Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host Coleen Witt, and today have very special guests Lakeisha Landrum Pierre, founder and managing partner, co founder and managing partner of Emmiline venture Capital, which is amazing. We've never had a venture capitalists on the show, let alone a young woman, let alone woman a black woman. So this is going to be like a unique, very unique episode. We're going to be like all in your
head today. You're going to teach us a lot. So we'll talk about your backstory, but we're also going to talk about the industry you're in and because it it definitely has a not fun reputation as far as women or people of color.
Yeah, except it changes the world.
Except it changes.
It changes the world.
It decides the direction that society goes, and so we need more of us there for sure.
Exactly. So before I get into the weed, yes, we got to get into what we're eating for breakfast. I don't know if you have breakfast. Hi, I am so excited to this for you. Okay, I am.
So excited colleing.
So we're going back to two thousand, We're going back to two thy twelve, okay, and I'm in grad school and I'm really hungry, and I'm my Columbian roommate. And she said, girl, we're about to We're about to have some coconut rice.
So this is a Columbian dish. So Columbian rice.
Is superfun cooked for you today, and it's the basic ingredients are coconut milk, raisins and white rice.
Wow. On this show, the broker to dish, the better the story. For all y'all that don't know, this dish was ten dollars in inflation market, which means that twenty twelve, this is probably like a three dollars dish. And it makes multiple servings.
Multiple servings like when we're done, you can have something for lunch and for dinner, which is what we used to do.
So shout out. She's not she's now back in.
But are you guys still good friends?
We're still in touch? Like she's it's we don't. We haven't seen each other a lot and so love each other.
When when this episode comes out, I would love it to see her reaction that this is the this.
That yes, oh I should absolutely figure.
Yeah, this is the you went to school? Where were you at school at Harvard. At Harvard, Yes.
So Harvard. We lived in Cambridge, but still broke.
Let's be clear.
I think people assume that because you work really hard to get to a top school. No one in my I was breaking ground for my family. No one had done that.
Am I supposed to talk about what I'm making.
How to do it or no guys on nar rate? She just I put hot water in the pot. I didn't realize that she was going to add a whole can of coconut water, but she did. So we're gonna make a lot of ice today. But yes, she did. Added, she boiled, She started heating up the water. She added a can of Lakeisha, added a can of coconut water. And now she's adding rice.
I'm gonta let it boil just a little bit, okay, and then we'll put the rice in the that's it.
Wow, you didn't put any raisins in yet. Oh yeah, you start with you know what, you narrate your dish, tell us how you make it.
So you start with the raisins, right the because you want the raisins to be like soft and when you bite into them, they're just like really soft into if you don't cook them first.
They still are like hard, they're still.
Hard, Whereas when you boil them in that coconut milk, it completely changes the flavor and it tastes like dessert. Really, yes, so step one, Okay, I saw her put the raisins in the first.
So raisins go first.
Raisins go first, And typically we're gonna do an accelerated version with high speed version. But typically you let the raisins just hang out for about ten minutes in the water, and the water by itself. Yeah, I typically put the coconut milk. Uh huh, and you just let that boil.
Were we supposed to have water in there at all? No, we weren't.
You just boil the coconu milk.
That's fine because we can throw that out all.
It doesn't mean we're having more.
Look, tell tell Trevor.
He's about to have some coconut rice next door.
This rice is good, guys, I'm doging it. But typically when you do it back in the day, you just did just straight coconut milk, coconu milk.
And then we put a little bit water if you dry whatever you just need.
Okay, we're learning, and then it's boiling.
So this is this.
You just add the rice, and when was the last time you made this dish?
So you're ready for this. My kids love it.
That's hilarious.
So I'll be making it tomorrow because we're coming up on the holidays.
That's a lot of rice. Are we supposed to use that much rice? Yeah, you're like, I make this all the time.
But this is a little different. But it's just.
Rising to the top. Yeah, okay, my bad. Let me stay out of your key.
You stay in my kitchen. That's all the questions.
So the kids, your kids in this dish, they love it.
They love it.
They ask for Coconue writes all the time. And so we have just a multicultural home, which is amazing.
So they're what's your husband.
My husband's family's from Haiti Oka, and so there are lots of Caribbean food. And then we have someone who.
Lives in the home with us who's proving she's Feru and so we pervem food and then all my influences.
I can cook African.
Food, Caribbean food, proving food, Columbian food, and so we just throw down and soul food.
I'm trying to go to and soul, your house for food. Oh we're listen, Christy, say you pull up. It's gonna be different flavors. It's gonna be planting.
Oh yeah, exactly, Okay, exactly.
Okay, So we're gonna bring this down because it looks like okay, yeah, it looks like it's about to boil over.
It is over.
Does this happen with you?
Because I make it with actual fire?
Oh okay, okay, do you have a toe?
No, because we're a studio.
No, we're in studio. That's let it burn. Let it don't burn your hands. Insurance. I love to tell people about our fake insurance.
Okay, let's keep going. Yeah, this is good.
I'll put us back on once it school's down. But we put the ingredients in and this is our cocada rice.
Yes, before we got into Harvard, because there's a lot of tea on Harvard that I want to get into. But what did you go to school for? Initially?
So my undergraduate focus was finance. Oh you always liked your money. I've always liked money. My my grandfather owned a grocery store, he owned a church, he owned the cleaners, and he owned something else. My grandmother, my aunt was one of the first black millionaires of real estimilatiers here in l A great great I think she had my great great aunt and then my great great aunt during those times, yeah, exactly. And then wasn't that during like
the red lining and all that. Yes, this was in the hold on in La, Yes, exactly La.
If you see the original deeds in La. I remember going to this place and they say it'll say no, it's word no Latin. Yeah, because it's literally if you look at the history of somebody, it's explicit on there. You know what I'm talking A And I was like, wait, you could be living in a house and you look at the depending on how far back the house goes, it actually says it. I think it's crazy. But she was a millionaire during that time in real.
Estate and so and then my aunt, so my mom's sister, I had her own real estate brokerage firm, and I so I entrepreneurship.
That was and I haven't feel you also got to see like successful black people right in your family.
I got to see I got to see successful black people. I got to see people hustle. That's what I got to see. Genuine commitment to the work, Wow, you know what I mean calling the work because it's a lot of work, and I think people forget that, Yes, we are broke, but everyone, particularly if you're a person of color, you're typically not coming from generations of.
Life, generational wealth.
Typically you're not come from that. So even if your mama did okay, or your parents did okay, or your grandparents did okay, it's not like comparable right here. So you still have to put in work. Yeah, and so seeing people growing up around people who put in work.
You saw them like blood, sweat and tears. Did you see them ever cry or go through the emotions of it.
I saw them get mad.
Yeah, I get mad.
So imagine, so we're talking of real estate, and there was a lot of research that came out about this, calling like a lot of research. Yeah, when in two thousand and eight, when the real estate crash has black wealth, white got wiped out. Imagine just like a thirty foot wave just wiping out black wealth. I didn't know that it was a huge impact to black wealth, including to my family because we owned a lot of real estate. And so there's that sort of there's that trickle down effect.
People lose their jobs, they're not paying their rent. That's fine if one isn't paying their yeah, but if everybody stops paying their rent, how are you paying the mortgage? Now you're covering multiple people media and how long can you keep doing that? And then you start to offload and offload. Next thing, all of the assets that you had looked very different than they did before the crash. Wow. Yeah.
So anyway, so they went through that and you got to watched it. Geez, how old were you at the time.
That's a good question. I don't know, because time is a blur since COVID, I can't tell.
Yeah, but you were probably like in your twenties.
I would say two thousand and eight. Were you gonna date me? Okay, date two thousand and I was young.
Yeah, because I know in two thousand and nine, I remember I had just moved to La I was like eighteen, nineteen twenty, and I remember watching I remember not knowing anything about finance, but I remember going, something is very wrong with this picture of what's happening in real estate. I remember thinking that I worked for country Wide Home Loans and people were literally lying and saying. All we had to do is say, hey, do you work such and such, did they make one hundred thousand a year?
And if someone said yes, we'd hang up approved it long and the drama that happened around countrywide was really oh yeah, but it was people like me that kind of But then I had a company and I remember another loan officer in the company, and they were giving people that were like super poor half million dollar homes interest only loans, which was another lesson. I was like, Ooh, this is bad, not knowing anything bad against it or whatever, but I remember going, this is a bad situation. And
then I would see when it flipped. I would see families coming in crying because they're losing their homes, and I was like, I knew this was going to happen.
It was a recipe for it was for devastation, right.
Yes, when I was young, I didn't know what you could do with that. If I had the education, if I only had the education, I would know you could do something with the information. But there were people that bet against.
The house and made a killing. Yeah, made a killing off of the backs of these folks who had no clue.
Had no clue, And a lot of people that were in the industry made a lot of money, ripping off.
People, ripping people off lifting, right, And that's we don't have to go there too much calling education right.
Education.
Oh, if we're talking about ancestors and my grandfather, what was I thirteen when he passed, But again we're not talking about how old I am now, but when that happened, and when I was thirteen, he told me the one thing you always want to get at your education. No one can take that from you. And so much of what robs us as entrepreneurs because remember starting a VC firm, I'm an entrepreneur, raised millions and millions of dollars to get people to and trust me to write checks under
early stage founders. Same thing entrepreneurship. But you have to have education. You have to even know this industry exists. Yeah, and then once you get here, you have to know how to navigate it.
Yeah.
That takes access to him to information. Yeah.
Yeah, So not only do you have to believe in yourself, but the Okay, so let's go back your mom. Let's talk about your mom for a second. Two parent household, one parent household. It sounds like you had a really great, robust entrepreneur relatives. Well, let's just do a little of your your growing up household, growing.
Up house, just a snapshot, snapshot. Mom and dad didn't make it as a couple. My mom and her, I don't know what's a before high school sweetheart, neighborhood sweetheart. He had always wanted to marry her, and so they got together when I was two, and that's today my stepdad, who's.
Oh wow, Yeah, so middle class, upper middle.
I would say, started middle class, but then they hustled, so we got better, it got better. They started out of Compton. Wow, they started. I don't know how far that is from where we are where the studio.
Right, like an hour. But your whole family's.
L native, my mom's gin but my grandparents are all from Texas. So they all moved from Texas here and so we still like own property in Texas and still have a connection to Texas.
Wow. Now, education was in still pretty early that it was important, very important. So throughout your academia it was it like straight a student BC. Okay, yes, Now did a.
School international baccalaureate. Yes, that was always required.
And were you I'm just curious, were you one of those people that had to study, study, and like work really hard at education or did it come naturally easier? Because I do believe some people are question or natural.
Love that question, I'd say both. I was more introverted. I wanted to sit with my books and journal and write and learn. So that's what I did for sure. But I still also put in the work. So I was with both that was natural and I was just and I was also naturally inclined to do it. And so like my husband, for example, who's brilliant Harvard Business School, runs a peek of private equity firm, a billion dollar private ecuy firm here in LA, he didn't work hard.
He was just really smart, oh okay, and just got straight a's because he was just right.
But that is because there were some people that, like I have an older brother, and like he would get one hundred a plus or on anything find math related. And I was like, oh, he's just like naturally gifted. And I'm always curious with someone of your status, did you have to work? Because not all like they used to say. I don't know if you've ever heard this, but A and B students typically work for C students. Have you ever heard that? Yes?
So interesting, Now.
Don't quote me on that okay, I'm a college dropout. Okay, but they would say that to say it. Sometimes entrepreneurs they definitely color outside the lines, right, and A and B student they follow the rules a little bit better, so they say an A student is almost better and obviously not in.
Your okay, okay, okay, okay, because the A and B students they're taught, they're raised to follow the rules. So you get a's and b's if you follow the rules. You do not get a's and b's if you do not listen.
To Yeah, if you color outside the lines and you do it your own way, typically you would be more I would think that a lot of entrepreneurs are definitely more in the C length. Now you're a triple threat or you're unique in the sense that you're you're an A student, but you're also running a venture capital firm. You're also a founder, you're a creator, but you also come from a line of entrepreneurs, so you're exposed to a lot that's crazy, right.
Maybe, Yeah, I love the way you see it. I love that. Yeah, yeah, I thought of it that way, But I love the way you say it, like your perspective on this is fire.
Oh thanks all right, So education is a staple. Hard work, it's a staple when you were little. Again, I'm just gonna go back because I'm curious. Was discipline like rooted early, Hey, you're gonna sit here and you're gonna do this homework before you get up and play or was it just naturally you were like I'm gonna do my homework, and my daughter's just like that. Which one first?
Yeah, Like I just wanted to go sit down and do my homework and read and write and read. Oh I loved it.
Oh yeah, that means there's no hope for Mike now.
And then I have but remember, so then you have the people like my husband Mark, who I'm giving a shout out to, so I love him so much, So he is totally different. He was just naturally talented. So I was naturally talented and also love to do the work. But then you have those who are naturally talented and don't necessarily want to spend five hours reading books and
doing your husband. Yeah, I mean there's and there should be a place on this planet or every style to thrive, and I believe there is.
Yeah, yeah, and they all can work together.
It's like you need the ecosystem. If everyone's like me, the whole thing falls apart.
But do you get a little bit jealous of This is just a sidebar, but do you get jealousy? If I was around your husband and he could read a book fully understand it within two seconds and I'm sitting there like reading your does it get a little bit frustrating or a little bit of jealousy?
Oh whatever, it's a superpower. So I just think it's and that's why he always told joke and say, you're married a winner. So it's like it's his superpower. Yeah. So I think especially entrepreneurs where you invest your time. We're not going to go here, but you invest your so much time with your partner so ever that is you want them to be a winner. You tell all of that. So, yes, that was what drew me to him.
Like he's such he just all always like one. It's just such a you know, like just but I like his cockiness too. Yeah, he's pretty confident.
I like that. I like that you guys are I love that you guys sound like a really fun paer to be around too. Might be it sounds like it and a lot of food. Okay, so you go through food, You go to school, you leave high school. What's the first step you want to go to school for?
Okay, you we're going after high school?
Yeah, okay, graduating school?
Okay, So then I studied finance, so business?
Wait all right in high school, when did you just discovering that you wanted to get into finance?
I didn't. I didn't discover I wanted to get into finance.
Okay, what did you want to go to school for? Initially theology? Theology? Oh, like like church.
Theology is actually, ironically sorry, ironically theology is not church at all. It's understanding the belief systems of the planet across the world. So you understand what do Buddhists think? What do you? Oh, that lasted for lesson a semester? People everybody else?
But what made you want to do that? Because of your grandfather?
Probably my grandfather.
He was a minister, an incredible entrepreneur and understood the power of community. And so also like the economic there's an economic component to community thriving. If there's not enough money and entrepreneurship happening in communities, they fail. And what I mean by fellows, they don't have money to pay for food, they cannot feed their kids. They cannot feed. They do not have homes, they cannot Communities don't work unless there's money flowing through them. Okay, and you need
money to flow through them. So for me, it was like I was interested in the way he used he the way he used the part of this plant that we cannot see but we can feel, to power the community that he was a part of.
Wow. And you saw that very early on, because even as a young person to even pick that up.
Is yeah, that's unique.
Yeah, you may have some of your husband's superpower, because I don't know if I would pick up like that, like how he used the invisible. Because I say the most valuable things on earth, I say, you you can't see air, can't see technically, I mean, I'm not that college smart, but you know what I'm saying. You can't see air, love, believe, faith, all these things. You can't see it, but they're the most spirit spirit spirits you die tomorrow. It's the spirit that we're losing that you can never see.
That's right.
So I always say the most valuable things are invisible. For you as a young person to say, okay, this, my grandfather has this huge ecosystem of real estate, church and all these things. But the thing that gelled it all together was this thing, this intangible and you went and chose theology, which now we know theology is not about because I just think Christian. I'm like, I can tell you these.
Things about Zoroastrianism. I don't even if I said that correctly anymore because I'm so far removed. But Buddhism it was everything, every belief system and face system on the planet.
You study.
It was a semester and then I pivoted.
Yeah. I was gonna say, why did you pivot out of it?
Though? My dad he said, you need a marketable skill. Theology sounds great, but that will you will be eating.
Well with.
Actually my dad, yeah, my stepdad, but he's also in LA and he said, listen, unless you want to eat well broke for the rest of your life. Theology is interesting and we can go get you some books, but we're not paying all this money.
Where were you going to school? Okay? Okay, yeah, And.
So Wed wed a marketable skill, and so that's why then I pivoted and study business a business okay?
And then what was one of the things. I'm just curious, what was one of the things that you did or did not like from theology?
Oh?
I loved it, really, Oh I loved it. I think more of the world needs to understand we're at a unique moment where everybody's like going off into their pockets calling everybody. Okay, if you're Conservative Christian, you're over here. If you're Buddhist, you're over here. If you're here, everybody just going. If you don't believe in anything, you're over there. No one's talking to each other.
Yeah.
If you the beauty of theology was, you're like, oh man, they all believe the same thing. They just believe it in different ways. Because you have to remember, this was a time where there are no cell phones, no internet. If you were out in that pocket way in India, you couldn't talk to somebody in Los Angeles. So they the faith system was unique to that location. Yeah, and yet at the same time, it's the same across the planet.
Yeah. I realized that when I went to Israel. Israel, it was funny because you see everyone is praying. It's almost like everyone's fighting to pray to the same God, but they're like literally micro nicheing it. You're praying to this one and you're praying to this one. But in Israel you literally go to the same place, and it's like a It's like, this section is for this religion, this section is for this religion section.
And you're like, but.
I'm right here in the middle, and all y'all are basically praying to the same god. You're all trying to you're on the same mission, but you're wearing like almost like if it was a game, and you're wearing this red bag. And I remember just seeing that in Israel. Okay, so your hearts are in the right place, but you're really beefing over who has it right, and no one is ever gonna really know.
None of you guys are gonna find it because God is on both sides, right YEAHU God isn't there to your point, they're praying to the same God. So yeah, that's yeah for sure. So that's what I took.
Away, Okay, And you love that. I thought it was. I was at the time, like what we are even over we all love the same you know, But but I get it. I remember just watching that. I remember watching like the Hasidic Jews get on the plane, and I thought they were going to crash the plane because they're all like praying really hard on the flight, and I was just like, oh, this is serious. But just seeing the different religious fights so hard to love God
or whatever, it was interesting. Okay, so hey, you get into business and then were you fascinated by it? Was it boring in school? What could you tell me about that whole experience?
It was amazing. I loved it. I loved it. But the reason I loved it, and the reason I think we all should love business, is because I had this aha moment that business is just the functioning of people. It's just people. I need something to wear. Can you give me something to wear? Okay? How much y'all have to pay for that? Or I can make it myself. But I don't make it myself. It's gonna take too much time, and my time is pressure. So I would rather how about you just make all the clothes for
all of us and they will all chip in. Okay, It's just life. It's a functioning of people. And so when I began to understand that it's just us moving this water bottle, Aquafina just got some money, or I think it's Coca Cola that downs a Cauafina now. But my point is, like I began to just understand business is just the functioning of the every day and who gets to make the things that everyone needs? So when do I get to make? What? Am I gonna make? What am I gonna put out in this space that
everyone needs that they can then pay me for? Yea our rice is doing by the.
Way, Yeah, I love business because it's like you a lot of times, there's so many cute says that you hear in the world. Like one of the things and I'm just gonna tear it more to venture capital is that I thought was one of the top two. I'm gonna say two quotes that I heard that I think changed my perspective on business was. I think it was Ashton Cuture years ago. He said time is the most valuable thing on earth. And I tell people this all
the time. There's two types of people. There's people that work hard, and it's a person that works smart, okay, and the person that works hard is they're both great, but the problem is there's only so much time. So the person that works smart can get more done the same amount of time. But Ashton Cutcher, I remember him saying that this was this, and I think he was doing he was investing in venture Capital's BC but he said time. But he looks for his things that could
save time. And when you look at everything you spend money on to date, it oil boils down to your buying time and whenever. This sounds really weird, but when I'm in the nail shop and I see a girl getting her nails on, it's like hundred dollars and say she works at McDonald's, I'm always like, ooh, that's weird. It's a weird thought. That's such a judgment. But I'm like, you work five hours for this nails or what. I just look at things like the trade off. But anyways,
time is the most valuable thing on earth. And if you can do something that saves time like uber are, Airbnb, all these things that can save time, maximize what you currently have, a AI craft upon us.
But if you talk time the way it collapses times crazy.
But time is the most valuable thing on earth, and I just don't think people fully understand that. Even today. It's most important thing, most important thing. And then I think Airbnb was one of the things. I think one of the owners had said once was like, you create the world that you want to see, Like kind of you create the you live in a world, You create the world you want to see versus just living in the world that you are.
You can create the world you want to see, but that takes work.
That takes work, It takes a lot of venture capitals.
Right, it's deep, right, if you you for sure can create the world you want to see, but most of what we're living is the world that meta wants us to see, the world that IG wants us to see. If we're going to create the world that we want to see, it's almost like you have to set that stuff to the side and actually say, what is the world that I want to see as an entrepreneur, what is the thing that I'm going to build? And then and then keep eating your coconut rice.
And the unfortunate thing is if you're bringing change, real change, you're the crazy one. So you're sitting over your pot of rice and everyone's just like, wow, what idiot, Go get a job? Like really, day three of this, Oh your phone is cut off? Really and you're like, and you gotta live in that turmoil, which is I think, really you.
Need a headline. You need like a mantra. You need a sentence that you tell yourself so that when people start telling you that you don't let that voice, all those naysayers, that you don't let their voices become louder than your own. So anyway, as you're talking, I kept thinking about Jeff Bezos.
Right.
So he's got there's this picture of him, and it's over ten years ago, and he's sitting in a small office building Amazon, right, and no one would have thought that today Amazon would be what it is. And so I almost feel like that's part of your right of passage. Right, Yeah, you're like supposed to go through that process where no one believes in you.
Yeah, we're no.
Everybody thinks you're crazy. Why are you doing this? You shouldn't be here, You're not good enough to be here. Do we want to talk about how many people own their own venture capital firms? Do we want to talk about how many women own their own venture capital firms? We could go there. There are all of the reasons why what I'm doing should be impossible. Yeah, and that's what it is for any entrepreneur. What you're doing should be impossible.
Why are you here?
But I'm sure it's challenging. I think it like Jessica Alba, you heard her story was of course nuts. Yeah, you know how she's cute girl. You would think that would help her in some capacity to being access but she had to do the door knock and begging. Took one one person, and thank god, it was I think it was his wife. I don't know if you heard the real story about her, but she was going through the
allergy situation. Ventura Capro kept it turning her down and turned out his wife was going through the same issue. And then I think she kept knocking at that door and eventually he was like, there may be something there, and they invested in her. But but anyways, let's go back to your huh Okay, no, I love that.
Can I pull something out of what you said? That's a little secret. It was the VC's wife that had the problem. I think it was a v So that's a thing. So because we need more folks of color and more women to be vcs, and so that it's the VC's lived experience, so they know it's a thing. Yeah, you see what I'm saying.
Oh, it's because it was his wife.
If that woman was a VC this, she wouldn't be knocking on so many doors. Yeah, do you say, yeah, if she was, If the wife was a VC, she'd be like, I'm writing you a check today.
Yeah.
But because the people writing checks don't they have a very specific thing that they understand. They don't understand. Oh, the only reasons, Oh I think my wife was dealing with that. But if his wife was a VC, she wouldn't have to knock on so many doors. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. So they're so that entrepreneurs do not have to knock on so many doors to hear so many no's. Wow, that's you just hit a big thing. That's crazy. Yeah, it's deep.
That was deep. That's crazy. How that just so, that's why you're That's why I'm wow. Now, do you only cater to women owned businesses or businesses that cater to women?
Excellent question. So our next fund will cater to the latter. This fund focuses on women let businesses because Jessica Albastory is like one of way too many. Yeah, there are billion dollar businesses. There are unicorns waiting to exist. They're literally waiting. But the reason they don't exist is because they don't have capital. Because Jessica albas story which is the VC didn't get it, but it just so happened.
And his wife had just mentioned the thing. What if we put more people like her who get it in the position to write checks.
Yep. And another good story is Canva. A lot of people don't know Campbell that's created by a woman. Is she's got denied, denied, denied, and over. You gotta think a woman has to encounter so many bearers to entry, truthfully speaking on so many bearers. But imagine being a woman that has, say, the bearers to entry, and then on top of it, you're fighting for your mission on top of being broke. That's a hard battle.
It's a hard battle. And that's why you have to be You have to have your own like I said, like mantra or sentence or like thing that you tell yourself.
It's like the battle shield that you wear before you go out into the world, and you like look yourself in the mirror and say, I'm changing the world, regardless whatever your sentences, because the moment you step out into the world, you will have a million people that want you to win and a million people that don't even think you should be there, and you have to be like armored up mentally to be able to navigate that because it's hard. Just like you said, yeah.
I saw this clip about DMX.
You heard DMX obviously right, my husband's from Brooklyn. But that's not why, because I know what it is like.
You have this Harvard background, your venture capitalist, and it's like when I hear these things. When I heard about you, it's like you envision this sue perfect almost at least from my standpoint. Imagine if I'm not a college graduate or I'm a college dropout and my bank account says X amount of dollars or whatever, and then and I
envision this unapproachable person. It's nice to see you and go, oh, this feels familiar though you've accomplished so much likewise, but to be able to say I could touch you and go oh, I can relate to her hair and her makeup, or you were doing your makeup and I was just like a little embarrassed. I'm like, oh, I sit on the floor when I do my makeup kind of get up, and you were like, yeah, we're gonna do this right here, and I was like, oh, she's normal.
Oh, yeah, and so is everybody else, everyone else. When they put on these facades, they're just as normal as you are, and just as normal as I am. Even if they hustle, they're still just as normal, even if they like to think that they aren't.
Yeah, they are.
They are.
So when you're in school, you're going through school, you do business. You when you graduate from you're going to school for business. After you graduate, what's your next steps?
This is crazy. Speaking of entrepreneurship, I become I'm twenty years old. There's an organization called EO entrepreneurs Organization. Shout out to Sean Tan, who I haven't seen in years. He brought together all of the young kids, all these college kids, to teach them about entrepreneurship. It's called the entrepreneur Mentor Society. And he pulled me to society said I want you to lead this thing. I'm like, huh, So I let it at twenty No, while I'm in school.
So while I'm working with him, I've got a friend who needs someone to come run his business. Do you know that when I graduated, I was the chief operating officer of an e commerce startup that did ten million dollars an annual recurring revenue ten million dollars. At twenty years old, I had eighty people reporting to me. I had eight, Like, and you were still in school? Were just when I graduated.
From which school?
Loyal loyla?
This is a holy cow.
It's a holy cow because I still look at her like, ma'am, who even says yes to anything like that? Let alone does it? Anyway, I've been off way more than I could chew Colleen it, so I couldn't. I ended up. I think, I don't know if I stay for a year. But then the owner of the business was like, this is like a little much, right, this is a little much, and so I ultimately rolled off, but still kept in touch.
Well, what did you learn from that experience?
If I could go back to her, this twenty year old coo of a ten million dollar business in this big office and all these people reporting to her and running meetings with eighty pos insane.
I love it. They gave me a shot. I lie but gone, I would.
Say, just be yourself. So I was like, I don't know what does the coo wear? So I when with me and my mom, like went in her closet, like I got some suits like these I get there, I like the only person wearing a suit. But still I'm like, what does a business person wear? You know? Yeah, I should have just been myself. Yeah, And so I think that's what I would say. And then the other thing that I would say that I took away from that is I put in the work to nurture relationships that
would give me a chance that didn't just happen. And I'm so grateful that I nurtured relationships because when I took that role, about seven people wrapped themselves around me and said, I'll come meet you every single week to see how the business is going and help you. And they did, Oh wow, every single week.
Wow.
It's insane. In fact, I should reach out to them and say thank you.
Wow. And then when you had to when you parted ways, how was it? How do you feel in spirit?
Oh? Fine?
Were you like relieved or were you did you feel relieved?
Relieved? But also so incredibly grateful.
It's really you left grateful?
Are you kidding? Who gives a twenty year old a ten million dollar business to run? And eight people reporting to me they just to say how old are you? Because I'm their boss?
Were they ever disrespectful to you. Some of the staff.
I would never tell them my age because I knew they would be because I would be, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm reporting to it.
Like black people, we always look younger than we are.
You probably I probably looked like I was.
To see we were like, oh, we're being punked, right, it's a joke.
But then again I was like, okay, how am I supposed to stand? Like?
How do I And you're making good money? Oh yeah.
It was also just fresh out of college. It was making more than I knew what to do with.
Okay, yeah, okay, but you spent majority of your time working. So what did you do after that? You went back to college?
Not yet? So then I will, I'll fast forward it for you. So then I after I did that, then I just stayed around entrepreneurs. So then I worked with another entrepren who's incredible, Chris Hoskins, who is an incredible human. He's in Newport Beach or no, it was yeah, Newport Newport Beach in California. And he again we talked about what's cool about business. You find a thing that people
needing you and it's just meeting people's needs. So he created a self storage business of boats because people needed to store their boats so they didn't always have to pay for it to be docked. And so he started that and then that became that blew up. And then after he started that, he then created storage for wine wineries. So basically he's Okay, all these small like mom and pop wineries don't have the ability to store their wine. I'll bring them all together, put them under one shop,
and then they can store it with in. This guy's brilliant. My old boss love him today, and so I'll work for him to next. I again like relationship management. There's no I even know. That job never gets posted. Where would you post? That job would never get posted. It's
through relationships. So worked for Chris and then that's when the real estate, Yeah, I was starting to happen and was affecting my family and just everyone, and I was like, I want to get out of here, and I want to do what I'm actually passionate about, which is writing and journalism and storytelling. And so that took me to actually I did. I was sent to do a program just like a summer finance program at Harvard, and when I was there, I was like, oh, I belong here.
Like that we go back to being a kid, but just being a kid, and you're just like, oh man, these people are so brilliant and they're so smart, and they're so talented, and I'm like, oh, I got it. This is I belong here. And so I went home, I tell my mom, and I went back and actually worked for the mayor of Cambridge. So M, I T and Harvard are in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I worked for the mayor. I pitched her and I was like, I
want to work for you. And it was through that experience that I got all the inroads needed to I guess. A big threat in my story, which is a story for everyone listening, is relationships. You hear that, but it actually means nurturing relationships, nearly caring about people, where you care about their well being and you give to them authentically, Hey, I love here's this just just being genuine. And so that led to opening up doors for me to do
my graduate work at Harvard, which I did. I did my journalism program at Harvard, and then it's actually a great story because of the time I met my husband. Because Harvard has a bunch of various publications, most people know the Crimson for Harvard Business School, they have something called the Harvest. So I was working there as a general manager while I was in school.
And when you're working, you're doing these things. It's for free, right or do you get paid?
No?
When I work for the Mayor, I got paid.
No, Mayor. But like when you're doing the journal.
Oh no, you get paid.
Oh you yeah, but it's not scared.
It's paid. Yeah, you get paid. It's not gonna do a lot, but no, I was just scared. I didn't know if you were an interne yeah, it's kind of like they do. They're still paid, but I think, like internship pay okay. And then in fact yeah, and then I ran that publication, which is a perfect segue because then that when I was there, I had this aha moment Colleen. I was like, Harvard is good. Harvard does
not need my talent or my money. They had just raised like billions of dollars, and I said, I want to take my talent for what I would call impact in the world storytelling media journalism and take it for the continent and like actually helped build an Africa focused African owned and that was a big part for me. Media house and that's time. No at that time, no. And so then boyfriend at the time, we he's if you he's a few and I wanted to go to I thought I wanted to go then to business school.
So anyway, so he and I drive up to New York City. We go to Columbia's having this conference called the African Economic Forum. At this conference and I hear this guy talk about this media company that he's building. It's a digital ad tech media, a business focused on the continent. And he's talking about it and talking about it. I'm like, but if this is going to exist and compete against CNN and compete against the New York Times, what's your business model? Like, what's the business?
Oh no?
I raised my hand and I raised my head about three times, and he looked at me, like who is this person? Heckily my I'm on this panel. And that began a lifelong friendship. So I became his COO. Holy Free, Yeah, and we built one of the largest international media companies focused on the continent. It was Fire, So that was what that's what were you there? I'm still there. I'm the chairwoman. You're still There're the chairwoman. So there, I was the CEO. I was, Yeah, it's about as high
as it gets. Yeah, that's the president of the president of the President's Okay.
Just listening to the story, I love that there's like an air of confidence, like I see it, I achieve it, I go for It's just a decision I'm making, and that's the decision. I don't really hear. A lot of it was doubt.
It goes back to that in visit thing that we're talking about. The very beginning, the invisible piece, there has been an awareness that there's something way bigger than all of this in my stomach in a good way.
I'm hungry, ok right, no, no, no, no, tell all right, but tell the story about this invisible thing.
That there has been an invisible call it faith because we can't see that, call it thoughts because we can't see those emotions. We can't see. But there's been a deep conviction that I'm here for a reason. And every entrepreneur has to have that feeling and that knowing that they're but and what they're building is like here for it's not just any reason. It's it's a big deal. And so when I meet this guy's names Almagela Shore this is a part of some big thing we're meant
to do, and so I think it's that part. It's because I'm gonna be carefous about like confidence or swag or whatever, or maybe it is that too, but it's really like I am I have a deep sense of purpose, like deep and if you imagine that this planet is existed for billions of years, what's seventy years? That's not even a blink.
We remember how you said that there's something like an entrepreneur should say to themselves, ye mantra, I low key feel like that would be the perfect mantra. And I've never heard someone say this, but saying to yourself like I'm here for a reason while you're on this pursuit can actually be the thing that triggers because I'm like, maybe you could say vision and persistence, but I think I'm here for a reason, knowing that, Okay, I'm here on a mission.
On a mission.
I think that. But was there ever any part of you that had those because it doesn't seem and I'm just curious. It doesn't seem like you have a lot of negative self talk in your head.
Everyone does, so you do have, oh for sure, But it's a I had it, it's a job to away because negative self talk is extremely powerful. Like negative self talk, I can't do it, then you're right, you can't. This isn't gonna work out. This is too hard. You're right, it's not gonna work out, and it will be too hard for you. Every entrepreneur, I think, and I hope knows this. You can't let the self dealt You can't literally let it like fester. It will work, it will
throw you off. It's part of the reason why in the world that we're in right now. I make a point to understand what's going on in the world and I leave it at that, because it's like in venture for entrepreneurs, if you just constantly hear that money is not being given to you, Yeah, he's not gonna be given to you. So what I'm saying is like from a mantra standpoint, yes it is hard, but I will still find that money, or if it's not for VC,
I'll get it elsewhere. But like that negative self talk, I used to let it run the day and realized that has just as much power as me. You wiring my brain to talk about different things, to talk about things that actually empower me and support me. Yeah, and it's critical. It's mental health, Like my mental health will not be I will not be okay if I constantly tell myself this is too hard. You do not have what it takes. And so the second those thoughts come in,
it's like a workout. It's really it's like.
When you're doing it, though, what are you doing? Are you?
Like?
Shut up?
I replace it. It's a whole thing. It's a whole mental I was just recently so fortunate calling to be an inter room with Michelle Obama.
And she just you feel like.
I was just with her last week.
She but you have that like likable poison about.
You're ever going. I'm gonna take you with We're going together everywhere.
Thank you.
I'm in this room with her, and I just like a little thought of like why are you? But I don't let them finish. I don't let the thoughts finish. I'm here. I am here because I am supposed to be here, even if I don't know why I am in this room, because I should be in this room. I deserve and I will have these conversations in your head like okay, and we all have to do that otherwise that negative self talk runs the show, and if it runs the show, it shows up in our lives.
It shows up as deals not working out. It shows up as not getting the work that you need to get done on time. It shows up as you don't go after that opportunity because you don't know. Yes, I don't think I'm good enough. Yes, sure, fine, and I'm still going anyway. Yeah, and I'm still going. You want to know how much self doubt I had at starting a venture capital firm?
Yeah, dude, I didn't even know your husband's in private equity, so did he?
Yeah, but he went to Harvard Business School. I didn't go to business school. So that's an important distinction. And I could say to myself, I, yes, I've studied finance, I've been an entrepreneur, I've been an operator, But I could I would get the thoughts around why it shouldn't be me starting a firm.
Did you, And just going back before we get into that, did you ever have imposter syndrome, especially like some of those careers.
Yes, yeah, but I think I had imposter syndrome. We all have imposter syndrome. What's that movie? Nobody watches movies anymore. Russell Crowe, what's that movie? You're not gonna remember it. No one's gonna remember it anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna tell you the scene. So the scene in the movie is this Skuy schizophrenic beautiful mind. He's schizophrenic. He thinks his whole life since college, he met these three people and they became his best friends, and he discovers
they're not real people. He had conversations with the coffee when I'm talked to all his favorite college memories. He's schizophrenic. He thought these are his college roommates. They're not real people, and that rocks his world, right, And so when he realizes they're not real people, they start going hard, like yelling at him. But he has to remember, like he sees them like they're right here. So these are real people that he's fabricated in his mind. They're as real
as you and me, except they're actual don't exist. And so there's the movie goes through and he's like having this realization like, oh wait, they don't exist. And at the end of the movie. Throughout the movie, they're like saying negative things to him. So those are the negative voices in his head that he's made actual. But at the end of the movie, he gets in the Nobel Peace Press, I believe, and he looks over and those are those same three people that have been his best friends.
But they're off in the corner and they do not have power anymore to tell him all these things that they used to tell him. And that is like what I say about those negative thoughts, the imposter syndrome. You might feel it, you might think those thoughts go put in the corner. Yes, fine, I get it, But you're not gonna be front and center like you used to be. You're not gonna be the main thought that I think. I get it. Sure, yes, there might be reasons I
shouldn't be here. I can give you a million. Wise I should And even if you think so, those become the dominant. That's what takes front and center. Y'all go off into the corner or in the closet, honestly, And I think.
That is like, yeah, critical, So you've learned how to manage and work out.
And it is a mental work. Yeah, it is a mental It is a mental workout, Yeah it is. The physical health is the way we like have to put in work for physical health. I think we got to appreciate how much work we need to put in our mental health, like a mental workout. No, won't think that their mind is the most powerful tool.
Yeah it is.
It's the most powerful tool, the most Okay, and you're ready to eat.
Okay, let's see now, I gotta watch the time.
Oh no, okay, ask me the last question. What do we I don't want you to leave.
I know you're like, wait, do you do a take two? I don't want you to leave.
I'm so I'm sad about this.
So I'm gonna be clear. This ain't it. Okay, we're gonna eat it because we're having a good time. But the way this is supposed to work is it's.
On a electrics it's fine with your story an electric inspired It's okay, y'all, it's electric stoves. You're eating this too.
I get to eat it with you.
Yes, Okay. I know we're cutting it close on time. Okay, so walk me closer into Emmaline.
I got your perfect segue. I've got your perfect segway. So remember where the guy who started this media company. He's on a panel. He's trying to talk. I won't let him I'm raising my hand.
Over and over again.
He's like, who's this woman whos tackling me? And then he's actually, do you want to come work with me? And so that begins after you ask the question, please, I want you to come see my student. I'll want you to come see what I what I'm building, and so that began, and then and then I became a CEO, and then the rest is truly history, all right. So then a lot of crazy stuff was supporters Sahara report, Sahara reporters. Media grew. We became so powerful that this
guy gets arrested by the President of Nigeria. Not just arrested, he gets kidnapped. Not just kidnapped, he's put in the President's private prison for those he really doesn't care for the heck. And so it's a movie for sure. And this happens August third. I'm expecting my baby. Baby's born in August eighth, So now I am my co conspirator is now in some hid in jail because we don't
know where he is. When he got kidnapped at three o'clock in the morning, he tried to tweet what was happening, and he got out a half tweet.
Right.
This is back when Twitter was a thing. It was an X and all that. All right, so you know nobody's paying attention to X like that, but when.
They were, and they did this all because of how.
Powerful we become. Yeah, and so what that means is like we were able to tell stories. Imagine today if someone's the current president pocketed two billion dollars and we could prove it. Yeah, all his people are coming for you may not make it out the house alive. So what they wanted to do was kidnap them. But then once the problemise, he has the US connection, so he was in Nigeria when this was happening. So anyway, long story short, I become sitting CEO and run the business.
Five days later, my daughter is born. And not only am I now running a bullion like the newborn, but not only doing that, oh, I need to get my coc and out of prison. So that's when we work with the Clooney Foundation. Shout out to a mall Clooney and.
I didn't see that plot was coming. Okay.
Oh, she's a human rights law attorney, so she cares deeply about journalists and journalism and freedom of expression. So she released statements and human rights cold all these things came together in the most magical way. The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, just people, just really incredible forces came together. And after Athantic I can't remember anymore, remember December. By December actually he was released, but released out of what you might call a torture zone. So he was like
being torched. So out of that. Eat this food.
Let's try this way. Let's try it.
You're eating it, I get to eat it with you. Okay, you eat enough of this, you don't want to be broke. Right, there's the same It needs fire, not heat, and it needs.
I feel like I was judging the raisins because I was like, no way, these raisins are gonna work. But the raisins absolutely are necessary in this.
Also, so I'm actually making a dish red beans and rice with some red beans on top.
It's fire with the raisin in it.
Oh yeah, the raisins, you were.
Because I know red beans and rice coconut rice.
I too like my twist, right, I really bring in like Caribbean flavor, ja Latin American flavor.
I love that.
So I love that. I love mixing, mixing all of the black and brown talent, culinary talent.
This food is if you broke, this will get you through. I know that she lookija had a harder time because we gave her five minute rice and I've never actually made five minute rice. I usually use real rice. I'm pretty sure that affected your dish major. But the raisins plus, I would have added like a million more raisins because I really.
Liked the raisins. You said you didn't.
That's why I didn't. I didn't. I did not know I was gonna like the rains.
Okay, I would have done it the way I do it.
I was like, you were like raisin, dude, I like to think about when you said raisin. I was like, she like, that's something like but you hear about like white people with their potato salad or something. So all I was like, raisins and rice. This sounds nuts, but honestly, I'm like literally just picking the pieces with the raisins.
Yeah.
Okay, so now you know, no, no raisins.
It's a Colombian dishes.
Shout out to the raisins.
Yeah, great job.
Back to your story because it's better than your dish. Respectfully. Oh no, it's so he gets out of jail. Did you have to watch him go through some kind of trauma experience to.
It and we can reach him? No?
After he got out.
Oh, excellent question that he and I have never discussed, but I would if this might be the not be the place to talk about it. But what I will say is it was very hard on him, for sure.
But did that also scary?
Still scares me?
Would do you still go back to Africa?
No? I couldn't. So I had to miss one of my dear friend's weddings in Nigeria because I couldn't go.
Yeah, well, today dangerous my name, like.
I became more well known. But the way it works is like no one knew I existed. I was a coo.
He had a very loud, visible face. But but then you had to step in.
And they're like, wait, how's this thing still going because we thought we cut off the head. Yeah, and they're like huh. And that's when they started digging and realizing, oh, okay, there's someone that runs this thing that's not him still running and so that's yeah, I'll steer clear. But anyway, so during that period is when I realized this is too much on me, and so we looked for someone to take my seat to be the CEO. This is years later and then that's what I was like, what's
going to be next? Ye? And that's when I said, okay. The founder of eBay was an investor in our in Sahara and via his vehicle called Omiti R. And so I said, what is next? I want to be on the other side because I bet if you could change who's writing checks, you would change what gets invested in.
You got an idea for hair please very interested. So then that's what that was that flip for me, and so I switched and then I became I would turned out with the other side, not the operator, but the person writing checks into operators.
But then in that person writing checks, you had to pitch the people the funds.
No, I became the fund.
You became the fund. But didn't you have to raise fund to become the Yes.
So our first iteration and shout out to my co founders I was started buying myself. Nasim Saiani a zine Rats and Van Albek. We started our own fund. So we were like, man, these founders are amazing. What if we just take our own money and COVID was a good time to start because the bills were real different.
Remember to eat.
Yeah, so we just combined our capital and invested into about fifteen female founders and are just our money.
And that's very scary.
No, it was fire. It was amazing. It's the most incredible thing in the world because we began to see that we're onto something that we could bring in, but we could meet really great founders that we could give them money and we would watch their businesses take off.
And then I love that you. I was more scared about spending my own money that what I'm saying, But I love that you were, like, that's a little bit of nerve wrecking, right.
I think that's a good point. That is why others invested with us, because we had the conviction to put our own capital on the line and not just say let me get some of your money and give it to these founders's. Now, we took our own money and put it into fifteen founders. I believe over a million dollars of our own money. And so what that means is, Okay that you all are serious.
Hell yeah, now when you're doing these exactly, I love that. I think sometimes when we are putting money into a business. I understand your position. Where like when I'm investing in my business, I actually I believe it so much I'm like, I'm not even I'm almost like, what is it high on the supply? I know I can do this, so
I'm not worried about my personal investments. But I know even me as myself, if i invest in other companies for whatever reason, if I'm not a part of the company, I feel like and this is I just learned this about myself, like in the last year. So I can only invest in companies where I actually play a role in the company, because I noticed if I'm not playing over I did and no, I lost all my money.
Yeah, so angel investing is a little different, right, because you're passively writing a check into a business and you're not helping them. They have to return. I think we invest so we work very it's my full time job.
So that would be cool to get you in the company, right, like you would come with the check.
That's right. So that's why people want us to come in with our check, because it's not just a check, it's a whole.
It's you.
It's like an army, right.
Oh, that's oh, so then that's the difference between venture capital and angel exactly. Yeah. So I went through a bid where I lost enough to set me back a couple of years, but I had learned in that. I said, Okay, maybe in the future, if I ever invest in a company, I have to play a role to have secure parameters like exactly maybe having the money in ESHCRO or maybe having two signatures on the checking account, just little things to like have a check and balance. But I learned that error.
Would you say, yeah, exactly, Well you can imagine. That's so people said, I want to invest in female founders, but I don't have I'm doing something else. So I want you to do it because you're going to make sure you're going to dot the I and you're going to cross the t's.
So it's smarter to invest in the mention capital firm. But now, how hard is it for say a smaller person like with micro money to invest in a venture capital firm. It's so hard.
It's not hard. You can so the two secrets most people don't know. If you commit and say I want to invest one hundred thousand dollars to VC, it's over years. So that means it might be twenty K years, it might be thirty K years. If someone's oh I can only do twenty five K, great, twenty five Ok, there are VC firms that will take twenty five K. We have taken twenty five K checks, so that we've taken thirty K checks. So your first wire is seven thousand dollars.
So I want to minimize that because an entrepreneur, seven thousand is real. But my point is, like most people don't know, you can begin to build your wealth and get access to these really incredible deals that will transform, yeah, your bottom line and how much money you have in your account with smaller checks.
I love that better, in my opinion, than investing in stocks. If I had a choice, I would much rather invest in a VC. And I know venture capitalists do that due diligence because I've tried to picture venture capitals before and boyd they laugh you at the room real quick. Yeah, if you don't really know your stuff. Yeah, yeah, at least reminds me.
I mean, well, I agree, I agree, and this is why I think we need more resources so that we know how to play the game. Yeah you know what I mean, So like they will laugh you out of the room just because you don't speak their language. But if you learn the game.
You're anyway, and I also feel and you can do it. True false quickly, we're going over time?
Please?
Do you want to check the time? What time is it?
I tell you, Yeah, it's eleven thirty, it's eleven thirty.
Oh no, don't break up with me? Sure or false? Venture capitalists. The difference between angel, angel capital and venture capital is it, like venture capitalists, you have to dream extremely large to take over the planet, like multimillion dollar company and an angel or the smaller investments are for companies that are like the false okay, false false, you can tell me the truth.
Angels and vcs want you to change the world. They want you to have some big, disruptive, innovative idea. Typically, vcs will not invest if you don't, whereas angels might. Right, if you're doing something that needs to exist in the world and maybe it won't become a billion dollar business, an angel might look at it, vcs won't. But they both actually want to invest in the thing that's going
to unlock like a billion dollar outcome. The difference is actually just the time that they write a check angels will write a check or we're just talking. Maybe have an idea. Vcs need to typic, please see a little bit more, or you have done this, you have a few reps, and so they'll just write you a check
even if you have an idea. Typically these days you don't see a lot of that unless you are coming out of Stanford or it's coming out of some AI machine learning lab or something, then you can probably get money before you leave. Other than that, like setting those sort of exceptional examples to the side, angels and vcs, angels are just early vcs. The main difference about angels and vcs is angels typical people write a check. They are not making this their full time job.
Oh so adventure capital is definitely a full time oh yeah, because they're trying to get to that.
Billion, so they have to put in work, whereas angels are is a little bit more passive.
I love everything about you, likewine, totally adore you, and guys, she's a mom, a wife, and a venture capital founder. Just before we close out, I just want to you to just tell us everything you can about emmy line. Yes, Emilin is Emilin. Sorry it's called It's fine, it's fine, Emily.
What do you want to know? I want to know a VC fund. We're a VC fund. What we invest, So I'll simplify it. We write checks into entrepreneurs who need money to grow their businesses. What kind of businesses do we give do we write checks into when we take a percentage ownership of their company. We write checks into female founders, typically if they have a guy on the founding team. We love that. Research actually shows that
mixed gender teams outperform, and we're writing checks. We're writing checks into their businesses to help them grow and to help them scale early. And so that means if you're if you've got to half a million in revenue or a million in revenue, will look at you before we would even write checks before there was any revenue. We think that the market is just really tough right now. So it's tough to write a check into a business and hope it takes off, right, Yeah, But that's what
we do. And we're looking at solutions around health, so just healthcare, think maternal health. We invest in a maternal health start up, a lot of maternal health startups, but we care deeply about maternal health. Think like endometriosis. I don't know if you've heard of it. Yeah, of course everyone's got it, and so we're investing in solutions for better diagnostics and treatment.
As someone else, I interviewed Melissa Ford and she said, what does this think that women menopause?
Yeah, we invested in a lot of.
There's not enough out there for it, and they say it's a multi billion dollars hundred percent.
That's where we invest. We have some menopause startups shout out to women, asking a few others in our portfolio alloy. Okay, let me not speak on this multi broadcasted show about who's invested in alloy, but yes, we invest that's where we invest. Think menopause, think perimenopause, Think endometriosis, think fertility, think mental health, health, hormonal health, women for women Okay.
Yeah, women have been dying all over the world for this or what is opportunity?
Yeah?
Come so thank you?
Yes needs to exist?
Okay, And then how can people reach out to you? Guys?
All the ways right, So if people really want to reach out to me, and I know I'm not sure if you if your audience is hanging out on LinkedIn like that, but if they are.
I'm pretty sure they are.
Lakisha, Lan and Pierre just picking me. I live there. I live on LinkedIn. That's like my digital home. I love it there. I love it there. Yeah. But ig you can ping us on IGVC Emmaline email me Lakeisha at Emily Ventures dot vc and then see me out in the world. We do a bunch of stuf during LA tech Week, San Francisco Tech Week, New York Tech Week. Yeah.
And then just one of the things I think you did it hit on, which I thought was very important that you mentioned throughout is that it's not just a check with venture capital. You get this team that has the experience, the support, and the relationships to really take your business there. And my grandfather, one of the first things he ever taught me in business was it's always better to have a piece of something than a piece
of nothing. So when you're out there and you're valuing your companies, always keep that in the back of your mind. With a team, a team that has experienced, that's worth more than any amount of check. So I just want to say.
That, yeah, dumbing dom Jing.
And one of the other messages that I really want everyone to walk away with who deals with like imposter syndrome is no, You're here for a purpose, right, what did you say?
That?
So good? It was so good and I was like, I'm going to break that at home on my dray race board. I'm here for a reason. Yes, yes, yes, And I think that will help drawn out that noise that we all seem to deal.
With us, right, we all deal with the noise. I love that, but we have to like make our own noise.
Make our own noise. I am so thankful that you took time out of your schedule. I blew past her time restraints, but I really adore her, and thank you guys, I really adore her. I hope you guys keep up with Lakeisha anywhere on any platform. I will be stalking her too. But thank you guys for tuning in piece