WHERE’S THE FUNDING?

By WTF (Where Is The Funding?!) PodcastBusiness Entrepreneurship

WHERE’S THE FUNDING? episodes

May 20, 2022This Nurse is Relentlessly Building the Next Billion-Dollar Tech Startup with Funding From the Healthcare Community with Keisha Manning S4 Ep.1
"I will not allow a $75K decision to stop a billion-dollar vision" Keisha Manning
This spirited Jamaican-American is on a mission and success for her is non-negotiable. Keisha Manning stops by WHERE'S THE FUNDING? to talk about the tech company she is building, her funding journey, and why she thinks it will be a billion-dollar company. Keisha spent more than a decade as a BSN RN and has seen firsthand the devastating effects of short staffing in hospitals as a result of travel nurses quitting assignments due to unsafe housing conditions.
The idea for starting NursesBnB came when one of her traveling nurses quit because he spent five days sleeping in his car because he could not find adequate housing where he was assigned. For her, becoming a billion-dollar startup is non-negotiable and funding difficulties will not stand in her way.
In this episode Keisha discusses:
Her fundraising journey and why she had to do an on-the-spot convertible note when she introduced the concept for NursesBnB at a healthcare convention.
How the platform went viral with only an MVP and no marketing.
Why it is important that NursesBnB stay true to its mission and have healthcare workers as investors.
What's in store for NursesBnB 2.0 and how you might be able to become an investor.
To learn more about Nursesbnb, visit nursesbnb.com and follow nursesbnb on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.
22 min
April 15, 2022How I Conquered Fear of Rejection and Increased Funding for My Business with Hadija Jabiri S3 Ep.14
Trust is an important component of fundraising between the investor and investee and it is a two-way relationship. Investors require due diligence from founders but it is equally important for founders to do their own due diligence on the investor they are pursuing. This is to ensure that they can trust and like the person or company they are entering into a business marriage with. Both investor and investee must feel as if they are in a relationship based on trust.
What you will learn from this episode:
Often investors (or grant donors) do not like to be the first to invest in a business, they are often looking to see who else has supported the business and deemed it investible or fundable before deciding if they are interested.
The first investor or funder often unlocks the door for more to follow.
Rejection is a key component of fundraising. Handling rejection is the #1 skill which will help an entrepreneur. Pursuing grant funding is a numbers game. For every 20 proposals there are about 16 or 17 rejections and only 3 yes so do not be deterred by any.
You have to get through the no to get to the yes.
Due diligence is a two-way process.
Hadija Jabiri is the founder and managing director of GBRI Business Solutions and its EatFresh brand. GBRI brand EatFresh is a horticultural company that specializes in growing vegetables (French beans, snow peas, sugar snap, and baby corn) for both local and international markets. Currently, GBRI Business Solutions exports to countries like Ireland and the United Kingdom. Hadija received a total of $1M in funding so far from Development Finance Institutions, commercial banks, and investors such as USAID; MEDA; The Netherlands Embassy; and Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank.
Guest Contact: LinkedIn: Hadija Jabiri; Instagram: EatFresh Tanzania Facebook: EatFresh Tanzania; Website: www.eatfresh.co.tz Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, send an email to [email protected].
Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and turn on notifications.
If you like this episode, like, rate, review, download, or share it.
Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie
Join us for the next episode!
50 min
April 11, 2022 Why I'm Avoiding Venture Capital to Build an ESG- Focused Company with Javion Blake S3 Ep.13
Javion Blake is a globally-minded problem solver with an inclination towards value creation through using underutilized resources and developing strategic partnerships. Javion is an engineer with a professional record of accomplishment of creating novel and innovative solutions for real-world challenges across several industries including air purification, mining Capex machinery, medical device design, and natural food supply chain design and development.Originally from Jamaica, Javion migrated to the United States to pursue a tertiary level education in engineering after transferring from the University of Technology, Jamaica. As an adopted Coloradoan, Javion is the WorldDenver Young Professional Chairperson and serves as a strategic advisor on the Advisory Board of the World Trade Center Denver consulting on matters related to experiences gained as immigrant entrepreneurs in International Trade. In conjunction with his community involvement, he consults immigrant entrepreneurs exploring businesses in International Trade. As an innovative pioneer, he founded Jus Chill which is a brand known internationally as the conveyor of commercialized Breadfruit by-products in the Western US mainland. Starting from an idea in 2019, Breadfruit chips have been shipped to over 45 states in the United States less than two years later developing the first trade route and commercial operation for the fruit between Colorado and Jamaica.What you will learn from this episode: That the breadfruit plant is described as a tropical potato that grows on a tree instead of in the ground, it is in the mulberry family (that was surprising to learn) and it is a gluten-free, grain-free, and low glycemic superfood that is a good alternative to certain other starches and grain-based products The Jus Chill company endeavors to equally center People, Planet, and Profits in its operations and seek to provide financial value back to producers at the base of the value chain and ensure that its operations are not harmful to the planet while ensuring that the company becomes profitable and sustainable. Jus Chill is currently bootstrapping without venture or impact investment backing until it can find the right investors that are fully aligned with its 3 P (People, Planet and Profit) focus. Jus Chill currently has two major product lines breadfruit chips and breadfruit pancake mix and is currently developing other product lines To order Jus Chill products visit 123juschill.com to order or on Amazon as the company strives to get into distribution into major retail stores across the US.Social Media: Instagram: iifoods_juschill Facebook: iifoodsThanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at [email protected] to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!
44 min
April 01, 2022M&T Bank Helped Me Go From Selling Goods From My Trunk to a Supermarket Owner with Perpetual Amoah and Mballou Conde-Kouyate S3 Ep.12
Perpetual Amoah, is the founder and owner of Kaneshie Market LLC, a retailer, and wholesaler of authentic African, the Caribbean, and Latin American groceries and products. What started in 2017 as an operation run from Perpetuals car in 2017 has become a 2700 sq. ft. store with ample inventory for her clients. In the beginning, Perpetual would drive to church and to people's homes to sell African groceries and products. As she learned the significance that these products had on her community, and she gained the trust of her clients from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, Perpetual evolved her business to run from the basement of her garage.
Soon it became clear that she would need to expand her business. Today, Perpetuals Supermarket carries authentic goods for her community, but perhaps more importantly, it demonstrates that business growth and ownership is possible for a determined immigrant woman entrepreneur.
What you will learn from this episode:
A well-structured working business plan with well-projected growth numbers is key when applying for commercial bank credit. A good business plan signals to the lender how serious you are about your business and that you have put significant thought into it.
Financial accounting and organized ledgers aid the financial projections used for the business plan. It is also important to get a qualified accountant to help you organize your financial accounting records and do the projects for your business plan if you are not skilled to do it on your own.
The 5 Cs of Commercial Credit:
Character: your past performance with your credit obligation, that is how you manage your personal and your business credit.
Capacity: is the business doing well? Does it generate sufficient cash flow? Are the projections from the business plan reasonable?
Capital: does the entrepreneur have anything to contribute to the deal, any cash set aside? In essence, a down payment on the loan like one would do when purchasing a house.
Collateral: whether you have property or assets to pledge to secure the loan.
Contingency: does what the borrower is asking for make sense?
As an African immigrant not doing anything is not an option, - Perpetual Amoah
It takes a network to scale a business, - Mballou Conde- Kouyate.
Guest Contact:
Website: https://kaneshiemarketusa.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaneshiemarketusa
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaneshiemarketusa
WhatsApp: https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=18328916619
Phone: (443) 470-5185 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review, and share.
40 min
March 18, 2022Why Funding Immigrant Founders is Good for the American Economy with Chinedu Enekwe S3 Ep.11
Chinedu Enekwe is a Partner at Passbook Ventures, the VC for diverse New Americans & global founders, investment fund advisor, securities attorney, and startup mentor. Passbook is a brand new VC fund investing in the future of commerce (consumer, retail, and finance technologies) creating market access for the next generation of internet users with checks at $500k to $2M in Seed &, Seed+ rounds. We back founder that tap into the pulse of global human connections to build once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
What you will learn from this episode:
How Chindu is raising funds for Passbook Ventures to give diverse immigrant founders access to capital to achieve outcomes quicker and circumvent time theft (the time that they spend underfunded and looking for capital to achieve the results and scale that they are capable of) Passbook Ventures gender lens and why gender diversity has never been an issue for Chinedu.
The diversity thesis: Underfunded founders tend to be more capital efficient and can outperform competitors because they are better equipped to operate in a lean environment
There is talent everywhere and if you distribute capital in the same way that talent is distributed, then you would be able to get returns and the fund managers who are diverse have the highest access to those opportunities.
How your personal branding helps fundraising outcomes.
Guest Contact: LinkedIn: Chinedu Enekwe Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.
Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at [email protected].
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram.
Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie.
Join us for the next episode!
37 min
March 11, 2022Obama Speech Writer and Developer of the Technology Behind iHeart Radio Talks Fundraising for His Latest Venture, Nedl with Ayinde Alakoye S3 Ep.10
Ayinde Alakoye is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of his third live broadcast radio streaming venture, nedl the AI-powered search engine for live audio broadcast. He is a TechCrunch contributor, an Executive Board Member of the Applications Development Alliance, and was a recipient of the 50th Anniversary March on Washington Emancipation of Capital Award with Mark Cuban and Congressman John Lewis.
Ayinde served as a speech contributor and message advisor to Senator Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign. A decade prior, he began his media career at the #1 revenue-generating radio station in the country, WTOP, before setting sales records for Clear Channel at KFI AM 640 (the #1 rated Radio Station in the United States) and CBS (Howard Stern), respectively. Ayinde started Thumb Radio with his business partner to stream every radio station on the planet to your cell phone in 2003. That technology later evolved into a partnership with his former employer, Clear Channel, which became the first iteration of the iheartradio app.
What you will learn from this episode:
How the Nedl app is revolutionizing the airwaves
How Black investors are creating opportunities for Black founders
How the Google Black Founders Fund helped came with just-in-time support for nedl.
Investors do not always know how to spot a good thing so don't be discouraged when they don't.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at [email protected].
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram.
Follow Michelle on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie
Join us for the next episode!
31 min
March 04, 2022This Engineer+Investor is Raising a $30M Pan-African VC Fund to Help Confident+Smart Women Bring Needed Solutions to Market with Hema Vallabh S3 Ep. 9
Hema Vallabh is a chemical engineer, social entrepreneur, a visionary thought-leader, and now a venture capitalist. Over the past 16 years, Hema has been building an ecosystem supporting, developing, and investing in FemaleFounders through WomEng (to develop the next generation of female engineering leaders in Africa) and WomHub (a co-working space and e-Learning Hub that host various gender parity programs). Now, she is undertaking the next giant leap - this time into the VC space and has launched Five35 Ventures - a pan-African female-focused seed-stage fund investing in tech-enabled businesses.
What you will learn in this episode:
Own your awesome: as a woman you are confident and smart enough to bring needed solutions to the market as an investor, as an entrepreneur, or as both! High achieving women also experience imposter syndrome, the difference is that they dont allow it to stop them.
Surround yourself with people who remind you frequently to own your awesomeness. How Hemas 35ver club is giving women access and opportunity to become investors and limited partners through initiatives and be a part of the funding solution for women founders.
If you recognize a problem, dont just complain about the problem, become a part of the solution.
Learn more about how Five35 Ventures is democratizing access for women to become VC investors and learn how you can play a role in investing in women founders as a limited partner and join the 35ver club!
Guest Contact: Email: [email protected] Website: https://www.five35.ventures LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/five35-ventures/ Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.
Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at [email protected]. Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram
Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie
Join us for the next episode!--- This episode is sponsored by Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.
https://anchor.fm/app
38 min
February 25, 2022Why More Female Accredited Investors Should Become Angel Investors with Lisa Friedlander and Stephanie Marshall S3 Ep. 8
Lisa Friedlander is an attorney, entrepreneur, and angel investor. After practicing corporate and telecommunications law for 15+ years in both large and small firms, as well as serving in a VP General Counsel role for a satellite telecom company. She co-founded Activity Rocket in 2013, an aggregated marketplace for kids activities and summer camps. It was acquired in 2017 by Thrively, a west coast edtech company. Lisa is also a founding member and serves on the Board of Directors for Citrine Angels. Lisa joined Shulman Rogers to help launch and grow the NEXT Platform that supports the legal needs of startups and emerging businesses. Lisa is a mentor and speaker for a variety of entrepreneurship and investment groups and sits on the advisory board for several startups.
Stephanie Marshall is the founder & CEO of M3 Advisors, a boutique innovation consultancy focused on the intersectionality of market trends and tech disruption. From leading an innovation team at a Fortune 15 corporation through the challenging process of developing and marketing patented products to refining early-stage offerings at startups, Stephanie is an industry-recognized leader in successfully bringing innovative services to market. A passionate advocate of female entrepreneurship and innovation, Stephanie is co-founder and board president of Citrine Angels, a DC-based angel group of women investing in women. She also supports closing the funding gap via Portfolia, W Fund, Backstage, Gaingels, and others.
What you will learn from this episode:
Why and how to join Citrine Angels is you are a female accredited investor.
How Citrine Angels is making betting on women achievable for accredited women to become investors
How female angels are closing the funding gap for women (VCs need to catch up!)
Men's Role in Gender Lens Investing and Improving Access to Capital for Female Founders
Why Storytelling Is Important When Fundraising
What is required to build investor trust: authenticity, knowing your business market and understanding your numbers, honesty, etc.
Things CA investors consider when evaluating a pitch: is an idea/business scalable? Is it disruptive in a value-added or unique way? What big personal or socio-economic problem is it solving for the market?
The importance of giving grace or constructive feedback to promising founders when they miss the mark when pitching.
The 3 Risks Citrine Angels look for when evaluating a pitch beyond a good story
Capital Risk: is the founder getting funding and how hard has it been to fundraise. Does the business require a ton of capital for execution and to be successful? Is there a chance the business could run out of money before the founder can raise again?
Product Risk: Product-market fit - is there a real problem that the business is solving, what is the addressable market for the problem? Is this the solution to that problem?
Execution Risk: How strong is the team and do they have what it takes to execute for success? Do the team members have the right background?
Once the 3 boxes are checked investors feel confident to move on to due diligence and perhaps ultimately write a check.
Join us for the next episode!
45 min
February 18, 2022Why Angel Investing is Addictive with Angel Investors Tasha Jones and Aurelia Flores S3 Ep.7
Aurelia Flores is Board Secretary for Citrine Angels. She is a Venture Partner at New Markets Venture Partners. Prior to joining New Markets, Aurelia played a key role on corporate acquisition teams for a Fortune 500 company after graduating from Stanford Law School in the mid-90s. She has over 20 years of experience building and supporting businesses, putting together strategic partnerships, creating business plans/models, obtaining SBA and angel/VC funding, as well as working on M&A activity when a company is ready to grow or exit. She also co-founded a digital marketing agency, the Athena Digital Media Group, combining her knowledge of marketing and business helping high-growth clients to scale and grow. Aurelia became a Member of the Pipeline Angels network of women and non-binary femme investors in 2016, and in 2019 helped to co-found Citrine Angels, an angel group of women investing in women. Aurelia is also the co-host of the Get Found Get Funded podcast.
Latarshia (Tasha) Jones is a U.S. Navy Veteran and Founder of Twenty39, a data-focused professional services firm leveraging over twenty years experience primarily in the U.S. Federal, Defense, and Intelligence market space. Tasha is a recognized problem solver and data champion, adept at translating complex business and technical concepts into simple, mission-focused messages and implementations. From scaling multi-million-dollar, functional diverse global portfolios to spearheading multiple high-visibility project turnaround efforts for major IT systems and processes at the US Department of Justice, Ms. Jones is an industry-recognized leader in developing data-informed solutions, turning around off the rail projects and just getting the job done! As an ardent champion of entrepreneurship and innovation, Tasha mentors with FedTech a venture firm at the intersection of entrepreneurship, breakthrough technologies, and mission-driven organizations; and is a Citrine Angels board member, a DC-based angel group of women investing in women.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Why more women are needed as angels and other types of investors and the value of women investors supporting women founders.
How Citrine Angels and flexible and beginner-friendly safe space for newer investors to come amongst other women that are like-minded.
Citrine Angels use an SPV vehicle (single-purpose partnerships where a group of investors comes together to fund a specific opportunity. These were designed primarily for large deals that go beyond an investor's individual capacity for investment) that is utilized to allow women who may not have much money to invest in angel deals individually to participate and help create greater access to finance for women founders and gain the benefits of better terms by going in on a bigger deal using an SVP that they would have been able to do individually.
What it means to be venture backable.
What Citrine Angels look for from founders who pitch them.
How crowdfunding campaigns (depending on how they are structured) could adversely impact raising VC or other funds later.
Sales still are and will always be one of the best ways to fund your business organically before seeking an angel, VC, or other funding.
Grants are also a good source of financing for early-stage businesses.
How to get more information about Citrine Angels and join if you are interested.
Please contact us at [email protected] with feedback, to be a guest or a sponsor.
55 min
February 11, 2022Learn Why Deal Flow to African Startups Has Been Growing with Africa: The Big Deal Co-Founder Max Cuvellier S3 Ep.6
Max is the co-founder of Africa: The Big Deal database and newsletter that tracks and publishes data on deal flow to African startups. He is also Head of Mobile for Development (M4D) at GSMA, which is singularly positioned at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector to drive innovation in digital technology to reduce inequalities in our world, enabled by partnerships with forward-thinking donors and a team of 130 passionate professionals. Max joined GSMAin 2012 and held positions within various programs. He initially helped mobile operators and partners design solutions to ensure women in emerging markets do not get left out of the digital economy as part of the Connected Women program. He later headed the Ecosystem Accelerator and M4D Utilities programs which have allocated a combined $22 million in grant funding to 85 ventures in 40+ countries across Africa and Asia; these ventures had since collectively raised $450+ million in additional funding and impacted more than 10 million citizens as of January 2020.
In this episode we discussed:
What the data trends from 2021 are signaling.
What is required to overcome gender bias in the funding ecosystem and improve gender funding parity?
What to expect in 2022 for African startups.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.
If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at [email protected].
Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.
Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram.
Follow Michelle on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie
Join us for the next episode!--- This episode is sponsored by Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.
https://anchor.fm/app
48 min

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The WHERE’S THE FUNDING? podcast demystifies entrepreneurship and the fog around funding for Black and other underserved entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs share their entrepreneurship journeys, fundraising…

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WHERE’S THE FUNDING?

WHERE’S THE FUNDING? episodes

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