November 19, 2025 • 22 mins
Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Felicia Hatcher.
Purpose of the Interview
- To spotlight Black Ambition, a national initiative founded by Pharrell Williams that funds and mentors Black and Brown entrepreneurs.
- To share insights on entrepreneurship, access to resources, and strategies for scaling businesses.
- To inspire and educate small business owners and innovators on how to leverage opportunities for growth.
Key Takeaways
-
About Black Ambition
- Founded by Pharrell Williams to close the opportunity gap for Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.
- Provides capital, mentorship, and masterclasses to help founders scale.
- Has invested in 131 companies and awarded millions in funding.
-
Competition Structure
- Annual national competition with 2,500–3,000 applications.
- Categories include HBCU, National Finalists, Top Prize Winner, People’s Choice.
- Process: Applications → 250 semifinalists → 3-month cohort → Demo Day for top 20–25 companies.
-
Unique Approach
- Focus on high-quality mentorship, not “low vibrational” guidance.
- Includes mental health and wellness support for entrepreneurs.
- Partnerships with brands like Louis Vuitton for luxury retail insights.
-
Challenges for Entrepreneurs
- Many fail by rushing applications and skipping info sessions.
- Success requires clarity, traction, and persistence—sometimes multiple attempts.
- Black women are the fastest-growing entrepreneurs but often remain solopreneurs; Black Ambition prioritizes team-building.
-
Pharrell’s Motivation
- Believes in democratizing opportunity: “Talent is not equally distributed by zip code, but opportunity can be.”
- Inspired by those who believed in him early in his career.
-
Felicia Hatcher’s Journey
- Former founder of Center for Black Innovation and Black Tech Week.
- Emphasizes resilience: “I’m a C student and a college dropout, but I never let that define me.”
- Advocates for creative pathways to success and capital access.
Notable Quotes
- “Success leaves clues.” – On learning from past winners.
- “Talent is not equally distributed by zip code, but opportunity can be.” – Pharrell’s guiding principle.
- “If it doesn’t work on you in that moment, it works for you in that moment. Either way, it works.” – On persistence.
- “We have to start enjoying the process… be stretched, be cut by the process.” – On entrepreneurial growth.
- “Wealth has a need for speed.” – On urgency in closing the wealth gap.
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rushan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm talking about you now.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot
com and click the be a Guest button. If you
are a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or
nonprofit I want you on my show. Now, let's get started.
My guess is the executive director of Black Ambition. It
(00:37):
was founded by Grammy Award winning artist and producer for
Real Williams. Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds
and mentors black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future
of innovation. The program has awarded millions in capital and
support to founders across industries. Please welcome to Money Making
Conversations Masterclass. The executive director, Felicia Hatcher.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hi you doth.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Fleischer, good fantastic, Rashan, thank you so much for having.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Me on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Got to this is right in my ally, my background
is My degree is in mathematics. Graduated degree in mathematics.
I thought I was going to be an engineer, but
they physics ran me out of that class. Okay, I
settled them on math and people tell me that's pretty hard.
So I got to be impressed and I got a
math degree. But tell us about your program.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I've been building this what I call like a rocket
ship with Pharrell to cry really to be able to
create unprecedented access to opportunities and resources and really kind
of close that gap. Right.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I think there's people that are too comfortable wasting.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The time of black entrepreneurs with misaligned resources and low quality,
low vibrational mentorship, and that's definitely not the path that
we are on. And so as a result of that,
we've invested in amazing companies and they we award the
checks to the entrepreneurs. That's also including a fantastic conversation
with Pharrell and then Melanie Hobson of Area Investments also
(02:02):
was on the board of Starbucks and JP Morgan, among
among other phenomenal things. And then we'll also, like I said,
award the checks of the entrepreneurs the Fundable Founder's Forum,
and so taking this big celebration, this big kind of
catalytic moment for these entrepreneurs, and then creating a set
of master classes. So not only are you hearing inspirational
(02:22):
stories which I think are fantastic and cool, but like
you're leaving there with actually how to implement it. And
I've been to a lot of conferences ra Sean, I'm
sure you have as well. You leave with a notebook
full of notes. And then a lot of entrepreneurs just
don't apply it right and so taking the time instead
of going from conference to conference or learning to learning,
when do you actually apply and implement what you were learning?
(02:44):
And so we've created a really unique model with the
Fundable Founder's Forum to allow them to get the information.
And then Louis Vuitton is a partner of ours who've
been creating some phenomenal pathway for a lot of our entrepreneurs.
And that session is really kind of tailored around creating
a luxury retail experience. So whether you were in the
luxury space or not, consumers in this economy are requiring,
(03:07):
they're asking for different things as a result of the
buying experience. They're demanding more and so knowing the language,
the art of how to really kind of take care
of them. And then I think for a lot of
entrepreneurs that really need to raise their rates, how do
you do that? Like, how do you communicate the value
proposition of what you were building and kind of wrap
(03:28):
that around getting people what they need and ultimately from
a profit.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Standpoint, you get to grow and scale what you're doing
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Cool, miss Hatcher, I want to make sure I'm getting
this right, I said, executive director.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You said CEO, which one is?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's so CEO is what I'll be saying. And I
apologize and gave me the information as executive director of
Black Ambition. Now if anything is, there's always categories to
be a participant. Can you break down the categories that
involved with this? It really is a competition, correct.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Absolutely, Yeah, it's a national competition.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We get between twenty five hundred and three thousand applications
a year, so this has become one of the most competitive,
you know, prize competitions specifically designed for black and Hispanic
and HBCU entrepreneurs and so as a result of that,
it's a competition, right, and so the competition is fierce.
You really are looking at entrepreneurs really need to look
for ways in which to kind of communicate their value
(04:22):
in the marketplace and ultimately like where they will go
with the investment of resources and time that we do
as an organization. And so I think some of the
things that I see where entrepreneurs fall flat is rushing
to fill out the application and really not taking the time,
not understanding and not participating in info sessions.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Success leads clues.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
We've invested in one hundred and thirty one companies, right,
that means one hundred and thirty one companies have told
you this is the way that you succeed and matriculate
through the process, and so they have social media profiles,
they often take office hours like these are the things
that I have had to learn raising capital that allow
me to kind of negotiate and you like navigate right
(05:04):
tap into where you know the head of marketing and
the where the head of communication, Like what conferences are
they speaking at where you can get some one on
one FaceTime that you may normally not be able to get.
These are the things that I think really kind of
stand out in an application process. And so we go
from those three thousand applications rash on to about two
hundred and fifty semi finalists, and then we take those
(05:26):
two hundred and fifty companies through a three month cohort
style mentorship program. So it's designed to stretch them in
ways they've never been stretched before. It's been designed to
challenge the assumptions of what they're creating, between their target market,
their product, their teams, what they actually need to grow
and scale and succeed, and just a world class group
of mentors that support them. And I'd say one distinction
(05:48):
of something that we do that is one from the
early conversations with fell and I is like, we take
a holistic kind.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Of fortitude approach to entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And so through a program called Evoke, we have mentors
mental health and wellness team that supports these entrepreneurs. Because
it's one thing to go out and raise money, it's
a whole other thing to make sure that you are
whole as you're running these companies. And a lot of
our entrepreneurs are being interfaced with proximity to wealth and
power for the very first time. And if you're not
(06:19):
careful and kind of protected in how you raise money,
who you raise money from, the EBB and flow, when
things go well and things would things go horrible? How
to be transparent in your conversation with your investors. This
process of entrepreneurship can swallow you whole. Absolutely, we prioritize
that as well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I'm speaking to the CEO of Black Ambition, founded by
Pharrell Williams. If you don't know for William Grammy, we'll
be happy. That's my man, among other amazing hits. And
I interviewed a young man who is tried three times,
he say, failed twice and he finally got in. He's
a graduate of the Georgia Tech and Electrical Engineering. His
(06:58):
name is Lawrence Phillips. He has a platform called green
Book Global, which is a travel review initiative platform for
black travelers. Basically it launched off of the principle of
the original green Book, but now technology.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Is tied to you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, when you travel places that welcome you, cities they
welcome you, and they have a partnership with Expedia. That's
how advanced their platform is. He founded in twenty seventeen
and he told me they have one hundred and fifty
thousand downloads. So I told him that's very good. Now,
a person like that, like you said, he tried twice.
(07:35):
Third time he did make the finals, but he won
another type honor at your event.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
What was that?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, he is, he's a top prize winner, right, so
and then he also got the top kind of.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Voter's choice right as well.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Right, And so you know, and I hear there's quite
a few stories of entrepreneurs that have applied multiple times
and might to them and sometimes they don't want to
hear it is apply again. My mentor has always said
to you, if it doesn't work on you in that moment,
it works for you in that moment. Either way it works, right.
And I've been an entrepreneur, There's spent so many things
that I've applied to that I didn't want to. I
(08:14):
was just I'm not applying for this again. And it
was that second time. It was that third time when
I probably said a few choice words that I won't
repeat here, But like going through the process, and what
I realized in the process is every time I applied,
I became a different type of entrepreneur. I was asked
questions that I was a different person the first time,
but the second time I had much more clarity, I
(08:36):
had much more traction in what I built and so
whether I got through the finish line or not, I
was a different entrepreneur just going through the process. And
so we've designed our process, whether people realize it or not,
to do the exact same thing. It's going to ask
you questions that you may not have asked yourself before
in your business. But the result of sitting and actually
going through the process of answering it, you have a
(08:58):
completely different frame and how to approach everything. And so
we have to be comfortable and we have to actually
start enjoying the process that is put in place with
a lot of the things that we do to mold
us and not just say, man, I didn't make it.
I'm upset, like I'm gonna give up and close up. No,
absolutely not, Like continue to mold yourself through the process,
be stretched, be cut by the process. And that's how
(09:20):
you see growth in what you're building, not when you
give up. But it's like the iterative process of continuing
to go on and on. And if it doesn't work
for you at Black Ambition, there's so many other organizations
that I want you to kind of keep up and
keep going and keep applying.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Now, the ultimate question of the question for me is like, Okay,
I'm applying.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Who's judging, yeah, applying?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, you know who's telling me I'm good, I can
go to the next round, And who's telling me, hey,
try again next year.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You know, we have about two hundred to two hundred
and fifty application reviewers. Every application goes to two to
three rounds of reviews, and so we're getting a quite
a bit different rounds of feedback on every single application.
It's a pretty lengthy process of what happens on the
back end, but that's how we can decipher who rises
(10:08):
to the top. And then once they get there, that's
how we go from three thousand applications down to two
hundred and fifty applications that at that point they're submitting
things to us. They're submitting financials as well, so that
we can make sure that they are doing what they say.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
That they've done and that they are set up to succeed.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And then there's another round, which you talked about with Lawrence,
that gets you down to the public voting, which is
the top fifty companies, and one of those companies will
automatically get a seat into the program by having the
popular vote, meaning that they've gotten the most people to
vote for them. And then is Demo Day where we
take the top twenty to twenty five companies and in
the past thirty three companies in order to award them
(10:50):
with financial capital and about six months of really intense coaching,
getting them follow on funding opportunities, getting them on retail shelves,
kind of take their Christmas list for shan like three
things that they want us to do, and support of them.
And it's our goal to either get them there or
get them one big giant step closer to what they
need to grow and scale what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversations master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Let's get back into it Alesia.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
You know, this is entrepreneurship and women of color, especially
Black women, have been the fastest growing entrepreneurs. I've been
doing these interviews since twenty seventeen, so I can attest
that's a fact. Why are black women so into entrepreneurship?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's two things.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
With that stat right, they're the fastest growing, but they
are also largely solopreneurs and meaning that most of them
are not grow and scale the company, largely because from
a revenue standpoint and the opportunities that have been dismantled.
But we also need them to be people that are
thinking about a team. And so even in our process
(12:12):
don't we don't invest in solopreneurs. You can't apply unless
you have a team mindset that you're building a team
and you're going to become a multiple You're going to
become a massive employer. That's how we have a multiplier
effect in our communities.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Talking to the CEO of Black Ambition, I'm telling you
how popular lists.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I didn't know about it. I'm men just let you
know that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
But obviously a lot of people know about it because
twenty five entrepreneurs applied nationwide. Twenty five finalists will receive
funding and defined categories HBCU pre Accelerated Winners, National Finalists,
Top Prize Winner, and People's Choice. How can we be
aware of the alert or can we go somewhere to
a website to get on a mailing list?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
The best way is to go to our website, Black
Ammission Prize dot com. When you register and you join
in the newsletter. They get first hand knowledge and connections
to the inside track of how to really be able
to apply and then stand out in the application process.
But there's a ton of resources that we do throughout
the year to help people best position. And then what
(13:16):
we also do is we bring back a lot of
our past prize winners, our million dollar prize winners, we
bring back for info sessions. They contribute massively back into
the Black Ambition community because it's definitely a family, and
they're the best ones to tell you the things that
they did or almost did not do in order to
end up ultimately winning top prizes of you know, one
hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand to a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely. You know.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The thing about it is that I always tell people
first well based on the color stands, and you know, I've
always had to walk in the room people knew I
was black, so that that that can stereotype you, that
I will benefit you unless you're walking in front of the
room for the other black people because people have stereotypes.
But their entrepreneurship space is really important because we can
(14:02):
make a decision. And I always tell people Monday through Friday,
my wake up time at four thirty. There's a commitment
to being an entrepreneur. Now, with that being said, Grammy
Award winning artist and producer for Real Williams, why is
he doing this?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, I asked him that question all the time,
from the very first time we met, you know, I
asked him that a few times a year. It's usually
the question that I ask him every time we get
on stage, right before we present the checks. He's still
doing this again next year And I ask him that
because as a celebrity who have the heights in the
career that he's had, he can do so many other
(14:42):
things with his time, right, And he's had a massive
impact from an entertainment, philanthropic, fashion, you know, product space
as well.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
And he's an entrepreneur that didn't really.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Know he was an entrepreneur, right, And there are people
that invested it in him. And he always talk about
like that, right, like he's his mom has a PhD
in education, but he's a college dropout. Because he believed
in a vision early on and there were so many
other people that at the time where he didn't have
the full belief in his music capabilities. He borrowed someone
else's belief in him until it became his own. And
(15:16):
so building black ambition is a natural extension of that belief.
The resources that need to come together, the connections, but
also the doors that need to be open from the
gatekeepers in the entertainment industry. And so we've dismantled all
of that. He's dismantled all of that. And that's why
we do what we do because we know that talent
(15:37):
is not equally distributed by zip code, but opportunity can
be right if we kind of democratize what that looks
like for other people, especially what it looks like for
our people. But you know, wealth is wealth has a
need for speed, and the only way that we're going
to close the wealth and opportunity gap is we got
to move faster. We got to find our superfans that
(15:59):
truly came about the value that black people have always
brought to the marketplace. And that's why he does what
he does in the way that we have done it
and we will continue.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm gonna just tell you some Felicia. You're good, You're very,
very talented. I do a lot of interviews you you know,
ragistart gois you go. You know you you articulate, you
know the value system, the purpose and the drive. Now
with that being said, you the CEO Black Ambition. Okay
(16:29):
for Rell, he's the Grammy Award winning artist and producer.
How did you two connect?
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You know, it's it's a few different ways, right.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I've built an organization called the Center for Black Innovation,
and here in Miami it built a technology conference with
my husband called Black Tech Week that we sold a
few years ago. I'm a C student who was told
I'd never make it to a college or university, and
I've had the most random career in and UH Tech, NBA, Nintendo, Sony.
(17:08):
But I'm a C student and a college dropout right Like, ultimately,
at the end of the day, I'd never let those
things define me because I realized that there was more
than one pathway.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
To success if you get creative.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
And that has been the story of my life, and
that is how I've always looked and approached entrepreneurship. And
I've ran a few companies, have been successful, and I've
been had some epic failures and probably more than I
will ever account and own up to. Right And because
of all that is why I'm an entrepreneur. I'm also
the da also the grand granddaughter of a Jamaican sugar
(17:39):
cane and yam farmer, and my grandfather was an entrepreneur,
and throughout my own life until he transitioned, I'd never
called him an entrepreneur. No one in our family called
him an entrepreneur. But like, we ate a lot of
sugar cane and yam because that is what he harvested,
right and.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
My sugarcane market biting on the end of that right now.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And my dad and uncle have been in the construction
and development space for about thirty years as entrepreneurs. And
so my other side of the family is from South Georgia,
so I grew up in it without even realizing it,
and I probably for the longest time couldn't even spell
the word entrepreneur correctly. But I am the beneficiary of
what it means to step out on faith, to have
(18:24):
a plan, to not have any resources, but to be
led by a vision so that it's ultimately transformational in communities.
And so as a result of that, I get to
do this work. But like that connection point to Pharrell
is I think people are always watching you, whether you
realize it or not, And it was a random lunch
(18:44):
conversation with someone not even necessarily connected to Pharrell that
was just like, I need you to meet someone. And
that ended up being a random lunch that this is person.
And the funny thing is a person kept asking me,
are you familiar with black ambition. I was like, yeah,
I'm familiar with black and missions like, no, look at it.
And I ended up having another meeting with him the
next day with someone else. He's like, there's someone I
want you to meet and it ended up being Forrell's
(19:06):
chief of staff, and then that evening it turned into
a zoom conversation where he was in the background, he
didn't speak.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
It was his chief of staff.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And then that turned into about four months of meetings
and conversations and interviews, and then I got asked to
be asked to lead the organization I had founded. I'd
just raised some significant money for to kind of transform
the Center for Black Innovation. I got asked to come
leave that and kind of build this rocket ship with Pharrell.
It wasn't an easy answer, and I can look back
(19:37):
and and say that honestly, but it was the right thing.
I was not in a position to write checks. With
what I had built with Center for Black Innovation and
with Center for with with with Black Ambition, what I'm
actually directly able to put checks and financial opportunities into
the entrepreneurs. They need the capital, they need the capital.
(19:58):
They need the capital, and then they need everything else.
But it starts with the capital to actually actualize the dream.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
One other thing I want to say before we this,
we're talking like this is a closed event. Can the
general public come to this event?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yeah? So demo day is open to the public.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I would you come to Jake Felicia. I'm establishing the relationship,
letting everybody know about Black Ambition.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Go to the website.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Get you get fired up because it's going to be
a six year is going to happen. You're listening to
the CEO finding about how she created just a massive
relationship with Pharrell, why he's doing it, just saying it,
just dropping the bread crumbs.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely, come on down. That'stment well spent in your time, right.
But also you got to ask yourself, based off of
where you are right now, do you want to be
in that same position this time next year? And if
the answer is no, like I need growth happening in
the next year. So I'm a different person. My bank
account looks different, my business looks different, my household looks different.
(21:00):
As a result of that thing, you probably need to
say yes of figuring out a way to get to
the Fundable Founder's Forum, and now.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It's a program for you Black and Latino entrepreneurs. It's
broken down into categories. Again, this is like spreading the
word acknowledging that this campaign has been around. That's why
I'm on fire to get the word out because my
shore it's about small business, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, tech, financial literacy,
(21:28):
and this false right in line with it. But more importantly,
for Lisha, You're fantastic. You're amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Thank you so much for the invitation, thank you for
just being sacred in.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The space of being a storyteller.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And I saw you by your brand architect of opportunities
for entrepreneurs, and so thank you so much for what
you do and just allowing us to kind of share
where this can kind of impact way more entrepreneurs when
they get.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
In the room.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Again, our launched was amazing and you are even more amazing.
I'm talking to the c oh A Black Ambition Felicia Hatcher.
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Thanks to our guests and our audience.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to listen or register to be
a guest on my show.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I am Rushan McDonald, a host the weekly Money Making
Conversation Masterclass show. The interviews and information that this show
provides off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other
people's success stories and start living your own.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm talking about you now.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
If you want to be a guest on my show,
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, please visit our website, Moneymakingconversations dot
com and click the be a Guest button. If you
are a small business owner, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, influencer, or
nonprofit I want you on my show. Now, let's get started.
My guess is the executive director of Black Ambition. It
(00:37):
was founded by Grammy Award winning artist and producer for
Real Williams. Black Ambition is a national initiative that funds
and mentors black and brown entrepreneurs to build the future
of innovation. The program has awarded millions in capital and
support to founders across industries. Please welcome to Money Making
Conversations Masterclass. The executive director, Felicia Hatcher.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hi you doth.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Fleischer, good fantastic, Rashan, thank you so much for having.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Me on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Got to this is right in my ally, my background
is My degree is in mathematics. Graduated degree in mathematics.
I thought I was going to be an engineer, but
they physics ran me out of that class. Okay, I
settled them on math and people tell me that's pretty hard.
So I got to be impressed and I got a
math degree. But tell us about your program.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I've been building this what I call like a rocket
ship with Pharrell to cry really to be able to
create unprecedented access to opportunities and resources and really kind
of close that gap. Right.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
I think there's people that are too comfortable wasting.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The time of black entrepreneurs with misaligned resources and low quality,
low vibrational mentorship, and that's definitely not the path that
we are on. And so as a result of that,
we've invested in amazing companies and they we award the
checks to the entrepreneurs. That's also including a fantastic conversation
with Pharrell and then Melanie Hobson of Area Investments also
(02:02):
was on the board of Starbucks and JP Morgan, among
among other phenomenal things. And then we'll also, like I said,
award the checks of the entrepreneurs the Fundable Founder's Forum,
and so taking this big celebration, this big kind of
catalytic moment for these entrepreneurs, and then creating a set
of master classes. So not only are you hearing inspirational
(02:22):
stories which I think are fantastic and cool, but like
you're leaving there with actually how to implement it. And
I've been to a lot of conferences ra Sean, I'm
sure you have as well. You leave with a notebook
full of notes. And then a lot of entrepreneurs just
don't apply it right and so taking the time instead
of going from conference to conference or learning to learning,
when do you actually apply and implement what you were learning?
(02:44):
And so we've created a really unique model with the
Fundable Founder's Forum to allow them to get the information.
And then Louis Vuitton is a partner of ours who've
been creating some phenomenal pathway for a lot of our entrepreneurs.
And that session is really kind of tailored around creating
a luxury retail experience. So whether you were in the
luxury space or not, consumers in this economy are requiring,
(03:07):
they're asking for different things as a result of the
buying experience. They're demanding more and so knowing the language,
the art of how to really kind of take care
of them. And then I think for a lot of
entrepreneurs that really need to raise their rates, how do
you do that? Like, how do you communicate the value
proposition of what you were building and kind of wrap
(03:28):
that around getting people what they need and ultimately from
a profit.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Standpoint, you get to grow and scale what you're doing
as well.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Cool, miss Hatcher, I want to make sure I'm getting
this right, I said, executive director.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
You said CEO, which one is?
Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's so CEO is what I'll be saying. And I
apologize and gave me the information as executive director of
Black Ambition. Now if anything is, there's always categories to
be a participant. Can you break down the categories that
involved with this? It really is a competition, correct.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Absolutely, Yeah, it's a national competition.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
We get between twenty five hundred and three thousand applications
a year, so this has become one of the most competitive,
you know, prize competitions specifically designed for black and Hispanic
and HBCU entrepreneurs and so as a result of that,
it's a competition, right, and so the competition is fierce.
You really are looking at entrepreneurs really need to look
for ways in which to kind of communicate their value
(04:22):
in the marketplace and ultimately like where they will go
with the investment of resources and time that we do
as an organization. And so I think some of the
things that I see where entrepreneurs fall flat is rushing
to fill out the application and really not taking the time,
not understanding and not participating in info sessions.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Success leads clues.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
We've invested in one hundred and thirty one companies, right,
that means one hundred and thirty one companies have told
you this is the way that you succeed and matriculate
through the process, and so they have social media profiles,
they often take office hours like these are the things
that I have had to learn raising capital that allow
me to kind of negotiate and you like navigate right
(05:04):
tap into where you know the head of marketing and
the where the head of communication, Like what conferences are
they speaking at where you can get some one on
one FaceTime that you may normally not be able to get.
These are the things that I think really kind of
stand out in an application process. And so we go
from those three thousand applications rash on to about two
hundred and fifty semi finalists, and then we take those
(05:26):
two hundred and fifty companies through a three month cohort
style mentorship program. So it's designed to stretch them in
ways they've never been stretched before. It's been designed to
challenge the assumptions of what they're creating, between their target market,
their product, their teams, what they actually need to grow
and scale and succeed, and just a world class group
of mentors that support them. And I'd say one distinction
(05:48):
of something that we do that is one from the
early conversations with fell and I is like, we take
a holistic kind.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
Of fortitude approach to entrepreneurship.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
And so through a program called Evoke, we have mentors
mental health and wellness team that supports these entrepreneurs. Because
it's one thing to go out and raise money, it's
a whole other thing to make sure that you are
whole as you're running these companies. And a lot of
our entrepreneurs are being interfaced with proximity to wealth and
power for the very first time. And if you're not
(06:19):
careful and kind of protected in how you raise money,
who you raise money from, the EBB and flow, when
things go well and things would things go horrible? How
to be transparent in your conversation with your investors. This
process of entrepreneurship can swallow you whole. Absolutely, we prioritize
that as well.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Cool.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I'm speaking to the CEO of Black Ambition, founded by
Pharrell Williams. If you don't know for William Grammy, we'll
be happy. That's my man, among other amazing hits. And
I interviewed a young man who is tried three times,
he say, failed twice and he finally got in. He's
a graduate of the Georgia Tech and Electrical Engineering. His
(06:58):
name is Lawrence Phillips. He has a platform called green
Book Global, which is a travel review initiative platform for
black travelers. Basically it launched off of the principle of
the original green Book, but now technology.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Is tied to you.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well, when you travel places that welcome you, cities they
welcome you, and they have a partnership with Expedia. That's
how advanced their platform is. He founded in twenty seventeen
and he told me they have one hundred and fifty
thousand downloads. So I told him that's very good. Now,
a person like that, like you said, he tried twice.
(07:35):
Third time he did make the finals, but he won
another type honor at your event.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
What was that?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, he is, he's a top prize winner, right, so
and then he also got the top kind of.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
Voter's choice right as well.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Right, And so you know, and I hear there's quite
a few stories of entrepreneurs that have applied multiple times
and might to them and sometimes they don't want to
hear it is apply again. My mentor has always said
to you, if it doesn't work on you in that moment,
it works for you in that moment. Either way it works, right.
And I've been an entrepreneur, There's spent so many things
that I've applied to that I didn't want to. I
(08:14):
was just I'm not applying for this again. And it
was that second time. It was that third time when
I probably said a few choice words that I won't
repeat here, But like going through the process, and what
I realized in the process is every time I applied,
I became a different type of entrepreneur. I was asked
questions that I was a different person the first time,
but the second time I had much more clarity, I
(08:36):
had much more traction in what I built and so
whether I got through the finish line or not, I
was a different entrepreneur just going through the process. And
so we've designed our process, whether people realize it or not,
to do the exact same thing. It's going to ask
you questions that you may not have asked yourself before
in your business. But the result of sitting and actually
going through the process of answering it, you have a
(08:58):
completely different frame and how to approach everything. And so
we have to be comfortable and we have to actually
start enjoying the process that is put in place with
a lot of the things that we do to mold
us and not just say, man, I didn't make it.
I'm upset, like I'm gonna give up and close up. No,
absolutely not, Like continue to mold yourself through the process,
be stretched, be cut by the process. And that's how
(09:20):
you see growth in what you're building, not when you
give up. But it's like the iterative process of continuing
to go on and on. And if it doesn't work
for you at Black Ambition, there's so many other organizations
that I want you to kind of keep up and
keep going and keep applying.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Now, the ultimate question of the question for me is like, Okay,
I'm applying.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Who's judging, yeah, applying?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Well, you know who's telling me I'm good, I can
go to the next round, And who's telling me, hey,
try again next year.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
You know, we have about two hundred to two hundred
and fifty application reviewers. Every application goes to two to
three rounds of reviews, and so we're getting a quite
a bit different rounds of feedback on every single application.
It's a pretty lengthy process of what happens on the
back end, but that's how we can decipher who rises
(10:08):
to the top. And then once they get there, that's
how we go from three thousand applications down to two
hundred and fifty applications that at that point they're submitting
things to us. They're submitting financials as well, so that
we can make sure that they are doing what they say.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
That they've done and that they are set up to succeed.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
And then there's another round, which you talked about with Lawrence,
that gets you down to the public voting, which is
the top fifty companies, and one of those companies will
automatically get a seat into the program by having the
popular vote, meaning that they've gotten the most people to
vote for them. And then is Demo Day where we
take the top twenty to twenty five companies and in
the past thirty three companies in order to award them
(10:50):
with financial capital and about six months of really intense coaching,
getting them follow on funding opportunities, getting them on retail shelves,
kind of take their Christmas list for shan like three
things that they want us to do, and support of them.
And it's our goal to either get them there or
get them one big giant step closer to what they
need to grow and scale what they're doing.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
We will be right back with more insights from Money
Making Conversations master Class. Welcome back to Money Making Conversation
master Class hosted by me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Let's get back into it Alesia.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
You know, this is entrepreneurship and women of color, especially
Black women, have been the fastest growing entrepreneurs. I've been
doing these interviews since twenty seventeen, so I can attest
that's a fact. Why are black women so into entrepreneurship?
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Yeah, yeah, I think it's two things.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
With that stat right, they're the fastest growing, but they
are also largely solopreneurs and meaning that most of them
are not grow and scale the company, largely because from
a revenue standpoint and the opportunities that have been dismantled.
But we also need them to be people that are
thinking about a team. And so even in our process
(12:12):
don't we don't invest in solopreneurs. You can't apply unless
you have a team mindset that you're building a team
and you're going to become a multiple You're going to
become a massive employer. That's how we have a multiplier
effect in our communities.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Talking to the CEO of Black Ambition, I'm telling you
how popular lists.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I didn't know about it. I'm men just let you
know that.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
But obviously a lot of people know about it because
twenty five entrepreneurs applied nationwide. Twenty five finalists will receive
funding and defined categories HBCU pre Accelerated Winners, National Finalists,
Top Prize Winner, and People's Choice. How can we be
aware of the alert or can we go somewhere to
a website to get on a mailing list?
Speaker 3 (12:53):
The best way is to go to our website, Black
Ammission Prize dot com. When you register and you join
in the newsletter. They get first hand knowledge and connections
to the inside track of how to really be able
to apply and then stand out in the application process.
But there's a ton of resources that we do throughout
the year to help people best position. And then what
(13:16):
we also do is we bring back a lot of
our past prize winners, our million dollar prize winners, we
bring back for info sessions. They contribute massively back into
the Black Ambition community because it's definitely a family, and
they're the best ones to tell you the things that
they did or almost did not do in order to
end up ultimately winning top prizes of you know, one
hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty thousand to a million dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Absolutely. You know.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
The thing about it is that I always tell people
first well based on the color stands, and you know, I've
always had to walk in the room people knew I
was black, so that that that can stereotype you, that
I will benefit you unless you're walking in front of the
room for the other black people because people have stereotypes.
But their entrepreneurship space is really important because we can
(14:02):
make a decision. And I always tell people Monday through Friday,
my wake up time at four thirty. There's a commitment
to being an entrepreneur. Now, with that being said, Grammy
Award winning artist and producer for Real Williams, why is
he doing this?
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
You know, I asked him that question all the time,
from the very first time we met, you know, I
asked him that a few times a year. It's usually
the question that I ask him every time we get
on stage, right before we present the checks. He's still
doing this again next year And I ask him that
because as a celebrity who have the heights in the
career that he's had, he can do so many other
(14:42):
things with his time, right, And he's had a massive
impact from an entertainment, philanthropic, fashion, you know, product space
as well.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
And he's an entrepreneur that didn't really.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
Know he was an entrepreneur, right, And there are people
that invested it in him. And he always talk about
like that, right, like he's his mom has a PhD
in education, but he's a college dropout. Because he believed
in a vision early on and there were so many
other people that at the time where he didn't have
the full belief in his music capabilities. He borrowed someone
else's belief in him until it became his own. And
(15:16):
so building black ambition is a natural extension of that belief.
The resources that need to come together, the connections, but
also the doors that need to be open from the
gatekeepers in the entertainment industry. And so we've dismantled all
of that. He's dismantled all of that. And that's why
we do what we do because we know that talent
(15:37):
is not equally distributed by zip code, but opportunity can
be right if we kind of democratize what that looks
like for other people, especially what it looks like for
our people. But you know, wealth is wealth has a
need for speed, and the only way that we're going
to close the wealth and opportunity gap is we got
to move faster. We got to find our superfans that
(15:59):
truly came about the value that black people have always
brought to the marketplace. And that's why he does what
he does in the way that we have done it
and we will continue.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
To do it.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I'm gonna just tell you some Felicia. You're good, You're very,
very talented. I do a lot of interviews you you know,
ragistart gois you go. You know you you articulate, you
know the value system, the purpose and the drive. Now
with that being said, you the CEO Black Ambition. Okay
(16:29):
for Rell, he's the Grammy Award winning artist and producer.
How did you two connect?
Speaker 3 (16:35):
You know, it's it's a few different ways, right.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I've built an organization called the Center for Black Innovation,
and here in Miami it built a technology conference with
my husband called Black Tech Week that we sold a
few years ago. I'm a C student who was told
I'd never make it to a college or university, and
I've had the most random career in and UH Tech, NBA, Nintendo, Sony.
(17:08):
But I'm a C student and a college dropout right Like, ultimately,
at the end of the day, I'd never let those
things define me because I realized that there was more
than one pathway.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
To success if you get creative.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
And that has been the story of my life, and
that is how I've always looked and approached entrepreneurship. And
I've ran a few companies, have been successful, and I've
been had some epic failures and probably more than I
will ever account and own up to. Right And because
of all that is why I'm an entrepreneur. I'm also
the da also the grand granddaughter of a Jamaican sugar
(17:39):
cane and yam farmer, and my grandfather was an entrepreneur,
and throughout my own life until he transitioned, I'd never
called him an entrepreneur. No one in our family called
him an entrepreneur. But like, we ate a lot of
sugar cane and yam because that is what he harvested,
right and.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
My sugarcane market biting on the end of that right now.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
And my dad and uncle have been in the construction
and development space for about thirty years as entrepreneurs. And
so my other side of the family is from South Georgia,
so I grew up in it without even realizing it,
and I probably for the longest time couldn't even spell
the word entrepreneur correctly. But I am the beneficiary of
what it means to step out on faith, to have
(18:24):
a plan, to not have any resources, but to be
led by a vision so that it's ultimately transformational in communities.
And so as a result of that, I get to
do this work. But like that connection point to Pharrell
is I think people are always watching you, whether you
realize it or not, And it was a random lunch
(18:44):
conversation with someone not even necessarily connected to Pharrell that
was just like, I need you to meet someone. And
that ended up being a random lunch that this is person.
And the funny thing is a person kept asking me,
are you familiar with black ambition. I was like, yeah,
I'm familiar with black and missions like, no, look at it.
And I ended up having another meeting with him the
next day with someone else. He's like, there's someone I
want you to meet and it ended up being Forrell's
(19:06):
chief of staff, and then that evening it turned into
a zoom conversation where he was in the background, he
didn't speak.
Speaker 4 (19:13):
It was his chief of staff.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
And then that turned into about four months of meetings
and conversations and interviews, and then I got asked to
be asked to lead the organization I had founded. I'd
just raised some significant money for to kind of transform
the Center for Black Innovation. I got asked to come
leave that and kind of build this rocket ship with Pharrell.
It wasn't an easy answer, and I can look back
(19:37):
and and say that honestly, but it was the right thing.
I was not in a position to write checks. With
what I had built with Center for Black Innovation and
with Center for with with with Black Ambition, what I'm
actually directly able to put checks and financial opportunities into
the entrepreneurs. They need the capital, they need the capital.
(19:58):
They need the capital, and then they need everything else.
But it starts with the capital to actually actualize the dream.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
One other thing I want to say before we this,
we're talking like this is a closed event. Can the
general public come to this event?
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yeah? So demo day is open to the public.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I would you come to Jake Felicia. I'm establishing the relationship,
letting everybody know about Black Ambition.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Go to the website.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Get you get fired up because it's going to be
a six year is going to happen. You're listening to
the CEO finding about how she created just a massive
relationship with Pharrell, why he's doing it, just saying it,
just dropping the bread crumbs.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Absolutely, come on down. That'stment well spent in your time, right.
But also you got to ask yourself, based off of
where you are right now, do you want to be
in that same position this time next year? And if
the answer is no, like I need growth happening in
the next year. So I'm a different person. My bank
account looks different, my business looks different, my household looks different.
(21:00):
As a result of that thing, you probably need to
say yes of figuring out a way to get to
the Fundable Founder's Forum, and now.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
It's a program for you Black and Latino entrepreneurs. It's
broken down into categories. Again, this is like spreading the
word acknowledging that this campaign has been around. That's why
I'm on fire to get the word out because my
shore it's about small business, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, tech, financial literacy,
(21:28):
and this false right in line with it. But more importantly,
for Lisha, You're fantastic. You're amazing.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Thank you so much for the invitation, thank you for
just being sacred in.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
The space of being a storyteller.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
And I saw you by your brand architect of opportunities
for entrepreneurs, and so thank you so much for what
you do and just allowing us to kind of share
where this can kind of impact way more entrepreneurs when
they get.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
In the room.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Again, our launched was amazing and you are even more amazing.
I'm talking to the c oh A Black Ambition Felicia Hatcher.
Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
This has been Money Making Conversations Masterclass with me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Thanks to our guests and our audience.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Visit Moneymakingconversations dot com to listen or register to be
a guest on my show.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Keep leading with your gifts, keep winning,
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