How WavaSpace is Helping You Turn Your Extra Space into a Cash! | MPAKT Pod w/ LBJ Episode 13 - MPAKT Pod w/ LBJ

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MPAKTPod Recording (00:00):
WavaSpace (2023-09-15 15:22 GMT-5) - Transcript

(00:01):
Attendees
Leonard Blair Jr., Valentine Aikhu
Transcript
This editable transcript was computer generated and might contain errors. People can also change the text after it was created.

Leonard Blair Jr. (00:05):
Everyone thanks for tuning into another episode of the impact podcast. I'm your host LBJ and today I'm super excited to introduc Valentine and Jada Valentine. How are y'all doing today?

Valentine Aikhu (00:06):
They're pretty good as a Friday. No complaints. Yeah. Yes.

Fridays. Of course, are the best day of the week and also the best day to record a podcast episode. What we just talked a little bit before the show.

That's what?

I am super excited for my listeners to get to hear about your credible company. Get to hear about your incredible stories but before we do that love for y'all to formally introductions ourselves Valentine you go first and then Jada right after and then we'll jump into the remainder of the show after that.

Cool awesome thanks for having us on the show. My name is Valentine.

Of course.

I'm a co-founder and CEO of WAVASPACE. My name is I am the co-founder and head of develop a business development for WAVASPACE.

Incredible. And for people don't know what is WAVASPACE.

We're an online marketplace. That allows homeowners generate revenues by turning on used areas into office spaces for remote workers. So think of Airbnb and…

It's incredible.

we work combined, that's what we are.

I love that as you see, I'm in my office space but believe it most of the time I do not work here. So do not be surprised if you see me signing up on your platform to run out so much space.

Please, I would love to have good.

Absolutely, Before we get into, the details of the company, I love to hear a bit about rles how did the two of y'all meet? Yeah, were there early signs, you all might be creating a business together, love to hear some of that.

Okay, so, it was starting with how we met. We both leave out here in Phoenix, I mentioned in Arizona, we are actually engaged and…

Congratulations.

getting an emergency. Thank you. We're getting married in November in Nigeria, which is where I'm from. And so we met out here in Phoenix,…

Amazing.

I have friend and my brother went on a couple dates and then, kept coming back to the house. One day I said, Hey look, you can't keep coming to the house by yourself, I don't want to be a third one anymore. So I said, Hey, bring a friend next time and She brought Jada and the rest is history. Yeah, we've been together ever since Seven or so years. Right.

I love that on, that first date the two of you see the vision of starting a business together initially or, s as we talked before the show, it sounds like both. Y'all had that entrepreneurs bug super early on. So that's something on your mind.

I don't think that was the first thing on my mind. I also didn't think she wanted to hang out with me because she goes saying, I had to trick out to get enough room number. I told that we were doing the barbecue and then I would text her the details. And Never happens is they and I'm from Alabama and he is Nigerian so just kind of being around him and expose me to a whole another culture in those beginning stages I saw his entrepreneurs spirit. I saw the things that he could do and…

Yeah.

just how smart was, but I would support him. But never thought that we would go into something, what we're doing and

Yeah.

Spin our pretty exciting journey. Seeing how much we've evolved from when we first met to now. And really kind of bringing us together. it's has been an exciting journey.

I love that. what were the two of you doing at the time? Were you in the tech space, for your day jobs?

No. Actually me personally, I was working for a well known American Airlines. Yeah. I've been in the tech space,…

Okay, awesome.

through finding my own company or working for a startup. I kind of transition from food slash restaurants to Fintech. So yeah, so I've been in the text is I kind of picked the companies that I work with. I want them small when they get to be then I'm like guys it's not really for me anymore,
What was cool was he when we first met? He really inspired me just the experiences that he's had especially with tech. I wasn't really into that or didn't know too much about it. And he really just opened my mind up to that tech world.
00:05:00

Yeah.

And after he got together, I think within a few months, I had left American Airlines and I started to the tech field and it's been a crazy fun journey since then.

I love that. I know the two of you all were doing, some entrepreneursive stuff at an early age. I'd love for you to share a bit about that for our listeners.

And absolutely. Yeah, I go first. So I went to boarding school in Nigeria, The best way to describe board in school in Nigeria is almost like prison in the US only seen in movies,…

It's

so it's kind of reward where you kind of have to survive rights. And a young age, I went to boarding school. When I was 10, You're gonna have to learn how to survive quickly. One of the things that I remember doing is this thing, let's just call the Kool-Aid, right. I didn't really care for it but I never told my mom so she'll buy for me and I'll take it now, makes it in the water and I start selling the individual bottles. I'll make more money from selling one of the things down the entire pack that he came in one

That's crazy.

So that's one of the things that I did every time we came back from holidays because My uncle was in the US. Every time they came to visit, they brought all the leaders video games. So we had the places on one to the PlayStation portable. We had all of that stuff and when my mom goes to the office, she doesn't like when we have guests in the house when she's not there. So as soon as he leaves will invite friends over and…

Yeah.

this were good friends, we will still charge them. You play our video games, When you come to my house, I'll say How much money do you have in your pocket? You have to bring everything out. And you don't have enough, you can only play like what you have. if I'm able to collect enough from you, I'll let you play free the rest of the night before my mobile. so that's always been me and that's kind of My original,…

Yeah.

Journey Into the Entrepreneurs Report, my mom was an entrepreneurs started. Multiple businesses. I've seen her grow businesses fail but she kept going right,

Yeah.

and then moved to the US and then kind of started going into tech specific businesses, you share more about that, but I don't know that I want to give you a little bit of her story. Yeah, definitely. So, I'm from Alabama, originally. To Arizona.
And high school in college in Tucson, Arizona, and just kind of growing up, my parents have always, instilled the value of a dollar, right? Especially as black women, black child coming from Alabama? And, I've always kind of had that Sense of wanting to bring together a community, we would host parties at our house all the time I would start different things for example, and middle school, I would have my mom, get me the big box of chips and our candies, and I would take those and I would go sell those at school, they tried.

I'm seeing,…
similarities amongst the two of your stories.

Yeah, dig it out loud.
I'm hearing those similarities as well, I tried to shut me down but you can't hold me down.
And so, it's be selling them, behind the teachers backs and things like that I was known as the girl with the snacks, right? The candy girl something and he continued all the way up until some of high school as well in the midst of that.

Yeah.

I started a dance group at my church with my mom and a few other people we took and through that from five people to 150, 200, I think,…

Wow.

50 action was the highest and…

Wow.

it range from ages. Five to 75 for this dance group,…

Wow.

We're known all over the West Coast for our praise dance in the church community. And with that same program, I also started a mentorship like a tutoring program with
The young girls there. I'm hoping them getting to college and things like that. So I've always had that sense of, bringing that community together. And then some other things I did on the side was I had a weed business, which pulling weeds when I was young I would go around the neighborhood and try to get business. I was in comfort.
00:10:00

Yeah.

With a professional weed, a landscaping business, they would tear down my choirs and put them right back up. And people would like they even have to come to our house.

That's crazy.

To try to tell me to stop and my parents no, she's gonna do it. So now that I'm thinking about I've always had that kind of bringing people together as well as those small little business ideas to kind of keep money in my pockets to do what I wanted to do. But also to,
Expand that and bring people in. So,

Absolutely. That's as I'm hearing both your stories it sounds like your family was kind of behind your entrepreneursorship endeavors early on.

Absolutely, my mom will go to back That's my child, she'll do what she wants. Yeah, I watched my mom. Start businesses overhead and I watch them turn into realities and I watch them, Tony to cash flow businesses, multiple times,…

Yeah. Critical.

I just broke around that and I think that has really inflated influenced a lot of things that I do today,

yeah, you were telling me a story before we started About a business your first acquisition for say, I love you to share, that story with our listeners.

I believe you're talking about the easy chops. It's my,…

Yes, easy jobs.

my first endeavor into the tech phase and is how I don't take credit for having a great idea here. Facebook has all the credit I was on Facebook one day, and classmate of mine Sammy posted a link to something called something easy taxi, essentially, it was
Taxi services for food. And if you think about it in 2012 2013 this is a novel idea. There was no uber eats broke was not even delivering,…

Yeah.

They won't do in delivery drivers or anything like that. So this was brand new so I'm sitting there like, holy crap, This is brilliant. and…

Yeah.

so I reached out to him, I said, Hey Sammy What is this thing you just posted is a class project, Are you using it? He's like, No. I was like, what? Hey, what'd be funny. Let me give you a dollar and if I give you a dollar and…

You in college at this…

I Yes.

Were you okay?

Yeah, at the University of Virginia and I said, Hey if I give you a dollar and I turn this into a billion dollar company, how cool of the story would that be? What I didn't tell him was Columbus story for me? Yeah, But he essentially was like No, not happening. And I spent time writing this book so I was like, all right we ended up certainly that I think about 200 dollars. I called my mom and…

Yeah.

I saw for $200 if somebody $200 and I took his code and that was …

Yeah.

something special in my life because that experience kind of changed my in entire trajectory in the tech space. So, I guess Army 200, I take going through the code, seeing how everything works, and I'm like, we can't use this. It's not usable. So we ended up scrapping it and then we started from scratch.

Wow.

We built a new platform review, easy jobs. I remember, we went to go get all those shirts with our logos on them.
And the idea was, as a college student I only had delivery options were Chinese was pizza was wings. That's all that was your options. So I started thinking about I have a car, not all star college, students have car. What if I can go bring somebody backgrounds The day we launched, the decide was already popularized and so funny Sammy was the first person to actually order. From the site. Sammy place on that. I think he wanted to test if we actually pulled it off or…

He's putting his two dollars to use you.

exactly. I did that delivery. I'm good he's gonna keep ordering. I'm gonna make my 200 dollar back from Sammy. But yeah, so it works and that was cool.

Amazing.

So we started off where we didn't tell the restaurant, we just listed their menu
We get the orders on our platform. We go and order it to pay for it cash and then once the money comes in from our payment processor, so we just kind of reimburse ourselves that way. So that's how we started. And one day we deliver out chipotle to this.

Yeah.

Girl, I will never forget it that changed our lives and she goes on Facebook. And says, my God, this company just about chipotle to my door.
The website crashed. Okay. Yes,…

That's crazy.

the website crashed we're using the free hosting service, it crash and I'm like holy crap We have a real business. So now we're thinking we need to start talking to these restaurants so we can get a cut from this restaurant.
00:15:00

Yeah, what year was this?

This is in 2012 2013. Yeah, and…

Okay. Wow.

we need to get a cut from this restaurants. So in this kind…

Yeah.

how that journey story is very crazy, I was the first restaurant I walked into, I forgot, what's called Fire Station Pizza, something like that. I walked into this restaurant. I'm young like 22 years old or something, And so I say Hey, we'll deliver food for He is a proposal, you sign this contract and they were how many percent? I was 5% know, Put the paper down. I'll sign it first restaurant. This one knew this was right. Just I was like I

That's crazy.

So I sold the first restaurant, the moment, the first one I walked into it, they're like I will pay you to deliver the food for me. And so we,…

Wow.

it started at skeleton. From there, we got reached out, the company called Food, You're called us, They were kind of the main online ordering platform in Virginia Charlottesville.

Yeah.

Then, they randomly rich. I said, Hey, we found out about you guys. how? People fighting about they called us, we want to partner so we became the official delivery service, boom, sales goes up, And it just kind of kept going from there. I've never forget the day, I was driving to the office. At this time, we had moved from our dining to an actual office space, and I'm driving office and…

Yeah.

I get a call, hello? Who's this is popeyes? What I'm gonna call from Popeyes like Popeyes once us to
Are there chicken? This is dope. and then the rest was history, We took that city from maybe three or four delivery restaurants to you. at the speaking shows we probably had somewhere around 50 restaurants during delivery. So that's 50 different options that customers had now because of what we did and that just really kind of, set up This entrepreneursion journey, we got company. Competitions, I came into the market, it was very tall, We're young,…

Yet.

kids make pulling in, crazy amount of revenue. We didn't think we needed an investors or anything like that again in experience. And so the competition was really tough. And you know what?

Mmm.

We ended up doing is Our initial restaurant, signs the contract. So we just sort of those contracts and…

Okay. Wow.

and said the market, so,

That's incredible.

It is not an idea, but every time I tell the story I'm like, Wow, I can't believe that actually happened, but it did it's real life.

Okay, so, I guess Jada, what were you doing at this time? I want to kind of keep these stories in parallel as we tell it

Yeah. definitely, during that time, I was really just the praise dance that I was doing at church. I had really, really taken off around that time.

Yeah.

And we were traveling a lot to California to Vegas to Phoenix Texas. We're traveling a lot. And so I really just was deep neck deep in college as well. And on that time, and then
My mentorship program, really kind of took off as well. I know that that's something that they're still doing and it's a basis of the things still at the church that I was at.

Amazing.

It's really exciting to see.

Yeah.

I still have some of the girls call me to talk to me, just kind of give them advice still to this day and it was a really rewarding experience.

Yeah.

I Really big on posting, I'm really big on bringing people together and I just kind of jump full force into that verses, anything else. And then after that, I moved up to Phoenix. And I started working for American Airlines and, got until a little rut because I knew that there's something more that I should be doing, right? I knew that I had that drive in me,…

Yeah.

but I just didn't have that community around me to show me those different things to show me that it was possible. And then I met Valentine and
Kind of change as someone growing up from Alabama in the 90s, right? you're really told to Kind of minimize yourself in some ways, especially in the South, Hey, just get a good paying job do this business, but I always feel on me for something more. Look at all of these things that I've accomplished and then Yeah Valentine in 2016.

And yeah.

What he's done hearing his stories. I'm in listening to how he grew up and really just reinvigorated me and really kind of push towards that. And now I have this community of people that I can kind of bounce off ideas off of and I started really getting into consulting for tech startups because I know how to build programs and things like that.
00:20:00

Yeah.

Consulting or, startups and things like that. Really just reinvigorated me.

Incredible. I got a couple questions. I'm gonna go back before I go forward with your praise dancing and mentoring company. How did you go about scaling that? Because I grew up in the church my entire life? it's not coming at least in my experience to see a praise dancing group. Go for one church being traveling across the country, so I love to hear that.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely man, it was a very wad experience. I love being on the stage and I love dancing, right? My mom is an old school mom from the south, right? Instilled,…

Yeah.

she's so disciplined in us. She instilled, me and my best friend, if something's not, right? We're like, hey, it has to be
Or right?

Yeah.

And so what we did was there started off five people. They had a praise dance team but it was all in disarray when we got there and a lot of it. So we started off with five and was really just In five in my mom, praise dancing for about a year. I'm really push and…

Wow.

work and try to recruit and bring people in and, we just made it look so much fun, which It was a lot of fun and We started pulling more girls in after that year after other churches had Sing us to come and praise dance after our pastor really kind of pushed us out and…

.

said, challenged us more which made us one want to challenge her.

Yeah.

And it was awesome because we were able to pull in so many people in that second year. And it just exploded war performances than we had time to practice for Dance Captain,…

Wow.

I was a choreographer. And then with that we started the mentoring program because, you…

Yeah.

I was also in high school and I was getting ready to go to college and we didn't really have those resources to Help these black girls, make sure that they have, the resources and the opportunities to get into, some of these prestigious schools and things like that. and I'm really good in that. I'm really good at school math reading everything. So I
It was a requirement as a dance, captain to that. I made to the younger girls that, Hey, your grades have to be within this about this, you…

Wow, that's awesome.

season of you guys have to come to praise dance practice. And we're gonna have a study session after they would come to my house. And, I really invested a lot of time in these girls to, pick up their self-esteem, encourage them, and make sure they got those opportunities that they really wanted getting into the colleges and…

Yeah.

That was just kind of a blueprint for every other church. during our time it was kind of a blueprint. Everyone was kind of coughing us. We started doing workshops in Phoenix or praise dance in new story and…

Yeah.

it really just kind of blew up.
Yeah, really just kind of blew up and then we started getting the odor women involved, people in the 30s at that time people and their 70s, And I was very close with everyone in that.

Wow.

Everyone in our praise dance, team from the youngest ones, at five to the oldest one, that seven at 70 75. And I really kind of leaned on as those older women kind of came in, I really leaned on them a lot to get them to help us with the younger women, be that example, and we were able to create a program That people were able to rapidly replicate in California here in Phoenix and…

Incredible.

they get it. it was It was amazing time. It's great. I miss it.

so, at this point, I guess, after the point where I know Valentine, you mentioned that, you're working with tech startups, Jada, you are consulting for tech startups. at what point do you all come together and say, Hey, guava space. It is

Yeah. I think for the most part we've always explored the question like she knows I'm an entrepreneurs. We've always exported background of,…
00:25:00

Of course.

can we work together? in not just as founders, maybe I'm at a job and I'm a manager there like we're hiring and he pays well enough for her to come in there. I'm just like, I don't know if I want that relationship. So we've always explored that question. I think the big thing was with when we started walkers, we just shared a problem together. Yeah, we had the same.
And we thought we felt the same amount of passion about the problem.

It's incredible.

And then when we thought about the solution, we felt the same amount of passionate about it. And I think it made sense as sort of the official first thing that we're doing together.

Yeah.

I'm in the text space without that businesses, that we've done. But the tech wise is gonna be the first thing and this came about during the pandemic, right, change? A lot of things we went from everybody going into the office to everybody being at home every single day, having meetings literally, at the same time, everybody talking to the top of their voice and she would come out of the room and be and I'm like, It's a small little bedroom downtown. His voice is booming, like there's nothing I can do.

You'll sound like me and my wife. We work at the same company. we reason we moved here was because I was like I need space and…

Right. You get it,…

you need space. We got to keep this records is not working out. Yes.

you get it. I need the space and what I would try to do is I'd either work outside in the Arizona heat and be dying during this time. I would try to go to a coffee shop and it was just too much background noise and it was too distracting. it just wasn't a conducive environment for me to be going every single day,…

Yeah.

Yeah. And then we decided to buy a house to solve this problem right now. If you think about it, the millions of people that are probably going through the same thing like they cannot just wake up on them by a house. We're fortunate enough to do that and…

Yeah.

when we bought the house there's way more space than we need in here,
And then one day, or just, we're kind of working in with, next I was like, Will you be okay? We let people come work here like anybody who has probably not the most ideal working environment, since everybody's remote now. Yes, he was like usually just me him and my brother-in-law. It's usually three. So I was excited to see more people in the house. And again, I love hosting, so makes it feel more like lively, She's like, I get to buy snacks and I give people and make coffee for people and I'm like yes. One about a coffee machine. Yeah.

No, that Know, the all, we are charging people, two dollars for the coffee.

Listen, I thought about it. She was like, not now, give them some time. Yeah, let's get it going before you start asking them for money. I thought about it but all rosales down to money,…

That's great.

Which is how we found it, So people started coming here and they just immediately enjoying being here. They leave their home will come here, we'll get a call, it's like, he's okay. If I come through I'm like, Yeah, that's the whole point. That's why we put all this here.

Wow.

So we start having people come here. We'll just hang out, and then, something sorry to happen. folks are bouncing ideas over each other. that casual conversation like you were in the office when everybody Focus on call, …

Credible.

people go downstairs and lounge and hang out and that just started happening. And then one day we were talking about man, people really love coming here.
Yeah, you can charge for it, Yeah. And right,…

Yeah.

and then not just that we could charge for it. I'm like What about all that? People who have spaces like this, right? You seen there's specially the pandemic, really kind of drove growth in the space sharing economy as well. Yeah, simply you can rent out your swimming pool.

Yeah.

You have already companies…

Yeah.

because this pure space, there's the garage where you can rent out your garage as a storage space and so be asset sharing economy has just been boominson, especially since the pandemic. We're like There are other people who would let folks come work in our house.
Let's go Talk to them. And let's go, find remote workers, And then on the other side, with people coming over here very often just to get out of their environments. I'm on that remote worker side. It's just nice to switch up your environments,…
00:30:00

And yeah.

And not have to commit to say a co-working space, we work, to pay a membership,…

Yeah.

commute time how far is the co-working space from where you're at. And I think that was giving them the flexibility of the things that are It to them that they can, find a space. Somewhere in, it's what they need or whatever it is for one day, even if it's for a whole week, they just want to get out of the house because a lot of stuff is going on at home.
They can, book through us and I think allowing remote workers to have that flexibility and…

Incredible.

just that sense of community again without having to go into an office or be so committed to a working space. It's really awesome kind of what field it because It's nice to spaces.

Yeah. Yeah, as I listened to you I work remote most of the time, I'm like, I would love the ability to be around other remote workers but I often work at coffee shops meet for that reason, but to do it in a home environment sounds even more like immuno so I love that. okay so you're starting to, let other people work in the space, you decide you want to turn into the business. What time is this 2022 or just 2020 late 2021?

This is in 2022 that will decide we want to go from just inviting people over to building a platform now.

Okay, okay.

So let's say probably around June July is when we go from idea to we're gonna start implementing Yeah.

Yeah and that's my next question. How did you log what were those first steps to say? Hey we're ready to, take this thing big leaks, how'd you go?

So the first thing is, we wanted to understand the industry, Sorry start doing a lot of research seeing what is happening in the office space world, the co-working space for and things like that. I think at some point last year, I don't remember exactly. When I seen a lot of we work locations start to close down to.

Yeah.

Sorry, we're not gonna go invest in the platform if people don't want to be in spaces like this, but then we realize that, they're closing down for totally different reasons. A lot of people don't want to meet, right? So people flexibility,…

Yeah.

I don't want to pay you every single month. If I'm not gonna be here, every single day of the month, right?

Yeah, at that point it's just like going back into the office, but

Is the exactly, you can't force yourself to go now because you're paying, 5 and…

yeah.

600 dollars every month for this. and then we work is closing now for all that reasons, as well. And then the big question was So, now that everybody's remotes, I didn't go back into the office, and then there was an article, I don't remember where came out. That said, downtown office spaces have gone from, I think about like a 94% occupancy rate. It's about 47%, so,

Yeah.

Businesses realized I don't pay crazy amount in these,…

But yeah.

police anymore and so they were just like we're not doing it anymore. So now you have all these big on office spaces. Now the issues that businesses has made this decision. But what about the remote workers? What about the folks? cause Valentine's two bedroom, And then we started also seeing that businesses are willing to subsidize this kind of platform for their employees right. they'll happily pay for co-working space though, happily give you a budgets to reimburse, you for office space work, and things like that. And that was kind of it, we're like People are not going back to these offices. This business are gonna be repurposed for something else.
Because businesses are just us productive. They're making if not more money now because folks are I just read something or something like this. I said people are more productive working at home, So they're not going back.

Yeah.

And let's create a platform that makes this transition better for remote workers for businesses. And for full have this space to,…

Yeah.

to rent out, And it's great because we're not just targeting tech, remote workers all remote workers. All everyone needs to just kind of switch up their environment,…
00:35:00

Incredible incredible.

with creativity. It helps, just switching up your environment, things get stale, and it definitely

Yeah. Incredible. So you look at the competitive landscape what hiccups did you run into as all you'll got ready to formally launch

I mean he comes through the products, as always guys, again, this the tense one that I've done and there's always he comes in the problem things if somewhere like me, who is big picture. It's so hard to get certain details when it comes to the tech side. So I find myself sitting with the developer he's like, you didn't tell me about that feature. I'm like, you should have just assume we need for this the developer I work with, I've worked with him for about, six seven years now and I lives in Cameroon and,…

Amazing.

but we already have this relationship going where he knows that I'm not gonna account for,…

Yeah.

I would say this has been in one of us was a more smooth experience with him because now he has come to the point where he's like, all right, I have to think through some of this things that Valentine might
Want to think through. So there were some hiccups there and really having concrete information on, How remote workers are you apply from? this? We need a survey. We sent out a story to over 2,000 remote workers in Tulsa. They have a toaster remote program over there. And Justin, who is the director of the program and helped us out since send out the survey and we learned so much from that survey. Biggest reason why people will use WAVASPACE is commute.
It's also the biggest reason why they don't sign up for co-working space if it's not conveniently placed for them. So we give you this flexibility, you can find the places that are around you the hosts that are close by and…

Yeah.

then I thought people were gonna choose coworking space or places like this for coffee came in they're and Price wasn't so much of a factor So it was just mainly commute people were like

Mmm.
Incredible.

I don't want to go far and I once flexibility, so which was good there would on the negative side. it's just like when uber started, people, were worried about their safety airbnb started. People were about safety. The good thing is like,…

Yeah.

we can easily address that. it's within some security measures on our platform, ve verifications on things like that. plus Airbnb has already gone through of what it's like to be in somebody's home.

Yes. Of…

So we're not starting from scratch here. So

So when did you officially launched a product I guess make it available for start signing up.

That was earlier this year in February. Yeah, we did it.

What?

Soft launching. Haven't done a massive announcement yet. It's just been a soft launch…

Actually.

because we want to keep stress testing the platform. As we get one final,…

Of course.

We want to see how the platform handles, but we are actually going to be in Las Vegas. Today tonight. We are…

wow.

where we're launching in Vegas. We're

Congratulations.

Thank you so much, Tech ie. it's hosting and launching event for us, and so, we're so excited. We're gonna be there tomorrow, launching Vegas.

Amazing.

We're pretty excited about that. Yeah.

Amazing. we'll be sure that we'll talk offline but we'll make sure we released this episode around that time too.

Yeah.

So build that I free all. but as you get ready to make I guess now losing words. But as you ready educating tell the world about this incredible company that you Have you all decided to seek investment dollars yet or are you, holding off and if so why one versus the other
Valentine Aikhu:

We've reached out to a few investors, we have folks who are kind of watching right now in the investing landscape right now, traction is everything. So we I think we should be able to secure some investors once we kids like discern level of traction and we see more repeatability on the side but we're looking for investors. Does anybody listening that one thing that's definitely reach out,…
00:40:00

it's

so Yeah, so we're at the point where I think we can start accepting dollars right now, but again, we probably only restarts about 20 investors right now? Yes, accelerated. If you started looking just a few hours as well.

I love that. And, I remember, if you were telling this story of a keep forgetting the name of the easy chops.

Easy jobs.

Yes. As I remember you telling a story of easy chop she talked about, we were young. We did it know that we should be looking at investors, for that young entrepreneurs, who's listening, who's like, I don't want to give anybody any equity in my company. I don't want to get investors. What is, you're reasoning behind saying this is this important for the growth of our business.

I think for a couple of reasons the financial resource It's a big thing that's how you compete like you're gonna have competitors. that's how you're able to compete. You need that financial resource. So I think it's super important but there's such a thing as bad money and good money. You don't want that Good money is money.

Yeah.

That comes return investor that can help you grow your business, So you want to look for investors who have invested in similar spaces who are experience in that industry, right? So for us,…

Yeah.

and somebody who has invested in a realistic techno or airbnb or work me and be. For example, those are kind of investors that would want to work with because they understand the idea of a marketplace for space sharing and things like that, and they already have connections in the industry.
That is, I think probably just as important as the money is the phone calls that these people can make for you. Because once they give you their money, they want you to be successful and they're gonna connect, the right people to make you successes. You don't want this early on. You don't want a silent partner. It's silent it.

Yeah.

Yeah, definitely one of leverage your network in their network. At the same time there.

Yeah.
Valentine Aikhu:
That's incredible. I think as I talked to founders of all ages but especially young entrepreneurs. Sometimes I think that's something that's so overlooked and especially, what you all just said. the importance of the partnership inside of the investment. It's not just about the money but really how can they help you take your business to the next level? Speaking of partnerships,…

Right.

I know you all have a really cool strategic partnership with work being b. I'd love for you to share a bit about that.

Yeah. Definitely. So you'll tell Yeah yeah I can start. So I was actually in the techstars program in Tulsa last August and that's where I meant to be this co-founder CEO of work B&B and…

Yet, he's been on the show a couple of times.

So I'm starting the listeners are really friends and he has such an amazing energy,…

Yeah.

you can't help one which is that invest in the room and…

Absolutely.

we got connected, man, we hit it off is one of the first people that sorry hanging out with, outside of program. And we just really connected.
Mind you at the time, we are started. This idea. Is it just Do workforce rental, and we're doing remote work almost rental in a second. So I was like, I'm not here for this business. I'm not even gonna bring it up to you guys. I don't want it. that I came here and I'm still in his idea or something like that.

Yeah.

so I was like I'm not even gonna talk about WAVASPACE. and didn't say anything we just, started hanging out and then On Demo Day.
On Demo Day. I say Look man, we got to talk I think there's an opportunity for us to work together,

Wow.

And he was like mean she was super open. It was like, I was sucked. for whatever reason, I thought he was just gonna be like, Why is this guy trying to steal my idea? And I had all this receipts that I can prove that I started doing this before I ever met him. So I was like, but I just like hey, I have this idea the time I was with that company. it's in the stars.

Yeah.

So I was like, You're gonna meet my fiance, I think you guys are gonna connect this. There's opportunity to come this work together after the program, everybody's trying to raise money. So gonna go ghost for a few months. the end of the AZ was like,…
00:45:00

Yeah.

I think we should really consider doing this thing that you talked about, right?

Incredible.

Early in the year, again, he called on another time. It's like, I've talked to Dodge and I think we should do this thing. It's just he has so much strategic value because we're important similar industries and …

Yeah.

and then we can kind of top into each other's workflows and processes and things like that. And then I think I'll be In March or so is it and Invest call is like yeah. Let's do it now.

It sounds like events.

Yeah, it's like We've talked. We thought it through this. and he said, he sent over a term s*** and that's an allowed and…

Wow, right away.

I'm not man, I'm pretty sure you had this email ready to go before you talk to me, but the whole idea of this partnership was essentially We know what we do really well. Product Strategy, we can get an idea, we've done it, ten times, we can get something from an idea to a working product, to which users trying it out.

Yeah.

But one thing you guys and his team have done an amazing job with is really creating awareness for what B&B PR publicity social media presence and things like that.

Yeah.

We're not that great at it, so you and I are talking to the because of events, so it just makes sense, we're like, all right, so you guys are gonna help us with this things that we don't know how to do, and then we're gonna help you with distance. You guys are not equipped to do and it just happened and we didn't a week, right? No,…

Incredible.

no, I think about it. This happened around July? Yeah. yeah, right, you're hanging out, We signed the deal.
The week before 4th of July, they came over here to Phoenix, for Fourth of July. we had a good time family and…

Amazing.

just kind of talk shop a little bit talked about what this partnership means and how we're steps that we're gonna take moving forward and it's been amazing. with, let the best them. Let's events or
You do what B&B series. we can share more updates on the product, but we've had that more traction that we've seen or…

Incredible.

they've seen in a while. So, I told you guys I said, Hey, our method is proven, we've done it ten times. We can get this product done and I also think that it just says something when it's in all black founders,…

Mm- Yeah.

that's what representing we're showing people that it is possible to have all black routine for both companies. Yeah. That is something that advise really pushes on and…

Yeah.

even us, that's in and…

Yeah.

It's exciting to be part of it. I love working. Be I love Dodge I love as it's been an amazing time And I think it's something very empowering and I think
He pushes that black excellence and we do too. But if it's so infectious, when you talk to him like you're like and I want to go take over the world now sometimes I'm like really Are I'm like because events is right here and we've spoken almost every day since this partnership and…

Incredible.

we've been able to accomplish so much together since July.

Yeah, That's amazing. As you know, I often think about when I was in college. I study communication but I remember my thesis was on kind of the vision and communication theory behind kind of markets Garvey and his commitment to black businesses supporting each other and it's really As I Listen to y'all like that's the first thing comes my mind because it's so beautiful to see black businesses and black people and black entrepreneurs coming together to say Hey you…

Yes.

where I'm not strong But my community has my back and they're picking up on my weaknesses. But at the same time I can help them where I'm super strong and where they may be weak. that's beautiful. I love that.
00:50:00

Yeah, And being in Tulsa for three months in the Texas program and just learn about what black people were able to accomplished it through community. I'm just having each other's back. I think what's WAVASPACE work? Being be awesome, investors and dogs. what we're doing is really a testament to
Revive that spirit again, we can do it,…

Yeah.

if I trust you and you trust me and I have no, mild intention in my mind and, same for you we can build something, surely amazing, we're making so much progress since July faster than, I've been able to do by ourselves right? It just speaks to the power of …

Incredible.

us as black founders, especially in the tech board, coming together and helping each other out. even if there's nothing in it for you, I do pro bono consulting, for, young entrepreneurs. Where if you have a night that you want to talk to me,…

Yeah.

what is the best way for me to get to a product to test this out? it's people like the quickest effective way.

Yeah.

How do you think about an MVP? How do you get a product out without spending a ton of money? I'm putting yourself in the whole and I love doing that for the community,
Yeah.

I love how she just looked at you.

I get passionate about this. Yeah, it's so inspiring. I love when he does that. Okay.

Yeah. that's beautiful, As we, get ready to wrap up the year. We're going into the last quarter of the year. What does the rest of 2023 look like for your team? But also especially as we go into 2024. what's the future? Hold.

Man, we have a few things in the works. The only spend the point of them. Yeah, we're working on a few things, just linked up with a co-working space. That's opening up here in Phoenix. And the best part is going to be the first black owned court in space in Arizona.

Incredible.

And I just Met with the CEO.

What amazing?

We are going to be working really closely together. we're helping them kind of build on roadhouse space as well as them helping us with water space. So we got that deal signs today. We're super excited about it.

Congratulations. I need a soundboard to, put on the cheers and applause. Amazing. Yeah.

Yeah, and it's so exciting. Because again, it's goes back to what we just talked about you…

Yeah.

black entrepreneurs really helping each other and building beauty in sense of community, real quick, before I answered questions. this guy I connected in Chris, Amazing Guy. Super partial passionate about what he's doing. The reason why I connect everything is just solely for his vision, he has a vision.

Wow.

Give black people a comfortable space where it's not,…

Yeah.

it's not a bougie space. It's a space. Where if you're black, you feel safe being in there. It's best for people to collaborate to work, get offices. have a business address and…

Amazing.

things like that. super excited about that. So that's one of the big things that I don't want to go too much into that…

Amazing.

because it's gonna do is announcements soon.

Of course, yeah.

And then the partnership with me, I think we're gonna be expanding up on that launch. both platforms are going to speak to each other. So that's one of the things that we,…

Wow,…

yeah, where they have a goal capacity rates.

Amazing.

And for the course, on his platform who wants also feel any vacancies with our platform is gonna speak directly to each other, where, …

Incredible.

whenever they're not booked for a workforce rental, they can still be making money using the water space system.

Incredible, that's amazing.

So it's a big plan. We begin ing Launching Phoenix. Officially? Yeah, hopefully by And, October is, as far as I go right now, we're getting married in November and Nigeria. So, We're gonna focus on that for a little bit.

Of course,…
of course.

You…
and I think 2024 really is when again we kind of open up around funding around but we're not pursuing that strongly as I mentioned but come 2024 is full force in trying to raise funds and skill to a cities.

Yeah.

We want to take a strategic approach and start with the West Coast and then kind of move movies from there. that was thing.

Of course.

Yeah, I think that's the plan. the goal is we want to give people
00:55:00
Flexibility and working space. We want to give them the option to find the space. That is right for them at the time when it is, right, for them without having to worry about a lease or ends of commitment.

Yeah.

You do it on your own terms when you need it. Yeah, and it says something because it's something that we would use ourselves. Yes. You…

Yeah, absolutely.

I also rather space, you go work somewhere else, especially what she wants to get away from me, exactly. and I think that says something to our commitment to this product. And how much we believe, because it's something that we would also use. So it's a really exciting in future.

But y'all got me. I believe too. Coach Deion Sanders been asking reporters. I believe? Alright, my final couple questions here. first I love that. Y'all are a black couple doing this together. I also love hearing about the faith background. what role has both, family and face played and not only your business. But, you all as a founding team and helping you scale the business,

Our family is very, very supportive of us, and they're really just some of our biggest champions I believe they just keep pushing us in the direction, in Being an entrepreneurs, there's always going to be some type of failure, right? And they're all with our families,…

Yeah.

always there to pick us up. our faith helps us, pivot, and pushing and keep pushing and keep trying Valentine's mom, she's always kind of done something, it fell. So pick something right back up. That's the basis of a lot of the things that we do,…

Yeah.

just keep going. In our family has their back.
Yeah, and just to kind of add on to that's my family perspective to the same thing. my dad runs his business today too and that's just in the entire family and…

Yeah.

how we've operated where we're both Christians to So, there's a strong, fit background there standing for my family's. And so, we've really kind of just channeled all of that into how we operate as co-founders. And just as a team in general. So yeah, it's it, but family outfit has played a lot into who we are today into this product being where it is today. I was like, I can't tell you how many times I say, Hey, Mom, starting a new business is like, again.

it's

I'm like Yeah, this is the one. Yeah. And whenever I bring it to my parents, they're just questions, And it really helps me kind of think through critically on those and making sure I'm able to answer those questions because they're asking them anyone. yeah,…

Yeah.

they just want to make sure that we got it.

I love that. I think oftentimes, we often hear stories of a founders and this is all about the business. But, one thing I've loved about doing this podcast is being able to, be able to hear about the values that, giving their foundation to really, take something to the next level. My final question for you all, for those young entrepreneurs, what advice you have for them or someone who's like, Hey, I'm getting ready to start my first business. But what if I see that,

You go first. Okay, okay. So, one of the things that you want to do is just make sure you are one again, leveraging your network right leveraging? The people around you, the people that are investing in you building that's where that community is going to come in for you. learn knowing when to really pivot for your business, If an idea isn't working or something, there are gonna be failures that are gonna happen, but the biggest thing is, you need to know how to pivot and not be so hard on yourself because It's the church entrepreneurs from the beginning of time,…

Yeah.

It's a new idea, you really got a flush it out, so really just contin.
And when you believe in your idea, you can make other people believe in your idea and knowing when to pivot To make sure that you're getting it where you need to go. It's huge. Yeah, and…
01:00:00

I love that.

I can think about of God's to, the knowing where you need to consistently requests and accept feedback. That's the quickest way you can get to the Product market. you have to purposely seek out mentorship, a lot of the accomplishment that we've had is because we've had people in our lives who have kind of, dawn similar things or close enough and they've kind of stared us in the right direction. It was something that I learned from my first business when I was like, no one anybody we're making money. Everybody stay away and
We were just not able to think through anticipate a lot of things so definitely, seek out mentorship for have a clear vision, do the market research is very important, Make sure what you're trying to solve for you don't have to have all the answers. Do the research? That's how you get answers. I think those are probably the key advice that I give to you careers out there.

Yeah.
I guess I lied my final question. Where can people find WAVASPACE if they want to invest? They want to, place their property on the platform, just follow, which all are doing. Connect on social media. How can people connect with you?

Absolutely. First thing our website is wava space.com. It is live where a web platform future hopefully will transition into a mobile app but we're starting on the Web right now. My personal email is the ad Wavaspace.com Jedi's Jr. Guava Space.com so anybody can feel free to reach out questions. I'm happy to jump on the call, tell you how the platform works and things like that on social media, LinkedIn and Instagram, where just want to space. That, what? So,

Incredible. Valentine's Jada. I'm grateful for the two of you for being guests on the show, I say this every time after a show, I know I'm gonna be inspired at the Internet episode, but I'm blown away I am by the two of you all story.

Thank you having us.

.

I appreciate Having us on this platform and miss the work.

of course, when I was younger. I wish there was something like this, for me to hear stories from founders, who look like me. So, thank you all again. I'll be sure to link everything down in the show, notes, and listeners. Thanks for tuning. In always super grateful.

Thank you.
Meeting ended after 01:03:05 👋

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How WavaSpace is Helping You Turn Your Extra Space into a Cash! | MPAKT Pod w/ LBJ Episode 13

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How WavaSpace is Helping You Turn Your Extra Space into a Cash! | MPAKT Pod w/ LBJ Episode 13