Hey, hey, hey.
We're back.
We're black, We're brown, amh and ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, Mandra, how are you curls?
Oh? You know, you know when you don't have time for a full shower, so you so you just get the girls in front, and we're not going to turn to the side, all right, We're.
Just gonna thank you. We are extra brown in the studio today, Mandra.
We have some company, be a family. We got to pull out the good china, the good silver because we have a powerhouse. We have a unic and and can I just say the light is giving Unicorn CEO. I need to know exactly what this whole setup is because if I can move away from reading rainbow like the PBS Kids specialists behind me, I'm more into like that vibe. I can already feel like a Unicorn CEO. But ba, fam,
I can't wait to tell you. But our guest today her name is Sunira Madonni and Trailblazer is I don't know. It feels like too simple of a way to describe her career, but just get prepared to be inspired, because not only does she found a unicorn of her own, and to be clear, Unicorn is when you sell your company for more than a billion dollars. Right, we're evaluated to that. Did I get it right? Okay? Oh my god,
look at me. She reads Robin Hood's tacks. So Snira not only built and founded Stax Payments, which was one of America's top growing, fastest growing fintech companies, she's also not done. I mean what that took about like a decade of her time, and now she is onto building her second unicorn, which we're going to talk talk about called Worth. She's a first female CEO to lead a unicorn out of Florida. Right, well, unicorns do exist and it's not just gators in Florida. Okay, now you have
a unicorn coming out of it. She's also been recognized as Fortunes forty under forty, Ey's Entrepreneur of the Year, Entrepreneur Magazine's one hundred most Influential Women, Not to mention Ink one hundred Inks one hundred female founders, and our podcast earlies. While you're listening to Brown Ambition Police, go and follow Senior's podcast CEO School, Yeah, which is I mean, honestly the most That's how I came to know Snira.
So We're going to talk about all of those good things about Snira, but we also want to get to know you better because there's one thing on Brown Ambition that we love to do is take off this like facade of business baddie and kind of like kick our feet up and like take your shoes off and get comfy on the couch and just kind of like open up about what life in what these accolades really looks like, and how do you get there and what's it like at the top.
Want to say, Mandy, this is my first Unicorn, So as you know, I'm very close friend now and I'm a close friends like I just I've met her a few times. She's really nice. Of a love the unicorn. Jamie Lynn Kern. She she had founded cosmetics and she told this the Lorio for like, I don't know, over a billion dollars. So I was like, not me meeting another Unicorn. I mean, in a minute, I'm gonna have a whole handful of Unicorn friends.
So I'm about twenty that's crazy.
Wow, I know twenty period or twenty women.
Twenty women that I know of I've heard and I want to say hi everyone Hello.
I mean to interrupt you there, but I'll know. I think Scott has shared this.
I think it's like twenty ish women that have built billion dollar businesses, and I think it's just a handful even maybe a little bit less, not just from evaluation, that have actually exited. So we can kind of talk and we can talk details of what that looks like. But yeah, it's uh, that's why the all.
Them unicorns and uh it's rare. My daughters really love that, by the.
Way, So well, do welcome? Well, what do you want people to know about you as a person scenario?
Oh my goodness, that's a loaded question.
I know, I just want to at first, I want to say hi. By the way, I just I loved your intro, like the singing. I mean, why I have like this is the coolest thing ever. Can I just also hang out?
And I love that you said I could just like take my business batty off.
Oh yes, please, girl.
It is exhausting and I am a business batty. So that is like one thing I do want people to know, and I think they do know. And it's also definitely like now we're going to probably get into like inner child shit right away, but it's definitely in my like in my psych I'm an immigrant, like daughter of immigrants, so it's like never enough, but it comes intrinsically like it just have like so much ambition. This is like
what this podcast is about. And I want people to know that I'm just fueled with purpose and fun and life and I feel so grateful to be in the position that I am today, and I wake up every day understanding my privilege and even though I worked hard for it, even though I wasn't luck and even though like all of this, I'm going to share all of the scars that I carry because I want other women to not have to go through that, and I.
Want to pave the way in that way.
But I do also understand that it took a little bit of like, you know, what do I want to get?
But like the Universe's you know, grace and.
You know, I think my parents' good intentions and all of like all of these things that it took for me to be in the position that I am today. And I don't take that privilege lightly. I wake up every day with how can I like I'm put on this earth for a reason, and I'm finding that purpose. I'm like evolving and growing in that purpose. But I do want to live a life of purpose, and I do understand the privilege that I have today even as somebody who didn't have any privilege, but where I am today,
I do know that what that is. And I hope to make a really big impact in this world and to really change lives and to really change the trajectory of what business looks like for my daughters and their daughters and for women everywhere. And so I carry that really deep in my heart, and that's what fuels me
and guys me. So I think that's like something that I do want now that like the guards are down, Like ambition is a big piece of it, and I don't need it for success or for another accolade or for more money or for success.
In that way.
I'm just really fueled with ambition in a different in a different way, and I work really hard every day to live in to live and fill.
Those shoes when I could.
Honestly, sometimes I'm like, I'm absolutely batshit crazy for starting another business again that I don't need to, but.
Right because aren't you supposed to be on a yacht somewhere. I definitely a busy, like on speed direly like senior or girl, where are you another one?
Come on?
That's cute? Off here, like what do your kids think that you do? Because I feel like, how old are your children?
My daughters are eight and five, so they're in this really fun age.
Yes, so you recognize my environment. I don't know, but.
I think all mom's on the show right now.
Well my stepdaughter is seventeen, but I taught preschool for ten years, so I'm like, I love that three to five to six age.
It's just like it's just it's.
Cool, it's fun.
I just feel really happy that I have one drop off and one pick up because y'all, mom, life is really hard.
I mean, all life is crazy.
And even with like it takes a village, I have a village, but I still want to be the one, like they're still like, there's my best title.
The greatest title that.
I wear is mom and I really and wife am a great wife too. Those families really important and I want to be I want. I want to be the one.
So you really can't outsore. I mean you can outsource like the whole village thing, but I get it because at the cords, like, yeah, but who's going to sit on the floor and be mama playing, you know, playing for me, it's monster trucks. For you may be different. I don't know. I don't want to assume, but like, can it be mama?
Like?
Who who else is going to be that person? I think someone asked us recently, like from one of our listeners, Mandy, like, how do you juggle the business in being a mom? And how do you like deal with mom guilt? And I was like, honestly, I deal with more business guilt because I can. The kids are the best excuse to just turn it all off. And and for me, it's like I'm like saying it, but I'm like, it's not the best.
Look.
I ain't got a unicorn yet. Maybe the secret to having a unicorn is like I didn't get num kidding, So, at what stage were you building this billion dollar business? I mean you have a five and eight year old, so that's about as old as stax is, right, ah, talk about how did you balance it? Or what was your version of what I'm going through?
It's super crazy, It's still it's still super crazy. There's no perfect there's no such thing as balance.
I think we've like all now come to understand that that was a bullshit that we were fed like ten Like now we're like in this next decade of like now we're like, yeah, balance is bullshit, and everybody understands that we're on that page. Work life integration is like what the term is, and that is truly how I live my life.
But it's a series.
Of NonStop decisions, series of NonStop decisions that you make, and you're just constantly prioritizing, Like that's what you have to get really good at as a working parent, as an entrepreneur, in your business, in your life, in your day to day is.
Everything is coming at you in a million miles.
There's one thousand things to juggle, and we live in a society today that is wildly different than it was for you know, businesses ten years ago, let alone for families ten years ago, and ten years before that and ten years before that. We have like there's just so much activity. Like even look at the speed at which I'm talking right now, to slow.
Down right me in therapy, I'm like I can hear myself.
They're so much coming at us. It's not our fault, Like we are not designed to be this level of species.
We're not.
I mean, we're we literally are turning into robots at this point, and we have now robots that do everything.
But it's a lot coming at you.
You have to slow down, you have to prioritize, and it's a series of prioritizations. So that's how I've been able to make the best decisions I can every day.
Like that's the truth of it.
It's just like you're constantly making the best decisions that you can with the resources that you have. And that includes time and money too, right, So resources are you know, we only have a finite number of resources, so how you manage that? And time is the most precious resource
that we have. So I have become a master at like crazy amount of productivity how to like really maximize my time almost like so much so to the point where I'm now having to like, you know, remove those systems and give my self some free space because I
became such a machine through my process. Long story short, I pitched this idea to my bosses of launching a subscription based credit card processing system, and it was seems so simple now, but most like big big ideas are very very simple, and like how was nobody doing it?
So I had zero desire to be an entrepreneur. I zero.
All I wanted to do was to be successful in my company. And I was like, look at me being ambitious and putting this whole business land together. I was pretty much laughed out of the boardroom. I was like, it was like a little girl, little girl, we love your ideas, love your ideas. We just you know, we don't have the resources, the dollars, and this is just not going to this is not going to work. And so I came back home and I like flew back from headquarters to where my.
Family was, and we always have dinner every Sunday.
We always have dinner, like every day, but that just happened to be Sunday dinner. And my brother was in town from he was working out in California, so he had also graduated from UF.
He had a degree also in five nance.
He was working for Deloitte and another startup, like he's also in like the tech world. And I'm sharing what I presented back and my dad looks at me and he goes, Sonny, which is my my nickname. He goes, well, why don't you just go start the company? And I go, Dad,
where do I go? Find mister Visa, Like, where do I even start, Like it's not like I'm opening a restaurant or you know, I don't know like a physical and I don't even think Instagram like has was just getting started, So it was in like a digital business, Like how do I even go find the card networks to go build a payment network?
And all he said to me.
He goes, he goes, you'll figure it out or you'll fail, and if you fail, you can always go back to school and go get your MBA, Like you can always go get a job, right.
Shout out to dad. I know sometimes you have an immigrant family. I'm just like speaking from hearing Tiffany and so many others in my life, Like that's not always the reaction you get from mom and dad, like you'll figure it out.
I do feel like I had a very special upbringing of like that could be a whole other episode. And I'm trying to raise my kids in the same exact way I My dad would pick me up from school.
So we had small businesses.
We had one in like Dublin's, Texas, Like I can't even tell you where that is on a map. We'd convenience stores like literally I'm like the cliche seven to eleven kid like as a brown girl, like it's a problem.
By the way, those that can't see.
Me, I'm Pakistani, but they're the sweetest, so hard working.
And he would literally pick me up.
And he owned this, like with this store in middle of nowhere, Texas and he'd have to go there once a month.
And that's like one of my favorite memories. And that's where the home.
Of Doctor Pepper like is, and Dr Pepper is like a really big deal in Texas.
And he would like putting out of school.
And my mom wouldn't know, and we had a secret and we wouldn't maybe she knew, and I just thought like she didn't know. And we'd drive down to Dublin, Texas, and the first thing that we'd do is go get a Doctor Pepper float and then I'd go to work with him and he'd.
Go, like meet everybody, go pick up the paperwork.
This is like physical like or you had to like pick up like checks. And I don't even know, like but I just watched. I just I've watched my parents work. Both my parents my father passed away in twenty twenty during COVID, but my family mom literally lives across the street from me still right now, and my parents and my family are like and I work with my brother. So that Unicorn company that I was telling you about, that idea, sal.
Ended up leaving his job. We ended up going out.
This together and we put one foot in front of the other and we made it happen. That first year of starting the business, we did five million in payments on our network, which had even build it.
God, I can't even tell you. And it was by like truly.
Networking right, like figuring out we weren't the tech experts, but I like went to a tech accelerator which didn't exist in Orlandos. That's not like I was in Silicon Valley where there was like a bunch of tech stuff happening.
Like we found our way into every room and so.
And that was the skill sets, the child stuff of Like we moved around a ton. I had to go to all these different schools, so if I wasn't cool or charming, or I'd be like the nerdy kid, or I'd like be that uh like that year, and so I always had to find my way into like whatever my systems were for school.
Every year we did a bunch of different schools too, And I always think of that now as a superpower that you can sort of And I'm not surprised at all that you want to study abroad too, because like, what's a different country. I've been to a different middle school half to do the school year. I'll tell you what that's. That's I mean, middle school is a different country. Let's be all the way around, yes.
To middle school.
In building this, is there something that like, Okay, is there something that you're like I wish I would have known this, or if somebody is building now just you know, I my business is eight figures and I'm just like, I don't even know.
Part of me struggles with.
I don't know if I want to do the work for Baker, you know, like because this was already so hard, you know, and so like so I always said, there's like a mindset shift to go from the next level to the next level. So if you could go back and say, oh, that was the shift that had to make mentally to from you know, seven to eight to nine and eight and beyond, like what was that mindset shift to? You're like, here's a different way of thinking
about it. Because I've heard a lot of women kind of hold themselves back, like, oh, I'm making three hundred thousand, it's enough, it's enough, which certainly it might be enough financially, but maybe there's more good that you can do. Like what is that mindset shift that we should be thinking about?
You're so smart? I love this question, and I really do they y'all are so awesome. I don't get to usually be on shows like this with two round women, so this is like really special for me as well. Okay, so the mindset shift, it's huge. I didn't know I could go build a.
Million dollar business, let alone a billion dollar business.
So one, it's just uncapping that, Like it's really uncapping that this guy is the limit.
You can't even dream of what the limit is right now.
That's what's so cool about what's happening in our world today. We're the most connected we've ever been. We have access to like just business can look different. It's even how the global and is shaping and changing. Like maybe billion might not be in enough. It's not about the dollars. It's about the scale that you can have with your company. And I would say that most women, like I support female entrepreneurs, like day in and day out. This is like what I love to do is mentor and coach
and support women in business. And the number one thing that I will tell you, I never meet a woman who is like, oh, I'm just starting a business for like, can I swear here yes?
Okay.
I never meet a woman who's like starting a business for like, fuck's sake of starting a business, right, Every woman that starts a business is like I was so exhausted from like not being hurt. I was so exhausted from this problem not being solved for my kids' school.
I was so exhausted from.
This industry thing like that, you know, we didn't have the customer level experience that we wanted to do in our industry. I was so exhausted from blank, blank and blank, Like we're so exhausted from a problem that no one else is solving.
So we're like, fine, fuck it, I'll do it.
Like that's the like we we don't go in with like, oh we're going to go do the thing. We're like in this like okay, fine, no one's doing it, I'll be the one to go do it because we're the last of bet on ourselves. So that's number one that was my first going back to even my story, I had no idea that I would even go start this thing until for the first time and I had supportive
people around me. But if I didn't, maybe I wouldn't have never like have ever gotten it started, because my mindset definitely wasn't there, right, And so the first mindset is to like, there's risk taking, Like we've got to be okay with failure, like that is a huge part of doing anything big and scary.
If it doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. And what is the point of life? Like, honestly, I think that that's.
What I think about every day, is like do I want to live a life every day of like the boring and pressing the button for somebody else or for even if you're working for somebody else, or doing something that I don't believe in, or like spending my time into something that I don't believe in just to make the paycheck.
Like that's not the life that I want to live. And so I've got to be the one to.
Go take the risk, to go try it and being comfortable with that it might fail. And that's what men are so comfortable doing, Like they don't even have the chops, they don't even have the experience, they don't have the resumes.
Whatever, they're going for it, right, they're going for it, and they're like.
Whatever, if it doesn't work out, we'll do it again, or we'll try the next thing. And I think that we as women have to get comfortable around trying and also get comfortable with failure. And failure does not necessarily mean that it's at everything.
Failure.
That just means that that portion didn't work, and then we get to pivot and try another version of it, and we get our mindset. What happens with the first little failure or the first little setback is.
Then then we're like, oh, I'm failing, I'm the problem.
It's me, right, I can't do this, and then we don't even try to course correct or pivot. So the first mindset shift is getting comfortable knowing that there's going to be a million mountains that you have to cross, like a million, that's it. And getting comfortable and knowing that even when you're.
Going to get to the top.
And this is entrepreneurship, right, So every time you're climbing, and then the question you asked me on the advice. The best piece of advice, Like the thing that I wish I knew is that it doesn't get easier, you get better.
A millionaire.
At our lives, at our live chat. I'm about to be a billionaire. Look at me.
Sounded like a billionaire.
How do they talk to you different now than I'm curious?
I've had this.
Like hello, I could come sit here, Sny's coming, somebody's coming. How's that?
How it's wildly different? It's wildly different.
I mean especially like we're back in our industry, so people know who we are, they know that we've been successful. They I don't have to prove my credibility anymore or am I worth anymore? Or my my track record?
Right? And so I can pick up the phone.
And I can actually get the meeting like it took me seven years to go get meetings like the ones that I'm having now, Like I can pick up the phone and go directly to partners like you know, to Stripe and to Equifax and to like all of these major players, to quick Books, to the I R s. We have a direct integration with the irs, Like how did I don't even know how I would have been able to do that if I, like, you got to.
Have your network is your net worth? That is it? So you've got to keep expanding your network.
And that was a big lesson for me, Like I wish I had, I like found my way. I think that's the superpower that Mandy and I were talking about, like into every room. And I think for women, that's the thing that I'm really focused on. Like you know, is if you really want to scale your business, you've got to expand your network.
We've got to get out of our screens.
We've got to get in the room, we've got to get in person, we've got to do the deals.
We've got to invest in.
Relationship enough human connection, even for a company that's built on data, right, but like humans, there's just something about us what is It's.
So important and we're so entitled in this world of like transactions, like everything is so quick, so fast.
Not our faults.
The world's crazy, right, not our faults. We were like training our brains for all of that.
But we have to.
Invest in key relationship, like just investing in people and getting to know people.
And not needing anything.
And then every single piece of the company that I sold to I met years before like the investors that haven't invested at the later stages I had met years before. The people that are on my table today I've had relationship with over the last decade, and so investing in relationships is just so critical, just the big part of it.
When you were coming up, I know you mentioned you and your brother Sal, you didn't have those connections. So what are some like tips or what what are some I always think about Brandis Daniels Tiffany. She has such clever ways of networking, Like why them a Starbucks gift card, you know, or send them cupcakes? Like what were some of the strategies that you used to make those connections early on?
Yeah, and that's such a good question for like think about the early days. I think it was just one just being.
Kind, like truly, like I think that it goes a long way, and I would always be the one.
To follow up with like a really.
Nice thank you after a meeting, Like those little things just go a long way, and you'd be surprised on how like we just don't do them anymore and it doesn't have to be like even if it's not the handwritten card, but it's like the personalization even with an email right, Like it's you can tell when somebody Actually you connect with somebody and then you remember something about your meeting or you think them later, or you're you know you've thought about them after you Like there's so
many things that are constantly going on in our brain, but it's like, oh, hey, you know, Mandy, I thought.
Of you today because I was I just wanted to say hi.
And check in and just like you came up today and like just something as simple as like just connecting even when we don't need anything and finding ways to connect. I think those things were something that I don't know I did or came naturally. And I think that's like the that's like the Blakistani hospitality in me, Like I'm always hosting, like my house is always full. I want my guests to always feel like their like guests are like next to God in our home, like you like.
You want people to feel someone.
People would come to our office, our offices for it, we'd always invite everyone in and that's like natural of what I would do. I'd invite their teams in and it would be like food, like I definitely like we always have like them fed the whole day and like really cool food experiences. No, like really like not the boring steak dinner, right, like getting to know like who's on the other side. And we had such great restaurants
here in like our community. I know all the local chefs as we'd curate these like super special when they like would sit down and it's like with there when they would walk into the office, something as simple as like our partner's logo with our logo.
Right, and then they just see like people want to feel. It's the human tendencies.
What is it liked like luck, liked, valued and loved or heard, seen and loved.
Like even in business, people want to feel that way.
What like when you first first first or did you like join incubators? Did you go to networking events?
I did. I did all conference to the events I was. I was showing up everywhere. I was getting out of my I wasn't at home, I wasn't behind a computer screen.
I was showing up to the meetup.
I would I did like the like everything that I could share my company, and I would wear It's kind of similar to like Sarah Blakeley's like where she would wear this Bangs T shirt. I would literally wear my The original name of the company.
Was called Fat Merchant. Long other story. We can we can literally off, we.
Can have like a day of this podcast talk about But I would wear like the sticker, like I would literally wear like you would know that that's me walking into a room.
I would do like.
The you know, like the the tech meetup, Like even though there was like four people at this tech coffee morning thing and you like give you a little pitch about your company. I think we like need it to be good enough, or we need it to be like full are we like need the It's like.
What's happening in social right now.
It's so disgusting, Like it's so frustrating of like if I post something and I don't get the amount of attention that I want, then it needs to come down or I don't feel validated enough, Like we.
Need to stop with that.
We just need to show up, even if it's one person that's like in that coffee shop, and that was that mentality, Like I showed up and I was grateful for four people being there that like one of that more like that were there together and everyone's building a startup and they heard my little startup pitch and that network then grew into the next event that I went to and then startup weekend and then going to the Ink conference and going and I remember, I'm actually going
to go to ooh fun like fun Circle here.
I love this story. For today, I'm heading to Money twenty twenty.
It's I don't know when this podcast is going to be released, but right now it's like it's like the key industry conference for US in financial services. The first year I went to Money twenty twenty, sell myself and Jaquad to share a badge because the badge price was like.
Oh I love I love that.
What did you do that? Oh my god? First, smart kids, like come on, you never stuck into it. We're in Orlando, we're playing parks all the time. Were already know one ticket. That's like yeah, we just.
Like sit on each other's shoulders, like with a big trench coat, like.
You go first and then you go to the bathroom like you were all you see me. I'm coming right back, ma'am. And then god man to get with it.
Yes I did so we so we did wet the badge.
The first conference.
We can't even afford the conference ticket, but we knew it was always ROI based.
So we spent twenty five hundred dollars on that badge.
We probably had like we had one hotel room, you know, maybe a grand in tickets, like to get to Vegas.
Whatever it was. We knew we had to go get.
Back our five k like out, like we needed a customer out of that conference where we needed certain things.
So we went in with that mindset.
And now a decade later and I've been on. I've been the speaker for Money twenty twenty. I've hosted so many things for Money twenty twenty. But I'm coming back for Worth this year at Money twenty twenty. We're like making our big debut.
We're back.
How does Bran Ambition get a Worth School.
Yeah, So we're building the business credit Score itself and we're just trying to empower small businesses.
They should know their worth. You should know your worth for like for your business.
It just the transparency doesn't exist, and you should have all your business.
Financials and one consolidated tool.
And so I encourage you to go to worthscore dot com and just sign up for the waitlist. The score is launching middle of next year. We're already in market sell like we're selling our like the Vancy solution to all the enterprise companies that I was mentioning, and if we change enterprise, it'll trickle down. So I'm going to the large ones first. So it's the one to many.
That's the lesson that I learned. I went one to one last night last time. I feel like that's the enterprise.
So revenue can look differently, right, like, let's think about the one to many, and so going straight to the big the big dogs and like in all the banking and like financial services or whatever, and so they're utilizing our platform to underwritet onboard customers.
So that's the enterprise tool.
But I just want the small businesses to have their worth, to have that transparency, for it to be in your hands. And so go to wordscore dot com and sign up for the waitlist and just follow me, follow us on social. So if you follow Sanera Madonni, it'll link to word Score, it'll link to the podcast, it'll link to all the things, and just show us some love.
Like that's all We're going to link you all in the show notes were starting.
I already sign.
So just so just just send us some love, even like the little things as like just the engagement and the likes and the shares and the just the hearts do make a difference for small like small start or we're not a small startup, but for startups.
And so that's all.
That's all I ask, And follow the show if you like loved today's conversation, which I just cannot wait to have you two on. It's a lot of heartfelt, real conversation about business and about life.
So I'd love for you to listen to CEO School.
Yes, and we're going to tag like all if you're listening and you're like, wait, all of we're gonna just at worth score. Everything will be in our show notes where you can follow her on social you know, you can listen to our podcast as well as get your worth score.
So yes, all of that will be there.
And I love that final lesson that you learn because I'm just now learning that one to one one to one to one to manny like girl, this one contract is like so much easier than trying to convince thirty thousand people to say yes. So I love that final little little piece of advice. Anything else, Mandy before we let.
I I'm gonna keep talking, but I know you guys gotta go. Bye. I don't want to, but bye.
Yes, Benificit follow us every week we are here Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and please go down to wherever you listen to podcasts, but especially if it's on Apple, and leave us a review because we get to see, be seen, heard, and loved even more when you leave us up. Bye, starting you, and until next next time, I'm not sure this is gonna air.
Bye y'all, Thank you, good bye, Thank you so much,