December 10, 2021 • 20 mins
Angel Rich has made a name and a career for herself in the tech industry, combining financial literacy and education with technological innovation. You may have seen her on Power 105's The Breakfast Club verbally sparring with Charlamagne Tha God, or being featured in Forbes magazine being hailed as the next Steve Jobs. In addition, she became the first black woman to partner with a major credit bureau.
Angel discusses her journey of being the first in her family to go to college, leaving a successful & high-paying career to become an entrepreneur. How she became the first black woman to secure a partnership with a major credit bureau and The development of Candy Crush & Credit Rich, and the legacy of her book The History of the Black dollar.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @angelrich27
Business: Wealthy Life
Make sure to purchase History of the Black dollar
Download Credit Stacker on Google Play or Apple Store
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. You may have seen
her on Power one oh five is the Breakfast Club,
verbally sparring with Charlemagne the God or being featured in
(00:22):
Forbes magazine for being hailed as the next Steed Jobs
as she became the first black woman to partner with
a major credit bureau. She's the founder and CEO of
Credit Rich, a fintech company that combines financial literacy, which education,
and technological innovation. Money Movers, I am thrilled to welcome
to the podcast the one the Only Angel Rich Angel. Welcome, Welcome,
(00:46):
Welcome to the Money Moves Podcast. I know you were
super busy these days, so I'm so grateful to have
you here, so welcome. How are you today, I'm doing fantastic.
I'm extremely exciting to be here with you today and
I can't wait to dive in. So I know you
got a chance to meet with some of our team
(01:06):
on the streets of Greenwood. I love that, and I've
heard so much about you. But I want to start
off by understanding or giving our money moves audience a
chance to understand a little bit more about your journey. UM,
as an entrepreneur and a successful black woman in tech.
What led you to get started in the tech business? Well, interestingly,
(01:27):
I was actually a researcher. First. I was a global
market research analyst or prudential financial and so I'm a
data statistician, but I trade and as I was conducting
the different research studies, I was noticing how much of
a need for financial education there was, not only from
a philanthropic and sort of diversity perspective, but also from
(01:51):
a business perspective, because ever since the financial crisis, people
have not really trusted the financial institutions as much and
they wanted to be come educated themselves. So that led
me into designing the product, which ultimately ended up being
technology Education technology specifically to be able to help people
(02:12):
learn financial literacy. Oh, I love this. So you started
off as a data scientist, you were in sort of
like the finance numbers world, and then really started to
you know, see a pattern for people of color, etcetera,
and built a solution to help us build wealth. Like
this is incredible. Thank you. Yes, Um, one of my
(02:32):
goals and dreams as a child was to be able
to conduct the African American Financial Experience Study. Of course
I didn't have that name, but growing up in a
life insurance sales family and don't always boggled my mind
where people didn't know how to manage their money, and
so I wanted to figure out some type of solution
to be able to help our community. So from the
very first day that I arrived at Predential, I started
(02:55):
working on that African American Financial Experience Study, and that
intended with seventy plus other studies that I conducted while
at Prudential, it just was a clear club path that
education and financial education was going to be needed. Wow,
that's incredible. Over seventy studies. You know something you said,
they really stood up to me. You came from a
(03:15):
family that seemed to really push and teach financial literacy
from a young age, and oftentimes in our communities, we
have not been afforded that opportunity to be passed down
generation after generation. So the work you're doing, I think
revolutionalizes and changes the trajectory for so many people of
color in our country. Tell me more about Credit Rich
(03:38):
and Credit Stacker. Thank you, well, I'm very excited. After
a very good tenure at Prudential, I decided to break
off and create Credit Stacker. Credit Stacker was the first
ever financial literacy mobile game on the market. I sort
of decided to leave my job after a trip to
(04:00):
Africa and I met a little boy in the Warton
T shirt after just receiving a full ride to war
In from Credential, and yeah, and I realized that no
matter how smart he became, he probably would never have
the opportunity to actually go to war ENIM. So we
created credit Stacker. Credit Stacker essentially we reverse engineered the
(04:21):
fair as a credit reporting system and apply game mechanics
to it. So it's similar to Candy Crush, except for
swapping around candy, swapping around credit types to be able
to pay off your debt and laurn one the multiple
choice questions and achieve a high credit score. So you
basically gamified how I can increase my credit score and
basically financial status. Yes, I love that essentially in a
(04:45):
nutshell yeah yeah. And it did so well um that
it grew to become the number one education appter fourteen countries,
top five and forty countries, and was named the best
financial literacy product in the country by the White House
Department Education in JP Morgan Chase, I'm literally like tearing up.
This is incredible, This is so powerful because you are
(05:06):
just changing the trarectory for so many people. You know,
I want to say, like, there's so many different directions
where I'm so you're taking me right now. But I
want to talk a little bit about your choice. Like,
you had this coushy job at Credential. You could just
sort of stay there and you know, do the work,
take home paycheck. What was it like realizing you had
this calling to entrepreneurship and how did you know that
(05:29):
it was safe for you to quit your job and
launch this business? Because I think this is a question
so many people wrestle with, especially women in general. Absolutely,
that is a fantastic question. Um one, I was raised
to be an entrepreneur. I'd like to say I was
born an entrepreneur, and then I was raised as a
businesswoman or I come from a family of entrepreneurs. They
(05:51):
didn't even want me to go to college. I had to.
I tried to actually join the military, and then when
the sergeant called my house and my mother like got
all up in arms and so she said, if you
want to go to college that bad, I figure out
how you for you to pay for it. So I
was the first person in my family to even graduate
from college, so it was always expected of me to
(06:13):
do this. When I decided to quit my job, I
did call my parents crying, like what did I just do?
And you know, to know that it was safe. I
didn't always kind of know that it was safe, but
to actually now take that opportunity that was weird. And
mother was sort of like, I'm sorry, I don't understand
what's happening. You saved up a hundred thousand dollars, you've
(06:35):
paid off a hundred thousand dollars of debt, you have
an amazing idea, you have a patent pending, and you
have people offering you money for the company. I'm confused
about the tears. And so that was a very kind
of poignant conversation that I'll never really forget and I
never looked back since that day. Wow, if that's incredible.
(06:58):
I love that. Um, So let's go back your two
companies that you formed their technology base. This is basically
essentially fintech companies, and you know, for a black women,
there's not a lot of black women in the fintech
ecosystem that have built companies like this. So you are
the first black women to partner with one of the
major credit borrows. Can you talk about what that partnership
(07:20):
is like and how you managed to secure that. Yes,
so Credit Rich rounds up users spare change to pay
their bills intelligently and optimize their credit score as fast
as possible in real time. We are extremely excited to
be in partnership with experience, and we essentially realize in
(07:41):
building our last company that it was smarter for us
to sort of build with the end in mind when
it came to this new product. So, before you know,
I was a young fledglings an entrepreneur, but this time around,
I said, if we want to be acquired, who would
be the appropriate partner to acquire us? Um Secondly, I
(08:02):
also thought about the fact that we were dealing with
financial data security. Also used to work for Finerald, the
financial regulatory authority, so I know how important that could be.
I also knew that we were going to be big,
and so in order for us to be big, we
were going to need a massive legal marketing department, customer
service department, technology, expertise and all of these very different things.
(08:26):
So in looking at that sort of spear if we
decided to move forward with Experience, UH, they've been the
least hacked out of all of the major credit bureaus
as well as they have the most customers, having over
a hundred million customers. UM. I did not expect them
to contact us that, but they did, and interestingly, we
(08:47):
actually learned that not only were they UH interested in
moving forward, but that we were doing something new with
them where they had never partnered with a technology company before,
to co innovate and co release the product. Even if
you go on Credit Carma right now and Experience is
not on there, it's just TransUnion and equificts. So it's
(09:08):
been amazing to be able to develop this. We have
a full twenty four seven customer service department with them
as well as with our B two BE customers. They
take on most of the heavy lifting. They continue to
do quarterly quality assurance as well as they assist with
our marketing. So I like to think that we UH
negotiated a pretty good deal. It's like very proud of it.
(09:31):
I love hearing how you sort of architected the trajectory
of your company from the very early stages, you know,
and it's always a long run. But I think that's
a really important lesson for people to understand, like you've
built this company based on previous experience, saying Okay, if
I want to exit, how can I grow and what
are the partners that I can get? And I think
that's a really, you know, incredibly visionary mindset and when
(09:54):
you're starting a company, So kudos to you, thank you.
I feel like I've kind of gotten it, figure it out. Now.
I'm working with a few programs. I'm doing like this
billionaire blueprint thing because now that I have realized just
to start with the end in mind, the rest becomes
quite easy if you know how to innovate and conduct
(10:14):
business and marketing and all those other things. But you know,
I think that was definitely one of the mistakes that
I made before I was just like, oh, we're gonna
invent this amazing product, and surely you know it will
just the money will come. No, you kind of kind
of need to reparse engineer that. So um and then
my partners, my partner, my co founder used if he's
(10:37):
former Special Forces combat medic, he had been in a
blood test for PTSD. He's a biochemist. Um he raised
two million and the partner with the top genetics company
in the world, Alumina, and then our CTO, Eric Williams.
He's a cybersecurity specialist and he recently sold his company
a Jura to top Ta, which is one of the
(10:58):
top far tech companies in the world. Wow, this is
the dream team. Yes, and so that was another thing
that I learned. You know, you can't do it alone. Um.
That was some great advice that I actually got from
Steve Kase. He was like, you know, Angel, I'm pretty
certain you will be successful. If you want to be successful,
you can go alone. But I'm probably messing this all up.
(11:21):
But it's the Africa we got you then, right, But
if you want to go far, go together. And so
basically his theme wants to build a team. So I
sat back and I built this team and for all
of us, this is our second product. So it's been
really amazing to work with them and be able to
execute this. I love it. And I think that you know,
when you're looking to build like huge scalable technology companies
(11:42):
that you know can receive capital and this you really
need to look at it like you're building an Olympic team.
You need the best of the best to go the distance,
and this is a perfect example. UM smart smart thinking. So,
angel you were in Tulsa with the rest of the
team for the one anniversary of the Greenwood massacre. UM,
(12:03):
what brought you out there? And tell us a little
bit more about your experience there in Greenwood. That was
a very emotional experience. UM. I was originally invited by
Angela rye Um for a special that she was filming
that's going to air on title on Junel Team. My
(12:25):
particular segment was on reimagining Blackwah Street. What I did
not know before I arrived there was that I am
considered the top black author in the country to have
written on blackwall Street. Uh did not wait, pause, pause,
We will not allow you to move over this black
girl magic top say it again? Please for us, Come on?
(12:50):
Did not know that I was the top black author
in the country for writing on blackwash streets. So is
that your book behind us? Because we're gonna need a
close out. I had no idea. I mean, I knew
that people weren't talking about it, and I knew that
it had been written, but I didn't know that I
was the only black author to have written on it
in the past twenty years. And it was like what,
(13:14):
And it was like, Oh, that's why you guys are
inviting me everywhere to talk about this, and so it
was It's just it was just something that I was
personally passionate about um and growing up in d C.
We learned so much Black history. I sadly throughout the
rest of the country you don't learn as much Black
(13:35):
history as I was fortunate to learn. And as I
was working on the African American Study and I was
receiving uh, different hurdles. As I was going through it,
I wasn't understanding why so many people were at a
disconnect for what was happening in the community. And I
remember one of the pivotal moments of me finally being
(13:58):
able to get the budget approve with me explaining that
my great grandmother was raised by a slave and I
was raised by my great grandmother. And they were like, oh,
my gosh, you have a direct connection to slavery. And
I was like, yes, do not allow me to freak
you out. Most black people do, right, And they're like, WHOA, Yeah,
(14:20):
So that was kind of like the original reasoning behind
me even sort of going down this path and writing
a chapter on Black Wall Street, then fast forwarding to
me actually being there in the presence of sort of
these buildings that are now just marked by these plaques
on the ground that are people are walking over, just
simply walking over the Cotton Club plaque that is tough
(14:44):
in a corner under an overpass that they have now
just run straight through where the Beach Hotel, Black Hotel
in the Country and the Cotton Club used to be.
It's a shame. It's sad. It's really sad to kind
of see. And when you are there on the ground
and you sort of are able to picture the geographical
(15:06):
location of it is very easy to be able to
see the sort of totality of what happened and everything
that transpired. Well, thank you forward to helping to rebuild it. No,
I I appreciate you. I applaud you for being able
to put that down on paper, making an indelible mark
on the world and telling those stories because without you,
(15:27):
and you know, these voices and stories would never be shared.
So it is it is meaningful to so many people.
So let's take a minute to uplift your sister, and
can you please tell us show us the book again.
We want to close up of it and tell us
where we can buy it. Obviously, I'm always about supporting
your local businesses and small businesses, black owned businesses in
(15:47):
your neighborhood. If not, you can go to that big
monolith on the on the internet. But please tell us
about your book. Absolutely, thank you. Um So. History of
the Black Dollar is available on Amazon and an even
much everywhere books are sold. It's all also available in
the libraries. Our mission is to get this book mandated
in schools across America, not just as a black history book,
(16:11):
but as an American history book, because black history is
American history, and one of the key points of the
book is a direct trace of the economic history of
black America from the very first slave that entered America
to present day. Another thing that was researched about the
(16:31):
book by the State of Illinois. I had a friend
that wanted to put it in the libraries, and at
first it was a little bit of pushback. The State
of Illinois conducted a research study on it, and they
found that there was no other book that had been
written like it. In the past ten years and had
not been written by a black person, and that was
years ago before I went to Greenwood and found out
(16:51):
this recent information. So it is currently taught in K
t L schools as well as universities, as well as
many core rations by it. We recently partnered with a
company called Answer Source where we've now developed courses around
it as well. We've broken sort of the chapters down
into these ten minute granular educated modules and we're looking
(17:14):
to roll those out across corporations and schools as well.
So we think that it is a really good way
to be able to have a completely unbiased, factual perspective
of our history. And the last thing that I'll say
on this is one of the main reasons um that
I decided to actually penance and publish it. As I
(17:36):
was speaking at the university, the Harvard University, and I
asked everybody to raise their hand if they have read
the Diary of a Frank And everybody raised their hands,
and so it's like, of course, because it's mandated. And
then I said, now tell me the Book of a
Child Slave or even the Gym crow Era that's mandated
in our schools, and nobody could name one and I okay, well,
(18:00):
that's an event that took place over across four years
that was in another country, as opposed to something that
was four hundred years in our own country. Wouldn't it
make sense for us to have empathy towards it in
the same way that we do towards the Jewish community.
And deeply believe that that disconnect is because we are
(18:21):
not all reading from the same book, So how can
we be on the same page? Yeah? Oh, well said
that that is exactly the point. And if we don't
know our history, how do we create and shape our futures,
our present and our futures. So I love that you
just were motivated to go out and be like this
needs to be everywhere. These stories need to be told.
Everybody in this country, not just black white, should know
(18:44):
these stories. Absolutely. It is very important. I call it
financial agriculture, you know, because in regular agriculture, you can't
just keep plotting peas or Karen's in the same plot
over and over for proper growth. If you're really supposed
to rotate the crops every three months in order to
have the best soil, to have the best sort of
(19:06):
fruits of your labor, so the same has to have
been for financial agriculture. We cannot just be within our
same community, although I agree with collective economics, but we
also have to be able to mix and mingle with
other communities to be able to fertilize that soil so
that we are all sort of rising to the top
and being able to have the best. But what we're doing,
(19:28):
and if we do not in our own community as
well as outside of our community, have an understanding of
that history, as you said, then we will never be
able to advance because there will always be the laboring
of excuses that may be false conceptions and other types
of notions instead of having an accurate history of what
(19:49):
really happened. Or Angel, such a pleasure to have you here.
Can you please tell our Money Moves audience where they
can find you on social and please tell them where
they can find your apps so that they can fix
their credit absolutely well. First of all, go right now
and download Credit Rich on Google Play. You can also
(20:09):
then slide over to Amazon and pick up a copy
of History of the Black Dollar, and then going over
to Instagram and follow me at Angel Rich and go
ahead and follow Credit Rich at as well. Thank you
so much. You guys have your to do list, so
please go and follow and purchase money Movers. If you
want more information on all the knowledge and gems that
(20:30):
Angels just dropped, please go to bank Greenwood dot com
and check out the Money Moves blog. Money Moves is
an I heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced
by sun Wise Media, Inc. For more podcast on iHeart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(20:51):
you get your podcasts from
Hey, Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. You may have seen
her on Power one oh five is the Breakfast Club,
verbally sparring with Charlemagne the God or being featured in
(00:22):
Forbes magazine for being hailed as the next Steed Jobs
as she became the first black woman to partner with
a major credit bureau. She's the founder and CEO of
Credit Rich, a fintech company that combines financial literacy, which education,
and technological innovation. Money Movers, I am thrilled to welcome
to the podcast the one the Only Angel Rich Angel. Welcome, Welcome,
(00:46):
Welcome to the Money Moves Podcast. I know you were
super busy these days, so I'm so grateful to have
you here, so welcome. How are you today, I'm doing fantastic.
I'm extremely exciting to be here with you today and
I can't wait to dive in. So I know you
got a chance to meet with some of our team
(01:06):
on the streets of Greenwood. I love that, and I've
heard so much about you. But I want to start
off by understanding or giving our money moves audience a
chance to understand a little bit more about your journey. UM,
as an entrepreneur and a successful black woman in tech.
What led you to get started in the tech business? Well, interestingly,
(01:27):
I was actually a researcher. First. I was a global
market research analyst or prudential financial and so I'm a
data statistician, but I trade and as I was conducting
the different research studies, I was noticing how much of
a need for financial education there was, not only from
a philanthropic and sort of diversity perspective, but also from
(01:51):
a business perspective, because ever since the financial crisis, people
have not really trusted the financial institutions as much and
they wanted to be come educated themselves. So that led
me into designing the product, which ultimately ended up being
technology Education technology specifically to be able to help people
(02:12):
learn financial literacy. Oh, I love this. So you started
off as a data scientist, you were in sort of
like the finance numbers world, and then really started to
you know, see a pattern for people of color, etcetera,
and built a solution to help us build wealth. Like
this is incredible. Thank you. Yes, Um, one of my
(02:32):
goals and dreams as a child was to be able
to conduct the African American Financial Experience Study. Of course
I didn't have that name, but growing up in a
life insurance sales family and don't always boggled my mind
where people didn't know how to manage their money, and
so I wanted to figure out some type of solution
to be able to help our community. So from the
very first day that I arrived at Predential, I started
(02:55):
working on that African American Financial Experience Study, and that
intended with seventy plus other studies that I conducted while
at Prudential, it just was a clear club path that
education and financial education was going to be needed. Wow,
that's incredible. Over seventy studies. You know something you said,
they really stood up to me. You came from a
(03:15):
family that seemed to really push and teach financial literacy
from a young age, and oftentimes in our communities, we
have not been afforded that opportunity to be passed down
generation after generation. So the work you're doing, I think
revolutionalizes and changes the trajectory for so many people of
color in our country. Tell me more about Credit Rich
(03:38):
and Credit Stacker. Thank you, well, I'm very excited. After
a very good tenure at Prudential, I decided to break
off and create Credit Stacker. Credit Stacker was the first
ever financial literacy mobile game on the market. I sort
of decided to leave my job after a trip to
(04:00):
Africa and I met a little boy in the Warton
T shirt after just receiving a full ride to war
In from Credential, and yeah, and I realized that no
matter how smart he became, he probably would never have
the opportunity to actually go to war ENIM. So we
created credit Stacker. Credit Stacker essentially we reverse engineered the
(04:21):
fair as a credit reporting system and apply game mechanics
to it. So it's similar to Candy Crush, except for
swapping around candy, swapping around credit types to be able
to pay off your debt and laurn one the multiple
choice questions and achieve a high credit score. So you
basically gamified how I can increase my credit score and
basically financial status. Yes, I love that essentially in a
(04:45):
nutshell yeah yeah. And it did so well um that
it grew to become the number one education appter fourteen countries,
top five and forty countries, and was named the best
financial literacy product in the country by the White House
Department Education in JP Morgan Chase, I'm literally like tearing up.
This is incredible, This is so powerful because you are
(05:06):
just changing the trarectory for so many people. You know,
I want to say, like, there's so many different directions
where I'm so you're taking me right now. But I
want to talk a little bit about your choice. Like,
you had this coushy job at Credential. You could just
sort of stay there and you know, do the work,
take home paycheck. What was it like realizing you had
this calling to entrepreneurship and how did you know that
(05:29):
it was safe for you to quit your job and
launch this business? Because I think this is a question
so many people wrestle with, especially women in general. Absolutely,
that is a fantastic question. Um one, I was raised
to be an entrepreneur. I'd like to say I was
born an entrepreneur, and then I was raised as a
businesswoman or I come from a family of entrepreneurs. They
(05:51):
didn't even want me to go to college. I had to.
I tried to actually join the military, and then when
the sergeant called my house and my mother like got
all up in arms and so she said, if you
want to go to college that bad, I figure out
how you for you to pay for it. So I
was the first person in my family to even graduate
from college, so it was always expected of me to
(06:13):
do this. When I decided to quit my job, I
did call my parents crying, like what did I just do?
And you know, to know that it was safe. I
didn't always kind of know that it was safe, but
to actually now take that opportunity that was weird. And
mother was sort of like, I'm sorry, I don't understand
what's happening. You saved up a hundred thousand dollars, you've
(06:35):
paid off a hundred thousand dollars of debt, you have
an amazing idea, you have a patent pending, and you
have people offering you money for the company. I'm confused
about the tears. And so that was a very kind
of poignant conversation that I'll never really forget and I
never looked back since that day. Wow, if that's incredible.
(06:58):
I love that. Um, So let's go back your two
companies that you formed their technology base. This is basically
essentially fintech companies, and you know, for a black women,
there's not a lot of black women in the fintech
ecosystem that have built companies like this. So you are
the first black women to partner with one of the
major credit borrows. Can you talk about what that partnership
(07:20):
is like and how you managed to secure that. Yes,
so Credit Rich rounds up users spare change to pay
their bills intelligently and optimize their credit score as fast
as possible in real time. We are extremely excited to
be in partnership with experience, and we essentially realize in
(07:41):
building our last company that it was smarter for us
to sort of build with the end in mind when
it came to this new product. So, before you know,
I was a young fledglings an entrepreneur, but this time around,
I said, if we want to be acquired, who would
be the appropriate partner to acquire us? Um Secondly, I
(08:02):
also thought about the fact that we were dealing with
financial data security. Also used to work for Finerald, the
financial regulatory authority, so I know how important that could be.
I also knew that we were going to be big,
and so in order for us to be big, we
were going to need a massive legal marketing department, customer
service department, technology, expertise and all of these very different things.
(08:26):
So in looking at that sort of spear if we
decided to move forward with Experience, UH, they've been the
least hacked out of all of the major credit bureaus
as well as they have the most customers, having over
a hundred million customers. UM. I did not expect them
to contact us that, but they did, and interestingly, we
(08:47):
actually learned that not only were they UH interested in
moving forward, but that we were doing something new with
them where they had never partnered with a technology company before,
to co innovate and co release the product. Even if
you go on Credit Carma right now and Experience is
not on there, it's just TransUnion and equificts. So it's
(09:08):
been amazing to be able to develop this. We have
a full twenty four seven customer service department with them
as well as with our B two BE customers. They
take on most of the heavy lifting. They continue to
do quarterly quality assurance as well as they assist with
our marketing. So I like to think that we UH
negotiated a pretty good deal. It's like very proud of it.
(09:31):
I love hearing how you sort of architected the trajectory
of your company from the very early stages, you know,
and it's always a long run. But I think that's
a really important lesson for people to understand, like you've
built this company based on previous experience, saying Okay, if
I want to exit, how can I grow and what
are the partners that I can get? And I think
that's a really, you know, incredibly visionary mindset and when
(09:54):
you're starting a company, So kudos to you, thank you.
I feel like I've kind of gotten it, figure it out. Now.
I'm working with a few programs. I'm doing like this
billionaire blueprint thing because now that I have realized just
to start with the end in mind, the rest becomes
quite easy if you know how to innovate and conduct
(10:14):
business and marketing and all those other things. But you know,
I think that was definitely one of the mistakes that
I made before I was just like, oh, we're gonna
invent this amazing product, and surely you know it will
just the money will come. No, you kind of kind
of need to reparse engineer that. So um and then
my partners, my partner, my co founder used if he's
(10:37):
former Special Forces combat medic, he had been in a
blood test for PTSD. He's a biochemist. Um he raised
two million and the partner with the top genetics company
in the world, Alumina, and then our CTO, Eric Williams.
He's a cybersecurity specialist and he recently sold his company
a Jura to top Ta, which is one of the
(10:58):
top far tech companies in the world. Wow, this is
the dream team. Yes, and so that was another thing
that I learned. You know, you can't do it alone. Um.
That was some great advice that I actually got from
Steve Kase. He was like, you know, Angel, I'm pretty
certain you will be successful. If you want to be successful,
you can go alone. But I'm probably messing this all up.
(11:21):
But it's the Africa we got you then, right, But
if you want to go far, go together. And so
basically his theme wants to build a team. So I
sat back and I built this team and for all
of us, this is our second product. So it's been
really amazing to work with them and be able to
execute this. I love it. And I think that you know,
when you're looking to build like huge scalable technology companies
(11:42):
that you know can receive capital and this you really
need to look at it like you're building an Olympic team.
You need the best of the best to go the distance,
and this is a perfect example. UM smart smart thinking. So,
angel you were in Tulsa with the rest of the
team for the one anniversary of the Greenwood massacre. UM,
(12:03):
what brought you out there? And tell us a little
bit more about your experience there in Greenwood. That was
a very emotional experience. UM. I was originally invited by
Angela rye Um for a special that she was filming
that's going to air on title on Junel Team. My
(12:25):
particular segment was on reimagining Blackwah Street. What I did
not know before I arrived there was that I am
considered the top black author in the country to have
written on blackwall Street. Uh did not wait, pause, pause,
We will not allow you to move over this black
girl magic top say it again? Please for us, Come on?
(12:50):
Did not know that I was the top black author
in the country for writing on blackwash streets. So is
that your book behind us? Because we're gonna need a
close out. I had no idea. I mean, I knew
that people weren't talking about it, and I knew that
it had been written, but I didn't know that I
was the only black author to have written on it
in the past twenty years. And it was like what,
(13:14):
And it was like, Oh, that's why you guys are
inviting me everywhere to talk about this, and so it
was It's just it was just something that I was
personally passionate about um and growing up in d C.
We learned so much Black history. I sadly throughout the
rest of the country you don't learn as much Black
(13:35):
history as I was fortunate to learn. And as I
was working on the African American Study and I was
receiving uh, different hurdles. As I was going through it,
I wasn't understanding why so many people were at a
disconnect for what was happening in the community. And I
remember one of the pivotal moments of me finally being
(13:58):
able to get the budget approve with me explaining that
my great grandmother was raised by a slave and I
was raised by my great grandmother. And they were like, oh,
my gosh, you have a direct connection to slavery. And
I was like, yes, do not allow me to freak
you out. Most black people do, right, And they're like, WHOA, Yeah,
(14:20):
So that was kind of like the original reasoning behind
me even sort of going down this path and writing
a chapter on Black Wall Street, then fast forwarding to
me actually being there in the presence of sort of
these buildings that are now just marked by these plaques
on the ground that are people are walking over, just
simply walking over the Cotton Club plaque that is tough
(14:44):
in a corner under an overpass that they have now
just run straight through where the Beach Hotel, Black Hotel
in the Country and the Cotton Club used to be.
It's a shame. It's sad. It's really sad to kind
of see. And when you are there on the ground
and you sort of are able to picture the geographical
(15:06):
location of it is very easy to be able to
see the sort of totality of what happened and everything
that transpired. Well, thank you forward to helping to rebuild it. No,
I I appreciate you. I applaud you for being able
to put that down on paper, making an indelible mark
on the world and telling those stories because without you,
(15:27):
and you know, these voices and stories would never be shared.
So it is it is meaningful to so many people.
So let's take a minute to uplift your sister, and
can you please tell us show us the book again.
We want to close up of it and tell us
where we can buy it. Obviously, I'm always about supporting
your local businesses and small businesses, black owned businesses in
(15:47):
your neighborhood. If not, you can go to that big
monolith on the on the internet. But please tell us
about your book. Absolutely, thank you. Um So. History of
the Black Dollar is available on Amazon and an even
much everywhere books are sold. It's all also available in
the libraries. Our mission is to get this book mandated
in schools across America, not just as a black history book,
(16:11):
but as an American history book, because black history is
American history, and one of the key points of the
book is a direct trace of the economic history of
black America from the very first slave that entered America
to present day. Another thing that was researched about the
(16:31):
book by the State of Illinois. I had a friend
that wanted to put it in the libraries, and at
first it was a little bit of pushback. The State
of Illinois conducted a research study on it, and they
found that there was no other book that had been
written like it. In the past ten years and had
not been written by a black person, and that was
years ago before I went to Greenwood and found out
(16:51):
this recent information. So it is currently taught in K
t L schools as well as universities, as well as
many core rations by it. We recently partnered with a
company called Answer Source where we've now developed courses around
it as well. We've broken sort of the chapters down
into these ten minute granular educated modules and we're looking
(17:14):
to roll those out across corporations and schools as well.
So we think that it is a really good way
to be able to have a completely unbiased, factual perspective
of our history. And the last thing that I'll say
on this is one of the main reasons um that
I decided to actually penance and publish it. As I
(17:36):
was speaking at the university, the Harvard University, and I
asked everybody to raise their hand if they have read
the Diary of a Frank And everybody raised their hands,
and so it's like, of course, because it's mandated. And
then I said, now tell me the Book of a
Child Slave or even the Gym crow Era that's mandated
in our schools, and nobody could name one and I okay, well,
(18:00):
that's an event that took place over across four years
that was in another country, as opposed to something that
was four hundred years in our own country. Wouldn't it
make sense for us to have empathy towards it in
the same way that we do towards the Jewish community.
And deeply believe that that disconnect is because we are
(18:21):
not all reading from the same book, So how can
we be on the same page? Yeah? Oh, well said
that that is exactly the point. And if we don't
know our history, how do we create and shape our futures,
our present and our futures. So I love that you
just were motivated to go out and be like this
needs to be everywhere. These stories need to be told.
Everybody in this country, not just black white, should know
(18:44):
these stories. Absolutely. It is very important. I call it
financial agriculture, you know, because in regular agriculture, you can't
just keep plotting peas or Karen's in the same plot
over and over for proper growth. If you're really supposed
to rotate the crops every three months in order to
have the best soil, to have the best sort of
(19:06):
fruits of your labor, so the same has to have
been for financial agriculture. We cannot just be within our
same community, although I agree with collective economics, but we
also have to be able to mix and mingle with
other communities to be able to fertilize that soil so
that we are all sort of rising to the top
and being able to have the best. But what we're doing,
(19:28):
and if we do not in our own community as
well as outside of our community, have an understanding of
that history, as you said, then we will never be
able to advance because there will always be the laboring
of excuses that may be false conceptions and other types
of notions instead of having an accurate history of what
(19:49):
really happened. Or Angel, such a pleasure to have you here.
Can you please tell our Money Moves audience where they
can find you on social and please tell them where
they can find your apps so that they can fix
their credit absolutely well. First of all, go right now
and download Credit Rich on Google Play. You can also
(20:09):
then slide over to Amazon and pick up a copy
of History of the Black Dollar, and then going over
to Instagram and follow me at Angel Rich and go
ahead and follow Credit Rich at as well. Thank you
so much. You guys have your to do list, so
please go and follow and purchase money Movers. If you
want more information on all the knowledge and gems that
(20:30):
Angels just dropped, please go to bank Greenwood dot com
and check out the Money Moves blog. Money Moves is
an I heart Radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced
by sun Wise Media, Inc. For more podcast on iHeart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
(20:51):
you get your podcasts from
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