March 26, 2025 • 55 mins
With over 3.5 million Black-owned businesses in America, we continue to see the landscape of Black entrepreneurship grow and expand. And as a Black entrepreneur myself, I know firsthand the importance of seeking out support in order to take your business to the next level. That’s why today, I am so happy to have Jewel Burks Solomon on the podcast. She is the managing partner at Collab Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund she launched to close the funding gap for Black entrepreneurs. Prior to that, Jewel was Head of Google for Startups US, where she created initiatives that have deployed over $45M in non-dilutive capital to Black and Latino-led businesses since 2020. She was also the Founder/CEO of Partpic, a startup acquired by Amazon in 2016, which streamlined the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision technology.
Jewel is a seasoned expert in the venture capital space. And whether you are a business-owner looking for funding, a Black woman wanting to fund businesses you believe in, or you just want to make sense of the industry, Jewel drops a ton of gems in our conversation.
About the Podcast
The Therapy for Black Girls Podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a licensed Psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia, about all things mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly
conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small
decisions we can make to become the best possible versions
of ourselves. I'm your host, doctor Joy Hard and Bradford,
a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or
(00:32):
to find a therapist in your area, visit our website
at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com. While I hope you
love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is
not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with
a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much
(00:57):
for joining me for session four or four of the
Therapy for Black Girls Podcast. We'll get right into our
conversation afterword from our sponsors. Have you heard the news
Therapy for Black Girls is launching our community on Patreon.
It's your space to be seen, heard, and understood in
an even more connected way. We're excited to bring you
(01:21):
new segments like so my Therapist said, where we break
down viral therapy hot takes with real mental health professionals,
TBG community chats, where we unpack trending pop culture topics
that have us all in our feelings and opportunities to
connect with other sisters all over the world. Sign up
now at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com, slash join Patreon
(01:42):
for all the details about what we're planning and to
be the first to know when the doors are open.
We can't wait to see you inside. With over three
point five million black owned businesses in America, we continue
to see the landscape of black entrepreneurship grow and expand,
and as a black entrepreneur myself, I know firsthand the
(02:05):
importance of seeking out support in order to take your
business to the next level. That's why today I'm so
happy to have Jewel Burg Solomon on the podcast. She's
the managing partner at Collab Capital, in early stage venture
capital fund she launched to close the funding gap for
black entrepreneurs. Prior to that, Jewel was head of Google
for Startups US, where she created initiatives that have deployed
(02:27):
over forty five million in non diluted capital to Black
and Latino led businesses since twenty twenty. She's also the
founder and CEO of part Pick, a startup acquired by
Amazon in twenty sixteen, which streamlined the purchase of maintenance
and repair parts using computer vision technology. Jewel is a
seasoned expert in the venture capital space, and whether you're
(02:49):
a business owner looking for funding, a black woman wanting
to fund businesses you believe in, or you just want
to make sense of the industry, Jewel drops a ton
of gyms in our conversation. If something resonates with you
while enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social
media using the hashtag tbg in session. Here's our conversation. Well,
(03:12):
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Jul, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, I'm very excited to chat with you all about
venture capital. Let us just start this conversation with the basics.
So if you were trying to explain venture capital to
a five year old, can you give us the definition
of what are we talking about when we say venture capital?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So it's really about equity. Let's just say I have
a business and I want to grow and scale my business.
There's a few different ways I could get there. If
I want to scale quickly and I want to approach
a huge market. One of the ways that I can
go about getting there is to take on venture capital investment.
(03:54):
And as a venture capitalist, what I'm expected if I'm
the investor, is that your business is going to approach
a huge industry. When I say huge, I mean multi
billion dollar industry, and I'm going to take a percentage
of your company in exchange for money to help you
(04:15):
grow and scale into that big, huge industry. So it's
really an exchange of value, a piece of the company
for dollars and hopefully additional resources, support connections, that type
of thing. So that's how I would explain I don't
know if that's well down enough for a five year old,
but that's how I would explain it to someone who
(04:36):
was unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Got it. So I'm sure we're going to get into
this a little bit later. But when I think about like,
I guess another way to scale a business would be
to get a loan from a bank, maybe right, And
in that case, the bank is not like getting a
piece of your company, but you would be paying them
back with interest. In the case of venture capital funds,
you are not like paying them back with interest. They
(04:58):
are getting a part of your business.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right. The structure of most venture capital firms is equity
based financing, so there is no expectation that you will
pay back with interest. The expectation is at some point
in the future, your business is going to grow and
scale enough and exit either through selling it to another
larger company or going public on NASAC or New York
(05:23):
Stock Exchange, and in return, your investors will receive back
ten x plus what they invested. What I like to
share with people is it's important to understand how venture
math works before you try to raise venture capital funding.
So to give an example, I lead a fund. Our
(05:43):
first fund was fifty one million dollars. Every investment that
we make, we're trying to underwrite that the company that
we invest in could return the fund. So that means
that we invest a million dollars, we're expecting that company
to return back fifty one million dollars to us. So
that's fifty x you know, the investment. So that's a
(06:06):
huge expectation. That means that you have to be approaching
a huge market and you have to be doing it
at a pace that can get those returns back with
then call it seven to ten years is the expectation
from a time horizon. So that's also an important factor
to keep in mind for people who want to understand
venture capital or entrepreneurs who may want to raise venture capital.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Got it got it. So talk to us a little
bit about your entrepreneurship journey. So did you always plan
to be an entrepreneur? I know you founded a company
port Pick and then solved the company. Had that always
been a plan or did little Jewel imagine that you
would be doing this.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I like to share with people that I got entrepreneurship honest.
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. So I
watched my mom build a business from the time I
was seven. She has an insurance agency along with a
number of other businesses. So I watched her build up.
And then my father actually inherited family businesses from my grandfather,
(07:07):
and so I was working in the family businesses, which
was convenience stores, a laundromat, all different types of brick
and mortar businesses. So saw that from a very young
age and really didn't have exposure to much else besides entrepreneurship.
So I always thought I was going to be an
entrepreneur just because that's all I really knew. I didn't
(07:27):
know what form that would take, and so it was
new for me to be exposed to tech entrepreneurship in particular,
and that came when I was in college. I went
to Howard University and I interned my first year on
Wall Street, so kind of got the exposure to the
financial markets from that internship. And then my second year
(07:51):
I interned at Google, and that really opened my eyes
to all the things that were going on in Silicon Valley,
and so I've kind of wanted to marry what I
I knew from home in terms of entrepreneurship the way
my parents did it with what I was seeing when
I interned out at Google and then ultimately went to
work full time at Google. So that's really how I
(08:11):
got into this world of tech entrepreneurship, just pulling together
the things that I saw over my early life and
then getting excited about what I could potentially build from scratch.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Got it and how did that lead to you building portpik.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So spent a couple of years at Google. Actually loved
what I was learning, didn't love living in the Bay Area,
so I wanted to be closer to my family, so
I moved to Atlanta and took a job at a
parts distributional company called McMaster Car. And that place was
pretty much polar opposite to Google. They were very behind
(08:49):
the ball when it came to technology. They were still
operating primarily based on a catalog and this was like
in twenty twelve. So I saw that it was a
huge business. They were selling millions of millions, if not
billions of dollars worth of parts every year, but they
were still not taking advantage of the latest technology. And
(09:10):
so I took what I learned at Google. And at
Google I had seen basically the idea that you can
build something from an idea using code. And then I
took the problem that I was seeing and my new job,
which was that people could not identify the products that
they wanted to purchase from us. And I had this
(09:30):
kind of light bulb. Okrah talked about aha moment. I
had one of those moments where I was like, people
should be able to search for the parts that they
want to buy from us with an image. Very simple
idea and I called it something very simple part pick
take a picture of a part, and we tell you
what it is and where to buy it. That was it.
Very simple idea, but very difficult application at the time.
(09:54):
So this is computer vision technology. I didn't know too
much about it. I was not an engineer. I knew
enough to be dangerous and to find the right people
that can help me build it. And at the time,
I happened to be studying for the GMAT and a
friend of mine had let me use his little buzzcard
to get into Georgia Tech's library, and so I was
(10:17):
already kind of like hanging out on campus. I was young.
I was twenty three at the time, so I still
could float like I was a student, and started to
go to different events that were happening on campus with
the hopes of meeting the right technical people who could
help me build out my idea, and that actually worked.
Met one person who introduced me to the next person.
(10:38):
Eventually met doctor Nashley Cephis, who became my CTO, and
together we were able to build really novel technology to
solve this problem of part search with an image.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Wow, so you were on almost like the cutting age
of like us being able to search through screenshots to
shop on Now.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, it's honey. Now I tell people, I'm like, everybody's
talking about AI, but me and my team we built
artificial intelligence for this particular use case. We started in
twenty twelve, so twelve years ago. So this technology has
been around, it's just now it's come to the forefront.
But yeah, we were early, early in the game.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And well, so Jul talk to us. You already mentioned
that you are a managing partner at a capital fund
and you had a fifty one million dollar fund. We're
still getting into the details of all of that. Will
walk us through what is a typical day as a
managing partner at colleb Capital.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So my life right now is consumed with fundraising. I'm
raising our second fund. The first fund was fifty one million.
I'm raising fund to which has one hundred million dollar target.
So that means I'm meeting with limited partners, who are
the people who invest in collab and other funds, and
convincing them that we have a thesis that is going
(12:02):
to be differentiated from anything else they can find in
the market. And our thesis is that we are investing
in black lead innovation companies across the US. We invest
across three sort of thematic focus areas. Future of Care
with the focus on women's health, mental health, and elder care,
Future of Work with the focus on economic mobility, So
(12:25):
how do we get more people in high paying jobs
using technology? And then community infrastructure, So really thinking about
all the things that folks need to thrive in communities,
so think access to transportation, access to clean water and
healthy foods, access to digital briadband technology. So we invest
across those thematic focus areas and all of those go
(12:46):
under a big umbrella around increasing Black prosperity. That's our mandate.
We are looking for people who are aligned with those
ideas and showcasing to them. Of our portfolio now invested
in thirty eight companies across Fund one. These are the
types of companies that we invest in. Here's how they're
(13:07):
performing and getting them excited that we'll continue to do
that work moving forward into Fund too. That takes up
the bulp of my time today. In addition, I'm supporting
the thirty eight portfolio companies that we've already invested in,
so helping them think about how do they scale and grow,
helping them track their metrics, and making connections on their behalf,
(13:31):
connecting them to corporations to become their customers. We just
got done with our founder retreat, so planned a two
day event for the portfolio so that they could come together.
I do some wellness activities as well as here from
speakers who have already gotten to the points where they're
trying to get to. Those are the two big parts
of my job today is fundraising for fund to and
(13:54):
then supporting the existing portfolio. And the last part is
in continuing to invest. So we've already closed part of
the second fund, so we're continuing to write checks into
new investments for fund too.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
So yeah, that's kind of day in the life for me.
So I want to make sure I get this structure right.
So you are venture capitalists, and other businesses can come
to you and collab capital to say hey, I have
this business, I want you to fund it. But then
you are also getting money from other people to be
able to pass this money down to these other businesses.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, yeah, that's exactly right. So I mean I wish
I had fifty one million dollars or one hundred million
dollars just to invest in businesses not quite there yet.
We are fiduciary, so we represent other investors. Sometimes it's corporations, foundations,
high network individuals who want to invest in businesses but
(14:50):
maybe don't have the network or don't have the bandwidth.
Maybe they're running other businesses and don't have the time
to find to source and then support these businesses. That's
what we do is on their behalfs find great businesses
and build a portfolio that they can feel confident will
deliver returns over time.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So, Drew, you brought up an important point that I
want us to dig a little deeper in because you
mentioned that you all at Collab Capital have a primary
focus on funding like black and brown companies and as
a way to extend wealth. And we know that there
was a recent appeals court that ruled the Fearless Fund,
a venture capital firm focused on supporting women of color entrepreneurs,
(15:32):
and saying that they could not issue grants specifically for
black women. And I had the privilege of being at
a conference with you accelerate her shout out to Kim
in Miami and heard you talk about the stance that
you are taking and that Collab Capital is taking in
terms of wanting to continue with this mission because you
feel like it's important even though there is a concern
(15:54):
around these court cases. So can you say a little
bit more about what this case means for funding and
the stands that you all are taking a collab Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I think the case is really unfortunate. It's a testament
to the times that we're in where anytime there's progress,
we had a black president, and of course with everything
that happened with the murder of George Floyd, there was
a lot of funding that went into black causes and
businesses and funds, et cetera. And anytime that kind of
(16:24):
progress or seeming progress happens, there's always a backlash. And
we look back in history and we've seen it countless times.
We can just basically set our watch to you, there's
always going to be a backlash to progress, and so
I think, unfortunately, the Fearless Fund was a target in
what has been a string of lawsuits around this kind
(16:44):
of quote unquote anti dei. In my business, it's extremely
unfortunate because Fearless Fund is close in terms of proximity.
We are both funds based out of Atlanta, focus on
investing in Their focus is women of color. Our focus
is black founders more broadly. So, yeah, it's been difficult
(17:05):
to watch what they've had to go through. I think
there's a few distinctions that help us, in a sense,
not be afraid to continue our work. So in the
Fearless Mine case, they are specifically targeting their grant program,
which sits outside of their fund and in their nonprofit,
and the case is reckless and ridiculous that I think
(17:26):
it is. It's particularly talking about the fact that in
the website language it states that specifically this program is
for black women and it's a contract associated with that,
and that was what the case handed on. In the
case of Collab. We do have language on our website
that discusses our focus on investing in black founders, but
(17:50):
there's nothing to say that it's exclusive. So if you
look at our base of founders, every company does have
a black founder, but there's also white founders and Mexican
founders and founders of all stripes. So we've worked really
hard with our legal team to make sure that we
can continue in our purpose and our mission but not
come against some of the kind of challenges hopefully across
(18:13):
our fingers that fearless fun than others have had to face.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Got it okay? So, according to People of Color in
Tech in twenty twenty three, black startup entrepreneurs got only
one point three percent of the one hundred and forty
seven billion in VC invested in US startups. I'm curious
to hear you talk about what other ways you've maybe
seen the VC industry be not advantageous to black founders.
(18:37):
I feel like we consistently hear that black women, especially
are some of the lowest funded people in the VC industry.
So can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, another very unfortunate statistic, and I think it's good
to ground it in context of venture capital as an
industry is very insular and it's very network driven. Well,
most venture capitalists invest in places where they feel comfortable,
where they have proximity, where they know the people, where
(19:08):
they can validate someone's background. And so what that has
created over call it seventy years at the industry has
been operating, is you have majority of the capital concentrated
on the coast, and majority of the capital concentrated in
alumni networks of Stanford, Harvard, mit ivy Lee schools. So,
(19:36):
because what we know about the statistics for those universities,
they're not very diverse, over time, you have these kind
of buddy networks that become the venture capitalists and then
invest in the deals that they see that they have
proximity to, which are oftentimes led by people who look
(19:56):
like them. So that's what's happened over time, and when
you say, the one percent of venture capital dollars going
to black founders. The other side of that equation is
one percent of venture capital dollars managed by black investors.
So there's a correlation there between who's writing the checks
(20:17):
and who's receiving the dollars. So I think that's why
it's so important the work that I do and other
black fund managers, not to say that all black fund
managers are investing inclusively in black entrepreneurs, but just to
say that as we diversify the base of people who
have access to deploying the capital, we can expect to
see more diversity on the side of entrepreneurs that are
(20:38):
actually getting the funding. But it just takes time. I mean,
like I said, it's seventy years, and it's probably been
less than ten years that there's been any level of
concentration among the investors who actually have dollars to deploy
who are black.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So what kinds of changes do you think need to
be made to make it easier are more accessible for
black founders to get VC fund.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I think part of it, as anything, is education. As
we started the conversation and I talked about what venture
capital is and what the expectations are there was a
moment in time where venture capital was being promoted heavily.
I think I'll put it on the social media. What
was the name of the movie that was about Facebook?
(21:22):
Can remember the social something Something.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
We'll have to look it up.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, we're but that movie in my opinion, and there's
been a number of other movies that kind of glamorize
and glorify Silicon Valley and present the young white dude
in the hoodie getting a big check to go and
build something out of his basement. That's the archetype that
we've seen so many times, and I think one that
(21:51):
does have an impact as far as when people want
to pursue how they think it should be done, how
easy it seems. In that movie, Mark Zuckerberg just walks
into a room and impresses the people with his idea
and gets a check. That's maybe what happened for him,
but that's not really true to how it actually happens.
(22:11):
I think Sharks Tank can also be to blame for
some of this. Is you go on TV, you do
a five minute pitch, and then you leave with an
investment from Mark Evan, Like, that's not really how the
industry works, and so I think part of it is
given that that has been many people's introduction to what
does it mean to have an investor, there's a certain
(22:32):
level of education that has to counterbalance some of what
we've seen on in media around what does it actually mean,
how does the process actually work, what are the actual expectations,
And so that's why I try to at least explain
if I'm investing in a company, my expectation is that
company is going to have to grow and scale to
(22:52):
be huge in order for me to get the returns
that I'm committing to my investors. That whole relationship, I
think it's just important for people to understand, and once
we get that understanding, then I think we will go
after much bigger ideas. Right now, when I meet entrepreneurs,
I see a lot of people going after good ideas
(23:15):
and maybe helpful ideas, but ideas that don't necessarily have
global impact and scale, and those are the types of
things that I want to fund. And so I want
more people to be thinking bigger in terms of the
types of businesses that they could potentially build. And then
the last thing I'll say on that is the other
thing I want is for people to recognize that you
(23:37):
don't have to raise venture capital in order to build
a great business. I think sometimes people get so locked
into the idea of raising money and they forget about
the fact that there's plenty of amazing businesses that we
all use all the time that never raise a dollar
venture capital, and so it's not a requirement by any means,
and it actually is a really hard thing to do
(23:59):
and adds a lot of new layers into building a business.
So that's something I like to remind people of. It's
definitely not a requirement, and in most cases it's not
a great fit.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So dull, I'm sure that there'd be somebody listening to
our conversation saying, like, I think I have an idea,
Like I think I have something that could scale. Where
do you need to start if you are interested in
getting VC funding?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So I think the biggest thing I would say around
where to start is the further you are, the better
the deal can be. So the game of venture capital
is around a risk continuum. So the riskier the bet is,
the worse the deal will be for the entrepreneur, and
(24:43):
better the deal will be for the investor. The more
you de risk the business, the more you have power
in dictating what the deal should be. So to put
that in more specific terms, when I look at an
investment and the business is pre revenue, maybe they have
(25:04):
a great team, but they haven't built the technology out yet,
I am more likely to want to come in at
a lower valuation. So there's nothing tangible that I can
use to assess the value of the business. So I'm
going to say, Okay, I'll give you a couple million
dollars on the board because of the team. I believe
(25:25):
in the team, but I don't have any way to
understand if the revenue projections that you put out there
are true because you haven't brought any revenue in yet.
So I'm going to more than likely value that company
much lower than if they came and said, we generated
a million dollars in revenue already, and here's our plan
(25:46):
is scale to one hundred million. We have these relationships
with X, Y and Z customers and they plan to
engage us further in the coming years. We have this
technology that's already built out. In that scenario, I'm going
to have to pay a higher price for the business
because there's already things that indicate that bus business is
(26:06):
on a solid growth trajectory. So all that to say,
as far as you can get without investment, the better
because you have more power in the negotiation when it
comes down to you what an investor is willing to
pay more.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
From our conversation after the break, are there other markers
that you're looking for when you're looking at which businesses
to invest in? So you've mentioned further along in the
process or do you risking? You said, are there other
(26:45):
things that like a business should have in place? And
like how are they finding you? Do we just google
venture capitals near me? Like, how do you find people
to even pitch?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That's funny, I've never used that cerche term. I know
curio to see what comes there. Maybe if you're in Atlanta.
I wonder if I would come up. As far as
other things to have, I think I'm an early stage investor,
so I invest at the seed stage. Companies that I
invest in typically do have a product that's built, So
I'm looking for you've built something and you've got someone
(27:18):
using it. The other thing that is good to have
early in the process is you've been able to convince
at least one or two other people to join you
in building. So typically I like to invest in teams,
not just one individual. So that means if you're a
business mind, you've been able to invest a tech mind
(27:39):
to join you. I gave the example of in my journey,
I had doctor Nashali Cifas. She's an amazing computer vision genius,
and I was able to convince her with very little money.
At the time, I had not raised any capital, but
I was able to convince her to join me, and
that was a huge hurdle to get over to find
(28:00):
the right technical talent, and so I'm looking for business
folks who've been able to convince the technical talent or
a technician who's been able to convince a business mind
to join them. Typically, that's how we like to see
the founding teams set up. And then if you've gotten
the first three or four people around the table as well,
whether that be part time folks that you were going
(28:21):
to bring on full time once you raise some capital
or once you get the product off the ground, that
early team is important. The other thing is a deep
understanding of the market that you're approaching. So I think
a lot of times people want to build a solution
without having done in depth analysis of the problem, and
it's really the problem that you have to go deep
(28:44):
on in the market that you have to go deep on.
The solution should come after you have a really deep
understanding of what the problem is and a really deep
understanding of the market that you're entering. And so that
piece a very painful problem is how I like to
describe it, that people will be willing to pay for
a solution to and a very fast growing market, So
(29:08):
a market that there's a lot of energy around now
or we can foresee there will be in the future,
because we're making bets that a solution that is being
built today is actually going to have market application in
five to ten years from now. That's how early we're investing.
And so we need to have conviction that the market
(29:30):
is growing in such a way that a big business
can be built in this space where there may be
already isn't a big business that exists today. So those
are a few things that you have to be able
to convince someone that you might be pitching of which
first you have to convince yourself. That's the biggest part
of it, too, is that you believe, even in spite
(29:54):
of people saying no, or people not really understanding your
vision that you have high convictions in so much so
that maybe you are willing to quit your job or
stop what you've been working on in the past, Like
that was my thing. I was willing to quit my
job that was paying me very well because I saw
something that I thought was compelling enough that the bet
(30:17):
of working on it for In my case, it was
four years before I sold it, but that bet was
going to be well worth the opportunity costs of me
quitting my job at that time.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
And so do we look at venture capital websites to
see like an email address? Do we prepare a PowerPoint
deck of the stuff that you just talked about, like
here's my team, here's my idea. But I also want
to go back to something you mentioned because you said
you invest at the seed stage, so I also want
to know what are the stages of business, Like I
think I've heard a pre seed kind of thing, but
(30:50):
I don't know what's after seed.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Okay, I did any answer your question about how do
you find the venture capitalists? These days? A lot of
venture capitalists do have like open applications on their way website,
So we at collect capital. We have an open application,
so you can just apply on the website. We look
at all the applications that come through and then reach
out to the folks that we're interested in chatting with,
and we send communication to everyone. So at the very
(31:15):
least you can apply and get some good information as
far as good next steps, but as far as finding others.
There are tons of databases and websites that announce when
new funds launch or when they've raised a new fund,
So I recommend like as resources for finding out when
(31:35):
new funds launch and when they've raised fresh funds. That's
a great time to reach out to investors when they
have fresh capital to deploy, So that's one thing. I
think it's also important to get involved in your local communities.
I don't recommend going straight to venture capitalists. I think
there's a few steps to go before that. In terms
(31:55):
of investment, generally, friends and family is first. For many
of us, we don't have cssarily have friends and family
that can write ten, fifteen, twenty five, fifty thousand dollars
checks to help us get our ideas off the ground.
But sometimes you would be surprised at what a conversation
within your family can prompt. So I think that's what
(32:18):
I recommend to people to even just tell your family
and friends what you're working on and see if there's
anyone in your network, maybe not your immediate friends and family,
but maybe co workers or folks that you've work with
in the past, what they may be interested in helping
you do. So friends and family is first, and then
(32:38):
typically there's precede round, which would be maybe you haven't
launched yet, but you've built something that people can get
their hands around or get their mind around, and that's
when I would approach angel investors. You could do angel investors, accelerators.
Oftentimes in cities like in Atlanta, there are angel groups
(32:59):
that you can approach. This is where Google does come in.
You can start to google active angel investors in your area.
And then once you have a product and you can
also start to approach like there are pre seed funds
out there that specifically invest very early. First check in
and you can look online for preceed funds. And then
(33:20):
seed stage, like I mentioned, is where I invest, which
is typically there is revenue, there is a product in market,
you're starting to see early signs of product markets fit,
and you're really thinking about how do you scale from there.
Seed is probably where the most investors live. It's like
a lot of investors invest in the seed stage. And
then after seed there is Series A, and that is
(33:42):
typically where you have a repeatable formula as far as
how you get to your customers, how you retain your customers,
how you see the expansion going up to ten fifty
one hundred million dollars in revenue. And there's a number
of alphabets after that, a ABCD, and those really just
depend on Those are like the growth stage rounds, So
(34:06):
that's when you might hear a funding announcement for one
hundred million dollars into one company, that is them making
preparations for eventually hopefully going public or doing a huge
acquisition one day.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So early on in our conversation you mentioned that, of course,
not all businesses are right for venture capital. So you've
already shared that if you're not expecting like a humongous scale,
like a fifty x kind of return, your business might
not be right. But you also said that there were
other reasons that like venture adds additional complications to your business.
(34:41):
Can you talk a little bit about those, like some
other things people might want to be mindful of. In
terms of venture capital.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yes, So the symbols way to put that is when
you take on venture capital, you're adding owners. A lot
of times people get into entrepreneurship because they want freedom,
they want flexibility, They they want to write the ship
in the way that they want to and adding investors
changes that you have someone that you have to be
(35:07):
accountable to. In our context, we ask for monthly reports
from our companies that we've invested in, so we're expecting financials.
There's a few key performance indicators that we're looking for
on a monthly basis. We're looking for quarterly financials. So
there are all these things that you owe someone because
they're giving you capital to you grow your business. I
(35:29):
don't think that I'm this way, but some investors they
want to talk to you on a regular basis. They
want to ask you questions, they want to give inputs.
So a little bit of that freedom and flexibility, you're
compromising when you bring on investors, because you do you
have an obligation to someone else, and you also have
(35:50):
expectations of someone else as far as how the business
is going to grow and scale. So those are things
that I don't know that everyone necessarily thinks about when
they take on capital. They may think, oh, this is
just money in the business and I can still dictate everything,
and that's not always the case. There's also power. Literally,
(36:10):
some investors right into the agreement that they have voting
rights in the business. They may have a board seat
in the business. As companies grow, there are sometimes situations
where board members unseat the CEO or the founder because
they think that the business isn't growing in the way
that they would expect it to. So that is something
(36:31):
that you have to be mindful of as you continue
to take on investors and give up ownership in the business.
So those are just some of the things that can
create different dynamics and complication that I don't know that
people always think about on the onset when they're taking
on capital.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
More from our conversation after the break, Have you heard
the news? Therapy from Black Girls is launching our community
on Patreon, your space to be seen, heard and understood
in an even more connected way. We're excited to bring
you new segments like so my Therapist said, where we
(37:09):
break down viral therapy hot takes with real mental health professionals.
TBG community chats where we unpack trending pop culture topics
that have us all in our feelings and opportunities to
connect with other sisters all over the world. Sign up
now at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com, slash join Patreon
for all the details about what we're planning and to
(37:31):
be the first to know when the doors are open.
We can't wait to see you inside. So I want
you to give us another couple of definitions, because I
feel like VC as with the many industries right like,
there's all this jargon that you don't quite know, but
people like use it all the time. So I want
(37:51):
to share a couple of terms with you to see
if you can give us some definitions. So, while you
were working as the head of Google for Startups US,
you deployed over forty five million in non diluted capital
to black and Latino led businesses. What does non deluted
capital mean and why is it important for founders of color?
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, so non diluted is the best kind. That means
that in this case, in the case of the warrithraditic Google,
it's no strings attached. So there's no equity that you're
giving up. There's nothing that you're giving up. It's basically
similar to a grant, where you may have some reporting obligations,
but other than that, it's money for you to use
(38:30):
in the ways that you want to use it for
your business. You can find nondluted capital or grant capital.
That's the best kind because you don't have to worry
about giving up equity in your business.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You share this term just briefly before, what is an
angel investor?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So an angel investor is someone who is investing their
own capital, and typically their expectations for that capital are
not as high as a venture capitalist who's investing someone
else capital. So I'm an angel investor, don't do as
much of it anymore since I focused on investing through Collab.
(39:07):
But before I started Collab, I wanted to understand more
about investing. So I put my own capital to work
and invested in fifteen different founders. And my perspective when
I did that was, yes, I would love to get
returns back from these dollars, but mostly I want to
help these entrepreneurs learn more about their business, understand more
(39:30):
about investing more broadly, and so oftentimes angel investors are
a little bit more flexible. They're investing a little bit earlier.
They really are concerned with helping the entrepreneur. Maybe they
have a subject matter expertise that they can bring to
support the business at an early stage, but typically they're
(39:50):
just investing their own capital into businesses and maybe the
check sizes would be a bit smaller than you would
find from a venture capitalist.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And typically with angel investors, are they also getting equity
or is it more of the long kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Angel investors they can be a little bit more creative
as far as the deals that they put together, but
typically if someone is terming themselves as an angel investor,
they're investing for equity in the business.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Got it? Okay? What does diversification refer to?
Speaker 2 (40:21):
So that really just means if you're putting together a
portfolio of your investments, you want to have different things
represented in that portfolio. So I'll use myself as an example.
I have a diversified portfolio that has private equity, so
that's angel investments that I've made. It also includes the
(40:43):
investment that I make into collab. So part of being
a venture capitalist is that you have to make a
commitment to your firm as well. It's kind of shown
that you have a skin in the game with your investors.
So I invest a percentage of collab, which means that
I really have to have high conviction in the investments
(41:03):
that we make because my money is on the line
as well. So we have angel investments, I have my
investments in a collab. I have real estate holdings. I
have stock, you know, just kind of vanilla stock market,
Vanguard bonds across the board. That is where, regardless of
what happens in the market, I have some things that
(41:24):
are maybe not going to be as impacted. And the
bet is over the span of time, you will put
together a portfolio that feels that can withstand some of
the ups and downs that may happen in the market
because you are in a number of different types of
asset classes.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Okay, what is a unicorn startup?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
So unicorn is a term that was coined by Eileenlee
maybe ten fifteen years ago, and she's an investor. Cowboy
Aventures is her firm, and she coin that term to
describe companies that reach a billion dollar valuation. So this
could be because they've raised two hundred million dollars at
(42:09):
a billion dollar valuation. It could be because they've gone public,
and the public markets gave them a billion dollar valuation,
but it's really just that moniker around a billion dollars,
which at the time when she coined the term, that
was that number that would typically return a fund if
a company exit a billion dollars. Now we're looking at
(42:31):
deca corns ten billion dollars in value. The bar just
keeps rising. But a unicorn is kind of the goal
that a lot of people that get into startups want
to reach because that typic we can return a fund,
got it?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Okay? What's an incubator?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Incubator is typically a place where early stage startups can
get resources support. Sometimes it comes with funding office space
really at that early stage. So I was a part
of an incubator. Georgia Tech has one of the longest
standing incubators ATDC and so my business was located there
(43:10):
for a few years. But it's typically a great place
for very early stage companies to locate so they can
get more access to resources community, that type of thing.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And is that similar to an accelerator or is that.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Different similar to an accelerator and sometimes the terms are
used interchangeably. I think accelerator more often does have a
funding component where For an example, tech Stars is a
well known accelerator. Y Combinator is a well known accelerator,
and they are typically exchanging. I think the deal with
tech Stars now is like one hundred and twenty thousand
(43:45):
for six percent of the company. It's a pretty good
deal for tech Stars if the company does well. But
for oftentimes those companies that go into those accelerators are
so early that they just need that first capital to
get things off the ground, and they need the curriculum,
which typically is like kind of ten to twelve weeks
(44:05):
where you are in a cooker pretty much, where you
have different things that you have to do week to week,
and that at the end of it, you do a
demo day where you talk about your company, do a pitch.
Oftentimes there's investors and people that you could potentially partner
with or hire that are invited to come and watch
your pitch.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Well, thank you for defining all those terms as to do.
That's super helpful. So we've already talked about several different
ways to receive funding in addition to VC. So you
talked about grants, We've talked about loans. Are there other
things that people should be on the lookout for in
terms of funding for their businesses.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, so depending on the type of business, there's so
many different avenues for funding that you could go. One
of my favorites for companies that are entering into research
focused businesses or businesses that have a research component is
government funding, so there is is their ss BCI SBIR.
(45:05):
There's all these different acronyms, but there's a lot of
funding available from the government and it's typically grants like funding,
so pretty much no strings attached, non alluded funding. As
we discussed earlier, those are really great opportunities for people
that are doing kind of research driven SBIR In particular,
for that SSBCI is funding that is state control, So
(45:30):
depending on where you are located, you may be able
to check in with your local state body and see
who is managing the SSBCI funding for your state that
is currently actively being deployed. So that's one avenue government funding.
There's also loans, of course. One of my favorite things
(45:52):
that tell people about is CDFIs. Community development financial institutions.
CDFIs are local financial institutions that can support local entrepreneurs
and sometimes they have different mandates around exactly the types
of entrepreneurs that they support, but they oftentimes have more
(46:12):
creative and flexible lending options than your traditional banks would have.
The best place to source funding, in my opinion, is
just through building a business that has customers that pay.
So that's something that is under discussed. But you can
build a business where you don't have to take outside funding,
(46:33):
or you don't need outside funding if you just get
customers to pay you more than whatever the cost of
your service er that is, that's the easiest way to
go about it. Of course, pitch competitions they still happen
quite regularly, so depending on what you're doing, that could
be a way to get an early funding for your business.
So yeah, those are some of the ways that I
recommend people to look at sources of capital for their business.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Would you be ecstatic too, you see come through the
collab capital inbox. Would pitch because somebody sends you that
would immediately say absolutely that I want to hear more.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well. I talked about some of our thematic focused areas.
One that I'm really interested in finding a deal in
right now is in the fertility space. I think that unfortunately,
this is a growing problem for a lot of people,
and right now there are certainly a number of startups
that are working on this, but I haven't seen a
(47:29):
ton that are led by black sounders and addressing some
of the maybe specific issues that black families have related
to fertility. So that's something I would love to see.
There's a lot happening in the climate space, and I
would love to see more black founders building in the
climate space. So pitches around that are interesting to me. Yeah,
(47:52):
those are two that are like top of mind for
me right now. I think we're seeing a lot in
health tech, which I'm excited about. We're doing a lot
of deal in that space. And then on the community
infrastructure side, unfortunately, we still have a lot of problems
related to our water and so that's an area that
I'm interested in finding our companies in as well.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Got it, and are there any current funded startups that
you're very excited about from black founders that you want
to put on the map.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, we have over thirty really incredible companies that I
hate to pick favorites, but I do have some favorites
in the portfolio. I always talk about Jasmine Crow Gooder,
the work that she's doing to get more people fed.
Gooder is a climate company We don't talk about that
part enough, but she's saving food from landfills, and perfectly
(48:41):
good food is a number two source of carbon emissions
and landfills, which is something that when I hear that side,
every time I hear it, it was online. So I just
love the work that she's doing at Gooder and that's
a proud collab portfolio company. We just actually made an
investment in another climate company and Neat led by Julia Collins,
(49:02):
another amazing black woman founder. Her business is called Planet Forward,
and she's really helping all think about every single consumer
product that you use, so think about going target. Basically
everything that you see has some implication from a carbon
emissions standpoint, and most large corporations are now held to
(49:26):
standards where they have to get to net zero by
a certain year twenty thirty, twenty fifty, et cetera. So
what Planet Forward is doing is giving those companies the
data they need to actually action their goals. So they've
set out these wafty goals of we want to get
to net zero by twenty thirty, they need the data
(49:47):
to tell them where they are today, what products they have,
how those products are contributing to where they are today
and what changes they need to make in order to
get to that net zero goal. And Planet Forward is
given them all of the back in data and software
in order to get to those actual goals. So we're
(50:07):
super excited about that company as well.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Incredible. We definitely sharing more about their companies in our
show notes for sure, so people can look into those.
So what resources or other things exist for black women
who might be interested in becoming venture capitalists? So if
I'm interested in maybe doing some angel investing or going
that stuff, you know, you started at angel investing and
then scaled. What resources exist for people?
Speaker 2 (50:32):
Oh, I'm so glad you're asking that, because this is
another thing that it's a soapbox that I get on
a lot, which is that black women in particular should
be doing more when it comes to angel investing. Back
to what we talked about earlier as far as the
disparities that exists in the venture capital industry, and my
point about the reason. Part of the reason is because
(50:53):
the investors don't look like the companies that are building.
We can change that. I more black women start investing,
likely they will invest in black women. So I really
encourage people who have the capacity and the capacity is
not that much. You can start angel investing with one
thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars. So I
(51:17):
say that, and then the note that I will put
on that is you have to be willing to lose
that money, because investing in early stage companies is a
very risky bet. But I definitely encourage people to get
excited and started, and really the best way to get
started is just to invest in people you believe in.
That's the easiest way to get started, and then scaling
(51:39):
from there. I think if you determine that you really
love investing and you have a passion for the business
of investing, which is quite different, I would say, than
just investing for fun. If you have a passion for
the business of investing, which is more around portfolio construction,
which is about understanding the returns profile and models. So
(52:04):
it's very much a finance job. That's something candidly I
didn't really know when I got into it how much
it is in spreadsheets and building models and being able
to defend my ideas and choices and doing research. That
is really the professional job of being an investor. That part.
(52:26):
If you like that, then the pathways in. I think
there's the path that I took, which is I was
an entrepreneur, I had a successful exit, and I used
that as my track record when it came down to
raising capital. The other, probably more popular way in is
to work at a larger firm, build up a track
(52:47):
record at a firm, and then if you decide you
want to spin out, you can do that. A lot
of people also entered into this industry having had a
more traditional finance background, so maybe worked in banking for
a number of years or on Wall Street, etc. So
there's a lot of a number of different ways into
the industry. There's programs that I think I've done a
(53:09):
really great job of helping prepare people like HBCUVC, Black
Venture Capital Consortium Black VC. They have a number of
training programs as well, So there's certainly different ways to
get more of the knowledge base in order to get
into the space as well.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Thank you so much for all those resources, Jewel. This
has all been so helpful. I know our community will
really appreciate it. Let us know where we can stay
connected with you. What is your website as well as
any social media handles you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Sure, so If you are an entrepreneur who wants to
submit your business for consideration from Collab, you can visit
Collab dot capital and just submit an application on the website.
If you want to just follow me, my website is
Jewelbirks dot com. I am Jewel Melanie on social media
(54:03):
and Jewel Burke Solomon on LinkedIn Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
We'll be sure to include all that in the show
notes so people can find you very easily. Thank you
so much for spending some time with us today, Jewel.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
I'm so glad you was able to join me and
share her exercise for this episode. To learn more about
her and the work she's doing at Collab Capital, be
sure to visit the show notes at Therapy for Blackgirls
dot com slash Session four O four and don't forget
to text us episode to two of your girls right
now and tell them to check it out. Did you
know that you could leave us a voicemail with your
questions for the podcast. If you want to suggest movies
(54:40):
or books for us to review, or even give thoughts
around other topics you'd like to hear, drop us a
message at Memo dot fm slash Therapy for Black Girls
and let us know what's on your mind. We just
might talk about it on the podcast. If you're looking
for a therapist in your area, visit our therapist directory
at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com slash directory. This episode
(55:00):
was produced by Elise Ellis, Indi Chubu, and Tyrie Rush.
Editing was done by Dennison Bradford. Thank y'all so much
for joining me again this week. I look forward to
continuing this conversation with you all real soon. Take good care,
Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls Podcast, a weekly
conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small
decisions we can make to become the best possible versions
of ourselves. I'm your host, doctor Joy Hard and Bradford,
a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or
(00:32):
to find a therapist in your area, visit our website
at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com. While I hope you
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not meant to be a substitute for a relationship with
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(00:57):
for joining me for session four or four of the
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(01:21):
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for all the details about what we're planning and to
be the first to know when the doors are open.
We can't wait to see you inside. With over three
point five million black owned businesses in America, we continue
to see the landscape of black entrepreneurship grow and expand,
and as a black entrepreneur myself, I know firsthand the
(02:05):
importance of seeking out support in order to take your
business to the next level. That's why today I'm so
happy to have Jewel Burg Solomon on the podcast. She's
the managing partner at Collab Capital, in early stage venture
capital fund she launched to close the funding gap for
black entrepreneurs. Prior to that, Jewel was head of Google
for Startups US, where she created initiatives that have deployed
(02:27):
over forty five million in non diluted capital to Black
and Latino led businesses since twenty twenty. She's also the
founder and CEO of part Pick, a startup acquired by
Amazon in twenty sixteen, which streamlined the purchase of maintenance
and repair parts using computer vision technology. Jewel is a
seasoned expert in the venture capital space, and whether you're
(02:49):
a business owner looking for funding, a black woman wanting
to fund businesses you believe in, or you just want
to make sense of the industry, Jewel drops a ton
of gyms in our conversation. If something resonates with you
while enjoying our conversation, please share with us on social
media using the hashtag tbg in session. Here's our conversation. Well,
(03:12):
thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Jul, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, I'm very excited to chat with you all about
venture capital. Let us just start this conversation with the basics.
So if you were trying to explain venture capital to
a five year old, can you give us the definition
of what are we talking about when we say venture capital?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So it's really about equity. Let's just say I have
a business and I want to grow and scale my business.
There's a few different ways I could get there. If
I want to scale quickly and I want to approach
a huge market. One of the ways that I can
go about getting there is to take on venture capital investment.
(03:54):
And as a venture capitalist, what I'm expected if I'm
the investor, is that your business is going to approach
a huge industry. When I say huge, I mean multi
billion dollar industry, and I'm going to take a percentage
of your company in exchange for money to help you
(04:15):
grow and scale into that big, huge industry. So it's
really an exchange of value, a piece of the company
for dollars and hopefully additional resources, support connections, that type
of thing. So that's how I would explain I don't
know if that's well down enough for a five year old,
but that's how I would explain it to someone who
(04:36):
was unfamiliar.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Got it. So I'm sure we're going to get into
this a little bit later. But when I think about like,
I guess another way to scale a business would be
to get a loan from a bank, maybe right, And
in that case, the bank is not like getting a
piece of your company, but you would be paying them
back with interest. In the case of venture capital funds,
you are not like paying them back with interest. They
(04:58):
are getting a part of your business.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Right. The structure of most venture capital firms is equity
based financing, so there is no expectation that you will
pay back with interest. The expectation is at some point
in the future, your business is going to grow and
scale enough and exit either through selling it to another
larger company or going public on NASAC or New York
(05:23):
Stock Exchange, and in return, your investors will receive back
ten x plus what they invested. What I like to
share with people is it's important to understand how venture
math works before you try to raise venture capital funding.
So to give an example, I lead a fund. Our
(05:43):
first fund was fifty one million dollars. Every investment that
we make, we're trying to underwrite that the company that
we invest in could return the fund. So that means
that we invest a million dollars, we're expecting that company
to return back fifty one million dollars to us. So
that's fifty x you know, the investment. So that's a
(06:06):
huge expectation. That means that you have to be approaching
a huge market and you have to be doing it
at a pace that can get those returns back with
then call it seven to ten years is the expectation
from a time horizon. So that's also an important factor
to keep in mind for people who want to understand
venture capital or entrepreneurs who may want to raise venture capital.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Got it got it. So talk to us a little
bit about your entrepreneurship journey. So did you always plan
to be an entrepreneur? I know you founded a company
port Pick and then solved the company. Had that always
been a plan or did little Jewel imagine that you
would be doing this.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I like to share with people that I got entrepreneurship honest.
I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. So I
watched my mom build a business from the time I
was seven. She has an insurance agency along with a
number of other businesses. So I watched her build up.
And then my father actually inherited family businesses from my grandfather,
(07:07):
and so I was working in the family businesses, which
was convenience stores, a laundromat, all different types of brick
and mortar businesses. So saw that from a very young
age and really didn't have exposure to much else besides entrepreneurship.
So I always thought I was going to be an
entrepreneur just because that's all I really knew. I didn't
(07:27):
know what form that would take, and so it was
new for me to be exposed to tech entrepreneurship in particular,
and that came when I was in college. I went
to Howard University and I interned my first year on
Wall Street, so kind of got the exposure to the
financial markets from that internship. And then my second year
(07:51):
I interned at Google, and that really opened my eyes
to all the things that were going on in Silicon Valley,
and so I've kind of wanted to marry what I
I knew from home in terms of entrepreneurship the way
my parents did it with what I was seeing when
I interned out at Google and then ultimately went to
work full time at Google. So that's really how I
(08:11):
got into this world of tech entrepreneurship, just pulling together
the things that I saw over my early life and
then getting excited about what I could potentially build from scratch.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Got it and how did that lead to you building portpik.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
So spent a couple of years at Google. Actually loved
what I was learning, didn't love living in the Bay Area,
so I wanted to be closer to my family, so
I moved to Atlanta and took a job at a
parts distributional company called McMaster Car. And that place was
pretty much polar opposite to Google. They were very behind
(08:49):
the ball when it came to technology. They were still
operating primarily based on a catalog and this was like
in twenty twelve. So I saw that it was a
huge business. They were selling millions of millions, if not
billions of dollars worth of parts every year, but they
were still not taking advantage of the latest technology. And
(09:10):
so I took what I learned at Google. And at
Google I had seen basically the idea that you can
build something from an idea using code. And then I
took the problem that I was seeing and my new job,
which was that people could not identify the products that
they wanted to purchase from us. And I had this
(09:30):
kind of light bulb. Okrah talked about aha moment. I
had one of those moments where I was like, people
should be able to search for the parts that they
want to buy from us with an image. Very simple
idea and I called it something very simple part pick
take a picture of a part, and we tell you
what it is and where to buy it. That was it.
Very simple idea, but very difficult application at the time.
(09:54):
So this is computer vision technology. I didn't know too
much about it. I was not an engineer. I knew
enough to be dangerous and to find the right people
that can help me build it. And at the time,
I happened to be studying for the GMAT and a
friend of mine had let me use his little buzzcard
to get into Georgia Tech's library, and so I was
(10:17):
already kind of like hanging out on campus. I was young.
I was twenty three at the time, so I still
could float like I was a student, and started to
go to different events that were happening on campus with
the hopes of meeting the right technical people who could
help me build out my idea, and that actually worked.
Met one person who introduced me to the next person.
(10:38):
Eventually met doctor Nashley Cephis, who became my CTO, and
together we were able to build really novel technology to
solve this problem of part search with an image.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Wow, so you were on almost like the cutting age
of like us being able to search through screenshots to
shop on Now.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, it's honey. Now I tell people, I'm like, everybody's
talking about AI, but me and my team we built
artificial intelligence for this particular use case. We started in
twenty twelve, so twelve years ago. So this technology has
been around, it's just now it's come to the forefront.
But yeah, we were early, early in the game.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And well, so Jul talk to us. You already mentioned
that you are a managing partner at a capital fund
and you had a fifty one million dollar fund. We're
still getting into the details of all of that. Will
walk us through what is a typical day as a
managing partner at colleb Capital.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So my life right now is consumed with fundraising. I'm
raising our second fund. The first fund was fifty one million.
I'm raising fund to which has one hundred million dollar target.
So that means I'm meeting with limited partners, who are
the people who invest in collab and other funds, and
convincing them that we have a thesis that is going
(12:02):
to be differentiated from anything else they can find in
the market. And our thesis is that we are investing
in black lead innovation companies across the US. We invest
across three sort of thematic focus areas. Future of Care
with the focus on women's health, mental health, and elder care,
Future of Work with the focus on economic mobility, So
(12:25):
how do we get more people in high paying jobs
using technology? And then community infrastructure, So really thinking about
all the things that folks need to thrive in communities,
so think access to transportation, access to clean water and
healthy foods, access to digital briadband technology. So we invest
across those thematic focus areas and all of those go
(12:46):
under a big umbrella around increasing Black prosperity. That's our mandate.
We are looking for people who are aligned with those
ideas and showcasing to them. Of our portfolio now invested
in thirty eight companies across Fund one. These are the
types of companies that we invest in. Here's how they're
(13:07):
performing and getting them excited that we'll continue to do
that work moving forward into Fund too. That takes up
the bulp of my time today. In addition, I'm supporting
the thirty eight portfolio companies that we've already invested in,
so helping them think about how do they scale and grow,
helping them track their metrics, and making connections on their behalf,
(13:31):
connecting them to corporations to become their customers. We just
got done with our founder retreat, so planned a two
day event for the portfolio so that they could come together.
I do some wellness activities as well as here from
speakers who have already gotten to the points where they're
trying to get to. Those are the two big parts
of my job today is fundraising for fund to and
(13:54):
then supporting the existing portfolio. And the last part is
in continuing to invest. So we've already closed part of
the second fund, so we're continuing to write checks into
new investments for fund too.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
So yeah, that's kind of day in the life for me.
So I want to make sure I get this structure right.
So you are venture capitalists, and other businesses can come
to you and collab capital to say hey, I have
this business, I want you to fund it. But then
you are also getting money from other people to be
able to pass this money down to these other businesses.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yes, yeah, that's exactly right. So I mean I wish
I had fifty one million dollars or one hundred million
dollars just to invest in businesses not quite there yet.
We are fiduciary, so we represent other investors. Sometimes it's corporations, foundations,
high network individuals who want to invest in businesses but
(14:50):
maybe don't have the network or don't have the bandwidth.
Maybe they're running other businesses and don't have the time
to find to source and then support these businesses. That's
what we do is on their behalfs find great businesses
and build a portfolio that they can feel confident will
deliver returns over time.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
So, Drew, you brought up an important point that I
want us to dig a little deeper in because you
mentioned that you all at Collab Capital have a primary
focus on funding like black and brown companies and as
a way to extend wealth. And we know that there
was a recent appeals court that ruled the Fearless Fund,
a venture capital firm focused on supporting women of color entrepreneurs,
(15:32):
and saying that they could not issue grants specifically for
black women. And I had the privilege of being at
a conference with you accelerate her shout out to Kim
in Miami and heard you talk about the stance that
you are taking and that Collab Capital is taking in
terms of wanting to continue with this mission because you
feel like it's important even though there is a concern
(15:54):
around these court cases. So can you say a little
bit more about what this case means for funding and
the stands that you all are taking a collab Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
I think the case is really unfortunate. It's a testament
to the times that we're in where anytime there's progress,
we had a black president, and of course with everything
that happened with the murder of George Floyd, there was
a lot of funding that went into black causes and
businesses and funds, et cetera. And anytime that kind of
(16:24):
progress or seeming progress happens, there's always a backlash. And
we look back in history and we've seen it countless times.
We can just basically set our watch to you, there's
always going to be a backlash to progress, and so
I think, unfortunately, the Fearless Fund was a target in
what has been a string of lawsuits around this kind
(16:44):
of quote unquote anti dei. In my business, it's extremely
unfortunate because Fearless Fund is close in terms of proximity.
We are both funds based out of Atlanta, focus on
investing in Their focus is women of color. Our focus
is black founders more broadly. So, yeah, it's been difficult
(17:05):
to watch what they've had to go through. I think
there's a few distinctions that help us, in a sense,
not be afraid to continue our work. So in the
Fearless Mine case, they are specifically targeting their grant program,
which sits outside of their fund and in their nonprofit,
and the case is reckless and ridiculous that I think
(17:26):
it is. It's particularly talking about the fact that in
the website language it states that specifically this program is
for black women and it's a contract associated with that,
and that was what the case handed on. In the
case of Collab. We do have language on our website
that discusses our focus on investing in black founders, but
(17:50):
there's nothing to say that it's exclusive. So if you
look at our base of founders, every company does have
a black founder, but there's also white founders and Mexican
founders and founders of all stripes. So we've worked really
hard with our legal team to make sure that we
can continue in our purpose and our mission but not
come against some of the kind of challenges hopefully across
(18:13):
our fingers that fearless fun than others have had to face.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Got it okay? So, according to People of Color in
Tech in twenty twenty three, black startup entrepreneurs got only
one point three percent of the one hundred and forty
seven billion in VC invested in US startups. I'm curious
to hear you talk about what other ways you've maybe
seen the VC industry be not advantageous to black founders.
(18:37):
I feel like we consistently hear that black women, especially
are some of the lowest funded people in the VC industry.
So can you talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, another very unfortunate statistic, and I think it's good
to ground it in context of venture capital as an
industry is very insular and it's very network driven. Well,
most venture capitalists invest in places where they feel comfortable,
where they have proximity, where they know the people, where
(19:08):
they can validate someone's background. And so what that has
created over call it seventy years at the industry has
been operating, is you have majority of the capital concentrated
on the coast, and majority of the capital concentrated in
alumni networks of Stanford, Harvard, mit ivy Lee schools. So,
(19:36):
because what we know about the statistics for those universities,
they're not very diverse, over time, you have these kind
of buddy networks that become the venture capitalists and then
invest in the deals that they see that they have
proximity to, which are oftentimes led by people who look
(19:56):
like them. So that's what's happened over time, and when
you say, the one percent of venture capital dollars going
to black founders. The other side of that equation is
one percent of venture capital dollars managed by black investors.
So there's a correlation there between who's writing the checks
(20:17):
and who's receiving the dollars. So I think that's why
it's so important the work that I do and other
black fund managers, not to say that all black fund
managers are investing inclusively in black entrepreneurs, but just to
say that as we diversify the base of people who
have access to deploying the capital, we can expect to
see more diversity on the side of entrepreneurs that are
(20:38):
actually getting the funding. But it just takes time. I mean,
like I said, it's seventy years, and it's probably been
less than ten years that there's been any level of
concentration among the investors who actually have dollars to deploy
who are black.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
So what kinds of changes do you think need to
be made to make it easier are more accessible for
black founders to get VC fund.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I think part of it, as anything, is education. As
we started the conversation and I talked about what venture
capital is and what the expectations are there was a
moment in time where venture capital was being promoted heavily.
I think I'll put it on the social media. What
was the name of the movie that was about Facebook?
(21:22):
Can remember the social something Something.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
We'll have to look it up.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
Yeah, we're but that movie in my opinion, and there's
been a number of other movies that kind of glamorize
and glorify Silicon Valley and present the young white dude
in the hoodie getting a big check to go and
build something out of his basement. That's the archetype that
we've seen so many times, and I think one that
(21:51):
does have an impact as far as when people want
to pursue how they think it should be done, how
easy it seems. In that movie, Mark Zuckerberg just walks
into a room and impresses the people with his idea
and gets a check. That's maybe what happened for him,
but that's not really true to how it actually happens.
(22:11):
I think Sharks Tank can also be to blame for
some of this. Is you go on TV, you do
a five minute pitch, and then you leave with an
investment from Mark Evan, Like, that's not really how the
industry works, and so I think part of it is
given that that has been many people's introduction to what
does it mean to have an investor, there's a certain
(22:32):
level of education that has to counterbalance some of what
we've seen on in media around what does it actually mean,
how does the process actually work, what are the actual expectations,
And so that's why I try to at least explain
if I'm investing in a company, my expectation is that
company is going to have to grow and scale to
(22:52):
be huge in order for me to get the returns
that I'm committing to my investors. That whole relationship, I
think it's just important for people to understand, and once
we get that understanding, then I think we will go
after much bigger ideas. Right now, when I meet entrepreneurs,
I see a lot of people going after good ideas
(23:15):
and maybe helpful ideas, but ideas that don't necessarily have
global impact and scale, and those are the types of
things that I want to fund. And so I want
more people to be thinking bigger in terms of the
types of businesses that they could potentially build. And then
the last thing I'll say on that is the other
thing I want is for people to recognize that you
(23:37):
don't have to raise venture capital in order to build
a great business. I think sometimes people get so locked
into the idea of raising money and they forget about
the fact that there's plenty of amazing businesses that we
all use all the time that never raise a dollar
venture capital, and so it's not a requirement by any means,
and it actually is a really hard thing to do
(23:59):
and adds a lot of new layers into building a business.
So that's something I like to remind people of. It's
definitely not a requirement, and in most cases it's not
a great fit.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So dull, I'm sure that there'd be somebody listening to
our conversation saying, like, I think I have an idea,
Like I think I have something that could scale. Where
do you need to start if you are interested in
getting VC funding?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So I think the biggest thing I would say around
where to start is the further you are, the better
the deal can be. So the game of venture capital
is around a risk continuum. So the riskier the bet is,
the worse the deal will be for the entrepreneur, and
(24:43):
better the deal will be for the investor. The more
you de risk the business, the more you have power
in dictating what the deal should be. So to put
that in more specific terms, when I look at an
investment and the business is pre revenue, maybe they have
(25:04):
a great team, but they haven't built the technology out yet,
I am more likely to want to come in at
a lower valuation. So there's nothing tangible that I can
use to assess the value of the business. So I'm
going to say, Okay, I'll give you a couple million
dollars on the board because of the team. I believe
(25:25):
in the team, but I don't have any way to
understand if the revenue projections that you put out there
are true because you haven't brought any revenue in yet.
So I'm going to more than likely value that company
much lower than if they came and said, we generated
a million dollars in revenue already, and here's our plan
(25:46):
is scale to one hundred million. We have these relationships
with X, Y and Z customers and they plan to
engage us further in the coming years. We have this
technology that's already built out. In that scenario, I'm going
to have to pay a higher price for the business
because there's already things that indicate that bus business is
(26:06):
on a solid growth trajectory. So all that to say,
as far as you can get without investment, the better
because you have more power in the negotiation when it
comes down to you what an investor is willing to
pay more.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
From our conversation after the break, are there other markers
that you're looking for when you're looking at which businesses
to invest in? So you've mentioned further along in the
process or do you risking? You said, are there other
(26:45):
things that like a business should have in place? And
like how are they finding you? Do we just google
venture capitals near me? Like, how do you find people
to even pitch?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
That's funny, I've never used that cerche term. I know
curio to see what comes there. Maybe if you're in Atlanta.
I wonder if I would come up. As far as
other things to have, I think I'm an early stage investor,
so I invest at the seed stage. Companies that I
invest in typically do have a product that's built, So
I'm looking for you've built something and you've got someone
(27:18):
using it. The other thing that is good to have
early in the process is you've been able to convince
at least one or two other people to join you
in building. So typically I like to invest in teams,
not just one individual. So that means if you're a
business mind, you've been able to invest a tech mind
(27:39):
to join you. I gave the example of in my journey,
I had doctor Nashali Cifas. She's an amazing computer vision genius,
and I was able to convince her with very little money.
At the time, I had not raised any capital, but
I was able to convince her to join me, and
that was a huge hurdle to get over to find
(28:00):
the right technical talent, and so I'm looking for business
folks who've been able to convince the technical talent or
a technician who's been able to convince a business mind
to join them. Typically, that's how we like to see
the founding teams set up. And then if you've gotten
the first three or four people around the table as well,
whether that be part time folks that you were going
(28:21):
to bring on full time once you raise some capital
or once you get the product off the ground, that
early team is important. The other thing is a deep
understanding of the market that you're approaching. So I think
a lot of times people want to build a solution
without having done in depth analysis of the problem, and
it's really the problem that you have to go deep
(28:44):
on in the market that you have to go deep on.
The solution should come after you have a really deep
understanding of what the problem is and a really deep
understanding of the market that you're entering. And so that
piece a very painful problem is how I like to
describe it, that people will be willing to pay for
a solution to and a very fast growing market, So
(29:08):
a market that there's a lot of energy around now
or we can foresee there will be in the future,
because we're making bets that a solution that is being
built today is actually going to have market application in
five to ten years from now. That's how early we're investing.
And so we need to have conviction that the market
(29:30):
is growing in such a way that a big business
can be built in this space where there may be
already isn't a big business that exists today. So those
are a few things that you have to be able
to convince someone that you might be pitching of which
first you have to convince yourself. That's the biggest part
of it, too, is that you believe, even in spite
(29:54):
of people saying no, or people not really understanding your
vision that you have high convictions in so much so
that maybe you are willing to quit your job or
stop what you've been working on in the past, Like
that was my thing. I was willing to quit my
job that was paying me very well because I saw
something that I thought was compelling enough that the bet
(30:17):
of working on it for In my case, it was
four years before I sold it, but that bet was
going to be well worth the opportunity costs of me
quitting my job at that time.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
And so do we look at venture capital websites to
see like an email address? Do we prepare a PowerPoint
deck of the stuff that you just talked about, like
here's my team, here's my idea. But I also want
to go back to something you mentioned because you said
you invest at the seed stage, so I also want
to know what are the stages of business, Like I
think I've heard a pre seed kind of thing, but
(30:50):
I don't know what's after seed.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Okay, I did any answer your question about how do
you find the venture capitalists? These days? A lot of
venture capitalists do have like open applications on their way website,
So we at collect capital. We have an open application,
so you can just apply on the website. We look
at all the applications that come through and then reach
out to the folks that we're interested in chatting with,
and we send communication to everyone. So at the very
(31:15):
least you can apply and get some good information as
far as good next steps, but as far as finding others.
There are tons of databases and websites that announce when
new funds launch or when they've raised a new fund,
So I recommend like as resources for finding out when
(31:35):
new funds launch and when they've raised fresh funds. That's
a great time to reach out to investors when they
have fresh capital to deploy, So that's one thing. I
think it's also important to get involved in your local communities.
I don't recommend going straight to venture capitalists. I think
there's a few steps to go before that. In terms
(31:55):
of investment, generally, friends and family is first. For many
of us, we don't have cssarily have friends and family
that can write ten, fifteen, twenty five, fifty thousand dollars
checks to help us get our ideas off the ground.
But sometimes you would be surprised at what a conversation
within your family can prompt. So I think that's what
(32:18):
I recommend to people to even just tell your family
and friends what you're working on and see if there's
anyone in your network, maybe not your immediate friends and family,
but maybe co workers or folks that you've work with
in the past, what they may be interested in helping
you do. So friends and family is first, and then
(32:38):
typically there's precede round, which would be maybe you haven't
launched yet, but you've built something that people can get
their hands around or get their mind around, and that's
when I would approach angel investors. You could do angel investors, accelerators.
Oftentimes in cities like in Atlanta, there are angel groups
(32:59):
that you can approach. This is where Google does come in.
You can start to google active angel investors in your area.
And then once you have a product and you can
also start to approach like there are pre seed funds
out there that specifically invest very early. First check in
and you can look online for preceed funds. And then
(33:20):
seed stage, like I mentioned, is where I invest, which
is typically there is revenue, there is a product in market,
you're starting to see early signs of product markets fit,
and you're really thinking about how do you scale from there.
Seed is probably where the most investors live. It's like
a lot of investors invest in the seed stage. And
then after seed there is Series A, and that is
(33:42):
typically where you have a repeatable formula as far as
how you get to your customers, how you retain your customers,
how you see the expansion going up to ten fifty
one hundred million dollars in revenue. And there's a number
of alphabets after that, a ABCD, and those really just
depend on Those are like the growth stage rounds, So
(34:06):
that's when you might hear a funding announcement for one
hundred million dollars into one company, that is them making
preparations for eventually hopefully going public or doing a huge
acquisition one day.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
So early on in our conversation you mentioned that, of course,
not all businesses are right for venture capital. So you've
already shared that if you're not expecting like a humongous scale,
like a fifty x kind of return, your business might
not be right. But you also said that there were
other reasons that like venture adds additional complications to your business.
(34:41):
Can you talk a little bit about those, like some
other things people might want to be mindful of. In
terms of venture capital.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Yes, So the symbols way to put that is when
you take on venture capital, you're adding owners. A lot
of times people get into entrepreneurship because they want freedom,
they want flexibility, They they want to write the ship
in the way that they want to and adding investors
changes that you have someone that you have to be
(35:07):
accountable to. In our context, we ask for monthly reports
from our companies that we've invested in, so we're expecting financials.
There's a few key performance indicators that we're looking for
on a monthly basis. We're looking for quarterly financials. So
there are all these things that you owe someone because
they're giving you capital to you grow your business. I
(35:29):
don't think that I'm this way, but some investors they
want to talk to you on a regular basis. They
want to ask you questions, they want to give inputs.
So a little bit of that freedom and flexibility, you're
compromising when you bring on investors, because you do you
have an obligation to someone else, and you also have
(35:50):
expectations of someone else as far as how the business
is going to grow and scale. So those are things
that I don't know that everyone necessarily thinks about when
they take on capital. They may think, oh, this is
just money in the business and I can still dictate everything,
and that's not always the case. There's also power. Literally,
(36:10):
some investors right into the agreement that they have voting
rights in the business. They may have a board seat
in the business. As companies grow, there are sometimes situations
where board members unseat the CEO or the founder because
they think that the business isn't growing in the way
that they would expect it to. So that is something
(36:31):
that you have to be mindful of as you continue
to take on investors and give up ownership in the business.
So those are just some of the things that can
create different dynamics and complication that I don't know that
people always think about on the onset when they're taking
on capital.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
More from our conversation after the break, Have you heard
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(37:09):
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(37:31):
be the first to know when the doors are open.
We can't wait to see you inside. So I want
you to give us another couple of definitions, because I
feel like VC as with the many industries right like,
there's all this jargon that you don't quite know, but
people like use it all the time. So I want
(37:51):
to share a couple of terms with you to see
if you can give us some definitions. So, while you
were working as the head of Google for Startups US,
you deployed over forty five million in non diluted capital
to black and Latino led businesses. What does non deluted
capital mean and why is it important for founders of color?
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, so non diluted is the best kind. That means
that in this case, in the case of the warrithraditic Google,
it's no strings attached. So there's no equity that you're
giving up. There's nothing that you're giving up. It's basically
similar to a grant, where you may have some reporting obligations,
but other than that, it's money for you to use
(38:30):
in the ways that you want to use it for
your business. You can find nondluted capital or grant capital.
That's the best kind because you don't have to worry
about giving up equity in your business.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
You share this term just briefly before, what is an
angel investor?
Speaker 2 (38:46):
So an angel investor is someone who is investing their
own capital, and typically their expectations for that capital are
not as high as a venture capitalist who's investing someone
else capital. So I'm an angel investor, don't do as
much of it anymore since I focused on investing through Collab.
(39:07):
But before I started Collab, I wanted to understand more
about investing. So I put my own capital to work
and invested in fifteen different founders. And my perspective when
I did that was, yes, I would love to get
returns back from these dollars, but mostly I want to
help these entrepreneurs learn more about their business, understand more
(39:30):
about investing more broadly, and so oftentimes angel investors are
a little bit more flexible. They're investing a little bit earlier.
They really are concerned with helping the entrepreneur. Maybe they
have a subject matter expertise that they can bring to
support the business at an early stage, but typically they're
(39:50):
just investing their own capital into businesses and maybe the
check sizes would be a bit smaller than you would
find from a venture capitalist.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And typically with angel investors, are they also getting equity
or is it more of the long kind of situation.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Angel investors they can be a little bit more creative
as far as the deals that they put together, but
typically if someone is terming themselves as an angel investor,
they're investing for equity in the business.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
Got it? Okay? What does diversification refer to?
Speaker 2 (40:21):
So that really just means if you're putting together a
portfolio of your investments, you want to have different things
represented in that portfolio. So I'll use myself as an example.
I have a diversified portfolio that has private equity, so
that's angel investments that I've made. It also includes the
(40:43):
investment that I make into collab. So part of being
a venture capitalist is that you have to make a
commitment to your firm as well. It's kind of shown
that you have a skin in the game with your investors.
So I invest a percentage of collab, which means that
I really have to have high conviction in the investments
(41:03):
that we make because my money is on the line
as well. So we have angel investments, I have my
investments in a collab. I have real estate holdings. I
have stock, you know, just kind of vanilla stock market,
Vanguard bonds across the board. That is where, regardless of
what happens in the market, I have some things that
(41:24):
are maybe not going to be as impacted. And the
bet is over the span of time, you will put
together a portfolio that feels that can withstand some of
the ups and downs that may happen in the market
because you are in a number of different types of
asset classes.
Speaker 1 (41:44):
Okay, what is a unicorn startup?
Speaker 2 (41:47):
So unicorn is a term that was coined by Eileenlee
maybe ten fifteen years ago, and she's an investor. Cowboy
Aventures is her firm, and she coin that term to
describe companies that reach a billion dollar valuation. So this
could be because they've raised two hundred million dollars at
(42:09):
a billion dollar valuation. It could be because they've gone public,
and the public markets gave them a billion dollar valuation,
but it's really just that moniker around a billion dollars,
which at the time when she coined the term, that
was that number that would typically return a fund if
a company exit a billion dollars. Now we're looking at
(42:31):
deca corns ten billion dollars in value. The bar just
keeps rising. But a unicorn is kind of the goal
that a lot of people that get into startups want
to reach because that typic we can return a fund,
got it?
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Okay? What's an incubator?
Speaker 2 (42:48):
Incubator is typically a place where early stage startups can
get resources support. Sometimes it comes with funding office space
really at that early stage. So I was a part
of an incubator. Georgia Tech has one of the longest
standing incubators ATDC and so my business was located there
(43:10):
for a few years. But it's typically a great place
for very early stage companies to locate so they can
get more access to resources community, that type of thing.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
And is that similar to an accelerator or is that.
Speaker 2 (43:24):
Different similar to an accelerator and sometimes the terms are
used interchangeably. I think accelerator more often does have a
funding component where For an example, tech Stars is a
well known accelerator. Y Combinator is a well known accelerator,
and they are typically exchanging. I think the deal with
tech Stars now is like one hundred and twenty thousand
(43:45):
for six percent of the company. It's a pretty good
deal for tech Stars if the company does well. But
for oftentimes those companies that go into those accelerators are
so early that they just need that first capital to
get things off the ground, and they need the curriculum,
which typically is like kind of ten to twelve weeks
(44:05):
where you are in a cooker pretty much, where you
have different things that you have to do week to week,
and that at the end of it, you do a
demo day where you talk about your company, do a pitch.
Oftentimes there's investors and people that you could potentially partner
with or hire that are invited to come and watch
your pitch.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Well, thank you for defining all those terms as to do.
That's super helpful. So we've already talked about several different
ways to receive funding in addition to VC. So you
talked about grants, We've talked about loans. Are there other
things that people should be on the lookout for in
terms of funding for their businesses.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
Yeah, so depending on the type of business, there's so
many different avenues for funding that you could go. One
of my favorites for companies that are entering into research
focused businesses or businesses that have a research component is
government funding, so there is is their ss BCI SBIR.
(45:05):
There's all these different acronyms, but there's a lot of
funding available from the government and it's typically grants like funding,
so pretty much no strings attached, non alluded funding. As
we discussed earlier, those are really great opportunities for people
that are doing kind of research driven SBIR In particular,
for that SSBCI is funding that is state control, So
(45:30):
depending on where you are located, you may be able
to check in with your local state body and see
who is managing the SSBCI funding for your state that
is currently actively being deployed. So that's one avenue government funding.
There's also loans, of course. One of my favorite things
(45:52):
that tell people about is CDFIs. Community development financial institutions.
CDFIs are local financial institutions that can support local entrepreneurs
and sometimes they have different mandates around exactly the types
of entrepreneurs that they support, but they oftentimes have more
(46:12):
creative and flexible lending options than your traditional banks would have.
The best place to source funding, in my opinion, is
just through building a business that has customers that pay.
So that's something that is under discussed. But you can
build a business where you don't have to take outside funding,
(46:33):
or you don't need outside funding if you just get
customers to pay you more than whatever the cost of
your service er that is, that's the easiest way to
go about it. Of course, pitch competitions they still happen
quite regularly, so depending on what you're doing, that could
be a way to get an early funding for your business.
So yeah, those are some of the ways that I
recommend people to look at sources of capital for their business.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Would you be ecstatic too, you see come through the
collab capital inbox. Would pitch because somebody sends you that
would immediately say absolutely that I want to hear more.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
Well. I talked about some of our thematic focused areas.
One that I'm really interested in finding a deal in
right now is in the fertility space. I think that unfortunately,
this is a growing problem for a lot of people,
and right now there are certainly a number of startups
that are working on this, but I haven't seen a
(47:29):
ton that are led by black sounders and addressing some
of the maybe specific issues that black families have related
to fertility. So that's something I would love to see.
There's a lot happening in the climate space, and I
would love to see more black founders building in the
climate space. So pitches around that are interesting to me. Yeah,
(47:52):
those are two that are like top of mind for
me right now. I think we're seeing a lot in
health tech, which I'm excited about. We're doing a lot
of deal in that space. And then on the community
infrastructure side, unfortunately, we still have a lot of problems
related to our water and so that's an area that
I'm interested in finding our companies in as well.
Speaker 1 (48:11):
Got it, and are there any current funded startups that
you're very excited about from black founders that you want
to put on the map.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Well, we have over thirty really incredible companies that I
hate to pick favorites, but I do have some favorites
in the portfolio. I always talk about Jasmine Crow Gooder,
the work that she's doing to get more people fed.
Gooder is a climate company We don't talk about that
part enough, but she's saving food from landfills, and perfectly
(48:41):
good food is a number two source of carbon emissions
and landfills, which is something that when I hear that side,
every time I hear it, it was online. So I just
love the work that she's doing at Gooder and that's
a proud collab portfolio company. We just actually made an
investment in another climate company and Neat led by Julia Collins,
(49:02):
another amazing black woman founder. Her business is called Planet Forward,
and she's really helping all think about every single consumer
product that you use, so think about going target. Basically
everything that you see has some implication from a carbon
emissions standpoint, and most large corporations are now held to
(49:26):
standards where they have to get to net zero by
a certain year twenty thirty, twenty fifty, et cetera. So
what Planet Forward is doing is giving those companies the
data they need to actually action their goals. So they've
set out these wafty goals of we want to get
to net zero by twenty thirty, they need the data
(49:47):
to tell them where they are today, what products they have,
how those products are contributing to where they are today
and what changes they need to make in order to
get to that net zero goal. And Planet Forward is
given them all of the back in data and software
in order to get to those actual goals. So we're
(50:07):
super excited about that company as well.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Incredible. We definitely sharing more about their companies in our
show notes for sure, so people can look into those.
So what resources or other things exist for black women
who might be interested in becoming venture capitalists? So if
I'm interested in maybe doing some angel investing or going
that stuff, you know, you started at angel investing and
then scaled. What resources exist for people?
Speaker 2 (50:32):
Oh, I'm so glad you're asking that, because this is
another thing that it's a soapbox that I get on
a lot, which is that black women in particular should
be doing more when it comes to angel investing. Back
to what we talked about earlier as far as the
disparities that exists in the venture capital industry, and my
point about the reason. Part of the reason is because
(50:53):
the investors don't look like the companies that are building.
We can change that. I more black women start investing,
likely they will invest in black women. So I really
encourage people who have the capacity and the capacity is
not that much. You can start angel investing with one
thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars. So I
(51:17):
say that, and then the note that I will put
on that is you have to be willing to lose
that money, because investing in early stage companies is a
very risky bet. But I definitely encourage people to get
excited and started, and really the best way to get
started is just to invest in people you believe in.
That's the easiest way to get started, and then scaling
(51:39):
from there. I think if you determine that you really
love investing and you have a passion for the business
of investing, which is quite different, I would say, than
just investing for fun. If you have a passion for
the business of investing, which is more around portfolio construction,
which is about understanding the returns profile and models. So
(52:04):
it's very much a finance job. That's something candidly I
didn't really know when I got into it how much
it is in spreadsheets and building models and being able
to defend my ideas and choices and doing research. That
is really the professional job of being an investor. That part.
(52:26):
If you like that, then the pathways in. I think
there's the path that I took, which is I was
an entrepreneur, I had a successful exit, and I used
that as my track record when it came down to
raising capital. The other, probably more popular way in is
to work at a larger firm, build up a track
(52:47):
record at a firm, and then if you decide you
want to spin out, you can do that. A lot
of people also entered into this industry having had a
more traditional finance background, so maybe worked in banking for
a number of years or on Wall Street, etc. So
there's a lot of a number of different ways into
the industry. There's programs that I think I've done a
(53:09):
really great job of helping prepare people like HBCUVC, Black
Venture Capital Consortium Black VC. They have a number of
training programs as well, So there's certainly different ways to
get more of the knowledge base in order to get
into the space as well.
Speaker 1 (53:27):
Thank you so much for all those resources, Jewel. This
has all been so helpful. I know our community will
really appreciate it. Let us know where we can stay
connected with you. What is your website as well as
any social media handles you'd like to share.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
Sure, so If you are an entrepreneur who wants to
submit your business for consideration from Collab, you can visit
Collab dot capital and just submit an application on the website.
If you want to just follow me, my website is
Jewelbirks dot com. I am Jewel Melanie on social media
(54:03):
and Jewel Burke Solomon on LinkedIn Beautiful.
Speaker 1 (54:06):
We'll be sure to include all that in the show
notes so people can find you very easily. Thank you
so much for spending some time with us today, Jewel.
Speaker 2 (54:13):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
I'm so glad you was able to join me and
share her exercise for this episode. To learn more about
her and the work she's doing at Collab Capital, be
sure to visit the show notes at Therapy for Blackgirls
dot com slash Session four O four and don't forget
to text us episode to two of your girls right
now and tell them to check it out. Did you
know that you could leave us a voicemail with your
questions for the podcast. If you want to suggest movies
(54:40):
or books for us to review, or even give thoughts
around other topics you'd like to hear, drop us a
message at Memo dot fm slash Therapy for Black Girls
and let us know what's on your mind. We just
might talk about it on the podcast. If you're looking
for a therapist in your area, visit our therapist directory
at Therapy for Blackgirls dot com slash directory. This episode
(55:00):
was produced by Elise Ellis, Indi Chubu, and Tyrie Rush.
Editing was done by Dennison Bradford. Thank y'all so much
for joining me again this week. I look forward to
continuing this conversation with you all real soon. Take good care,
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