Roy Scott on creating healthy hip hop music for kids

Roy Scott is the CEO of Healthy Hip Hop Inc, A company infusing hip-hop culture with innovative technology, education, and positive attributes. After spending over a decade in the music industry and corporate communications, Roy knows what truly moves people; creating engaging products, technology, and content that resonates with the culture.

He talks about creating Healthy Hip Hop Inc, his time on Shark Tank, and shares his advice on getting venture capital.

Host IG:@itstanyatime

Guest IG: @healthyhiphop

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

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. This episode is brought
to you by MasterCard, bringing the wealth gap together with Green.

(00:22):
Our next guest is Demand behind Healthy hip Hop, a
platform that uses education and technology with hip hop culture
to promote learning through a safe online community. Money Movers,
Please welcome to the podcast. Roy Scott. Hi, Roy, Hey,
what's up with How are you feeling a day? I'm
feeling incredible, So excited to have you on the podcast,

(00:43):
Really excited to share your journey with our Money Moves audience.
So welcome, Welcome, Absolutely glad to be here. I love
what you're doing and love to share my story with you.
All right, Roy, So, if you guys don't follow him
on social media, you better. We'll talk about that a
little bit later. But let's talk about how you have
built Healthy hip Hop and what it was, so tell

(01:04):
us a little bit more about yourself. Yeah. Absolutely, So.
Healthy hip Hop is essentially hip hop for children and families,
So the same dope beat but just all claiked up
for kids. And this started because I love hip hop
as a kid myself and UH grew up in the
hip hop generation, started rapping right after high school and
then UH really on that journey, had my life changing

(01:27):
moment when I noticed my son repeating my music. Uh.
He was about four years old at the time. His
name is Justice. Uh. My music promoted drugs, violence, misogyny,
and I was like, well, you know what, I can't
be this kind of influence on my son or anybody else.
And that's what sparked my journey for Healthy hip Hop
creating this uh company. But then it ultimately morphed into
a tech company, and so it's been a quite incredible journey,

(01:49):
like getting into tech space and learning about raising capital
and building out I'm not a technical founder, so building
the text. So it's been a really incredible journey. So
Healthy hip Hop is a black owned, tech focused company.
And I think this is really interesting because you know
your story hits. I'm sure with a lot of folks
in our audience, right, you're a dad, now you're a parent,
and you know, for a lot of us, I think

(02:11):
we've looked at music as just something that was like
social and fun, but then all of a sudden, you
have a kid who's like wrapping along to the lyrics
and you're like, wait a second, is this the messaging
that I want my kids to learn and repeat in
a spouse? So tell us how you made that transition
from being like, Okay, I'm just a connoisseur of hip

(02:32):
hop to creating a tech enabled company that was something
very different. Yeah. So initially it was tough. So I
came out of like street gangster rat right, and so
basically nicking that one eight from like out of the
streets to doing like hip hop for kids. A lot
of my peers were questioned me, like, man, what are
you doing? And so for me, ultimately it was it

(02:55):
was my vision from God, though like it was my
passion I knew. I was like, oh, recognize how influential
hip hop is and even now hip hop is the
voice of our youth, and so I was just inspired
to do something different from my son and for other kids.
And so when that journey sparked, initially I went back
to what I knew, which was writing and producing music.
So I said, I'm gonna do this for kids, and

(03:16):
so I created an album. But then it started getting
traction the education space where teachers were using healthy hip
hop to get their students engaged in the classroom, and
then ultimately we started doing a live events so like
professional development assemblies, etcetera. But big picture, that wasn't scalable,
and I was paying attention to what was happening in
the tech space, like any industry, whoever was creating the

(03:39):
innovative software, that's who was scaling their companies. And so
I was like, we gotta get in this tech space,
so fast forward. I made the pivot to create an
online platform for educators that they can stream our content
directed to their smart boards in the classroom, and also
a mobile application. It's like a Spotify meets TikTok where
parents can stream the music, but kids can also create
these TikTok style videos, but in safer environment for children

(04:01):
and families. So it's been quite the journey. I'm still learning,
and um, it's been really impactful for me as far
as like really understanding the tech space, this whole ecosystem,
venture capital. That's something that our community historically just hasn't
been you know, involved in or introduced to, and so
learning that now and really getting acclimated in that space
has been critical for me. I mean, this is what

(04:23):
I love because I feel like you're superpower is You're like, look,
I love hip hop, I love rab I make beats,
but I wanted to create something different with a very technical,
you know, a very technical spine, but you're not technical.
So how did you how did you sort of make
that transition from being like, I'm a lover of hip
hop to creating a tech company. Yeah, so it's pretty interesting.

(04:45):
So another part of my story is that really made
that pivod I pitched on Shark Tank and so the
good and bad of that is with close a deal
with Mr Wonderful Kevin o' larry, one of the hardest
sharks to close. Yep, check this out. Half a million
dollar investment. Well only have our episode blocked from area
what an episode got blocked? Yeah, and our deal got

(05:08):
pulled off the table because of the Hollywood politics. So ABC,
the network that Shark Tank comes on his own by Disney,
and they looked at our children's programming its competition. So
welcome to Hollywood is where we were told. And so
really at that point, it proved a couple of things.
One is that we did have something special, but also
we didn't really have a strong business model. And so

(05:29):
that's when I made the pivot to the text space.
I'm originally from Kansas City. I'm in Atlanta now, so
he said, have my Kan City monarchs on. This is
also Negro League, So I knew I was coming on
money Move Greenwood, Black Banking. I wanted to make sure
I was reckl So uh, at that point, I got
in the trenches of all the entrepreneur resources Kansas City
had to offer, and I went through Kaufman Fast Track,

(05:50):
which really kind of taught me about, you know, simple
stuff about the business, like who's your customer, you know,
what's your go to market strategy, getting all my documents
and line to raise capital. And once I did that,
I ended up securing about a hundred thousand dollars and
non eluded grants to development. And so at that point,
I think once once I learned that, and then I

(06:12):
started connecting with some technical people where I could take
my vision and now I have a little bit of
capital to at least develop this first prototype. And so
it kind of went through that journey which then alled
me to getting some angel investments, in my first institutional investments,
and then getting accepted into tech Stars and so that
was kind of my journey and my path to like
really learning how the system works, learning my business model,

(06:36):
learning how I'm gonna go to market, then how I'm
gonna build the tech, how I'm going to raise the
capital to scale the company up. So and I'm still
in the trenches of that right now, like raising capital.
We now have a product that's out there. We have
ten thousand users, so right, it's keeps going right until
we exit, you know. That's when it's so then when
Disney comes back now it's like, oh, we gotta check
for you. It's all good. You feel me? That's right. Okay,

(06:58):
So Roy, there's so much stuff that we're unpacking here.
So let's go back to Shark Tank because you know,
I feel like shark Tank is really pivotal for bringing
this idea of like fundraising. You've got a business investment
to mainstream television, and a lot of people think like, hey,
that's what raising money is. You go, you sit in
front of some investors, you just pitch for about fifteen

(07:20):
minutes and hopefully they'll write you a check. But your
experiences it's actually like very part for the course for
Shark Tank. A lot of those deals don't close, and
there's a lot of background politics around it where it's like, Okay,
well we're not going to actually put this deal on paper,
but it was good. Thanks for coming on our show.
So let's talk about Shark Tank because I think a
lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of the money moves

(07:42):
audience is like, I'm going to go on Shark Tank
and get one of those great investors. So you auditioned
for the show, they loved you. Mr Wonderful was like,
I am backing this and then it fell apart. Can
you talk a little bit about this because I think
a lot of our audience is really you know, there's
a dream state around Shark Tank and raising money as well, right,

(08:04):
And so I think for us in this, more important
than the deal for us was the national exposure. So
I think for those who are trying to get on
Shark Tank, it's more about to meet the exposure. They
were getting about seven million viewers at that time, so
you've got all these new eyeballs on your business. So
and you're exactly right. A lot of those deals fall
through and just the way they're structured, and some are
just you know, about of the time these are sharks,

(08:25):
so they're coming to take a big bite out of
your business and so um for us, that experience it
was pretty uh incredible for us in the regards like
our learning experience, but big picture, it was like we
wanted to get that national exposure. But when it comes
to like Shark Tank and pitching in front of those sharks,
you actually get on average, like ninety seconds. We got

(08:46):
about two and a half minutes because we had like
a full like Sesame Street set, so we had like
kid dancers, we had put on a whole production. So
but that in in contrast to actually raising venture capital
is a hundred. It mean, it's a whole different ball
games actually, you know, getting right right. So that's really

(09:06):
I think it paints a picture that's inaccurate when it
actually comes to like really raising money. If you want
to go on Shark Tank, I think do that for
the exposure. But when you're actually raising venture capital, it's
so relationship based. It's it's a much longer process. It's
making sure you know, you know your lingo, you have
your data room intact, and you have all your documents

(09:28):
to financials. I mean, it's just so much more like
intricate than actually going on Shark Tank and pitching. So
I would say, hey, shoot for the stars on Shark
Tank to get that exposure. But in regards to actually
really raising venture capital, it's night and day from like
actually the Shark Tank. Yeah, I agree, And you know,
this is what I want to sort of dig into

(09:48):
a little bit more, because it is night and day
between this idea of like this TV version of like
raising some money to actually what happens in the streets
of the venture capital world. And you talked about knowing
the lingo, knowing what happens in your diligence room, and
this is what you know. I love to bring up
on money moves because this is these are the conversations
that I think, especially in our community, sometimes we don't

(10:11):
have as just a native language. So talk about how
you learn to talk that talk how you learn to
understand about valuations and where you found a lot of
the information and I'm sure a lot of it is
trial and error, but also the importance of it because
we really need to understand there is a language out
there to compete in these streets. Absolutely. So for me,

(10:33):
the first thing was like surrounding myself with mentors and
advisors who had been there, done that, who had raised capital,
who has successfully edited their companies. So doing that was
a great you know, push for me to like, Okay,
I'm learning, Like you said, what is a valuation? Like
you know, what is a cap table? You know what

(10:53):
I'm saying, like stuff that I didn't have any idea
what it was. And so first and first and foremost
rounded myself with those people who have been there and
were able to kind of really direct and guide me
on the journey. But then also was getting involved in
like all these different entrepreneurial programs, Like I said that
did the caufroment fast Track, I did you know lean

(11:14):
Land Education in Kansas City. We went through the Google
Founders program. So going through all of these programs also
really educated me and put me in position to where, Okay,
I know how to talk that talk, I know how
to come and prepared. And another important thing was also
knowing how to really go after the right investors because
I spent a lot of the time just talking to

(11:34):
the wrong people, you know what I'm saying, Like talking
to people who, oh, yeah, we love what you're doing, Roy,
but it's not in their wheelhouse. And so do really
like it. Surrounded myself with the right people and going
through these programing and just keep myself open to always learn.
That was what was key to like getting healthy hip
hop in position to become venture backable. Right, Okay, you
just dropped a gem right here talking to the wrong people.

(11:58):
The thing is, there's a lot of people out there
that will take your call. They'll be like, this is
really great. I'm passionate about hip hop. I loved the
best Billies back in the day, you know, So they'll
take your call and they'll champion you, but they won't
write the check, which translates, I think in our community
to you know, plaque people aren't getting investment. But what

(12:19):
I think you're also saying is understanding knowing who to
talk to, which means doing your research into who writes
checks in this arena, because you might be talking to
someone who's like, listen, the only checks I've written in
terms of investment are into beverage or this, and they
might take your call, but that is not going to convert.
So like, this is the back end of doing the

(12:40):
proper research to understand that your time as a founder
is super valuable. Absolutely, And so that was that was
my experience. Trial and error was especially because we started
raising like we came out of Tech Stars in and
so we started in January like depending the kise. So

(13:00):
another challenge that I was having is raising online because
it's different when I'm in person and they can the energy.
So so I was raising online also, and then yeah,
that was a big mistake I made. I'll just take
full responsibility. I just I was talking to a lot
of people that just weren't the right people to be
talking to. So here I am pitching literally hundreds of
times to get like, you know, five yeses, and so

(13:25):
you know, going forward, now it's like, okay, let me
be more strategic and go after people who you know,
this is in there, you know portfolio, this is what
they do, and that kind of makes it more advantageous
for both sides, you know. And I really like, I
have to double down on this point because I will say,
you know, coming out of COVID and the social justice movements, like,

(13:47):
there are a lot of black founders for whom investors
will pick up the call, but it's it's not that
they will make write the checks. So being really intentional
about finding invest sters that invest in your silo will
save you so much time, so much time, and that's
that's a lot of work. It's not easy, but it's

(14:08):
like really understanding and mapping out who you need to
talk to um and being conscious of like a lot
of people will pick up the phone, but they might
not write you a chat. So yeah, so let's go
back to funding. Because you have raised money, You've been
really successful. I think you've taken a lot of lessons
from that. You've raised from Google's Black Founders Fund, the

(14:29):
Dallas Independent School District, and arch grants. Tell us about
how you had to sort of change your mindset and
go after investors that you knew would be more likely
to invest in your round or well. One of the
biggest things was also about, uh, you know location. So again,
I'm originally from Kansas City and just you know, Casey,

(14:50):
I love my home, but there's not a lot of
early stage funding opportunities. I pretty much maximize all those.
And so I knew a couple of things. One is
like there was just boom happening in Atlanta, and also
hip hop lives in Atlanta, right, and so I was like,
I've got to get here. And so what happened I
was like boom, I started so after I got to
launch kse ce grant. But this is when we Work

(15:12):
was really taken off, which we know we're working doing
not no more really but that's another story. But in
Seeen when it was really going. Yeah, and and just aside,
note the founder, I don't know if you've seen that recently,
the founder of uh we Work, who basically kind of
you know, took a crap on everybody and really a
lot about our stuff, just raised like another three hundred

(15:32):
four hundred million or something, and like you know, of
course black founders aren't get the opportunities, but that's a
whole another story. Yeah, he just right, he just yeah,
they got There was a pretty upset about it, as
on LinkedIn and Twitter. But uh but I started coming
to Atlanta and at that time I had access to
all the we works and so I was building relationships.
I was connecting with key individuals. Of one was like

(15:53):
Barry Gibons. He was one of the first people I
met when I started coming here, and he was over
the Class Capital Fund and so and also with Jules
and so I'll just connected with so many people here
and again changing my mindset. I had to actually also
be where the action was happening. Like there was no
action happening in Kansas City. Uh see if the act
that was happening, I pretty much exhausted it. So like, Okay,

(16:15):
now I gotta start making some moves in a and
uh it really started paying off. So it really was
changing the mindset of like I had to step outside
of my comfort zone and start being in areas where
like real activity is taking place. So I can, you know,
get this thing to the next level. I love it,
And get this thing to the next level. You certainly have.
But let's go back to sort of the problem. So

(16:38):
when you started this company, you looked at the statistics
and they're pretty they're out there. About two thirds of
us students are not reading at grade level, but a
lot of them can sing along and wrap along to music.
So let's talk about some of the content and the
intent behind the platform that you've built at Healthy hip Hop,
Like what com parents expect on the app? Yeah, they

(17:00):
can expect, you know, hip hop as for kids, but
that parents can still enjoy it because a lot of
the times it's one sided, right, So you're like, I
don't want to hear baby Shark ever again. And I'm
not knocking baby Shark because they made an empire out
of one song, but I'm just saying, like the cultural relevancy.
So you know, we are doing hip hop that's still
like true to the culture. We're not anti hip hop culture.

(17:21):
We're just saying, hey, listen, this is we're pro our kids.
So here is hip hop that's still dope that kids
can listen to, but that's actually the parents can enjoy
as well. And then also tying in like educational themes,
and really the next phase of that was, you know,
this is the first generation of kids who are fully
native internet social media using children, but a lot of

(17:44):
these platforms are built with them in mind. And so
this is also inspired by my daughter. So I have
three kids. My son inspired me to create the movement,
and then my daughter inspired me to create this technology
because she was on tiktoking like eight nine years old,
and so when I started looking at him like this
still social media, she still you know, seeing a lot
of the content she should not be seeing. Uh, there

(18:06):
was anybody could direct messenger, etcetera. So I was like,
let me create a platform where kids can create their
own content. But a closed off network where they can
only share with their you know, family members, peers, you know, teachers,
and then also have a curative feed of content that's
coming just from our healthy hip hop creators. And so
that's what kind of sparked that because we're seeing like

(18:28):
these kids are younger and younger, they're coming out the womb.
You probably got two three year old kids that can
work at I Pad better than us. So that was
a thought behind that. That's true, and that's that's amazing.
And you know, I have young nieces and nephews and
I think about this all the time. So I also
want to talk about before we were able to close
out the sale cycle, how do you reach your customers

(18:51):
and audience. Is it through schools? Is it through one
on one families? Talk to us about the sale cycle? Right,
So on the sales side, it's really more focused on
the education a side of things. And so there's two
sides of our platform. One is like a B two
B SaaS platform that's that we sell the schools, and
the other is the director consumer with the mobile application.

(19:12):
So right now it's been on the mobile app side
and director consumer it's more about just building the audience
so we're really not charging parents anything. It's like, hey,
down with the app, you had access to the content,
create these videos in the safe space. The sales and
revenue is more come from the B two B side,
so we're selling the schools. And how we've been closing
these deals, like the Dallas deal is going to educational conferences,

(19:33):
building relationships, getting in front of the decision makers as
far as like you know, school admin superintendence principles, etcetera.
So it's really been that and more like a word
of mouth to start because people, you know, these teachers
are loving healthy hip hop and they're helping to spread
that word. But that's how we started, and now we
actually have systems in place where we're you know, emailing,

(19:53):
calling UH and again making sure we have a presence
at anything that has to do with like UH, diversity
inclusion in the education space, social emotional learning, which is
a hot topic and healthy hip hop really checks all
the boxes for that. So it's been more about those
conferences have kind of been a key for us. But
then also like warm introductions from the superintendents are principles

(20:14):
who are already using it, and now we're really amping
that up to take it to the next level because
the role map for us is really nailed down. This
B two B thing, start scaling that and then that's
gonna help build the audience on the director consumer and
then we're gonna really pivot to more of like a
director consumer offering. And that's why big picture we say
an urban Disney, like an iconic children's brand. That's really

(20:36):
the endgame for Healthy hip Hop. Oh, I love that,
and you know, I asked that specifically because I think that,
you know, I've seen a lot of what resonates with
investors and they want both sides of the coin. You know,
you've got to grow your B two B business, but
you also have to have this like touch points with
direct to consumer. So right on, and I love that, Roy.
As we close out right now, what's next for Healthy

(20:59):
hip Hop? Like, I've got two questions for you. What
is your wildest dreams for this company? And what keeps
you up at night? Right? So my wildest dream is
so again, so check this out. So, uh, Walt Disney,
like I said, all that stuff that happened, and again
I'm I don't take it personal now, it's all business.
But Walt Disney actually is originally from Kansas City, and

(21:20):
he moved Disney from Kansas City to lay He's writing
from k C. Moved from Kansas City to l A, right,
and it took flight. So I'm trying to repeat history
that the black walk, right, So I'm moving from Kansas
City to the A. And so the wildest dream is
to repeat history being urban Disney, be a billion dollar company,

(21:41):
be a global leader and you know, children's music education technology.
So that's like the wildest dream, which i'm speaking manifesting living.
I'll tell you you see, I'll get passionate about this,
but that's that's my w So that's my wildest dream.
And uh, what keeps me up at night is uh

(22:03):
what we're talking about the fundraising. That the fundraising thing,
it definitely keeps you up at night. And I'm talking
with people, I'm making calls, I'm applying for pitch competitions,
I'm doing a little bit everything. And so, um, I
would say some of some of that fundraising peace keeps
you up at night. And also to side, like the
fundraising and then also generating revenue, because revenue is always
the best, you know, uh, the best, the best type

(22:24):
of money you can have that's right, right, So those
are the two things that are keeping me up. But
uh yeah, overall, fel I'm really confident that we're gonna
get there. That wildest dream is gonna come true and
I'm living I'm living my wildest dream right now. So
I love it, Roy Scott, I love this. Thank you
for living your wildest dreams, and thank you for looking
out for the next generation. You know, the children really

(22:46):
are the future. And you know, I really appreciate you
being able to bring healthy hip hop to the masses
and our educational systems. Roy, thank you for coming on
the Money Moves podcast. Can you let our audience know
where they can reach you on social media and where
they can download healthy hip hop? Right, So, personally, it's
just Roy Scott dot CEO on all platforms, Instagram, etcetera,

(23:09):
TikTok all that, uh, and just healthy hip hop um
on all the platforms and in the app store, iOS
and Android. Just searched three words healthy hip hup and
you're gonna get to the app and you're gonna get
to some music that's really dope for the family that
you can enjoy and be a part of this movement. Alright,
Money movers. That's all the time we have for today.
And I know you thought I was gonna drop some bars,

(23:31):
but I'm not gonna do that to you guys. I
know he trust me. I don't have any. I don't
have any. But thank you so much, Roy Scott, Thank
you so much. We really appreciate you. Check out Healthy
hip Hop and make sure you follow him on all
his social media handles. Roy, it was such a pleasure.
We appreciate your time today, all right, thank you for

(23:54):
having me. Blessings awesome And if we helped you make
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(24:15):
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