Disruption Now Episode 184: This Founder Builds Black Wealth with AI

I am an enabler. I always find power in helping and finding the best version of people. You may not guess from my accent, but I was born and raised in the ghetto of Paris. And a month, but most specifically with um with your biggest cheerleader, you can achieve anything that you want. If it's difficult, I want to try. If it's too easy, I get bored of it. True. Entrepreneurs are people who refuse to accept the status quo. Two choices that you can take, two position

that you can take in life. You can choose to be a victim or you can choose to be a fighter. Leave with data, don't leave with feelings. We are in the biggest revolution that we can possibly imagine right now and we have to jump on the wagon if we don't want to be left behind. Your first is your education. You have to adapt but do not adopt any of their thinking. I've never thought about entrepreneurship as the journey to take, but I thought about the opportunities or the challenges that

need to be fixed. You're not for everyone and not everyone is for you. [Music] Welcome to Disruption Now. I'm your host and moderator Rob Richardson. With me is Favlla Fong Gang who is a is a serial entrepreneur and you know she's had multiple careers. She lives she's lived multiple lives like myself. Uh been in fashion, been in oil and gas. Uh she's an ecosystem builder and and now she is

building black rise. She's also uh helped black women and women in general get into tech uh be their authentic selves and and really fight for them to to to know that they belong at the table. So Flla, great to have you here. Listen, such a pleasure to reconnect after the great in Cincinnati. So thank

you for having me. No, thank you. And as always, please like, subscribe. You get to meet more disruptors like Favlla and others. And we have our annual Midwest Con. We'd love to see you September 10th of the 11th here at 1819 where I host the podcast. So, so Favlla, it's uh it's great to have you on. I like to get to know our guests before we kind of go down the path of what you're doing in tech, how you're changing the world. Uh really to figure out how you got to be

who you are. So, uh, my first question is a general one like what is your story and who are you? And and to put it in context how I how I briefly tell my story is I'm always that kid that was told by a teacher that I would never go to college, I would never achieve just because I uh didn't do well early and I have ADHD which I consider a superpower now. But like uh that teacher I've been not proving her wrong but proving myself

and defining myself since then. That's that's my story from and that's the that's the reason a lot of motivation behind uh why I do what I do why I fight for the communities I fight for. But what's your story and who are you? Yeah, I love it. It's such a great way to uh that's such a great comeback for me. I think the best way to define myself I'll probably say that I am an enabler. I've always find power in helping and finding the best version of people you know that

anybody that I encounter. So yes. So my journey people may not guess from my accent but I was born and raised in the ghetto of Paris and from there my my story started and probably wasn't as great as people could imagine you know born in a ghetto you probably think that I'm going to turn back but I think when you have parents and a mom but more specifically who is um who is your biggest cheerleader who supports you and really just gives you a sense of true selfworth you can achieve anything that

you want And I think I've always been by nature attracted by the unknown and the challenge. Like if it's difficult, I want to try. If it's too easy, I get bored of it. Yeah. So, so yes, when I left Paris in my teens coming to London, I didn't speak a word of English, but I had to study at the same time. So, um over overly curious, you know, scared, but also going moving forward was super

important with whatever I've achieved in life. And then so then what I did is that left university with loads of degrees but unfortunately not enough experience to take me in further and um I had to start from from scratch which was working as a receptionist but was and I say that all the time because it's important to understand that you know I I chose this job and because I was also

asking the right question. So people often I always say that when I when I hire people they don't ask me when I recruit interview people they don't ask me the right questions is because they don't ask any questions and you always ask questions because you want to know what are the potential that you can achieve this company and that's what I that's what I found out and that's why I joined and then in two years I was managing a department which was really good. So with that, if you can because

you got there, you get there quickly. I just want to say so. Yes. Sounds like your mother was a driving force behind shaping your values. Correct. Yes. Always. How do how does she do that for you? Because one doesn't come out and just say um some people are naturally just bold change makers. Normally it takes some uh you know input and and from our parents which it sounds like your mother did. How does she shape your values? Like yeah, my mom is my mom is a

storyteller. She always use a personal stories to really inspire to make to inspire us to make sure that we don't

make the same mistakes. She she would tell us in a way that we can understand and I think that's that's one thing that my mom always done you know and um we always had long conversations sometime too long for us not to be like come on can we go to bed where she make sure that we don't make the mistakes and you know out of transparency my mom had her first child when she was 16 years old.

Oh wow. And I imagine Yeah. So having a child at this age, she really wanted to make sure that we don't end up the same way she did, which was not bad. I mean, she's grateful for the children that she had, but you know, she wanted us to prioritize our education. So one thing that she say all the time is that your first husband is your your first husband is your education. So what are you doing? And that's why I'm an obsessive learner. You know, learning new skills.

You know, AI right now is something that I love and continuously learn from and so forth. So that's one thing that she's done. It wasn't just talking for talking, but if you put things in the story, it's easy for someone to remember, and that's what she did. So, storytelling, you talk about

storytelling a lot. I've read a lot about you, of course, and know and and we met uh once, but I feel like we're already connected. Uh, but you talk about the power of storytelling, how that's so important, like it became important to you because the the values your mother passed down. How do you advise people on the importance of telling stories? And if you're not a natural storyteller, how do you tell people to to tap into that power? I think I wouldn't think that anybody is

not a storyteller. Anybody can tell a story of that happened to their life. You know, there's always a, you know, a moment, a starting point to a middle part to an end. And I think it's important to just sometime, you know, I've been a marketer for a very long time and people often when they try to be commercial lose a sense of what it is. If you were talking to a friend, you were telling a story to a friend, how would how would it sound like? How do you keep them captivated? Think about

that. I think quite often when people tell stories and if you're not doing to a person who's in front of them, they go too commercial and they lose that sense and that's people don't pay attention. It's always interest. It's always important to think about who's in front of you. How would you how would you get their attention? How would you keep them hooked? Don't tell everything. Keep them interested and keep them holding on for

wanting to to know more. Right? And I think that's what's important is that if you think about how you tell a story to a friend, you use the same approach as if you are doing a telling a story in a commercial manner. But how do you do that? Like I think it's it's like practically speaking it makes sense, right? Don't go commercial. Don't go corporate. Uh but of course you are not talking to this person. This person is is you're you're talking to them but

they're not there. And you want to figure out I think it's it's it's you got to figure out how to reach that

person. So my question is how do you how do you how do you balance on how to reach that person while also trying to make sure you keep your authentic self when you tell the story because I think it feels like it feels like often people lose it and they become corporate uh you know whatever you want to say uh in that they lose the authenticity of who they naturally are trying to I think speak to people in a way they think they want to be spoken to. So, how do you balance

that out? Because I I believe that's how people end up falling for that. They kind of they kind of say, "Okay, how would people want to hear it?" So, how do you balance that between being your authentic self? Yes. So, the first part of of being a great storyteller is to recognize recognize who is your tribe. Who who do you want to appeal to? You're not for everyone and not everyone is for

you. when you know who you want to appeal to is really understanding in terms of what are their interests and what are the challenges what really matters to them and how do you feel you can provide value so these are two things like who is your tribe whatever challenges or problems that they have in their life and if you can resonate with that you have the this is your hook for example if I wanted to speak to black women in technology or black women who interesting in changing career or

transitioning to careers I would say if you are interested in changing career let me tell you how I've done it and I would take my story as an example to tell them the same challenges that they probably recognize are there right now. What did I do to get there? So with a a road map to my journey and also the end the results so they can see themselves

into it. And this is why for me it's so important for us, you know, in our community as well to become more and more storyteller because a lot of people cannot fathom that we have within the black community that we have so much knowledge across so many industries, right? And that's why I do it. People

just like you're always online. It's like I feel like I'm always online, but I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it because I need to inspire somebody out there who may think, "Wow, she looks like me. She can do it. I can do it too." Because I think about my journey to becoming a storyteller. I wasn't good at the beginning. But it takes practice and time to see what hooked on it, right? I think start with who do you want to appeal to? Who is your tribe?

What how do you understand their problem, the challenge that they have? How can you resonate with them and tell them your story? And then from that you know find the you know the step by step that you can create so they can understand that they can achieve it too and use story to reinforce the validity of your point and that's how you get it. And it's so easy to remember somebody that told you something that made sense to you that a completely theoretical you know copy writing kind of style.

Exactly. Exactly. So you know you talk I I believe that's the opportunity and challenge in the age of AI because everybody thinks you could just copy it. No, you still got to know who you uniquely are and how you are solving the problem. So the most important thing with AI is you know clarity of vision, clarity of uh of the problem you're trying to solve of your community of

your tribe. Yeah, I want to get to like um I want to get to I want I want to come back to building your tribe because you've talked you talk a lot about that. You know, you talked about reaching them and you and and you've also gone into the importance of entrepreneurs understanding building and scaling their tribe. But I want to get to you also to talk about your entrepreneurial journey like when did you know you wanted to do

what you're doing now? When did you know that you wanted to become an entrepreneur and an ecosystem builder? I don't think I ever It's interesting that you asked me this question because I've never thought about entrepreneurship as the journey to take but I thought about the opportunities of the challenges that need to be fixed.

That's probably how I saw it. So my journey as an entrepreneur started after this first job that I took and um you know I saw a gap in the market and you know when I see a gap in the market and I saw that nobody was trying to fix it and how I I how I saw it needed to be done I decided that I need to be I need to do it myself. That's pretty much how my journey started. I've always saw

myself as a problem solver. I don't like to do you know the way the way I think about entrepreneurship is that we are people who are who are dare who dare to take the challenge is to think that we can solve a problem that people have normalized. So if you think about life before Uber people always for the I'm going to wait on the side road and wait for the taxi to find taxi until someone say you know what that shouldn't be the

norm. We shouldn't do things that way or you know if you think about having to order food or I have to go to the corner store to get some food. No wait a minute I can't do this right. So the

entrepreneurs have people who like who refuse to accept the status quo. And that's what I am like I see a problem like that doesn't make sense. Why are we still doing things this way? It doesn't make sense. And then I look for if is anybody's trying to solve it. Okay. If nobody's trying to solve it, I'm not going to take on every ideas that I that I that I have. But sometime I decid you well maybe I should try this idea. So my journey to entrepreneurship started by

just a lack as well. quite often the lack is that's where entrepreneurship comes from. So again, you know, when I say I'm from Pis say, "Oh my gosh, you're so lucky." But you know, I grew up in the ghetto of Pis in a sense that we my mom only gave us one pair of trainers per year because like I'm going to give you whatever trainers you want, but just know that's your only pair. So training or sneakers, I would say in the States, right? You got to use those sneakers. Well, you

Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. sneakers. And um and then so my sister and I remember like we used to buy clothes from vintage

stores. So we started like creating our own things and changing around and you know and just we develop that curiosity and and entrepreneurship by the idea of of changing things innovating and so and so on and I think that from that it just becomes so natural and you do it uh all the time and then as I said that you know I define myself as an enabler that I'm able to look at someone say oh wow you're good at this have you thought about this and so I'm always seeing a

version that is not present and the the f the possible future even if it's not there. So my journey to entrepreneurship was very organic but also I should say that I'm always been surrounded by entrepreneur. My father was an entrepreneur so we had multiple careers. My mom is a side you know she had so many side hustle. She was making things on the side. Yeah. So people just like you know I'm not accepting just this. I'm always have different streams of

income. So when you're surrounded by people like that you naturally think that if you can do it I can do it too. Right. So your environment shapes you. The the challenges and the struggles that you go through shapes you as well. And I always say there's two choices that you can take. Two position that you can take in life. You can choose to be a victim or you can choose to be a fighter. And I chose to not accept no for an answer. I chose to uh not define you know what people have have chosen

for me. You know people say, "Oh, you should be a secretary." And I realized that doesn't make sense. So I listen to voices when it makes sense to me. And um and uh and I'm not afraid to get to challenge people have of me and and even if they they have a perception of me, it doesn't bother me. You know, I've I've been sitting in boards where I'm the

only black woman surrounded by white men and they come into room with thinking that oh my gosh, she's the one who's going to make coffee. Then I'm the one who leads the meeting. And you know what? It's surprisingly um for them to not see that. But at the same time, they're also pleased to see that well actually this is good. I

wanted to see this. maybe maybe I need to think further and um that's what I love is that's definitely the hope right I think it's the hope that people see that obviously the current environment of where we are in the world certainly America I don't know if uh London some of Europe is going to the to this direction too of um of really uh kind of questioning the value of diversity you obviously believe in the value of diversity how do you as an entrepreneur um that you know is successful but

happens to be diverse and cares about diverse communities. How do you advise entrepreneurs in this climate where people are trying to say that there's no value in diversity to move forward when people are trying to erase diversity as even uh something to discuss. I think I love this and uh I'm not going to claim to be a DNA expert either, but I think I'm a businessminded person and I think it's important that your agenda the agenda that you have shouldn't be the one that you say to your to your

target to your to your prospect. What I mean by that is that you have to understand what is the commercial value that you bring to the table, you know. So, and often people perceive DNA as a charity case. They don't ne necessarily see the bottom line or the dollar behind this. Like what does it mean when I'm when I have a brand that speaks to a diverse audience? I'm more people buying

from that product. So, for example, and I'm telling that, you know, since Amazon announced that they're pulling it for DNI, I'm being much more conscious. I used to buy from Amazon, my eyes closed. Now, I'm like, you know what, let me look at the alternatives. And this is something that I'm going to do that like if I come find if I'll try to see if I can't find on Amazon and if I can't find if I can't find anywhere else then I

come back to Amazon. But if it didn't do that I would have just continuously convenient conveniently buy from Amazon. So we also have to make people realize that the dollar you know the power of your every dollar that we have. That's exactly right. Yeah. If they understand that then they pay attention to it. So that's why it's important I would say to an entrepreneurs to lead with data. Don't lead with feelings. Lead with

data. Lead with data. Don't lead with feelings because you bring value, right? And I think there's there's multi-layers to this. Like you're you're absolutely right. Like we can um we can vote with our dollars in a way, right? Um and we

can vote so we can choose who we do business with because you know the world is diverse. So, you know, if they don't believe in diversity, maybe they don't need diverse consumers. That's how it is, you know. Yeah. And yes, I agree with you on on not leading with, oh, I'm a I'm a black person, so support me, right? But there's value in that you have a tribe and the tribe is, you know, black people buy things a lot just like

everybody else, probably more. So like there is value in the tribe that you bring and you bring forth the data as you said you bring forth uh you know what you do well and that does have value and for those that uh that don't understand it they're not they're not they're not your corporate tribe different tribe from your community tribe your corporate tribe but also one point I'd like to make I think someone talked about this current environment you may not agree uh and I certainly do

not how things are being phrased uh and how they're trying to scapegoat diversity university as uh unqualified to say what they're they're saying the quiet part out loud that if you're black if you're this if you're a woman particularly if you're a black woman uh you are not qualified because you're a DEI hired that is trying to do but what I would say is you don't you don't have to you have to adapt but do not adopt any of their thinking uh because if you

want to change this world you have to do what you're doing is you have to become a builder That's how we're going to have to do it and figure out ways to help and to use your words enable other builders. Yeah, I love what you say. I you need to to adapt and not to adapt. And that's a perfect example of what we had to do with um our nonprofit because DGA Black and Tech my other entity. You know, the

we need to detach oursel from DNI. But what we what we know is that there's a major digital skill gap right in Europe, in the UK. And that's something that you cannot deny. You can get as as many men as you want, but you need more women to be able to fight this. So, if you want to remain a strong country, there's trust that you need to make sure that your your your your people are qualified to take those big roles and technology is leading and everybody's scared of

China and whatsoever. So, if you want to stay relevant, something needs to happen in that case. Absolutely. John O'Brien FLLA says this all the time. He says, you know, math doesn't have an opinion. That's why he likes it. Right. There's this is a simple fact not a racial statement. There's not enough white men in the world to do everything and to fulfill what has to happen. There's not enough uh white purely men in tech or anything. There's not enough and we have

a diverse population in the world. So you want to serve Africa, you want to serve Latin America, you need to have diversity of talent there because also knowing how to reach people matters. Understanding how to build for people and you can see it less about race, more about culture. The culture of African-Americans, for example, is very different from the culture probably of uh you know, Africans that are based in

London. That's just my guess, right? So understanding the culture of where you're from really really really matters. So it's uh and it's an opportunity to make money not to, you know, not to uh shut it off. So people are really shutting off opportunity and there's just not enough qualified trained white men in tech or in the world to make up for the deficit. So we're it's it's actually good for the economy when more people are trained and

have access to technology. And that's why like you know what you do what what you do for so much tribe building is so so important and I want to get to that

but before we get to that let's talk about AI. Um you know we AI is obviously changing uh everything in terms of how businesses are built what skills you need as a you you advise a lot of entrepreneurs. Uh there's a lot of o entrepreneurs in your communities. Uh Black Tech Rise your your nonprofit for black women. uh what advice are you giving those entrepreneurs and professionals right now in the age of

AI? Yes, I think we are in the biggest revolution that we can possibly imagine right now and we have to jump on the wagon if we don't want to be left behind. Whether you like AI or AI or not, you have to understand it. You have to apply it. You have to utilize it. You know what's so funny? I was doing an interview a few months ago with when I was looking for a marketing person and I asked her how do you how do you intend to implement AI in your role? And she

say I do not. And I say, "Why is that?" Because I a marketing person said they were not gonna do heard you. I know. And I And I say, "Can you tell me why?" I said, "Oh, I don't see the need of it." And I said, "Okay, let me ask you a question. If I ask you to write an article, how long would it take you?" Said, "Brobably, you know, half a morning." I said, "Like, let me just tell you. I do in 30 seconds." Yep. So, and you know, like for her, she was like, "Wow, she didn't even understand

it." So there's so it is so important for us to understand it first of all apply it and another layers to also create it because as we know the more we are consumer we more become victim of choices we build things biases right that's right and there's no excuses because there's plenty of courses available out there to just say I'm going to spend half of my lunchtime and learn a bit about you know and and they're all free they're all free learn.microsoft.com

Google has a course on AI. MIT all of their courses on AI are free free ree they're not fake free they're free and if that's not your cup of tea come listen to some YouTubes like there's there's a lot of ways to learn AI right but I think this there's this mental block that some in our community have they think like oh I'm not a technical person oh that's not me uh or or they just you know don't think they need it like you said like I I had this conversation with my you know with one

of my employees who was debating me obviously we're AI company so it wasn't going to be much of a debate here but it's like why like AI wasn't ready or you don't need that and you know I'm patient and heard her out but I said listen to me I said here's what I know though I'm going to expect you to produce at the same level as if you were using AI that's how I'm going to judge you right I'm not going to judge you on on on what a what a person does I'm going to judge you want a person that

knows how to use AI efficiently. Yeah. And that's how I expect your output to be. Uh if it doesn't match that, you know, there's a problem. And that's how the that's how that's that's how the world is going. And there's opportunities for pe for for folks that normally didn't have opportunities because some people, as you say, uh don't want to move fast. And they will fast, they will get left behind even faster than they can even realize because the world is changing faster

than we can see. Like I believe there's a there's a multiple studies that said by 2030 85% of the jobs in 2030 don't exist right now.

Just think about that's five years. Absolutely. And the best way is to always stay relevant is to continuously learn. Like if you don't continuously learn, you lose your you lose your value. You you become less relevant to a company. that when people choose and decide who they're going to do their layoffs, they're going to choose people who haven't been seen the same role for such a long time. They choose people who didn't try to learn new skills. People

have been showcasing drive. You know, people always think about entrepreneurship as for business owners. I think that even if you're an employee have the entrepreneurship mindset, okay, what can you do to demonstrate and go further and so forth like how are you good at building relationship internally? So people talk about you at the table even if you're not even there.

How do you make sure that people make sure that you are you know at the table when there's an opportunity they share that with you or or find your mentors and build a great team that really that you can lead the right way. I think those things are so um I think that we need to remove that entitlement of expected to receive. No no no no if you want something you go and get it. And I think that's what the change that I want

to see among all of us. If we have that mindset, remove that entitlement of I should have received, I should have had that and ask and work you know for understand the framework of say like I want to make I remember when I was a brother I say I want to make 50k what do you need to do to make 50k and my boys be like what say okay I'll come back to you but at least when I knew what I need to achieve it's like well I'm working towards this you know I want I know what

I need to achieve but if you when you sell a review and you have no idea what you want and you don't even know what you do to get there that this is the problem you should feel in Sure. And that's so important. Yeah. So, you talk about building a tribe, right? And and why that's so important and really uh how do you advise a person to go about building a tribe? Like what are the a a key ingredients for success to build a tribe?

The key ense and success to build a great tribe is to find a common problem that enough people have. Right? So when I started with GTA black women in tech the common problem with black men tech that we were lonely we are often the only one in the room and also we were not recognized or we were misunderstood undervalued. So what you see what are the common issues of your tribe when you find that you reinforce that and reverse that in a way that really now help your

community or your tribe do better. So that's a simple it doesn't have to be complicated, right? And then when you have that then it's just spotlight individuals that matter. So don't make it all about you. It's like what can you do to really showcase for the rest of the world that actually you the preconceived ideas that you have about us are false. So again something when I launched G black in tech the big ideas that that there's not enough successful

black women in tech. So for 30 days on our launch every single day we highlighted a black woman in tech work at voice worked at at um AWS work at you know different brands and so on and they first of all I think the power of being recognized is so important for people which is more than money was great two was wow you exist I'm not the only one and then you bring them into the same room that becomes even more powerful because they feel like wow I can talk about to someone who understand my

challenges and then when we have panel discussion and so forth of we are really supporting each other and then naturally people want to give back right so there's so much power why having a tribe is so much important is that you then give power for your tribe member to recognize theirs so they can act on your behalf so what I mean by that is that when I build my tribe and when I've people said to me how did you acquire all this brand to become your sponsors

that it was just people from my my tribe who recommended me to their company they made the entrance so easy it's like oh flilla she's doing some great thing. You need to speak to her. And that's it. And it was no hardcore sale or da da. I didn't have to do cold calling. They they knew what we wanted to achieve. They wanted to be part of that change. And now they could see that wait, I I'm part of the tribe and I can be part I can do something about it. And so building a tribe is to empower your

people. Absolutely. That's what's important. empower people by giving them a sense of courage or giving them great knowledge but also connecting them in a sense that they can feel that they don't have to go through that journey alone and that's really what made a difference

for us. Yeah. If I had to sum up what you what you said and why why why communities uh work and how you can build a successful tribe, it feels like it's seeing people like really seeing their humanity, seeing their problems and then being like you said being an enabler to actually solve them. oftentimes we can't see past ourselves and that gives us a way of actually being able to create that tribe which actually will help our tribe and

ourselves. So often it's us that are blocking our own blessings if you will or blocking the opportunity because you know we can't see other people. And then when you don't see other people, uh, that's also when bad things and evil things or horrible things happen. Because I think, um, you know, people think the opposite of of of love is is hate and hate is bad, but indifference is worse, right? And a lot of people are indifferent to other struggles. And that's why there's opportunities to

solve problems like your community. But uh it's also an opportunity for all of us to be really I think better human beings and I connect that to right now because in we are building technology there's a lot of power but we want to make sure that there's always uh that we that we are considering humans behind what we're building uh because we're getting to this point where people are thinking that you know technology can completely replace all of uh human interaction human intimacy. I don't

believe that. I think there's going to be more of a craving for that. And so let's talk a little bit about the community that you're building around tech, black tech rise, how you came to do that and and what you are solving. So first of all, like I understand the big picture is the is black tech rise bring black tech entrepreneurs together all

across the world. Um first question for you, why was it you that built black tech rise? Okay, first of all, black rise. There's no tech in it. All right, I'll get it right. So let make sure. person a lot of time. So, black rice, right? I say text so much text. I'll ask the question again and retape this part. We'll look at this. Uh we're about 35 minutes in retape this part. Uh all right. So, I asked a question. So, Black Rise is a community that you were

building that you have built. First question, why was it you that launched Black Rise? Yes, I love this question. One thing that you will know about me is that nothing of what I do is is um by random. It's always very much a consequences and it's organic of actions. So launching three colors all my first businesses which was my agency and then focusing this agency and working in technology led to me creating

GTA black women tech. Then we launch when DJ Blackman Techch became such a huge baby with over 22 we're more than 22,000 now across um across Europe and I heard you again like when you build a tribe it's also important to listen to what people are telling you and so I've built my name with through DJ Black Men in tech and but what also I heard was I'm not a man I can I don't feel like I can join oh I'm not in tech but I love what you're doing but I don't feel like

I can join but also So what I was looking for was a place where I could discover okay so before that is that when I launched G black men tech inspire other black women to launch as well their community which I love I think there's enough place for all of us to do something right but what I realized that there were so many great interesting communities that they were discovering but I was like how I've never heard about you so I was looking for place myself where I could find an ecosystem

where I could discover everything black own or black focus and I couldn't find it So again, I'm a marketer. Before I I I go crazy and start launching an idea, I always test it and I say like I'm about to do this who is interested please let me know and people people came back to me and say wow we're interested about the idea and and if you are interested join be on the mailing list and that's basically how I all

started. The reason why I was the person to do this is because I wasn't a no one but also vent and pretentious and I've also built a level of authority and friendship with a number of black leaders who are also powerful across a number of large enterprises which is also why my entarian fund raise has been backed up by black um black leaders only. So my fund raise is fully 100% black funded. And people say to me, how

do you do that when black people don't invest in each other? It's not the fact that we don't invest in each other. It's like we don't even know where to find people to invest in or maybe we don't even know if we can invest in or we don't even know where to start. So we have a lot of of mindset blockers that we have. But when you know the person, when you've seen what they've done, so a lot of people who invested in me who are first- time investors, like I believe in

you, so I'm going to come. I know that you're going to make this work. I know

you I've I've seen your work ethic. So when I say to people what's important is that for me if I if I didn't have if I haven't built my personal brand the one that I have built throughout years I would have not been the right person to build black rice because it would have taken me a lot of hard work to go through the hurdles and I really that's why I'm I'm comfortable saying to people please go try and do it if you think it's easy please do it right because it

it's um it's been a long time coming and I always say that you don't build your network for today you build it for tomorrow what are you doing now that will sell or serve you when you need it? What are you doing to help somebody? What are you doing every day to really build new relationship and really can't underestimate how important it is to

network? People say, "Oh yeah, majority of of white men get funded because they probably have daddy who's like well connected with you know whatsoever and therefore it's easy to get the money but networking started early too. There's there's a there's a the network starts at their schools that are also in fifth

grade. Like that's literally the the networking starts early like and so we don't normally have those levels but there's other ways one of my mentors said this he said as a community we're not poor we're just poorly organized sometimes I love that poorly organized I think that's exactly that poorly organized we don't we don't know what we don't know so therefore we make assumptions or maybe we have self-belief self-doubt but again this is why tribes and communities are so important because

that's why you got to join black R that's that's what you're going to do black rise and and we and black rise and that's why I say that black rise I don't want people to see black rice as a community is the ecosystem where all the communities who are black focus but also the companies of all black all background big and small how would you describe your story retrov uh how would you describe it like how does it work black rise yeah so the best way to describe black rise it's and

because people compare us a lot to LinkedIn is that we socially created to appeal to the black community in a sense that there be a there will be the learning area where you can learn from lots of black experts across a number of industries. Right? You will discover groups and communities that are focused specifically on different jobs. So black in sales, black in techa and so on. But also most importantly is that people can

monetize their community. So for example, it wasn't even a competitor but people you can build your community but you don't make any revenue from it or you know when you people utilize

WhatsApp but it's messy. you don't know who's talking about that and then sometime you come in like oh my gosh I can't follow up so it's organized in the sense that you can create discussion people come and join the conversation you can like like what's a secure too not as is not a secure like WhatsApp or signal too similar yeah similar yeah all of these things that are important so I've I've looked at what I love I love from some of the text tech companies

that are there and made it different and better and what I was what I couldn't find and I think that I'm the first one who saw the challenges I had building a community and I was looking for

something better. But most importantly as well for companies who are either looking for black consumers or black talent they lack of data you know sometime they don't have the data to know if this is performing well they go and spend loads of money during black months and say yeah yeah I've done this and it didn't work out but actually it's a continuous you know um journey that you need to do you can't just invest in black talent or during black months you have to do it throughout the year so

what are you doing to also understand the data what are you doing to also continue building that relationship ship with those with those brands because that's what happened. We realize that they haven't built a relationship with with those um with our tribes and then when they come it's pretty much like oh I don't know if I will fit in your company. I don't know if I want to be the only black person in the company.

Right? So all these things that I've learned from past experiences and utilize it to really give people the power with understanding the data inside that sit behind every action that they do. Okay. No, that's okay. So a couple of lightning round questions I like to ask folks. So, um, a year from now, what will we be celebrating in your life or with Black Rise or anything? Okay. My life for Black Rise because it's a different thing.

Go. It's an open-ended question. Okay. For Black Rise, really for Black Rise, what I want to see is us, you know, finding a place where we feel safe, finding a place where we can buy black more comfort. I think I would say that don't buy from someone because they black buy from them because they're good. So you find the best in best in in the in each industry who can support you. You can find your own specific

tribe. You can create your own tribe and also companies would have seen the value of black talent and black consumers in developing their brand. I think what I'm trying to do is to improve the economic

equity. That's that's the intention of it is that it's created for black talent but it will serve everyone right so if you're a company say I want to go into the in Nigerian market you can you can find people who can help you get there you can find the consumers who are there and you know and so forth I think that's why I'm trying to build a a strong ecosystem where we all thrive together yeah we'll talk offline I'm curious to see about the developers and all that

stuff behind there so but we'll talk more about that offline uh let's say the last five years of your life. If it was a if it was a chapter in a book, it was a chapter, let's say. So, the last five years was a chapter, what of your life, what would that chapter be about? You mean the last next years over the last five years? The last five years of your life, if it was a chapter, what would

that chapter be about? The life definitely I think, it's funny because you asked that and actually written a book about how I want my life to unleash. I would have definitely been of the grit in a sense that I'm here for a mission. As soon as I complete that admission, then I go and I go and live somewhere in Africa. I haven't decided the country. But for me, it's just going back to pure simplicity where I don't feel like a minority, where I feel like I'm among people who

I'm just a human being. This is what I want to be able to do that I've made a legacy that lives beyond me and I don't need to be in a forefront continu. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, I got a I got a hard one for you. This will be the last one. What's an important truth you have that very few people agree with you on? We often look for the solutions outside, but it's all within us. So, spend time in quiet. Spend time with yourself. You

have the answer. You just need to know that they are there and you'll find it. I think sometimes we always on the go but actually leave is so much power in slowing down and leaving space for quietness. Yeah, Favlla Fong Gang with Black Rise. Honor to have you on disruption now. Of course, you can follow her at Black Rise. All the great work she's doing in Europe now connecting to the United

States. Look forward to really uh working more together, figuring out how we can collaborate and make sure that uh we keep disrupting. Appreciate you on the show. Thank you. [Music]