Shelby Schulz: Hi everybody, I'm very excited to welcome you to the 7th monitor side chat in our series, Tufts Entrepreneurs Tackle Tough Questions.
Shelby Schulz: This event is being put on by the Tufts Entrepreneurs Network, TEN, a part of the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center in partnership with the Office of Alumni Relations and the Black Alumni Association.
Shelby Schulz: For those of you who don't know what Tufts Entrepreneurs Network is, this group serves as a resource for alumni and the technology and startup spaces,
Shelby Schulz: helps alumni transition from the corporate world into the technology and startup space, and is a resource for the university and the Tufts Entrepreneurship Center.
Shelby Schulz: I'd like to say thank you to our extended TEN and TEC team, Mark Kessen, Iggy Moliver, Brittany Sokoloff, Josh Goldman, Kevin Oye, Josh Kapelman Amie Macdonald and Luke Fraser, as well as our panelists today.
Shelby Schulz: We'll have an open 20 minute period at the end of our session for questions, but feel free to submit those along the way, using the Q&A box at the bottom of your screen and we'll do our best to get to all of them before we close for the evening.
Shelby Schulz: My name is Shelby Schultz, and I'm an alumna from the class of 2012 and a member of the TEN national chapter, as well as the Austin Alumni Chair.
Shelby Schulz: I'm part of TEN because I'm inspired by the entrepreneurial problem-solving spirit present in Tufts students and I believe it's important that we continue to foster this tenacity and learn from our great network.
Shelby Schulz: Today's panel, Success Stories: Black Tufts Alumni in Entrepreneurship and Technology, will highlight the stories of four inspiring Black Tufts alumni
Shelby Schulz: who will share how their experience and identity has shaped their success in the technology and entrepreneurship center. Without further ado, I'd like to introduce Kofi Asante, Timi Dayo-Kayode, Akua Okunseinde, and Gozi Uzoma.
Shelby Schulz: Kofi, you want to kick us off?
Kofi Asante: Yes, thank you.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, thanks Shelby. Like you said, my name is Kofi Asante and I'm the Head of Strategy and Business Development at Elroy Air. Previously to hopping over to Elroy Air, I spent some time over at Uber helping launch a division that's now called Uber freight.
Kofi Asante: Before I had an opportunity to join Uber freight, I spent my time at Tufts and graduated in 2017. My major was political science and then ended up focusing on entrepreneur leadership as my minor.
Kofi Asante: And I think there are a couple other things that we'll be able to touch base on throughout the
Kofi Asante: conversation. But one of the main things that I really wanted to highlight throughout that string of time
Kofi Asante: was how much I ended up enjoying my time at Tufts and how many portions of that actually ended up allowing me to be able to do a lot of the things that I'm doing right now.
Kofi Asante: From the liberal arts connection of being able to think critically around points that don't necessarily connect from one spot to the other,
Kofi Asante: it's really enabled me to be able to do a lot of the things that I did at Uber and then now at Elroy Air, where we're actually building an autonomous drone that's about 1300 pounds that can deliver 300 pounds of cargo over 300 miles.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Timi, you want to say hello next?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Sure thing. Hi, everyone. I'm Timi and graduated from Tufts actually a couple weeks ago,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: studied economics and computer science, and I'm now running my startup Worksense full time.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I essentially spent most of my time at Tufts but in companies centered around the DEI problem within tech. And for those who don't know, DEI refers to essentially diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I spend most of my time essentially engaging with that topic, thinking about ways to leverage technology to drive fairness, equity, diversity, and inclusion in tech at scale.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And now with my company Worksense, essentially we're building is software that empowers
Timi Dayo-Kayode: people leaders at tech companies, whether it's CHROs, People Officers, to the people and so on, empowering these individuals to track and mitigate unfair biases in employee compensation and promotion decisions at scale.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Spent my time at Tufts, besides entrepreneurship, also sort of embedded in the world of venture capital.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: So spent about two and a half years at Tufts as a venture partner with Contract Capital, which is a $3 million [inaudible] fund.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Spent my time with them, helping to source deals, evaluate deals, support entrepreneurs within the Tufts ecosystem and larger Boston area. And that's pretty much my background and I think in terms of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: the contribution of Tufts in my entrepreneur journey, I think, like, when I think back to my time at Tufts, I remember my first semester where I took
Timi Dayo-Kayode: this entrepreneurship class and we got to visit MassChallenge. And I think, going to the MassChallenge office and seeing entrepreneurs and getting to talk on the doctrinals is for me what lit that bug
Timi Dayo-Kayode: or that fire that continues to burn strongly within me today. And so really appreciate Tufts' role in kickstarting what I hope will be a very fulfilling an exciting career.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Akua, you want to go next?
Akua Okunseinde: Sure. So hi everyone, I'm Akua Okunseinde, class of 2006 where I majored in economics, minored in political science.
Akua Okunseinde: I, after Tufts, moved to New York and spent three years at Bank of America, so selling foreign exchange to institutional hedge funds.
Akua Okunseinde: I kind of quickly learned that finance wasn't really my thing. And during that time I decided to apply to business school.
Akua Okunseinde: I was really fortunate to be accepted to Columbia, so spent two years at Columbia learning everything and just trying to figure out, you know, what I wanted to do next.
Akua Okunseinde: Really landed on the marketing and entrepreneurship track and ended up at American Express for four years after b-school.
Akua Okunseinde: And had a friend who sort of introduced me to another friend at Google. And so, I, you know, took a chance and decided to sort of venture into the tech space
Akua Okunseinde: and ended up at Google where I've been for the past five and a half years working on both in New York and London offices. It's been a really great experience. And it's really been, you know,
Akua Okunseinde: an option for me to be able to dive deep into the tech space. Three years ago, I also decided to start a skincare line with my sisters. One of my sisters is a dermatologist and
Akua Okunseinde: wanted to start a line. And so I kind of helped her build that out. So it's called Karité and it's a shea butter based skincare line. We source ingredients from Ghana.
Akua Okunseinde: So I've really been able to sort of, you know, really lead in two different ways in terms of like having a tech, you know, career, but then also having a side hustle in
Akua Okunseinde: in the entrepreneurial realm. And I think thinking back to Tufts, I was actually taking
Akua Okunseinde: some of the entrepreneurial leadership courses back in my junior year when the program first launched and that really got me excited about entrepreneurship, so
Akua Okunseinde: you know, all that time just kind of keeping that entrepreneurial bug and thinking about to those classes is really, kind of led me to where I am today. So, excited to be here.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Last but not least, Gozi.
Gozi Uzoma: Hi everyone, I'm Gozi Uzoma, I graduated from Tufts in 2010. I majored in biology and minored in studio art and I'm currently a Product Manager at Box,
Gozi Uzoma: enterprise SAS organization. And kind of took a long road to get to where I am now, but right after Tufts worked in teaching, did Teach for America
Gozi Uzoma: in Baltimore and about trying to think about how I could scale my skills more, I actually worked for a national charter school network after that, more on the business side, was getting more into technology and
Shelby Schulz: decided to go to business school.
Gozi Uzoma: I went to the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and then ended up at Box through a rotational leadership program and ended up in product.
Gozi Uzoma: And so, took a long way to get there, but really enforces the liberal arts education Tufts provides and just makes you able to really tackle so many different things.
Gozi Uzoma: So I think I learned a lot from my time at Tufts in terms of entrepreneurial spirit from just
Gozi Uzoma: organizing clubs and doing mentorship programs and learning from a diverse set of areas and then taking that to my
Gozi Uzoma: post-graduate career and just really applying that in so many different ways. So happy to jump into all that as we discuss more and excited to have a discussion with everyone here today.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Thanks. So we're going to start with a very juicy question to get the discussion going. Carmichael or Dewick? Which we have yet to ask on a panel, so, this could start a real argument here.
Akua Okunseinde: Dewick all the way. I lived downhill all four years so Carmichael was like not even on my radar.
Kofi Asante: I might have to second that and say Dewick.
Kofi Asante: I mean, when you have to get up that hill in the middle of the winter, that's just a no brainer, but I actually met my partner that I'm still together with after seven years at Tufts and she ended up being in Carmichael, so that ended up making it a hard decision for me.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Yeah, I'm going to go Dewick as well, and it's funny because I actually lived in Hill freshman year so, like, you'd expect that I'd be a Carm
Timi Dayo-Kayode: person, but I was just like--I tried Carm, tried Dewick, and I was just like, yeah Dewick is it. And I can go into a longer spiel of the specifics of why Dewick is it, but there is no question that Dewick is obviously better than Carm for me.
Gozi Uzoma: I guess I'll be the dissenter and I'll vote for Carmichael.
Gozi Uzoma: Just because I lived--I also lived in Hill Hall freshman year. And I just, I know sentimental first-year dining hall experiences, I think I just have to commit to Carmichael..
Shelby Schulz: I'll dissent with you. Don't worry..
Shelby Schulz: Awesome, thanks for indulging that. So you guys each talked a little bit about your Tufts experience and how it shaped kind of what you do today and how you think about entrepreneurship.
Shelby Schulz: But, I'd love to just kind of go back in time and ask you about, like, how did you feel arriving at Tufts for the first time?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: So I guess I can go first. For me it's not so much going back in time, given that it was only four years ago.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: But arriving at Tufts, I mean, as a sort of first-gen and immigrant to the US, I think, like, I was just sort of taken aback by how wonderful the campus was, how gorgeous it was.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean obviously over time, as I got to know more about Tufts, I drew to despise the hill, just like walking up and down, up and down hills is just not it.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: But I think coming to Tufts, I just, I think it was the first time I ever got to meet a
Timi Dayo-Kayode: large group of people that shared my sort of interests, just like learning and pursuing things that I was interested in, I think, is that sort of atmosphere and that drive [inaudible] for four years I think
Timi Dayo-Kayode: really helped shape who I am today, where I think I have a sort of particular ability to just go for what I want. I think it's just because I existed around so many people who
Timi Dayo-Kayode: sort of shared that drive and [inaudible] just like shooting for the stars and doing what they wanted. So coming to Tufts,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I didn't really know what to expect, ended up loving it, still love it, obviously had a couple misgivings here and there, but overall I had a great time.
Shelby Schulz: We'll get you a graduation ceremony, one of these days Timi.
Kofi Asante: And I guess I'll go next. I remember, and it's beautiful to hear, by the way, that what you're doing as some sort of Ghana base because my dad's actually from Ghana, West Africa and so much my family
Kofi Asante: is over there, but I remember one of the first conversations and first experiences that I had at Tufts was actually walking through there with my dad.
Kofi Asante: And like having that string of like processing being not only like an immigrant kid but then also an African American, and then processing what that actually meant to be on the campus.
Kofi Asante: But I mean, on a lighter note, the hills, I remember that so clearly, having to get up and down on those, especially during the winter.
Kofi Asante: And something that I think was a pretty cool experience was just having the opportunity to be able to find other people who were thinking critically
Kofi Asante: about some of the things that were top of mind for me as well, like whether that ended up being about comparative politics, right, thinking about other countries and how they're actually working into
Kofi Asante: what's going on in the world, or even whether it ended up thinking about entrepreneurship. I remember within a few weeks, was able to find some of the
Kofi Asante: some of the people that helped me start our first venture during our freshman year. And they ended up actually all being in my hall. So that was a special time.
Shelby Schulz: Gozi or Akua, anything to add?
Akua Okunseinde: Yeah, I would add that I felt like the Africana Center did a really good job of
Akua Okunseinde: sort of welcoming the Black community to Tufts.
Akua Okunseinde: I don't know if they still do this but they had a trip to Cape Cod, where they kind of took a couple of, you know, people who wanted to sign up
Akua Okunseinde: who are African American to Cape Cod for a weekend and just sort of bond with just our demographic of people. And I just thought that was like
Akua Okunseinde: very thoughtful and also just allowed us to come onto campus and automatically have someone we can lean on
Akua Okunseinde: you know, even though we ended up going on our own paths and meeting other people, you know, once we are back on campus. So I just remember that being a very fond memory and just a nice introduction to coming to college.
Shelby Schulz: Lovely. I didn't know that. That's very cool.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I think also just, I think coming on campus was exhilarating, just all kinds of new people that you've had a chance to interact with
Gozi Uzoma: and I came from a pretty small town and was just excited to see like people from all over the world and have different opinions and just being able to connect in that way.
Gozi Uzoma: Definitely made friends I think in the first week there that I'm still really close with and have really inspired me throughout the years. And so I think,
Gozi Uzoma: just like, still just remember that, like, exhilaration and that, like, energy of getting on campus and like wondering what the hell or what the heck was going to happen. And so it was just pretty, still remember that feeling, so excited to see how we've all evolved since then.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. My next question, you guys, I think each of you actually touched upon it
Shelby Schulz: in a fairly robust way but just to recap it and if there's anything you want to add,
Shelby Schulz: what about your experience at Tufts did and did not prepare you for your career in technology and entrepreneurship? Or your career in general, because Gozi, you were in education before you were in technology. Akua, you were in finance before. So yeah, just, from a broad perspective even.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah. And I'll start there. I think it was just,
Gozi Uzoma: I think so much of what you think about at Tufts is amazing. Like there's so much stuff going on, there are projects, there are clubs, but I think like getting into education right after,
Gozi Uzoma: getting--teaching in Baltimore right after being at Tufts was like, a rude awakening in terms of like how you need to think about the world and how you want to just like actually take responsibility for your actions and realize how different everyone's experiences are.
Gozi Uzoma: I think that was, I don't think I was quite prepared. I was like, remembered my first year teaching, just wishing I could be in finals again. I was like, I'll do anything.
Gozi Uzoma: Go back to like think critically and like have people testing on it. There's a lot more responsibility out here and a lot you have to think about in terms of not just having good intentions, but having good actions and how to actually affect the world so.
Akua Okunseinde: Yeah I would piggyback on that. Like, I think I learned a lot of Tufts, for sure.
Akua Okunseinde: But I can't pinpoint anything specifically that has prepared me for a world at Google, or, you know, building a skincare business.
Akua Okunseinde: The only thing I would maybe say is like collaborative learning and being able to flex across different
Akua Okunseinde: you know, pieces of education. So understanding, like, having that liberal arts background and being able to take that and being able to learn so many different things in needing to like be an entrepreneur, has a lot of I think comparisons. But I honestly think like
Akua Okunseinde: you have to just jump into the real world and you kind of learn by doing. And
Akua Okunseinde: you know, I love my experience at Tufts, but maybe to be a little contrarian, I don't know if it's super prepared me for where I am today.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, I think I would plus one a lot of what you just shared there, right, like,
Kofi Asante: when thinking about the liberal arts experience and how that translates over into a direct venture business environment, sometimes it's a little bit challenging to necessarily see the string that that connects it all.
Kofi Asante: During my experience both with the first startup during Tufts and then some of the other things that I worked on
Kofi Asante: with finance on Wall Street over a summer, I remember distinctly coming to a moment where I was like, if I want to do startups and I want to be an entrepreneur, how does liberal arts connect over to that?
Kofi Asante: And that was a challenging experience to see, but as I continued to go through my process of thinking about emerging technologies, both at
Kofi Asante: Uber as we are focused on autonomous trucks and then even now as we're focusing on
Kofi Asante: autonomous aircraft and autonomous logistics, I started to realize that being able to string together points that don't necessarily connect immediately from different sectors ends up being one of the most pivotal
Kofi Asante: things that I can do to be able to make a robust argument about what the future's gonna look like,
Kofi Asante: especially when there's not a clear blueprint on what the future is set to be in some of these markets. And so my political theory and
Kofi Asante: I think philosophy scenarios where you're just sitting at a round table and debating and coming up with constructive arguments over complex pieces of information
Kofi Asante: has actually been pretty useful for whenever you're sitting down with other people and trying to innovate around what the world's going to end up looking like at some point.
Shelby Schulz: That makes sense.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Yeah, I think for me, I don't know there's anything that really could have really prepared me to be sort of a first time founder at like 22.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think like raising money, hiring and firing, pivoting all these things that I [inaudible] have to figure out.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: As sort of first timers out of college, I don't think that we were necessarily so prepared for what that might look like. I think Tufts does a really good job
Timi Dayo-Kayode: through like the Career Services and Career Center, the sort of, the Career Day they hold, I think they do a good job sort of connecting students to like job opportunities fresh out of college, but I don't think that I necessarily found that through, I guess,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: maybe education support or just insight into like, oh, if you're building like a stock company and selling to, like, these like, antiquated organizations that have like long sales cycles,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: this is what life would look like. Because you're going to spend like nine months trying to sell or close one clients, while, like, you're living off like $2 in the company bank account.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: So I think to me that's like been the biggest, I think,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: thing that I wish I knew. Leaving Tufts, like, what is life like as a first-time stock founder when people sort of think that you're 22 and don't really know what you're doing.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I'm just trying to navigate that journey and trying to succeed in that space that's not necessarily [inaudible] set up for young people, for Black people.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think that for me is just like the biggest gap in what I learned at Tufts, this is what my lived experience [inaudible] post-grad looks like.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Yeah, that makes sense. I want to transition to some kind of career and like key-to-success questions. I'm actually going to jump down to one about mentorship, because I think that
Shelby Schulz: is very, you know, integral to a career success, especially in a post-university setting.
Shelby Schulz: And, you know, Timi, those are the kind of people that you tend to learn some of those, you know, harder lessons about entrepreneurship and just work from, so,
Shelby Schulz: do any of you guys have a mentor or have had a mentor at some point or looking for a mentor that has been really helpful in your journey?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Yeah, I think for me, just like, absolutely. I think probably one of the secrets skills, I don't know how I learned it but  one skill that I think I picked up early early in my Tufts career was just like
Timi Dayo-Kayode: go on LinkedIn and just ping people and say, "Hey, I'm doing this stuff. I want advice. I want your help. Help me out please, because I have no idea what I'm doing." I think that is one thing that's really served me well.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: With Worksense right now, I mean, our first term sheet that we closed came from like a [inaudible]--like a person that reached out to [inaudible]
Timi Dayo-Kayode: on LinkedIn, who connected me to somebody of his that he worked on a company with before and loved what we're building and ended up getting a check in.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And so, I mean, he's been super helpful as a mentor as like someone who's opened up this network. He's like sold a bunch of companies in the data analytics space. And so for, us thinking about
Timi Dayo-Kayode: the work we do with a lot of sensitive employee data, when you think about how do we get companies to feel comfortable giving us our data,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: he just had the experience that we just have no idea, who would have had no idea how to navigate things like stock compliance for data, keeping data secure
Timi Dayo-Kayode: sort of trying to navigate these long enterprise sales cycles. I think for me, mentorship has been absolutely helpful,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: sspecially coming into the space as a founder fairly young and early on in my career. I don't know that I would be as far along as I have been or as I am without sort of that support and mentorship I was able to get
Timi Dayo-Kayode: just from just like, reaching out to people on LinkedIn. And I think
Timi Dayo-Kayode: even just, I mean, I've reached out to people who don't necessarily have a Tufts affiliation, but I think one thing that I found recently
Timi Dayo-Kayode: and I've been doing a lot of is just going to the Tufts Alumni page on LinkedIn and just like pinging people and say, "Hey,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I'm doing the stuff, I need your help. What advice do you have?" I think I'm starting to see a lot of results and a lot of positive outcomes from that and that's one thing I would stress a lot is
Timi Dayo-Kayode: anything in entrepreneurship journey is hard enough as it is.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Now trying to do it on your own is almost like shooting yourself in the foot. And so that's sort of the one thing that has worked for me. Just like, being very aggressive, reaching out to people, asking for mentorship, asking for support, asking for guidance.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Because, I mean, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel when people already have gone through the experience and made some mistakes that you can possibly avoid.
Shelby Schulz: You might be a little ahead of most of us at 22, just saying. That is, that's awesome.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Thanks, appreciate it.
Shelby Schulz: Anyone else have a good mentorships story?
Akua Okunseinde: Yeah, I can jump in from the corporate side. So I've only worked at big corporations aside for my skincare business.
Akua Okunseinde: I have worked at Bank of America, American Express, and now Google. And I think when you're at a big corporation, it is absolutely critical to have a mentor, because you need to be able to bounce ideas off of people who are not in your direct reporting chain
Akua Okunseinde: and trust in those people that they're going to give you the right advice to help navigate your career.
Akua Okunseinde: I do think that you have to come to them with a very set agenda so, you know, I set monthly meetings with my mentor. I have an agenda that I run through every month, I send it in advance. I'm super prepared because you want to come with,
Akua Okunseinde: you know, questions to guide conversations and less so like open-ended "how can you help me?" So yeah, I would say mentors are critical and I found them very valuable in my career so far.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, I absolutely agree. And, you know, from the things that I've experienced both from entrepreneurship, so really focusing on developing businesses within broader companies, and then also, you know, going out and
Kofi Asante: focusing on building a traditionally VC-backed company, both of those situations are scenarios where somebody has had a lot more experience to think critically about them. And so, spending time with them
Kofi Asante: does end up helping me avoid a lot of things. One of the things that I have also noticed is, obviously the Tufts network is is phenomenal, but
Kofi Asante: I've noticed that a lot of my mentors have also come now from the Valley and then, you know, I'm sure it's similar with you for Google.
Kofi Asante: But for me, with Uber, a lot of the early Uber employees to really wrap their arms around me,
Kofi Asante: to help me think critically about how do you build a company and the fastest way possible while also avoiding some of the pitfalls that
Kofi Asante: they might have had in their experiences and then those groups also can end up turning into, you know, some level of also support when I'm thinking about financial investments into a broader company.
Kofi Asante: But I think there's one side of it where, you know, you're thinking about mentorship up, but I think there's also another beautiful
Kofi Asante: opportunity when groups are able to also reach out and be able to share some of that. And that's why
Kofi Asante: I'm really happy that we're even able to have these conversations and it's always an open-ended invitation to anybody that's listening in, if they ever want to touch base about what the next chapter is going to be.
Shelby Schulz: Love that.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I would also echo a lot of what everyone said here. I think, having mentors and advocates in your work industry is really critical. I think
Gozi Uzoma: formally you want to be repaired, but also like not underestimate the soft pieces as well, like I've had conversations with people on a train that have escalated to like, then backing me when I wanted to promotion.
Gozi Uzoma: Or just being able to really like touch base with someone on a more personal level, leading to a business connection down the road.
Gozi Uzoma: So definitely take advantage of those as well. I think also in pivoting careers,
Gozi Uzoma: it's really essential for me especially going from education to technology, like having people who understand your skill set
Gozi Uzoma: and who really will take the time to understand and think with you and talk to you about how you're changing.
Gozi Uzoma: And a lot of connections that you make through different people who have a reputation of who you are, I think,
Gozi Uzoma: Akua helped me when I was going to business school and she sent some of her connections my way. So there's all kinds of connections out there, and I think just making sure you're
Gozi Uzoma: on everyday basis being like a good citizen, so that when you do need help people remember and recognize that.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. That's good advice.
Shelby Schulz: Do you guys have, thus far, a really great highlight in your career that you'd like to share or something you're really proud of?
Kofi Asante: I think--I'll go quickly, and it's it's one that, you know, even though I've been fortunate enough to be able to do some things over at Uber and then, you know, building the business that I am right now.
Kofi Asante: I will say that, honestly, the highlight of my career
Kofi Asante: was whenever I was initially starting the venture my freshman year. And essentially, we were focused on centralizing events on campus and then creating a localized opportunity for restaurants and other
Kofi Asante: courses outside of the initial campus to be able to connect with students. And I remember the first time after pitching to like over 100 restaurants, just getting one of them to say yes and
Kofi Asante: getting our first check in the bank for that, and I don't know if anything else is ever gonna eclipse that for me. And some of the other people that I was doing that with at Tufts but that it's, I think, by far the most exciting. So I still look back to
Shelby Schulz: I bet that felt good.
Akua Okunseinde: I would jump in and say, like, just launching a business is a career highlight for me. I think it's so hard to actually take an idea and execute it.
Akua Okunseinde: And I think being able to do that, you know, while still maintaining a career in corporate has been a highlight for me and also just being able to see
Akua Okunseinde: the growth and success of the business and that, you know, it's a skincare brands. We get like real customer feedback that people love it just keeps me going, and
Akua Okunseinde: you know, there were times where you want to throw in the towel, but then you get that feedback and you're like, I gotta keep this business going because people love what we do and
Akua Okunseinde: just have to keep it going. So that's been my career highlight to share, just that, you know, if you have an idea just start somewhere and see where it takes you.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I think.
Gozi Uzoma: One of my first highlights was just
Gozi Uzoma: when I worked in education I was more on the nonprofit startup kind of side and
Gozi Uzoma: getting to start the first school I worked on with a team in DC from, like, not from application to actually opening the doors and school,
Gozi Uzoma: it was like my first taste of like, if you come up with an idea and you like put the work in and execute on it, like what is possible.
Gozi Uzoma: It was just a crazy timeline. It was a crazy team effort. And I think that first taste of like you can create things
Gozi Uzoma: that didn't exist before. And it was really just one of my first clear highlights and this is kind of giving me that inspiration to keep going when things don't seem to necessarily line up and but I believe that [inaudible] possible.
Shelby Schulz: That's awesome.
Shelby Schulz: Timi, I bet you have something to share.
Shelby Schulz: Even though you're new to this real world stuff.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: So mine is fairly recent. For me, I think there's very few things across my professional career that felt as good as getting our first term sheet
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I worked on. I mean, my team and I have been at this game for like three years now building, all the people, trying to sell, trying to get investors in, and getting that first investor to say, hey, I believe what you're doing, here's a check.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think it was just like, felt different. Going to sleep felt different, waking up felt different, working on the business felt different, everything felt different. And I think that there's very few things that can help
Timi Dayo-Kayode: as an entrepreneur is to keep pushing and then to have someone give you sort of confidence in real dollars.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And I think for me, that was just that's been the biggest career highlight for me, to just like getting that investor to give us our first check, especially given that, I mean, it's all sort of a,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Investors are lemmings to a degree, right. So it's like getting that first check has now led to a couple snowball effects that we're starting to see now. And so really I think, that for me is easily the highlight, is getting that first term sheet.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. Yeah, that's huge. Any entrepreneur I think would be over the moon there.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. So we're getting a ton of audience questions, which is great. So I'm going to go ahead and shift focus and go into those a little bit. And I think the first one I want to discuss
Shelby Schulz: is related to, you know, your racial identity, which is something that we--part of the discussion that we wanted to cover today so,
Shelby Schulz: I see a question here that is, what are some of the challenges that you face as a Black entrepreneur or technologist and how have you overcome them? Any advice for other Black entrepreneurs out there?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, I think in terms of advice, I think the one thing I will say is like
Timi Dayo-Kayode: there--as much as there is room for improvement, I don't think there's ever been a better time to be a Black entrepreneur. I think right now the community is really rallying around
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Black founders, Black investors just anyone Black in that entire venture landscape and entrepreneurship landscape. But I think, really, if you have anything that you want to launch
Timi Dayo-Kayode: there's never been a better time historically than now to launch a company, a firm, whatever it is in the entrepreneur space.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And then in terms of just like what, sort of life has been as a Black founder, I think really the one word I could use to describe this is underestimated.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think a lot of times when you walk into the room, a lot of times when you go to pitch competitions, you're typically the only person of color in the room.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, for me it's become something that it's not surprising anymore to be the only person of color because it just happened so consistently and I think, really, a lot of times when you come in, I think, even just looking at
Timi Dayo-Kayode: the kinds of questions that you're asked, I think they--you start to get a sense of the fact that a lot of people underestimate people of color who are founders. And I think
Timi Dayo-Kayode: it's interesting that they do, right, because I think one thing that people of color have, especially
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Blacks who are founders, is resilience. I think that's the one thing that has served me well especially in my journey is
Timi Dayo-Kayode: just being resilient, right. We get knocked down, we get back up. We get knocked down, we get back up. And as an investor, that's what you're looking for in a founder. It's very interesting that we are an underestimated group of people.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: But I think that for me, that's the one word I would use to describe my experience so far, is underestimated. But I think,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: going back to my first point, really I think people, more and more people in the broader entrepreneurship lines are starting to see the role of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: [inaudible]. These are things that we bring to the table, the unique perspective. I think, really, there could not be a better time to kick something off as a person of color, as a Black person who has, I mean, the idea that you think has had.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, I love that, right, like, of all the times where we've had some of the challenges that we faced with our identity,
Kofi Asante: I think this is the first time that there's been an audience that's broader
Kofi Asante: than a lot of the groups that traditionally are actually challenged themselves within the Black community, right. Like there's a number of allies who are starting to
Kofi Asante: educate themselves on our experience and show up to the table with some sort of dialogue to be had, that is additive in some way. I would say, you know, I would say one of the core things that I've been [inaudible]
Kofi Asante: through a number of my experiences, whether it's, you know, as a full on entrepreneur, whether it's entrepreneurship, whether it's Wall Street or even where it's right now as on this management team.
Kofi Asante: You know you're consistently in a scenario where you walk into a room, whether it's a boardroom or vest room or the executive room and you're typically the only person that looks like yourself.
Kofi Asante: That's taxing in a lot of ways and I think there's an element W.E.B Du Bois talks about with double consciousness where you're always aware of, you know, how you're being perceived.
Kofi Asante: But I think one of the broader portions that I've noticed is this almost superhero complex that sometimes ends up happening with
Kofi Asante: people of color and with Black people in particular where oftentimes you're asked to hit goals that
Kofi Asante: are relatively extreme with minimal resources and the reward for you being able to hit those goals is more opportunity to keep working hard, of course, but
Kofi Asante: without necessarily more resources. And so at each stage. It's like you're asked to, you know, build the company, make sure that you
Kofi Asante: stay afloat, even though you don't have a job right now. That's your entire job.
Kofi Asante: Hit all these goals and then you'll be able to get that, you know, that term sheet. You do that for an extended period of time without the generational wealth to be able to back you based on a lot of the things that have happened in,
Kofi Asante: you know, in our history. And that's I think that persists, whether it's entrepreneurship, whether you're on Wall Street, whether it's intrapreneurship.
Kofi Asante: And it's taxing, I think, not only on the body, but then also on the mind, and
Kofi Asante: that's one other piece that I would just say is, it's pretty challenging but a lot of times I think it's beautiful because there's so many people who
Kofi Asante: are now lifting up their hands to try and connect and reach out and see how they can be supportive. But that's one thing that I've noticed.
Shelby Schulz: Interesting.
Shelby Schulz: Yeah. Akua and Gozi, do you have anything to add there?
Gozi Uzoma: I think for me, definitely feel underestimated
Gozi Uzoma: in different views. I think, currently I'm the only Black product manager at my organization.
Gozi Uzoma: So your often the only one in the room, and then throughout my career, even before getting into tech. I think
Gozi Uzoma: oftentimes, as a Black female in the work organization, sometimes you're the first person that that team or that managers ever worked with who's strictly different from them and I having to accommodate their
Gozi Uzoma: feeling uncomfortable to even feeling threatened is something that like I think can make your work dynamic even harder to navigate because you have to accommodate their feelings towards you. And so I think dealing with that and being able to navigate that successfully
Gozi Uzoma: is, can become difficult, especially as you're trying to move up in your career and trying to advocate for yourself while recognizing that not everyone's ready for you, and being able to
Gozi Uzoma: work past that and make that a reality for yourself despite others' understanding of who you are and what they expect from you.
Shelby Schulz: Mm hmm.
Shelby Schulz: Akua, anything to add, or I can move on as well.
Akua Okunseinde: No, I mean, I echo everyone's comments and agree that there really is not a better time for pushing the diversity conversation in tech and in entrepreneurship. So if these are areas that you want to get into, know that companies are
Akua Okunseinde: quite, frankly, being forced to hire diversity candidates. There's, you know, a lot of
Akua Okunseinde: scrutiny on that right now so you know it's not, there's no better time to get involved and apply if that's, you know, the area that you want to focus on.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome.
Shelby Schulz: Great. There's a, we have another audience question kind of in the same vein. Have you found that more people have reached out
Shelby Schulz: to help your business or learn more about what you're doing in recent months, given the recent tragic events our nation has witnessed?
Akua Okunseinde: Yes, for Karité specifically, we were like overwhelmed inundated with requests for samples. All of a sudden, retailers who hadn't spoken to us in two years wanted to stock our product.
Akua Okunseinde: There's definitely a huge emphasis again on, you know, carrying Black products, Black skincare lines, Black fashion designers in stores.
Akua Okunseinde: And it's a little bit like interesting and kind of funny, right, because it's like, hey, we've been here,
Akua Okunseinde: you know, we started our business three years ago, we were knocking on these doors, we weren't getting answers. You have to ask yourself why that was the case.
Akua Okunseinde: But we're also welcoming the attention and taking advantage of it. So, you know, I think the conversation is changing for the good.
Akua Okunseinde: And, you know, we'll see how it persists over time.
Shelby Schulz: That's great.
Shelby Schulz: Are you optimistic about kind of that
Shelby Schulz: change or engagement, I guess.
Akua Okunseinde: I am, I mean, I'm optimistic but I'm also, I'm like cautiously optimistic, right, because I,
Akua Okunseinde: what I worry about is that everyone's excited now, like, let's see what happens three months from now, six months from now, a year from now. Are we going to continue to have these conversations or is the hype of it going to die down?
Akua Okunseinde: So I'm cautiously optimistic that there's going to be like, you know, sort of change for the good and for the long term. But we'll see.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, I would second that, right. It's like, before this all happened, we were Black. And, you know, after people forget or the energy dies down, we're still Black. And
Kofi Asante: there's an element of like, the therapeutic nature of having so many allies now reach out, even though a lot of the sequences that we've experienced within the course of the last couple of months have been going on for such a long period of time. It's just nice now that
Kofi Asante: you know, people are able to like sit and think about what they can do to contribute positively to it as opposed to being distracted with some of the other things that have been, that have consistently made it a little challenging for people to step up to the plate there.
Kofi Asante: And then on my side, you know, aerospace is aerospace, so it's like autonomous aircraft
Kofi Asante: and the element of not necessarily needing to have any sort of contact between delivery is more of a reflection of what's going on with COVID, then I think it is everything on the social justice side. But one thing that I have noticed is like, as I start to talk with
Kofi Asante: some of our investors and some of the potential investors outside, you know, they're
Kofi Asante: coming with a different lens than what I think I've noticed previously. So it's like they'll come with the idea of like expecting
Kofi Asante: something beautiful to come out of your mouth as opposed to this element of sometimes needing to prove that you know what you're talking about. And I'm hoping that that continues to trend.
Shelby Schulz: Gozi or Timi, do you guys want to add anything. We have another question.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, I think, just to add on to everything that Akua and Kofi you both said,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think that caution also, is something that I share because a lot of these skills are performative, to some extent, right, and so
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think, really, for me at least the name of the game has just been, how do I take advantage of the current bit of things as much as I can
Timi Dayo-Kayode: up until if and when all this dies down? Especially I think, the fact that we got our first term sheet a couple weeks ago, I think it's no surprise that happened
Timi Dayo-Kayode: during the time of this conversation was so high up there in the minds of people. And I think especially with our mission at Worksense, I mean,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: our little mission is driving fairness and equity appeal in tech, and so in terms of attention and then in terms of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I guess people reaching out, I think we've seen a lot of increase in engagement because people are starting to see the value in what we've been talking about, I think, maybe, November, December.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: all these things that we've been saying at Worksense for a while now. People are like, oh, that's cool. And now it's like I need this. And so I think in terms of just like engagement level, I think it's the sort of social
Timi Dayo-Kayode: climate can definitely help with that. But I think I do share that caution of [inaudible] and I'm hopeful, but cautious of sort of the
Timi Dayo-Kayode: positive direction that the conversation is going towards. And hopefully, fingers crossed, in a year or two from now,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: we've been able to maintain the same level of critical conversation and just sort of a, I guess activism regarding the topic of diversity inclusion in America and also in tech workplaces.
Shelby Schulz: Great. Gozi, do you, because you're in product management which notoriously is not Black, and I saw that you're part of an organization that kind of helps develop Black product managers.
Shelby Schulz: Have you seen any kind of like great initiatives or anything you want to share in that vein of how we can get more diverse perspectives in that sector?
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I mean, there are definitely more initiatives and more
Gozi Uzoma: like grassroots energy around
Gozi Uzoma: Black product managers in tech who are trying to make sure that they're helping others get into the same position.
Gozi Uzoma: And I think from an organizational standpoint, there's a little bit more clarity around, okay, this is an issue and we do need to get more diverse voices into
Gozi Uzoma: tech. I think there's still some, I mean the sentiment is there. I think there's still a lot of structural barriers in between
Gozi Uzoma: making that happen. And so I'm hopeful that those will actually, people will start to recognize those and start to do something about them
Gozi Uzoma: to allow people to gain access and help them over those barriers. Frankly, I haven't quite seen it yet, but I hope it will start to happen
Gozi Uzoma: as people take more action, but these are more of the long-term pieces and we will see how they transpire. But yeah, trying to do--I think individuals I've seen definitely stepping up, organizations, I'm looking to see what they do.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. We have an audience question that this dovetails nicely into. How do you think technology companies and startups can improve upon retaining Black talent and what are common pitfalls you've seen or heard about?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Um, so I think for me I have actually, I actually have a lot of thoughts on this just because, again, of how we think about things at Worksense.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, the perspective that we have is that for the longest when you have a conversation of diversity in tech, anyone primarily thought
Timi Dayo-Kayode: about it from a pipeline perspective where it's like, oh, we'll just funnel more people of color into this space and will be all dandy and wonderful and everything will be fine.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think the reality is, just like, that's not the case. And I think, look at, for example, studies like
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Kapor Center Tech Leavers study. I think it's called. I mean, they interviewed around 2000 people
Timi Dayo-Kayode: from every background in tech and everyone just talked about their crappy experience in tech and why they quit their job because they felt like they were discriminated
Timi Dayo-Kayode: or they felt they were dealing with microaggressions at work. And I think really for me, and when I think about
Timi Dayo-Kayode: how do you solve this problem, it's all about creating systemic solutions, right. I think a lot of times
Timi Dayo-Kayode: they're just huge tendency to sort of go with the band-aid solution because they're fairly easy, right. You bring in a consultant,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: they do a three day session, now we care about diversity-inclusion. Wonderful. But that's just not a--that's that doesn't solve the problem, right. And so really, when you think about systemic solutions, I think one of the, especially
Timi Dayo-Kayode: with how we think about things at Worksense, it's like,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: for example, you have a Black employee, they're performing at the same level as everyone else. But they're being underpaid underpromoted. These are things that will end up building up and causing a lot of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think negative sentiments internally for that employee that will end up leading to reality where they end up leaving their job or leaving the sector entirely,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: right. And so when we think about how do you create a space that better suited to support people of color better suited to support Black people, I think really for me,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: how we're thinking about that solution is how do you create systemic solutions? How do you take the system that exists,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: because a lot--I think tech has primarily been like a sort of a boys' call for the longest right, where it's like, oh, if I'm boys with my manager, then we'll go get beer after work, and I'll
Timi Dayo-Kayode: tell him that I think I deserve a raise or a bonus, and then when the promotion cycle or competition cycle comes around, I'll end up getting that bonus or promotion, right. Whereas, say for example, I find like
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I don't know, a Black guy or Black female or I have kids or whatever, I'm not typically the kind of guy that goes to the bar with my boss, then I'm less likely to get sort of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: fast track to that promotion, to that race, to that bonus, and so really, I think, the name of the game is, how do you level the playing field? I think that's where data comes in, right. I think,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: data is--coming in from a data perspective. It's hard. It's not easy.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And I think that's why a lot of organizations shy away from it. And I think that works. And that's what we're trying to do really, is
Timi Dayo-Kayode: make that process of leveraging data to make more fair choices a bit more seamless for people leaders.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And so I think when I answer the question of how do you make tech a better space for
Timi Dayo-Kayode: minorities, I think, for me, the answer is to use data because data will show you what you're doing wrong and I think a lot of the time, right, these
Timi Dayo-Kayode: biases aren't necessarily intentional, right. There's a reason they're called unconscious biases, but how you sort of unearth those unconscious biases
Timi Dayo-Kayode: is data, because data will tell you, hey, we've got this 17% of Black employees who are over-performing but underpaid or under-promoted. Now you know exactly what's going on. You can create
Timi Dayo-Kayode: systems that will end up sort of fast-tracking those people for promotions or reasonable bonuses. And so, just long answer short, really, I think, for me, that answer is
Timi Dayo-Kayode: data helps you create those systemic changes because that is what ends up sort of creating a space that is actually conducive to minorities, that they're interested in staying in,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: that doesn't have them going home crying to their significant other or their family or whatever, creating a space that they're happy, they're happy coming back to every day. I think for me, the answer is just data, data, data.
Shelby Schulz: Yeah.
Shelby Schulz: That's a good answer. I think we need more of that.
Shelby Schulz: Any other thoughts, Akua, Kofi, or Gozi on that. I'm also personally very curious on this, you know, topic as well.
Kofi Asante: Yeah. You know, I think data is phenomenal. I think some of the walls that we've seen to hit when it comes to incorporating data, especially
Kofi Asante: some of the places that I've been where that's such a core portion of their strategy and everything else, but then maybe lacking in that space
Kofi Asante: is this like level opportunity to actually be able to have access to that data. Sometimes it can be relatively challenging to be able to get the right level of information
Kofi Asante: given the way that things are set up. But I think that would be beautiful, you know, for us to be able to incorporate data the way that we do with so many other portions of what we're doing. And one of the things that, you know, I've noticed is
Kofi Asante: a lot of times what's happening is the very group that's feeling a pain point or is feeling a challenge is asked to solve that problem, even though, you know, we didn't create it, right, like history will show like, that wasn't the way that things are set up.
Kofi Asante: You end up being in a situation where it's like, you feel discriminated against, you should fix it. Or you don't have enough Black people.
Kofi Asante: at the company, that sounds like your problem, you should fix it. And even though it doesn't--the words don't actually come off that way,
Kofi Asante: when it comes to the allocation of resources or the allocation of actual workload,
Kofi Asante: you know, it's like we have full-time careers and jobs that we also have to do and it's a part of our identity from day one
Kofi Asante: and something that I'm sure all of us deeply care about and are working towards. But one thing that I know we've incorporated, me and my management team, is making sure that
Kofi Asante: the allies within our leadership team are actually the ones driving a lot of that work, you know, doing 80, 90% of the work and then asking for that 10, 20%
Kofi Asante: of feedback so you don't feel paralyzed to say the wrong thing, or to do the wrong thing and making sure that it's on the right track, right. But like
Kofi Asante: having another group actually shoulder a lot of that burden, since it's already pretty mentally taxing to continue to walk into each room and
Kofi Asante: be the only minority in that room or it's already mentally taxing to feel some of the some of the, you know, accidental or incidental, you know,
Kofi Asante: scenarios where it's just not the best experience for you just as a minority. And so I think that's something that's hard to do, but something that I feel like is the right step. So there's not just on the people who are feeling the pain.
Shelby Schulz: Yeah, the anecdote I will share about like having a kind of an "aha" moment in terms of privilege this year.
Shelby Schulz: I started the job I'm at now where we have a mentorship program that we sell to businesses to elevate diverse leaders. So I went to a
Shelby Schulz: panel in my first week. And this woman who is in the DEI organization at Google
Shelby Schulz: was explaining how when she interviews, she's very, very careful not to come off as the "angry Black woman" when she comes out,
Shelby Schulz: you know, giving feedback about the the candidate, which is for--like something I've never thought about. I've definitely come out of an interview.
Shelby Schulz: with a candidate and probably dropped a curse word or, you know, had a very strong opinion on somebody, and
Shelby Schulz: it was just, light bulbs went off when I realized that she has to go out of her way to to really censor the way that she comes across, and I had never given it a second thought.
Shelby Schulz: So I think that's an interesting, I think that's a really good point that it's like, this is all of our work.
Shelby Schulz: Um, we're running a little bit short on time, and there's a couple more questions, just more generally about entrepreneurship and
Shelby Schulz: just skills. So I want to get into some of those. How important are soft skills and hard skills in an industry like technology? And since you guys have varied backgrounds, I think you'll have good answers for this question.
Akua Okunseinde: So, in my opinion, it's very--it differs by role. So, I'm in sales. So obviously having like hard technical skills are not critical because we have engineers and
Akua Okunseinde: product managers who support me to sell the product. So I don't need to be in the weeds of those things.
Akua Okunseinde: But I also work for a really big company. I think at a smaller company, you might have to be more nimble and sort of be more "jack of all trades" and maybe understand the tech in more detail.
Akua Okunseinde: That being said, you know, definitely depends on the role. I, at Google, my first role was in
Akua Okunseinde: programmatic advertising, which is very ad technology driven. And so I actually didn't need to know, even as a salesperson, quite a bit of the tech because clients would ask the questions specific to that tech.
Akua Okunseinde: So I think it really just depends on the role that you're looking--at the role and the company that you're looking at.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I would say product is essential to have both.
Gozi Uzoma: I need to be able to talk to my engineers, I need to be able to pull data to back the decisions I'm making.
Gozi Uzoma: I also need to navigate and work with customers and have the soft skills
Gozi Uzoma: to kind of get a sense of like, what their problems are and figuring out specific use cases, but then also internally,
Gozi Uzoma: I have to navigate strategy and try to work with my co-workers and lobby for the strategies I think are going to really suit my team or the organization. So,
Gozi Uzoma: for me, I think they're both super essential. I would say don't like get too ahead of yourself if you're not super technical or you need to build your soft skills. There's time to develop those, especially on the job.
Gozi Uzoma: I came into tech with zero tech background and have
Gozi Uzoma: managed to figure it out. But the--I think you just got to like, be aware and be conscious of the skills you need to build and ask good questions.
Gozi Uzoma: And also, don't feel embarrassed to ask questions. That's something I really struggled with when trying to get that more tech background and get some of those hard skills. So I think, don't be afraid, lean in, and just be on that journey.
Kofi Asante: Yeah, I love that, right. And I think a big piece of that also comes with the mentorship that we talked about a little bit earlier.
Kofi Asante: Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know, especially coming from a liberal arts background where you may not have specifically been focused on some of the harder skills that you're going to
Kofi Asante: need in order to be successful at your career. For me, navigating like around division for business development and also strategy, I kind of think about them somewhat in a different fashion.
Kofi Asante: For strategy, there's a lot of the hard skills around like cost modeling and all the things you have to do in order to be able to
Kofi Asante: think pretty critically there, but on the B2E side, especially as you're raising money or whether you're trying to get a partnership through. If you can--you can do all of the work behind the scenes, but if someone is not enjoying their experience with you,
Kofi Asante: or if your company is not behind you and what you're trying to do, it's going to be a very taxing time and so they go hand in hand. It's very difficult to have one without the other and get too far, especially on the entrepreneurship side.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Yes, so just real quick. I think similar to what everyone said, for me, at the very least, it's been a bit of both.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, I think my role as CEOs is pretty much--I like to describe it as like, I get us money, hire the right people, and get out of the way, so everyone else can get their job done.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And so it's very much a a soft skill, but I will say that like having that CS minor has been helpful when I have conversation with my CTO where
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I have reasonable expectations of how long it can take for us to ship a particular product feature,
Timi Dayo-Kayode: whether or not we need someone else to come on board to support technically to build some other future and just having reasonable expectations, I think, you can definitely go far with soft skills but hard skills definitely don't hurt, is my opinion.
Shelby Schulz: Nice.
Shelby Schulz: We're gonna have to wrap up here so we'll make this our last question.
Shelby Schulz: What advice would you have for those of us who want to be engaged in startups or entrepreneurship, but don't necessarily have an original idea to execute? Are there roles you would suggest for capable behind-the-scenes people?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: Yeah, I think I would say really just find someone that you believe in and just stick with them. I think that's the sort of advice I would give, I think, really, if you're interested in that sort of
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I think entrepreneurial journey, I think, really, it's all about being able to work very well with who you're working with.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: I mean, my sort of journey, I've had like I think up to 34 co-founders so far. I think really what's sort of set
Timi Dayo-Kayode: the good ones apart from the bad ones are that I just had very good working relationships with the ones that ended up being great working relationships and whether or not they they were maybe the best
Timi Dayo-Kayode: skills-wise, I think was less important than, do we work well together. And so I would recommend just like find someone that you work well together with
Timi Dayo-Kayode: and just say, listen, how can I be helpful? What skill sets do I have that can move the needle forward?
Timi Dayo-Kayode: And then as the company grows as whatever you've been working on grows, will obviously round out the team a bit more. You obviously find where your skill, where you're most
Timi Dayo-Kayode: able to contribute. But I think really you should be more focused on finding someone that you work well with, that you believe in, that you think can go the distance
Timi Dayo-Kayode: with whatever it is they're working on. I think that's more important than anything, especially
Timi Dayo-Kayode: at the earliest stage of things versus like finding an idea that you're particularly passionate about, especially if you're not necessarily
Timi Dayo-Kayode: on founder-level. I think it's just, do you love working with those people? Are they a team that you enjoy spending time with? Because like, I will tell you, you'll spend all your time with those people.
Timi Dayo-Kayode: So just making sure that you're comfortable with those people and you can spend time with them and you enjoy working with them. I think is what I would advise, just find those kind of people
Timi Dayo-Kayode: and just stick with them essentially, because eventually you'll find something that sticks, then you'll essentially be on something that's potentially an amazing journey.
Akua Okunseinde: Yeah, I would just add that startups are always looking for freelancers.
Akua Okunseinde: So you could use one of those freelance sites to put up a profile with your skill set, whether it's just like general consulting, or you know, whatever you have to offer. And then you could work with the startup, just understand how they operate
Akua Okunseinde: just to get that experience so that you can then figure out, is this something that you would want to do on your own.
Akua Okunseinde: So yeah, and you never know. Maybe they want to hire you full-time if you do an awesome job. So that would be another way to just get some experience and exposure with startups.
Kofi Asante: Yeah. And on my side, I would probably think about two or three things. One of them is understanding what stage of the company you actually want to be at.
Kofi Asante: Obviously, if you do want to be at a startup, there's, you know, the very early seed and angel side.
Kofi Asante: There's also ones are further ahead with the Series A in Series B, but each one of those profiles can actually make you have a different set of skills that are going to be more or less helpful for you.
Kofi Asante: And then in terms of finding something that actually is meaningful to you,
Kofi Asante: I know that a lot of the groups at Tufts who come out care a good amount about social impact. And so if you can just figure out what industries or what problems are actually going to be meaningful for
Kofi Asante: a number of communities out there, I think that should hopefully get you started in a way that at least you won't be regretting the spot that you went to.
Kofi Asante: And then the third one is just seconding everything everyone else said, right, like, if you--you're going to spend a lot of time with the people. So vetting that it's going to be a big, big piece of that as well.
Gozi Uzoma: Yeah, I think I go along a lot of what people said here. I think particularly for me, starting out my career at a growing
Gozi Uzoma: company was great for not being sure what I wanted to do but being part of something that's growing, you get a lot of responsibility quickly.
Gozi Uzoma: You get project maybe you're not ready for, kind of have to figure out, and I think that can be a great way to test your skills in terms of like, I have to come up with solution, I have to be creative, I have to get this done. Otherwise I would
Gozi Uzoma: promote product. I think it's a good way to kind of like get that maker mentality in terms of like, this is an idea and I have to figure out how to execute on it. And I think that's a
Gozi Uzoma: good mentality to start developing if you want to be an entrepreneur and start getting your ideas out there.
Shelby Schulz: Awesome. That is excellent advice and being mostly at startups in my career, I can echo all those things.
Shelby Schulz: I can't thank you guys enough for sharing your experience and just talking with us and talking about what you're doing and all the great stuff. I hope we hear more from you guys and I encourage any of the
Shelby Schulz: attendees tonight to connect with our panelists. If you have any, you know, follow up questions, they're all doing really great stuff and are great resources.
Shelby Schulz: I'll leave you with our next event which is Monday, August 24 at 6pm Eastern for a session on
Shelby Schulz: "Radical Innovation: Audacious Entrepreneurial Thinking." So we'll be talking about the role of mindset, risk, and technology in addressing huge problems and market opportunities.
Shelby Schulz: Hear how widely successful companies marry complex research with the speed of a startup, and review the skills relationships, and tools needed to build a minimum viable product, acquire customers, and scale.
Shelby Schulz: Have a lovely evening everybody.
