FLASHBACK - Scaling Non-Profits with Tech w/ Sevetri Wilson

this year, so put a bookmark there. So while we're out on the road, I wanted to run back in the episode we did in season one with the incredible Seviti Wilson, founder and CEO at resil You and this episode is for anyone who has an interest in utilizing technology to scale their nonprofit, even if you're not super technical. To kick this one off, I asked v T about the idea that was so many nonprofits out there? What are the bottlenecks that caused nonprofits to stay small and

not make an impact at scale? So interesting enough, UM, there's a report release just talking about philanthropy UM and really talking about the disparity and philanthropy and where money goes and how that money UM is just dispersed, right, UM, and so for certain nonprofits we're talking about, like nonprofits run by black and brown people, UM, there's a disparity and like them being able to access resources to grow

their nonprofit organizations. UM. And particularly as we are in the age, but even in the day where we're heavily focused on uh equity and equality and UM, how we can fix the things that have just historically been wrong UM related to ensuring that people of color, particularly black people right, because we're not gonna like blanket all of

us over people of color uh any longer. UH. And one of the things that the study was essentially staying UM and this is by Eco Green and Bristband, is that a lot of times nonprop organizations one don't have access to the rollodex of organizations that can give them resources UM once they get to table, if they ever get to the table, UM, then they don't have the right tools resources are able to essentially display the information the way funders want it, right. And so they're at

a disadvantage that way. And what it takes to do that type of data UM, type of analytics to pull those type of reports takes a lot of time and money which they don't have because they're on the ground working every day in and out of their nonproper organizations. UM. And so we think about how nonprofits are just like less resource like that's one of the biggest hindrances that's

holding organizations back from growing. UM. And then also, how do you move beyond just being a nonprofit leader but thinking of yours yourself as like a business leader like you are you this organization is incorporated. You should be thinking about like a business. You should operate like a business. UM. How do you move from just taking on funding? How do you begin to diversify into services? Um? And So these are definitely I could go on and on, but

I would kind of wrap it up there. We can definitely continue to talk about what are like the blocks for nonprop organizations. Yeah, I think about UM. I live in a place where we and where at my city we have more nonprofits per capita than anywhere else in the country, right, which tells me we're stepping on all of our toes. Yeah, and UM, do you think we

consider collaboration at the level we should? UM? Because I mean, you get it, with territorial the pies aren't as big for you know, people to be able to fund these efforts in etcetera, Like, how do you think so we can't so we can't belong to each other? How do you think about when you see nonprofits who that just pop up because somebody's passionate about something? Um? How do you process that? Yes? Um, even with the side of our software, we're always trying to benchmark for um. Does

this organization need to exist? Right? Um? And even as a consultant like many moons ago working with nonproper organizations UM, and people used to come to me like, oh, I want to start this organization U. First, I always act like this organization like this exists in your community art and they're like, yeah, but have you volunteered yet? If you spoke to the organizational leader yet, have you see have you had a conversation with them yet to understand

like what are your challenges? Um? And if I don't feel like you're effecting my community, do you have the bandwidth? Um? And you should be could you probably started to move non profit to help them get to where they're trying to go without being the founder of CEO of it right? Um? And So I'm a big believer of trying to bring organizations together and even UM have seen situations where large funders would look atorganizations that they were funding and they're like,

you were basically doing the same work. If you guys actually came together, UH meaning like formed right UM together, we would give you more money and we think you'd be more effective. UM. But of course what comes in a way with that, right, so a little bit of like pride and ego, Uh, who's gonna run the organization? Wor world or I you know, get are my issues gonna be UM heard? And so there are a lot of barriers to that UM. But you know, we know

because we've been punching those forever UM. Not just in your community, but we've seen a four x increase of nonprop organizations over the past uh teamed years UM, not only and counting across the world. And so we know there's a lot of reasons for this UM, not just like the Googles in our community that want to create no prop organizations, but there are a lot of as

we consider like legacy foundations being created UM. And so with that that there's morgan there's been created, there's also more philanthropic dollars being deployed than we've ever seen before. And so that could also be a reason, right that these organizations are forming to actually go after some of these new funds that are coming out, which is the case of COVID nineteen um and is also the case

now with saving Black lives right. Right, So, how how do you inspire or help people who are passionate about a thing get the business side under them. Because I think about um too often when we think about impact and being passionate about a particular issue, whether it be social justice, whether it be COVID, the product or the offering maybe lacking. You know, we we have so much heart, but so little business sophistication in too many instances, not

every instance, but in too many instances. So talk talk a little bit about what you those folks who you ask, you know, does this already exist in your community or have you volunteer there? How do you, you know, advise them to not only you know, pump the brakes a little bit, but get that work done in the right way. Yeah.

The same things that set back, hold back, keep down nonprofits are the same things that hold back, setback, keep down us from building businesses as well, right, um, And so I think that many many of those things I've obviously worked with a lot of BIS small business owners to help them get there ups off the ground. I've worked with a lot of nonprofits to get them to get their organizations off the ground. And I tell you

there's so many parallels that run between the two. UM. But yeah, and it really is, it's so very similar UM. And so for nonprofits, it's always about what are you gonna focus on, right, So what can you get really

good at? What People are like, oh, we go to them for this, And I think that just our nature we want to help everybody and be everything and everybody, and we can't be that way if we want to get things done, and if we want to grow our organizations, we have to figure out, like what is that thing that we really we might care about a lot of things, we got to really hone down that one thing that's gonna allow us, UM to be able to not only gain the expertise right around, but to also gather support

around so that that one thing people are like, oh, I got that person for you. UM. And even when we talk about resources, because generally speaking we look get funders, they are looking at their trying to put together pieces too right, And so it was like, what piece are you solving for that's going to make this equation come together? UM? And you don't. And because you are strapped for resources, you probably don't want to go out there talking about

you solve all these others. They're like, well how because you only got a budget of twenty dollars a year, so you can't yourself all these things all that at up. Let's math that up. So really trying to get organizations like focused in and I deal it on, like what can you solve and be the best at UM at

doing UM? And then how can you begin to look at individuals that support that specific cause or create ambassadors UM and champions of that cause because it's attached to things that other people believe about UM and so there is so many parallels man to like it's being like

a founder. Uh, it is the same, right. Yeah. So if if I can condense what you said into a nutshell, I'm gonna ask you, this is what you're saying, UM, that I should really just get really really really good at one thing or this narrow vertical yeah, and then bring it in, bringing in, bring it in, right? And with that does that cause me to have more success? Ultimately, because that's I think what people don't see is they see if what if I only do this one thing,

then how am I gonna get bigger? Yes? And the thing is it's like it's once you do that thing very well, then you can branch out and do other things. Right, um, And you're right about that, but I do. I mean, such a good example is like what's happening in Minneapolis right now, right in Minnesota, UM and in Minnesota and just like framing around UM the murder of George Floyd. UM, people started to get into the Minnesota UM Fun, right,

and so everybody was giving to the Minnesota Fun. And when we go to the website, I was kind of like I gave him to him too, you know. I was like, oh, boom, we gotta place we go get into. That's what we're gonna get someone in message. It was like, well you need to give to the black lead organizations. I was like, thing, wait, let me go look at

the website and I looked. I was like, oh no, like that's the people like what was black And I was like, I'm giving money to these people will go help black people and they don't have black people their regulation and so I was like, okay, now that for other organizations. But then I double back and I realized that, Okay, let me see what they're doing. So they were essentially um targeting cash bail and bill bond, so they were

trying to eradicate that, like that was their mission. So from Jump, immediately I knew that the money that we were giving wasn't going to just go back to the protesters, you know, who were out there, although some of it would, but they raised so much money that now they're going to enter should be able to eradicate cash bail in there. I think that's crazy to me, right, So they they're gonna eradicated. However, they raised so much money that they

said that started giving to these other organizations. This specific organization is looking to defund the police, This specific organization is working on the ground, specifically helping with housing, this specific you know, these are organizations where I'm like, Okay, yes, we want to get protesters out of jail boom, we need to fund boot you know. And so it's becomes very clear because of their mission. So whose responsibility is

it then? Because you know, I think about when the social um uprisings occur you'll see this proliferation of messages on social media on who you should be giving to, right and so so to your point, like, whose responsibility is it to make sure that that is clearly defined for the end user who's just wants to give fifty dollars or a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars in an organization, Because can we expect the consumer or the donator or the that benevolent person to go do all

that research? That's a vegtuable Well, I do think that we do got to do a little bit better on for sure. UM. And then also I think that you know someone inside the community, right, and so that that's how I've foune about all the other funds. It's but has someone from that community said, oh, here are some other funds that are like black lead. UM. I do think that there's an opportunity to vet organizations and maybe that somebody you know who's listening, they're like, Oh, this

is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna actually create a platform and UM. And so that's why I was like, dang, I should have like did more. I should have went to the website. I should have looked at UM the people that have associated with it. If you want to take it a little bit further than you can go to like Candice's website and do with search of them.

But the only problem when you start really doing that is that you begin to exclude black organizations who again going back to maybe they don't have the data points, maybe they don't have information into these platforms. It doesn't mean that they're not doing the work and they can't get the work done, And so you have to be like really careful and mindful of trying to like vet

organizations as well. Um, but I do feel that, you know, you go looking to commune, you come to New Orleans and we'll let you know who to get who you know who are really doing what they're supposed to do with the money. Yeah, so I think about you know, you're solving um, a lot of issues for I would and Layman's terms like a lot of back office issues for nonprofits. Is that ad a quick statement? Yeah, for

nonprofits and for as we consider our enterprise customers. So, um, we work with OXYDA in America, we work through a United Way and so we essentially are too like the one app connector between the nonprofit or grantee, because it doesn't have to be a nonprofit. It can also be a vendor, which can be a for profit UM to

the Grand Tour or that entity that's deploying capital. So if you're a city of prior foundation of corporation, we work with them all UM and so we essentially manage that process of how they give money to organizations or vendors who essentially do the work right because these fundations they're not actually doing them really, you know, they're not

on the ground doing the work. They're funding organizations and vendors to do the work UM, and our platform essentially is that connected tissue between both where not only we're monitoring information that's coming in the data around it, we're doing the reporting and evaluations, and then we're also on the nonprofit side provided them with capacity building tools and technical assistance so that they can be better stores are not only the money, but also better stores of how

they run their organizations UM as well as how they train their team members. We essentially have draftedly reduced what we were doing as consultants and productized it right. And so we took everything that we were doing as consultants for these large grant tours and these grantees and these nonprofits, and we began to productize it into software and deliver it through a subscription based platform. That's what we do. Yeah.

So I'm super interested in your take on this thing because I think about, um, the importance of wealth in our community, and the I find with my you know, in context to you, my uneducated, right UM perspective on this is at some point we have to move past waiting for someone to write us a check for our good work because they may feel like, oh again to your point, like, you know, who's doing good work, let me give them some money, And you have the person

who's trying to do the good work always with their hand out, always what they had in their hand, like, you know, trying to raise money somewhere. And how can we think about other ways to support and put fuel in the tank for our good work or is it could be going to be value exchanged? Yes, for sure, I think that, um, there is value exchange for particularly like nonprofits. UM. Most people think that most nonprofits their money comes from like product foundations and corporations and um,

you know, these other philanthropic resources. But that's not the case. The majority of most nonprofits, their money is coming from contracts um services are from individuals. And so I think that that's like a MythBuster, right because most people think like philanthrothy is controlling which to start to start to sit they are because they can also entirely fun and nonprofit right to do their work, to do the work

that they want them to do. But most nonprofits in the US at least actually don't sustain themselves off philanthrophic dollars um and so that's a very important to like note.

But like one of the things even with our software, what we want to do is since we own both relationships the Grand Tour and the grantee, more organizations that come into our platform, we want to essentially begin recommending them to our the Grand Tours because we know they're giving history, we know the type of organizations they like

to give to the causes, etcetera. And we can essentially take organizations that would never get opportunity to get in front of them and essentially scout on their behalf right um, by just knowing their data. And so by doing that we're able to remove the biases that have prevented these organizations from getting in front of these other dollars for a very long time. And that's not just philanthropy, but that's government meant right, because we UM our customers are

also government UM corporations, uh and so on. So when we think about that UM, it's about like diversifying UM. And so like one of my UM customers, like Metromorphosis, when we first came in contact with them, they were doing me like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in natural and annual budget. They had like one full time person a contracted person UM and today they

have like a full suite of team fast forward. They're doing a budget about one point eight million UM, and we allow them to get there that they started going after city contracts, right, and so they went after the DV which is essentially a set aside that says like thirty percent of this opportunity of this large billion dollar project has to go to minority businesses, and they went after that contract and so they essentially are overseeing that

deployment and where that money goes. And so now they're like, Okay, now they're going at the more government contracts and a non profit and they're going to ask the government contracts in the same way, business will be going after those contracts, and they got more power because they got the community. And so somebody like, oh, who do we may we're gonna physical part of all the resources, and so nonprofits could win like that when they started thinking like that.

But I do think that we're coming into a different age of corporate giving, um, where people are beginning to hire people that are a little bit more in tune right uh to trying to make an impact. Um. In addition to that, I do feel that, um, we know, we know when people be instanced, you just not hear about stuff. We're like, all right, get there girl here.

I've been very critical like Gucci, right, Gucci, they been the back people and then they was like BOI million dollars like the owners a Gucci, I think behind almost and it's just like, that's the insult to my intelligence. You're now like, that's just been ins off to my

intelligence right there. But you know, there are other institutions like you will say like a j people organ Chase right where they have essentially deployed billions at this point, um, And people will say Jack Morgan Chase, like, oh, we don't like this site for corporate philanthropy because they're essentially disrupting where some people would say, um, and they're rebuilding and redesigning, say black cities like Detroit, And so what do we feel about that? Right? Are we paying attention?

Like are we really paying attention to what's going on and who's involved? Now? I will say, um on JP Morgan, um for if you look at their team in Detroit, very like it's a lot of black people there, but also holding black people accountable for doing things with black people,

right and um, being sincere about that is important. Um. But you do see corporations now who are really putting a huge steak into not just like oh we're gonna give here, We're gotta give these organizations, but they're trying to actually transform um um entire um consider like sectors, um, communities, cities, and so we also have to be very mindful of what that means go So not just for nonprofits, but do you have a proficiency in helping people figure out

how to charge for their stuff their value? Right? And so I would imagine that most entrepreneurs will look at the landscape of the market and say, Okay, what is the closest person to what I'm doing charging and let me base my price upon that. Like, is that in your mind the best way to go about this? So I think that that is like the easiest way to go about it, um, but it might not be what's

best for your work right UM. And so I do think that we have a problem with like pricing in general, UM in a way that it actually takes us under And so I think that when we think about pricing, it's from an organizational standpoint, it's like, can you also, you know, make a living? Can you get the work done? Can you hire people? Um effectively? When you scope out your entire budget, you know, is it actually related to um, your demographics, who you're serving, um, the additional need that

may exist around them, right. And so I think you have to take into consideration all the complexities that may impact your price that may not impact the person across from use price. So when when you say I'm going to charge X, and it's probably more money than a lot of people may be comfortable with charging for something, how do how do you get over the internal like, oh, how do I put this number in front of folks? Well, me today, I mean say today you probably like, look

this is the number. Family, This is the number, because you know your numbers changed with experience too, right, Um, and so that's something about like your numbers changed with your experience and teen years ago in my experience a lot different than it is now. And what I have to bring to the table, but the resources that I bring, the partners that I bring, um, the network that I bring. And so you're bringing to the table more than just what you can do, uh pin the paper right uh.

And so you take an account all those things when you're setting your price, and I know I do at least. Uh So I think that the only things that people have to consider, do you to that point? Is it is it that people are just paying for the service that you're offering, or they're paying for the value of being able to work with you? So Resilia, Yeah, for the Resilia, they're paying for the service, right. So because we're sass business model, Um, what you paying with the

next person pay, it's not going to change, right. So we have like set numbers. If you're on the enterprise platform and you're paying per sit um, if you are a nonpromporranization, you're paying specifically for your subscription. So those numbers were unchanged, UM now in solid ground. So my other business that is based on you know what, I'm setting my fees and UM anything related to my expensive for UM, I'll tell you like now when I'm actually

be a part of projects. It's kind of if when you start planning sees, those seeds are going to start to grow UM and it may not come to fruition immediately, but over time it will. And so today I literally get acts to be a part of UM projects and on like pull into like RPS responses for work that I never you have to touch. They just need to use my name and my resume in my background and

they they just want me on the team. And literally I do something consulting and I get a check like I don't have to do so, but that's what ten plus years of work now force me to be a part of teams who are going at the montimillion dollar contracts and they're like, we need to beech you our team, and so, uh, how much you're gonna charge us to be on our you know, well, boom, that's what I'm gonna charge and we all we all started doing the work they call them and like all right, what do

you think about this is and this because then you know, I have to actually do some work as a part of the contract. Um. But for the most part, I don't have to chase business on my solid ground for my consulting company. The business comes to me back now like it comes to me now. Uh. And so like that's where that's like we think about like buildings stuff for ourselves, as you mentioned earlier, So we don't have

to go ask these people for money. Um, then we become the philanthropists, right, and so then we can direct money organizations that look like us and they don't have to go chase money from these organizations that don't look like them. And so like we're talking about like the ultimate goals, like that's what we're building for. Oh yeah, we're gonna come back. We're gonna come back to that.

Matter of fact, we might close on that topic. But I want to there's a couple of things I want to I want to make sure I pull out of here. And it's you know you talked about you know, over ten years, you've built up a reputation in the name and integrity and all these things that say, you know, look, if we're trying to do X Y, and Z we need to v treet on the team, right. And so

you've got so many people um in our audience. Who are you know building um you know, for lack of a better phrase, you know boutique services, consulting services, you know, personal services and etcetera. And how how is it that you saw the long game in that? Because I would I would imagine that you knew one day it would pay off, but you might and don't. I don't know, but you perhaps didn't know that you know one day it will be people just call me and I'll set

my price. And I stepped before a meeting in a bounds You may have no I'm I'm assuming I shouldn't do it. I don't know if I knew that. I think that when it started to happen to me, I think that it became very obvious. Why right? And so when I think about and you know, I have like mentors, etcetera. You know, my mentors got contracts with Chevron and this person, this person, and they get twenty five dollar monthly retainers

and they people might call them for our months. Like there's levels to this, right, I hate that that level yet, but there are levels of this and so when you hear stuff like that, and you know, people are kind of like trying to show you, like how this works, right and how UM your ability people think that social media influencing and something no being able for public affairs from a gas oil company to call you once a mother, you can twenty five dollars per hour. That's influence, Like

you what do I understand? Like it's level of that lovels UM. And so when I think about influence, that's like the sphere of influence. I think about like things that can drive elections, people that can drive people to pose, people that can help influence someone getting into a position UM. Like those are type of influences that I think about.

And when you begin to have those type of influences in your community UM and in your sphere or your business circles, people begin to reach out to you because that makes you you make them more competitive. Right. And So for me starting out, I was just you know, coming I was so young when I started my first

business that I was just like so green. So in twenty two I was just out here first very small contracts UM doing consulting like marketing, public relations UM, digital advertising, stuff like that UM from there, we started getting contracts, starting off with like nonprop organizations doing work for them, then law firms, you know, building their website stuff like that. Um, and then those contracts started to like increase. Then I went to a conference and at that entrepreneurs conference, they

basically talking about government contracting. And then I was like, government contract this is interesting. And then this woman, um Nicole, she was talking about how she was living in her mother's basement, she was a single mother, um, and she got into government contracting and she was going as a junior partner. So she was basically subcontracting, right. And so that's another hack for any entrepreneurs out there who were trying to get started. Sometimes our eyes been on the

Big Pride. We'd be like, oh, we're about to go after this large contract. What you really need to be going after is this this the company that's gonna get the contract? And then yes, because that's see what because that's just the things that we just don't know yet, right, And so we will be going to large contract with no capabilities, not enough proof, like none of this, and it's just because we're just not we're not there yet. Um as we know somebody that's gonna right right as

a check, which is very seldom UM. And so going and subcontracting and learning the game from these larger companies is something that I got hit to UM pretty earlier. And the same thing with Hole in government contracting. Once she got hit to that then allowed her to like go after these larger contracts as the prime and then subcontract other consultants and agencies gonna meet UH. And so that's essentially how I started building my company UM as

a whole. But then when I started Resilia, I had to like pull back from s g I and I was like, Okay, we're gonna like maintain these contracts over here. But from that just sitting a little bit, you know, letting marinate, other stuff started happening, and people try to just coming to me UM. And so I think that that's something that you know, this this dot here and aren't working, Like get out here and work out and like just make it happen. Because at the end of

the day, the door is gonna store can open. UM. You just have to understand how what's the code? Right? You have to figure out the code, UM. And once you figure out the code is gonna lock your door, then you gotta unlock another door? Do you unlock another door? Um? Yeah,

that's just like kind of the process. So I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, Like, you're building in a community that is not historically known for technology, right, you know, you're the biggest ecosystem in the world, and you just raised um, you know, eight million dollars series A Series A recently, and talk to me a little bit about because I think sometimes we take for granted that the large part, the largest portions of people trying

to build tech companies are not in Silicon Valley, right, But they're in Oklahoma, and they're in New Orleans, and they're in Ohio, and they're in you know, these other communities, And you've got people with different lifestyles trying to do this thing, and we don't always speak to them, but we speak the language of a Silicon Valley. And so talk to me about, um the challenges you've had to overcome with building in the community that's not a traditional

tech home. Yes, so, um so building in the industry right. Interesting because when I first started building the company um Resilia, nobody, nobody believes me. Nobody believes that we could build a company in this space, and it honestly hasn't been. You have like the black bots out there, UM, you have like these grand manager systems, which were quite a bit different than grants managing systems who have been dominating the space for like twenty plus years. So and that this

old school technology they're using UM. And so when we started coming into the space, people like, oh, this is how big is this space? You know, is it really is a too niche, etcetera. So the same thing they were telling the companies like Carter and everybody else who now worked billions of dollars UM. And it to me it was actually sales scores that began, in my opinion, to open up like just the BC world around like selling to philanthropy, because they began to aggressively start acquiring

companies in our space UM. And like over the past year and a half they probably acquire on what was like a billion a half companies in our space UM to build out suite of products for nonpark organizations. And so if you follow us for as, they had like a one percent pledge and all these other things going on UM that they've kind of pushed in Silicon Valley. And so when we came into the space earlier than that.

Before they started happening, no one really felt it. But now we get so much outreach from investors like, oh, yes, we've been following the nonprofit world technology and we feel like there's so much room for improvement UM and technology advancements in this space. But that wasn't the case a couple of years ago. Uh, and so now we don't really have to prove that part of it anymore. But had I not had the opportunity to keep going, we

probably wouldn't exist anymore, right um. And for us, we began to really evaluate how we can expand, right, how can we expand beyond nonprofits? And that gave birth like our enterprise platform, which targets obviously three core verticals um. But it was definitely like really challenging. And then in New Orleans, the tech space is definitely We've had like a few um success stories here and there, but really, ain't nobody come in scout in the New Orleans you know,

like that's just what it is. And for me, at one point, I was like, oh man, do I have to move to San Francisco to husband Silicon Valley And was actually legitimately like thinking about it, and I just realized how much that would have like completely drastically changed my entire journey, like my old journey a little different

had I done that. And so I am happy that I stayed in the South and began to like find people who were investing in founders outside Silicon Valley, which now I believe, like particularly like sas companies, people are doing like more of that than they were several years ago. So one of the things that um, you know, these uprisings, these social justice uprisings and the not only did the George Floyd's with Amy Cooper's and them out our berries or Amy Coopers who was on the other side of

this conversation, Yeah, you know what I'm saying. And so these situations brought me to is you know, when I think about being a founder and being in the technology industry and trying to generate wealth, right, we're obviously we're not just doing this to do stuff, but we're trying to build west wealth for our communities and for our families. And it started to make me think more about what is like, Okay, we want to build well take care of our people, but like what is how are we

activating that. So, and what I mean by that is we can't just be silent anymore. In my opinion, I believe, and I'm wondering your take on this is because we see so many people who will be in it for the bag but won't speak up or maybe they're afraid to speak or don't know how to speak up. Um. And maybe maybe I don't want to be unfair because not everybody's public about how they do things and how they move. But I do feel like there's a there is a new day upon us where we have to

be vocal about these issues. And I'm wondering how you think about things as your feelings changed about how we behave as black entrepreneurs who are building wealth and who are impacting our communities in a certain way, because I've really been thinking about that and how like what is

the purpose of wealth? Yeah? Yeah, So I mean let's like unpack that a little bit, right, and so well we think about I think about, first of all, this conversation I was having recently, um about some of the issues that I had with like black investors, right, Um, when I was first going out to raise money, how difficult it was to raise money from black investors like

UM kind of coming up. And what I began to realize is that because we are so new to well, we're so new to money, that we're so risuverse UM. And so I started thinking about that right as far

as like investors worth with their money. You know, black investors, they like real estate and you know, things that they have a historically to life and say a lot of them are new to technology investor technology and idea that oh, man, like I could lose my money like you though, like a lot of them have a hard time been wrapping their around that UM and just now kind of being pulled into it, whether they're like private equity space UM.

And so we think about like how we challenge UM from that perspective to helping our businesses or businesses around us to get the res they need internally so that they can build their companies. I think that that's one challenge UM. But as we create more millionaires, and I think generally like our generation, as we accumulate more UM, we'll do more by way of the generation that we were born in and how we kind of came through

society UM. And so I think that that's something thing about like generationally, what does wealth look like, um, how it's passed down, how it's held onto and then what is the thought process around that is it's something that oh I'm holding well to pass it down to my kids versus oh, I have wealth. So now I can ensure I made this wealth via my company, and I want to ensure that um tend other individuals become millionaires

through ensuring their companies are successful. Right, And so it also becomes like what becomes our legacy that we internally hold around wealth in our communities, and then how do we begin to build upon that legacy? Um And it

doesn't necessarily have to be by me exchanging money. It can be by another form if you're if you one thing I say about cities, right, black people opportunity and contracting inside of cities because a lot of times, particularly these large urban cities, black people have the power of the pen. Black people are mayors and cities and we have to hold them accountable to ensuring that black businesses

get these contracts because that creates wealth as well. And so there's so many ways we can build wealth in our communities by holding each other accountable and creating a playbook. And if these people don't care. You know, they don't want us to do that. You you didn't vote me in here. To be honest, it's so like why do

you nevers? And so I feel like there's so many ways to come at wealth that we just have to create this collective um just like planning to do it, and we gotta put the right people in the right

positions to make it happen UM. And we can't no longer as you stay stay quiet, and we can no longer take positions in which we are just a diversity face for company and so be you are ways that we can incrementally help each other feel well and begin to make a pathway to financial freedom because financial freedom

unlocked so many doors for us in our communities. Black Tech Green Money is a production to blackt the Afro Tech on the Black Effect podcast Network and iHeart Media is produced by Morgan D. Bond and me Well lucas well. Then listen to Productive supported by Love Be Tim and Risa Lewis. Special thank you to Michael David's Jim Main Hall of in nessa Serrano. Learn more about my guests and other tech thiss RRE's an innovators at afrotech dot com,

joining black Tech. Green Money leave us a five star rating on nine tunes, look at Your Money, Peace and love,