Hello and welcome to all of you.
My name is Cara Hanelin.
I am the acting co-director of
Alumni Relations at the GSB.
And we are so lucky to have this amazing
lineup of GSB alumni who are going to talk
to us tonight about supporting the black
community about investing in black
owned businesses and how to create access
to capital for black entrepreneurs.
So I don't want to take any more time
away from this really important dialogue.
But I am so thrilled to hand
things over to our moderator and
also the co organizer of this
whole event Jason Scott.
I want to say a huge thank you to Jason
who's helped a ton in pulling this
together.
So Jason is going to lead us
through this conversation.
He is a graduate from
the MBA class of 2016.
He has a very robust profile and
background includes time spent with
working with multiple startups from YC
backed Homejoy to some of his
own independent pursuits.
He then eventually joined the investment
team at Highland Capital Partners.
And just about two years ago,
he joined Google as the global startup
programs manager under Google Cloud.
And now today,
he serves as Google's cross functional
US startup developer ecosystem lead.
So he manages Google's US
based accelerator programs and
startup developer engagement strategy.
In addition, he also remains
an active seed investor, startup and
advisor and the founder of FactionSF,
which is a community for creatives,
entrepreneurs and early stage investors.
So thank you so much, Jason.
All yours.
>> Thank you, Cara.
Next time I'll have to
give you a shorter bio.
[LAUGH] I'm blushing over here.
But I'm excited to kick this conversation
off and I've been really really excited
for this venue especially just
because I think Stanford and
then GSB has always really started for
me as a safe space where we can really
talk about things in a candid, honest way.
And I think particularly when we're
talking about racial inequity and
inequity within the startup ecosystem.
I look to Stanford and several alumni,
particularly GSB alumni often
to be those thought partners and
the catalyst of change, I think in the,
in my professional ecosystem.
And honestly, I want to make this
conversation I hope everyone feels
like this conversation despite of
being digital feels very personal and
one in which you can treat
it like a safe space.
And ask the questions that are top of
mind and know that we are a community of
Stanford alumni that are ultimately
looking to support and help each other as
we say, at the GSB at least change lives,
change organizations and change the world.
So with that, enough about me,
'cause again Cara did quite the robust
description of my background but
I would love to kick it off while to
introduce our speakers, our guests today,
I think also to make sure that they
are front and center in your zoom windows.
So, without further ado,
I'll ask each speaker to say who they,
their class here,
what they're doing now and
how they're involved in
the startup ecosystem to start.
I mean we'll go in alphabetical order.
So Ade, if you want to kick things off.
>> Wonderful so
thank you very much, Jason.
Hello everyone very much looking
forward to this conversation.
Name is Adeyemi but
I go by Alec which is easier.
Nigerian name Spanish accent,
and I grew up MB22 and GSB 2010.
And currently I'm a founding and
managing partner of Base10,
which is an early stage venture
capital fund based in San Francisco.
We recently made the news as the largest
black led venture capital fund.
And we have been talking about our
approach to investing in minority
founders which I think
we'll talk about today.
Before passing to the dark side of
investing, I was in the cooler side of
starting companies and I started three
companies, one before the GSB back
in Spain, called Tuenti that became
the equivalent of Facebook in Spain.
And we ended up selling to Telefonica.
And then post GSB, one in San Francisco
called identified that was an artificial
intelligence company applied to recruiting
and one in Latin America called Cabify,
which is the equivalent
of Uber in Latin America.
>> Awesome.
Ashley, do you want to go next?
>> Yeah, sure.
Thanks for having me.
My name is Ashley Edwards.
I'm in the class or
I was GSB class of 2016.
Also Ed school class of 2016
to the joint degree, and
I am a founder, founder and
CEO of MindRight health, and
we're a mental health startup
based in Newark, New Jersey.
And our whole mission is about advancing
health equity to make mental health care
radically accessible and
inclusive of communities of color and
low income families.
And before I worked on MindRight and
founded it, I was working in education.
I just saw the issues of trauma on
youth which led me to point and
pursue mental health.
And actually, it just came out this
week that I became the first black women
in New Jersey to raise over 1 million
in venture capital, which is crazy,
and one of just 35 in the US,
which is even crazier and not okay.
So really excited about this conversation
in increasing opportunities for
other founders.
I'm really excited,
I think to pass it to Julia next because
I think she's a great example of this.
>> Enjoy.
Yeah, without further ado,
do you want to go?
>> Yeah, so I'm Julia Collins.
I'm born and
raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Spent most of my adult life though in New
York City working in the restaurant space.
I'm GSP 09 and the thing that I'm
passionate about is food systems.
I am a serial founder.
Everything I build is really at
the intersection of food and technology.
With this thesis that we
can use technology to
create far better outcomes for
human beings and for the planet.
My company is called Planet Forward.
Our mission is to tackle climate change.
By making it easier to bring climate
friendly products to market.
We do that in two ways.
The first is we built
a sustainable sourcing tool.
And the second is we built the world's
first explicitly climate friendly snack
brand called Moonshot Snacks
launching later this year.
I hope you will all buy my crackers.
Like Ashley, I have this very strange
relationship with being the first you
know, what does it mean to be the first
black woman to have ever co founded
a unicorn company on a personal basis,
it means absolutely nothing.
Because I don't value myself based on the
valuation of my company or how much money
I've raised, but on a on a more sort
of macro level, it's super important.
And I think Ashley and I both feel this
imperative to not to maybe you were
the first but we can't be the last.
And what can I do every single
day to ensure that I'm, you know,
really accelerating the success
of other black women,
other underrepresented founders so
that they can get the kind of funding that
they need to build Iconic businesses
like the ones that Ade has built.
>> Awesome.
So to kick things off,
I think I'd like to ground everyone and
just kind of get everyone in
the mindset of understanding
a little bit more about your
each of your origin stories,
but also just really focusing on your
motivations to become entrepreneurs.
And you're kind of what was that
inflection point, that really started off
your entrepreneurship journey and
I guess we can go in reverse order.
But Julia would love to hear about kind
of your entrepreneur origin story, and
what was that inflection point and
can you talk about what made you
like decide to go down this route?
Yeah, I mean, I think first and foremost,
the truth of the matter is I'm not
very good at working for other people.
I've never been particularly good
at following instructions, or
kind of fitting in in that way.
And so that there's almost part of me
that it's sort of like
an orientation to build things.
But, it really goes back to my
grandparents who moved to the Bay Area
during the Great Migration,
to build the first black dental
practice in San Francisco.
And they created this practice
where everyone was welcome.
Where every one was welcome and
every one was equal, and
their home was the same
way everyone was welcome.
And my parent's home was the same way.
We didn't lock our front door, and if
you'd showed up at my house chasing at any
time of day or night, there was something
cooking and you were welcomed inside.
So I just always had this idea that food
was the thing that connected people.
Food was the medium for
communities, safety, even justice.
We talked about social justice
over oatmeal at my house.
And so I really always wanted
to have a career in food.
Growing up I was also a huge nerd,
math and science nerd.
And so I don't think it's surprising to
myself or anybody else that I choose to
build businesses at the intersection
of food and technology.
I think more recently as a black woman,
the thing that I'm really aware of is
the world is ready for
a new kind of leadership.
A big criticism that I got in my
early career was that I was too nice,
and sometimes too girly, or
too bubbly, or too feminine.
And flash forward to 2020 when I
think this kind of strong feminine
kind of energy, is exactly the energy
that many people align with and
want to see when they go to work.
So, I build to solve for food systems, I
built to solve for environmental justice.
But I also builds to show that there's
a new kind of leadership that can be
embodied in the kind of black
female persona that I am.
>> Awesome, and Ashley,
do you want to go next?
>> Yes, sure, I think for me, what
really led me down this path was that I
discovered a problem in my community
that I could not walk away from.
So, like I mentioned before, before DSP I
worked in education here in New York,
New Jersey, had really amazing students,
and was working and still living here in
a community that's majority black and
brown, majority low income.
And I had students coming to school every
single day after being exposed to trauma
from surviving poverty on a daily basis,
systemic racism, oppression,
living in food deserts.
And when they got to school,
there was no therapist, no psychologists,
absolutely no support
whatsoever to help deal with
the constant psychological stress of
just being a person of color in the US.
And so, I really wanted to create
a tool that would help people heal.
And will meet people where they were,
which is kind of how we landed on our work
of providing young people
with mental health support,
culturally responsive mental
health support over text message.
And so again, it was just really seeing
a problem that kind of took my breath
away and knowing like this is I will
feel successful if I can contribute to
a solution for this and my community.
>> Awesome, and Ade, last but not least.
>> Sure, so for me, I think two things.
First of all, growing up,
my dad was an entrepreneur,
and I hear a lot of his stories.
He was 30 when Nigeria became
independent from the UK.
He was one of the first
train engineers in Nigeria,
he had studied in Germany and
essentially there was a country to build.
And he was there building roads and
energy plants and things like that,
and I grew up hearing those stories and
hearing how difficult it was.
And obviously that was very inspiring.
And I always thought ih wow,
like you can do so much and
you can change things around
you if you don't like them.
And I will say second pair with that,
as Julia said,
I am terrible working for other people.
And yes, generally I always had
a very hard time fitting in,
in any preestablished group, because
growing up as a half Nigerian in Spain,
my brother and
I were like the only minorities around and
we were very weird for
a number of reasons.
So, in the back of my mind I was like,
I have no idea what I'm
going do when I grow up.
I know it's going be technical,
because, like Julia said before,
I was a huge nerd math and science,
I started coding when I was 12.
And although when I went to college
in Spain, I went to law school and
did economics,
because it was a respectable thing to do.
I kept coding all through college, and
I put out about 25 different projects,
which none of them became popular,
except the last one, which is the one
that ended up turning into the Facebook
of Spain, Think 20 almost by accident.
And I wasn't even going to turn it into
a company, it was just something cool.
It was kind of like the first school
thing I had actually ever done,
because cool people will use
it to connect with each other.
And I was lucky enough to spend my last
year of college as an external student
here in the US in Atlanta.
And I was here in no five when
Facebook launch on my campus on Emory
during Halloween.
And I saw how people were using
it like crazy shortly after it
raise money at $70 million valuation.
And I was like, my god,
70 million, that's crazy.
So went back to Spain and
I started telling my college professors,
this thing that I created, there is one
in the US that is worth $70 million.
Can you imagine if we
built something like that?
And obviously, most thought I was crazy,
but eventually it ended
up going well, and
that was really the beginning of the race.
>> Awesome, so,
I think that was important for
me to at least have that context
I think for the audience for
my next question, and
I guess I'll start with Ashley.
But in that journey,
when did you first feel your blackness
in your entrepreneurial journey,
and when did you first feel that come into
play as you were starting your company?
>> Probably my first
fundraising conversation ever,
it's immediate,
my blackness has always been in the room.
And I think to the point where
when I was first fundraising,
I literally would have either Stanford or
Yell paraphernalia with me at all times,
just to give me instant credibility
in a room, I went to your undergrad.
And so, for me, it felt like
a necessity so that people felt
safe around me, because I think
you find yourself always, or
I find myself as a black woman
constantly prioritising the comfort
of other people and
particularly white male investors.
So I felt that all the time, and
I think a recent example would also be,
I'll be in conversations with investors,
and
I'll explain what mine right does and
our work.
And they will bring up immediately
a black founder who they read about or
heard of,
who has nothing to do with our industry,
nothing to do with
the problem we're solving.
[LAUGH] It was serving a completely
different target population and then be,
well, how does your thing
compared to theirs?
And I'm like they're not our competitors,
we're not related.
I'm sorry, because the point of
reference for them is so small, And so
you find yourselves in conversations that
can often be a waste of time and space.
Because there's just such a gap and
understanding and
appreciation for our work at times.
And so that's what I've seen a lot.
And then I think the last thing I'll say,
because there's a lot,
this is a big question, Jason.
I find it fascinating how building a
digital health company I'll be invited to
conferences or panels around digital
health and Medicaid, in particular,
in serving underserved communities.
And the entire conference
list of speakers or
the entire investment firm
is entirely white males.
I'm like how are we talking about
serving underserved communities and
this is what it's looking like.
So it's just a reminder every day
of my blackness in those spaces.
>> All right, Julia, how about you?
The first time that you felt, I guess,
your blackness in your
entrepreneurial journey?
>> I just have to breathe for
a second because what you said
Ashley just resonates so deeply.
And can we go have lunch, girl, because
I want to unpack some of this together.
>> Let's go have lunch.
>> And I can't describe anything
that Ashley has already described
better than she has already described it.
And I'm going to give you
a different orientation.
And it's so funny, there's all this
duality in our blackness, right?
Places where we butt up against so
much injustice and
lack of equality and white supremacy.
And then there's other places where I feel
like it's this incredible superpower.
So if I go back to the whole reason
why I'm a founder in the first place,
it's because I fundamentally feel
no allegiance to the status quo.
And I see in the world,
all the places where systems
just don't work for most people.
And I think I'm really in tune to
the fact that they don't work because
they don't work for me as a person
who shows up in a black female body.
So it's a superpower of being able to see
the places where the systems don't work.
And then feeling this sort of ireverence
and the sense of, I can fix this.
I fundamentally have no
sense of entitlement.
I think this is another superpower.
I've never expected that I
could skate my way anywhere.
I've always known that I
had to work twice as hard.
And so I did, maybe four times as hard.
So I think those are two places
where my blackness is a superpower.
And the third thing I might say is,
I really do feel a huge amount of empathy
for people in the world, especially people
for whom the systems aren't working.
And that gives me a lot of conviction and
a lot of passion.
And maybe that's the reason why I'm
able to attract great investors or
great employees, is because I show
up with that energy level that says,
this doesn't work and we can rebuild it.
We can make it better.
>> Awesome and I would love,
Adea I'm going to ask you that question.
But I also I think as an investor I'm
curious to talk a little bit more about
what Julia is saying
around the super powers.
And if it's something you witness,
I guess,
some of these traits that you witness or
characteristics that you witness in other
entrepreneurs that you've met and
invested in.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
The short answer is yes.
And I think it's an excellent point.
And in a couple of ways, first of all,
I think most entrepreneurs see
themselves as outsiders and
as underdogs that are fighting
against the status quo.
And the thing is that for
minorities and for black investor,
black entrepreneurs and
black woman entrepreneurs,
they truly are outsiders
since the day they're born.
So I think for me, and
this is something that we discuss
internally at my investment
team all the time.
Is like hey,
if we see the exact same founder,
literally the exact same
founder with a startup,
with the exact same traction, but
one is run by a white male and
one is run by a minority, we immediately
give more points to the minority.
Because we know that to get to that
same place they have had to work,
as Julia said, four times harder.
And one thing for me, that was a nice and
a positive as an investor is I'm going
back to the beginning of the question.
He said, when I was first getting
started as an entrepreneur in Spain,
the culture there is very different
about race than it is in the US.
And for lack of putting it a better way in
Spain people can be very openly racist.
And to give you very concrete examples
when I was having some of my first
investment meetings,
the investors will just be like,
well, I mean I like the idea.
I don't know how I'm
going to go back home and
say that I'm investing in a black person.
Or things like or
I will get questions like,
what tribe are you from exactly as a joke.
And it was very overly okay,
like very, very, overly okay.
So I was very keenly aware that
the person that I had in front of
me saw me as something alien and
that they couldn't really put in a box.
What has been useful now as an investor is
that because I experienced that so much, I
feel that I have a superpower to relate to
people that feel themselves as outsiders.
And often we will be talking to a startup
that is talking to ten other firms.
And after the official meeting,
I will actually go and
grab a coffee with the entrepreneur and
they will open up.
And then we'll open up about
what it is being an outsider and
that ability to connect,
I'm very, very thankful for.
>> Got it, and before I guess we
start talking a little bit more
about the present, I'd like to
maybe take a more positive spin and
talk a little bit more about allyship.
And for each of you I'm curious,
of course you've talked about a lot of
the walls that you've had to climb,
the valleys that you've had to cross.
But I'm curious, how is the allyship
been involved in your journey as well?
And can you think about very
specific examples throughout
your journey of allyship?
And what a good ally has been
professionally in your ecosystem and
we could start with whomever feels
like they have one top of mind.
>> I think this notion of
allyship is important and good.
I really do want to bring
other super aligned
human beings with me on this mission
toward justice and equality.
The thing that I'm asking for folks in my
community who are inclined to be allies,
is for them to go a step further.
And I'm borrowing from Jason Mayden,
founder of Trillicon Valley here.
But we want to move from
allyship to accomplishship.
An ally is a passive agent
in the movement for change.
And an accomplice is somebody
who's going to get into the fray,
get into the fight with you.
Trade some of their social capital,
trade some of their safety, shed their
fragility, shed or trade in on their
privilege to actually get the work done.
That's what I'm really vibing on right
now is folks who can go from an ally
orientation to an accomplice orientation.
I think that's how we
really get the job done.
Yeah, before we pass in July,
I'm curious in your journey,
who has been an accomplice with you or
have you had any that you can no need to
call them by name, but
I guess I'm just curious.
>> What it kind of looks like.
[CROSSTALK]
>> Because she's an incredible number of
the GSB in the Stanford community but for
Amanda bomb, she's every step of the way,
since I have met her, has done
everything that she could to really,
really demonstrate that
she's an accomplice,
including socializing the idea of
being an accomplice versus an ally.
And the way that I knew
that this was aligned for
me is this is work she's been doing for
decades.
I'm not the first black woman in
her sphere who she's supporting.
I certainly won't be the last.
She has made this her mission for decades.
>> Anyone else want to talk about
a given example of Alex report or
any accomplices I guess I like
that word actually, that you've
encountered in your journey that is
really kind of helped you along the way.
>> Yeah, I can follow up on what
Julia said because I think especially
right now in the time we're in there,
there's been a lot of different
definitions of what allyship is.
And for me as a founder, allies write
checks, right allies take action.
And so you can you mentor
people have a phone call and
throw calls with people and
still not really be an ally.
And I think that's something that people
don't understand because there's a lot of
work that goes into being ally and
it's continuous.
And so for me,
I've been fortunate that I consider all
of my investors really truly
allies with our work and
I think one I'm also
going to name as well.
One of one of the leads in our in our
recent round was Aquaman America which is
led by a GSB alum, Ayman Anderson,
I think he was class of 2015.
And what was really magical about
that experience was not only did
Aquaman believe in the work, but
they galvanize other investors and
resources for the work and did that work.
Removed that emotional time burden for
me and
took that on theirselves because
they believed in what we were doing.
And I was really just like blown away
by that because that's not something I
experienced from other investors.
And that really outlined what real
partnership looks like for me.
And so that's something that I
definitely encourage investors if
you believe in a founder,
like show it take action.
Yeah, so that was that was my example.
>> And to follow up on that, but
actually I think what you said
that allies write checks that
that is a really important point.
And in particular,
one of the things that for me,
has been great to see
particularly over the last few
months is a lot of our
investors in Base 10.
Which are large financial
institutions like pension funds,
university endowments sovereign funds,
that have been working very closely with
us not only in understanding what they can
do any which founders they can invest,
but actually in something that I believe
can have even more lasting consequences.
Which is I've been knowing I can
save probably two dozen conference
calls with this kind of investors,
where they are like hey,
we are investors in 50 other venture
capital funds and private equity funds.
And we want to hold them
to a higher standard.
So what can we do to make sure that
those other funds that right now
are not being held accountable about what
they're doing in their diversity efforts?
What can we do to hold them accountable?
And I think that is actually one
of the parts where we are spending
more time because it can be an immense
force of change in the entire industry.
>> On that any I mean, no need to share,
if not, but just curious.
What were some of the conclusions
that came from that?
In terms of what they can do specifically.
>> A lot, and obviously,
it's work in progress, but I will say that
that one that is becoming very clear
is the transparency on reporting.
It's like right now,
it's way too opaque and it's very easy.
I think that one of the fears that we
all have about the current moment and
I know we'll talk more about that is well
is this is this going to last, right?
Like, is this going to be a bunch
of Twitter like best wishes and
some initiatives here and there,
or is this going to us and and
we all know that even to begin to
make any sort of lasting impact.
This is a multi decade battle,
right that was started,
they get it going and
it's going to continue for decades.
And obviously the only way to measure
change is to have access to the data.
And in order to have access to data,
you have to have everyone reporting it.
So one of the things that is low hanging
fruit, but can actually make a huge
impact is if you have all these different
LPs telling their funds you know what
unless you very publicly report every
year, what exactly you're doing and
who you're investing on and
who you're not investing on.
We're not going to have a conversation.
I think that that alone can
create massive, massive change.
>> And on that, actually you kind of
got to my next question on curious.
We have heard a lot of diverse opinions,
I think on the current moment in
terms of the authenticity of it and
people's intentions in terms of
how long it's going to last.
I'd be curious to hear from each of you,
your thoughts on the current kind of
attention that seems to be being placed on
the black community, specifically
the black entrepreneurship community.
And I'll leave it there, [LAUGH] and
then maybe dig in a little bit first, but
we can go backwards again,
since we were already touching on sort
of idea if you want to talk about.
What are your thoughts
on the current moment?
>> Yes so look,
I don't know, right?
My thoughts on the current moment
like I think all of us is Is
a lot of emotion positive and
negative, and a lot of hope, right?
That people do genuinely seem to
have realized that something is
structurally wrong and
want to be part of the solution.
But also a lot of fear that it might not
last, or we might move to the next thing.
So, I think from my point of view,
what I landed on is realizing
that beginning with with ourselves,
but I think every single one of us,
we have a very strong collective
responsibility to make them on and last.
And what we decided internally
at our firm is like, well,
we are going to be the first ones to
be very transparent about what we
believe we are doing wrong and what we're
going to do from now on to do better.
And we're going to hope that by
having this transparency and
by reporting on that every year and
we are going to, quote unquote force other
firms to follow through, and hopefully
that becomes an industry standard.
So I am somewhat hopeful that if
the ultimate asset allocators,
which are again the big guys,
the university endowments,
the foundations, the pension funds.
They begin to hold everyone by
a higher standard of transparency,
the moment will last.
Because I believe that the social
willingness to only align oneself to
institutions that are willing to help
that is those standards that such
a willingness is here.
>> I'll go to Ashley next.
What are your thoughts
on the current moment?
>> Yeah, it's a heavy moment right now.
Especially now, another black man who was
killed a couple of days ago in Kenosha.
So what I'm thinking about reflecting on
is back when George Floyd was killed,
there was a lot of companies who made
public statements about their commitments
to racial justice and equity and
all these initiatives that
they're going to roll out.
And when I've looked back at some
companies, it seems like a great number of
them have yet to actually take any of
the actions that they've committed,
which makes me question the authenticity
of kind of those optics of support for
the black community.
And specific to founders, a lot of
fans have been posting things about
I want to invest in black founders, having
open office hours for black founders.
I've also heard from other black founders
that the most vocal investors on LinkedIn,
who are making those offerings,
aren't actually responding
to people who reach out.
So it's really disappointing
as a black founder.
But I also believe that we are in
a moment of radical accountability,
is what we're approaching, where non-black
people are really more so, I think,
in the past holding other non-black people
accountable for their actions against us.
And that gives me hope that we
may get to a point where things
have to get better because
there's no other option.
So that's kind of what I'm holding on to,
it doesn't sound very optimistic,
but [LAUGH] it's kind of where I'm at
right now just with watching reactions and
how people are moving right now.
>> And Julia, anything to add?
>> Yeah, the only thing that
I can really add is vote,
no better way to make the moment
last than to get out and vote.
Mobilize the vote, if you have
the ability to control the schedules for
your team, give them Monday and
Tuesday off.
Let them take four days of action around
voting and mobilization like that.
That's the drum I'm going to beat
all the way up until November.
I also don't know, I don't have
a crystal ball as to whether or
not this is a glimpse or
a moment or a lasting change.
I do think it's incumbent upon us
to make sure that the moment lasts.
We were trying to solve
centuries of injustice, and so
it's unlikely that we can
get that all done this year.
But I do think that it is likely that if
we continue to galvanize communities like
the one that's gathered right here
right now, we can make lasting change.
Think back to the moment when
the Constitution was written.
That was born out of a time of incredible
strength and energy, but the words that
were written down were the foundation for
everything that happened next.
And so some people asked there
was even a question in the chat,
what do I do if I'm not a high net worth
individual, a founder, an investor, right,
or something like that.
And what you can do is to influence
the way that rules are written.
First of all, the rules for yourself and
how you run your life, the rules for
your family, maybe the rules for
your company.
And make sure that people go from these
public statements on LinkedIn is actually
membered or black squares on Instagram,
to actually changing the rules and
the way that Adey described.
Where you're causing rules to be
written that has to be memorialized,
so that a decade from now,
people are looking back and
knowing that they were adhering
to the principles that they so
publicly espoused during this moment
of great energy and great crisis.
>> I like that you actually
brought up that question
I was going to actually
ask you to address that.
I think as people who are listening but
maybe aren't investors or
maybe they don't have a lot of
personal capital to invest in black
entrepreneurs are there
other kind of tactical
things that they can do to invest in
the black entrepreneurial community?
Whether it be financially or
otherwise, financially in particular,
I guess, but or otherwise,
look for any thoughts there.
>> I think go and work for
amazing black founders, add your talent
to these growing teams for these
incredible companies that we're building.
And then on a more sort of day-to-day
basis, try to identify founders,
black founders who have built great
products or services and use them,
support them and evangelize them.
>> Any other additions there?
>> I think that is a great one.
I think that more and more one of the good
things that is happening is that more and
more there are a number of
organizations out there that
are looking for
volunteers to do things like help
Silicon Valley companies
recruit more black talent.
Like for example,
Code 2040 for startups, or
the Black Venture Capital Consortium for
venture capital.
So go and volunteer or
donate to those organizations,
I think that they're
making a great impact.
>> l'm sorry, go ahead Ashley.
>> Just really quickly, I'm just going to
add, ask yourself, what are ways that I
could use my privilege and
leverage that for black founders?
Are there events that you're getting
invited to that Black founders may not
have access to spaces that we may not be
in, conversations we might not be in,
and really pulling us
in into those spaces.
>> That's a good one as well.
Adey you keep triggering
other questions for me.
But one that you just and maybe to make
it a little bit again, face-to-face and
GSB and Stanford alumni space.
But one argument that hopefully
we don't hear too often but
that has been said is that,
from an investment standpoint or
just generally that there
isn't enough pipeline.
There aren't enough in the ecosystem
to warrant the percentages that
we're trying to get to in terms of
the investments in the black community.
What are your thoughts on that?
And also, how do we ensure
that we change that narrative?
>> Yeah, I think that anyone
have looked at the numbers for
five minutes,
realizes that that is not true.
And is very easy, so the counter argument
I give to businesses all the time and
I've been giving to businesses for
years, is that when a model is biased,
you're not going to fix it until
you don't feed it new data.
And everyone knows that, that works
in industry, but no one does it.
And what that means is that when your
pattern recognition is fixed to only
invest A single 20 something year old guys
that come out of the Stanford PhD program.
That is the only thing
you're going to see.
And by definition, is going to be
one that doesn't fit that mold.
But by now, when you actually pull the
data and I think an amazing data set for
this is actually Y Combinator that in
my book is doing a very good job at
pulling founders from very
different backgrounds.
You're starting to see that if you
pull data from the past five years and
even with only companies of the Bay Area,
the number of founders that
are non-white male is skyrocketing.
And actually a lot of those
companies are doing a lot better in
later stages when numbers
is the thing that matters.
So, it is interesting because for
us, as an investment organization,
we always say this thing that not
everyone gets at the beginning,
but is that we exist to create returns for
our investors.
We just happen to believe that
investing in people that are overlooked
by most VCs is actually a great way
of making returns for our investors.
And the numbers will show that people
that don't confirm to a certain
demographic are continuously way
more likely to be overlooked.
So we are actually just creating
arbitrage by building systems
to not overlook those kind of founders.
And I will say that in the four
years that we have been investing,
some of our best deals have come
from following those patterns.
And it's one of the reasons we are
attracting really, really good investors.
So the numbers are there for
anyone that wants to look at them.
And I hope that the last few months
have been a wake up call to a number of
the larger firms that are like,
wow, actually,
we have been blind all this time and
we need to do a better job.
>> Any addition to that?
No worries.
It was a great answer, [LAUGH] awesome.
Taking another question from the chat,
it says,
how has it been networking with
other co-founders who are non-black,
eg sharing resources, insights,
intel, around the VC community?
Or just in general,
I guess, working with co-founders that
are not members of the black community?
>> I think for me, sort of most of my life
I've been in partnership, conversation,
class, school, working for
mostly people who don't look like me.
So I think the thing that I'm learning
at this point in my career is
to really have the courageous
conversation around race early on.
Ashley talked about sort of
moments during the fundraising
process where you have to do something
like wear your Harvard sweatshirt and
your Yale hat simultaneously.
And sometimes a non-black co-founder might
not understand what's going on there.
And having to sort of unpack and discuss
and align around structural racism and
the degree to which you
experience it as a black person.
And your non-black co-founder might not
trying to do those conversations in
the moment is really difficult.
And so the thing that I'm learning
whether it's with a co-founder or
a key executive hire is to have those
courageous conversations around race
really in the beginning when you're
still getting to know each other.
And make that kind of ability to talk
about hard things a foundation of
the way that you communicate.
>> Ashley, anything to add there?
>> Yeah,
not from a co-founder standpoint, but for
just networking with other
founders who are not black.
The community of founders that I am in
most contact with are also black and
mostly black women actually.
And I find that they are the best
people for me to get feedback on.
If I'm meeting with a fund and I want to
just get an idea of the fund, hearing from
another black founder who had experience
for them is really valuable for me.
I would also want to have that same
conversation with someone who's not black,
but I think there's certain things.
Because the reality is different and so
I think it's important to have kind of
a diversity of people who
are mentoring you and guiding you.
Acknowledging that your experiences
is going to be very different.
So I'm not sure if that makes sense, but.
>> No, for sure and you hit on something
that I'd like to double click on as well
as you said a lot of the community that
you engage with are not only members of
the black community, but also members
of the women entrepreneur community.
And I'm curious how that
intersectionality has been
I guess, how have your
experiences as a black woman,
I guess, and entrepreneurship been?
And how would you compare being
members of those two communities and
entrepreneurship ecosystem?
>> Yeah, I mean, I feel very proud
to be a black woman doing this work.
And be joining a community of other black
woman founders like Julia and many others,
many of whom are doing this work and not
getting any type of recognition for it and
no funding for it.
I think the challenging part is just
the exhaustion that comes in being in
rooms where you're usually talking to,
again, the white male investor.
And in those conversations, they can
often, I think one thing that's important
to call out is just the natural power
dynamics in those conversations.
And because the investment
field is dominated by men,
being in a position where you
are asking for funding or asking for
money can often just reaffirm existing
systems of patriarchy and misogyny.
And so you're constantly in a place
because you have to navigate that to get
funding, you're putting in yourself
in a place that can be mentally,
spiritually, emotionally exhausting,
consistently.
And so that is something where
one thing I'm working on and
I encourage all my founder friends to
work on, is just practices in place for
self-care, for validating who you are.
And again, like Julia said,
separating your value from the valuation
of your company, that's super important.
>> I think what what Ashley saying is so
vital.
I definitely resonate with this as
somebody who lives at the intersection
of being a black person and
being a person who identifies as a woman.
I remember when I added on the experience
of being a pregnant person while
fundraising in Silicon Valley that's
when it just started to border on
ridiculous how crazy it felt to be so
different.
I remember driving up Sand Hill Road
in my 2006 Highlander and
parking it next to 1 million Teslas.
And entering these Silicon Valley
conference rooms where the conference
tables feel like they're two miles long
and the power dynamics are just wild.
You have everybody in their
sort of three quarters zips,
hooded sweatshirts, and there you
are with your big pregnant belly,
trying to pitch your food tech business.
The exercise for
me in those moments is always about the
conversation that I can have with myself.
It's 100% about the degree to which
I can convey my power, my confidence,
my energy, in the face of situations that
almost seem like they're designed to
make you feel tiny, tiny, tiny,
small, small, small, insignificant.
And for me the way that I got there was
one, sort of trying and failing a lot.
But also, as Ashley mentioned,
like investing in radical self care,
like daily self care,
meditation in the morning, weightlifting,
running, movement, dance, anything
that I can do to fill my spirit up and
then being in conversation with lots of
folks who are in the same journey and
facing the same obstacles that I am to
help to normalize some of the stress and
strain that you feel regardless
of your gender identity, or
regardless of what, how you show up.
On the racial spectrum.
>> So shifting gears back to I guess,
tactical things, I think for the audience,
I know a lot of members of the audience
are the Stanford GSB alumni community
are either part of accelerators or
fund what would you say these people and
their funds and their sellers can do to
help coach or mentor grow on the number
of black entrepreneurs and because it's
a more you as black entrepreneur yourself,
is there something that they
can be doing different way?
Is there something that they should
do to augment their current.
Support that they show their founders or
how has that experience been for
you or what would you advise them on and
it will start with hashtag.
>> [LAUGH] So for accelerators or
if you're already a portfolio
company of a fund,
if you already have black
founders who you've invested in,
I would say really,
like lean into their networks because
I think the sourcing problem
is really ridiculous.
Especially given how tight generally
the network's are between other founders
of color like use us like I can connect
you to black founders who are phenomenal.
They're not that hard to find.
And so I think that's one easy way.
You know I mean after this call like
feel free to shoot me an Email again.
I will connect you to founders.
And so
that's one thing that comes to mind.
And I think also just under fund
accelerators can also understand the gaps
that they have to serve black founders and
recognize that so one thing for us,
we're designing solutions for communities
of color and low income families.
If you have no one, no investors,
at your fund to relate to the experience,
have a shared lived experience.
I've done any research,
anything like that.
Acknowledge that don't
assume to be the expert and
then you know, go like do the work
to find help that fits us.
And so I think that's one thing we
see where people often take this.
I'm the expert, I'm the investor and
not really doing the work
to serve founders of color.
>> Do you want to connect?
>> I think that is excellent advice.
And I think that to, to add on to
don't buy into that advice in the same
way that you can lean into
the networks of the founders.
I will say that there are some
amazing funds out there,
that have made it their life
work to actually find and
serve entrepreneurs of color and that
includes precursor, plexo, caper, etc.
And some of them have been doing it for
a while.
A lot of them everyone for years but
some of them for a decade.
And they know a lot of things that other
investment institutions could learn from.
We as an investment institution of
learning from them all the time and
we do bury see things like you know,
every few weeks or every quarter,
like half a call and go through
the startups in their portfolio and
go through what trends are they
seeing within those communities and
where they're seeing them and
meet a few of them.
And again, it's a very easy work.
But we constantly get
the feedback from them
that we are one of the few funds that
actually takes the time to do it.
And that is, guess what a very
easy way to work with Mark.
Than [INAUDIBLE].
So I'll say use the network
of the minority focus
investors as well as the minority
entrepreneurs themselves.
>> Anything agile you.
>> I think those are all great points.
I think, one thing not to do if you're if
you're a fund that has, black founders in
your portfolio, don't task them with
educating you about structural racism and
white supremacy, remember that they
are busy trying to build their company and
do one of the hardest
things that anybody can do.
Do ask them for introductions
to other great black founders.
That is something that's a light
lift that we love to do.
But if I need to simultaneously educate
you on all of the issues around injustice
and build my company that's just too heavy
of a lift and recognize that even in
making the Ask, but there's some
power dynamics that are at play.
And so you're really sort of forcing,
forcing the person on the other side of
that Ask to give a no and and
that's, that's really hard.
So educate yourself first.
That's really the advice that I give.
>> Add one more thing.
>> Yeah, go for it.
>> I just think but so
if you are if you're really committed
to investing in black founders, if you're
not already investing at the pre seed or
seed stage, I would, you know,
make you ask yourself why?
Because there's so many black
startups that do not make it past
that early stage because
they cannot access funding.
So I think that's a really critical
point where more early stage
investors could step in and really
help drive that growth and pipeline.
>> Got it, and switching gears and
perspectives and
maybe combining a couple of questions.
There's a question around feeling
the burden of the black tax when,
when and
the burden to join a safer role or
go into a corporate because
the inability to take risk.
I think there's another question
on Feeling may be you don't have
the runway to fail as
a black entrepreneur and
that you're representing
something bigger than yourself or,
oftentimes, felt like people perceive
you as representative your race but
what what do you have to say to those
entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs
that are feeling those burdens and
what would you say, how did they how did
they get over that hurdle of feeling
that the wall is potentially too high?
Or reframing that and
we can start with whomever?
I know.
That's a loaded question.
>> May be one of the things that can help,
this is a very hard thing to do, hard
thing to overcome this weighty feeling but
to reconnect yourself to the why,
you know why you've chosen this string
in the first place why you've chosen to
build this product,
why you've chosen to tackle this problem.
And in the face of a lot of adversity,
sometimes reconnecting to the to the
meaning of the thing that you're building
can give you some energy to go out and
keep fighting.
>> Is I can add to that.
So I think the first thing I will
say having had a lot of these
conversations with entrepreneurs or
aspiring entrepreneurs,
that express that fear is that,
it is hard because it's true.
You know, like a lot of black folks or
minority folks.
They yes don't have the same safety
net and they have more to prove.
And that is a reality.
And that's a sad reality
that has to be accepted and.
What I have seen some folks
do successfully although
again it is very hard is
actually embrace that
additional hardship and
make it a superpower.
And what I mean by that is that
you know I've been in pitches with
other businesses in which a minority
entrepreneur was speaking and
instead of maybe trying
to conform to the norm,
they were actually extremely
straightforward about how
much harder this was for them,
and how they view them and
inspect the room to get and
that had an incredibly positive effect.
Wow this person is a true outsider.
And you're known as Yulia was saying,
and and
if they're doing this is because
they really believe in this.
And so it's hard like I don't
know if it makes it easier, but
as a pitching tactic of
increasing success is something
that I have tactically
seen be more successful.
>> Ashley anything to add before we close?
>> Yeah,
I would just say there's no wrong answer.
I think part of this question was kind of
like if I want to support my family, maybe
good people are thinking about working
until they have enough money saved up or
anything like that.
I would just say that's a very
real opportunity cost and
that is completely valid.
And I think sometimes we get pressured
to feel like that is not what a real
entrepreneur would do or
anything like that.
But that is a real burden that
a lot of us have to carry.
And I think like Ade was saying, the best
thing to do is just to own your decision.
Because I think people will
respect you a lot more for it.
>> Awesome.
So I know we're at time.
So one last lightning round
question to all of you.
If someone just tuned in one minute ago,
and they're tuning into this
conversation on Investing in The Black
Community, what would be your one
sentence thing that you hope that everyone
takes away from this conversation.
And we can start with I'll leave it up to
whoever has their thoughts down at first.
>> I think for me it would be
trying to unpack your privilege,
whatever it might be, and
understand how you can leverage that
privilege to create more justice and
equality.
>> Yeah, I completely agree with that and
I will add to that saying that
it is in a special moment and
it is our collective
responsibility to make it less.
And I think we all need to ask ourselves,
what is the biggest value added
thing to the community that
I could be doing right now?.
>> Yeah.
And just to echo that,
keep working, work harder.
We all have a lot to do to solve this
problem and it's not going to end today.
So this is a constant thing that we're
all going to have to stay on top of and
hold each other, our friends and
family accountable to.
>> Got it.
And if I'm allowed to add, I would say
Julia said something that resonated with
me it's just for those that are members or
are not members of the black community,
just not being afraid to have
those difficult conversations and
not being afraid to make a mistake.
And I think the worst thing you can
do is avoid the conversation and
avoid action because
you're afraid to take it.
So with that, I want to thank our
panelists for taking the time I
know you're running companies or
funds or raising new funds.
So I know it's a busy time for all of you
and appreciate everyone else also for
tuning in.
And without further ado, I will hand it
back over to Carol to close this out,
but I will say spread
the word to your classmates.
And and continue to be advocates and
again, our mission,
at least at the GSB is to change the world
starting with lives and organizations.
So please, just continue to remind
yourself that if not us, then who?
So Clara I will hand it back to you.
>> Thank you so much.
I just want to echo Jason's thanks.
Thank you to Ade, Julia,
Ashley and Jason for
this incredible conversation,
a conversation we hope will continue.
It's not just this moment.
It's ongoing and we appreciate that
all of you shared your time and
wisdom and expertise with our
Stanford alumni community.
So enjoy the rest of your evening and
thank you again.
