April 13, 2022 • 24 mins
Serial Entrepreneur, Dawn returns on this deep dive to talk keys to building a thriving crowdfunding network. She shares how she organized a crowdfunding campaign that led to her becoming the first woman in history to raise over 1 million dollars. In addition, she shares all her strategies that people can use to help prepare a campaign and the value of group economics.
Host IG: @itstanyatime
Guest IG: @dawnwdickson
Learn more about crowdfunding: Dawn Dickson
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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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. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our next
(00:22):
guest is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with over twenty
years experience in technology, entrepreneurship, startups, marketing and business development.
She is the founder of five successful companies since two
thousand and one, including Flat out of Heels two thousand eleven,
Popcom two thousand seventeen, and considered to be one of
the pioneers in the equity crowd funding space. In two
(00:45):
thousand nineteen, she became the first female founder to raise
over one million dollars in an equity crowdfunding campaign. Money Movers, Please,
Welcome to the podcast. Don Dixon apoginy Don. It's a
pleasure to have you here. Yeah, thank you so much
for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. Okay,
So we've touched on foot stopping, we've touched on networking.
(01:05):
Let's go to friends and family, you know, and I
think this is it's a it's a natural tie in, right,
give your definition of sort of what you you know,
what are friends and family round is and you know
which company you use it and how you were successful
doing that. Yeah. So I consider my friends and family
like my warm network because sometimes not by actual relative
or my closest friend, but it may be a friend
(01:26):
of a friend, just people that I can reach out
and touch, people that someone can vouch for me, and
they invest because either they're familiar with me and they
know me, they're very familiar and comfortable with the person
who introduced us, and they believe in me. They're comfortable
with the network. Because people invest in people they want
to believe in you, know, in in you. So you're
friends and family people that have vouch for you, they
believe in you, and they're like, Okay, Don, I don't
(01:48):
know what you're talking about this website or these shoes,
but I believe in you and I know your words.
Good for it. But it's so your uncle so and
so who said, I don't know. But my mom was like,
Don's like Tommy, she don't really got no job. That's
that was the whole joke for like ten years. What
have gone due? She liked Tommy? I mean, that's my life, right,
(02:09):
But they still supported me because they see me working
for that goal. And so the way that I got
them was a technique that I learned when I went
to school for actually nonprofit fundraising management. I made like
a constituent chart. So I wrote down the list of
like everybody I think that got a thousand dollars that
can maybe invest, and then I made a list of
who have like a thousand, who might have five, who
(02:30):
might have ten, who might have twenty. And you have
to really really think deeply through this because you don't
want to ask for too much because you get to know,
but you don't want to ask for like not enough
because they say yes too fast, it's like you should
have asked for more. So it's like really trying to
put those into categories. And then what I did was
to say, okay, I gotta raise two fifty. If I asked,
(02:50):
you know, twenty people for ten thousand, and I get
two of them to say yes, I got twenty. I
just really broke it down to how many people that
I needed to talk to in my personal network. A
big thing that I did that I want to leave
everyone with is that I built an email list very early.
Because remember my background was an email from twitters, and
I know the value of email, and I built an
(03:11):
email newsletter from my personal network, and so you know,
we mean all these people that conferences and you like them.
We hit it off, but we don't really have anything
to talk about the next day, and I don't have
an immediate ask. So I say, can I put you
on my monthly quarterly email update and I'll share with
you wouldn't working on and we could just stay in
touch that way, And so every month, sometimes to be
a quarter based on the year. I've been doing this
(03:32):
for now ten years, I send an update what I'm
excited about, what my challenges are in any media that
I'm in, or any asks, and the ask won't be money.
To ask will beat anybody know a good accountant? To
ask will beat like anything that I need just normal
and you would be so surprised. And people just were
happy to help, so that by the time I did
(03:52):
ask for money, they were so well updated on what
I've been doing for the past years. They were like, oh,
you need money here because I see you've been working.
I see you consistently been updating me for years. And
so the key to building a network is being consistent
with their outreach. You don't have to send a personal email,
but creating a list where people just know what you're
(04:14):
doing so you won't they won't forget about you. I
just make sure that I'm not forgotten about. Yes, Okay,
that was incredible. That was some I mean, I just
love when people drop really tangible gems and that's a
huge thing. Like that's how you properly become a connector
and stay connected to so many people in build relationships.
That is really good. And I think that that is
different from just posting on social media. Now it's not
(04:36):
the same as just you know, running your own Instagram.
You're like, there's something to be said for an email.
It is. And but I do all of them, right
because because as we love, as we learned, people want
to be reaching different ways. So I send my email,
I do my social I do all the social outlets.
I make videos Like however the person wants to receive
my message, I send it out to them. And it's
(04:57):
just important to just be just direct. You know. This
is what I'm excited about. This is what I'm having
trouble with. This is what I could use your help with.
Here's how I can help you. Wow. I love that
people will respond this is beautiful. So let's move on
because I think it is a huge accomplishment. You are
the first woman to raise over a million dollars in
(05:17):
a crowd funding fundraise. That's an incredible feat and I
just want to applaud you for it, and I want
to know all about how you did it. Thank you well.
I did that because keep in mind, I've been sending
out emails so these people for years about what I'm
working on, what my challenges are, things that I'm excited about,
so they know what I'm doing, They're familiar. I have
to have credibility. I think the reason that my crowdfunding
(05:40):
campaign went viral was so successful because I'm not the
first one to ever crowdfund, right. I think the most
before me was like two hundred and fifty. And I
think it's because that they didn't do that pre communication,
because remember, crowdfunding was new. I did not know when
I was sending out these emails that I was going
to be crowdfunding. I just was led to do this,
(06:03):
and so I built my network that way. And so
after raising my first million through venture capital accelerator programs,
I realized that I could in factorise money from BC
and I did. And I also realized that that culture
was not for me. That environment, that just that culture.
It wasn't for me. It's for some people they thrive
in it. I didn't thrive in that environment. Even though
(06:24):
I succeeded, I did not thrive in that environment. And
I was talking to several other founders and I'm saying,
you know, is there another way? I am building a
company that need millions of dollars? So I can't boottrap
this my family and friends. I've tapped them out already,
I've already went through an accelerator program. What can I
do now? And this is when I remembered something that
I learned in two thousand and fifteen at the Black
(06:46):
Black Um Enterprise Entrepreneurship Summit about equity crowdfunding. And I said, well,
let me just see what's going on. Let me just
try this, because out of options, it was between doing
an ic O, which by the time I got around
to do an i c O, SEC had made it illegal.
So I was preparing to try i c O. I
wasn't to refine for people what a crowdfund raising round
(07:10):
looks like. And what it is definitely so equity crowdfunding campaign.
Under the rex CF allows companies to raise money from
the public from anyone, from both accredited and non accredited.
What accredited means is a person makes two hundred thousand
a year as an individual three d thod as a couple,
and if you don't make that or million dollars net worth,
(07:32):
you're not accredited, which is most people now two hundred thousand.
If you make one seventy five, you're not accredited. But
that's a very good salary. So these people have money
to invest. But however, since nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty
they've been left out of investing because you have to
be accredited to invest in early States deals. The law
(07:52):
was passed in twelve and put into act in sixteen
that allows companies to collect money from anyone under the
Jump Start Our Business Startups the Jobs Act. Because the
Obama administration realized that there was a disparaging amount a
gap between businesses, minorities, people look like us and in
the mind and the majority who was getting in the dollars,
(08:15):
and so the rex CF was just to open the
gates for us to take money from our friends and family,
because again, many of us have a lot of friends
and family that want to support us, and so I
knew from building this huge network. At this point, I
had already started flat out raised money for that. Did
Urban Star did the one I had a big, huge
following on social media. I said, let me ask them.
(08:36):
Let me just ask them if they want to give
me two fifty towards this goal, that's the minimum investment.
And it went viral after I went on the Breakfast
Club of the message of group economics, the message of
leveling the playing field for investment. It was very timely
and it really resonated with our people. Yeah, you know,
(08:58):
I mean I think that this is around the time
that a lot of people have seen had seen the
tech tech world explode and seen all these people put
I put you know, money into Facebook, money into this,
and we're like, wait a second, we are left out.
We're not asking this. I saw that report after the
the Uber I p O and someone invested five thousand
dollars and got and I was like, whoa, whoa, I
(09:20):
have five thousand to pit into this. Yes, somebody asked me,
why aren't we getting an opportunity? Why aren't we getting
a seat, and it's because they are in these closed rooms.
So then how about we have our own clothes rooms.
How about we have our own group and we fund
our own startups. We have enough money in our own
communities to push all our businesses forward, and now we can.
(09:41):
And this is what I love about, you know, hearing
stories about just diverse founders, you know. I mean you
spoke earlier about like, yeah, I was going around trying
to talk about women's foot pain and high heels to
a bunch of like pale mail men, and they're like,
I don't get it. That's not interesting to me, you know.
And it's the same story with banks that everybody here
is like, you don't get it, doesn't mean there's a
market for And so like we're starting to change and
(10:01):
people seeing this diversity of thought across businesses. But all right,
so now you're on Breakfast Club. You're telling the world
and particularly our community, about this business that you're building
and asking them to put in two hundred and fifty dollars.
That's it, that's the baseline to get in, and you
raised over a million dollars. Yes, it went viral and
we actually oversubscribe that round and when we raise another
(10:24):
one right after that, and we oversubscribe that round as well,
and now we're on our third round we oversubscribe to
and now we're on our third and final crowd funding round,
doing a reg A plus round. So I've learned a
lot here, But what's been the biggest lesson is when
given an opportunity, our community does support. That's again because
I feel like oftentimes people think we don't support, we
(10:47):
don't support, but like here you are, you're like I improve,
we support, we support in droves. Our community uses our
money for good. There's a lot of wealth in our community,
and we're waking up to see what we can do
when we put the power in our own hands. And
now so many black founders have crowdfunded now don't even
you can't even keep track anymore. There's multiple aounds that
(11:08):
raise a million. At the time I'm wanting and seeing,
I'm like, okay, and it's minimum. It's small amounts of
money that you can just put in, put in, put in.
I love that. I love that. I love that. Can
you talk a little bit about some of the tips
that you could offer people when they're crowd puning, because
I do feel like, you've got some marketing expertise, you're
great at email lists, you've got this background in this.
What do you think truly makes a crowd fundraising round
(11:30):
go viral? And how can people really amplify the results? Definitely,
So I would definitely say thought leadership and updates. If
you know that you want to raise money from the crowd,
don't wait until the campaign launches to get ready. We
prepared six months in advance for our our messaging, We
created our graphics, we created a whole strategy for our
(11:51):
social media, so we were preparing everything we needed to do.
The updates. So, for example, I wanted to keep my
campaign on top of mind, so every mouth on that
rereached every five thousand dollars I've posted and people some
days we were raised like fifty thou in a day.
So my whole social media was just five five and
they're getting excited, another one, another one, another one. So
(12:13):
the thing is always say top of mind, update them constantly.
One thing I also did, I did every single interview
someone asked me to do. I don't care if their
podcast had five listeners or five million, Like the Breakfast Club,
I'm never too good for anybody's for anybody's platform. I
am grateful for every exposure that I can get, and
(12:34):
every person is valuable. No matter how high I get
in the ranks, I'll never forget about the people, especially
because I'm raising from the people. So for me making
myself accessible to the community also engaging. We had a
full time person on our team answering questions all day
long on social media because people come to you and
your stories in your comments on Facebook, it's the computer
(12:57):
on your page they need to answer. They don't want
to wait till tomorrow. They want an answer right now.
Two hundred and fifty dollars that they're gonna invest is
worth your writing a five minute answer on social media.
I'm setting on top of that. What it also did
before the campaign was position myself as a thought leader.
When people everybody hasn't heard of me, right, they're gonna
(13:20):
be like, who's the found Dixon girl. They're gonna go
right to Google. What are they gonna find on Google?
That is gonna determine what they think about you when
they don't know you. Curate your Google, curate your social media,
curate your online presence to be what you want people
to see. You as and I tell young people all
the time, because young people are not mindful of the
things they put out. But it's gonna always be there forever.
(13:40):
What I did it was flood the Internet with thought
leadership pieces. I started writing my medium blog, my LinkedIn blog,
posting all the time about not just what I'm doing,
but why I'm doing it, entry statistics, showing people that
I know my business and I'm the best one to
do this. I am a thought leader. I am driving
this market, especially in the market that's very competitive. Be
(14:02):
sure to be clear about what differentiates differentiates your products
and you, as the founder. It could be a thousand
people doing what you do. Why are you the best
to do it? Be clear about that. Talk about that
all the time. It's a lot of hours of work.
That's why I say crowdfunding takes equal amount of energy
as raising a vc rout I've done both. But it's
(14:23):
a matter of what do you enjoy the most. And
I enjoy interacted with my community, and I enjoy the
possibility of creating wealth in my community over the possibility
of putting more millions of dollars into the same VCS
pockets that are already cashing out that motivated. That's right,
That's right, and I feel like that is what we
are so passionate about at Greenwood with money moves, putting
(14:45):
wealth back into our community, you know, teaching the financial
ways that we can you know, gain and earn and
create generational wealth. So like, I love this and like
the information you're dropping now is just gems upon gems.
So I want to segue now into the traditional VC
round of fundraising because this is something I think that
everybody has. This go to idea is the be all
(15:08):
and end all, But like you say, it's not for everybody.
So can you sort of back out and give us
your definition of what it looks like to do a
VC fundraise? Yeah, definitely. So it's a traditional round was
comprised of either venture capital dollars, accredited angels often angel funds,
or accelerator programs. These are all organization the groups that
either get their money from limited partners, which are big um,
(15:31):
high network individuals that invest in the fund, and then
that fund disperses those dollars to start ups according to
their thesis or what they believe that they want to
push forward. So I would do a lot of research.
So This is the key that I want to stop
and say, there's a lot of vcs out there. There's
a lot of angel investors out there. I hear founders
say stuff like I pitched you a hundred vcs. I
(15:52):
got a hundred note before I Yes, it is ridiculous
to pist to a hundred vcs. You're wasting your time
if you take the time to research to what vcs
want to invest in, what you're doing, What vcs have
companies in your portfolio to add value, What vcs have
fund managers and team members that can help move your
business forward. You don't got a pitch to that. Meaning
(16:13):
has to say who is investing in retail automated retail
software and hardware? That is who I'm going after. Who's
invested in my competitors, who's invested in like mind of businesses.
I made a hot list of fifty investors. I pitched
the thirty. I got nine to say yes. That's it.
The lesson that people don't understand, and I'm glad, like
we're being really worth right about it because every this
(16:35):
is also the misnomer that makes people think we're not
investing in black businesses or women or this that and
the other, and oftentimes we have to look back at
ourselves and go, hey, have I done the work that
I need to do to prepare, because yeah, you'll get
tons of intros. You know, I met you here. Let
me introduce you to They write checks, but they write
checks in fintech or started. You're not holding something completely different.
It's not applicable to them, and that's the fault of
(16:55):
theirs or yours. You're just kind of wasting your own time,
your what's in everybody's time. It makes no sense you
need to be spending your time pitching to customers. I
don't pitch. I don't convince vcs. I convinced customers customers
bringing me money. That's what I've put my energy towards
the VCS. I go to them with a clear value
proposition on how I'm going to return their money, how
I'm going to grow this business. Either they get it
(17:17):
or they don't. I go to them like this, I'm
giving you an opportunity to get in on something. I
don't need no favor from you, and I'm gonna go
go on with or without you. Do you want an
opportunity or not. When they go to the meetings like oh,
please give me some money. I really need this. I'm
trying really hard, or I've seen people crying these meetings.
Oh I'm giving you an opportunity. I have a plan
(17:40):
to grow. Listen to a hundred million billion dollar business.
Do you want in or or not? And it's going
to confidence. I feel like, don you've done the research
to know that you could actually be beneficial to me.
You might you know ways that you can help me
scale and grow, because this is what you know. They
always say like, not all money is good money. So
this is what it really means to be ready and
prepared to money. Go to the meeting and I'll say,
(18:04):
I see that you have ex company your portfolio. I
would love to work with that company. I see a
partnership here. I see that you went to this school,
you work for this company. Can you make connections here
for me? I see how I can have value to
your portfolio and how you can have value to my business.
I see this as a great partnership between your fund
and my company. That's how you have to really go
to them and present it. And that's what actually worked
(18:26):
for me. But however, even though I did succeed, I
went through tech Stars, raised the money and did all
those things. I still didn't like the way that I felt.
I still felt like despite my confidence and all those
things that they sometimes just didn't relate to me, they
didn't understand my industry or they just several of the
investors that I got in my early round they picked
me as their like token diversity founder and oh black
(18:49):
women check, we need one of those in our portfolio.
And they really didn't do a lot for me and
left the bad taste my mouth because I would see
them really helping out and promoting some of their other
portfolio companies and they didn't do that for me. It
also turned me off with just comment said. I would
get like I walk in the meeting, Oh you look
like you lost weight, or you change your hair, which,
(19:10):
if you know me, my hair changes every month. But
it's not a conversation for us to having this investor meeting.
I also was like in a deep pitch to an
investor one day and he stopped and said, I have
a skin caroline, you should model it. I said, do
you hear what I'm saying to you right now? You know?
And it's like that type of um environment wasn't for me.
(19:33):
It just wasn't for me. And again some people plus
through it because they have tough skin. But me, I said,
you know what, I'm gonna take this. I'm not doing
with this, and I decided not to raise money from
the anymore. I didn't, I'm not and I still don't
want to. I still have plans for continued nontraditional routes
(19:54):
to raise capital and to provide my investor with liquidity,
and I'm really my goal is to change the way
that things are done and provide an alternative route for founders.
We know that the VC route would it can do
a lot of times end up with very under five
to ten per cent of your company still, and if
that's okay with you, that's fine, But there are other
options and that's important for us to be able to
(20:16):
weigh those. And like we talk about this this time together,
knowing what type of funding is best for your business
and where you want to take it is key. And
you know, I think what people have to understand is
there's such an array and a variety available to people
now they have to do the research. And it's not
an openly decision. It's not throwing a dart at a
dart board. It's being really intentional and conscientious about going
(20:40):
deep into the research and being prepared to do that.
Because once you take someone's money, like you owe them money,
you owe them a ten x return. And you know
you said you have to pick up the phone when
your friends and family round calls and asks for an update.
So I think the information you've provided, it's just been
so tangible. So don it was a pleasure having you
here today, but I'd be remiss if you didn't tell
(21:02):
us what's next for Dawn and also where people can
find you on social media. Definitely thank you, So what's
next for us? Right now? Both flat Out of Fields
and Popcom have open rounds for crowdfunding on start Engine.
So start Engine dot Com forward slash Popcom, Start Engine
dot Com Forward slush flat out when both businesses are raising.
We just made an announcement last week that will be
(21:22):
one of the first companies in history to list on
start Engine. Secondary This is a secondary exchange that allows
investors to trade privately held shares with other investors. They'll
be trading on a private market, but it's essentially like
giving them an opportunity to get liquidity. It was very
for me when taking money from what I say everyday,
people like myself the opportunity to get liquidity if they
(21:45):
needed it. Everyone doesn't have a tenure holding period like
dcs do, so if a person is happy with their
return and popcom. Some people invested when it was sixteen
center share, now we're over fifty five center share. If they'
happy with that return, they can get liquidity and self
to another investor. This has never been done in our community.
So once again creating wealth opportunities for our community and
the equality for investors. So I'm excited about that happening
(22:08):
as well. And then I'm just continuing to search for
non traditional ways to capitalize. We are in the phase
of our business where we're we'll be going towards what
would be a traditional Series A or Series B path.
I really don't want to take that path, so I'm
looking at other options that are out there. There's multiple
things like facts or going on to different exchanges, and
I just encouraged founders to do deep research. We don't
(22:31):
have to always go the path that's traveled or what's
taught to us. So I spent a lot of my
time just reading and researching and and learning how I
can grow and so that's what's next me just looking
for ways to continue to empower my community. My personal
mission and passion is a built generational wealth. My goal
is to have the largest liquidity event for black investors
(22:53):
in history. Have over eight thousand investors. I would be
very confident to say at least eight and nine of
those investors are black. So my goal is when I exit,
for all these investors to come with me, and that
will be a very impactful event. I love it, Don.
You continue to inspire so many of us and do
so much for the community, and we're definitely gonna have
(23:13):
to have you back so that you can school us
on SPACs because I know that's a topic that I
love to talk about it, and I M sure our
money news community would love to learn more from you,
because you were just a wealth of information and knowledge
and such a pleasure. I don't think what I can
find me. They can find me on all social media
under Don Dixon, d I c K S O WIN.
I'm very active on medium. So if you're curious about
crowd funding, the steps for crowd funding, if you want
(23:35):
to know my whole journey it's free. All the free
game is on my Medium page. If you want me
to coach you, I have a fundraising master classroom super
period and that is live now, so you can go
on my website Don Dixon dot me and find all
the things that I offer as far as coaching one
on ones in different programs where you can find me.
You can also find me on LinkedIn and I'm very
(23:55):
very engaged there, so if you have any questions for me,
please messes me on LinkedIn. Oh my god, it was
such a pleasure down and I hope to see you
back again. Wishing you all the best, all the best,
and we will definitely keep our eyes focused on your
rounds to come. So congratulations on all your success and
keep going girl. We're proud of you. Thanks Dan, Thank
you all right, money Movers, that is all the time
(24:17):
we have for today. Make sure to tune in Monday
through Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves podcast powered
by Greenwood, so that you too can have the keys
to the financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thanks Money Movers,
and see you again next time. Thank you so much
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or a recap of this episode, Please go to the
bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves
(24:39):
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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. Hey money Movers, Welcome
to the Money Moves podcast powered by Greenwood. Our next
(00:22):
guest is a serial entrepreneur and inventor with over twenty
years experience in technology, entrepreneurship, startups, marketing and business development.
She is the founder of five successful companies since two
thousand and one, including Flat out of Heels two thousand eleven,
Popcom two thousand seventeen, and considered to be one of
the pioneers in the equity crowd funding space. In two
(00:45):
thousand nineteen, she became the first female founder to raise
over one million dollars in an equity crowdfunding campaign. Money Movers, Please,
Welcome to the podcast. Don Dixon apoginy Don. It's a
pleasure to have you here. Yeah, thank you so much
for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. Okay,
So we've touched on foot stopping, we've touched on networking.
(01:05):
Let's go to friends and family, you know, and I
think this is it's a it's a natural tie in, right,
give your definition of sort of what you you know,
what are friends and family round is and you know
which company you use it and how you were successful
doing that. Yeah. So I consider my friends and family
like my warm network because sometimes not by actual relative
or my closest friend, but it may be a friend
(01:26):
of a friend, just people that I can reach out
and touch, people that someone can vouch for me, and
they invest because either they're familiar with me and they
know me, they're very familiar and comfortable with the person
who introduced us, and they believe in me. They're comfortable
with the network. Because people invest in people they want
to believe in you, know, in in you. So you're
friends and family people that have vouch for you, they
believe in you, and they're like, Okay, Don, I don't
(01:48):
know what you're talking about this website or these shoes,
but I believe in you and I know your words.
Good for it. But it's so your uncle so and
so who said, I don't know. But my mom was like,
Don's like Tommy, she don't really got no job. That's
that was the whole joke for like ten years. What
have gone due? She liked Tommy? I mean, that's my life, right,
(02:09):
But they still supported me because they see me working
for that goal. And so the way that I got
them was a technique that I learned when I went
to school for actually nonprofit fundraising management. I made like
a constituent chart. So I wrote down the list of
like everybody I think that got a thousand dollars that
can maybe invest, and then I made a list of
who have like a thousand, who might have five, who
(02:30):
might have ten, who might have twenty. And you have
to really really think deeply through this because you don't
want to ask for too much because you get to know,
but you don't want to ask for like not enough
because they say yes too fast, it's like you should
have asked for more. So it's like really trying to
put those into categories. And then what I did was
to say, okay, I gotta raise two fifty. If I asked,
(02:50):
you know, twenty people for ten thousand, and I get
two of them to say yes, I got twenty. I
just really broke it down to how many people that
I needed to talk to in my personal network. A
big thing that I did that I want to leave
everyone with is that I built an email list very early.
Because remember my background was an email from twitters, and
I know the value of email, and I built an
(03:11):
email newsletter from my personal network, and so you know,
we mean all these people that conferences and you like them.
We hit it off, but we don't really have anything
to talk about the next day, and I don't have
an immediate ask. So I say, can I put you
on my monthly quarterly email update and I'll share with
you wouldn't working on and we could just stay in
touch that way, And so every month, sometimes to be
a quarter based on the year. I've been doing this
(03:32):
for now ten years, I send an update what I'm
excited about, what my challenges are in any media that
I'm in, or any asks, and the ask won't be money.
To ask will beat anybody know a good accountant? To
ask will beat like anything that I need just normal
and you would be so surprised. And people just were
happy to help, so that by the time I did
(03:52):
ask for money, they were so well updated on what
I've been doing for the past years. They were like, oh,
you need money here because I see you've been working.
I see you consistently been updating me for years. And
so the key to building a network is being consistent
with their outreach. You don't have to send a personal email,
but creating a list where people just know what you're
(04:14):
doing so you won't they won't forget about you. I
just make sure that I'm not forgotten about. Yes, Okay,
that was incredible. That was some I mean, I just
love when people drop really tangible gems and that's a
huge thing. Like that's how you properly become a connector
and stay connected to so many people in build relationships.
That is really good. And I think that that is
different from just posting on social media. Now it's not
(04:36):
the same as just you know, running your own Instagram.
You're like, there's something to be said for an email.
It is. And but I do all of them, right
because because as we love, as we learned, people want
to be reaching different ways. So I send my email,
I do my social I do all the social outlets.
I make videos Like however the person wants to receive
my message, I send it out to them. And it's
(04:57):
just important to just be just direct. You know. This
is what I'm excited about. This is what I'm having
trouble with. This is what I could use your help with.
Here's how I can help you. Wow. I love that
people will respond this is beautiful. So let's move on
because I think it is a huge accomplishment. You are
the first woman to raise over a million dollars in
(05:17):
a crowd funding fundraise. That's an incredible feat and I
just want to applaud you for it, and I want
to know all about how you did it. Thank you well.
I did that because keep in mind, I've been sending
out emails so these people for years about what I'm
working on, what my challenges are, things that I'm excited about,
so they know what I'm doing, They're familiar. I have
to have credibility. I think the reason that my crowdfunding
(05:40):
campaign went viral was so successful because I'm not the
first one to ever crowdfund, right. I think the most
before me was like two hundred and fifty. And I
think it's because that they didn't do that pre communication,
because remember, crowdfunding was new. I did not know when
I was sending out these emails that I was going
to be crowdfunding. I just was led to do this,
(06:03):
and so I built my network that way. And so
after raising my first million through venture capital accelerator programs,
I realized that I could in factorise money from BC
and I did. And I also realized that that culture
was not for me. That environment, that just that culture.
It wasn't for me. It's for some people they thrive
in it. I didn't thrive in that environment. Even though
(06:24):
I succeeded, I did not thrive in that environment. And
I was talking to several other founders and I'm saying,
you know, is there another way? I am building a
company that need millions of dollars? So I can't boottrap
this my family and friends. I've tapped them out already,
I've already went through an accelerator program. What can I
do now? And this is when I remembered something that
I learned in two thousand and fifteen at the Black
(06:46):
Black Um Enterprise Entrepreneurship Summit about equity crowdfunding. And I said, well,
let me just see what's going on. Let me just
try this, because out of options, it was between doing
an ic O, which by the time I got around
to do an i c O, SEC had made it illegal.
So I was preparing to try i c O. I
wasn't to refine for people what a crowdfund raising round
(07:10):
looks like. And what it is definitely so equity crowdfunding campaign.
Under the rex CF allows companies to raise money from
the public from anyone, from both accredited and non accredited.
What accredited means is a person makes two hundred thousand
a year as an individual three d thod as a couple,
and if you don't make that or million dollars net worth,
(07:32):
you're not accredited, which is most people now two hundred thousand.
If you make one seventy five, you're not accredited. But
that's a very good salary. So these people have money
to invest. But however, since nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty
they've been left out of investing because you have to
be accredited to invest in early States deals. The law
(07:52):
was passed in twelve and put into act in sixteen
that allows companies to collect money from anyone under the
Jump Start Our Business Startups the Jobs Act. Because the
Obama administration realized that there was a disparaging amount a
gap between businesses, minorities, people look like us and in
the mind and the majority who was getting in the dollars,
(08:15):
and so the rex CF was just to open the
gates for us to take money from our friends and family,
because again, many of us have a lot of friends
and family that want to support us, and so I
knew from building this huge network. At this point, I
had already started flat out raised money for that. Did
Urban Star did the one I had a big, huge
following on social media. I said, let me ask them.
(08:36):
Let me just ask them if they want to give
me two fifty towards this goal, that's the minimum investment.
And it went viral after I went on the Breakfast
Club of the message of group economics, the message of
leveling the playing field for investment. It was very timely
and it really resonated with our people. Yeah, you know,
(08:58):
I mean I think that this is around the time
that a lot of people have seen had seen the
tech tech world explode and seen all these people put
I put you know, money into Facebook, money into this,
and we're like, wait a second, we are left out.
We're not asking this. I saw that report after the
the Uber I p O and someone invested five thousand
dollars and got and I was like, whoa, whoa, I
(09:20):
have five thousand to pit into this. Yes, somebody asked me,
why aren't we getting an opportunity? Why aren't we getting
a seat, and it's because they are in these closed rooms.
So then how about we have our own clothes rooms.
How about we have our own group and we fund
our own startups. We have enough money in our own
communities to push all our businesses forward, and now we can.
(09:41):
And this is what I love about, you know, hearing
stories about just diverse founders, you know. I mean you
spoke earlier about like, yeah, I was going around trying
to talk about women's foot pain and high heels to
a bunch of like pale mail men, and they're like,
I don't get it. That's not interesting to me, you know.
And it's the same story with banks that everybody here
is like, you don't get it, doesn't mean there's a
market for And so like we're starting to change and
(10:01):
people seeing this diversity of thought across businesses. But all right,
so now you're on Breakfast Club. You're telling the world
and particularly our community, about this business that you're building
and asking them to put in two hundred and fifty dollars.
That's it, that's the baseline to get in, and you
raised over a million dollars. Yes, it went viral and
we actually oversubscribe that round and when we raise another
(10:24):
one right after that, and we oversubscribe that round as well,
and now we're on our third round we oversubscribe to
and now we're on our third and final crowd funding round,
doing a reg A plus round. So I've learned a
lot here, But what's been the biggest lesson is when
given an opportunity, our community does support. That's again because
I feel like oftentimes people think we don't support, we
(10:47):
don't support, but like here you are, you're like I improve,
we support, we support in droves. Our community uses our
money for good. There's a lot of wealth in our community,
and we're waking up to see what we can do
when we put the power in our own hands. And
now so many black founders have crowdfunded now don't even
you can't even keep track anymore. There's multiple aounds that
(11:08):
raise a million. At the time I'm wanting and seeing,
I'm like, okay, and it's minimum. It's small amounts of
money that you can just put in, put in, put in.
I love that. I love that. I love that. Can
you talk a little bit about some of the tips
that you could offer people when they're crowd puning, because
I do feel like, you've got some marketing expertise, you're
great at email lists, you've got this background in this.
What do you think truly makes a crowd fundraising round
(11:30):
go viral? And how can people really amplify the results? Definitely,
So I would definitely say thought leadership and updates. If
you know that you want to raise money from the crowd,
don't wait until the campaign launches to get ready. We
prepared six months in advance for our our messaging, We
created our graphics, we created a whole strategy for our
(11:51):
social media, so we were preparing everything we needed to do.
The updates. So, for example, I wanted to keep my
campaign on top of mind, so every mouth on that
rereached every five thousand dollars I've posted and people some
days we were raised like fifty thou in a day.
So my whole social media was just five five and
they're getting excited, another one, another one, another one. So
(12:13):
the thing is always say top of mind, update them constantly.
One thing I also did, I did every single interview
someone asked me to do. I don't care if their
podcast had five listeners or five million, Like the Breakfast Club,
I'm never too good for anybody's for anybody's platform. I
am grateful for every exposure that I can get, and
(12:34):
every person is valuable. No matter how high I get
in the ranks, I'll never forget about the people, especially
because I'm raising from the people. So for me making
myself accessible to the community also engaging. We had a
full time person on our team answering questions all day
long on social media because people come to you and
your stories in your comments on Facebook, it's the computer
(12:57):
on your page they need to answer. They don't want
to wait till tomorrow. They want an answer right now.
Two hundred and fifty dollars that they're gonna invest is
worth your writing a five minute answer on social media.
I'm setting on top of that. What it also did
before the campaign was position myself as a thought leader.
When people everybody hasn't heard of me, right, they're gonna
(13:20):
be like, who's the found Dixon girl. They're gonna go
right to Google. What are they gonna find on Google?
That is gonna determine what they think about you when
they don't know you. Curate your Google, curate your social media,
curate your online presence to be what you want people
to see. You as and I tell young people all
the time, because young people are not mindful of the
things they put out. But it's gonna always be there forever.
(13:40):
What I did it was flood the Internet with thought
leadership pieces. I started writing my medium blog, my LinkedIn blog,
posting all the time about not just what I'm doing,
but why I'm doing it, entry statistics, showing people that
I know my business and I'm the best one to
do this. I am a thought leader. I am driving
this market, especially in the market that's very competitive. Be
(14:02):
sure to be clear about what differentiates differentiates your products
and you, as the founder. It could be a thousand
people doing what you do. Why are you the best
to do it? Be clear about that. Talk about that
all the time. It's a lot of hours of work.
That's why I say crowdfunding takes equal amount of energy
as raising a vc rout I've done both. But it's
(14:23):
a matter of what do you enjoy the most. And
I enjoy interacted with my community, and I enjoy the
possibility of creating wealth in my community over the possibility
of putting more millions of dollars into the same VCS
pockets that are already cashing out that motivated. That's right,
That's right, and I feel like that is what we
are so passionate about at Greenwood with money moves, putting
(14:45):
wealth back into our community, you know, teaching the financial
ways that we can you know, gain and earn and
create generational wealth. So like, I love this and like
the information you're dropping now is just gems upon gems.
So I want to segue now into the traditional VC
round of fundraising because this is something I think that
everybody has. This go to idea is the be all
(15:08):
and end all, But like you say, it's not for everybody.
So can you sort of back out and give us
your definition of what it looks like to do a
VC fundraise? Yeah, definitely. So it's a traditional round was
comprised of either venture capital dollars, accredited angels often angel funds,
or accelerator programs. These are all organization the groups that
either get their money from limited partners, which are big um,
(15:31):
high network individuals that invest in the fund, and then
that fund disperses those dollars to start ups according to
their thesis or what they believe that they want to
push forward. So I would do a lot of research.
So This is the key that I want to stop
and say, there's a lot of vcs out there. There's
a lot of angel investors out there. I hear founders
say stuff like I pitched you a hundred vcs. I
(15:52):
got a hundred note before I Yes, it is ridiculous
to pist to a hundred vcs. You're wasting your time
if you take the time to research to what vcs
want to invest in, what you're doing, What vcs have
companies in your portfolio to add value, What vcs have
fund managers and team members that can help move your
business forward. You don't got a pitch to that. Meaning
(16:13):
has to say who is investing in retail automated retail
software and hardware? That is who I'm going after. Who's
invested in my competitors, who's invested in like mind of businesses.
I made a hot list of fifty investors. I pitched
the thirty. I got nine to say yes. That's it.
The lesson that people don't understand, and I'm glad, like
we're being really worth right about it because every this
(16:35):
is also the misnomer that makes people think we're not
investing in black businesses or women or this that and
the other, and oftentimes we have to look back at
ourselves and go, hey, have I done the work that
I need to do to prepare, because yeah, you'll get
tons of intros. You know, I met you here. Let
me introduce you to They write checks, but they write
checks in fintech or started. You're not holding something completely different.
It's not applicable to them, and that's the fault of
(16:55):
theirs or yours. You're just kind of wasting your own time,
your what's in everybody's time. It makes no sense you
need to be spending your time pitching to customers. I
don't pitch. I don't convince vcs. I convinced customers customers
bringing me money. That's what I've put my energy towards
the VCS. I go to them with a clear value
proposition on how I'm going to return their money, how
I'm going to grow this business. Either they get it
(17:17):
or they don't. I go to them like this, I'm
giving you an opportunity to get in on something. I
don't need no favor from you, and I'm gonna go
go on with or without you. Do you want an
opportunity or not. When they go to the meetings like oh,
please give me some money. I really need this. I'm
trying really hard, or I've seen people crying these meetings.
Oh I'm giving you an opportunity. I have a plan
(17:40):
to grow. Listen to a hundred million billion dollar business.
Do you want in or or not? And it's going
to confidence. I feel like, don you've done the research
to know that you could actually be beneficial to me.
You might you know ways that you can help me
scale and grow, because this is what you know. They
always say like, not all money is good money. So
this is what it really means to be ready and
prepared to money. Go to the meeting and I'll say,
(18:04):
I see that you have ex company your portfolio. I
would love to work with that company. I see a
partnership here. I see that you went to this school,
you work for this company. Can you make connections here
for me? I see how I can have value to
your portfolio and how you can have value to my business.
I see this as a great partnership between your fund
and my company. That's how you have to really go
to them and present it. And that's what actually worked
(18:26):
for me. But however, even though I did succeed, I
went through tech Stars, raised the money and did all
those things. I still didn't like the way that I felt.
I still felt like despite my confidence and all those
things that they sometimes just didn't relate to me, they
didn't understand my industry or they just several of the
investors that I got in my early round they picked
me as their like token diversity founder and oh black
(18:49):
women check, we need one of those in our portfolio.
And they really didn't do a lot for me and
left the bad taste my mouth because I would see
them really helping out and promoting some of their other
portfolio companies and they didn't do that for me. It
also turned me off with just comment said. I would
get like I walk in the meeting, Oh you look
like you lost weight, or you change your hair, which,
(19:10):
if you know me, my hair changes every month. But
it's not a conversation for us to having this investor meeting.
I also was like in a deep pitch to an
investor one day and he stopped and said, I have
a skin caroline, you should model it. I said, do
you hear what I'm saying to you right now? You know?
And it's like that type of um environment wasn't for me.
(19:33):
It just wasn't for me. And again some people plus
through it because they have tough skin. But me, I said,
you know what, I'm gonna take this. I'm not doing
with this, and I decided not to raise money from
the anymore. I didn't, I'm not and I still don't
want to. I still have plans for continued nontraditional routes
(19:54):
to raise capital and to provide my investor with liquidity,
and I'm really my goal is to change the way
that things are done and provide an alternative route for founders.
We know that the VC route would it can do
a lot of times end up with very under five
to ten per cent of your company still, and if
that's okay with you, that's fine, But there are other
options and that's important for us to be able to
(20:16):
weigh those. And like we talk about this this time together,
knowing what type of funding is best for your business
and where you want to take it is key. And
you know, I think what people have to understand is
there's such an array and a variety available to people
now they have to do the research. And it's not
an openly decision. It's not throwing a dart at a
dart board. It's being really intentional and conscientious about going
(20:40):
deep into the research and being prepared to do that.
Because once you take someone's money, like you owe them money,
you owe them a ten x return. And you know
you said you have to pick up the phone when
your friends and family round calls and asks for an update.
So I think the information you've provided, it's just been
so tangible. So don it was a pleasure having you
here today, but I'd be remiss if you didn't tell
(21:02):
us what's next for Dawn and also where people can
find you on social media. Definitely thank you, So what's
next for us? Right now? Both flat Out of Fields
and Popcom have open rounds for crowdfunding on start Engine.
So start Engine dot Com forward slash Popcom, Start Engine
dot Com Forward slush flat out when both businesses are raising.
We just made an announcement last week that will be
(21:22):
one of the first companies in history to list on
start Engine. Secondary This is a secondary exchange that allows
investors to trade privately held shares with other investors. They'll
be trading on a private market, but it's essentially like
giving them an opportunity to get liquidity. It was very
for me when taking money from what I say everyday,
people like myself the opportunity to get liquidity if they
(21:45):
needed it. Everyone doesn't have a tenure holding period like
dcs do, so if a person is happy with their
return and popcom. Some people invested when it was sixteen
center share, now we're over fifty five center share. If they'
happy with that return, they can get liquidity and self
to another investor. This has never been done in our community.
So once again creating wealth opportunities for our community and
the equality for investors. So I'm excited about that happening
(22:08):
as well. And then I'm just continuing to search for
non traditional ways to capitalize. We are in the phase
of our business where we're we'll be going towards what
would be a traditional Series A or Series B path.
I really don't want to take that path, so I'm
looking at other options that are out there. There's multiple
things like facts or going on to different exchanges, and
I just encouraged founders to do deep research. We don't
(22:31):
have to always go the path that's traveled or what's
taught to us. So I spent a lot of my
time just reading and researching and and learning how I
can grow and so that's what's next me just looking
for ways to continue to empower my community. My personal
mission and passion is a built generational wealth. My goal
is to have the largest liquidity event for black investors
(22:53):
in history. Have over eight thousand investors. I would be
very confident to say at least eight and nine of
those investors are black. So my goal is when I exit,
for all these investors to come with me, and that
will be a very impactful event. I love it, Don.
You continue to inspire so many of us and do
so much for the community, and we're definitely gonna have
(23:13):
to have you back so that you can school us
on SPACs because I know that's a topic that I
love to talk about it, and I M sure our
money news community would love to learn more from you,
because you were just a wealth of information and knowledge
and such a pleasure. I don't think what I can
find me. They can find me on all social media
under Don Dixon, d I c K S O WIN.
I'm very active on medium. So if you're curious about
crowd funding, the steps for crowd funding, if you want
(23:35):
to know my whole journey it's free. All the free
game is on my Medium page. If you want me
to coach you, I have a fundraising master classroom super
period and that is live now, so you can go
on my website Don Dixon dot me and find all
the things that I offer as far as coaching one
on ones in different programs where you can find me.
You can also find me on LinkedIn and I'm very
(23:55):
very engaged there, so if you have any questions for me,
please messes me on LinkedIn. Oh my god, it was
such a pleasure down and I hope to see you
back again. Wishing you all the best, all the best,
and we will definitely keep our eyes focused on your
rounds to come. So congratulations on all your success and
keep going girl. We're proud of you. Thanks Dan, Thank
you all right, money Movers, that is all the time
(24:17):
we have for today. Make sure to tune in Monday
through Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves podcast powered
by Greenwood, so that you too can have the keys
to the financial freedom you so rightly deserve. Thanks Money Movers,
and see you again next time. Thank you so much
for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more
or a recap of this episode, Please go to the
bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves
(24:39):
podcast blog. Money Moves is an I heart Radio podcast
powered by Greenwood Executive produced by sun Wise Media, Inc.
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