WHERE’S THE FUNDING?

My guest today is Ropa Murombo, dog-mom, tech entrepreneur and co-founder and COO of Feniska, a company that builds innovative solutions for pets and pet parents that bring the Pet-Tech industry to new heights. Ropa was born in Harare - a city of hustlers. The entrepreneurial gene was embedded in her at a young age as she grew up surrounded by people who are hardworking and enterprising. Ropa was introduced to the world of tech while she was studying International Business in Berlin. Since then, she has had a passion for the creation of digital products that create unique customer experiences and simplify the lives of those who use them. Her creativity, attention to detail and love for extensive research make her an asset to Feniska's Go-To-Market strategy. Ropa co-founded Feniska to create a new world for pet parents to be able to improve the wellbeing of their pets and identify health problems early.

Did you know its estimated the US pet industry reached $99 billion in 2020? Globally, the pet care market has grown to $261 billion in 2022; up from $245 billion in 2021 and is estimated to increase to $350 billion by 2027.

In this episode we discuss:

How Ropa and her co-founder are disrupting the pet health space with their innovative technology
Some hot tips for pet parents
The type of culture they are creating at Feniska as women (of color) in tech
The importance of leading with empathy and creating inclusive workspaces; and
The funding strategy they are pursuing for Feniska.

To learn more about Ropa, follow her on Instagram at chancetheropa, on LinkedIn as Ropafadzo Muromba. Learn more about Feniska at www.feniska.com . Follow the Feniska page on LinkedIn and the Feniska.app page on Instagram.
To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating, a review, download or share this episode.
Join me next Friday for a new episode on the ALIVE Podcast Network and subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Brian Aoaeh is a Cofounder and General Partner of Refashiond Ventures, an emerging venture fund manager that invests in early-stage supply chain technology. He cofounded the New York Supply Chain Meetup and the WordWide Supply Chain Federation. He is an adjunct professor of Supply Chain and Operations Management at the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University and a VC in Residence at Genius Guild, Greenhouse Fund and a Venture Partner at Newark Venture Partners.

The past ran on supply chains. The present runs on supply chains. The future will run on supply chains. The world is a supply chain. This is the mantra of my guest who was recently named by Flexport among the 55 supply chain and logistics experts you should know and was nicknamed "The Elon Musk of Logistics Technology" on Twitter.

In this episodse we discuss:

His experience working in Family Offices and Venture Capital investing
All things supply chain technology; and
His fundraising experience as a VC raising a first fund

I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating, a review, download or share this episode. Learn more about Refashiond Ventures at https://www.refashiond.com and follow Brian on all social media platforms at Brian Laung Aoaeh but especially on LinkedIn and on Twitter!

Join me next Friday for a new episode on the ALIVE Podcast Network and subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Curtis May is the host of The Practical Wealth Show Podcast and the creator and owner of Practical Wealth Advisors. For more than 35 years, Custis has been passionate about helping his clients save money and live their very best life, right now. His primary focus is to help individuals and families become financially free by following the principles of wealth creation that have endured for centuries around the world. His "Money for Life" framework helps business owners and entrepreneurs find where and how they are losing money unintentionally and how to stop it from continuing.

In this episode we discuss:
The Money for Life Formula
-Get Money
-Bank It (Store It)
-Spend It on Assets that Generate Cash Flow; and
-Repay Your Bank (You) With Interest
Four Pillar of a Sound Personal Economy
-Freedom from Debt to Others
-Ready Cash When You Neet It (Liquidity)
-Asset-Based Income
-Legacy of Wealth and Wisdom

The 4 Rules of Traditional Banks and Wall Street and Why they Work Against You:
Privatized Banking
Cash Flow Mapping; and
Quick Tips on Personal Finance
To learn more about Custis, visit his website Practical Wealth Advisors and follow him on LinkedIn. Follow the Practical Wealth Show Podcast on major podcast platforms and Practical Wealth TV on Youtube.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating, a review, download or share this episode.
Join me next Friday for a new episode on the ALIVE Podcast Network and subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Marketing By Monrae is the owner of Rare Necessity Brand Management LLC, a published author, and a digital marketing maven. Opening her firm in 2013 as a sophomore in college, Monrae designed Rare Necessity with the intention of creating a space where creatives will have the tools and resources to help make their businesses successful. Since the firms
inception, she has assisted thousands of entrepreneurs with creating and growing profitable and scalable businesses.

With a passion for out of the box marketing, her unique approach to overall business development using guerrilla marketing tactics, business management, and digital marketing, Monrae has been able to collaborate with several business owners and socialites to increase their revenue to well over 300% within the first 90 days of working together.

In 2020, the firm extended its reach through the Millionaire Mob University brands offering products and services that assist everyday entrepreneurs with making marketing simple by utilizing the combination of data and creativity. Since the creation of the University Monrae has helped her students earn $13m + with the strategic marketing tactics that youre about to learn today

What you will learn from Monrae in this episode:
What are the 3 biggest marketing challenges that people who seek her services have and how she helps overcome those challenges?
The top 5 marketing mistakes that small businesses owners make and what can they do to avoid them.
Key advice from her TEDx Talk "No One Cares About Your Talent" tips on mastering marketing.
Her Content and Traffic membership program and how strategic marketing dampaigns allow entrepreneurs to do all marketing tasks on a monthly basis
5 simple marketing hacks that small businesses should use to help their businesses thrive?

To learn more about Monrae, visit her website at marketingbymonrae.com, follow her on Instagram at marketingnymonrae where she has over 124,000 followers and all platforms. Click here https://marketingbymonrae.refersion.com/affiliate/registration or text MOB to 81397 to take advantage of Monraes generous offer to an excerpt of her Content Planner FREE to help you plan your content.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating, a review, download or share this episode.
Join us next Friday for a new episode on the ALIVE Podcast Network and subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.
Join me next Friday for another episode.

Nick Davis, is the Founder and CEO (Chief Chocolate Officer) of One One Cacao. One One Cacao is an internationally recognized, award-winning small-batch chocolate company based in St Mary, Jamaica. He is also a member of the Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective, a collection of Black Chocolate makers that is is rewriting the narrative, and decolonizing the chocolate market bean by bean. Their innovative model enables members to cultivate the fruit, process the beans, temper the couverture, and sell their own chocolate.

What you will learn from Nick in this episode:
Some key facts that chocolate consumers need to know about the chocolate industry and the chocolate supply chain.
His fundraising journey for One One Cacao.
How the Transatlantic Chocolate Collective is creating a space in the chocolate industry for Black chocolate makers.
Some of the biggest challenges and opportunities as a startup in the chocolate industry filled with big multinational players.
What he is most hopeful about in the startup chocolate sector.

To learn more about Nick, visit his website at oneonecacao.com and follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at one one cacao.
Visit chocolaterebellion.com to learn more about the Transatlantic Chocolate Collective.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating, a review, download and/or share this episode.
Join me next Friday for a new episode on the ALIVE Podcast Network and subscribe on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.
Join me next Friday for another episode.

Keith Daniel and Tom Droege are intentional about funding Black entrepreneurs and bringing more equity to venture capital. They stop by WHERE'S THE FUNDING? to discuss inequalities in the VC ecosystem, whether the VC model is suitable for Black entrepreneurs, and what they are doing to create access to funding for Black founders.

Through Resilient Ventures, the co-founders, have built a reputation of action and integrity. Their early-stage venture fund exists to show that VC can be a good model for Black founders if it is done differently, and by differently they mean more equitably. Black entrepreneurs often do not have the opportunity or privilege to raise friends and family rounds and often grow slower (despite being in business for a while) because they do not have the opportunity to raise funding to scale and grow.

Her series A round took 9 years to raise overdue but right on time. Afffiong Williams stops by WHERE'S THE FUNDING? to discuss her nine-year journey to raising Series A funding, the role trust and vision played during the wait, her advice for women in agribusiness, and how to meet the $200 billion demand for finance for agribusinesses. If slow and steady wins the race was a person, it would be Affiong Williams. Managing devaluations and macroeconomic instability in Nigeria, limited production capacity, and supply chain difficulties are a regular part of doing business for Affiong.

Despite the many challenges she kept going, remained steadfast, trusted herself, and believed in her vision. While she waited she learned how to be agile, resilient, and capital efficient. In 2021, her $3M+ series A raise put her in a small and celebrated group of African single female founders who raised more than $1M.

What you'll learn from Affiong in this episode:

Follow Affiong on LinkedIn. To learn more about ReelFruit visit reelfruit.com, follow on Linkedin, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook at ReelFruit.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

"The power of us as women fund managers controlling the capital, controlling the decision, I think that's quite transformational." Ada Osakwe

This investor is reducing barriers for African women entrepreneurs with her new franchising program. Ada Osakwe, the Founder & Chief Executive of Agrolay Ventures an early-stage VC fund, and Nuli, a food, and beverage company stops by WHERE'S THE FUNDING? to talk about why she invests in African women entrepreneurs, her own entrepreneurship journey, and her Nuli Amazon franchising program.

What you'll learn from Ada in this episode:

To learn more about Agrolay Ventures visit www.agrolay.com and www.nulilounge.com. Follow Ada on Instagram at Ada Osakwe (spell out name) and on LinkedIn.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

"If DEI is put as this divorced and separate thing over here, it won't last." Aiko Bethea

DEI influencer Aiko Bethea stops by WHERE'S THE FUNDING? to discuss the need for more transformational DEI in the current funding ecosystem and what needs to happen to make it more equitable. DEI as a field has been around since the late 1960s but has become a trending term since the summer of racial reckoning in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is a term used to describe policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals, including people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, genders, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations. An analogy used to describe DEI is:

The funding ecosystem and VC in particular have a DEI problem. It is plagued with inequality and a lack of (but growing in recent years) diversity of women investors and investors of color. The lack of diversity and lack of intentionality about creating more equity perpetuates a system that continues to be fueled by implicit and explicit biases that systematically deny funding to people of color specifically Black entrepreneurs and Black women entrepreneurs in particular faring the worst.

What you'll learn from Aiko in this episode:

To learn more about Aiko, visit her website at rarecoaching.net, follow her on Facebook at rarecoach, on Instagram at rare_coach, and follow her on LinkedIn.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

"The boostrapping life is not cool, so yes, please take the money." Walle Mafolasire

The secrets to bootstrapping are revealed. Walle Mafolasire (pronounced Wall-AY Mafo-LAH-shee-ray) stops by WHERE' THE FUNDING? to share his bootstrapping journey and why you shouldn't if you don't have to, and what he thinks is the hardest part of bootstrapping.

Tom Preston-Werner is quoted as saying that "bootstrapping is a way to do something about the problems you have without letting someone else give you permission to do them". Wale didn't wait for VCs to give him permission to solve a major problem for many churches, nonprofits, and causes that were looking for opportunities to fundraise.

He solved the problem by bootstrapping the growth of Givelify when he struck out with VCs. Today Givelify is the most popular online and mobile giving platform with an easy donation app and a powerful donation management system.

What you'll learn from Walle in this episode:

To learn more about Givelify visit givelify.com or download the app in the App Store or on Google Play.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.