0:00

Let's get this started. I'm super glad to be here with

0:02

you today because then this first conversation that

0:04

we're going to have is about corporate responsibility

0:07

and closing the wealth gap. Who realizes

0:09

that actually corporations do have a responsibility

0:12

in making this my man? One person knows

0:14

that corporations have a responsibility.

0:16

Here the blueprint presented by Northwestern

0:19

Mutual Misfireside

0:21

Discussion will delve into the critical role of

0:23

corporate responsibility and addressing the wealth gap

0:26

through real time examples of how Northwestern

0:28

Mutual is doing it. Especially

0:31

they have this SARE task Force, which

0:33

is a sustained action for Racial Equity

0:35

task Force, or they're putting people whose

0:38

jobs it is to make sure this thing happen happens

0:41

in collaborations with global partners.

0:43

These speakers will explore successful strategies,

0:45

actionable frameworks, and best practices

0:48

that companies can adopt to actively

0:50

participate in closing the wealth gap,

0:52

ultimately promoting economic equity,

0:55

financial literacy, and inclusive financial

0:58

well being for all. So

1:00

we're going to have this conversation with Abim

1:02

Kola, who is vice president,

1:05

chief audit executive and a member

1:07

of the company's Enterprise Leadership Group

1:09

and was appointed executive sponsor for the

1:11

CEO led Sustained Action

1:14

for Racial Equity initiative aimed at helping

1:16

to close the racial wealth gap. And

1:18

the moderator here today is Dennis

1:21

Kale, co founder and CEO of Zert

1:23

You and So Zert

1:26

You So. And he's also a Navy veteran.

1:28

Any veterans in the building right now,

1:31

any families of veterans, I

1:33

like that, thank them

1:35

and thank you guys for your service. He's an SMU

1:38

Graduate Bank board member and award

1:40

winning entrepreneur, including afro Tech

1:42

Future fifty honoree this year

1:44

Forbes Next one thousand, d CEO

1:47

five hundred n Ey Entrepreneur

1:50

of the Year winner. Welcome

1:52

to the stage, moderator Dennis Kale

1:54

and our panelist Abim Cola.

2:09

All right, Rondover pause here is.

2:15

But I knew of Ben would hold it down for us.

2:17

So thank you, sir.

2:19

That's what we do as military veterans, right,

2:21

Thanks for your service.

2:22

Thank you, Happy to

2:24

serve and happy to be here. So

2:29

let's get it kicked off ready, start

2:32

with you. You know Northwestern Mutual

2:36

Financial Services Company founded

2:39

in eighteen fifty seven, been

2:41

around one hundred and sixty six years.

2:45

You guys are big backers

2:47

and supporters of black businesses,

2:50

of black companies, founders,

2:53

underrepresented founders.

2:56

Can you talk a little bit about how that

2:59

support fits into your overall mission

3:02

from an organizational standpoint? Yeah?

3:04

Absolutely, But before I get started, I just want to take

3:07

a moment to say thank you so much

3:09

for having us.

3:10

It's always a pleasure.

3:11

I was here in March of last year and

3:13

the energy in the room was palpable.

3:15

It's just incredible to see a

3:18

sea of African Americans

3:21

here and to be able to have this conversation

3:24

with you is phenomenal. So thanks,

3:26

thanks for having us to the

3:28

point you made. Northwestern Mutual is a financial

3:30

services company based out of Milwauka, Wisconsin.

3:33

I moved here from New York City to go join that company

3:35

for a variety of reasons. One of the

3:38

principal reasons was exactly the commitment

3:40

what we're going to be talking about today. I

3:42

saw a company that was so committed.

3:45

The vision of the company is to eliminate financial

3:47

anxiety from Americans in

3:49

particularly. We know that undersilved communities,

3:53

there's this gap within other SILF communities

3:55

and I could see at that time twenty years ago when I

3:57

was packing up from New York City, I'm moving to Wisconsin,

4:00

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that I was going

4:02

to connect with a company that had a deep vision

4:04

and mission around financial security

4:06

fall.

4:07

Now fast forward.

4:09

Through the ten twenty years that I've been at the company,

4:12

the company's been involved in a variety of things

4:14

in the community, trying to improve the lives of

4:16

the community because it matters

4:18

to us in terms of how we developed

4:20

the communities. Fast

4:22

forward to unfortunate mode

4:25

of George Floyd. We decided to

4:27

really really double down in a very sustained

4:30

way to really begin to uplift

4:32

communities, particularly the Black and African American

4:35

community.

4:36

And I'm sure we're going.

4:36

To be going a lot deeper into the sustained

4:39

action for racial equity. But our

4:41

CEO basically took it upon himself post

4:44

the George Floyd Murdim to actually

4:46

conduct one on one interviews. How many people

4:48

do that one on one interviews with Black

4:50

and African Americans to deeply understand

4:52

the experiences not only within

4:55

the community but our advisors. And

4:57

he came away really committed even

5:00

more committed building on all the

5:02

things that he had been doing, that we had been doing for years

5:05

to really make sure that we have a program which I'm

5:07

very proud of to be the executive sponsor today

5:10

that is leading the charge. And again

5:12

I'm sure we'll get into the details, but high

5:14

level, we created the Sustained Action for Racial

5:17

Equity, a task force cheered

5:19

by the CEO, and I say cheered by the CEO because in

5:21

this day and age, there's nothing more important

5:24

in my opinion, that leadership courage. I

5:26

was reading a little about Joon Sanders day and they talked

5:28

about the audacity to be brave, and

5:31

I am just so proud to work for

5:33

a CEO who is so brave to

5:36

be in a position like this myself to

5:38

recognize that people are waiting for us to

5:41

take a step back an instead we're leaning

5:43

forward. So I'm

5:45

sure we're getting too a lot of the programmatic aspects

5:47

of the things that I'm very proud of how we're

5:50

leading and supporting black businesses, But

5:53

just want to say that this commitment we've had

5:56

is built on generations. But we're even

5:58

more committed to make sure that we are reaching

6:00

and touching lives, particularly in

6:02

the underrepresented communities.

6:06

Thank you for that, and thank you for your courage too.

6:08

Absolutely, and now I'm going to flip it back to you.

6:10

Right, we're here talking about one

6:13

of the things that inspired us as part

6:15

of some of the initiatives was this

6:18

notion of access to capital.

6:19

We wanted to make.

6:20

Sure that as part of building on how

6:22

we've been supporting black businesses and

6:25

underrepresented communities for decades,

6:28

we knew that obviously the gap in terms of access

6:30

to capital is real.

6:31

This has been studied, and we talked

6:34

about three things. I like to say.

6:35

It's getting in the game, so access

6:38

to capital, to get in the game, to start a business,

6:40

thriving in the game in terms of fall

6:43

and financing, and then

6:46

you know, obviously creating the opportunity to scale

6:48

businesses such that they could be supplies to companies.

6:51

So what's your experience, Dennis,

6:54

in terms of getting in the game, staying

6:56

in the game, and thriving in the game.

6:58

You have a business that is

7:00

doing pretty well, You're thriving right now.

7:02

Why do you talk a little bit about your business model,

7:05

what you do and then speak to some of those

7:07

categories.

7:08

Sure, thanks, abim So, just

7:10

by way of quick background, Dennis

7:13

kel founder CEO at Zertu.

7:15

We have a mission to drive financial equity

7:18

and inclusion, one relationship at

7:20

a time, and we do that by

7:22

simplifying loans between friends and family

7:25

and baking in and bill pay transparency.

7:28

So if I borrow three hundred dollars from a BIM

7:30

to pay my pass do AT and T bill.

7:33

Once a BIM approves that loan, instead

7:35

of the money coming to me, Zrchu sends

7:37

that money straight to AT and T minus

7:39

our success fee. So that's how we make

7:41

money. And came up with this idea

7:44

probably ten plus years ago because my

7:47

sister and other family members

7:49

would borrow money from me and I had limited

7:51

success in getting that money back, and

7:53

so my thought process

7:56

was, how do I take the awkwardness

7:58

out of this but also help make them more accountable.

8:01

But the big issue I had was not really

8:03

knowing that the money was being used for the

8:05

intended purpose. And so I

8:07

give you that context because my

8:10

background started and my career

8:12

started in the Navy as a systems

8:14

engineer sett an up shift to shore ship

8:16

to ship communications. But prior

8:19

to that, I grew up in very humble beginnings.

8:22

I grew up in low income public

8:24

Housing and Monroe, Louisiana. We

8:26

didn't have banks or credit unions

8:28

or financial services companies in my neighborhood,

8:31

but we had several liquor stores and pawn

8:33

shops that would cast your check for

8:36

thirty percent of whatever your check was. So

8:38

even at seven years old, I knew that was bad

8:41

math. And so you fast forward walked

8:44

outside the naval base after boot camp. There

8:46

was a lot of payday lenders, etc. And

8:49

so I say that to say

8:52

me founding

8:54

Zertu and starting this company is

8:57

really mission driven, but it also

8:59

goes go back to making sure that

9:02

I was being intentional about finding investors

9:05

like Northwestern Mutual that are

9:07

aligned with our mission, because that is extremely

9:10

critical and it's not ever

9:13

about just taking money from anyone. One

9:15

of the first questions I ask any investor

9:17

is what do you bring beyond the capital? I

9:20

think that's important, and I think you have to

9:22

have people around the cap table,

9:24

around the table that are in it

9:26

with you for the mission and

9:29

understand that you can do good. You

9:32

can do well by doing good. And so

9:34

that's what ZRCHU sets out to do. And I think

9:36

it really starts with those early checks

9:39

from investors and partners like Northwestern

9:41

Mutual that are willing to take

9:43

a risk on you and then understand

9:46

that you're going to do everything you can not

9:48

to make a liar out of them and make sure

9:50

you have a strong ROI. And so for

9:54

us, it's really about aligning

9:56

yourself with the right partners early, because

9:59

I do think that has a lot to do with your success.

10:02

And by the way, they've made several introductions

10:04

from a corporate standpoint, so we can drive our

10:06

revenue as well, and so there's so

10:08

much more that they bring to the table. And that's what

10:11

I encourage any founder of Color

10:13

to seek out, is those investors

10:15

that are aligned with you, that understand

10:18

you, that understand the bridge that

10:20

you're trying to build, because

10:22

that's going to drive your success. And so I

10:25

take very little credit for the success we've

10:27

had to date and give most

10:30

of that to the support system that we have around

10:32

us.

10:33

It's been a pleasure.

10:34

Thank you back to you

10:37

so post

10:40

George Floyd. Okay, a

10:42

lot of companies, corporations

10:45

made a lot of commitments, a lot of promises.

10:48

Most of those have been broken at this stage,

10:51

and I'm sure everyone in this room

10:53

can tell you some of those promises have been

10:55

broken. Can

10:57

we talk or can you tell us a little bit about

11:00

Northwestern Mutual and your commitments

11:02

then and now and sort

11:05

of where you guys are and really

11:08

what advice would you give to other corporations.

11:12

Yeah, I really like the topic of this

11:14

conversation in terms of corporate social

11:16

responsibility to close the wealth gap

11:19

because we are all uniquely positioned

11:22

to be able to do our you

11:24

know, a path a part in helping

11:26

to close the racial wealth gap. You know,

11:28

I'm just going to share a little bit about the why, the

11:30

what, and the how. So you know, I talked a

11:32

little bit about the why that this is uniquely aligned

11:35

to our vision. But we recently had

11:38

another conversation with our CEO and

11:41

where we landed is this is

11:43

simply a growth strategy. It is

11:45

good for business. It's more than just

11:47

being altruistic. Investing in your communities,

11:50

doing what you can to really

11:53

enable black business is good for business.

11:56

We want to grow, we want to be relevant,

11:58

we want to be competitive. Marketplaces

12:00

have a change in and if you stick

12:03

with your old business model, you will never

12:05

grow, you will not be relevant, and you will.

12:06

Not be competitive.

12:08

So, Barnan, this is grounded in

12:10

the business imperative. So that was sort of

12:12

the initial kind of the why. And it's always

12:14

very important, not that this is not important

12:17

for social good, but from a corporate standpoint,

12:19

to be really grounded in the why. And we are so

12:21

ground in the why unanimously around

12:24

the company.

12:25

Now, what did we decide to do?

12:26

So?

12:26

Again post George Floyd, the CEO

12:28

pulled a number of us together and said, I want you to

12:30

think innovatively. I heard the word innovation

12:33

used here, and my colleagues

12:35

and I went to the drawing board and we started thinking about

12:37

all kinds of ideas and

12:40

what was behind our minds was the

12:43

sustained action.

12:44

And that was very, very deliberate.

12:47

The CEO wanted to make sure this was not just the fleeting

12:49

thing because I've read all the articles about where

12:51

all the commitments that companies made to

12:54

grow black businesses and really

12:56

foster the development of underrepresented the businesses,

12:59

and so we said, it's action. But we went through

13:01

the drawing board and we said what are we going

13:03

to do? And there were a number of levers

13:06

that we created, but we said, let's make this

13:08

very strategic. So

13:10

we created a strategy and we make sure we allocate

13:13

funds on par with every

13:15

other corporate strategic initiative.

13:17

And I was asked to be the executive sponsor, So

13:19

I was given a portfolio, I was given

13:21

the money allocated to be able

13:23

to do that, and that gave everybody the confidence

13:26

that this is not just some bite side but again

13:28

that spoke to kind of the sustained aspect

13:30

of it. So getting into the exactly what

13:33

we did, we recommended that we

13:35

created we created a hundred million dollar

13:37

impact investing fund.

13:38

Now, these things are.

13:39

Not easy, but we had to create

13:41

the case for that, and ultimately that past muster

13:44

and the focus for one hundred million dollar impact

13:46

Investing fund was around affordable housing,

13:49

healthy sustaining with.

13:50

Neighborhoods, and access to capital.

13:52

So step number one, Step number

13:54

two is we have a

13:56

corporate venture capital fund about one hundred

13:58

and fifty million dollars, and that

14:01

fund is broadly deployed across

14:03

all races, Ethnicsi's gender. But

14:05

we wanted to make sure we had a little set aside again

14:07

for black businesses, and

14:10

that was green lips.

14:11

Okay, let's do that.

14:13

We wanted to make sure that the entrepreneurs

14:15

that we will be funding were strategically

14:17

aligned to the company of fintech, insured

14:20

tech, Digital, heald AI, that kind

14:22

of stuff, So that was a second bucket.

14:25

We then my colleague and I then said, but we can't stop

14:27

there. We have to make sure we start creating an ecosystem.

14:30

Why don't we create an accelerator, And

14:32

we studied the Northwest Mutual Black Fund Accelerator

14:36

as a complement of that, and we're

14:38

in the process of graduating the thirtieth cohort

14:41

sorry thirty members from

14:44

the accelerator. It's a twelve week program.

14:46

People coming to the program get one hundred thousand dollars,

14:49

they get an executive mentor from Northwest Mutual

14:51

and they graduate from the program and gone

14:54

to get other funding sources. As

14:57

part of the Impact Investing Fund, we've also been

14:59

partnering with local community development

15:01

financial Institutions CDFIs

15:03

in the local area to make

15:05

sure that they are able to loan to

15:07

make loans to local business because they have the expertise

15:10

on the ground game. And

15:12

then we decided that also we wanted to take a look at our

15:14

supplied diversity program to make sure we come brought

15:16

in that program.

15:18

So these are efforts.

15:20

And initiatives, key initiatives that I'm very very proud

15:22

of that we're driving as hard as possible.

15:25

On top of that, obviously, we're paying very close

15:27

attention to the culture that we're creating.

15:29

As part of the strategy.

15:31

We had a cultural aspect of it, We had

15:33

a talent aspect of it, and then

15:35

we had an aspect of it that relates to being relevant

15:37

in the marketplace. How do we show up in the marketplace?

15:40

What would make people trust us, particularly again underrepresented

15:42

communities. So I share the strategic approach

15:45

with you, and I know it's a little painstaking to go through

15:47

all the initiatives, but they say, this was a

15:49

very well thought out strategy that's

15:51

resourced with specific initiatives

15:54

and people aligned with those initiatives. And

15:56

then we're beginning to measure proof points, and

15:58

the proof points that are material, how do we know we actually

16:01

make an impact. We want to make sure

16:03

that the businesses we're funding actually growing

16:05

revenue. We want to count

16:07

the number of people they're hiring because obviously

16:09

they're creating jobs, and

16:12

we want to for the accelerators the

16:14

founders come in, we want to track sort of full on funding

16:18

among many other ways of tracking actual,

16:20

real impact.

16:21

So we're very, very proud of the work we've

16:24

been doing.

16:24

But I just want to underscore exactly the question

16:27

you asked, which is we're not seeing

16:29

as many proof points. And I've read a number of articles

16:31

about people leaving, you know,

16:33

the commitments they've made, But there's

16:35

no better time for us to double down the commands

16:38

we're made. And I'm just really proud of

16:40

how we're going about this.

16:44

Thank you for that. I'm

16:46

going to double click on something. Is there a call

16:48

to actually you would have for other companies

16:51

just based on the ecosystem

16:53

you just walked through and talked us through. You're

16:56

not just throwing money at these companies

16:58

or these founders. You're

17:00

in saying, you know, go make it happen

17:02

and then wondering why they fail. You're

17:04

actually building a support system, an ecosystem

17:07

around this. Is there a call to action you

17:09

would have for other organizations?

17:11

Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Yeah, the

17:13

call to action is across. So I would say about three dimensions.

17:16

I mean, the first is, frankly, from whatever

17:18

your vantage point is, the call to action

17:20

is that courage, the audacity

17:23

to be bold, to continue to think outside

17:25

of the box because you know, it's

17:28

hard, you know, and there are times when you doubt

17:30

it. There are times when people would, you know, impede

17:32

the progress drying makes. So that's number one call to action.

17:35

Let's be bold, let's be audacious. Obviously

17:37

we have to think constructed and make sure it's grounded in the business.

17:40

So that's number one. Number two

17:42

is it's beyond just activity.

17:45

Even though I mentioned a number of things that

17:47

are very positive. I talked

17:49

about how we want to measure progress at the end of

17:51

the actual impact you're making, and

17:53

let's make sure that the programs

17:55

we're doing actually tailored to deliver

17:58

actual impact and not just activity.

18:01

You know.

18:02

Lastly, you know, I would just basically say,

18:05

closing the wealth gap for

18:07

many may seem like boiling the ocean.

18:10

It's a giant wealth gap, and

18:12

there's so many doors you can open, so many

18:14

dimensions you can take, and sometimes

18:16

it may feel frankly overwhelming,

18:20

like how do I know if I'm scratching the surface, how

18:22

do I know if I make an impact? I'm just gonna go back to my tried

18:24

and true ways or traditional ways. The

18:26

third call to action here is for

18:30

you know some of us are from

18:32

corporations, but within your vantage point,

18:34

within your power, construct find

18:37

ways to determine the

18:39

kind of impact you can make, what door you can open.

18:42

Even if you're an entrepreneur, you probably have a

18:45

network that you can expose other

18:47

entrepreneurs too. And I'm sure you have thoughts

18:49

around this, Dennis, but it's

18:51

a universal call to action for us or

18:54

to believe that as a as a community,

18:56

we're much better off if we uplift

18:59

one another.

19:00

That would be my call to action.

19:02

Thank you for that, Thank you for your leadership too.

19:04

Absolutely all right, I'm

19:06

going to ask you also what advice you have for people

19:08

from your vantage point as an entrepreneur.

19:11

Granted it's been it's not easy to build

19:13

a business. I'm sure most people

19:16

in this room recognize the number of times

19:18

you get told no, the amount

19:20

of time it takes to be able to get something started

19:22

and then scale it. But

19:25

my question is on a twofold you asked me about from

19:27

a corporate standpoint, and I would

19:29

ask from a corporate standpoint, from

19:31

a VC standpoint, and from an entrepreneurial

19:34

standpoint. I'm sure you've experienced a

19:36

little flavor between all those three,

19:38

what advice would you have from your unique

19:41

vantage point given some of the challenges and nuances

19:43

of experience for each one of those constituents.

19:48

I think it's a great question, and I've

19:51

talked to all of those organizations

19:54

and entities, and what I would say

19:57

is, I'll start with corporate.

20:00

You touched on this Corporate.

20:03

I think if and when corporate comes to the table

20:05

and they're looking at investing in black

20:09

founders or underrepresented founders,

20:12

if if they come to that with

20:14

the spirit of this is a charity

20:16

versus this is an investment, I

20:19

think it's the wrong start. I

20:21

think you know that conversation doesn't go

20:23

far and those commitments are going to fall

20:25

off fairly quickly. So

20:27

that's what I'm encouraged by what you

20:29

guys are doing at Northwestern Mutual in

20:33

terms of understanding, you know, and vetting

20:35

deals. Right. So when

20:37

I'm talking with corporate investors and you guys know

20:39

this, it's the same diligence process

20:42

as it would be if I'm talking to a VC. So

20:45

for me, I approach it as if

20:47

you know, it's the same common conversation.

20:50

But when I hear organizations sort of give

20:52

me clues that you know they're viewing

20:54

this as a nice sort of thing to do

20:56

because it's the right thing to do in the moment, versus

20:59

this being baked into their culture. I

21:01

shy away from those corporate investors

21:03

because I know they're not really committed to

21:06

me, to investing in black

21:08

founders and really helping us be successful.

21:11

So that's one thing. And

21:13

I never got that impression with north

21:15

with Northwestern Mutual, So I

21:17

would I would say to corporations,

21:20

organizations, bake it into your culture.

21:23

Okay, make sure that founders

21:25

of color and not underrepresented founders

21:27

know that they have just as much of a

21:29

shot as getting an investment, assuming

21:31

they're button up, you know, and

21:34

they can sort of demonstrate demonstrate

21:36

the ROI from there.

21:39

Vcs are very very different. They're

21:43

different animal corporations.

21:46

From a corporate venture standpoint, that's not your

21:48

core business. So you kind of have that luxury

21:51

of sort of not living and

21:53

dying off of these investments, but yet

21:55

you approach it like it's a true investment.

21:58

And I think this is important for founders

22:00

in this room to understand how the vcs

22:02

think. I have. I had

22:04

two term sheets earlier in the year. I'll give

22:06

you an example that I turned

22:09

down from VCS because

22:11

I felt like there was a lot of overreach in

22:13

those term sheets and felt like

22:15

they were just sort of taking advantage of the market

22:18

and you know where we are collectively,

22:23

and that's hard to do, as any one of

22:25

you in this room will know, that's hard to do in

22:27

this this market. You know, when you're burning

22:29

through capital, you have a certain number of months

22:31

in runway and all that. But I

22:33

did it because it was the right thing to do. But I also

22:35

knew I had other investors around the cap table

22:38

that I can go to and say, look, I'm

22:41

not feeling this deal. I don't like it. I

22:43

don't think it's good for the company

22:45

long term. And we

22:48

had a couple investors, including

22:51

Northwestern Mutual, that stepped up and led

22:53

and co led this recent round

22:55

of funding our Series A that we've done. So

22:57

that's a that's you know, this is a real

22:59

time example of making sure

23:02

you have the right investors on your cap table

23:04

early because you're going to need them later,

23:06

right, And so sort

23:09

of looking at it from a what

23:11

would I recommend to corporate venture

23:14

as well as founders,

23:17

And I think from a founder standpoint,

23:19

as well as vcs. If I'm giving

23:21

any founder in the room advice. When

23:23

you're talking with vcs, I

23:26

typically like to give them permission. And this

23:28

may be counterintuitive, but I give

23:30

them permission early on to say

23:32

no. Now. The reason

23:34

I do that is because I

23:36

need them to I need to have an objective

23:39

conversation with them, and

23:41

I need them to be able to actually hear my pitch

23:44

right, because a lot of times

23:46

these vcs feel like they're under pressure because

23:49

you're a black founder and oh, you

23:51

know it, maybe taking the wrong way if

23:53

I say no to them. No, first

23:55

thing I say to them is, look, you know I'm

23:57

viewing this first call. It's just an introduction

24:00

call. You know. Whether it goes anywhere or

24:02

not, that's okay. You know this

24:04

is you and I getting to know each other. And

24:06

I think more of us need to look at

24:09

these investor conversations like

24:11

dating, right, And I always compare

24:14

talking to investors as if I'm dating

24:18

because and what

24:20

you don't want to do is

24:22

ask an investor to marry you on the first date,

24:25

right now. True story.

24:28

I actually wanted to ask my wife to marry

24:30

me on our first date, but

24:33

I knew she would have run away, right,

24:37

you know, and that would

24:39

have been a bad thing for both of us. But so

24:41

I had to get to know her.

24:43

You know.

24:43

The only thing I was working on with

24:46

her was the second date. And

24:49

I say to you, that's the only thing you should focus

24:51

on with investors, the second date,

24:53

getting to know them, because it's important that

24:56

you both feel like you have permission

24:58

to say no to each other. And by

25:01

the way, I've said no to a lot of investors.

25:03

But when you say no to investors, guess

25:06

what they do introduce you to other investors.

25:10

So it's important to understand.

25:12

And I'm not even talking about how the game

25:15

works. I'm just talking about how psychology

25:17

work and how people are. You know,

25:19

meet people where they are because at the

25:22

end of the day, investors,

25:24

especially venture capital investors,

25:26

and what I've learned is two

25:28

things that's important to them. They

25:31

don't want to be embarrassed by making a bad

25:33

investment, and they always want to look

25:35

smart by making great investments. Right,

25:38

So understand that psyche going

25:40

in and just kind of humble

25:43

yourself and say, let's just have a conversation

25:45

and get to know each other and never

25:48

go into an investor deal. Thinking I need

25:51

you guys to invest in the next two to

25:53

three weeks. Not going to happen. I

25:55

started relationships with Northwestern

25:57

Mutual about a year before they actually

26:00

made an investment, and that's likely

26:02

true for most of our investors

26:04

now. So give yourself

26:07

time, give yourself enough runway to

26:09

make the right decisions. Don't

26:11

marry the first investor you meet.

26:15

Awesome, I'm sure we have Do

26:18

we have time for questions?

26:20

If we do?

26:21

Were certainly open to that, But

26:23

there was one thing that will just double down

26:25

one.

26:26

Sorry, I can see we have time for two

26:28

questions. You understand

26:30

it.

26:33

Say where are you from?

26:34

Y Nika, I'm haughty and I'm from

26:36

Brooklyn. Okay.

26:40

My question is for you, Dennis,

26:42

all right, how what's

26:45

the percentage that you're invested with venture

26:47

capitalists versus like companies

26:50

like Nimus, like Northwestern?

26:51

Like?

26:52

What what's the breakdown?

26:54

That's a great question. Didn't think about that

26:56

until you asked me that, right, But

26:58

just visual our cap table.

27:01

It's about seventy thirty corporate,

27:03

seventy percent thirty

27:05

percent VC. In fact, our

27:08

entire Series A, with exception

27:11

of one investor, was corporate.

27:14

We had one VC and I

27:17

barely let that VC in. I was actually

27:19

hell bent on not taking any money

27:21

from venture capital as part of our Series A,

27:24

because I really want to show other

27:26

founders that there's a different path to

27:29

get where you're going, right, And

27:31

so many times we put so much dependency

27:34

on venture capital, which,

27:37

look, we need venture capital, but at the end

27:39

of the day, they're still only investing one percent

27:41

into black founders, right, So that's

27:44

just a data point we can't ignore. So

27:46

we need to get creative and start

27:48

thinking outside of the box. And corporate

27:51

partners are just stepping up more and more,

27:54

but you have to deliver too at the end of the day.

27:57

So it's about seventy thirty.

27:59

You say your name noon away.

28:00

From Mariah and I'm

28:02

from Brooklyn, but I live in Jersey now,

28:05

So my question is for both or either

28:07

of you. We talk a lot about mentorship,

28:10

but then also sponsorship and when

28:12

you're looking at people looking

28:14

to become entrepreneurs. There's a lot of research

28:16

obviously in resources online, but

28:19

I find it more helpful when

28:21

you can find a sponsor or someone

28:23

to mentor you. Where would you

28:25

suggest people go for those kind

28:28

of interactions build obviously

28:30

like networks like this, you can build, you

28:33

can build relationships, but like, are there

28:35

programs or are there certain avenues you

28:38

suggest new or young entrepreneurs

28:40

to spaces.

28:42

To be in. I can take that first,

28:44

and that you can comment.

28:45

I mean, for us, it's uniquely within

28:47

Accelerator program and

28:49

we match executives to

28:52

the founders, executives

28:54

that have done all kinds of jobs and have the unique

28:56

skill sets, whether it's a CTO, whether it's

28:59

CIO, whether it's the head of digital

29:01

product, whatever the case may be, that

29:03

can really advise and counsel. We

29:06

have cohorts of only five, so we're able

29:08

to deploy executives who bring that skill set.

29:10

So that's what we've been doing. But I'm sure you can

29:12

speak to kind of a broad up mentorship.

29:14

I have very little to add to that because I

29:16

think that's the route, that's the path, right.

29:18

And so my only one

29:20

ad is that early

29:22

on when we were raising our seat funding,

29:26

I literally pitched every accelerator

29:28

program there is. I

29:30

didn't turn down, as my uncle used to say,

29:33

I wasn't turning down nothing but my collar, right,

29:35

And so for me, I showed

29:38

up. I made the pitch. You know, in

29:40

most cases we got in, but it

29:42

was really about getting access to those

29:44

resources, as you're alluding to, right,

29:47

because that's what we want. We want those resources,

29:49

we want those introductions, We want

29:52

the opportunity to be in the room to

29:54

at least make our business case right.

29:56

And some people are going to say no, some are going

29:58

to say yes, please get us in

30:01

the room.

30:01

So y'all

30:04

make some noise for dinners in the beam.

30:09

Thank you, gentlemen telling

30:12

me where have you been