Podcast appearances and mentions of harlem capital

I met Michael Bervell through a mutual acquaintance some two months ago. Since then he and I have talked a few times and found that we have many interests in common.   Michael grew up near Seattle where he stayed through high school. He then went across the country to study at Harvard. He received a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy. He then returned to Seattle and began working at Microsoft where he held some pretty intense and interesting jobs he will tell us about.   At a young age and then in college Michael's entrepreneurial spirit was present and flourished. His story about all that he has done as an entrepreneur is quite impressive. Today he is back at Harvard working toward getting his Master's degree in Business.   Michael has developed a keen interest in digital accessibility and inclusion. We spend time discussing internet access, the various options for making inclusive websites and how to help educate more people about the need for complete inclusion.       About the Guest:   Michael Bervell is a Ghanaian-American angel-investor, entrepreneur, and best-selling author. He is currently the founder of TestParty, an industry-leading and cutting edge digital accessibility platform.   In 2007, Bervell co-founded “Hugs for” an international, student-run non-profit organization focused on using grassroots strategies to develop countries around the world. To date, "Hugs for" has fundraised over $500,000 of material and monetary donations; impacted over 300,000 youth around the world; and expanded operations to 6 countries (Tanzania, Ghana, United States, Uganda, Kenya, and Sierra Leone). Because of his work, Bervell was awarded the National Caring Award in 2015 (alongside Pope Francis, Dikembe Mutombo, and 7 others).   Bervell is the youngest Elected Director of the Harvard Alumni Association and was the youngest President of the Harvard Club of Seattle. He has helped to found and lead a variety of organizations including the WednesdAI Collective (a Harvard & MIT AI incubation lab), Enchiridion Corporation (a marketing consulting company), Sigma Squared (formerly the Kairos Society), and Billion Dollar Startup Ideas (a media and innovation company). He has experience working as a Chief of Staff at Databook, Venture Fellow at Harlem Capital, Portfolio Development Manager at Microsoft's Venture Fund, Program Manager at Microsoft, and Software Engineer at Twitter.   His various efforts have earned him recognition as a Samvid Scholar (2022), Warnick Fellow (2021), Jonathan Hart Prize Winner (2019), GE-Lloyd Trotter Scholar (2018), World Internet Conference Wuzhen Scholar (2017), Walter C. Klein Scholar (2017), United Health Foundation Scholar (2016), Deutsche Bank Rise Into Success Scholar (2016), Blacks at Microsoft Scholar (2016), Three Dot Dash Global Teen Leader (2015), Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholar (2015), National Achievement Scholar (2015), Coca-cola Scholar (2015), Elks Scholar (2015), AXA Achievement Community Scholar (2015), Build-a-bear Workshop Huggable Hero (2014), and more.   Ways to connect with Michael:   Personal Website: https://www.michaelbervell.com/ LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbervell/ Company Website: https://www.testparty.ai/ Company LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/testparty/     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hello, everyone. I am Michael Hinkson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset. Our guest today is Michael Bervell, who is a Ghanaian American angel investor. He is a published author, and he is also an entrepreneur and a scholar by any standards. And if he wants to brag about all that and all the the different kinds of accolades and awards he's gotten, he's welcome to do that. And I will just take a nap. No, I won't. I won't take a nap. I'll listen to him. I've read it all, but I'll listen to it again. Michael, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Michael Bervell ** 01:58 Thanks so much for having me. It's a great name. You have too, both the podcast and your own name, another Mike.   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 You know, I think it's a great name. People have asked me, why I say Michael, and do I prefer Michael to Mike? And as I tell people, it took a master's degree in 10 years, a master's degree in physics in 10 years, to figure this out. But I used to always say Mike Kingston on the phone, and people always said Mr. Kingston. And I couldn't figure out, why are they saying Kingston when it's Kingston, and I introduced myself as Mike Kingston. And finally, one day, it hit me in the head. They're getting the mike the K part with the Kingston, and they're calling it Kingston. If I start saying Michael hingson, will that change it? I started saying Michael hingson, and immediately everybody got it right. They said Mr. Hingson or Michael, or whatever. I don't really care, Mike or Michael is fine, but the last name is hingson, so there.   Michael Bervell ** 02:50 It's so funny. Yeah, I'm glad no one's calling you Mr. Links and or something like, yeah, yell and adding it. They   Michael Hingson ** 02:55 do. They do. Sometimes do Hingston, which isn't right, yeah, which shows you sometimes how well people listen. But you know, what   03:03 do you do? Exactly, exactly? Tell   Michael Hingson ** 03:07 us a little bit, if you would, about the early Michael bervell Growing up in and where, and all that sort of stuff. And you know, then we can get into all sorts of fun stuff, because I know you've been very interested in accessibility and disabilities and all that, we'll get to that. But tell me about you growing up. Yeah. I mean,   Michael Bervell ** 03:24 for me home, home for me was in Seattle, and I actually lived and went to school in a place that was about 30 minutes apart. So my parents would drop me off at school in the morning. I go through the day, meet all my friends, and then come back home. They would pick me up, take me back home in the evening. So I had a lot of time in the day after school, you know, school ends at two, and my parents picked up a five to do all this other stuff. So I used to always be part of every student, student club. I did every sports team, you know, I was in high school, you know, on the captain of all these, all these teams and such. And of course, I would go home and my parents picked me up. And in that in that in between time, I spent a lot of time in the library, so I probably every day in middle and high school, spent three hours a day at the library, just in that in between time, waiting for your parents, waiting for my parents. So that for me, was a lot of time that I just used to incubate projects. I taught myself how to code and took some CS classes when I was, you know, in high school at the library, I became friends with all the librarians and joined the student library advisory board when I was in eighth grade at the library, and did a bunch of other things. But I think probably the most impactful library project that I had was actually a nonprofit that my family and I started, and it was memory of my grandmother, who born in Ghana. She used to always go back there in the winter times, because, you know, it's cold in Seattle, warm in West Africa in the winter   Michael Hingson ** 04:48 as well. Yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 04:49 yeah, it was super warm there. I mean, it's always, you know, 80 plus degrees, wow. Yeah, it's lovely. And so she would always go home. And whenever she went back to Ghana. She would, you know, come into our bedroom and tip doe at night and go into the bed and take a teddy bear or take some of her old school supplies. And whenever she visited, she would give that to kids in hospitals and schools and North pages. So, you know, when she, when we, when she passed away, we ended up going back to Ghana for her funeral. And, you know, all the burial ceremonies, and there were just so many people from the community there expressing their love for her and what she had done. And we realized that, you know, while it was small for us, you know, as a six year old or sixth grade kid, her taking a teddy bear had such a big impact, and it had these ripple effects that went far beyond her, so that that was, like one of my biggest projects I did at, you know, in sixth grade and beyond. It's an organization, a nonprofit called hugs for Ghana, which we've been running for the last 15 years, 15 plus years, and now is operating in six different countries. And we do the same thing. We get teddy bears and school supplies and all these things, and pick them up and hand deliver them to kids in developing countries. But that, for me, was one of my most fundamental parts of my childhood. When you ask me, you know, was it like as a child? I can't separate my growing up from, you know, those long drives to school, that time at the library and eventually the nonprofit made in honor of my grandmother,   Michael Hingson ** 06:10 and giving back,   Michael Bervell ** 06:13 yeah, and giving back exactly how   Michael Hingson ** 06:16 I talked fairly recently on this podcast to someone who formed. Her name is Wendy Steele. She formed an organization called Impact 100 and impact 100 is really primarily an organization of women, although in Australia, there are men who are part of it. But basically what Wendy realized along the way was that, in fact, people are always looking for, what can they do? And at the same time, they don't have a lot of time. So with impact 100 she said, and the way the organization works, the only thing that she requires that anyone who joins the organization must do is donate a check for $1,000 that's it. If you don't want to do any work, that's great. If you want to be part of it and all that. It's fine. If the organization is primarily composed of volunteers. I think they have now like 73 or 77 chapters in mostly in the United States, but they're also when Australia and a couple of other countries, and they have given out in the 20 years since the organization was formed, all told, close to $148 million what they do is they take the money that comes in, and they for every $100,000 that a Chapter raises, they give a $100,000 grant to someone no administrative costs, unless those are donated on top of the $1,000 so all the money goes back to the community. I think the first grant they ever gave was to a dental clinic to help with low income people and so on. But it's a fascinating organization, as I said, it's called Impact 100 and she started it because as a child, she was very much involved in giving back, and for a while she she didn't. And then it started again when her father passed away, and she realized how many people from the community supported her and the rest of her family because they didn't have the tools or the resources to do it all alone. Yeah, so I'm not surprised that you have the story of giving back and that you continue to do that, which is really pretty cool.   Michael Bervell ** 08:36 Well, I think I actually heard a statistic that I think they tried to track how early childhood development, or just early adulthood, affected later adulthood. I think one of the findings was that people who volunteered when they were in middle and high school or significantly more likely to volunteer later in life than those who never did. And so there is a certain level of kind of you know, how you experience the world in your early ages and your early days affects your potential to want to make a change, especially as it relates to giving back or giving time or money or whatever effort, whatever it might be, I think is a really interesting concept. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 09:14 it makes sort of perfect sense, because as you're growing up and you're forming your life, if you see that you're doing things like giving back or being involved in supporting other people, and that is a very positive thing, it makes sense that you would want to continue that in some way.   Michael Bervell ** 09:33 Yeah, yeah. I mean, it reminds me also of just like habits. You know, you build your habits over time, and it starts from super young ages not to say that you can't change habits. There's a bunch of research about the science of habit change and how to break a habit loop, and Charles Duhigg is a great author in that space, but it's also just really interesting just to think through that. But yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 09:54 and habits can be hard to break, or they can be easy if you're really committed. Into doing it. But I know a lot of people say it, it's fairly challenging to change or break a habit.   Michael Bervell ** 10:06 Exactly, yeah, exactly.   Michael Hingson ** 10:09 Unfortunately, sometimes it's all too easy to make a habit. But anyway, there you go. Yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 10:14 my one of my it's, it's funny, because after you know one of my habits I made when I was in high school that, to my mom's chagrin, was I used to always love just doing work on my bed. The positive thing about the habit was I was always comfortable. The negative thing is I would sometimes fall asleep. So many times I mid paper, you know, mid take home exam, fall asleep. I have to wake up and scramble to finish. But that doesn't show me a faster writer. If anything   Michael Hingson ** 10:41 I remember, when I was in graduate school at UC Irvine, I had an office of my own, and I was in it one day, and I was looking at some material. Fortunately, I was able to get most of the physics texts in Braille, so I was studying one, and the next thing I knew, I woke up and my finger was on the page, and I had just fallen asleep, and my finger for reading braille, was right where I left off. Always thought that was funny,   Michael Bervell ** 11:14 yeah, just a just a quick, just a quick pause. You just pause for a second, even   Michael Hingson ** 11:18 though it was about 45 minutes, but whatever. But my figure didn't move.   Michael Bervell ** 11:24 You really focused, you know, just That's it. That's it.   Michael Hingson ** 11:27 The advantage of Braille, exactly. But, you know, I do think that it's great to have those kinds of habits, and I really wish more people would learn the value of giving back and sharing, because it will come back to benefit you so many times over.   Michael Bervell ** 11:48 Yeah, yeah. I mean, what's even what influences me, like now and even throughout, you know, post high school, like when I went into college, I knew I wanted to be in some sort of service and giving back type of industry, but I didn't really know what that was, right, like, I didn't want to do want to do philanthropy full time, because I found it difficult, right? Like, I found it hard to have to go back to investors, and I found it difficult to sometimes sell the vision. And my question was, is there a way to make this more sustainable? And so I spent a lot of my time in school and college just learning about social impact, which, at the time was just coming up, like a lot of those impact investment funds, impact bonds, the idea that you can tie finance to impact, and you can have carbon offsets that people buy and sell, that has some sort of social good, that you can somehow transact. All these kind of new and interesting ideas were coming around, and it started, it just got me interested, right? It's, you know, can I make a habit of creating an impact, but also habits somehow work within, you know, this capitalist system that the world operates in. It's something I've been wrestling with, you know, even in all my my future business and kind of current business, work and practices.   Michael Hingson ** 12:58 What do you do when you propose an idea or have a thought, and you discuss with people and they object to it. How do you handle objections?   Michael Bervell ** 13:05 Yeah, I mean, I think, I think for me, I'm always interested in the root cause, right? I think I'm one who tries to understand first before trying to persuade. So I could give you an example, I think very early in my, very early my college career, I realized that my parents would be able to pay for college for me. That was the youngest of three. And, you know, they'd use a lot of their savings on my siblings, about the who ended up going to med school, which is very expensive, yeah, college, which was also very expensive. And being immigrants from Ghana, of course, they hadn't saved up an infinite amount of money. So my mom sat me down and told me, Hey, you have to pay your own tuition. And so, you know, the person I had to convince to kind of help me here was actually funny enough, restaurants are in Harvard Square, and the reason why is I decided to make a business that did restaurant consulting. So I went door to door, and I would ask people and like, hey, you know, do you need 20 Harvard students to come and help you understand how you can get more foot traffic in the door. You know, sell more pizzas or sell more burritos. I think I heard 20 or 30 knows. And finally, one woman said, Well, you know, if, if, if, if you think that you can do it, then, you know, show me. Show me the numbers, right? And that was, that was really interesting. And so I think it realized, you know, when I when she initially said, No, I said, Well, why not? She said, I just don't know if you can do it. And when I said, Oh, we can actually show you the proof, she's like, Okay, well, then if you can run a pilot and show me the proof, then I'll do it. And so understanding the why, I think, is more important than getting the rejection and, you know, getting the setback. But that's try to, that's how I try to deal with it.   Michael Hingson ** 14:38 One of the things that I learned fairly early on, when I was put in a position of starting to sell for a living, actually, in Cambridge, working for Kurzweil Computer Products and taking a Dale Carnegie sales course was stay away from asking closed ended or. Yes, no questions. And so most of the time, I wouldn't say, you know, can we do this? Or would you do this? I would say, I'd like to hear your thoughts about or we've got this idea, tell me what you think, and doing other things to get people to talk. And when I started using that in my career, it was easy to get people to talk because they they want to talk. Or, as I like to say, people love to teach, and most of the time, if you establish a relationship with people and they know you're listening, they're welcome, or they're willing to give you wisdom. And so there are so many examples I have of asking open ended questions like that, or I went into a sales meeting with one of my employees, and there were a bunch of people there, and I said, Tell me to the first person I talked with, tell me why we're here. And it totally caught him off guard. Of course. The other thing is that they didn't realize that the sales manager who was coming, that the the guy who had set up the appointment was was told to bring his manager, and they didn't realize that the sales manager was blind, which also was a great addition to help. But again, I didn't ask, so you want to take backup system, but rather tell me why we're here. Tell me what you're looking for. Why are you looking for that? What do you want it to be? And I actually realized by the time I went around the room that our product wasn't going to work, but we still did the PowerPoint presentation. And then I said, if case you haven't figured it out, our system won't work, and here's why, but here's what will work. And that eventually led to a much larger order, as it turns out, because they called back later and they said, We got another project, and we're not even putting it out for bid. Just tell us what we pay you, and we'll order it. And it's it's all about. The objections are really mostly, I think, from people who maybe have some concerns that you didn't learn about because you didn't ask an open ended up or the right question, which is something that only comes with time.   Michael Bervell ** 17:15 Yeah. I mean, I think it also sounds very similar to like, what journalists are are trained to do, like a great journalist. And I took a journalism class a few years ago, maybe five years ago, with Joe Abramson, who was one of the first female executive, executive editors of the New York Times. And this was kind of her exact lesson. Is that everyone has some story to teach, some wisdom to share, and the difficulty, or really the challenge on you as an interlocutor, as a journalist, as someone whose job it is to uncover the story, is to ask the right questions, yeah, to allow that person the space to teach.   Michael Hingson ** 17:51 And if you and if you don't know the right questions, you ask something open ended, enough that maybe you'll get to it.   Michael Bervell ** 17:57 Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then the flip side, right, because there's, of course, you can't put all the burden on the person, no, right? You have to be an active listener. You have to listen to know, and then you have to prod and even say something like, Tell me more. Yeah, exactly right. Questions like, Tell me more, her second favorite question was, and then what happened? Yeah, right. Those are two such simple things, you know? And then what? Yeah. And it's just such an opening to really evolve and to grow.   Michael Hingson ** 18:23 And if they really think you're listening and that you want to know and understand, people will talk to you exactly which is, which is really what it's about. Well, so you did all of your so you went to high school in Seattle, correct? Yeah. And, and then what did you do?   Michael Bervell ** 18:43 Yeah. So High School in Seattle Graduated, went off to Boston for college, where, you know, of course, had to figure out a way to pay for school. And that was my first, I guess, for profit business. Was this restaurant consulting company. And of course, like I said, everything I want to do in my in my life, was focused on social impact. So the impacts there was that we only hired students to work for us who needed to pay tuition. There was this program called federal work study where, if you get trade, you have to, you know, work as part of a federal mandate for some amount of hours per week, and that was the book study requirement. And for the most part, students would do on campus jobs that would pay 10, $15 an hour to do this work study. Well, I'd spent up this consulting business as a sophomore that I then ran for all three years, and on an hourly basis, we were making significantly more than that, right? So I was able to go find students who traditionally had been working their whole life, right? Harvard has such a, you know, vast background of individuals. I knew, people who were homeless, people who were billionaires and everyone in between, who ended up coming to the school and so to find people who you know had been working 40 hours a week since they were in middle school, and give them a job where they could work less and actually have more free time to invest in their community or invest back into developing new skills, was, for me, super, super impactful. On the surface, it was a restaurant. A consulting business, but behind the scenes, what we were doing with our staffing and with our culture was was around that social impact. So I stayed out in in Cambridge for for four years, studied philosophy. I got a minor in computer science, and eventually went off to Microsoft back in in Seattle, where I eventually then, you know, was product manager and was a venture capital investor, and met a bunch of really phenomenal and interesting people who were pushing technology forward.   Michael Hingson ** 20:27 Now, why Harvard, which is all the way across the country?   Michael Bervell ** 20:33 Yeah, I mean, well, I think I love traveling. I loved, I loved, you know, being out and about, and I think growing up as the youngest of three, and also as the child of African immigrants, they'd always told me, you know, we moved here for you, like we moved 3000 miles away to a country where you don't speak the language, where you don't know anybody for you. And what they meant for that is, you know, we want you to really thrive. And even you know, now I'm at the age when my parents had first moved right to the US, and I can't imagine moving to a country where I don't know the language, don't know the people, and don't know a soul for my potential future children. And their children, that's what they did, and they invested a lot of time and energy and effort into me. And they always told me, you want you to be really successful. And so I remember when I was when I was in middle school, my sister got into Harvard, which was unheard of, right? No one in our high school had gone to Harvard in the past, especially not for, you know, a black family in a primarily white neighborhood, for one of us to go to Harvard was was a big deal. And so I knew that, you know, at the very least, for my parents, for my sister, for my family, I wanted to kind of match up to that   Michael Hingson ** 21:43 well, and it certainly sounds like you've, you've done a lot of that. Oh, here's a an off the wall question, having been around Cambridge and worked in Cambridge and all that is cheapo records still in Harvard Square.   Michael Bervell ** 21:57 Oh, man. You know what's so funny, I got a record player. I got a record player last semester, and I don't remember if cheaper records, that's the one that's like, I think I've is that the one that's in like, the actual, like, it's by, like, Kendall, take by Kendall, Kendall Square.   Michael Hingson ** 22:15 No, I thought it was in Harvard Square. Okay,   Michael Bervell ** 22:19 I think, I think it still exists. If I'm not mistaken, I think it still exists. I think I got a lot, got a lot of records from cheapo over the years record stores in Cambridge. And because I got a record player as a gift, I've been, I've been collecting a lot more,   Michael Hingson ** 22:31 ah, yeah, um, I've gotten a lot of records from cheapo and over the years. And of course, not so much now, since I'm out here. But next time I get back to mass, I'll have to go check,   Michael Bervell ** 22:43 oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah. We can do a cheapo records hanging how tactile It is, yeah, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 22:52 There used to be one in New York that I would go to. They were more expensive as New York tends to be colony records, and they're not there anymore, which is sort of sad, but cheapo. Cheap just seemed to be one of those places that people liked. I don't want to say it was like a cult, although it sort of is all the dedicated people to to real vinyl, but I hope it's still   Michael Bervell ** 23:16 there. Is it? It's a chain of record stores, or is it just,   Michael Hingson ** 23:18 no, I think it's a one. Oh, yeah. If there's more than one, I'm not aware of it, I'd   Michael Bervell ** 23:23 probably say I'm 80% certain it still exists. Well there,   Michael Hingson ** 23:27 yeah, so have to come back to mass. And yeah, I'll have to go to cheaper records and Legal Seafood.   Michael Bervell ** 23:32 Oh yeah, Legal Seafood. That was, yeah, I love Legal Seafood musical all the time with my roommates from college. And, yeah, we used to order the crab cakes and eat lobster rolls. It's a great time.   Michael Hingson ** 23:44 Yeah, and then their little chocolate desserts, which are great yeah, and the chowder. Oh, well, yeah, yep, gotta, gotta get back to mass. Okay. Now whoever   Michael Bervell ** 23:53 you're listening is probably getting hungry. Well, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 23:57 as as they should, you know, you know why they call it Legal Seafood. I actually don't know nothing is frozen. It's all fresh. It's legal. Oh, I love that. I love that, at least that's what I was told. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well, so you, you went to college and went then back to Seattle and worked for Microsoft and so on. So clearly, you're also interested in the whole idea of investing and the whole life of being an entrepreneur in various ways. And so you brought entrepreneurialism to everything that you did.   Michael Bervell ** 24:35 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, that was my first job at Microsoft. I was, you know, managing what's called Windows IoT. So we were putting software on everything that wasn't a phone or a laptop. So think, you know, smart screens in airports, or screens in Times Square, or, you know, the type of software that your Amazon Echo, you know, maybe not Amazon in particular. But what that would run on that was working on IoT all these. They called it headless devices, yeah, devices with no screens. And that was my team for a little bit. I worked there for about year and a half. It was phenomenal. You know, we were managing multiple billions of dollars in revenue, and there was only, you know, 4050 people on my team. So you do the math, we're all managing hundreds, 10s to hundreds of millions of dollars in our products. And while I loved it, I realized that my my true passion was in was in meeting people, talking to people, and giving them the resources to succeed, versus giving them the actual technology itself. I loved being able to connect an engineer, you know, with the right supplier to work on a hard problem that could then be built for Microsoft to eventually get to a customer. And that sort of connection role, connector role is kind of the role of a venture capitalist. Yeah, right. You're connecting your limited partners who have invested in this fund to entrepreneurs who are trying to build some sort of idea from the ground up. And, you know, once you invest in the entrepreneur, then connecting the entrepreneur to mentors, to advisors, to potential employees, to potential customers. And so there's this value in being someone who's a listener, a journalist, right, like we had been talking about someone who has a habit of trying to make a broader impact. And it kind of all aligned with what I had been building up until that point. So I worked at M 12, it's Microsoft's venture capital fund, and invested in in a bunch of companies from Kahoot, which is like an education startup, to obviously open AI was a Microsoft investment as well, to other things like that. And so it was cool, because, you know, the fund was, was really, we had the mandate of just find cool companies, and because we were Microsoft, we could reach out to any founder and have a conversation. So it was, it really was a few years of just intense and deep learning and thoughtfulness that I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade for anything. What got   Michael Hingson ** 26:58 you started in the whole arena of thinking about and then being involved with digital accessibility, because we've talked about that a lot. I know that's a passion. So how did you get started down that road?   Michael Bervell ** 27:11 Yeah, I mean, it came partially through working at Microsoft, right? I mean, as I was at Microsoft, Satya Nadella, who was the CEO, he was making big, big investments into digital accessibility, primarily because his son, now, his late son, had cerebral palsy, and a lot of the technology at Microsoft, his son couldn't use, and so he had this kind of mission and vision to want to make more accessible technologies. But my first exposure to it even before then, like I said, in college, I had to work all these, all these jobs to pay tuition, and I built my own business, but one of the clients we consulted for was a large search engine. I'm sure you can imagine which one it was, and it wasn't Microsoft, and that were search engine. I helped them devise their ability strategy.   Michael Hingson ** 27:56 You mean the G word, something like that? Yeah.   Michael Bervell ** 28:00 Yeah. Duck, duck, go, yeah. No, that's it. Yeah, exactly. And so it was really cool to work with them and to see like at scale, at 200,000 employee scale, at 1000 product scale, how do you create systems and guardrails such that accessibility, in this case, digital accessibility, will be something that that actually ends up happening. Ends up happening. And so that was my first exposure to it. And then again at Microsoft. And then finally, a third time, while I was in business school, you know, working on various projects with friends. And one friend told me, you know, all I did at work this week was have to fix accessibility bugs because my company got sued. And that was and just all those moments combined with the idea that I wanted to impact the deep empathy that comes through learning and knowing and understanding people's backgrounds and histories, all of it came to a head with what I now work on at test party.   Michael Hingson ** 28:57 So now, how long has test party been around? And we'll get to that up. But, but how long have you had that?   Michael Bervell ** 29:03 Yeah, we started. We started about a year ago. Okay, so it's pretty recent,   Michael Hingson ** 29:07 so yeah, definitely want to get to that. But, so the whole issue of accessibility, of course, is a is a thing that most people don't tend to know a lot about. So so let's start this way. Why should people worry about making products and places like websites accessible? And I know websites, in a lot of ways, are a lot easier than going off and making physical products accessible, especially if they're already out, because redesign is a very expensive thing to do, and is not something that a lot of people are going to do, whereas, when you're dealing with websites, it's all about coding, and it's a lot easier. Yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 29:48 yeah. I mean, I think, I think fundamentally, it comes down to, you know, a set of core beliefs. And I think we could all agree, and I think we would all believe that, like everyone has the right to. You a decent, fulfilling and enjoyable life. I think regardless of where you fall on, you know, belief spectrums or anything, that's something that we all fundamentally believe. You know, you should live well. You should try to live a good life. It's what people talked about in writing for years. And I think when you think of the good life in today's terms, in the 21st century, it's almost inseparable from a life that also engages with technology, whether it's cell phones or computers or whatever it might be, technology has become so fundamental into how we live that it now has also become part of how we live well and how we live a good life. And I'll give you a clear example, right? Let's suppose you really believe that voting is part of living the good life. There is a time, 100 years ago, you know, you didn't need to really have a car. You could get a rehearsing buggy. Maybe you could even walk to a voting station and cast your vote in today's world, especially, let's suppose a COVID world, and even a post COVID world, computers, technology, websites, are fundamental in living that good life, if that's your belief system. And you can play this game with any belief that you have, and once you extrapolate into what does it take for you to do that thing in the best way possible? It almost inevitably, inevitably, you know, engages with technology. Yeah, so why do I think having accessible websites are important? Well, it's because pretty much 195 people has a disability of some sort, and so to live the good life, they have to engage technology. And if that technology is not working for them for whatever reason, then that needs to be fixed. That needs to be changed. And of course, there's the guardrails of laws, you know, ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, EAA European Accessibility Act and others that try to mandate this. And of course, there's the goodwill of companies who try to do this proactively. I think Apple is a really good example, and Microsoft as well. But fundamentally, the question is, you know, what is a good life? How do you enable people to live that? And I think through technology, people should be able to live a better life, and should not have any barriers to access.   Michael Hingson ** 32:02 The thing is, though, take apple, for example. For the longest time, Apple wouldn't do anything about making their products accessible. Steve Jobs, jobs basically told people to pound sand when they said, iTunes, you wasn't even accessible, much less the iPod and the iPhone and the Mac. And it wasn't until two things happened that they changed really. One was target.com target had been sued because they wouldn't make their website accessible, and eventually too many things went against target in the courtroom, where they finally said, Okay, we'll settle and make this work. When they settled, it cost them $8 million to settle, whereas if they had just fixed it up front, the estimate is that it would have been about $40,000 in time and person hours, but because of where the lawsuit was filed and so on, it was $8 million to settle the case. And so that was one thing, and the other was it had been made very clear that Apple was the next company on the target list because they weren't doing anything to make their product successful. Well, Apple suddenly said, Okay, we'll take care of it. We will deal with it. And I think they had already started, but they and so as not to get sued, they said, We will do it. Well, probably the first thing that happened was the iPhone 3g well, maybe it wasn't the three, it was earlier, but the iPhone became accessible. The iPod became accessible. Pretty much all of them, iTunes, you the Mac. So by 2009 last when I got my iPhone 3g Apple was well known for making their products accessible, and they did it in a very clever way. It was accessible right from the outset. You didn't have to buy other stuff to make their products work. No need to buy a new screen reader or any of those kinds of things. So they spread the cost over every product that they sold, whoever bought it, so anyone who buys an iPhone can invoke accessibility today, which, which was cool, yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 34:09 yeah. And I think through Apple, I mean, I think the initial argument I made for why is it import to make websites accessible was an ethical argument, right? I think in Apple's case, they, they probably did the business case analysis and understood this actually does make economic sense. And I think what you see today is there is even more economic sense because of the expanding market size. Right? Think the aging population that will develop some sort of disability or impairment, right? That's really growing larger, right? Think about, you know, individuals who may have what people call temporary disabilities that are not permanent, but last for some period of time, whether it's, you know, nine months, 10 months, two years, three years, and those types of things. So I think there is, there's also a business case for it. I think that's what Apple as a case study has shown. What you bring up, though, is, does it matter? Does it really matter? Like, why companies start doing this, right? And I think that's a question, you know, to grapple with. You know, if Apple did it out of the goodness of their heart versus because they didn't want to get sued, but the downstream effects are the same, you know, does that matter? And, you know, question, Do the ends justify the means? In this case, the ends are good, at least just by the start, perhaps, but sure that interesting question so, but I do think that they have done really good work   Michael Hingson ** 35:27 well. And you and you brought up something which, you know we talked about, which is that you talked about one company that dealt with some of because they got sued. And litigation is all around us. Unfortunately, we're a very litigious society and in our world today. So so like with accessibe, that that I work with, and work for that company, and a lot of what I do, some people have said, well, accessibe shouldn't always use the idea that, well, if you don't make your website accessible, you're going to get sued. That's a bad marketing decision, and I think there are limits, but the reality is that there are lawyers who are out there who still haven't been muzzled yet, who will file 5060, 100 complaints just to and they get a blind person to sign off and say, Yeah, we support this, because they'll get paid something for it. But they're not looking to make the companies deal with accessibility. They just want to earn money, 10,015 $20,000 per company. But the reality is, part of the market is educating people that litigation is a possibility because of the fact that the internet is a place of business under the Americans with Disabilities Act.   Michael Bervell ** 36:54 Yeah, exactly. I think when you think of like, you know, what is the purpose of litigation? Again, I, as a philosophy guy, I always think back to first principles, and it really is a deterrent, right? Obviously, no one wants to get sued. And, of course, no one wants to pay damages, punitive or reparative. And so in this case, these are all examples of punitive damages that people are paying for not having done the right thing. Right? In in, in the best case, you do the right thing to begin with. But I think it's, you know, the consequence of not doing the right thing. I think, of course, there's the question of you described, kind of these lawyers, or what people call as kind of the trolls who are just kind of suing and, you know, reaping the benefits from this. And I think it's an unfortunate side effect. I do wish that there was a world where these trolls wouldn't even need to exist, because things are working perfectly, right, well,   Michael Hingson ** 37:45 and the reality is that it goes back far earlier than the internet. I mean, there are places, there are people who would drive around and make people in wheelchairs who might find the smallest by violation wasn't even necessarily a legitimate violation, and they would sue and so and so. It isn't anything new that is just with the internet. Yeah, it's been going on for years. Yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 38:11 those are the drive by lawsuits. I remember I heard about those, and I think it's, this is the digital equivalent of that,   Michael Hingson ** 38:16 right? Yeah, right. And it is an issue, and it is something that that needs to be dealt with, but you also talk about doing the right thing, and that's really the better reason for doing it. If you do, you really want to exclude up to 20% of your potential business by not making your website accessible. Or better yet, if you make your website inclusive for all, what is going to happen when somebody comes to your website looking for a product and then they buy it because they were able to are they going to come back to that website? Are they going to go looking elsewhere? And there are so many studies like Nielsen did studies, and others have done studies that show absolutely people appreciate brand loyalty, and when they feel that they're they're valued and included, they're going to stick with that company.   Michael Bervell ** 39:12 Yeah? But even with that said, right, there's so this conflict of we all logically know it's the right thing to do, there's business purpose for doing it, and yet people don't do it. Yeah, 97% of the internet is still not accessible, if you look at this correct right? And so our hypothesis release, what we take, and what I take as a business is that sometimes, if it's too hard to do the right thing, people won't do the right thing, but that's what they want to do. And so how do you make it easier to do the right thing? And that's hopefully what, what we're what we're hoping to change in the industry, is just making it easier and also letting people know that this is an issue. One   Michael Hingson ** 39:48 of the one of the criticisms, oh, go ahead. Go ahead. A lot of people   Michael Bervell ** 39:52 don't, don't do the right thing, because just don't know that there is a right thing to do. You know   Michael Hingson ** 39:56 right well. And one of the criticisms I've heard over the. Years, especially dealing with the products like accessibe is, well, the problem is, you just slap this AI thing on their site, you're not teaching them anything, and that's not a good thing. And with manual coders, they're going to teach people. Well, that's not true either, but, but this whole argument of, well, you just put it on there, and then you go away, which isn't true, but again, that's one of the criticisms that I've heard any number of times, and that you're not really educating people about accessibility. You're not really educating them much about it. And the answer is, look, the company that wants to do business came to you in the first place. So they obviously knew they had to do something.   Michael Bervell ** 40:44 Yeah, yeah. And I think when I think through it, it's like, how do you make sure that the downstream effects of whatever you do is just positive and beneficial, right? And the ideal, as we all agree, I think, would be just to build it right the first time. Whether it's physical buildings, build a building right the first time. Or, if it's websites, build the website correctly the first time. Whatever helps people to get to that stage and that level of thinking and habits I think are, are ideal   Michael Hingson ** 41:13 coming from your background and so on. You know now that there are two basic ways that people can work to make websites accessible. One is the traditional way where you have someone who goes in and codes in the access and puts it right on the website. And now, over the past several years, the other way that has come into existence is the whole concept of using as accessibe does AI and although AI won't necessarily do everything that needs to be done, it will do most of what needs to be done, and maybe everything, depending on how complex the website is. But what do you think about the whole fact that now AI has entered into the accessibility world and people are using it?   Michael Bervell ** 42:02 Yeah, I think AI is interesting. And I think AI is a tool. I think it's it's a tool that's been developed, obviously, over a long history, right? Like the first artificial intelligent computers were in the 60s and 70s, being able to predict things, and of course, you heard of AlphaGo and computers that could pay chess and all these different things. So I think we'll definitely be surprised by what AI can do as a tool, right? And the question is, it will be, you know, the panacea, the thing to cure it all. Well, we all love for that to be the case. Who knows? You know, if it'll be AI, maybe functionally, AI could do that. But in terms of compute power, you know, it won't be able to until we have quantum computing or something right, in which case maybe it'll leapfrog this whole type of technology, and maybe web page will be obsolete in a decade, and then this whole idea of even needing to use AI to fix web pages will be replaced something else, like, like Be My Eyes, or something like that. That's even more advanced. But I think, as I see it, it's a tool that can be used to make it easier. And whether it's ease of use in terms of physical effort, ease of cost, in terms of bringing down costs to you know, to make a website compliant or a digital asset compliant, or just ease of understanding, right? Someone can explain to you what these really complicated rules mean, and so you can actually think about it from day one. So I think AI as a tool can lead to ease, which can then furthermore lead to hopefully more accessible products.   Michael Hingson ** 43:30 Well, the first time I ran into real AI was working with Ray Kurzweil back in the late 70s. He developed a machine that would read print out loud to blind people. But one of the things that was unique about them, well, vinyl, whether it's totally unique, but certainly was unique for blind people and for most of us, was the fact that the more the machine read, the better the reading got. It actually learned, and it learned how to to understand and analyze its confidence. And so it would get better the more that it read. Chris. The only problem with that is, back in those days, the software was on a cassette that went into a player that was part of a Data General, Nova two. And so it had to learn all over again every time you rebooted the machine and loaded the program. But that's okay. It learned based on on what you were reading, but it really dramatically got better the more you read. And I think that today, the reality is that a lot of people really need to. And I would say this is true of manual coders. And I know a few who have adopted this, they'll use accessibe to do what it can do, and then they, in turn, then go and address the issues that access a B's widget doesn't do. And for me, my. My learning that lesson actually goes back to the mid 1980s when I couldn't get a job, and I started my own company selling computer aided design systems to architects. And a lot of architects would come in and say, well, we can't buy your system. Yeah, great. It works, but if we use it, we'll develop our drawings in a fraction of the time, and we can't charge what we did, because now we're not spending as much time, and I said you're missing the whole point. You change your model. You're not charging for your time. You're charging for your expertise. You don't need to charge less. And what you do is then you go off and you get more projects, but you can also do more for each individual customer that you bring in. We had access to a system that was a one of the early PC based three dimensional solid metal modeling CAD systems, so people could come into our office, or anybody who bought the product could could invite their customers in, and they could do actual walk throughs and fly throughs of buildings. They had light sources or Windows to look out. You could even see what was going on outside. It wasn't renderings. You actually saw everything right on the computer. Those are so many things that revolutionize the industry. Now, of course, CAD is everywhere as it should be, and the reality is that that I think that any manual programmer who is programming a website could use accessibe to do a lot of the work, and then an accessibe also has some tools using a product called Access flow, where they can analyze and even tell you exactly what you need to do with the things that aren't accessible, and then you can do it, but you can use accessibe to do most of the stuff, and it continuously monitors it's a scalability issue, and you don't get any scalability with manual coding at all. So again, it's the whole, as you point out, the whole tool of artificial intelligence really can make a big difference in what we're doing to create accessibility on in the internet and in so many other ways as we go forward.   Michael Bervell ** 47:06 Yeah, and already we're running right up on time with a minute or two left. But I think even fundamentally, what you're what you're describing, back to first principles is, is, if we make it easier, either in time or in effort or in understanding, to make things accessible. Will people do it right? Whether you're using, you know, an access to be or whether you're using another tool, there's this question, How will it help? And will it help? And I think in evaluating any tool, and really I can apply in so many cases, that's the core question task.   Michael Hingson ** 47:37 Since we started late, it's up to you, but time wise, we're fine. It's up to you, but I realize that we want to end fairly soon here, but I think you're right, and that gets back to the whole education issue. People really need to learn and understand the value of accessibility, why it's a good thing, and it's kind of hard to argue with losing 20% of your business because your website's not accessible. And accessible, and the reputation that you gain by not doing it can go beyond that 20% when people tell their own friends about the issues they're facing. Yeah, exactly, exactly. But it goes the other way. You make it accessible, and you get all sorts of accolades. That's going to help too. But it is a conversation that we need to have, and it's part of the whole big conversation about disabilities. In general, we don't really see disabilities as much in the conversation. When we hear about people talking and discussing diversity, they talk about race, gender, sexual orientation, so on, but they don't talk about disabilities, and disabilities tend to be left out of the conversation for the most part, which is extremely unfortunate. Why do you think that is?   Michael Bervell ** 48:46 Yeah, I think, I think it comes down to, I'm not, I'm not sure why it is. I'm not sure. But I think even though I'm not sure why it is, I do know what I hope. And I think what I hope is for, you know, a world where every, every part of society reflects what it's made up of, right? So you look and it's representative of of all the constituents, people with disabilities, people of different genders and races and and so on and so forth, so, so I think that's what I hope for. I think it's difficult, right? It's difficult based on the systems that have been made people's biases and more to get there, but I do think, I do think that's ultimately the hope. But I   Michael Hingson ** 49:30 think that a lot of it comes down to fear people. Fear people with disabilities. I think that the whole fear factor, and even with race or gender or sexual orientation, so on, some of the comments, if you listen to them, all they're doing is promoting fear which which doesn't help at all. But in the case of disabilities, oh my gosh, I could become blind or paralyzed in a second, and that fear is something that we really don't tend to you. Do nearly as much about as we should. Now I know you and I earlier talked about fear, and the reality is that that we can learn to control fear. I would never tell people don't be afraid. No such thing as not being afraid, but you can certainly learn to control fear so that you can use it again as a very powerful tool to guide you and help you, and that's what the best aspects of fear are all about. I think, yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 50:26 I totally agree. I totally agree. Well, speaking of fear, I would be afraid of what might go I'm a president for Section G, which is one of the sections here, HBS, and we have to go select our Class Day speaker. So I'd be afraid if I, if I missed too much of the well, if they,   Michael Hingson ** 50:43 if they want to hire a speaker, I'm just saying I know Mike was, I was like, Man, I wish I had met you, like, back when you're doing our, our, like alumni and friend speakers. On the other hand, we can certainly talk about next year, and I would love to do that. Well, I want to really thank you for being here. I think we'll just have to have another discussion about all of this in the future. But I really appreciate you being here a lot and chatting very, very frequently, and you're going to go off and play drums later too, right? Oh, yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 51:11 it's a busy I'm in my, you know, Shirley retirement era, you know, yeah, right. Go back into, back into the workforce.   Michael Hingson ** 51:19 So, real quick, though, you wrote a book. What's it called?   Michael Bervell ** 51:23 It's called unlocking unicorns. I'll send you a copy of the book, and so you can put in the show notes and everything else. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 51:29 that would be great. And if people want to reach out to you, how do they do that? Yeah,   Michael Bervell ** 51:34 but just my name, Michael purvell, M, I, C, H, A, E, L, B, E, R, V, E, L, l.com, contact my website. Is there? My bio, and this podcast will be there eventually   Michael Hingson ** 51:46 as well it will, and you'll get all the info. Well, thanks very much, and I want to thank you all for listening. Really appreciate you listening to us today. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Please email me at Michael, h, i, m, I, C, H, A, E, L, C, we spell our names the same. H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I b, e.com, or go to our podcast page, www dot Michael hingson, H, I N, G, s, o, n.com/podcast, and would love to to hear your thoughts. Love it. If you would give us a five star review wherever you're listening. If you know anyone else who ought to be a guest, please introduce us. We're always looking for it. And I would also say if anybody needs a speaker, it is what I've been doing ever since September 11, and I'm always looking for speaking opportunities. So please reach out and let's see if we can chat and and one of these days, maybe we'll get Michael to bring us up to Harvard we can go visit the coupe. But thanks so much for listening, everyone. Thanks once more for thanks. Once more Michael, for being here. Thanks.   Michael Hingson ** 52:52 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Today's episode comes from the Your Next Move vault and is a conversation between host Bea Dixon and Henri Pierre-Jacques, the managing partner of Harlem Capital. In their conversation, they discuss what Henri looks for in companies he wants to invest in, his commitment to bolstering diverse founders, and his wish to inspire founders to create companies.

Carta is trusted by more than 40,000 companies and over two million people in nearly 160 countries to manage cap tables, compensation, and valuations. Carta also supports nearly 7,000 funds and SPVs, and represents nearly $130B in assets under administration. Today, Carta's platform manages nearly three trillion dollars in equity globally. Companies and funds like Flexport, Tribe, and Harlem Capital build their businesses on Carta. Connect with Peter

This week, Alex is joined by Gabby Cazeau (Partner at Harlem Capital) and Emily Man (Partner at Primary Ventures) to workshop some theories about the future of fintech.  With open banking rules for the U.S. being finalized this year, it's clear that cashflow underwriting is about to have its time in the sun — do we have the necessary infrastructure in place to fully capitalize on it? Then, Alex, Gabby, and Emily dive into the increasing concerns surrounding fraud and identity due to the rise of AI. Is there a better way to develop solutions other than playing a game of Whack-a-Mole each time problems pop up? The crew noodles on some potential solutions worth considering. Plus, what role can LLMs play in helping to increase automation in accounting? And what the heck are shadow banks? Learn why these institutions are responsible for managing risks that regular banks don't want to take on, and what it may mean for the way we think about underwriting and portfolio management solutions.     1:47 Workshopping Fintech Theses 2:53 Open Banking  15:28 Fraud Solutions 28:14 Accounting and Tax Automation 36:44 Shadow Banking Sign up for Alex's Fintech Takes newsletter for the latest insightful analysis on fintech trends, along with a heaping pile of pop culture references and copious footnotes. Every Monday and Thursday: https://workweek.com/brand/fintech-takes/   And for more exclusive insider content, don't forget to check out my YouTube page.   Follow Gabby:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellecazeau/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gabbycazeau?s=21&t=1x8HDmFw3LAfIx3yYgYFDQ   Follow Emily: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-man-02a1a486/   Follow Alex:  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgfH47QEwbQmkQlz1V9rQA/videos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexhjohnson Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/AlexH_Johnson

In this episode, Gabby Cazeau, partner at Harlem Capital, shares her professional journey from starting as an engineer to becoming a venture capitalist. She discusses the importance of changing the face of entrepreneurship by investing in diverse founders and the valuable lessons she's learned throughout her career from different people and market trends. Additionally, she offers insights on how AI is disrupting traditional business models and the current venture capital landscape. Gabby also provides advice for young people looking to break into the venture capital field, and much more!Timestamps00:03 Introduction and Background00:34 Gabby's Journey into Venture Capital03:00 The Role of Engineering and Product Mindset in Venture Capital04:16 Lessons Learned from Investing with Harlem Capital05:58 How Harlem Capital Adds Value to Founders07:43 Advice for Founders in Difficult Times10:02 Understanding Market Sizing and Timing Risk11:56 Reflecting on Investment Hits and Misses18:44 The Impact of AI on Business Models21:47 Advice for Aspiring Venture CapitalistsGabby's LinksHarlem Capital - https://harlem.capital/Email - gabby@harlem.capitalTwitter – https://twitter.com/gabbycazeauLinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellecazeau/My Links Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes YouTube: youtube.com/lifeselfmastery Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal

My guest today is Gerald Kierce Iturrioz who founded Trustible with his Co-founder & CTO Andrew Gamin-Cheong. The company is an AI governance management platform that enables data science and compliance teams to manage and mitigate AI risk, build trust, comply with AI regulations and accelerate Responsible AI development. The company has raised over $1.8m from Harlem Capital, Vamos Ventures and angel investors. You can find Gerald on: (3) Gerald Kierce Iturrioz | LinkedInYou can find Trustible on: Trustible | Responsible AI GovernanceIf you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

EPISODE #7 - This Week in Pre-IPO Stocks Podcast - Feb 17, 2023 | Fusco, Sorenson, DillonDon Nitti took the week off. He'll be back with us next week.01:00 | Bytedance is the largest pre-IPO stock by valuation globally.- Bytedance is the parent company of TikTok and several other products (mostly in China).- $61.7b in 2022 revenue.- 2.0 billion users globally.- Bytedance is up 20.5% since last primary round in Dec 2020, $180b valuation.- Current valuation of $216b based on secondary market trading and last primary financing round09:08 | Reddit is rumored to IPO in second half of 2023.- Reddit continues to keep their IPO paperwork updated at the SEC, a clue that they aim to IPO once market conditions improve.- $290m in 2021 revenue, net income numbers are not available but Reddit is reported to be “far from profitable”.- Down 32% in secondary market trading since last primary financing round in Aug 2021. $6.8b current valuation. $6.6b valuation from Fidelity in a recent SEC filing. $10b valuation at its last primary financing round in Aug 2021.14:42 | Venture is getting more conservative. How will this impact large pre-IPO stocks?- Harlem Capital spoke with 40+ active companies, 20+ VCs- Valuations: Seed: $15-30M post to $10-20M post, Series A: $50-100M+ post to $30-50M post- Diligence processes: Seed: 1-2 months to 2-4 months, Series A: 2-3 months to 3-6 months- Higher bar at all stages: Pre-revenue at Seed: raising $1-2M Pre-Seed rounds, Series A: $1.5-2.5M ARR with strong unit economics32:48 | Favorite AI use case for the week and other interesting emerging tech (Neuralink [computer chips in brains], blockchain, metaverse, self-driving cars, humanoid robots)Subscribe to the podcast...Youtube = https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSpr_9yjBA7dhqnQexSu7LAApple Podcasts = https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-pre-ipo-stocks/id1653598601Spotify Podcasts = https://open.spotify.com/show/2ryF1V6y712AsizaRjImOHParticipant bios...- Nick Fusco, ApeVue - CEO = www.linkedin.com/in/nickfusco- Clint Sorenson, WealthShield - CIO = www.linkedin.com/in/csorensoncfacmt- Aaron Dillon, AG Dillon & Co - Managing Director = www.linkedin.com/in/aarondillonnyc

Inspirational stories plus practical takeaways from the entrepreneurship world.Today we welcome Henri Pierre-Jacques, the founder of Harlem Capital.After losing money in the stock market, Henri managed to take his own savings of $10k and transform it into the empire that is Harlem Capital.Harlem Capital is now managing $175m across two funds and sealing 3000 investor deals per year.Harlem capital focuses not just on securing huge returns, but doing so in a way that promotes diversity and equality in entrepreneurship. Listen in to find out why investing in diversity is not only a moral choice, but a smart choice too.We hope you enjoy the episode and don't forget to share it with others.Our Website:http//www.entrepreneurshandbook.co.Henri's Twitter:https://twitter.com/hpierrejacquesHarlem Capital's Website:https://harlem.capital/Keynotes:Introduction (0:00)The beginning and starting with friends (00:56)Pulling people and bringing them into the community (5:38)Advice and red flags (7:40)From angel to venture (11:32)Raising the first fund (14:23)Talking about diversity, bias, and confidence(18:06)The first founders (30:19)Growing the brand (34:04)Common mistakes (39:44)

Prominent global venture capital funds already have startups from Latin America on their radar, and founders should be prepared to attract these VCs. I know that first-hand, with Andreessen Horowitz being one of Latitud's investors.To become closer to global firms, it's essential to understand their decision-making process. That's why we invited Gabby Cazeau, from Harlem Capital; Gabriel Vasquez, from a16z; and Matias Van Thienen, from Founders Fund, to talk about their investment strategies.We'll share right now the chat these VCs had with Fernanda Caloi, director of Special Projects at Latitud. During the Vamos Latam Summit, our connections and knowledge flagship event, they talked about:The one piece of their personalities that allows these VCs to be great startup investors, and how to invest globally and specifically in Latin America;What factor makes these VCs pay more attention to a startup, and what are some examples of outlier founders in their portfolios;How the current market environment impacts their investment strategy, and what they expect from the Latin American startup ecosystem in the next decade.

Michael Bervell is a Ghanaian-American angel-investor, entrepreneur, and author. His debut book “Unlocking Unicorns” was an Amazon best-selling new release that investigates the founders, philosophies, and strategies for building a unicorn company in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In 2007, Bervell co-founded “Hugs for” an international, student-run non-profit organization focused on using grassroots strategies to develop countries around the world. To date, "Hugs for" has fundraised over $500,000 of material and monetary donations and impacted over 300,000 youths around the world. Because of his work, Bervell was awarded the National Caring Award in 2015. Bervell is the youngest President of the Harvard Club of Seattle and a former board member of the Harvard Alumni Association (which he joined when he was 19). He also helped start Sigma Squared in the US (formerly the Kairos Society). He has experience working as a Venture Fellow at Harlem Capital, a Portfolio manager at Microsoft's Venture Fund, a Program Manager at Microsoft, and as a Software Engineer at Twitter, and has helped to found and lead a variety of organizations including the Enchiridion Corporation, a marketing consulting company, and Billion Dollar Startup Ideas, a media and innovation company. Read the show notes here: https://arcbound.com/podcasts/  Links: Homepage: Arcbound.com Services/Work with Us: https://arcbound.com/work-with-us/ About: https://arcbound.com/about/ Founders Corner: https://arcbound.com/category/founders-corner/ Connect: https://arcbound.com/connect/

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: This podcast episode is sponsored by Privacy Lock. Privacy Lock sets the standard for financial service providers in data privacy compliance. Protect your business and your customers today. Visit www.pentaprivacylock.com NEWS HIGHLIGHT New marketing rules are set to be introduced by the UK's financial regulator to reduce the number of consumers making “high-risk investments” that are not in line with their risk tolerance. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) yesterday set out rules that will impact the peer-to-peer lending and equity crowdfunding sectors, including clearer risk warnings and banning some incentives to invest, like refer a friend bonuses. Link here. FINTECH NEWS #donedeal Tabby secured debt financing worth $150 million from two US-based investors, in what the company said is the largest credit facility for a fintech firm in the Gulf region. While concerns over inflation and a looming recession have hurt such companies in developed markets, Dubai-based buy now, pay later startup Tabby expects demand to continue rising in the Gulf where access to credit is scarce. Link here. Raincoat raises US$4.5 Million in a seed round led by Anthemis. With the new round, the company will have around US$4,650 in funding.Raincoat is a Puerto Rico-based startup that provides insurance solutions for weather-related disasters. Link here. Cred finalises acquisition of smallcase for $400m. Cred is an Indian FinTech unicorn based in Bengaluru that provides a member only credit card management and bill payments platform. Link here. Savana has closed a $45 million Series A round led by Canadian growth-stage investor Georgian. US banking tech heavyweight Fiserv also participated in the round and intends to expand its existing reseller agreement with Savana. Link here. Kenyan insurtech Lami raises $3.7M seed extension led by Harlem Capital. Speaking to Techcrunch, Lami's founder and CEO Jihan Abass further announced plans to offer additional insurance product lines, while also revealing that the startup has made an entry into Egypt and Nigeria. Link here.

Nicole DeTommaso is a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital where she focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence, and leading Harlem Capital's data & insights reporting. In addition, she is currently focused on building out partnerships with university/student VC programs. Nicole is also passionate about demystifying the VC industry for those looking to break in and founders looking for funding (check out how she's doing this on her twitter page). https://twitter.com/nic_detommaso *** FREE RESOURCES

Henri is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, a venture capital firm changing the face of entrepreneurship. He has led 22 investments and sat on 7 company boards. Henri currently sits on the Amazon Black Business Accelerator Board and formerly sat on the Management Leadership for Tomorrow NYC Board.

Episode 74 is with Nicole DeTommaso, Senior Associate at Harlem Capital! As a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital, Nicole focuses on deal sourcing, due diligence, and platform development. Prior to Harlem Capital, Nicole worked at RBC Capital Markets within the Investment Banking division, focused primarily on Mergers & Acquisitions and Initial Public Offerings within the technology and digital media sectors. Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. They invest post product, or what they call 'Early Seed', with a commitment to reserving specific capital for investments in minority and women founders. We talk to Nicole about her journey into Venture Capital. She details the day in the life of a senior associate at Harlem Capital, the criteria and due diligence for investing into good companies, the future of the internet, how VC's are preparing for future economic downturns, and much more. If you're looking to get into the VC space, this conversation is a great start! Harlem Capital https://harlem.capital/ Timestamps 2:07 - Intro to Nicole 4:49 - Lived Experience of Being a Minority in VC 8:45 - Importance of Mentorship along the way 10:53 - Working in Toronto 12:48 - Transitioning into Venture Capital 15:54 - Using Twitter to get into VC 18:03 - Nicole's Pitch Deck when applying to Harlem Capital 24:15 - Working at Harlem Capital 27:10 - Why Web 3.0 is important 33:08 - A Day in the life of a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital 37:20 - How VC's are Preparing for a Recession 44:18 - The Lack of Diversity in VC 51:12 - Advice for Maintaining Mental Health 54:23 - Lightning Round

“There is a common misconception that seed valuations are going to be related to traction, but this is not the case,” Brendan says on this episode of Billion Dollar Tech. It actually has more to do with the market in which you're operating. Here, he walks us through an article written by Henri Pierre-Jacques, a managing partner at Harlem Capital, which breaks down the math of seed stage valuation.  According to the article, the most important metric is how much is being raised in the seed round. The round size varies according to three factors: who the primary investor is in your business, founder experience, and market and industry. Brendan expounds on these factors and other major points within the article.  Tune into this episode of Billion Dollar Tech to find out why previous experience matters, what the hot markets are, and a quick overview of how venture capital actually works.  Quotes: “Price is baked into the consensus of everything that we buy.” (1:21-1:26 | Brendan) “Majority of most seed rounds are 2 to 6 million.” (5:07-5:10- Brendan)  “If you are an early stage founder, this is what determines your valuation.” (8:27-8:31 | Brendan) Connect with Brendan Dell: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell Instagram: @thebrendandellTikTok: @brendandell39 Buy a copy of Brendan's Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926    Link to Henri post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6932740171637415936/ Please don't forget to rate, comment, and subscribe to Billion Dollar Tech on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! Use code Brendan30 for 30% off your annual membership with RiverSide.fm  Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Henri Pierre-Jacques is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. From a kitchen table with his Co-Founder, Jarrid, Henri has scaled Harlem in just a few years to their latest fund last year of $134M, well over-subscribed from their $100M target. Prior to Harlem, Henri was in Private Equity at ICV Partners, and before PE was an Investment Banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In Today's Episode with Henri Pierre-Jacques 1.) From Kitchen Table to $134M Fund: How did Henri make his way into venture having had the idea for Harlem at the kitchen table with his best friend? How did Henri use his angel investing strategically to position him to raise Fund I? How did Henri's mindset change when making the transition from angel to VC? 2.) The First Fundraise: Harlem I How long did it take to raise the first fund? How many meetings did they have? What were the most common reasons LPs said no for the first fund? What were their biggest lessons around what potential LPs did and did not like? How does Henri advise new managers when it comes to meeting new LPs? How does Henri use past deal memos to serve as discussion material with LPs? 3.) Building the Firm: The Strategy: What was the portfolio construction for the first fund? How does Henri separate the world of funds into 3 distinct groups? How did they approach reserves management with the first funds? What are some of Henri's biggest lessons when it comes to effective reserves management? How does Henri assess his own relationship to price and ownership? How does that change with fund size? What are some very important nuances that Henri does not believe many managers think about? 4.) It Is Time For Change: Specifically, what are Harlem street doing to ensure the next generation of investors is much more diverse? How do they leverage their intern program to achieve this? What would Henri like to see change in the world of LPs when it comes to allocating to more diverse managers? What legacy does Henri want to leave with Harlem? What will be a success for Henri? Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Henri Pierre-Jacques: Henri's Most Recent Investment: Mueshi

Jarrid Tingle was raised by a single mother and grew up on welfare, living in his grandparents attic for the first 8 years of his life. Through extremely hard work and good fortune, Jarrid was able to go to private schools in far more affluent neighborhoods than his own and eventually went to ivy league colleges and business schools as well. Jarrid committed himself to bettering low-income communities through starting his Black-Owned VC firm, Harlem Capital. To read Jarrid's Twitter thread all about his life story: https://twitter.com/jarridvtingle/status/1493996450887393281 Read about Harlem Capital: https://harlem.capital/ For more info on our presenting sponsor, check out https://www.sakara.com/imposters. Full transcripts for all Imposters episodes available at https://imposters.morningbrew.com

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a new episode from our Harlem Capital Limited Partner Series — connecting with Harlem Capital LPs to share insights on navigating the VC fundraising journey. In today's episode, we speak with Josh Kopelman, co-founder and Partner at First Round Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. Prior to creating First Round, Josh has been an active entrepreneur and investor in the Internet industry since its commercialization — founding 3 companies all with successful acquisitions or IPOs. Josh not only serves as an LP for Harlem Capital, but also as a mentor – using his experience as a fellow GP to provide insight and clarity on the journey to building a successful fund. Tune in as Henri and Josh discuss the logistics of being a General Partner — from the mechanics of evolving your fund strategy to managing ownership and evaluating liquidity opportunities.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a new episode from our Harlem Capital Limited Partner Series — connecting with Harlem Capital LPs to share insights on navigating the VC fundraising journey. In today's episode, we speak with David Gilmore, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, one of the largest private charitable foundations in the United States, with $3.2 billion in assets and giving $130 million in grants each year. David shares with listeners how institutions think through asset allocation and manager selection, based on his current role and prior experience at the Ohio State University investment office. Tune in as Henri and David discuss everything from the risks the foundation saw in Harlem Capital before deciding to invest to how emerging managers can best convey their firm vision to institutional LPs.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a new episode from our Harlem Capital Limited Partner Series — connecting with Harlem Capital LPs to share insights on navigating the VC fundraising journey. In today's episode, we continue along Harlem Capital's fundraising journey and speak with Josh Evans, Head of Corporate Development at TPG. TPG served as Harlem Capital's first anchor investor, changing the future of the fund forever. Tune in as our hosts, Managing Partners Henri Pierre-Jacques and Jarrid Tingle reflect with Josh on when they met, what led them to working together, and the role of an anchor investor.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a new episode from our Harlem Capital Limited Partner Series — connecting with Harlem Capital LPs to share insights on navigating the VC fundraising journey. In this episode, we're joined by Harlem Capital's very first LP, Willie Woods — President & Co-Founder of ICV Partners, a black-owned private equity firm with $1.4 billion in AUM. Prior to co-founding ICV, Willie was a Vice President in investment banking at Deutsche Bank, and also worked for Levmark Capital, Lehman Brothers, and NBD Bank. Tune in as our hosts, Managing Partners Henri Pierre-Jacques and Jarrid Tingle reflect with their former boss on the journey to starting a fund and the challenges along the way.

In this episode of Partners in Time, entrepreneur Brandon Bryant joins our host, Paul Ripke. After graduating from Ohio State University in economics Bryant worked in investment banking for the Bank of America for three years. He quit with a mission in mind: to make entrepreneurship more diverse. Together with friends and colleagues he acquired capital and founded Harlem Capital Partners to invest mainly in start-ups founded by women or people of color. Make sure to listen to this episode if you want to learn more about how they discover new companies to invest in, his feelings when he was featured on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and what his worst investment ever was. Don't forget to check us out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwcjournal/ https://www.instagram.com/iwcwatches/ #PartersInTime #IWCONAIR @IWCWatches @ChrisGraingerHerr

Today, I have a special episode with John Henry who is a serial entrepreneur, investor, TV host, vlogger, public speaker, and podcast host. At just 28 years old, he has already amassed a lifetime of accomplishments. He is also Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who built and sold a million-dollar business at 21, he went on to create Harlem's first nonprofit business incubator by 24, and then co-founded a venture capital firm called Harlem Capital that raised over $40 million for minority-owned small businesses. Here is a snippet about being rooted in your truth, secrets to success, and much more. FOR THE FULL EPISODE CHECK OUT 121! FOR BLACK HISTORY MONTH WE ARE DROPPING EPISODES EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY UNTIL FEB 28TH!! FOLLOW JOHN HENRY: WEBSITE: Loop - Fair and Transparent Car Insurance (loopinsure.co) INSTAGRAM: John Henry (@johnhenrystyle) • Instagram photos and videos FOLLOW D'ANDRE HERE: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dandre_evans/ LEARN HOW TO START YOUR OWN PODCAST: https://www.levelupdaily.com/links NEED A WEBSITE? GET STARTED WITH US TODAY: www.levelupdaily.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/levelupdaily/message

An interview with Harlem Capital's Brandon Bryant.

In today's special episode, Managing Partner Henri Pierre-Jacques and Chief of Staff & Investor Tonna Obaze talk about Harlem Capital's growing global footprint as we announce our first deals in Africa and Latin America. Henri & Tonna led Harlem Capital to invest in Pariti — a community marketplace supporting emerging market founders with resources & capital — as well as Turbodega — a software solution offering POS and inventory management support to bodegas in Latin America. Tune in to hear Henri & Tonna reflect on the diligence process, discuss the nuances of investing in emerging markets, and share a vision for the future of Harlem Capital's mission internationally.

Join us as we navigate life, dreaming, and reaching the impossible with our guest, Brandon Bryant, Co-founder at Harlem Capital. He is a content creator who tells stories about business + culture through an entrepreneur lens and co-founder of Harlem Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on investing in companies started by people of color + women with the purpose of changing the face of entrepreneurship. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/theonlydreambigpod/message

Gabby Cazeau, Principal at Harlem Capital, joins the show with Scott Kitun.  Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm with a core mission to invest in a  thousand diverse founders (including Chicago's very own CASHDROP) over 20 years and  change the faces of entrepreneurship. Gabby shares her journey from intern to Principal at Harlem Capital and how she's been supported to follow her interests finding solutions to inequalities and strengthening communities. Scott and Gabby dig into the state of venture capital today, helping founders pass by bad investors, and creating a broader understanding for what a diverse tech ecosystem looks like. Gabby is currently interested in companies dealing in ecommerce, fintech and software.

On today's Manager Meetings, Jason Klein sits down with Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques. Jason is is the CIO at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a past guest on Capital Allocators. Jarrid and Henri are co-founders and Managing Partners of Harlem Capital, a venture capital firm seeking to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years and creating a community to support diversity across the industry. Before they get going, Jason and I discuss the attributes that attracted him to Harlem, monitoring and evaluating a first time fund manager, and sizing the position in his portfolio. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Friends, we're almost there: the end of the year that felt like a decade. This week, Mary Ann, Natasha and Alex put aside their 2021 fatigue and talked through a week full of news - and candidly, tensions. As always, shout out to Grace and Chris for producing the show and making us sound a whole lot better. We got into the Lyft mafia, garbage, and why our local truckers are giving us creator economy vibes. Or more specifically:Kenya's Pariti raised $2.85M led by Harlem Capital to develop startup ecosystems in emerging markets, proving yet again how Africa's entrepreneurial scene is one not to miss. The empowerment trend continued with TrueNorth's $50 million fundraise to help biz-savvy independent truckers, and freshly-anointed unicorn AgentSync with news, as Alex reminds us, that insurtech is very much alive. Opensea got a new CFO from Lyft, which led to IPO rumors, denial, and rumors about why there's denial about going public. Plus, as Natasha notes, if you're not leaving Lyft to join crypto, you're leaving Lyft to join climate. The Trump Media SPAC is a mess, as we anticipated, frankly.Mary Ann is all over the Better.com saga as its comm, marketing, PR heads all submitted their resignations this week and CEO Vishal Garg issued a poorly-received apology for how badly he effed up the mass layoffs last week -- and as she hints, there's a lot more to come.We disagreed more than usual this episode, which is refreshing. So cheers to more of that next year, and we'll see you back here on Monday.

Henri Pierre-Jacques founded Harlem Capital with friend and colleague Jarrid Tingle in order to impact culture by investing in innovative companies led by women and diverse entrepreneurs. The firm has a mission of changing the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over its first 20 years.

My guest today is Henri Pierre-Jacques, Managing Partner at Harlem Capital. Harlem Capital is a venture capital firm on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over 20 years. Some of their investments include Aunt Flow, Blavity, and Repeat. We discuss how to think about impact and opportunity in the early stages of investing, Harlem's thesis and why Harlem wants to be a multi-stage investment firm.And there you have it. It was a pleasure chatting with Henri. Highly recommend following him on Twitter @hpierrejacquesHere are some of the questions I ask Henri:What made you want to transition from private equity to venture capital?Why did you choose to start your own fund instead of joining a fund?How did Harlem Capital come together?What was your process when it came to raising your first fund?What were some of the reasons why investors passed?What is some of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to emerging managers?How do you describe Harlem Capital's focus area?What are some of the particular consumer trends that you are excited about?Why do you think fund 1 and fund 2 outperform?What is your fund model do you tend to be more concentrated or more spray and prey?Do you consider yourself more of a thematic or opportunistic investor? Why?The number of founders who happen to be women or people of color that are venture-backed is extremely low - to say the least. In your years working in venture capital do you see this starting to change on the ground level?We talk about how to receive real changeI believe you recently moved to Miami. What has the venture scene been like? What are your impressions on the startup community?What were your biggest learnings from COVID?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally?What's one piece of advice for founders?What's the best piece of advice that you've received?

In this episode of the #MiamiTech Pod Henri, Cesar, and Brian discuss:Henri's backgroundHis MissionThe State of Venture Capital in AmericaWhy Henri moved to Miamiand more!Follow Henri on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hpierrejacques 

Jarrid Tingle is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital where he focuses on deal sourcing, organizational strategy, and due diligence efforts. Jarrid was featured on the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list, 2019 Inc. 30 under 30 list, and the 2018 Ebony Power 100 list. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2019 where he was a Baker Scholar (top 5% of class). During HBS, Jarrid was a fellow in the Robert Toigo Foundation and Management Leadership for Tomorrow MBA Programs. Previously, Jarrid was a Private Equity Investment Professional at ICV Partners. Prior to ICV, Jarrid was an Investment Banker in the Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group at Barclays. Jarrid graduated cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Concentration in Finance. Jarrid was an active member of Friars Senior Society, Onyx Senior Honor Society, and The Lantern Senior Society. Upon graduation, Jarrid received the Wharton Undergraduate Dean's Award for Excellence (Wharton's highest honor). Jarrid's favorite activities include reading, weight training, traveling, and attending concerts.   Sign up for The Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/  

Welcome to More Equity. In this episode, in celebration of Pride, we have Nicole DeTommaso, a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital, interviewing Amy Spurling, Co-Founder & CEO of Compt, an HCP portfolio company. Amy is both a groundbreaker as a CEO and a voice for the LGBTQ+ community. Amy discusses her journey as both a woman and LGBTQ+ entrepreneur as well as what she does to make her company an inclusive workplace for all. Listen in to gain insight into how both Amy and Nicole have navigated their careers identifying as LGBTQ+.

Jarrid Tingle is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital where he focuses on deal sourcing, organizational strategy, and due diligence efforts. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School (finished top 5% in his class) and is featured on the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list.Harlem Capital is a fund founded in 2015 with a mission to forever change the face of entrepreneurship, aiming to invest in 1000 diverse founders over the next 20 years. In 2019, they started with a 40 million dollar fund and now have over 174 million dollars in assets under management.

Miguel Armaza sits down with Jarrid Tingle, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, an early-stage, diversity-focused venture capital firm that was founded in 2015 with the specific mission to fundamentally change the face of entrepreneurship. Jarrid and team now manage a $174 million portfolio comprised of 61% Black or Latino led companies and 43% female-only led companies. Harlem Capital aims to invest in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 30 years. Jarrid is also a proud alum of our amazing Wharton School! In this episode, we discuss: - Jarrid's background and how he and his co-founders raised Harlem Capital's initial capital while in business school - The story behind Harlem Capital's very own Harvard Business School case - Importance of backing founders that fundamentally can sell and are analytical - Their fintech outlook and why Jarrid is excited about the power of fintech to help supercharge eCommerce - Debunking the myth of the pipeline problem and why it's really just about giving people access and opportunities - Why he's hopeful but not satisfied with the progress of the VC and Tech industry as it relates to diversity - Biggest lesson he's learned as an investor - And a lot more! Jarrid Tingle Jarrid Tingle is Managing Partner of Harlem Capital where he focuses on deal sourcing, organizational strategy, and due diligence efforts. Jarrid was featured on the 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list, 2019 Inc. 30 under 30 list, and the 2018 Ebony Power 100 list. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in 2019 where he was a Baker Scholar (top 5% of class). During HBS, Jarrid was a fellow in the Robert Toigo Foundation and Management Leadership for Tomorrow MBA Programs. Previously, Jarrid was a Private Equity Investment Professional at ICV Partners. Prior to ICV, Jarrid was an Investment Banker in the Global Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group at Barclays. Jarrid graduated cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Concentration in Finance. Jarrid was an active member of Friars Senior Society, Onyx Senior Honor Society, and The Lantern Senior Society. Upon graduation, Jarrid received the Wharton Undergraduate Dean's Award for Excellence (Wharton's highest honor). Jarrid's favorite activities include reading, weight training, traveling, and attending concerts. About Harlem Capital: Harlem Capital (HCP) is an early-stage, diversity-focused venture capital firm. HCP makes initial investments of $750k to $1.5mm in U.S. Seed rounds for 10%+ ownership. For more FinTech insights, follow us below: Medium: medium.com/wharton-fintech WFT Twitter: twitter.com/whartonfintech Miguel's Twitter: twitter.com/MiguelArmaza Miguel's Newsletter: https://bit.ly/3jWIpqp

Welcome to More Equity. In this episode, we have two Harlem Capital team members, Gabby Cazeau and Nicole DeTommaso, discussing early stage VC interviews. Harlem Capital has been on a mission to diversify not only the entrepreneurial ecosystem but also the investing ecosystem. In an effort to further our mission, Harlem Capital has launched the HCP Talent Platform on Hivebrite to provide access to career opportunities in the VC ecosystem to anyone we have and will interview in the first round of our internship interview process. Listen in to get insight into VC interview structures as well as an inside look into Harlem Capital's interview process. Also be sure to check our website for the Fall 2021 intern application, which is due June 30th.

On this episode of Its Probably You Podcast, host LDP sits down with John Henry. John Henry is the Co-Founder of Harlem Capital, and Co-Founder / Co-CEO of Loop, as well an entrepreneur, 3X founder, and a member of Forbes 30 under 30. He shares stories of starting his own businesses, building a community, and the importance of authenticity. You don't want to miss this in depth conversation with one of the premier creative minds in the business space. You can find John on Instagram: @johnhenrystyle and his website at johnhenryspeaks.com and loopinsure.co.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/its-probably-you/message

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat through the week’s biggest tech happenings. It was a busy week on the IPO front, Danny was buried in getting the Tonal EC-1 out, and Natasha took some time off. But the host trio managed to prep and record a show that was honestly a kick to record, and we think, a pleasure to listen to!So, for your morning walk, here's what we have for you: The Substack conversation: Does the new $65 million check make sense? What is Substack? Does it have a moat? Why is Natasha's URL so much better than Alex's? Cameo raised $100 million and none of us really have a bone to pick with that. Danny actually argues in favor of it. The Clubhouse conversation: Does every single product need to feature live audio? The answers appears to be yes, oddly enough. Discord comes up along with Spotify, as does LinkedIn. And somehow, Microsoft Excel and Miami? TechCrunch scooped that Pipe is raising more money at a huge new valuation, and we argue about what a derivative really is. Harlem Capital raises $134 million for its new fund. MaC VC raises $103 million for its new fund.It was a mix of laughs, 'aha' moments, and honest conversations about how complex ambition in startups should be. One listener the other day mentioned to us that the pandemic made it harder to carve out time for podcasts, since listening was often reserved for commutes. We get it, and in true scrappy fashion, we're curious how you've adapted to remote work and podcasts. Let us know how you tune into Equity via Twitter and remember that we're thankful for your ears!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.Natasha and Danny and Alex and Grace were all here to chat through the week’s biggest tech happenings. It was a busy week on the IPO front, Danny was buried in getting the Tonal EC-1 out, and Natasha took some time off. But the host trio managed to prep and record a show that was honestly a kick to record, and we think, a pleasure to listen to!So, for your morning walk, here's what we have for you: The Substack conversation: Does the new $65 million check make sense? What is Substack? Does it have a moat? Why is Natasha's URL so much better than Alex's? Cameo raised $100 million and none of us really have a bone to pick with that. Danny actually argues in favor of it. The Clubhouse conversation: Does every single product need to feature live audio? The answers appears to be yes, oddly enough. Discord comes up along with Spotify, as does LinkedIn. And somehow, Microsoft Excel and Miami? TechCrunch scooped that Pipe is raising more money at a huge new valuation, and we argue about what a derivative really is. Harlem Capital raises $134 million for its new fund. MaC VC raises $103 million for its new fund.It was a mix of laughs, 'aha' moments, and honest conversations about how complex ambition in startups should be. One listener the other day mentioned to us that the pandemic made it harder to carve out time for podcasts, since listening was often reserved for commutes. We get it, and in true scrappy fashion, we're curious how you've adapted to remote work and podcasts. Let us know how you tune into Equity via Twitter and remember that we're thankful for your ears!

Today, we're featuring an episode of Real Good by US Bank in the feed. It's a podcast about intersectionality and the work we need to do to support a more equal future. This episode features Henri Pierre-Jacque from Harlem Capital, speaking about what a more equitable entrepreneurship landscape looks like. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe to Real Good wherever you get your podcasts.

Lay of the Land's sixteenth conversation is with Brandon Bryant — co-founder and venture partner at Harlem Capital — on investing in companies started by people of color & women with the purpose of changing the face of entrepreneurship.Harlem Capital closed on its inaugural oversubscribed $40 million fund back in 2019 and is focused on investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years.Brandon — who recently boomeranged from NYC back to Cleveland — is taking Harlem Capital's mission and vision and applying it to Cleveland and the greater midwest opportunity.I'm incredibly excited Brandon is joining the Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem and to share his work, whose awesomeness and importance speaks for itself!We cover a lot in this conversation — from investing to content creation to storytelling (on the side, Brandon created and manages WallStreetPaper, a brand now harboring over 200,000 followers on instagram) — hope you all enjoy it! ————Follow Brandon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/wallstreetpaperFollow WallStreetPaper on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wallstreetpaper/Follow Harlem Capital on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlemCapital————Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

You want to build a relationship with an investor? Listen to this joint episode interview between Morgan and Jarrid Tingle, Managing Partner of Harlem Capital. While Harlem Capital was one of Blavity Inc.'s first investors, Blavity Inc. was also one of Harlem Capital's first investments. Morgan and Jarrid discuss their business relationship, why seeking investors should not just be about the money, and why their advice for most founders is to wait before raising. They also discuss the benefits of executive coaching for founders and the importance of having advisors or mentors in your corner, particularly when transitioning from Founder to CEO or when preparing to raise funding. To learn more about Harlem Capital click here: https://harlem.capital/ To listen to the More Equity Podcast click here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/more-equity/id1523705329 To download this week's Freebie click here: https://morgandebaun.com/episode-8/ To follow the WorkSmart Podcast on IG click here: https://www.instagram.com/theworksmartpodcast/

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a new episode from our Founders of Harlem Capital Series – a snapshot on these Founder's path to launching their ventures, insights and learnings they developed along the way and perspectives from overcoming any challenges they faced. Today, we're talking with Morgan DeBaun, the Founder and CEO of Blavity. Blavity is the largest network of platforms and lifestyle brands serving the lives of black millennials. In this episode, you'll hear about the early days of launching Blavity (and Harlem Capital!), a ‘Founder' vs. ‘CEO' mindset, and the heightened competition in the venture market.

John Henry is a serial entrepreneur. When he was 18 years old, he built his one-man dry cleaning service and within 3 years he was able to sell the business for $1 million. He then moved on to co-found Harlem Capital and is now a co-founder in his latest venture, Loop. Loop is changing the game for auto insurance by leveraging AI-technology, big data, and telematics to create more fairly priced insurance products. In this episode John shows us how persistence pays off, the importance of getting outside your shell, and why entrepreneurship is the greatest equalizer. Guest: John Henry instagram.com/johnhenrystyle Loopinsure.co Host: Seun Phillips instagram.com/mydreambigclub Mydreambigclub.com Join My Accountability Partner (MAP) https://www.mydreambigclub.com/map YouTube Channel: youtube.com/mydreambigclub

The post Harlem Capital’s Henri Pierre-Jacques on funding underrepresented founders, insights from raising first fund & getting Apple as an LP, Black culture’s impact on social apps | E1183 appeared first on This Week In Startups.

The post Harlem Capital’s Henri Pierre-Jacques on funding underrepresented founders, insights from raising first fund & getting Apple as an LP, Black culture’s impact on social apps | E1183 appeared first on This Week In Startups.

On Thursday, February 18, 2021, Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg featured Jarrid Tingle, Managing Partner of Harlem Capital, in conversation with Scarlet Fu of Bloomberg Television. During this virtual conversation, they discussed Tingle's first forays into investing before he entered graduate school, how he thinks of diversity as an asset class, the dual cultural and financial returns on his investments, what he looks for in founders and venture partners, and the impact of COVID-19 on his VC firm's investing.

Today, I have a special episode with John Henry who is serial entrepreneur, investor, TV host, vlogger, public speaker and podcast host. At just 28 years old, he has already amassed a lifetime of accomplishments. He is also Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who built and sold a million-dollar business at 21, he went on to create Harlem’s first nonprofit business incubator by 24, and then co-founded a venture capital firm called Harlem Capital that raised over $40 million for minority-owned small businesses. Now, he is on to his next venture and is here with us today to share his trails and tribulations on his journey. In this episode, you will learn: How to become rooted in your purpose How to build upon relationships What to look out for when launching a business and SO MUCH MORE!!! FOLLOW JOHN HENRY: WEBSITE: Loop - Fair and Transparent Car Insurance (loopinsure.co) INSTAGRAM: John Henry (@johnhenrystyle) • Instagram photos and videos FOLLOW D'ANDRE HERE: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/dandre_evans/ LEARN HOW TO START YOUR OWN PODCAST: https://www.levelupdaily.com/links NEED A WEBSITE? GET STARTED WITH US TODAY: www.levelupdaily.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/levelupdaily/message

In this episode, we meet Emily Hochman, Founder + CEO of Wellory. Wellory is a health tech company reinventing personal nutrition to create a long-lasting, healthier relationship with food. After experimenting with fad diets for years, Emily built Wellory to create an accessible and affordable solution that bridges the disconnect between losing weight and eating healthy. Through Wellory's user-friendly app, clients match with a Wellory Nutrition Coach to receive ongoing, concierge-level support based on their specific health goals. The mobile service offers science-based, personalized meal planning, photo-based meal logging, and daily communication through its community of nutritionists, certified health coaches and registered dietitians. Wellory has raised a $4.5M seed round, led by Story Ventures, with participation from Harlem Capital, Tinder co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, Ground Up Ventures, NBA player Wayne Ellington, Hannah Bronfman and others. Emily has been featured in Business Insider, Thrive Global, Well+Good, named Bucknell University's 13 Under 35 and Forbes 30 Under 30. We discuss: Emily's personal story and motivation for building a product that uses technology to reinvent the nutrition industry How Wellory is utilizing behavioral psychology and science-based practices to help individuals build and sustain healthy habits Innovation in the food as medicine space: how food interventions can prevent illness, manage chronic diseases, and reduce healthcare costs The need to put nutrition at the forefront of healthcare conversations and primary school education

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you a special episode sharing 5 Lessons From 5 Years of Harlem Capital from the founding team. We will be speaking with Henri Pierre-Jacques, Jarrid Tingle and Brandon Bryant. In this episode, we will hear the founding team discuss a few lessons learned during the journey of building Harlem Capital like why brand matters, how to learn on someone else's dime, and building internal processes to scale a VC firm to name a few. If you're interest in learning more about the Harlem Capital story or building your own firm in the future this is the episode for you!

In the first episode of our second season, we speak with Henri Pierre-Jacques, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Harlem Capital about inequality in entrepreneurial opportunities, public goals and accountability, and what it's like to be a black funder being pitched by a black entrepreneur who has never pitched another black person. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wellory, a startup that bills itself as taking an “anti-diet approach” to nutrition and wellness, is announcing that it has raised $4.2 million in funding. The round was led by Story Ventures, with participation from Harlem Capital, Tinder co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, Ground Up Ventures, NBA Player Wayne Ellington, Hannah Bronfman and others. […]

Ever wonder what it is like to be a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital? Well, you've come to the right place. In this two-episode season, we interview the Senior Associates at Harlem Capital, Gabby Cazeau and Kelly Goldstein, on how they went from being remote interns to working full-time at the firm. Take a listen to the second of two episodes in this Harlem Capital Alumni Interview Series. In this episode, we interview the second Senior Associate hired at the firm, Kelly Goldstein. We take a dive into Kelly's journey as she reminisces on her time as an intern and fellow before joining the firm full-time. We tackle topics such as being underestimated, teaching yourself financial modeling, breaking into venture, and more.

Wellory, a startup that bills itself as taking an “anti-diet approach” to nutrition and wellness, is announcing that it has raised $4.2 million in funding. The round was led by Story Ventures, with participation from Harlem Capital, Tinder co-founders Sean Rad and Justin Mateen, Ground Up Ventures, NBA Player Wayne Ellington, Hannah Bronfman and others. […]

Ever wonder what it is like to be a Senior Associate at Harlem Capital? Well, you've come to the right place. In this two-episode season, we interview the Senior Associates at Harlem Capital, Gabby Cazeau and Kelly Goldstein, on how they went from being remote interns to working full-time at the firm. Take a listen to the first of two episodes in this Harlem Capital Alumni Interview Series. In this episode, we interview the first Senior Associate hired at the firm, Gabby Cazeau. We take a dive into Gabby's journey as she reminisces on her time as an intern and fellow before joining the firm full-time. We tackle topics such as entering new spaces, shifting career paths, making the most of your day through efficiency hacks, and more.

In episode 64 Charles (Twitter: @ToddBillion) and Raphael (Twitter: @WorkMoneyLife) discuss the futility of one-upmanship, venture capital firms Base10 and Harlem Capital, identifying the word "minorities" as a red flag, using others as tokens, doing better deals with better people, more of The Barbershop Chronicles, how money is power, working for what you want vs. begging for what you need, praying with your legs, circular arguments, investing vs. gambling, Black people's inherent ability as investors, how you're already investing by your consumption, Powernomics, winning at life being greater than winning an argument, and much more! Check out the brand new course bundles from Todd Capital: The Ultra Options Combo The Ultra Business Package The Ultra Investor Package Also, check out the new course from Todd Capital just released, "REIT Money" Pick up the brand-new ebook from the creators of Tweet Talk, "Don't Be A Little B*!" ebook on pre-order now at https://gumroad.com/l/DontBeBook Pick up the carryall duffle bag from the brand new luggage brand, Views, launched by Tweet Talk co-host Charles. People mentioned: Dr. Claud Anderson, Chris Hogan of EveryDay Millionaires, Tone Talks Follow us on social media: Twitter- Charles @ToddBillion Raphael @WorkMoneyLife Instagram: Podcast- @TweetTalkPodcast Charles- @ToddBillion @Todd.Capital @BlessABlackMan Views Luggage brand @ViewsLifestyle_ Learn how to make money trading stock options, invest in real estate long distance, and more from Todd Capital! This show's sponsors: Get the popular "You Can't Fire Me." -The Boss shirt from InvestAsATeam.com, get a deal on a 3 t-shirt pack here. Upgrade your entire outfit with unique shoelaces from Get Laced Laces, see the entire collection at GetLacedLaces.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tweettalk/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tweettalk/support

GeneralSubscribe to Fully Vested at FullyVested.co or through your podcast app of choice.Cashdrop's $2.7M SeedCASHDROP, a Chicago-based contactless payments and mobile-first e-commerce platform company founded by Mexican immigrant Ruben Flores-Martinez, announced that it raised $2.7 million in seed funding back in early August. Harlem Capital led the deal, which saw participation from Founder Collective, Long Journey Ventures, and M25. Individual investors in the round include Cyan Banister (now a partner at Long Journey Ventures), Adobe chief product officer Scott Belsky, Fullscreen founder George Strompolos, and YouTube pioneer Michelle Phan.CASHDROP's unique differentiators are its economic model and software platform. The company says new merchants can spin up an online storefront for their products and services in as little as 15 minutes. CASHDROP includes inventory management and reporting features, and may expand to more service business verticals in the future. Its biggest point of leverage is its economic model. Rather than taking a commission/marketplace fee from businesses on the platform, CASHDROP charges the customer a 5% convenience fee, leaving the platform free to use for businesses and relatively inexpensive for consumers. The company has seen significant user growth during COVID, mostly from restaurants seeking to sidestep high marketplace fees imposed by incumbent food ordering platforms like DoorDash, GrubHub, and Uber Eats.Read more about the deal:Mobile-First Commerce Platform CASHDROP Announces $2.7M Seed Round to Empower Small Business Owners (Press release on PR Newswire)Start-Ups Braced for the Worst. The Worst Never Came. (Erin Griffith in The New York Times)A Mobile Storefront In Under 15 Minutes: Cashdrop’s Platform Secures $2.7M In Seed Funding (Christine Hall for Crunchbase News)Cashdrop Raises $2.7M to Grow Its E-Commerce App (Nona Tepper for BuiltInChicago)Mobile-First Commerce Platform CASHDROP Announces $2.7M Seed Round to Empower Small Business Owners (Jim Dallke for BizJournals)(Disclosure: Jason and Graham are friends with members of the CASHDROP team. Jason served as a compensated advisor and service provider to the company during its funding round announcement, and Graham has financial ties to one of the firms which invested in the round.)Trove's $16M Series AOn August 25th, Bay Area-based startup Trove announced it had raised $16 million in a Series A round, with media reporting it was raised at a $75 million post-money valuation. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. The company was part of Y Combinator's S20 batch and successfully raised their round pre-Demo Day.Trove is in the business of helping startups communicate the potential value of equity (usually offered as options of some sort) issued as part of typical employee compensation packages to prospective recruits and current members of the team. This, in theory, gives employees greater transparency into the current and potential value of the shares they're issued, while also helping employers allocate equity more wisely. Simultaneously, Trove grants access to anonymized market performance data to help employers understand what other industry participants are offering their prospective employees.Read more about the deal:YC’s most anticipated startup raised $16M from a16z before Demo Day(Natasha Mascarenhas publishing in TechCrunch)Barn2Door's $6M Series A2On August 26th, Seattle area online marketplace startup Barn2Door raised $6 million in a new round of funding led by Bullpen Capital. Participating investors in the deal include Sugar Mountain, Raine Ventures, Quiet Capital, Lead Edge Capital, and Global Founders Capital. Crunchbase lists the round as a Series A, though the round type was not named explicitly in media coverage of the transaction. Barn2Door raised $3.4 million for the first tranche of its Series A back in October 2019; that particular round was led by Lead Edge Capital out of New York. According to Golden, the company has raised nearly $12.5 million across its publicly-disclosed funding rounds.Barn2Door operates a vertical-specific marketplace platform aimed at helping farmers sell their produce, proteins, and other agricultural products directly to consumers via e-commerce. The company's platform works for different types of farms (dairy, produce, animal proteins, flowers, etc.) and service models ranging from subscription community-supported agriculture (CSA) boxes, to on-farm pickup, local delivery, and even shipping, depending on the model of the farm's direct-to-customer business. Barn2Door, founded in March 2015, is part of a growing trend of companies which offer more direct connections between farmers and end consumers. The growing D2C side of some farm businesses helps the farmer generate higher margin on agricultural products.Read more about the deal:Barn2Door raises $6M as demand rises for its software used by farmers to sell food online (Taylor Soper for Seattle tech-focused publication GeekWire)Barn2Door Raises $6M for Platform that Connects Farms and Consumers(Chris Albrecht for food tech-focused online news outlet The Spoon)UndockBased in New York City, Undock is a company building software which helps people who schedule lots of meetings (which is probably most of us these days) schedule those meetings right from their email inbox. The interaction model is neat: Using a little NLP magic, Undock's plugin detects when a user is proposing times for a meeting; based on the user's availability and preferred times to meet, Undock will drop down some times which work, and the proposed time is entered as a link in the outgoing email. Recipients can confirm the time by clicking the link in the email. Undock detects if a message is going to another Undock user, and is able to suggest times which are mutually agreeable for all parties. On August 24, the company announced it raised $1.6 million in a seed round led by Lightship Capital. Participating investors in the deal include Bessemer Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures Group, Active Capital, Lerer Hippeau, as well as individual investors Arlan Hamilton (founding partner of Backstage Capital) and veteran startup ops exec Sarah Imbach.Read more about the deal:Lightship Capital Leads $1.6 Million Financing Round for Undock (Lightship Capital)Lightship Capital Leads $1.6M Financing Round For AI-Enabled Productivity Platform, Undock (Shanique Yates for AfroTech.com)Undock Raises $1.6 Million for Its Software to Make Virtual Meetings Less Terrible (Sherrell Dorsey for The Plug)Startups To Watch: CH4 Global, Mustard, Undock, LaunchNotes (Christine Hall for Crunchbase News)About The Co-HostsJason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.

We continue our conversation with Kim as she candidly addresses diversity (women and people of color) in the industry, the female network and her work at and inspiration from Bravehouse, a non-profit focused on providing legal and community benefits to young immigrant women.Kim is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School where she’s also a Rock Venture Partner. She made the Forbes 30 under 30 for media in 2019 while working at Vice Media as a Director of Global Strategy. Kim has venture experience from Lerer Hippeau, AlleyCorp and Harlem Capital. She is the founder of Envision Accelerator, the first student led virtual accelerator for underrepresented student founders which just initiated its first cohort of 17 companies this summer. Kim is very passionate about empowering women and people of color and serves on the Board of Women in Innovation (WIN) and Brave House.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you part 5 of our female founders series—a collection of honest conversations with trailblazing female founders who are thinking big picture about the state of women in startups and tech. In this series, we'll go deep on what it looks like to scale a business from the ground up, navigate a fundraising process, and overcome curveballs—all while defining success on your own terms. Expect vulnerable and thought-provoking conversation on constantly evolving issues such as the lack of women in executive roles, the double standards applied to female founders, and the impact of venture capital on company growth and startup ecosystems at large. Today, we're speaking with badass Harlem Capital portfolio founders Marah and Naomi, the co-founders of Shine—a self-care app to help you through these uncertain times. We spoke with Marah and Naomi about how they bridged the distance between being “work friends” and real friends, why it's so important for them to stay in touch with their community, and, to them, what truly equitable access to mental healthcare looks like.

In this 1st part of a two-part series, Kim Patel talks to us about her experience in banking, how she navigated a number of restructurings within media and formed the corporate strategy team at Vice, her transition to venture capital and founding Envision Accelerator.Kim is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School where she’s also a Rock Venture Partner. She made the Forbes 30 under 30 for media in 2019 while working at Vice Media as a Director of Global Strategy. Kim has venture experience from Lerer Hippeau, AlleyCorp and Harlem Capital. She is the founder of Envision Accelerator, the first student led virtual accelerator for underrepresented student founders which just initiated its first cohort of 17 companies this summer. Kim is very passionate about empowering women and people of color and serves on the Board of Women in Innovation (WIN) and Brave House, a non-profit focused on providing legal and community benefits to young immigrant women.

Welcome to More Equity. Today, we're bringing you part 2 of our female founders series—a collection of honest conversations with trailblazing female founders who are thinking big picture about the state of women in startups and tech. In this episode, we're speaking with the newest member of the Harlem Capital family, Amy Spurling. Amy is the founder and CEO of Compt—a platform for personalized lifestyle benefits that allow employees to spend their budget for benefits where and when they want to. We sat down with Amy to discuss her strategies for building an all-star team, why she values diversity on her cap table, and how we can build a more just and equitable tech industry.

On this episode, we speak with Jarrid Tingle - Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Harlem Capital; where Jarrid and his team plans to invest in 1,000 diverse founders. Jarrid and Harlem Capital have recently closed a $40M inaugural fund and have been featured in large media publications for their work such as Forbes, TechCrunch, and Black Enterprise. Key Topics: Learnings from $40M fund raise, how Harlem Capital evaluates companies, alternative ways to raising capital, and the VC and founder relationship. Visit our website and submit a question/topic here. Hosted by @de_havia and @imessien Recorded: April 2020

This week Raphael (Twitter: @WorkMoneyLife) and Charles (Twitter: @ToddBillion) welcome 21-year old entrepreneur Dontez Akram (Twitter: @DontezAkram Instagram: @_TheRealTez) to the podcast. Dontez has created multiple e-commerce stores including durag brand SnagARag at SnagARag.com and 1 Luv Clothing at 1LuvClothing.shop Be sure to pick up his courses on how to succeed in e-commerce at https://gumroad.com/a/761361523 We discuss how having children changes your mentality, having an owner's mindset, failing as much as possible, venture capital, changes at Harlem Capital, Nick Cannon, Master P, Dame Dash, Curren$y, having $9000 of product burned by US Customs, having more products, needing multiple streams, being comfortable with yourself, and so much more! Pick up the carryall duffle bag from the brand new luggage brand, Views, launched by Tweet Talk co-host Charles. Check out the Options Trading Workshop from Todd Capital that everyone's talking about at https://gumroad.com/a/386774131/bOUnl Also, check out the new course from Todd Capital, "How to Build a Six Figure Digital Business" Pick up the brand-new ebook from the creators of Tweet Talk, "Don't Be A Little B*!" ebook on pre-order now at https://gumroad.com/l/DontBeBook Books mentioned in this episode: "Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!" by Robert Kiyosaki Follow us on social media: Twitter- Charles @ToddBillion Raphael @WorkMoneyLife Instagram: Podcast- @TweetTalkPodcast Charles- @ToddBillion @Todd.Capital @BlessABlackMan Learn how to make money trading stock options, invest in real estate long distance, and more from Todd Capital! This show's sponsors: Get the popular "You Can't Fire Me." -The Boss from InvestAsATeam.com, get a deal on a 3 t-shirt pack here. Upgrade your entire outfit with unique shoelaces from Get Laced Laces, see the entire collection at GetLacedLaces.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/tweettalk/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/tweettalk/support

Today on Rise of The Young I sat down with John Henry. Henry started his first business at 18, an on-demand drycleaning service for the Film and TV industry in New York City, with clients such as The Wolf of Wall Street, Boardwalk Empire, Power, and more. Henry led the company through its acquisition in 2014 -- founding and selling his first business by the age of 21. Henry later cofounded the diversity-focused Venture Capital firm Harlem Capital, raising $40.3mm and making 17 investments in Women and Minority entrepreneurs in his time there. Henry is also passionate about Media. Henry Executive Produced and Hosted the TV show ‘Hustle’ on VICELAND, Executive Produced by Alicia Keys and Marcus Samuelsson; and produced and hosted podcasts for brands like The Washington Post, Gimlet Media, WeWork, eBay, and Samsung. Learn more about John Henry: https://johnhenryspeaks.com/ Follow John Henry on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnhenrystyle/?hl=en

GeneralSubscribe to Fully Vested at FullyVested.co or through your podcast app of choice.Notes: Related to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud ArberyWhat HappenedFor roughly nine minutes on Memorial Day 2020, white police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck in Minneapolis. Floyd died on the scene. His death was ruled a homicide by the medical examiner. A bystander's cell phone video went viral on Facebook and other social media sites, and catalyzed the protests we're seeing now. Floyd was 46 and left behind 5 children. Chauvin and attending officers have been charged with second degree murder and other charges.Just after midnight on March 13, 2020, Louisville, KY police officers used a battering ram in a no-knock raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment. This was in conjunction with an investigation of two men suspected to have been selling drugs out of a house 10 miles from Taylor's apartment. Police shot Taylor eight times. She died in her home at 26.Father and son Gregory and Travis McMichael, both white, allegedly participated in the killing of 25 year-old Ahmaud Arbery, a black man, while Arbery was jogging through Glynn County, Georgia. Travis fatally shot Arbery with a shotgun and rammed Arbery with his truck, shouting racial epithets. A man named William Bryan Jr. recorded the killing on cell phone video. In a plot twist, it was revealed this past week that former law enforcement officer Gregory McMichael himself was the person who leaked the video of the murder. Gregory, Travis, and accompliceOur ResponseBlack Lives Matter. This is the official stance of Fully Vested.If you, your company, or your investment firm has the means, consider donating to one of the many organizations supporting racial justice and police and prison reform. To support protesters and others who are kept in jail before trial, donate to a bail fund.However your company can, find ways to support employees who participate in protests and the broader movement for racial justice and to end police brutality. This can and should include matching employee donations, if your company has the means.It's not merely enough to just not be racist these days; one must be actively anti-racist. People will not feel welcome at your table if you tell them to bring their own chair; if you've already got your seat, make space and invite folks in.Startup & Venture Capital Community's ResponseSince Fully Vested is primarily a show about VC and startups, we'll focus on the response from that community:What black VCs are sayingHat-tip to former Crunchbase News colleague Sophia Kunthara for collating this.Precursor Ventures, an all-black VC firm. "The Precursor team is grieving the loss of our brothers and sister to police violence. We are an all black team. We invest in black founders. We believe that their lives and our lives matter. We remain steadfast in our efforts to create a more just venture ecosystem. We stand alongside those who work to combat the effects that institutional racism and police brutality have on communities of color."Disclosure: Precursor Ventures backed a company run by friends of Graham and Jason. Our mention of the statement from Precursor Ventures founding partner Charles Hudson was not motivated by those associations.Harlem Capital, an all-black VC firm. "While the protests are striking, we encourage people to focus on the root cause of these events, which are racism, injustice, and oppression. Words can be meaningful, but actions speak louder. Actions like texting a black colleague, educating yourself and your network, speaking up publicly, voting in elections and voting with your dollars are the start of meaningful change. As a firm with a mission focused on increasing access for minorities and women, we continue to focus on economic empowerment and using our energy to make the world a more equitable place."VC firms commit to support black founders & promote diversity.SoftBank raised $100M for a fund earmarked for companies founded and led by people of color. While this is a nice gesture, SoftBank has invested tens of billions of dollars in startups founded by white guys, many of which have a history of discrimination or lack of inclusivity.Andreessen Horowitz announced its Talent x Opportunity (TxO) fund, which consists of $2.2 million donated by A16Z partners. The donor-advised fund's returns will be reinvested in the fund, making more capital available to underserved founders over time. Also worth noting, A16Z raised its Cultural Leadership Fund back in 2019, which is aimed at advancing more African Americans into technology.Disclosure: A16Z is an investor in Jason's employer and a A16Z partner sits on the company's board. Our mention of these efforts is unconnected with A16Z's association with Jason's employer.About The Co-HostsJason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community, and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.

Welcome to episode 2 of Fundamental Fairness. Join Camino Financial CEO, Sean Salas, and our special guest Co-Founder and managing partner of Harlem Capital, Henri Pierre-Jaques. Learn why empowering minority entrepreneurs is essential to thriving during the "new normal" economy.

www.vchunting.com/henri-pierre-jacques - for full field notes on the interview!

In this episode, we speak with Jarrid Tingle, Managing Partner of Harlem Capital Partners. For entrepreneurs raising money, the world of venture capital can feel insular and opaque. It’s as much or more about who you are and who you know than what you’re building. For founders from under-represented groups, the numbers tell the story. Simply stated, the startup industry has a diversity problem. Of the thousands of VC partners practicing today, only 18% are female, and of the VC-backed founders out there, only 9% are female. And when you look at the statistics by race, the picture gets even more grim. Only 1 percent of venture-backed founders are black and 2% are Latino. Raised by a single mom & grandparents who placed a premium on education, Jarrid’s a graduate of 3 prestigious institutions - the Peddie School ( elite private high school/ boarding school), The Wharton School (undergrad) & Harvard University Business School ( #MBA) where he was named a BakerScholar. He’s also a Forbes 30 under 30 & an Inc. Magazine 30 under 30 designee. He spent the early years of his career in the world of private equity, where this “gap” became glaringly obvious to him and his co-founder and former HBS classmate Henri Pierre-Jacques.

Now he’s using his network, his knowledge & his experience to give back. HCP is taking a different approach, aiming to fund a much wider group of founders, including African Americans, Latinos & women. HCP’s stated goal: to invest in 1,000 “diverse” founders over the next 20 years.   “We fundamentally believe we are a venture fund with impact, not an impact fund,” according to Henri Pierre-Jacques. “The way we generate impact is to give women and minority entrepreneurs ownership.” Harlem Capital, first founded in 2015, upgraded from it’s original approach as the facilitator of angel syndicate to a full-fledged, industry-agnostic seed and Series A stage venture capital fund. They closed their debut effort on an oversubscribed $40.3 million. With its first fund close, Harlem Capital becomes one of the largest venture capital funds with a diversity mandate. Its already made numerous investments out of this fund. It’s a very inspirational story worth hearing.  

On this episode Abadesi talks to John Henry, venture partner at Harlem Capital and host of Hustle on VICELAND.In this episode they talk about...How he got into entrepreneurship and how the expectations for today’s entrepreneurs have changed“I think the world of business and entrepreneurship can seem pretty scary these days. There's so much at stake, you got to get it right, you got to raise money, you got to go public.“John got his start as an entrepreneur through trying to help out his family when he was young, starting a dry cleaning service in New York. He says that he didn’t have big aspirations at the time and that he didn’t come to entrepreneurship with visions of a glamorous lifestyle in his future.He says that these days entrepreneurship can seem very daunting and that rather than feeling the weight of the expectations that people have you should instead take the approach of doing something creative and fun and then see if you can sell it to folks.“I have to be honest, if I were starting now versus a decade ago when I started I might feel like the weight of the the expectation might have crushed the seed of enthusiasm that I had to start.”Why he says getting a regular job is riskier than starting a company“There are a lot of macroeconomic changes and not only are older corporations cutting jobs but you also see it in new companies. For me taking a normal job felt riskier because your own income was not in your own hands.”When John started working he realized that it would be better for him to put his time and effort into building a company instead of putting it into working for someone else at a conventional job. He says that although it can take years to get off the ground, it’s nevertheless better to work at something that you own entirely.How he discovered financial literacy and how to be a “multi-dimensional earner”“I’ve discovered this entirely new way of earning that I never would have known about when I was a doorman ten years ago because back then my best understanding of how to earn income was clocking in.”John says that he is investing in assets rather than experiences these days. He says that through doing so he wants to “build something for your family that can’t be taken away.” He explains how he learned about how to effectively invest his money after coming from a disadvantaged background where he didn’t normally have much exposure to those types of concepts.He also talks about how to find a good business idea for aspiring entrepreneurs and how he has diversified his income streams so that he’s not reliant on any one of them. He explains that he is making sure to “circulate” the funds that he earns so that he’s always re-investing and putting them to work instead of just stashing them away in a savings account.“You have to meet the moment. For anyone who is listening who is curious for one reason or another what they can do to earn income, look around at the moment. There are a lot of changes that are specific to right now, to 2020.”The history of VC and how they’re changing the flow of capital to underrepresented founders at Harlem CapitalJohn explains some of the ins-and-outs of venture capital and the history of the space including how it came to be that a “handful of zip codes and a handful of schools determine which companies go public.” He explains what kinds of barriers to entry exist for people who find themselves outside of the networks of privileged people with connections to the large institutions that normally contribute to venture capital funds (yes, venture capitalists have to fundraise too!).He also talks about how he invests in personal development and talks about some of the products he’s loving right now.We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.Companies and Products Mentioned on This EpisodeLED Ring Light — Beautifully lit photos and video calls.Nespresso — The connected espresso machine.Sodastream — Carbonated water, at home.

Welcome back to Episode 002 of the Respect The Conglomerate Podcast. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/respecttheconglomerate/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/respecttcpod This week we discuss - Power Season 6: Ep. 13 | It's All Your Fault - Roddy Rich (The Box) vs Justin Beiber (Yummy) - Bad Boys for Life making $101 million worldwide. - Kim Kardashian releasing new Skims collection - Boohoo made $615 million in Q4 2019. -Harlem Capital closing its debut fund at $40 Million - Beyoncé’s Ivy Park x Adidas collection breaking the internet. -Delta Airlines gives $1.6 billion in bonuses. -Disney+ topped 31 million downloads in Q4, and dropped the “Fox” brand. -NBCUniversal released details on its streaming service, Peacock. -Shopify is now offering starter loans. -Amazon is piloting checkout tech that would allow customers to purchase by scanning their hands. -Alphabet hit a $1 trillion market capitalization. -Citigroup female employees earn 27% less than men.

Learn how he and his team choose companies in Episode 5 of our podcast, "Off the Sidelines."

In this episode Carl offers his thoughts on AGT's issues, the state of the media's take on the Democratic Primary, and more importantly, how two phenomenal Black women got cheated out of both.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This week was a bit different than usual. First, we managed to come close to our old time target (20 minutes) instead of our regular length (30 minutes). And, second, Alex is coming back to TechCrunch starting next week!Expect more Equity and, from Alex, writing for Extra Crunch. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. If you aren’t an Extra Crunch subscriber yet you can use the code “EQUITY” and save a bundle. (Woo!)That done, let’s dig into the news that Kate and Alex discussed, starting with Harlem Capital’s $40.3 million new fund. The New York-based outfit has a focus on investing in minority entrepreneurs, who receive significantly less than their white male counterparts. This is one of the largest funds with a diversity mandate to date, and that's something to be stoked about.Next we turned to Mike Cagney’s canny fundraising ability. The former SoFi CEO, ousted for bad behavior, is putting together another huge funding round for his startup, Figure Technologies. The expected $103 million round comes after the company raised $120 million before.With over $50 million raised of the more than $100 million it expects, covering Figure is partially a financial story. However, due to Cagney’s part in the project, it’s also a story of how fast money forgives.Pivoting to Europe, Kate and Alex chewed into the latest report on European venture capital, pulling from Atomico and Forbes. The headlines are pretty simple: There are more EU-based unicorns than ever, more money invested in the region, and the money is mostly finding male hands.Disappointing diversity metrics aside, it’s an encouraging set of metrics for a region that has long found itself left to the side when major startup markets are discussed.And finally, Alex wanted to talk about two impending US-listed technology IPOs. Coming in the wake of the WeWork fiasco and sporting similar share prices but divergent growth profiles, the debuts of Bill.com and Sprout Social are events.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This week was a bit different than usual. First, we managed to come close to our old time target (20 minutes) instead of our regular length (30 minutes). And, second, Alex is coming back to TechCrunch starting next week!Expect more Equity and, from Alex, writing for Extra Crunch. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. If you aren’t an Extra Crunch subscriber yet you can use the code “EQUITY” and save a bundle. (Woo!)That done, let’s dig into the news that Kate and Alex discussed, starting with Harlem Capital’s $40.3 million new fund. The New York-based outfit has a focus on investing in minority entrepreneurs, who receive significantly less than their white male counterparts. This is one of the largest funds with a diversity mandate to date, and that's something to be stoked about.Next we turned to Mike Cagney’s canny fundraising ability. The former SoFi CEO, ousted for bad behavior, is putting together another huge funding round for his startup, Figure Technologies. The expected $103 million round comes after the company raised $120 million before.With over $50 million raised of the more than $100 million it expects, covering Figure is partially a financial story. However, due to Cagney’s part in the project, it’s also a story of how fast money forgives.Pivoting to Europe, Kate and Alex chewed into the latest report on European venture capital, pulling from Atomico and Forbes. The headlines are pretty simple: There are more EU-based unicorns than ever, more money invested in the region, and the money is mostly finding male hands.Disappointing diversity metrics aside, it’s an encouraging set of metrics for a region that has long found itself left to the side when major startup markets are discussed.And finally, Alex wanted to talk about two impending US-listed technology IPOs. Coming in the wake of the WeWork fiasco and sporting similar share prices but divergent growth profiles, the debuts of Bill.com and Sprout Social are events.

John Henry is only 26 but his business story could span three lifetimes. He's the son of Dominican immigrants. He grew up below the poverty line in New York City’s Washington Heights neighborhood. At 18 he worked as a doorman in a luxury building in Brooklyn. While working as a doorman he started a dry cleaning business. Within 3 years his business was making $100,000 a month in revenue. At the age of 21, he sold the business for $1 million and started the first business incubator in Harlem called Cofound Harlem. After making a name for himself in the city, he was offered a podcast deal, and then a TV deal for his own show on Vice called “Hustle”. He parlayed that into a brand endorsement deal with Cadillac. After starting Cofound Harlem he decided he wanted to dive into the world of Venture Capital. He joined forces with three other young entrepreneurs and became a partner in Harlem Capital. Harlem Capital Partners is a $25 million Venture Capital firm owned and operated by four men of color under the age of 30. The fund plans to invest in 1,000 minority and women founders over the next 20 years. All four of the partners are on the most recent Forbes 30 under 30 list. In EYL #45, John walked us through his incredible journey. He told us the story of his first business, he explained in detail the inner workings of the V.C. world, he explained the steps to set up a Venture Capital fund, he detailed how TV deals are structured and he outlined the current market place for brand partnerships and media opportunities. Guest IG: @johnhenrystyle Book Tip: Steve Jobs --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app · Trainual: Trainual is a software that helps you document what you do, so you can easily delegate and train others. https://trainual.com/freemonth/ Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/earnyourleisure/support

I'm so excited to present to you the first episode of Tuesday Morning Coffee, a podcast where I’ll be sitting down to have conversations with creatives, influencers and entrepreneurs about the intersection of life and creativity. Today we talk with Brandon Bryant aka @Wallstreetpaper on Instagram, about the meteoric growth he's experienced over the last few years. Brandon started in investment banking, moved on to create his own fashion blog, creative agency and now also invests in early stage start ups with Harlem Capital, a $25M VC fund. We talk about what it takes to develop your own secret sauce, and that you get exactly what you deserve in the world of content and entrepreneurship. This is Tuesday Morning Coffee. Tyler Babin: https://instagram.com/babin/ Brandon Bryant: https://www.instagram.com/wallstreetpaper/ https://wallstreetpaper.co/about

The startup industry has a diversity problem. Of the thousands of VC partners out there, only 18% are female, and of the VC-backed founders out there, only 9% are female. And when you cut the statistics by race, the picture gets even more grim. Only 1 percent of venture-backed founders are black and 2% are latino. Henri-Pierre Jacques and Jarrid Tingle co-founded Harlem Capital while at Harvard Business School to level the playing field. In today's Pattern Recognition episode, we discuss how diversity actually leads to better business results in today’s globalizing world in addtion to laying out actionable strategies for how companies and firms can up their diversity metrics. We also share a few lessons learned for any entrepreneurial investors on how to go about raising a fund. For show notes, unreleased episodes, and more check out: https://patternrecognitionpod.com Twitter: @JohnHeezy | Instagram: @johnghu

Today's episode features a episode from the series "Leaders Create Leaders" by Gerard Adams featuring entrepreneur John Henry. John Henry is someone who you should be paying attention to. John is a VC and Partner at Harlem Capital, he's featured in Forbes 30 under 30, and also has a show titled "HUSTLE" on Viceland. I wont tell you everything here in the description so hit play and take a sip! Peace, Blessings, Enjoy.

Last month, we had the pleasure of hosting a panel at SXSW called Geography vs. Investing: Should Location Matter?This would not have been possible without the support and voting of our listeners, and we really appreciate your help. Please enjoy the panel, recorded in full, including audience Q&A at the end.Panel description:It's never been easier for entrepreneurs everywhere to start a company.But even with world-changing companies being built all over, access to capital is still concentrated in Silicon Valley.But we've found investors inside the coasts investing in Silicon Valley, as well as Silicon Valley investors funding companies inside the coasts.This panel examines the role geography plays in investment, what role it SHOULD play, and how investors can find companies with upside regardless of geography.//Brandon Bryant received his degree in economics from Ohio State University and worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch as an investment banker for 3 years. Afterwards he transitioned to the marketing world as a social media content creator (@wallstreetpaper) working with companies like Uber, Microsoft, Walmart, WSJ and GQ. He also co-founded Harlem Capital, an early stage venture capital fund that is focused on investing companies founded by people of color and women.Twitter: https://twitter.com/wallstreetpaper//Rachel Carpenter is the Chief Executive Officer and a founding partner of Intrinio, a disruptive financial data platform launched in 2015. Based in the company's Florida office, Rachel has overall responsibility for Intrinio including driving its strategy and position for long term growth. She is an advanced front-end web developer and a graduate of The Starter League Advanced web design course. Rachel graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a BBA in both Finance and Management and minors in Spanish and European Studies. Rachel is a member of the Forbes Finance Council, a member of the Data Coalition advocating for open, structured data, and a Board Member at CASA (Community Action Stops Abuse), the largest domestic violence shelter in Florida.Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rachel_Ann_C//Andy Sparks is the Co-Founder & CEO of Holloway, a new digital publishing company focused on publishing the best knowledge on navigating the challenges of modern work for all to find. Holloway is backed by NEA and The New York Times. Previously, he co-founded Mattermark, a provider of data on private companies that raised more than $17M and sold for far less than that. Andy graduated from The Ohio State University, lives in San Francisco, and will be publishing a book on how to raise venture capital later this summer.Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparksZillaFollow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefm

In this episode of the Impact Michigan podcast, we chat with Henri Pierre-Jacques, Detroit expat and co-founder of Harlem Capital. I ran into him at last Fall's Detroit Homecoming and was fortunate enough to grab him for 30 minutes as he was hustling around meeting Detroit entrepreneurs and investors. We chat about Harlem Capital's mission to fund 1,000 diverse founders, building financial literacy programs in education, overcapitalized startups, and the growth and development of Detroit's startup ecosystem. Presenting Partner: Intermitten is a grassroots, volunteer-operated organization that was founded in 2016. Our mission is to unite the Midwest tech community, thoughtfully nurture its development, and highlight it as a hub of and destination for entrepreneurial talent and innovation. Partner Highlight: Ann Arbor SPARK, a non-profit organization, is advancing the region by encouraging and supporting business acceleration, attraction, and retention. The organization identifies and meets the needs of business at every stage, from start-ups to large organizations. To achieve its mission, Ann Arbor SPARK collaborates with business, academic, government, and community investor partners. For more information, visit www.AnnArborUSA.org. Links: Harlem Capital Intermitten NewFoundry

Hello and welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week, I'm rebroadcasting my conversation with Jarrid Tingle, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Harlem Capital. An early-stage investment firm, Harlem Capital in on a mission to diversify the landscape of entrepreneurs receiving venture funding by supporting women and people of color. As stated in the Forbes feature, the ultimate goal is to fund 1000 founders from diverse backgrounds over the next 20 years. Jarrid and I discussed how they aim to attain that goal, the impetus behind Harlem Capital, and his advice for minority entrepreneurs seeking venture funding. When Jarrid and his friends started angel investing as a side project, they quickly realized that only a small percentage of venture capital and angel funding went to women and entrepreneurs of color. They saw an opportunity to make a huge change in the industry by focusing on early stage investing, since many of the female and minority led businesses weren’t in the asset class that larger firms targeted. Jarrid and his 3 co-founders made the bold and unapologetic decision to start their own firm, and thus Harlem Capital was born. Harlem Capital is committed to transparency, measurable goals, and inspiring their peers to join their mission. “There’s always a lot of competition in this field, but we’re actually better off if more people start funds with similar missions to ours. We don’t just want to take over the market, we also want to grow the pot.” The clear, concise messaging of “1000 founders in the next 20 years” is part of that push, as well as an affirmation of long term engagement. Jarrid has a wealth of advice to offer minority entrepreneurs in search of venture funding: Balance confidence and self awareness. It’s important to display a high level of passion and confidence as a female or minority founder, but also to be aware of, and honest about, any weaknesses. “Don’t get defensive. [Potential investors] are going to ask you a lot of questions. See this for what it is — interest, and a chance to improve — and not a personal attack.” Build a well-rounded team. If you personally lack core competencies such as marketing, human resources, or analytics, seek out someone who fits that role. Know the process, know your numbers. Fundraising can take longer than many people anticipate, but proving your commitment by investing your own money provides a strong signal to investors. A high level of knowledge about both your own business and that of your competitors will also boost investor confidence. Along with funding businesses where they can add value, Harlem Capital is creating a diversity portal via surveys on their site. This database of founders from diverse backgrounds will make it easier for women and founders of color to find investors dedicated to diversity. In addition to reducing friction in the process, this will also give the team a sense of the true landscape of diverse founders across the US. Jarrid, thanks again for coming on the show! If you want to stay informed about what Jarrid and his co-founders are up to, head on over to Twitter. Thanks for tuning in, listeners, and see you next week with a brand new episode! Connect with us Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

After selling his first company at the age of 21, John Henry went on to start his own venture capital fund, Harlem Capital. Now, John’s starring in Hustle on Viceland, a docu-series where he presents small-business owners with big opportunities to grow. On today’s podcast, John shares his entrepreneurial journey before dropping value bombs with the potential to blow up your real estate business. Listen and learn what you need to do in order to position yourself for unrivaled presence in your market and a huge influx of eager new clients. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sit down with creator Matthew Manning to discuss his entrepreneurial journey in launching Gumbo Media.Learn about Gumbo here: https://gumbomedia.com/Connect with us: https://linktr.ee/livingcorporateTRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach with Living Corporate, and yes, you're listening to a B-Side. Now, every episode is someone's first episode, so for our new folks, B-Sides are essentially random shows we have in-between our larger shows. These are much less structured and somehow even more lit than our regularly scheduled shows. Today, we have a special guest - Matthew Manning. Matthew is the co-founder and [inaudible] director of Gumbo Media, a trans-media storytelling platform of curated content and experiences to expand the narrative of black life through various programs, services, and content platforms. Gumbo is amplifying new nuance and more humanity into our stories, creating pipelines that encourage us to speak for ourselves. Today, Gumbo is a coalition of over 60 artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and allies committed to a collective vision of inclusive representation. Matthew, welcome to the show, man.Matthew: Hey, thank you, man. I really appreciate it.Zach: Hey, man, I appreciate you being here, man. Now, look, today we're talking about starting a startup. Talk to us a little bit about your history and how Gumbo started.Matthew: Yeah. I think there are a few ways to tell this story, but to keep it simple, Gumbo, which was formally Royal Media, really emerged from a gap. It was a gap that my co-founder and I, Courtney Phillips, felt--to be honest on a personal level, but it translated into some of the professional. Representation was lacking, even in our jobs, in our classes. You know, anywhere we went that was professional or academic, educational, just social, it felt like we were often wearing a mask, or perhaps more aptly like we were living half of ourselves. And when the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling happened in the same week a few days apart, it was a difficult week for us. They were killed, and we instantly felt this shift that we couldn't come back from. And this had been already--this had already been happening with the deaths of black [inaudible] by the police force and kind of the growth of racial discord, but this heightened those feelings. We were forever changed, and we knew that our work in some way had to reflect it. One of the things that we were saying at the time was, you know, we really feel our tide shifting. And so what we did was we ideated and thought about what is a platform that we can build that allows these stories to be better heard, that allows us to feel like that representation is present in our own spaces? You know, kind of a cross-culture, and so essentially we built a squad of creatives who felt the same way, and then we asked ourselves, you know, how we can build--how we can build a platform and use content and storytelling in unique ways to really amplify the underrepresented, if you will. So additionally, how can we ensure that the voices of everyday people aren't swallowed or silenced by, you know, silencing forces, including sometimes those that are intra-communal, those that are within our own community. And lastly, we thought about how do we ensure that this becomes an equitable platform where others can engage and tell their stories, not merely a stage where we yell out the answers? You know? We don't want to speak for people. We want to create a pipeline and a platform that allows for people to speak for themselves, and that's really where the--you know, where the secret sauce is for us, if you will. We're all exploring, learning, and growing together, and black being has bound us, and so we really wanted to create a space that honors this truth that is consciously committed to amplifying all of its nuances and all of its complexities, especially by offering up space to the creatives among us who really do their thing and allow those expressions to be seen and heard around the world.Zach: Man, that's amazing. So I'm curious, right? So in starting any startup, building any company, you're gonna take your Ls along the way, right? So I'm curious, what were some of the biggest Ls--and I'ma call those Ls lessons, folks--that you've taken in starting a startup?Matthew: Well, this is my second go around, and so a lot of them I gathered from the first and used as kind of fuel for the second, and so some of the things that I think I've really learned are--and I'll speak more to the lesson portion of it. One is strip away your ego, especially as men. I think it's ingrained that, you know, we're kind of conditioned to feel like we know and we have all the authority and the agency and our voice, and so I think it's important to strip away our ego and to understand if we're doing what we're doing for ourselves or for others. I think it's okay to be both, but others should be a part of it, at least if it's something that's socially-minded, right? And for us it's more important that we get content right or that we tell the story in the--in the right way, that we are as inclusive as we can be, than that it is that I'm right, and so I think that's something that has been to remind ourselves of, all of us, but for me that starts with me, especially as kind of a leader in the company along with a few other folks. It's important that I try to be as prideless and egoless as I can be. We can be proud of our work. We can have confidence in our voice, but those voices can't be silencing of other people. Another one is just don't be afraid to fail. In fact, I've learned to really embrace it. Not in the sense that I'm encouraging or that I'm seeking out failure, but in a way I--I suppose in a way I actually am, you know? In a sense that I want to succeed, but I also know and recognize that failing fast and failing forward is one of the fastest ways to grow, you know? It's important to seek out growth. It's important to seek out criticism even, to better understand how we can refine our own processes and things of that nature. So failing, especially as an entrepreneur, allows you to really be the best version of yourself and to implement those lessons moving forward. Beyond that, it's really about doing it for the love, you know? Passion is, I think, the only fuel that's really strong enough to push us through some of these experiences. Being an entrepreneur is hard, man. As you know, it's hard work. You and your team are grinding every day. You're building. When you look at something that you admire, like a company, a movement, a platform, whatever it might be, and you say, "Okay, I want to get there," like, that's a--that's a large question. How do you get from nothing to...Zach: Something.Matthew: Everything that you admire. To something, exactly. It's a hard thing, and so if you're not doing it for the passion, if you're not doing it for the love, then, you know, then I just don't know that you're gonna have enough fuel, enough motivation to push you through all those little moments, all those difficult questions, all those shortcomings, because those are inevitable parts of the journey, and they're actually part of what makes the journey so beautiful. So valuing every step of that journey is a lot easier the second time around, granted, but those are all valuable things to keep in mind for me. Those have been big lessons.Zach: Man, that's a great point. And it's funny because, you know, you and I connected back--initially back when, you know, Gumbo was Royal, and I was working on another--on another nonprofit, and, you know, definitely--this is also my second go around with Living Corporate, right, and trying to figure out and take the lessons learned from my past venture to this, and it's like, okay. You're absolutely right. Like, failing forward, right? And, like, to your point around being passionate and letting that passion drive you, 'cause I can tell you--I mean, I completely vibe with you on the whole "It's a lot of work," and it has to be something you're passionate about because, you know, it's gonna be long days and long nights, and if you don't really, really care, like really care about what you're doing, you know, you'll end up taking time off, you know? Your content gets delayed. You get delayed, and then out of nowhere you look up and you haven't moved anything in a month, right? And a month in an entrepreneur's--a month of no activity in an entrepreneur's world is like a year, right? Like, you've got to keep it going. So--Matthew: Then there's also the comparative sense too, right? Which is that if you don't really care, there's always somebody out there that does care and that cares more and that is putting in that work, and so if you really want to make it, if you want to, you know, make what you're doing a success, if not for yourself then for the others that you're serving, then, you know, you need to put in that--you need to put in that work to get there and be smart about it.Zach: Right. And it's funny, right? So it's--and of course there's a duality in, like, not being so comparative that you end up robbing yourself of your own journey and your own development and driving your thing, but there's still the reality of, like, "Look, there's two people, Matthew, sitting down right now talking about something similar to what you and I are talking about and grinding," right? And there's always somebody else out there trying to--and if the goal is for your platform to grow and get out there, no one's gonna cry for you, right? You have to go, and you have to go get it, and I think--because I'm a Type A in that particular way and I'm a driver that really resonates with me, but like I said earlier, I think you have to kind of balance it between not going to the far end where you end up sapping yourself of the joy of even what you got into it for, you know what I mean?Matthew: Absolutely, I agree.Zach: So let me ask you this. What was the--what was the final push? Let's talk about Gumbo. Let's talk about Gumbo. What was the final push for you to pursue and commit to growing Gumbo full-time? And what all are you working on these days?Matthew: Yeah. So the final push was--I mean, it was interesting, right? 'Cause sometimes I say and think often that, you know, life is like water. I think I heard Will Smith say this someday, and it's just kind of laws of attraction, right? Like, you put in--the energy you put in comes back to you, and life in a lot of ways is kind of like water in that way in that if you make a decision, if you decide what you want to do and you start moving, it'll get out of the way. It'll make a path for you, even if it's masked under something else, right? So when we started at the time what was Royal Media, which our language at the time was celebrating the complexity of black life, which we're still doing, but it's now more embedded in what we're doing, I actually was laid off my full-time job. I was a nonprofit consulting. The company--I won't mention the company, but they've grown. I was part of, you know, an 8-person team that had grown to about 16 people, and then they laid off about three quarters of the workforce in a matter of months, and I was on the front end of that. So it wasn't just me, but I think likely part of the energy I was putting into that job was something that was lackluster. I was doing my job, I was being professional, but I also recognized that what I really wanted to do was this work over here. What I really wanted to do was commit to telling the stories and building the pipelines that allow black folks to really celebrate and honor themselves and each other, and that was passion to me, and I think that was felt, but I also think that was felt, you know, kind of cosmically, in a cosmic sense if you will. And so that was kind of a forced push, but at that time I recognized that, "All right. Well, if I'm already in this space, if I've already kind of taken the jump, even forcibly, maybe it's wise that I use the time that I have here to commit to growing this company as much as I can," especially as one of its co-founders. That's an unfair weight to put on other people, you know? When it's not paid work yet, when it's something that's scaling. It's, like, early, early, early stages of startup life. Maybe I'm the right person to do that, and so I did, and I've kind of continued to grind on that. It hasn't been easy by any--you know, any stretch of the word, but it was simple, right? I think there's a difference between simplicity and [inaudible], and I think we often conflate the two. It's a choice. The choice is simple - do it or don't. The path can be very difficult, and the path has been difficult, but the choice was simple. I knew what I wanted to do and I committed to doing it, and, you know, (tried it?) to say after some time we built enough--Gumbo's essentially an umbrella brand, and so it has other subsidiary groups and companies, and one of them is a creative consultancy, and now I'm one of the full-time consultants in that group. So now I'm starting to pay myself through business revenue to do work that ultimately feeds my soul, feeds my passion, and is a company that I started, and that feels great. And so it's taken some time, but it's becoming sustainable work now for me. And so it was kind of a forcible thing, but it was also energy that I put out there that came back at me and said, "You know what? You're ready for this."Zach: So for those--for those who say they can't afford to pursue their startup full-time, like, what would you say? Right? And if I may ask, like, how did you make it work before you were able to pay yourself?Matthew: Right. It's difficult. I would say that there are--one person I really admire who's hustling in this space, and you guys admire them as well, is John Henry.Zach: Oh, yeah. Shout out to John Henry, straight up.Matthew: Yeah, shout out to John Henry from Harlem Capital. He's doing some amazing work. One thing that he says often is, you know, you can work two things, but the moment that the new thing that you're building is losing money by not committing full-time, that's the moment to transition, and so I think if you have the capacity and you have kind of the agency to be at a job that you can enjoy, that you can continue to grind at while you're building your venture on the side, I think that is a wise choice if you have that--if the energy's there, right? If it fits, until there's a moment, and you'll know when that moment comes. Like, you'll know when you're actually being a detriment to your venture because you'll feel that your energy is the most valuable asset you have, and so there will come a shifting moment where you can make that shift and take that plunge. Beyond that though, I would say it's really about thinking creatively about your capacity and about what you're able to do, you know? Especially as creatives. A lot of us have skills that are accessible and valuable as freelancers. I mean, we've started this consultancy, and I know that this is a part of what's paying us now, but the valuable feedback that I recognized in that--you know, stepping back for a moment is that we have a pool of creatives who are looking for work, and a whole lot of business is coming to us asking for work to be done. So there is work out there ready to be accomplished. There are people who are requesting services, and so there are ways to kind of creatively find, you know, services to help pay you and support you while you're building what you're doing. Maybe it's about living a life that's a little bit more--a little bit more frugal, living a life that's a little bit more reserved, you know? But you can make it kind of on a part-time basis depending on what your expenses are and what you're doing to buy yourself that time so that you can open up as much flexibility and time as possible during the day. You know, I didn't think about how much of a privilege it was that I could have a meeting any literally time of the day, you know? If I'm working 9-to-5, a lot of people don't want to meet--a lot of business people specifically, new partners, potential investors, they don't want to meet after 5:00, they don't want to meet on the weekends, and, like, I don't know what my solution would be to that apart from taking off time from work if I had a full-time job. So I do think there is a moment when you know that a plunge is necessary to take that next step, you know? Businesses are all about plateaus. Well, they're all about growth, but every growth curve has a plateau unless you make another shift, unless you, you know, invite new kind of breath, new life, new wind into the company, and for me I recognize that in order to take this to the next level, I need to take a step, and I need to do this for myself passion-wise and joy-wise, but also for the team in terms of the work that we're doing. So it's just about being creative, and that's kind of what I did. So I did some graphic design, I did some editing, content creation, things of that nature, you know? But I'd be lying if I said it was easy. It was not easy. It was one of the harder things I've ever done, but it paid off.Zach: Man, that's amazing. So look, before we let you go, do you have any shout outs or any parting words?Matthew: Yeah. I mean, I would love to shout out the squad always. Courtney, Andre, [inaudible], Amir, Asia, Mike, John, [inaudible]...Zach: Let's get some air horns for the team, for the squad.[Sound Man throws 'em in]Matthew: Yeah. I mean, we do it all collectively, you know? And I feel blessed to call these people my family. I guess what I would say is to get yourself a squad, you know? Failure, I think, is easier when it's shared. Triumphs are more fun when they're collective, but also strategy becomes easier, I think, for a startup to fill. Like, when you're filling an asset map, when you're filling all of the things that you're capable of doing, it's easy when you have a team. It's more enjoyable, and I think it's a great way to understand that, you know, my skills may not be in finance per se, but I'm great at this [inaudible] stuff. I'm great at people. I'm great at programs. This person's great at event curation. This person's great at content. So once you start building and assembling that, that's really where it's kind of the shortcut--there are no shortcuts, but it's the faster route, I guess, to finding a more equitable and well-rounded form of success for whatever your business might be, and so that would be my parting words. Those people I love, I'm fortunate to call them family, and I encourage you to get you some of your own.Zach: That's so dope, man. Well, look, that does it for us, guys. Thank you for joining us on the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at LivingCorporate, Twitter at LivingCorp_Pod, and subscribe to our newsletter through www.livingcorporate.com. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We're gonna just cut all that out. So let me ask--oh, we're gonna cut this 'cause I want to make sure you plug Gumbo, like--Matthew: Oh, yeah.Zach: So I know you gave your parting words, Matthew, but man, we didn't even plug Gumbo. Like, where can people find out more about the platform? Like, plug all your stuff, man. Drop some air horns for Matthew real quick, and then let's go ahead and plug your stuff, brother. Where you at?[Sound Man complies]Matthew: [laughs] Yeah, appreciate that. You know, the best way to find us across the board is GumboMedia.com. We were lucky to get a solid domain, excited about that since we kind of rebranded and relaunched a lot of our mission, and so everything is housed there. You'll find access to all of our content, all of our social, all of that stuff at GumboMedia.com. You can find us on Gumbo Media just by searching really any platform. So yeah, we're--you know, we're out here. We're creating. We're always inviting collaboration, innovation, so reach out, you know? Get involved if you're interested. We have about 60 creatives that we're working with and a core team of about 6 or 7, but we're scaling and building and always looking to build, so hit us up.Zach: Awesome. Well, look, that does it for us, folks. Thank you for joining us on the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure to follow us on Instagram at LivingCorporate, Twitter at LivingCorp_Pod, and subscribe to our newsletter through living-corporate.com. If you have a question that you would like for us to answer and read on the show, make sure you email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. This has been Zach, and you've been talking with Matthew Manning, founder of Gumbo Media. Peace.Matthew: Peace.Kiara: Living Corporate is a podcast by Living Corporate, LLC. Our logo was designed by David Dawkins. Our theme music was produced by Ken Brown. Additional music production by Antoine Franklin from Musical Elevation. Post-production is handled by Jeremy Jackson. Got a topic suggestion? Email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. You can find us online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and living-corporate.com. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned.

Hello and welcome back to Tech Forward, listeners! This week I spoke with Jarrid Tingle, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Harlem Capital. An early-stage investment firm, Harlem Capital in on a mission to diversify the landscape of entrepreneurs receiving venture funding by supporting women and people of color. As stated in the Forbes feature, the ultimate goal is to fund 1000 founders from diverse backgrounds over the next 20 years. Jarrid and I discussed how they aim to attain that goal, the impetus behind Harlem Capital, and his advice for minority entrepreneurs seeking venture funding. When Jarrid and his friends started angel investing as a side project, they quickly realized that only a small percentage of venture capital and angel funding went to women and entrepreneurs of color. They saw an opportunity to make a huge change in the industry by focusing on early stage investing, since many of the female and minority led businesses weren’t in the asset class that larger firms targeted. Jarrid and his 3 co-founders made the bold and unapologetic decision to start their own firm, and thus Harlem Capital was born. Harlem Capital is committed to transparency, measurable goals, and inspiring their peers to join their mission. “There’s always a lot of competition in this field, but we’re actually better off if more people start funds with similar missions to ours. We don’t just want to take over the market, we also want to grow the pot.” The clear, concise messaging of “1000 founders in the next 20 years” is part of that push, as well as an affirmation of long term engagement. Jarrid has a wealth of advice to offer minority entrepreneurs in search of venture funding: Balance confidence and self awareness. It’s important to display a high level of passion and confidence as a female or minority founder, but also to be aware of, and honest about, any weaknesses. “Don’t get defensive. [Potential investors] are going to ask you a lot of questions. See this for what it is — interest, and a chance to improve — and not a personal attack.” Build a well-rounded team. If you personally lack core competencies such as marketing, human resources, or analytics, seek out someone who fits that role. Know the process, know your numbers. Fundraising can take longer than many people anticipate, but proving your commitment by investing your own money provides a strong signal to investors. A high level of knowledge about both your own business and that of your competitors will also boost investor confidence. Along with funding businesses where they can add value, Harlem Capital is creating a diversity portal via surveys on their site. This database of founders from diverse backgrounds will make it easier for women and founders of color to find investors dedicated to diversity. In addition to reducing friction in the process, this will also give the team a sense of the true landscape of diverse founders across the US. Jarrid, thanks again for coming on the show! I can’t wait to see where you and your team take Harlem Capital in the years to come. Thanks for tuning in, listeners, and see you next week!

In this final episode of “Where Do You Exist?”, three New Yorkers share their personal stories. Comedian, activist and author Baratunde Thurston relives the discovery of family secrets; Writer, director and producer Lacey Schwartz tells us her experience learning the truth about her identity; and a special guest speaker, entrepreneur and Harlem Capital venture partner John Henry, joins us in the studio to describe the struggles his family faced growing up.

Having already garnered recognition from the likes of Black Enterprise, Complex, Esquire, GQ, and The Fader, Brandon Bryant is now leveraging his collective talents as an entrepreneur, social media influencer, and investor. With the help of his partners at Harlem Capital, Brandon and his team are on a mission to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse entrepreneurs over the next 20 years. In this episode of the Driven Minds Podcast, Brandon shares some advice for students who are currently enrolled in college, talks about the importance of investing in diverse entrepreneurs, and discusses the difficulty that often comes with building a billion-dollar empire. What did you think? Send us a tweet! Share the episode with a friend that needs the inspiration and thank us later!​ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/drivensocietypodcast/support