How to Raise Capital and Find Funding For Your Small Business (feat. Sika Health)

Into It QuickBooks does not have any responsibility for updating or revising any information presented. Listeners should verify statements before relying on them. Hey everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories, a podcast brought to you by iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks. I'm Austin Hankwitz, hosted the Rate of Return podcasts and

co founder of wits Ventures. But you may recognize me from my short form videos about the personal finance and investing on TikTok and I'm Jenny's Torres, the creator and host of the award winning personal finance podcast Jokioo the Neto.

You may have come across one of my videos on social media where I empower others with personal finance knowledge in every episode of this podcast, you'll hear Austin and I chatting with small business owners as they share their stories about the ups and downs of only a small business. Plus we'll learn from their experience about how you can help fortify and strengthen your own business. That's right, Genius, and I'm really excited for everyone to hear this podcast.

And I'm so happy you'll be coming along this right with me to hear some awesome entrepreneurial stories. Today we're talking about capital and funding, but before we bring on our guest and dive into all that, I'd love to know, Genius, more about your business journey. So I realized now I was charting a path to becoming a content creator, even before that was an actual thing. I started my small business journey in twenty thirteen and I was looking for

a creative outlet from my corporate engineering job. I followed in my dad's footsteps to be an engineer, but I felt like this wasn't the thing I'm meant to do, and so I actually started a food blog called delish Delights dot com, where I started sharing my Puerto Rican

heritage and recipes online. And I took it from a hobby into a business by learning the ins and outs of what content creators do for monetization purposes, so things like affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, putting ads on my website.

And after a couple of years of doing the solopreneurs thing, I realized there's nobody in my circle who's doing this stuff too, and so I turned to the Internet to start learning more about personal finance entrepreneurship, and I ended up getting addicted to podcasts so much so that after a couple of years of being a consumer of podcasts, I decided to start my own, which is Yokioo the Neto, and on the show, I really wanted to create a

community of changemakers and highlighting stories of people who are in communities of color that typically don't hear entrepreneurial success stories and folks who are pursuing financial independence. And it became an accidental business, and ten years later I could absolutely say that this is not any part of my plan. I have always approached entrepreneurship from a place of curiosity and passion and just wanting to explore these crazy thoughts

that come into your head. And so from becoming a food blogger, to now being a full time podcaster and content creator. My mission has always just been to connect with stories and to find inspiration that not only now I can use, but folks who are in my community can use as well. Yeah, I'm right there with Eugenius. So I'm also a small business owner, not a veteran like yourself. Not ten years. So what happened was I actually graduated from the University of Tennessee back in twenty

eighteen with this degree in finance and economics. Super nerd I love it. I ended up doing mergers and acquisitions for a publicly traded healthcare company. I did that for about three years, and then I was sent home right during COVID like everyone else, to work from home. But instead of lip syncing and dancing on TikTok, I decided to share my experience of paying down my student loans, growing my credit score, and even buying my house right.

And I did this all from a place of authenticity and transparency because I'm a really big believer that the wealth gap in America is only going to get smaller if we get as many people as possible to be owners of assets, not so much consumers. Right, And so now I'm a full time, constant creator. But what's been really fun about this is I've also been able to invest into the businesses that i'm advertising, if that makes sense.

So a fintech or a financial technology company that I would use would say, hey, Austin, this is so cool that you're a creator now, which you want to talk about us and say, sure, but I love what you're doing so much. Right, I'm a customer as well. Can I own equity in your business? Right back to that idea of the owner mindset? And so that's what's so exciting about this episode we have coming up right now,

is this is all about raising money, raising capital. And I'm not saying with the money I'm investing as materially raising that capital for these people, but it's more of a sign of hey, I'm with you in solidarity. I want to grow this with you. So that is really what I've been up to over the last three years. I host a podcast called the Rate of Return Podcast.

I've got the Rate of Return newsletter over ten thousand subscribers of people who work across a bunch of different careers, and we've also invested into twenty six different startups from the preset all the way to Series C. It's creator economy, it's fintech, it's even a mail shampoo company, believe it or not. So all these really really cool opportunities that have been afforded. As a constant creator and a small business owner at that of course, uses QuickBooks. QuickBooks literally

saved my sanity. It wasn't until I started using QuickBooks that I actually knew what was going on with my money and capital or money and how to raise it is what we're talking about today. I decided to take the route of business credit cards and small business grants. So I don't think I'm at the place where I've started thinking about venture capital just yet. But it's always really interesting to find these stories of folks who go and pitch their business ideas to venture capitalists and make

magic happen with other people's money. I love that. So, speaking of other people's money, Austin, can you talk about the way is that a business can raise capital? Most definitely. So there's a couple ways that come to mind. The first way is you know, other people's money. Angel investors, right, These are those wealthy individuals who want to invest into small precede or even seed stage startups. We think about

shark tank, Right, that's essentially an angel investor. So the next one list is VC funding, right, venture capitalists, And this is essentially like private money. Think about like a mutual fund, how people kind of pulled together millions of dollars. Well, that's the same thing here. A firm would come out, pull together tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to then invest that money into budding, seed or precede stage startups. Right, we're gonna hear from one here very soon. She raised

more than six million dollars from venture capitalists investors. The next one that comes to mind is crowdfunding. And I think we've all kind of heard of this one before, right Indiego, Go, Kickstarter, other things like that. Right. This is essentially rallying your community, your friends, your family, to say, hey, give me money so I can build my business. Right. One that I think you mentioned here earlier with credit

cards and things of that nature of the small business loans. Right, this is going into debt to fund your small business if that might be the operating capital needed or are things that nature to get off the ground. You'll see tons of different banks offering small business loans and things that nature. Even I think the United States government even have some small business loans as well. Yep, the Small Business Administration also known as the SBA. That is it. Okay,

there we go. And the last one that comes to mind are grants. Right, This is money received from anyone who's trying to solve a problem to qualify for a grant. It could be nearly anything, right, could be your background, your experience. I've been kind of like, I think of this as a scholarship to college in the sense that you have these very specific parameters, you check the boxes,

and you get to apply for this money. But for a little perspective, here are some quick stats as it relates to how business owners who want to start a business in twenty twenty three plan to fund it. So, the most popular way is using their own money or savings. The second most popular is a loan from family or friends, the third most popular is a business loan from a commercial lender, and way at the bottom is the VC funding that venture capital funding that we're going to get

into a little bit more today. So those are the different ways that I can think of as it relates to funding a business. But do you mind walking us through a little bit more about your own experience with grants. I think grants are probably the most accessible for folks, especially people who don't necessarily have a network of people

that they can leverage as investors. As a first generation entrepreneur, I don't have a lot of people in my circle who I can just be like, hey, guys, can you write me a check because I have this really cool business idea, And so when it comes to funding your business without having to take on debt, grants are really really key. And there are federal grants and state grants and even grants from corporations. So, as someone who's received a grant before, how did you decide that that was

the right way to raise money for your business? Why did you do it grants and maybe not crowdfunding or an angel investor. I think for me, just because of the nature of my business, I really am still trying to figure out what exactly it is I do as a podcaster, an influencer, content creator. In my head, I'd

never pictured pitching what I do to venture capitalists. It just did an equate I usually think about that for like a product based business or a technology company, So For me, I was just operating in a very small business mindset and I wanted to be able to actually offer a scholarship program where I could teach people for free about investing. And I found an organization that supports that type of work and they gave me a grant that I could use to then give money to people

who participated in the program to start investing. Right. So, there's like so many different things that you can do with the money that you receive from grants, and it's out there for the taking. I think that's really powerful. And I also think you hit the nail right on the head as it relates to angel investors or vcs, like a very product based or technology based. Right. The person we're going to be talking here with soon, she

has a payment processing platform. It's one of these businesses that can grow to a multi billion dollar enterprise if it can scale enough. And so that's what I think the big differences between raising from an angel investor in vcs and stuff like that, or raising from grants or crowdfunding. So, Austin, as a content creator like me, did you raise any

funds for your business as a content creator? It's been very lean, just kind of get a laptop, maybe a camera, microphone, it's maybe a thousand dollars or so if you're able to do it right. But I would say that if I was to try and find capital right now, would actually be through a technique we have not yet talked about, and that is borrowing against existing assets, specifically my portfolio.

So I've got thirty thousand dollars in a brokerage account right now on a platform that allows me to borrow against that if I need liquidity. So, for example, if I had wanted to perhaps take on a bigger project or maybe hire an employee, I could borrow up to twenty five or even fifty percent of that amount at a reasonable interest rate to then deploy toward that project. So Austin, if someone doesn't have a portfolio, can they still access capital this way? So that's a really good question.

The short answer is no, and that's because there's no collateral to borrow against. However, having a stock portfolio is only one form of collateral. Perhaps they might have a house or perhaps something else that's generally expensive, a car, a valuable of some sort that they would be able to borrow against. That's a really interesting way to leverage funds you already have for a new project. Now that we have a better idea of the most common ways

to raise capital, let's hear from our guest about her journey. Today. We're joined by Ami Comoji. Ami is a Stanford trained physician, an x BCG consultant turned founder CEO of Sika Health. At the age of six, Amy emigrated from Ghana with the dream of becoming a physician and achieving that dream, she learned how broken the financial side of US healthcare can be. That's why she created Seka Health in order

to reinvent the way we pay for our health. Seeka Health is a consumer first payment company that enables merchants to accept funds at checkout from health savings accounts or HSA's and flexible spending accounts or FSAs, so we can all afford our health needs. You might be familiar with these types of accounts as you may have an HSA or FSA yourself, or they might be something that you offer to your employees. Amy started funding for her company during the pandemic and has raised a six point two

million dollars seed round from world class investors. Ami, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Janis and Austin. It's wonderful to be here. Thank you so much for

hanging out with us. Ammi. I think a really good place to start this conversation is for us to understand the origin story of seek A Health, and I believe it has to do with your mother being laid off during the pandemic and the decisions that had to be made because of that, like having to become a tax expert essentially overnight, just to figure out how to use

those healthcare funds from her job. Can you walk me through how that circumstantially inspired you to start this company so exactly as you mentioned, inspiration for starting Seeka actually happened in twenty twenty when unfortunately, my mom was laid off of her job. She's working as a hotel worker at the time, and that meant that she was going to lose her health plan, of which her FASA was

part of. That the FSA is a wonderful tool and that it does allow you to spend that money pre tax on your health, but in her case, it was unfortunately, use it or lose it. And the hardest part about these tools is that you can only spend them on certain things, and no one tells you what those things are. So we actually had to scramble to try to figure out and exactly like you're saying, practically to become tax experts overnight in order to determine how we could use

these funds. But in doing so we learned a lot, and I learned a lot and really three things specifically that ended up giving the court insights for starting SEEKA.

So first and foremost, I learned that there are way more ways to spend FSA and HSA dollars than most people realize, things like glasses, fitness equipment like a peloton bike or gym membership, certain nutritional vitamins and supplements, maybe even pet supplies for an emotional support animal or a service animal, so a really really broad range of expenses.

The second thing we realized, and this I think was sort of the root cause, was that not only did a lot of consumers like my mom not know how to spend these funds, but a lot of merchants struggle to accept FSA and HSA funds as a form of payment. In fact, many of them don't even know which of

their items are eligible and which aren't. The third core insight here is that there are about seventy million people in the US who have either an FSA or an HSA, and about one hundred and fifty billion dollars flows through these accounts every year, and a lot of times the money just sits there, and in some cases like what almost happened to my mom, and people actually lose money to the tune of about eight billion dollars every year

when these funds expire. So for all those reasons and all the learnings, I saw that there was a real opportunity for improvement, a very big market, and an urgent need, and that's why I decided to start seek a Health. Got it Okay? So for everyone listening right now, can you explain the differences actually between an HSA and an FSA, and then why are those differences so important for the

problem that you're solving with seek a Health. So episades and hsas are really one of the best tools out there to help people to save on their various healthcare needs. But part of what comes with utilizing these tools is knowing the key differences between them exactly like you're mentioning, and so even though they sound really similar, they're actually really different in terms of how and when you can

spend these dollars. For h says, the money actually rolls over from year to year, and you can actually invest those dollars over time and grow those funds to be a really large pot of money. For episays, they're use it or lose it, which means you have to use them within the course of a year, and in some cases, let's say, if you lose your job, you actually might

have to spend them right away, within the month. And so what that means for us, and the problem that we're solving is that there can be a lot of urgency, both because there's a big pot of money that you don't want just sitting there, and also because the funds might be expiring on a deadline, and that makes it really important to make it easier for people to identify where and how they can spend these dollars. So the way that we solve that problem specifically is that we

actually show up at checkout. We show up as a payment method, very similar to let's say a buy now, pay later product that you've seen, or perhaps a PayPal except the difference with us is that you can actually link your health funds as a form of payment. And behind the scenes, we're doing a bunch of things on the regulatory front, helping the merchants get certified and figure out which items counting can be improved in which items

are not. But the goal is for you as the consumer and the shopper, to have a really easy experience, a really easy way to buy the products that you need and save money doing it, and likewise for merchants to be able to offer you a new way to pay. Were you surprised when you found this huge literacy gap when it comes to how these accounts work? And were you surprised that no one has thought of fixing this problem before? You know? I don't know that I can

say that I was surprised. Unfortunately, in our healthcare system, a lot of problems look like this where things are just very broken, not because it's anyone's fault or intention right, but because there's a literacy gap. And what that means is there is an opportunity for companies like us to be created to close those gaps on behalf of consumers, but also on behalf of other businesses, and that's what

is creating the opportunity for us. So this episode is all about capital raising and fund raising all that fun stuff. You raised six point two million dollars from some of the most well known and I mean four runner ventures. Urikim is an incredible woman. So what I'm trying to get out here, though, is, I mean, how did you do that? Right? What were some maybe unexpected challenges involved

you get any curveballs headed your way. I also read that it was kind of the chicken and the egg problem with hiring people, So maybe walk us through that process as well, and maybe not having a team yet when you were raising it. I'd love to know you're

exactly right. It was definitely a lot of challenges. Part of the reason I knew I needed to fundraise was that, you know, in order to solve this problem, I needed a really good team, a really strong team, particularly on the engineering on the product side, and many of those

folks currently work in tech. You are paid incredibly well, right, So it was a chicken and egg problem for sure, But I decided that the way to start was to bring on incredible partners on the investment side who could then help by providing the capital I needed to attract a wonderful team in terms of my journey fundraising. I definitely don't come from the traditional tech background. I've actually

never worked in tech professionally. My background is as a physician, as you've mentioned, and I previously worked as a healthcare consultant, which meant that I didn't necessarily have an automatic rolodex of tech focused investors to call right away. And so what did I do? I actually started really close to home.

Started by telling everyone that I knew, I was really excited about this problem, that I wanted to start this business, and many of those people were my previous mentors or bosses or friends, maybe folks that had started companies before. And it didn't really even feel like I was pitching, or it wasn't intending to pitch. It was mostly just telling my story. And sometimes there was an ask for advice,

but sometimes it was an ask for capital. And the more comfortable I became, the more I began to ask. And there are plenty of nos, but eventually I did get to a first yes and then the next yes.

And when I set out to fundraise, I set out to raise half a million dollars, but within a few weeks I had actually surpassed that goal and raised over one point two million, And that was because the people that I was speaking with, you know, really believed in the opportunity, and they also really believed in me, and you know, it became evident that this was a problem

that desperately needed to be solved. And the other thing that happened was that many of those people actually knew investors or knew people who knew investors, and so they were able to help me with introductions. And eventually those at the introductions that helped me get pulled into the room in front of Forerunner Ventures and Shine Capital and the co founders of Plaid some of the people who

eventually led my seed round a few weeks later. That's absolutely incredible, And I think another amazing part of your story is the fact that you did this during the pandemic, which I think a lot of people would be like, I don't know if this is the right time to be asking people for money to fund a new business. So did you ever run into just mindset blocks or concerns that this was not going to work out the

way that you intended. Yeah, So that's one of the hardest things about the entrepreneurial journey is there always will be challenges. There will always be setbacks, and one of the most important things is to quiet the noise, fake it till you make it, and just know that if you can get your ideas across, convey your message, which is that this is a problem that needs to be solved today. Actually this is a problem that's even more

urgent because of the pandemic. How many of us have lost our jobs, how many of us have dealt with health issues. How many of us could use a way to save money on our health needs as a result of this broader climate, So you know, they're certainly you know there are ways that the pandemic made things harder. But I had the belief internally that actually that was the reason why this needed to exist now, and then as a result, I was able to convey that to

the people around me. Coming up on Mind the Business Small Business success Stories. Fundamentally, fundraising is a form of relationship building, so people don't invest in companies, they invest in people. We'll be right back after the break. Welcome back to Mind the Business Small Business Success Stories brought to you by iHeartRadio and into a quick books. So I'm curious if there's any maybe one or two tactical things that you did during this fundraising that really led

to success. Was it a pitch deck that you were just combing through a thousand times? Was it practicing your pitch in front of the mirror? Was like, what was maybe a couple of tactical things that you were practicing and doing that truly led to the success that you experienced in this round? You know, I think the way I'll answer that is by saying that I do think preparation is underrated in general, especially in the way that

these stories of fundraising come about. It's made to sound really magical, like all of a sudden, who woke up and had this great idea and then a bunch of people started throwing money at me? And that's just not

how it works. By the time I was pitching to say Forerunner, I had done my pitch a thousand times, certainly in front of the mirror, but most importantly in front of other people who could give me advice, who could critique the way I answered this question, who could give me insight into how I could convey my message

even better. And so part of what that looked like tactically was setting up meetings with all sorts of colleagues just to practice and having docs, I would list out all the questions that I could possibly get and the ways that I would handle some of those questions and those objectives. I think the takeaway here is that fundraising, like any skill, is one that can be learned, one that can be improved, and one that can be perfected over time, and you know it's important to invest in

some of that preparation upfront. I'd love to know how one determines how much money you actually want to raise. I've never raised venture capital. The whole idea of kind of freaks me out, honestly, but I think it's because I watched too much Shark Tank. So I want to know, how do you find out you know? Or how do you determine how much money you need and what your strategy could be? Because right you can take out loans, you can put things on credit cards. So how did

you decide to go with venture capital? Yeah? For me, the way that I determined how much money I needed to raise was actually I built a model. It was maybe overly precise, to be honest, but I figured out, well, how many people do I need to hire? First and foremost? What will each of those people be doing, and I knew that the biggest cost in this business given that it was essentially a fintech business with payroll costs essentially,

so that was the major input. We would also likely use the funds for things like marketing an office, so building in some of those costs. But the lesson in there is just to figure out why are you raising money to begin with, what are you going to use that money for? And then try as best as you can to estimate about how much of those resources, how many resources you'll need to be able to get there.

The other big piece of fundraising isn't a fundraise, it's to build a great business, right, So what are the key things that I need to figure out in this stage to build this business and how much time and what resources will it take for me to get there? So we're really fundraised with the intent of bringing on the people I needed in order to sort of prove or disprove the hypothesis of the business. So you know, what is it going to take to prove to yourself

right that this is a business that has legs? And then fundraising ideally just enough with a little bit of buffer of course, to help you get to that next milestone, and then outside of that, part of how I thought about fundraising is I really do see our busters not just as people who provide capital, but people who are

important strategic partners and strategic thought partners. So using that the fundraising process is a way to actually grow your network, to find the right experts to bring around the table so that you can accomplish some of these key milestones

that you have in front of you. Now, I hope you don't mind, but I really want to rewind for a second here, because something you talked about in the beginning of this interview was you shared this with everyone close to you, right, You shared it with your friends, your colleagues, your mentors, all these people who were excited

to lift you up and see you succeed. What advice would you give to the small business owner that's trying to raise money that might not have access to investors or friends or family with all this extra advice, time and money to give and support. Fundamentally, fundraising is a form of relationship building. So people don't invest in companies, they invest in people. And what that means is that

it's really important for all aspects of your business. Actually to constantly be building your network and to be building relationships. So let's say you're a small business owner. Maybe you don't have a network of investors potential investors today. Part of what you can do is to actually find networks of other founders and join communities. So I joined early on a bunch of Slack groups, for example, of people that were trying to build businesses and health tech and fintech,

people that were product oriented. That is free to everyone and available to everyone. There are different communities. So our company is built in New York, and there's actually a community called built in NYC, and various people who have different email list serves where you can put yourself out there. You can write a small post, let's say, for their blog, and so there are a lot of really creative ways where you can just start to build your network and

start to surround yourself with people. And they might not be investors right away, they might be other folks just like you that are starting to get off the ground. But as you build your network, as you get yourself out there, you will be surprised your network will really amplify and multiply, and through those loose connections here and there,

you'll be able to find the path to investors. I guess my last question here for you, Ammy is you know you probably know overall, black entrepreneurs typically receive less than two percent of all VC dollars each year, while company is led by black women receive less than one percent, according to data from crunch Base. However, you beat those odds. You US six point two million dollars from world class investors. So my question is, how did you beat those odds?

And what would you tell the person that was in your shoes maybe two years ago that had the idea that was trying to beat those odds right now? That's such a good question and also such an unfortunate question. I hope for a day where there isn't this funding gap. And you know, by some of my research, black female founders raised point three to four percent, so a third of one percent of the funds raised back in twenty

twenty one when I was raising. Part of how I beat those odds was going back to the fundamental belief that this business needs to exist and I'm the right person to do it. And as cliche as it sounds, just to bake it till you make it, you know, I think people really get caught up in the details, but then forget the sort of overarching message and fundraising, particularly at the seed stage when there's not that much traction,

the numbers aren't that great. You need to be able to convince yourself as well as investors of two things. Number one, that the problem that you're solving is a big, important and urgent problem that needs to be solved, and number two, that you're the right person or the right team to solve that problem. And everything else is just

supporting bullets. So your traction, your revenue, the market data, but the thing that really counts, the thing that moves people is the passion with which you speak, the conviction, the ability to show that you will run through walls

to make it happen. And so that was part of the difference maker for me, was just continuing to focus on that as the core message and the story, and of course big market MC data, and you know, we had this level of commercial interests, but it really just came down to grounding myself and I know this is a big important problem and it needs to be solved, and number two, I'm the right person to do it. Therefore,

come on board and help me build this business. I love kind of ending things on an inspirational note, right, So tell the aspiring capital raisers who are listening to this right now, your best motivational saying or phrase or something that you held onto during the process. Well, one that comes to mind is you either win or you learn. There's no such thing as losing. At least for me.

This journey really is about the learning. No matter how this business turns out, and I know that we have a very very strong outcome ahead of us, But the most important thing is just focusing on the learning, focusing on you know, what are the things that are working, what are the things that aren't working so well? What are some of the areas that our strengths for me? Where are some of the areas that might be holding

me back? How do I apply that learning mindset to every interaction that I have, whether it's with customers or with my team. And of course through the fundraising process too. I learned a lot during the fundraising process, and in fact, the times that I learned the most was from the nose.

Some of the things that I learned from the nose were which types of investors would be most interested in the business, that I was building, and it was through that learning that I was able to correct and navigate, you know, change this or that about the way that I tell my story and the audience to whom I tell it to, so that I could find that right

fit that I eventually landed on. So if I could tell your listeners anything is focus on the learning and remind yourself that you either win or you learn, and there's no such thing as losing. I mean, I think that your boldness, the passion for what you're doing, and just your confidence. I could feel like when you would walk into a room to pitch, people could just feel how excited you were to make an impact with your business, and so I have to credit that for your success.

So I just want to thank you for being an inspiration. Especially as a woman of color. It's so rare for us to see examples of folks who are really able to make these things happen and to place themselves in rooms where we might not have seen ourselves represented before. So just thank you for the work that you do just by being you. Thank you so much, and hopefully the takeaway here is that you being different coming from a different background, whether it's an ethnic difference, or a

gender difference, or a country difference, or professional difference. All those differences can be advantages because it is so important to lean on your own personal experiences. That is the source of your conviction, your strength, that's what makes you compelling as a founder and an owner and a builder. So the more that we can lean into our differences, I think the more successful we will be. Thank you so much for joining us. I mean, this was I

learned so much. I'm sure a lot of the listeners here are pumped, they're excited, they're inspired, especially by your story. Right, this was awesome. I can't wait to do this again, hopefully sometime soon. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me, Austin and Janie. It was wonderful to be here, and hopefully some of these tips were helpful to your audience. Thank you so much.

That was such an incredible conversation with Ami Komoji. You know, there are so many ways to raise capital and get funding for a small business, and Amy is definitely on one end of that spectrum raising millions of dollars with multiple investors, but there are so many other ways, like bootstrapping. When you're doing it on your own grants, which we talked about earlier, and asking friends and family. You just really have to find what's the best fit for your

business and your situation. I'm curious, Austin, what stuck out most to you about this conversation. Totally agree, great conversation. I think a couple of things really stuck out to me. The first one was the preparation. Right We asked her about what all went into a successful raise, and she talked about a thousand times that she'd pitched. That is incredible, lots of practice, lots of preparation. I think that's incredibly important for someone listening right now. The preparation is key.

The second thing that really stuck out to me was just how interesting of a problem she's solving and how big of a total addressable market that is. She mentioned billions of dollars gets wasted every single year with the hsas and FSAs. But then also the urgency around that. I mean, she gave such a personalized story with her mother and how she was laid off and you know she only had a month to spend this money, but how to become a tax expert overnight to even be

able to do that what about you? What a couple of things that stuck out to Eugenius. I absolutely love the fact that she didn't let the dismal statistics that exist around black entrepreneurs receiving venture capital as a deterrent for her even pursuing that right, because I think a lot of what I've discovered about entrepreneurship is your mind will keep you from opportunities and we'll stop you from

pursuing things before anybody actually tells you know. And so the fact that she said, you know what, the stats don't favor me, but I'm still going to show up and I will take all the knows because it all starts with one. Yes. That's so inspiring and that's I think one of my favorite parts of entrepreneurship is the mindset work and the confrontation of limiting beliefs that we constantly have to do to create things out of nothing. Yeah, And I really think it kind of leans back into

what she was saying. It's not a win lose situation. It's a win or you learn, right. It's an up in its ounds, yes and knows, but we're winning and we're learning. It's never a win lose situation. Absolutely well, good stuff everyone. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today on our first episode. You can find me on my social media accounts at Austin Hanquitz and you

can find me at Jokieto Dinano podcast. You can follow Into It QuickBooks on all social media at QuickBooks, and to get the tools that you need to start, run and grow your business, head to QuickBooks dot com today and be sure to catch the next episode of Mind the Business Small Business success Stories on Thursday, April thirteenth, where we speak to viral marketer Andrea Casanova on the

different ways to effectively build your brand strategy. You won't want to miss that one, so don't forget to follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listen to podcasts so you can stay up to date on our future episodes and check out our show notes for more info from this episode and small business funding. And a huge thank you to our guest Ami Kamoji. This podcast is a

production of iHeartRadio and Into It QuickBooks. Our executive producer is Molly Sosha, our supervising producer is in the Kia Swinton, and our writer is Tyree Rush. Our head of post production is James Foster and we will see you next time.