and then expenses all that stuff, Well,
when me MO has gotten me twice for free.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And I don't mean when he was starting. I don't
mean like back in the day when he was hustling.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I mean recently, because oh John's oh child, he's oh
my god, you helping people? Oh oh yeah, yeah, I
guess I am, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, what date.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But it's been a pleasure. I'm inspired every time I
have gone to show up at one of his meetings.
I wanted to, frankly, all seriousness. I wanted to pour
into him, to invest into him, to let people know
how backed him, to try to explain what, to brag
on him in ways he could not brag on himself,
(08:09):
To explain to people why this is a good investment,
the one they made, the one they still need to make.
You know, somebody once told me, mem that the whole
purpose of power is to collect it so that you
can intelligently and smartly give it away.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So any power or influence that I might.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Have, I am honored to use it, whether it's through
Operation Hope or some little church that cand of afford
to have a guy like me to show up, or
a nonprofit group, or somebody who's truly just striving. Now,
if you're commercial enterprise, you're a for profit business, that's
a different thing. That's capitalism is a gladiator sport. Business
is not personal. They should pay, But I speak for
(08:51):
a fees, So he then afford to speak for free right,
and you give back in the same way you come
and speak at our annual meeting. You've never ever me
and all the rest of my you and all the
rest of my friends, I might add, never asked, never
send me a bill, never set me eve an expense report.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Here to show up and do the thing, and I
thank you for that. And we've never.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Even talked about this is just just an unspoken thing
between friends and people who made it. Like like service
is the wrint you pay on the success you get
to society get me back is the wrint you pay
on the sense that you get. So let's talk about
the thing that I'm impressed most about you is your spirit,
(09:33):
your your authenticity, my senses comes from mom and maybe Dad,
but certainly family.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Talk to us.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Explain your upbringing from Africa and what that was like,
how old were you, what's the situation and circumstances. Tell
us about your parents, and then let's get into what
came next. How the heck did you get here?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Absolutely, John, I grew up in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria.
I lost my father at the age of two, and
I was raised by my mother and two very spirited sisters.
Just to give you and paint a picture, and now
I grew up. I didn't have television or electricity for
the first seven years of my life. We didn't have
(10:22):
running toilets or running water. But one thing my mother
believed in despite all this destitution of our social position
was education. She wasn't going to compromise on education. She
worked at the post office for over twenty one years.
She poured into me and made sure I went to
one of the best high schools in Nigeria. So when
(10:43):
I went to that high school and I saw all
the kids in my high school going to the US,
going to Europe, and I saw that in some cases
they had better grades than some of them, I said,
I could do what they're doing. They don't have two heads,
they don't have four eyes, with hard walk passeiverance. Even
if I don't have all the things they have, I
(11:05):
could get at head. So at the age of fifteen
and alf going to my sixteenth birthday, I got into university,
one of the best universities in Nigeria. I said no,
because those other kids were going to the United States
and Europe. I went in to study. I self studied
the staties. I had to learn American English, which is
(11:25):
different from British English. Asked, went to the embassy and
applied to the University of Minnesota and guardian and I
immigrated from eighty degree weather in Legos, I'd never since
snow in my life to negative twenty two degrees in Minnesota. Wow,
(11:46):
which was a catterbuting experience.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And but let's back up for a minute. How did you?
How did you? It wasn't she for your mother to
get you, to put you through school?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It was, by the way, for those who are listening
to this versus getting a vision, you'll love way. Men, Mo,
He's not We're not talking about an eighty year old
guy here. We're not talking about this has happened, you know,
sixty years ago when he says that it was no
running water, no electricity, no proper toilets. We're talking about
you know, post two thousand.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Right, yeah, yeah, this is to twenty twenty one, twenty
twenty two. This is recent recently. Yeah wait what so
holding back up, back, slow down, Wait a minute. What
year did you come from? Nigeria? Two thousand and nine, two.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Thousand and nine. Yes, okay, everybody listening to this enough
with excuses. Racism is like rain is either is either
gathering somewhere or it's falling, So you might as well
get out an umbrella and a color of your light
and start strolling through it because it's not going to change.
(12:50):
So you must. This guy just told you.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I thought he's gonna say two thousand and two, two
thousand and five, two thousand, correct me.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
No, Johnny was nineteen, late nineteen, you know, No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
No, he said, this was you know, this is very recently,
two thousand in a, two thousand and nine, twenty ten,
the last fifteen years. He wasn't even here. Nobody his
family was here, right, and he's killed it. He's killing
the game. We'll give it that in a minute. So
mother worked at the post office. All right, you guys
(13:23):
lived essentially in what they call in South Africa shanty
a shanty town.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I don't know what they call him in Nigeria, just
the slums, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, And how.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Did you get a how did you get a plane
ticket and a plan to America?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Was that also? It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
My mom was upsets with me because I didn't want
to go to the local university, because that's what they've
walked on all day lives. But I had a bigger dream.
I had a bigger ambition because all the kids in
my high school were going and I thought I was smart,
I could operate on the same level. So one of
the things I did to save to come here. I
(14:04):
got on a six hundred dollar Kata Airlines ticket from Nigeria,
which is the cheapest one. It took me twenty nine
hours to fly to America because I had to go
on a layovera and Doah. The way I got that
six hundred plus dollars was, you know, church members helped.
I also used to help drill wells, so in Nigeria
(14:27):
it's very mechanical. You take a shovel, someone is drilling
and someone is taking the sand out. So I did
manual label to contribute to my ticket. Church members helped,
family members helped. And that's the power of collectivism. It's
the power of the fact that I am who I
am because of who we all are. I am not
(14:49):
just alone. I stand on the shoulders of so many,
including my mother, people like you, John, and others that
have sacrificed for me to be where I am. So
that's how I came here. They didn't come lane. It
was twenty plus twenty four hours plus flights, but I
was just excited to be here. I'm contributing my own
humble cordet to this country.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So breaking this into pieces, I want the audience to
learn the lesson of up from nothing and mindset that
his mother was broke, but she wasn't poor.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
To be broke was economic.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
To be poor as a disabling frame of mind, depressed
condition of your spirit. You must vow never ever ever
to be poor again. That's something we say at Operation
Hope all the time. My mother taught me because she
told me she loved me every day in my life,
so I can we have that in common. And my
mother didn't agree with my entrepreneurial pursuit. She wanted me
to get a safe job so that she wanted to
(15:53):
worry about me. But I had a bigger dream, just
like you did, and I decided to take to bet
on me just like you did.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Have a lot of parallels in this story.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
But when people talking about collective economics, I want to
get this straight, they're not talking about the output. They're
talking about the input. Collective economics works only on the input.
In other words, he's just told you he didn't have
enough money to get that airplane ticket and to get
the apartment or whatever for the first month. So the
church member, the family members, the friends, they believed.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
In the dream.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So collective economics, please listen to me. Everybody collected economics participated. Again,
I say every good relationship was where two plus two
equals six, eight or ten. Is it's multiplication not addition.
They there's a little bit, little bit, little bit little
bit here came created a lot of it. They bought
his ticket, they helped him, they invested in him. They
(16:49):
were the venture capital investment in him. But the output
of that had to be him. So in other words,
if you try to take collecting economics to put it
on the back end, and now you've got twenty bosses
trying to run an enterprise and nobody knows what they're doing,
(17:10):
or half of them don't, you're going in different directions
with the best of intentions. The Bible says a house
divided cannot stand. You cannot have fifty bosses, you cannot
have fifty visions. So collective economics as a operating structure,
like if I had a camel is a horse designed
(17:30):
by committee. A cameral is a horse designed by committee.
You cannot have a committee in an executive lead. You
need to make crisp decisions and move on them. And
somebody's got to vet the farm on a vision. So
they collectively put their economics together resources to invest in
(17:53):
a singular product, and then they let him go pursue
a dream that they didn't understand. Right, they believed in it,
but didn't really understand it. So audience, don't be romantic
about economics in business. Business is not personal capitalism in
the Gladator sport, Collective economics is the input.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
More than the output.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right now, by the way, you can have after he
makes his money and builds his wealth and we continue
hope he continues to do very well. He wasn't create
a foundation the E Susu Foundation or the Memo Abbey
Foundation or his mother and his mother's name or something,
and then collectively the community that invested in him can
get back together on the committee or on the board
if he likes to figure out where to collectively invest
(18:38):
resources in philanthropy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But that's after you made the wealth.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So now you've gotten to America and you would from
one of the hottest places in the world to one
of the codes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So I came I never since snow before. I came
here with a three piece suits to conquer America, and
I got into negative twenty two degrees. I thought people
were living in a freezer. But I was just so
grateful to be part of this society because I had
read and see what was possible. But then real life started.
(19:17):
I wanted to go to college at the University of Minnesota.
I had gotten I was really excited. And as international students,
you don't get pel grants. We didn't get financial aid.
You have to pay every dollar out of pocket. So
my mother and I went to a bank to borrow money.
The bank, not because they are racist. I want to
(19:39):
make sure this is Claire, denied us because we didn't
have a credit score. We didn't have the financial identity
in America, which is the most important three digits number
to get financing. We didn't have it, and rightfully, so
they said no to us, and we had to go
borrow money from a predatory at over four hundred percent
(20:02):
interest rate. My mother sold my dad's wedding rink again.
A new church in Minnesota poured into us. Church members
borrowed us money and that's how we got started. For
me to go to my first semester of college in
this great country, right looked like the story. So when
(20:23):
I got to college, I learned a lot about myself.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
It was incredibly cold at never since snow. People helped
me out, you know, both black, white, Asian Latino. Everyone
was just there and that's the true genius. And that's
what's special about this country. Ask and I shall be
giving on to you. I did crazy things like learn
how to deer hunt and ice fish. So when you
(20:48):
see this Nigerian guy with a funny accent, you know,
and with a twelve gage shotgun deer hunting and ice fishing,
it confuses people. But I am a cacophony. I am
an noise of so many people that have invested in
import on me, and my ultimate sort of giving back
(21:08):
to that is service, love and try as much as
possible to pay it forward. That's really what life is
all about for my advantage points. So and I always believe,
like Bishop Desmond tu to one said, we're masterpiece in
the making. We just need people to help us and
(21:29):
set that together. So that was the journey that brought
me to this great country and what led to my
company and my co founder coming together to make this
what it is today was really simple. You know, I
had worked in corporate America, places like Goldman's Tax and
Peter OBUs buying and selling companies not using name. By
(21:51):
the way, my co founder's name is Simee Goyle. You know,
sameer was born ins Connectors in New York. Indian immigrants
came to this great country, and you know, we met
during a global conference and we also found out that
we were in school together at NYU. He was an undergrad,
(22:15):
i was in graduate school. But we had this spirited
conversation about my background, about his parents background also, and
we wanted to build a company that where you come from,
what you look like, or how much is in your
pocket doesn't determine where you end up in life.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
We wanted people to have an opportunity regardless of your
social economic status. And that's what led us to co
found the company called is Susu And by the way,
it's Susu in West Africa and Y'obat culture is one
of the oldest forms of collectivism. It's a short form
for if you want to go fast, you go alone,
(22:55):
but if you want to go far, we go together.
Why futures are in a strictly tied together and so
that was the concept of it. But the main idea
was simple. The idea was folks send on an average
eleven hundred dollars to their landlords every year. You pay
(23:16):
rent on an average that rent one hundred and ten
million people in this country rents. If you do that
matt price times quantity, it means renters are sending close
to one point four trillion dollars. Let me repeat myself,
close to one point four trillion dollars to their landlord
every year. When we got in this business, this data
(23:38):
never showed up on their credit score.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So remember when my mother and I came, they were renting.
We had people renting, but that data didn't make us
be seen. Only if that bank had send that information
would a circumstance have been different. So that's what led
us to create the company that when you pay rent,
that data should show up on your credit score, because
we want to give credit where credit is due, whether
(24:03):
you're in South Dakota, whether you're in not the Quota,
whether you're in Montgomery, Alabama, New York City, California, or Wyoming. Everyone,
regardless of what you look like, when you pay your
largest monthly expense, it should show up on your credit
score because then that expense can show that you're credit worthy.
(24:25):
If you're paying non time and hopefully one day you
can get the proverbio American dream of home ownership by
better credit. The reason why this is also important, and
John says this every time. If you have a poor
credit score, it can cost you a quarter million dollars
an interest over your lifetime. It is expensive to be poor, folks,
(24:47):
and creating the solution offers us an opportunity to avoid
that kind of perpetual cycle that gets people to be
in this trap. So that's what we created. And during
this journey it was really really hard, really really hard.
You know, myself and Samir worked in corporate America. We
quit our jobs and we went to invest US, to
(25:10):
invest in US. Three hundred and twenty six people said no,
three hundred and twenty six people said no. I remember
that number because every note feels like a ps to
your heart. But you know one thing, I will always
tell you, you will never outwalk myself and samere you
will never outrun us. We would be there caught trying,
(25:34):
and we're going to be there with the idea, day in,
day out, trying as much as possible to make it successful.
So they knows we're just better inspiration for us to
tell a more compelling story. Take feedback from people. Some
of their feedback were valid. So when people tell you no,
or when people give you feedback, every feedback is a gift.
(25:55):
Whether you like it or not, every feedback is a gift.
So we took the feedback, we incorporated it on someone
better on us, and invest the first one point six
million dollars in this company as a collective. In a
few years later, they turned into two point three million.
(26:15):
We did an hour raise of ten million, and now
which I would let John sort of introduce, the company
is now valued at over a billion dollars. Haven't raised
over one hundred have shifts a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I remember when I called my mother, the woman that
belly had a high school degree, the woman that sacrificed everything,
the woman that cried when I was leaving Corporate America
and asked, who's going to pay my rent?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So I called her up and said, hey, we just
raised all this money and the companies valued at a
billion dollars. You know what she said? What she said,
I was the wedding planning coming along. It's so funny, right,
because she did not understand what just happened.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
But it is because of people like my mother Unice,
that we build what we build. And it's a clear
message that if we fund ideas, we always ask people
to think outside the box. Yes, but we never fund
ideas outside of the box. But it's for people like
Unue that minds their own business, that does two jobs
even till day does two jobs as a personal care
(27:25):
aid is number two professional in America. She's the epitome
of every day American. Then't understand that our child has
raised over one undred and fifty million and the company's
valid at a billion. All she cared about is when
are you getting married? When are you going to reproduce?
And when am I going to have a grandchild?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That is the true beauty and exactly that's it. Can
you do your basic shows and that's what every American wants.
Every American, whether your black, blue, red, whatever political affiliation belong,
people just want a better life. Yeah, and that's something
we need to understand.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So going back to the God Bless you, and this,
by the way, is she and is she still in Africa?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
She in America now, she's in Minnesota. Now Minnesota, and
my mother, regardless of what I have still walks as
a personal care aid top five profession in America taking
care of elder people, walks through jobs and I have
to beg ot to stop, and she's not stopping and
pays our taxes every year.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah, she gives. She has she has dignity and self respect.
She wants to do it for herself, which is beautiful,
but she not now she knows unconsciously she's got a
backup plan, which is her son.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
She started with community and she knows. John.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Let me give you a last story. Okay, when she
was renting, she uses a SUSA to report I rent
and then she called me. She's just like, yeah, I
want to let you know I reported my rents to
do this people. How do I verify? I called customer
support and I was like, wait a minute. You called
customer support at ISSUSU and it's like, yeah, I want
(29:00):
to know when those ISSUSU people will reflects my credit
score and make sure this is insure because I want
to buy ass right this is I'm like, wait a minute,
Like did you get what you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
She's like yeah, I know. You walk there.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I'm like no, no, no, no, no no. I co founded
comet like, whatever, but let me just tell you what
is going on. I need to call this customers support people.
What's their number? I'm like, oh my god, are you
kidding me? Right now? It's like, what's the number? I
need to call them? We have to be responsible so
I can get ready for my muggage process. She doesn't
still understand the magnitude of what's going on, and she's
(29:34):
the only person that could give me the basic conversation.
And I like it that way. She still doesn't know
what is going on, and it's the most beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And by the way, where would she have gotten that from?
Where was she heard the word founder in her life?
Where was she Where was she heard or understood the
phrase founder, co founder, chief executive officer, principal, shareholder, major investor,
one hundred million dollars frankly one million dollars, billion dollars.
(30:05):
I mean, that's something you read about in the newspaper.
That's somebody else's story. You don't pay attention to her.
You just you're trying to survive. You got you got,
you got too much month at the end of your money,
you're just trying to get the payments made. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
How do I get the customer service when you get
when you get married, exactly when you get your grandchildren?
Yeah yeah, okay, whatever, can you.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Pay your rent? And my mother and father the exact
same way I came.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I came home several times with achievements that would just
they just couldn't relate to uh And so in my father's.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Case, he literally would dismiss it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
My dad had never met the city council and in
the city of la And I came home one day
and Dad, the president of the United States, President of
the United States of America, mentioned my name, like, you know,
recognize me.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Which president it was? President? And I think I think
this was Reagan. It was Reagan or Bush? Oh you know, Republican.
I don't care. I mean, he didn't know what to
do with it, so he dismissed.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It right, and it hurt me. It hurt my feelings
back then. I now realized that my dad didn't know
any better. But I stopped bringing stuff to my father
because I knew that this was I mean, I couldn't
get advice for where I was going from where I
came from. Even though I couldn't go where I'm coming
(31:26):
from without them backing me to begin with. So I
was forever grateful, but they I realized that this was
over there. Their their skis with regard to experience. And
your mother is of the salt of the earth. She
is the epitome of every mother's experience and story in
the world.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And you would not be you without her.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
But it's also great that she doesn't recognize what you've
done in many ways because it keeps you grounded.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
It does, it does. My mother always remind ends me
that vanity upon vanity. You came to this life naked.
You're either going to be criminated, You're either going to
be buried. So whatever you think you have one day,
your least would expire on this thing called earth. And
what would people say about you. The only thing that's certain, John,
(32:17):
is our least would expire on this thing called earth
and will be gone.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And you're now too.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
And you know the biggest realization for me in this process,
and you know it goes back to someone something mel
Robins said. People can only meet you as far as
they've met themselves.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
M Right.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
She's to your point, can comprehend the world found that
she executive officer, even if she has say that can
comprehend that someone from a lineage can be there, and
I understand that. And I also appreciate the very basic
conversations because it keeps me grounded, it keeps me honest,
and he keeps me focused everything and taking away from you.
(33:05):
No one is invisible.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, for most of the years I was writing, my
family other than holidays were invisible. I was focused and
(33:27):
I was working, and they couldn't really relate to what
they had what I was doing. They're doing a nine
to five job, or they were in the military, or
they were doing something structor structured in their life. What's
John John doing? They call me John John? What's John
John doing? Or you know, what's JASB doing?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
He's giving a speech somewhere, He's I don't know, he's
meeting some people in New York about something.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I don't know what he does.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And everybody would show up if I had some money
to distribute. But that again communal, that is that is communal.
Holidays were communal. Again, it was gift guilty, gift giving.
And I didn't resist. Not only did I not resent it,
I accepted that that was just It's just a different,
(34:09):
a different role than I had to play, and I
became a leader in the family with.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Something that they didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I'm the leader, but they have no understanding of how
I got there what I do. All I know is
that money falls from this tree and lands in their pocket,
and so it was it would be a mistake for me.
I'm listening to one people listening to this. If you
have if you become successful because you're an expert in
(34:39):
you're become the best football player in the planet. You
got to drafted in the NFL. You're there because you
spent twenty thirty forty hours a week perfecting your game
over a decade or two. Don't then turn turn around,
take the money from that contract and give it to
cousin Pooky and them who have no experience in financial management.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You have no experience in investment.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You want to have the same criteria that you that
the NFL had about you, which way you were the
best of the best of the best, and you've proven
it on the field. You want to turn that money
over to somebody who is the best of the best
of the best and who's proven it on the on
the field of their endeavors. And they have credentials and
references to back it up. Don't give that that that
money to somebody you like in your family. They will
(35:26):
you will go broke and they're going to go shopping.
And then when you come looking for your money, and
they'll be like, what what what? What are you?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
What are you tripping about?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You're already rich, right, They can't relate. They just going
to keep flowing. And and if you put the wings
of a pig and hope it the flies out, the
pick fault. It's you. You should expect pig fly. So
there's a lot of pressure on a leader to be
almost all things to all people. And let's go back
now to the three hundred and fifty times or whatever
(35:54):
you were told.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
No, I love what you said.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I want to dig a little deeper because I would
often say I take no for vitamins. That's going from
failure to failure without loss of enthusiastic over rounded through it.
I'm gonna get to it, and you can't go without
legitimate suffering. It seemed to me that those three point
fifty or whatever that number is of turndowns were actually investments,
(36:18):
just non monetary, right, because as you said, you took
that feedback. I want you to go a little deeper
that you took that feedback. Yeah, even if it was
a no, right, it made it valuable. Talk about that.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Let me talk about that a little bit. So Samir
and I remember to your points, Like my mother, we're
figuring it out. We don't have anyone in that family
that's created a company like this, aspiration beyond our wildest imagination, right,
So we have all the things going against us. So
we learned. The first presentation didn't have the what you
(36:53):
call the mental model. The second presentation, we're not thinking
big enough. The third presentation people didn't like idea. We
just continue to get data points, and all those data points.
You know, it's really really important to make sure you
get to the final destination. I always think that every
situation your encounter in life, it will change you. It
(37:17):
would despair or no longer satisfy you. Right, that's that's
the arc of the journey. So we told a more
compelling story. So when we got to the three hundred
and twenty seventh person.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
They're like, wow, it's all the feedback, all the failures
of that three hundred and twenty six on the darkest
day of the three hundred and twenty six journey.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Myself and Semel we just closed a twenty thousand dollars
contracts from my alma mata, University of Minnesota, but we
are both in one hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt.
We had nothing. We couldn't afford an hotel room. We
had a genius idea to go slum it out at
Denny's and walk all night and take it airplane to
San Francisco to continue to raise money. At four am
(38:00):
in the morning, we started dozing ofough and we got
kicked out of it. Dennis. The reason why this is
important to everyone is failure is the only guarantee. If
you don't fail and you're daring to do something great,
failure is inevitable. But you should also remember failure is
also not permanent.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
By the way, is using British English on you were
we will say inevitable.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
American English translate for you. You're right, you're right.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
So one thing that everyone must understand listening to this
podcast is there's no resolution to life problems. It's not
it's a continuum. It's a journey, and you will fail.
It's the only guarantee, but it is how you respond,
how you get up, how you adapt, how you show up,
(39:00):
how you did different. And one of the reasons why
always said John played a key role in some of
the darkest days. He only says something that resonates with me.
There's always a rainbow after the storm. You just have
to fight through it. And you know what, there's an
African American saying, if you anger around the barber shop,
sooner or later, you're gonna get an aircut. And all
(39:22):
myself and Samir did was hang out there. Someone came
into the barber shop. Someone's getting air cut, Like, what
year we're gonna die here, We're not gonna eat until
we get our air cut. I'm bored. We got aircut?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, And now you're own the barber shop.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
A lot of barber shops, So you got that first.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
After three hundred and twenty six no's, you got a
yes on a three und twenty seventh yes.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So one.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
A friend of mine, Tony Wrestler, who owns the Atlanta
Hawks here in Atlanta, would say, if you don't quit,
you can't fail. So you just never left the barber
shop until you got a haircut. Somebody's going to give
you a haircut. It was just a matter of win, right,
and you just kept at it, kept out of kept
at it. So now you go to get this First,
(40:17):
you got your first sale for twenty thousand, you flew
I guess to raise some more money because you couldn't
stay overnight. You couldn't place to stay, so you you
literally stayed up overnight.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I've done that before to get on the plane.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Did you start closing one deal after another after that
and did you live off the sales or did an
investor finally show up and say, okay, here's it, you know,
here's a pop bucket of money.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
What happened next?
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Great question. So out of that collective experience of all
the nose, we finally had an investor at bet on
Us and they alally significant check into the company and
from there we raised one point six million dollars in
our seat funding. So that was the first major bet
Thatch outside capital to cl on us and all that's
(41:02):
participated to make sure we're able to raise one point
six million dollars to build what the company is now today.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And that person who put the seed money in, that
first investor, we don't need to name names. They in
all likelihood got a larger share of the opportunity because
they took a larger risk. Yes, so you never talked
about this before. I'm just making a presumption listening to this.
Don't get upset because folks want a high return for
(41:32):
a high risk. That's the way the world works. Yes,
don't don't call them names, don't call them greedy. No,
they're taking a risk. They could lose everything. Right, if
they lose everything and come to you, you say, hey,
you know that's what that's the risk of doing business.
So when you hit, when you do well, don't be
resentful when you've got to pay that person.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
What the part of that upside?
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I'd rather have ten percent of something than one hundred
percent of nothing, exactly. So as they became more successful,
they had to give up less of the company, less
of the upside to investors, is my guess, right.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
One.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
I just to give you an idea that fust investor
invested roughly, you.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Know, say.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Five hundred thousand does that five hundred thousand does is
now what fifteen million, fifteen million, fifty five zero five zero? Wow,
that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
That's what happens when you make the right bet, they
can live that they don't make make another investment the
rest of their life. That's okay. So in the last
few minutes, we've got why don't you a mix of
where you are now? So what's your business model now?
Probably here? What are you most proud of in the
achievements in the last few years?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Right? Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
How can people help who are listening to this right?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Because there's a broad range of folks who listen to
my podcast, from billionaires to millionaires, two thousandaires, somebody trying
to buy some are to government leaders.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I mean they're all over the map. People listen to
this podcast. So somebody to help you?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
How can they help you? And then what advice do
you have for strivers? As a in comment? What advice suggestions?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
So I would start with our business model, So we
walk with lodge On as an opperators have realested or
anyone or businesses or employers. We charged two dollars by
dull month. We have five million units. I crushed the US.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
You can do the math.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Somebody you charge two dollars per by dull month? Okay,
people who are not good at English. That was the
proper way of saying door he speaking proper English.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm just a due.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Right right right, PI units per apartment units. So that's
the business mode. It's simple. It's created when when people
get rent reporting, they get free tax filing, they get
financial coaching from Operation Hope, and to be able to
(44:22):
get financial health because that's a civil rights matter of
our time right now. You know you get resources from
Freddie Mack and finding me. Financial coaching really really important
to set you up for success. So we've now built
a platform for that.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
So we've grown.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
We're one of the largest, if not the largest reporter
of this data in the country and work with seventy
five percent of the largest owners and operators of real
estates in America. So it's there you can find us
where your employers. Employers also buy this as a financial
health benefit for folks. How can people be helpful? Number one,
(44:59):
we need you advice. Go to our websites. If you
have feedback shared with us. We want to be the
best we can possibly be. I said it earlier. Every
feedback is a gift. You can go to your website
and leave an idea. Yes, we have a we have
an AI bought on the website that you can you know,
communicate with. If you give it ideas, it will jot
(45:20):
it down and make sure it gets to me and
my co founder.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Also, man, I'm going to steal that idea. The best
in life, the best idea is a copy. And I'm
still in.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Exactly exactly well our regionals, but we die a copy.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
By the way, what he's said was you were born
in original. When you die a copy, not a copy
that is properly English, right right.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
So number two is you know one thing I want?
And advice also is always remember when someone tells you no,
that no is your pathway and your foundation for a
yes that is yet to come. Always remember that number
(46:18):
two advice is nothing in life is worth doing alone.
If you want to go fast, you go alone. But
if you want to go far, you go together. To
build something special, you need to surround yourself with exceptional people.
Number three is very simple. Surround yourself with people smarter
(46:42):
than you. If you're the smartest person in the room,
you're doing something wrong. And when you do those things
and what leases altogether is passiveen great and never give up,
never ever give up, And that's going to help you
be incredibly successful in life.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
He just dropped the mic. You know, we didn't do
any pre conversation here. We didn't talk about what we're
going to talk about. I just said I think people
need to hear your story. And we had talked about
all of this stuff. And at the end when I
asked you for advice, if you said everything you said
but you had not included basically execution like hustle your
(47:29):
ass off, I would have thought the whole interview was
a failure. But I knew, because I know you're a
proper success that you would not you would not not
say that that is the ingredient for everybody. What I
want the listeners to understand here is that all success
is essentially the same different industry spaces, right, But you
got to be PhD and PhD too exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
You can, you can not be the smartest person in
the room, but no one. Hard work is undefeated. Hard
work is undefeated. It's undefeated.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
I'm getting out. I'm I'll work you on my out,
I'll stand you up, I'll move you. I would die that,
I would die that die on the feet. Would you
have to kill me?
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm the last breath that's it. That's what
you're dealing with. I would die that. I'm not going Yeah,
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
I'm not going to anywhere except the finish line.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
So yeah and so and so there you go, everybody.
If you're not inspired by this episode, then then you
got to check your posts. I want you to go
to his website and experience what he's doing. Tell your landlord,
if they're not already contracting with you, susu, that they
should and go and give him some feedback, even if
(48:48):
it's just Bravo. Given some encouragement. There are hard days
for guys like this. I mean, eagles don't fly impacts.
You've never seen a flock of eagles. It's tough being
a leader. It's lonely being a leader.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I know that. I can tell you that myself. I'm
the loneliest guy in the crowded room sometimes. But it's okay.
We got many problems with self. Esteems not one of them.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
So give them encouragement, give them confidence, give them support,
and give them a referral. Tell those that you know
who lease are rent to tell their landlords to use
their company. By all those listening to this, and you know,
of institutional companies that Wall Street companies that own real
estate and underserved neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Here's one good reason to feel good about that.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Seventy five percent of those companies are contracting with with
this minority owned business.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Who. How many employees do you have now?
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Just around two hundred people? And one thing that you
acted I didn't say, just to cluse out with. What
I'm most proud of is we've established credit scores for
over two hundred thousand people. And the people that have
improved credit scores on our platform, I've gone on to
on lock fifty billion dollars let me repeat myself billion
unders in credit. Of that fifty billion, thirty billion does
(50:02):
is muggagees. So the provabio American dream is you walk hard,
you play by the rules, you buy a house one day.
We've helped people improve their credit score so they can
fulfill the American dream and it's an irony. And immigrants
from the slums of Legos, Nigeria contributes into perfecting this union.
That is the true genius of America.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeah, and America he is he is right, is a
great country.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
But she's also got many faults and many many failing slavery,
Jim Crow, all the crappy stuff that happened then, some
of it's happening now. But there is no perfect and
you just go. You want to make the best of
this that you can. It is still an incredible place
of opportunity America. And he is part of what of
(50:45):
what making this story aspirational for the next generation of
immigrants who are coming here legally and making their contribution.
And he is part of this American story. His mother
is a part of this American story. We should celebrate that.
I celebrate him.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
And this is an example, in my opinion, of good
capitalism and we should want more of this. This is
John O'Bryant. This is the Money and Wealth podcast episode
and series.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
This is your up another example of up from nothing.
Tell your friends to go to IUSU Uh have them
follow Uh. When Memo Online and his company follow, of course,
Operation Hope get a copy of my book Financial Literacy
for All if you haven't gotten it, you get a
thousand dollars coaching scholarship and Operation Hope to get your
credit score up, your debt down, your savings up.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Do you have a book out yet?
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Well?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
When Memo are you working on one and.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Then their future. The story is still being told Inure.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
I love that all right, John, Good to see you,
God Bless love and life, Money and Wealth with John
(52:08):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Welcome the Money and Wealth with John Hobryant, a production
of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey Hey, Hey,
this is John Hope Bryant of Money and Wealth podcast
(00:20):
series Season two. I want to thank everybody for making
this a top one hundred podcasts in the country, as
well as a top fifty podcast that's for business on
Apple and other platforms, the top fifty podcasts for entrepreneurship
that's amongst all categories. By the way, hey, people and
(00:41):
races and places. It's also been a hit internationally on
every continent, So I want to thank everybody for helping
us to get there on this silver rights movement in
the third reconstruction, taking people from the streets to the suites,
helping the unpack capitalism and free enterprise and help people
to do for themselves. It's the James Brown version of
(01:03):
affirmative action. Open a door, I'll get it my damnself.
Is the theme of the approach that I take of
giving you the tools to empower yourself to change your
own life, not have to wait for somebody else at
A friend of mine, CEO of Key Bank, once told
(01:25):
me that the only true freedom was financial freedom. That
every other freedom could be taken from you, and that
once you have financial freedom, unless you screw it up,
it is yours for life. That's what this podcast series
is about to set you free, to give you the
tools to be free in self determination. I'm going to
thank the Black Effect Network and iHeartRadio for their partnership here.
(01:48):
And we have a very special guest today, a friend
of mine, a bad, bad brother and in the normal
sense he'd be a bad brother because if you're black
in America, you got to get up twice as be
out of you, twice as intelligent, twice as smart, get
up twice as early a or twice as hard, stay
(02:09):
up twice as late to get half of the deserve rewards.
And you're born on probation in America if you're black,
and no one can feel bad about that because that
just puts a weight on your show.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
You just get to the business.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But when you're from Africa, on top of the fact
that you're a person of color in America, it could
be even tougher because you're coming into an environment where
you don't know the rules, where you don't have friends,
you don't have relationship capital. You might have self esteem
because Africa have generally speaking, intact families, and you see
(02:45):
people around you who are aspiring, who look like you,
but you may have less confidence. Less confidence because you're
coming to the biggest economy on the planet where people
are hyper competitive, and you have nothing to play with,
no toys, no resources, no inherited wealth. No body's gonna
give you an internship or apprenticeship or a It starts
(03:08):
you out on second base basically through inheritance or through
again relationship capital. Because if you hang around nine broke people,
you'll be the tenth. And the opposite is also true.
So this individual is unique and singular.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
His name.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Is going to be famous one of these days, I
predict as an entrepreneur up from nothing. His name is
Memo Abbe. If I say that Nigerian pronunciation where Memo,
He's gonna correct me. If I don't get it right,
Where Memo Abbe? Did I get that close to right?
Speaker 2 (03:51):
You got it?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
John, We got to welcome you to the euro about
culture in Nigeria. You know I love it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I got my African bracelets on.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
By the way, Nelson Mandela's prison numbers here, I got
my I wear it every day. He's a founder, co founder.
We're gonna give credit to his co founder. He's the
co founder of a company called is Susu, which he's
gonna explain where that comes from, where that name comes from.
And this podcast is important because now you're gonna see
(04:18):
somebody other than me who's gone from nothing, literally nothing
from and I won't argue actually worse you know, circumstances
than me. You'll explain it to the building. Hold on now, audience,
listen to me building a one billion dollar valuation company
(04:38):
that's right from nothing, literally a small African village, literally
coming here with the shirt on his back.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Again.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
We're gonna unpack this and explain it, or my dad
would say, explain it. We're gonna explain this in details
so that no one's unclear what he went through, how
he got here. I don't want any excuses from anybody
of what they cannot do. Once this podcast is over,
he's going to unpack his entire story.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
And now the company that you probably have never.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Heard of before today because it's business to business in
many ways. He's a business doing business with other businesses
and with governments, is not necessarily retail focused. But this
company you've never heard of. Maybe Issusu now has a
valuation on market on Wall Street, in market in the
marketplace of institutional investments of one billion dollars plus. Investors
(05:36):
are rewarding him for building a great enterprise. So this
topic today is from immigrant hustle to unicorn impact, how
to build a billion dollar business in a decade. Please
join me and welcome me, my good friend. When me
(05:56):
mo at Bay said properly in Nigerian diet.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
You got it, you got it? Well, thanks a lot, John.
It's such a joy to be here today. And first stuff,
thank you for the work that you do for the community,
not just rhetoric, keeping it real and giving us a
pathway and above all a playbook to be successful in
any environment in this country. So it's really excited to
(06:24):
be here. And you know, share my story how I
did it, and the collective and the village, including people
like you that essentially made this happen.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
He gives me outsize and probably undue credit. He keeps
saying that I helped inspire this business, et cetera, et cetera,
And we've hired them. We hired them actually at the
company I used to own that I've since sold the
built from zero one hundred and fifty million dollars, which
was the Promise Homes company. We hired him there and
(06:55):
then we partnered with them in Operation Hope. But we
tell you how good a business plan is. Businessman has
got is he says, oh John, you did this, you
did that, and you know, my got my heart all
open up and whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
And he's the humble businessman. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
So my speaking fee is about fifty grand and I
lose money and I go give speak to see I
got to make three hundred thousand svears a day for
my enterprises, three three fifty. But you know when I
accepted a commercial speaking fee and then expenses all that stuff, Well,
when me MO has gotten me twice for free.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And I don't mean when he was starting. I don't
mean like back in the day when he was hustling.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
I mean recently, because oh John's oh child, he's oh
my god, you helping people? Oh oh yeah, yeah, I
guess I am, okay.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Yeah, what date.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
But it's been a pleasure. I'm inspired every time I
have gone to show up at one of his meetings.
I wanted to, frankly, all seriousness. I wanted to pour
into him, to invest into him, to let people know
how backed him, to try to explain what, to brag
on him in ways he could not brag on himself,
(08:09):
To explain to people why this is a good investment,
the one they made, the one they still need to make.
You know, somebody once told me, mem that the whole
purpose of power is to collect it so that you
can intelligently and smartly give it away.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So any power or influence that I might.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Have, I am honored to use it, whether it's through
Operation Hope or some little church that cand of afford
to have a guy like me to show up, or
a nonprofit group, or somebody who's truly just striving. Now,
if you're commercial enterprise, you're a for profit business, that's
a different thing. That's capitalism is a gladiator sport. Business
is not personal. They should pay, But I speak for
(08:51):
a fees, So he then afford to speak for free right,
and you give back in the same way you come
and speak at our annual meeting. You've never ever me
and all the rest of my you and all the
rest of my friends, I might add, never asked, never
send me a bill, never set me eve an expense report.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Here to show up and do the thing, and I
thank you for that. And we've never.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Even talked about this is just just an unspoken thing
between friends and people who made it. Like like service
is the wrint you pay on the success you get
to society get me back is the wrint you pay
on the sense that you get. So let's talk about
the thing that I'm impressed most about you is your spirit,
(09:33):
your your authenticity, my senses comes from mom and maybe Dad,
but certainly family.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Talk to us.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Explain your upbringing from Africa and what that was like,
how old were you, what's the situation and circumstances. Tell
us about your parents, and then let's get into what
came next. How the heck did you get here?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Absolutely, John, I grew up in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria.
I lost my father at the age of two, and
I was raised by my mother and two very spirited sisters.
Just to give you and paint a picture, and now
I grew up. I didn't have television or electricity for
the first seven years of my life. We didn't have
(10:22):
running toilets or running water. But one thing my mother
believed in despite all this destitution of our social position
was education. She wasn't going to compromise on education. She
worked at the post office for over twenty one years.
She poured into me and made sure I went to
one of the best high schools in Nigeria. So when
(10:43):
I went to that high school and I saw all
the kids in my high school going to the US,
going to Europe, and I saw that in some cases
they had better grades than some of them, I said,
I could do what they're doing. They don't have two heads,
they don't have four eyes, with hard walk passeiverance. Even
if I don't have all the things they have, I
(11:05):
could get at head. So at the age of fifteen
and alf going to my sixteenth birthday, I got into university,
one of the best universities in Nigeria. I said no,
because those other kids were going to the United States
and Europe. I went in to study. I self studied
the staties. I had to learn American English, which is
(11:25):
different from British English. Asked, went to the embassy and
applied to the University of Minnesota and guardian and I
immigrated from eighty degree weather in Legos, I'd never since
snow in my life to negative twenty two degrees in Minnesota. Wow,
(11:46):
which was a catterbuting experience.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
And but let's back up for a minute. How did you?
How did you? It wasn't she for your mother to
get you, to put you through school?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
It was, by the way, for those who are listening
to this versus getting a vision, you'll love way. Men, Mo,
He's not We're not talking about an eighty year old
guy here. We're not talking about this has happened, you know,
sixty years ago when he says that it was no
running water, no electricity, no proper toilets. We're talking about
you know, post two thousand.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Right, yeah, yeah, this is to twenty twenty one, twenty
twenty two. This is recent recently. Yeah wait what so
holding back up, back, slow down, Wait a minute. What
year did you come from? Nigeria? Two thousand and nine, two.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Thousand and nine. Yes, okay, everybody listening to this enough
with excuses. Racism is like rain is either is either
gathering somewhere or it's falling, So you might as well
get out an umbrella and a color of your light
and start strolling through it because it's not going to change.
(12:50):
So you must. This guy just told you.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I mean it was.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I thought he's gonna say two thousand and two, two
thousand and five, two thousand, correct me.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
No, Johnny was nineteen, late nineteen, you know, No, no, no.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
No, he said, this was you know, this is very recently,
two thousand in a, two thousand and nine, twenty ten,
the last fifteen years. He wasn't even here. Nobody his
family was here, right, and he's killed it. He's killing
the game. We'll give it that in a minute. So
mother worked at the post office. All right, you guys
(13:23):
lived essentially in what they call in South Africa shanty
a shanty town.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
I don't know what they call him in Nigeria, just
the slums, you know.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Okay, And how.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Did you get a how did you get a plane
ticket and a plan to America?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Was that also? It wasn't.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
My mom was upsets with me because I didn't want
to go to the local university, because that's what they've
walked on all day lives. But I had a bigger dream.
I had a bigger ambition because all the kids in
my high school were going and I thought I was smart,
I could operate on the same level. So one of
the things I did to save to come here. I
(14:04):
got on a six hundred dollar Kata Airlines ticket from Nigeria,
which is the cheapest one. It took me twenty nine
hours to fly to America because I had to go
on a layovera and Doah. The way I got that
six hundred plus dollars was, you know, church members helped.
I also used to help drill wells, so in Nigeria
(14:27):
it's very mechanical. You take a shovel, someone is drilling
and someone is taking the sand out. So I did
manual label to contribute to my ticket. Church members helped,
family members helped. And that's the power of collectivism. It's
the power of the fact that I am who I
am because of who we all are. I am not
(14:49):
just alone. I stand on the shoulders of so many,
including my mother, people like you, John, and others that
have sacrificed for me to be where I am. So
that's how I came here. They didn't come lane. It
was twenty plus twenty four hours plus flights, but I
was just excited to be here. I'm contributing my own
humble cordet to this country.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
So breaking this into pieces, I want the audience to
learn the lesson of up from nothing and mindset that
his mother was broke, but she wasn't poor.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
To be broke was economic.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
To be poor as a disabling frame of mind, depressed
condition of your spirit. You must vow never ever ever
to be poor again. That's something we say at Operation
Hope all the time. My mother taught me because she
told me she loved me every day in my life,
so I can we have that in common. And my
mother didn't agree with my entrepreneurial pursuit. She wanted me
to get a safe job so that she wanted to
(15:53):
worry about me. But I had a bigger dream, just
like you did, and I decided to take to bet
on me just like you did.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Have a lot of parallels in this story.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
But when people talking about collective economics, I want to
get this straight, they're not talking about the output. They're
talking about the input. Collective economics works only on the input.
In other words, he's just told you he didn't have
enough money to get that airplane ticket and to get
the apartment or whatever for the first month. So the
church member, the family members, the friends, they believed.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
In the dream.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
So collective economics, please listen to me. Everybody collected economics participated. Again,
I say every good relationship was where two plus two
equals six, eight or ten. Is it's multiplication not addition.
They there's a little bit, little bit, little bit little
bit here came created a lot of it. They bought
his ticket, they helped him, they invested in him. They
(16:49):
were the venture capital investment in him. But the output
of that had to be him. So in other words,
if you try to take collecting economics to put it
on the back end, and now you've got twenty bosses
trying to run an enterprise and nobody knows what they're doing,
(17:10):
or half of them don't, you're going in different directions
with the best of intentions. The Bible says a house
divided cannot stand. You cannot have fifty bosses, you cannot
have fifty visions. So collective economics as a operating structure,
like if I had a camel is a horse designed
(17:30):
by committee. A cameral is a horse designed by committee.
You cannot have a committee in an executive lead. You
need to make crisp decisions and move on them. And
somebody's got to vet the farm on a vision. So
they collectively put their economics together resources to invest in
(17:53):
a singular product, and then they let him go pursue
a dream that they didn't understand. Right, they believed in it,
but didn't really understand it. So audience, don't be romantic
about economics in business. Business is not personal capitalism in
the Gladator sport, Collective economics is the input.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
More than the output.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
Right now, by the way, you can have after he
makes his money and builds his wealth and we continue
hope he continues to do very well. He wasn't create
a foundation the E Susu Foundation or the Memo Abbey
Foundation or his mother and his mother's name or something,
and then collectively the community that invested in him can
get back together on the committee or on the board
if he likes to figure out where to collectively invest
(18:38):
resources in philanthropy.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
But that's after you made the wealth.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So now you've gotten to America and you would from
one of the hottest places in the world to one
of the codes.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
So I came I never since snow before. I came
here with a three piece suits to conquer America, and
I got into negative twenty two degrees. I thought people
were living in a freezer. But I was just so
grateful to be part of this society because I had
read and see what was possible. But then real life started.
(19:17):
I wanted to go to college at the University of Minnesota.
I had gotten I was really excited. And as international students,
you don't get pel grants. We didn't get financial aid.
You have to pay every dollar out of pocket. So
my mother and I went to a bank to borrow money.
The bank, not because they are racist. I want to
(19:39):
make sure this is Claire, denied us because we didn't
have a credit score. We didn't have the financial identity
in America, which is the most important three digits number
to get financing. We didn't have it, and rightfully, so
they said no to us, and we had to go
borrow money from a predatory at over four hundred percent
(20:02):
interest rate. My mother sold my dad's wedding rink again.
A new church in Minnesota poured into us. Church members
borrowed us money and that's how we got started. For
me to go to my first semester of college in
this great country, right looked like the story. So when
(20:23):
I got to college, I learned a lot about myself.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
It was incredibly cold at never since snow. People helped
me out, you know, both black, white, Asian Latino. Everyone
was just there and that's the true genius. And that's
what's special about this country. Ask and I shall be
giving on to you. I did crazy things like learn
how to deer hunt and ice fish. So when you
(20:48):
see this Nigerian guy with a funny accent, you know,
and with a twelve gage shotgun deer hunting and ice fishing,
it confuses people. But I am a cacophony. I am
an noise of so many people that have invested in
import on me, and my ultimate sort of giving back
(21:08):
to that is service, love and try as much as
possible to pay it forward. That's really what life is
all about for my advantage points. So and I always believe,
like Bishop Desmond tu to one said, we're masterpiece in
the making. We just need people to help us and
(21:29):
set that together. So that was the journey that brought
me to this great country and what led to my
company and my co founder coming together to make this
what it is today was really simple. You know, I
had worked in corporate America, places like Goldman's Tax and
Peter OBUs buying and selling companies not using name. By
(21:51):
the way, my co founder's name is Simee Goyle. You know,
sameer was born ins Connectors in New York. Indian immigrants
came to this great country, and you know, we met
during a global conference and we also found out that
we were in school together at NYU. He was an undergrad,
(22:15):
i was in graduate school. But we had this spirited
conversation about my background, about his parents background also, and
we wanted to build a company that where you come from,
what you look like, or how much is in your
pocket doesn't determine where you end up in life.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Right.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
We wanted people to have an opportunity regardless of your
social economic status. And that's what led us to co
found the company called is Susu And by the way,
it's Susu in West Africa and Y'obat culture is one
of the oldest forms of collectivism. It's a short form
for if you want to go fast, you go alone,
(22:55):
but if you want to go far, we go together.
Why futures are in a strictly tied together and so
that was the concept of it. But the main idea
was simple. The idea was folks send on an average
eleven hundred dollars to their landlords every year. You pay
(23:16):
rent on an average that rent one hundred and ten
million people in this country rents. If you do that
matt price times quantity, it means renters are sending close
to one point four trillion dollars. Let me repeat myself,
close to one point four trillion dollars to their landlord
every year. When we got in this business, this data
(23:38):
never showed up on their credit score.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
So remember when my mother and I came, they were renting.
We had people renting, but that data didn't make us
be seen. Only if that bank had send that information
would a circumstance have been different. So that's what led
us to create the company that when you pay rent,
that data should show up on your credit score, because
we want to give credit where credit is due, whether
(24:03):
you're in South Dakota, whether you're in not the Quota,
whether you're in Montgomery, Alabama, New York City, California, or Wyoming. Everyone,
regardless of what you look like, when you pay your
largest monthly expense, it should show up on your credit
score because then that expense can show that you're credit worthy.
(24:25):
If you're paying non time and hopefully one day you
can get the proverbio American dream of home ownership by
better credit. The reason why this is also important, and
John says this every time. If you have a poor
credit score, it can cost you a quarter million dollars
an interest over your lifetime. It is expensive to be poor, folks,
(24:47):
and creating the solution offers us an opportunity to avoid
that kind of perpetual cycle that gets people to be
in this trap. So that's what we created. And during
this journey it was really really hard, really really hard.
You know, myself and Samir worked in corporate America. We
quit our jobs and we went to invest US, to
(25:10):
invest in US. Three hundred and twenty six people said no,
three hundred and twenty six people said no. I remember
that number because every note feels like a ps to
your heart. But you know one thing, I will always
tell you, you will never outwalk myself and samere you
will never outrun us. We would be there caught trying,
(25:34):
and we're going to be there with the idea, day in,
day out, trying as much as possible to make it successful.
So they knows we're just better inspiration for us to
tell a more compelling story. Take feedback from people. Some
of their feedback were valid. So when people tell you no,
or when people give you feedback, every feedback is a gift.
(25:55):
Whether you like it or not, every feedback is a gift.
So we took the feedback, we incorporated it on someone
better on us, and invest the first one point six
million dollars in this company as a collective. In a
few years later, they turned into two point three million.
(26:15):
We did an hour raise of ten million, and now
which I would let John sort of introduce, the company
is now valued at over a billion dollars. Haven't raised
over one hundred have shifts a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Now.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
I remember when I called my mother, the woman that
belly had a high school degree, the woman that sacrificed everything,
the woman that cried when I was leaving Corporate America
and asked, who's going to pay my rent?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Now?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So I called her up and said, hey, we just
raised all this money and the companies valued at a
billion dollars. You know what she said? What she said,
I was the wedding planning coming along. It's so funny, right,
because she did not understand what just happened.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Right.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
But it is because of people like my mother Unice,
that we build what we build. And it's a clear
message that if we fund ideas, we always ask people
to think outside the box. Yes, but we never fund
ideas outside of the box. But it's for people like
Unue that minds their own business, that does two jobs
even till day does two jobs as a personal care
(27:25):
aid is number two professional in America. She's the epitome
of every day American. Then't understand that our child has
raised over one undred and fifty million and the company's
valid at a billion. All she cared about is when
are you getting married? When are you going to reproduce?
And when am I going to have a grandchild?
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Right?
Speaker 3 (27:43):
That is the true beauty and exactly that's it. Can
you do your basic shows and that's what every American wants.
Every American, whether your black, blue, red, whatever political affiliation belong,
people just want a better life. Yeah, and that's something
we need to understand.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So going back to the God Bless you, and this,
by the way, is she and is she still in Africa?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
She in America now, she's in Minnesota. Now Minnesota, and
my mother, regardless of what I have still walks as
a personal care aid top five profession in America taking
care of elder people, walks through jobs and I have
to beg ot to stop, and she's not stopping and
pays our taxes every year.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Yeah, she gives. She has she has dignity and self respect.
She wants to do it for herself, which is beautiful,
but she not now she knows unconsciously she's got a
backup plan, which is her son.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
She started with community and she knows. John.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Let me give you a last story. Okay, when she
was renting, she uses a SUSA to report I rent
and then she called me. She's just like, yeah, I
want to let you know I reported my rents to
do this people. How do I verify? I called customer
support and I was like, wait a minute. You called
customer support at ISSUSU and it's like, yeah, I want
(29:00):
to know when those ISSUSU people will reflects my credit
score and make sure this is insure because I want
to buy ass right this is I'm like, wait a minute,
Like did you get what you're talking about?
Speaker 2 (29:11):
She's like yeah, I know. You walk there.
Speaker 3 (29:13):
I'm like no, no, no, no, no no. I co founded
comet like, whatever, but let me just tell you what
is going on. I need to call this customers support people.
What's their number? I'm like, oh my god, are you
kidding me? Right now? It's like, what's the number? I
need to call them? We have to be responsible so
I can get ready for my muggage process. She doesn't
still understand the magnitude of what's going on, and she's
(29:34):
the only person that could give me the basic conversation.
And I like it that way. She still doesn't know
what is going on, and it's the most beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And by the way, where would she have gotten that from?
Where was she heard the word founder in her life?
Where was she Where was she heard or understood the
phrase founder, co founder, chief executive officer, principal, shareholder, major investor,
one hundred million dollars frankly one million dollars, billion dollars.
(30:05):
I mean, that's something you read about in the newspaper.
That's somebody else's story. You don't pay attention to her.
You just you're trying to survive. You got you got,
you got too much month at the end of your money,
you're just trying to get the payments made. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
How do I get the customer service when you get
when you get married, exactly when you get your grandchildren?
Yeah yeah, okay, whatever, can you.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Pay your rent? And my mother and father the exact
same way I came.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
I came home several times with achievements that would just
they just couldn't relate to uh And so in my father's.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Case, he literally would dismiss it.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
My dad had never met the city council and in
the city of la And I came home one day
and Dad, the president of the United States, President of
the United States of America, mentioned my name, like, you know,
recognize me.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
Which president it was? President? And I think I think
this was Reagan. It was Reagan or Bush? Oh you know, Republican.
I don't care. I mean, he didn't know what to
do with it, so he dismissed.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
It right, and it hurt me. It hurt my feelings
back then. I now realized that my dad didn't know
any better. But I stopped bringing stuff to my father
because I knew that this was I mean, I couldn't
get advice for where I was going from where I
came from. Even though I couldn't go where I'm coming
(31:26):
from without them backing me to begin with. So I
was forever grateful, but they I realized that this was
over there. Their their skis with regard to experience. And
your mother is of the salt of the earth. She
is the epitome of every mother's experience and story in
the world.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And you would not be you without her.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
But it's also great that she doesn't recognize what you've
done in many ways because it keeps you grounded.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
It does, it does. My mother always remind ends me
that vanity upon vanity. You came to this life naked.
You're either going to be criminated, You're either going to
be buried. So whatever you think you have one day,
your least would expire on this thing called earth. And
what would people say about you. The only thing that's certain, John,
(32:17):
is our least would expire on this thing called earth
and will be gone.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
And you're now too.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
And you know the biggest realization for me in this process,
and you know it goes back to someone something mel
Robins said. People can only meet you as far as
they've met themselves.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
M Right.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
She's to your point, can comprehend the world found that
she executive officer, even if she has say that can
comprehend that someone from a lineage can be there, and
I understand that. And I also appreciate the very basic
conversations because it keeps me grounded, it keeps me honest,
and he keeps me focused everything and taking away from you.
(33:05):
No one is invisible.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Yeah, for most of the years I was writing, my
family other than holidays were invisible. I was focused and
(33:27):
I was working, and they couldn't really relate to what
they had what I was doing. They're doing a nine
to five job, or they were in the military, or
they were doing something structor structured in their life. What's
John John doing? They call me John John? What's John
John doing? Or you know, what's JASB doing?
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
He's giving a speech somewhere, He's I don't know, he's
meeting some people in New York about something.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
I don't know what he does.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And everybody would show up if I had some money
to distribute. But that again communal, that is that is communal.
Holidays were communal. Again, it was gift guilty, gift giving.
And I didn't resist. Not only did I not resent it,
I accepted that that was just It's just a different,
(34:09):
a different role than I had to play, and I
became a leader in the family with.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Something that they didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
I'm the leader, but they have no understanding of how
I got there what I do. All I know is
that money falls from this tree and lands in their pocket,
and so it was it would be a mistake for me.
I'm listening to one people listening to this. If you
have if you become successful because you're an expert in
(34:39):
you're become the best football player in the planet. You
got to drafted in the NFL. You're there because you
spent twenty thirty forty hours a week perfecting your game
over a decade or two. Don't then turn turn around,
take the money from that contract and give it to
cousin Pooky and them who have no experience in financial management.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
You have no experience in investment.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
You want to have the same criteria that you that
the NFL had about you, which way you were the
best of the best of the best, and you've proven
it on the field. You want to turn that money
over to somebody who is the best of the best
of the best and who's proven it on the on
the field of their endeavors. And they have credentials and
references to back it up. Don't give that that that
money to somebody you like in your family. They will
(35:26):
you will go broke and they're going to go shopping.
And then when you come looking for your money, and
they'll be like, what what what? What are you?
Speaker 2 (35:32):
What are you tripping about?
Speaker 1 (35:32):
You're already rich, right, They can't relate. They just going
to keep flowing. And and if you put the wings
of a pig and hope it the flies out, the
pick fault. It's you. You should expect pig fly. So
there's a lot of pressure on a leader to be
almost all things to all people. And let's go back
now to the three hundred and fifty times or whatever
(35:54):
you were told.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
No, I love what you said.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I want to dig a little deeper because I would
often say I take no for vitamins. That's going from
failure to failure without loss of enthusiastic over rounded through it.
I'm gonna get to it, and you can't go without
legitimate suffering. It seemed to me that those three point
fifty or whatever that number is of turndowns were actually investments,
(36:18):
just non monetary, right, because as you said, you took
that feedback. I want you to go a little deeper
that you took that feedback. Yeah, even if it was
a no, right, it made it valuable. Talk about that.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Let me talk about that a little bit. So Samir
and I remember to your points, Like my mother, we're
figuring it out. We don't have anyone in that family
that's created a company like this, aspiration beyond our wildest imagination, right,
So we have all the things going against us. So
we learned. The first presentation didn't have the what you
(36:53):
call the mental model. The second presentation, we're not thinking
big enough. The third presentation people didn't like idea. We
just continue to get data points, and all those data points.
You know, it's really really important to make sure you
get to the final destination. I always think that every
situation your encounter in life, it will change you. It
(37:17):
would despair or no longer satisfy you. Right, that's that's
the arc of the journey. So we told a more
compelling story. So when we got to the three hundred
and twenty seventh person.
Speaker 4 (37:29):
They're like, wow, it's all the feedback, all the failures
of that three hundred and twenty six on the darkest
day of the three hundred and twenty six journey.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Myself and Semel we just closed a twenty thousand dollars
contracts from my alma mata, University of Minnesota, but we
are both in one hundred thousand dollars in credit card debt.
We had nothing. We couldn't afford an hotel room. We
had a genius idea to go slum it out at
Denny's and walk all night and take it airplane to
San Francisco to continue to raise money. At four am
(38:00):
in the morning, we started dozing ofough and we got
kicked out of it. Dennis. The reason why this is
important to everyone is failure is the only guarantee. If
you don't fail and you're daring to do something great,
failure is inevitable. But you should also remember failure is
also not permanent.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
By the way, is using British English on you were
we will say inevitable.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
American English translate for you. You're right, you're right.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
So one thing that everyone must understand listening to this
podcast is there's no resolution to life problems. It's not
it's a continuum. It's a journey, and you will fail.
It's the only guarantee, but it is how you respond,
how you get up, how you adapt, how you show up,
(39:00):
how you did different. And one of the reasons why
always said John played a key role in some of
the darkest days. He only says something that resonates with me.
There's always a rainbow after the storm. You just have
to fight through it. And you know what, there's an
African American saying, if you anger around the barber shop,
sooner or later, you're gonna get an aircut. And all
(39:22):
myself and Samir did was hang out there. Someone came
into the barber shop. Someone's getting air cut, Like, what
year we're gonna die here, We're not gonna eat until
we get our air cut. I'm bored. We got aircut?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah, yeah, And now you're own the barber shop.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
A lot of barber shops, So you got that first.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
After three hundred and twenty six no's, you got a
yes on a three und twenty seventh yes.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
So one.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
A friend of mine, Tony Wrestler, who owns the Atlanta
Hawks here in Atlanta, would say, if you don't quit,
you can't fail. So you just never left the barber
shop until you got a haircut. Somebody's going to give
you a haircut. It was just a matter of win, right,
and you just kept at it, kept out of kept
at it. So now you go to get this First,
(40:17):
you got your first sale for twenty thousand, you flew
I guess to raise some more money because you couldn't
stay overnight. You couldn't place to stay, so you you
literally stayed up overnight.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
I've done that before to get on the plane.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Did you start closing one deal after another after that
and did you live off the sales or did an
investor finally show up and say, okay, here's it, you know,
here's a pop bucket of money.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
What happened next?
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Great question. So out of that collective experience of all
the nose, we finally had an investor at bet on
Us and they alally significant check into the company and
from there we raised one point six million dollars in
our seat funding. So that was the first major bet
Thatch outside capital to cl on us and all that's
(41:02):
participated to make sure we're able to raise one point
six million dollars to build what the company is now today.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And that person who put the seed money in, that
first investor, we don't need to name names. They in
all likelihood got a larger share of the opportunity because
they took a larger risk. Yes, so you never talked
about this before. I'm just making a presumption listening to this.
Don't get upset because folks want a high return for
(41:32):
a high risk. That's the way the world works. Yes,
don't don't call them names, don't call them greedy. No,
they're taking a risk. They could lose everything. Right, if
they lose everything and come to you, you say, hey,
you know that's what that's the risk of doing business.
So when you hit, when you do well, don't be
resentful when you've got to pay that person.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
What the part of that upside?
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I'd rather have ten percent of something than one hundred
percent of nothing, exactly. So as they became more successful,
they had to give up less of the company, less
of the upside to investors, is my guess, right.
Speaker 2 (42:15):
One.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
I just to give you an idea that fust investor
invested roughly, you.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Know, say.
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Five hundred thousand does that five hundred thousand does is
now what fifteen million, fifteen million, fifty five zero five zero? Wow,
that's amazing.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
That's what happens when you make the right bet, they
can live that they don't make make another investment the
rest of their life. That's okay. So in the last
few minutes, we've got why don't you a mix of
where you are now? So what's your business model now?
Probably here? What are you most proud of in the
achievements in the last few years?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Right? Where are you going?
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Right?
Speaker 2 (43:02):
How can people help who are listening to this right?
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Because there's a broad range of folks who listen to
my podcast, from billionaires to millionaires, two thousandaires, somebody trying
to buy some are to government leaders.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I mean they're all over the map. People listen to
this podcast. So somebody to help you?
Speaker 1 (43:18):
How can they help you? And then what advice do
you have for strivers? As a in comment? What advice suggestions?
Speaker 3 (43:25):
So I would start with our business model, So we
walk with lodge On as an opperators have realested or
anyone or businesses or employers. We charged two dollars by
dull month. We have five million units. I crushed the US.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
You can do the math.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Somebody you charge two dollars per by dull month? Okay,
people who are not good at English. That was the
proper way of saying door he speaking proper English.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
I'm just a due.
Speaker 3 (44:00):
Right right right, PI units per apartment units. So that's
the business mode. It's simple. It's created when when people
get rent reporting, they get free tax filing, they get
financial coaching from Operation Hope, and to be able to
(44:22):
get financial health because that's a civil rights matter of
our time right now. You know you get resources from
Freddie Mack and finding me. Financial coaching really really important
to set you up for success. So we've now built
a platform for that.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
So we've grown.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
We're one of the largest, if not the largest reporter
of this data in the country and work with seventy
five percent of the largest owners and operators of real
estates in America. So it's there you can find us
where your employers. Employers also buy this as a financial
health benefit for folks. How can people be helpful? Number one,
(44:59):
we need you advice. Go to our websites. If you
have feedback shared with us. We want to be the
best we can possibly be. I said it earlier. Every
feedback is a gift. You can go to your website
and leave an idea. Yes, we have a we have
an AI bought on the website that you can you know,
communicate with. If you give it ideas, it will jot
(45:20):
it down and make sure it gets to me and
my co founder.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Also, man, I'm going to steal that idea. The best
in life, the best idea is a copy. And I'm
still in.
Speaker 3 (45:27):
Exactly exactly well our regionals, but we die a copy.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
By the way, what he's said was you were born
in original. When you die a copy, not a copy
that is properly English, right right.
Speaker 3 (45:54):
So number two is you know one thing I want?
And advice also is always remember when someone tells you no,
that no is your pathway and your foundation for a
yes that is yet to come. Always remember that number
(46:18):
two advice is nothing in life is worth doing alone.
If you want to go fast, you go alone. But
if you want to go far, you go together. To
build something special, you need to surround yourself with exceptional people.
Number three is very simple. Surround yourself with people smarter
(46:42):
than you. If you're the smartest person in the room,
you're doing something wrong. And when you do those things
and what leases altogether is passiveen great and never give up,
never ever give up, And that's going to help you
be incredibly successful in life.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
He just dropped the mic. You know, we didn't do
any pre conversation here. We didn't talk about what we're
going to talk about. I just said I think people
need to hear your story. And we had talked about
all of this stuff. And at the end when I
asked you for advice, if you said everything you said
but you had not included basically execution like hustle your
(47:29):
ass off, I would have thought the whole interview was
a failure. But I knew, because I know you're a
proper success that you would not you would not not
say that that is the ingredient for everybody. What I
want the listeners to understand here is that all success
is essentially the same different industry spaces, right, But you
got to be PhD and PhD too exactly.
Speaker 3 (47:53):
You can, you can not be the smartest person in
the room, but no one. Hard work is undefeated. Hard
work is undefeated. It's undefeated.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
I'm getting out. I'm I'll work you on my out,
I'll stand you up, I'll move you. I would die that,
I would die that die on the feet. Would you
have to kill me?
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Yeah? Yeah, I'm the last breath that's it. That's what
you're dealing with. I would die that. I'm not going Yeah,
I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
I'm not going to anywhere except the finish line.
Speaker 1 (48:28):
So yeah and so and so there you go, everybody.
If you're not inspired by this episode, then then you
got to check your posts. I want you to go
to his website and experience what he's doing. Tell your landlord,
if they're not already contracting with you, susu, that they
should and go and give him some feedback, even if
(48:48):
it's just Bravo. Given some encouragement. There are hard days
for guys like this. I mean, eagles don't fly impacts.
You've never seen a flock of eagles. It's tough being
a leader. It's lonely being a leader.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
I know that. I can tell you that myself. I'm
the loneliest guy in the crowded room sometimes. But it's okay.
We got many problems with self. Esteems not one of them.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
So give them encouragement, give them confidence, give them support,
and give them a referral. Tell those that you know
who lease are rent to tell their landlords to use
their company. By all those listening to this, and you know,
of institutional companies that Wall Street companies that own real
estate and underserved neighborhoods.
Speaker 2 (49:29):
Here's one good reason to feel good about that.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Seventy five percent of those companies are contracting with with
this minority owned business.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
Who. How many employees do you have now?
Speaker 3 (49:40):
Just around two hundred people? And one thing that you
acted I didn't say, just to cluse out with. What
I'm most proud of is we've established credit scores for
over two hundred thousand people. And the people that have
improved credit scores on our platform, I've gone on to
on lock fifty billion dollars let me repeat myself billion
unders in credit. Of that fifty billion, thirty billion does
(50:02):
is muggagees. So the provabio American dream is you walk hard,
you play by the rules, you buy a house one day.
We've helped people improve their credit score so they can
fulfill the American dream and it's an irony. And immigrants
from the slums of Legos, Nigeria contributes into perfecting this union.
That is the true genius of America.
Speaker 2 (50:21):
Yeah, and America he is he is right, is a
great country.
Speaker 1 (50:24):
But she's also got many faults and many many failing slavery,
Jim Crow, all the crappy stuff that happened then, some
of it's happening now. But there is no perfect and
you just go. You want to make the best of
this that you can. It is still an incredible place
of opportunity America. And he is part of what of
(50:45):
what making this story aspirational for the next generation of
immigrants who are coming here legally and making their contribution.
And he is part of this American story. His mother
is a part of this American story. We should celebrate that.
I celebrate him.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
And this is an example, in my opinion, of good
capitalism and we should want more of this. This is
John O'Bryant. This is the Money and Wealth podcast episode
and series.
Speaker 2 (51:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
This is your up another example of up from nothing.
Tell your friends to go to IUSU Uh have them
follow Uh. When Memo Online and his company follow, of course,
Operation Hope get a copy of my book Financial Literacy
for All if you haven't gotten it, you get a
thousand dollars coaching scholarship and Operation Hope to get your
credit score up, your debt down, your savings up.
Speaker 2 (51:37):
Do you have a book out yet?
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Well?
Speaker 2 (51:38):
When Memo are you working on one and.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Then their future. The story is still being told Inure.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (51:46):
I love that all right, John, Good to see you,
God Bless love and life, Money and Wealth with John
(52:08):
O'Brien is a production of the Black Effect Podcast Network.
For more podcasts from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Host
John Hope Bryant
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