WHERE’S THE FUNDING?

View Details

Today, I’m sharing an episode of When Magic Happens, a new podcast from WBEZ Chicago, where intergenerational convos of love and laughter collide. In this episode we’re discussing dolla dolla bills, y’all.

How exactly do you make a dollar out of 15 cents? We attempt to answer this question and more this week as we discuss all things money honey! Jennifer, Cheryle and Taylor share their stories on entrepreneurship, wealth-building and new approaches to making that coin in the age of technology. Plus, they talk with financial educator Markia Brown about getting your finances in order ASAP.

Find When Magic Happens from WBEZ Chicago wherever you listen to podcasts.

View Details

Investing in Black Beauty with Kendra Bracken-Ferguson S7 Ep. 13

If you are a beauty entrepreneur, this is the episode for you and if you are not, keep listening anyway. There’s plenty here for your as well. In this episode I’m speaking with Kendra Bracken-Ferguson, an internationally acclaimed thought leader. In demand for her strategic vision and attention to brands that want to grow to scale quickly and sustainably, she is a sought after speaker and c-suite/board advising powerhouse.

Kendra's ecosystem of leadership is rooted in her global conglomerate BrainTrust where she is the Founder, CEO and General Partner. BrainTrust is an award-winning, global force created by Kendra in 2015. It was the first of her suite of BrainTrust enterprises leading to her founding BrainTrust Founders Studio in 2021, now the largest platform dedicated to Black founders of beauty and wellness companies that has not only changed the face of beauty but also empowered Black business owners to enter the room and sit at the tables of capital and wealth generation.

She also is a General Partner in the adjacent $25MM BrainTrust Fund, dedicated to investing in breakthrough Black-led brands that serve the majority.

In this episode we discuss:

What led her to working in the beauty space
How she pioneered monetizing influencer-driven beauty brands
Her business of the beat podcast; and
Why she started the Bain Trust Fund to invest in Black beauty brands to help them scale

PR is an important part of a businesses marketing strategy. The WTF? Podcast has partnered with The PR University to help your business get SEEN and VALUED by your target customers.

If you want to learn How to be SEEN and HEARD via social and other media, follow these steps to use the WTF25 code to get a 25% discount on the Do It Yourself PR 101 class at The PR University:

Go to www.thePRuniversity.com to view all course options or go straight to the class at Do It Yourself PR (thinkific.com)
Go to the sign up option with either one of the buttons and follow the prompt to purchase the course - use the code "wtf25” - to get the course access for 25% off.
You can start the DIY course as soon as you are ready!

Learn more about Kendra:

Instagram

Learn more about Brain Trust:

Instagram

Website

Business of the Beat Podcast available where all pods are casted.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with 3 friends.

Subscribe to the podcast at its home on the ALIVE Podcast Network, here https://wheres-the-funding.onpodium.co/ and here https://bit.ly/wheresthefundingpodcast. Follow the podcast on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and moWHERE’S THE FUNDING?re to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

Stay tuned for the next season!

View Details

How to Hustle Holistically with Brooke Daniels S7 Ep. 12

This entrepreneur and business advisor wants to disrupt the toxic hustle culture and replace it with something more holistic. She is an advocate for holistic hustle. Stick around to learn more about that as well her advice to disrupt the notion of overnight success.

Brooke Daniels, the CEO of Daniels & Co. and Director at Salesforce Ventures, is a force to reckon with in the Venture Capital space. This mindful business strategist, fluent in German, believes in striking a harmonious work-life balance by incorporating daily meditation. With over 15 years in the industry, she is an active angel investor who coached founders who successfully raised more than $75 million in VC dollars.

Brooke is also a Director at Salesforce Ventures and has over a decade of experience in VC and tech. She is an Advisor for BLCK VC, Justice Technology Association, and is on the Investment Committee for the Cap Table Coalition. She is also a mentor to entrepreneurs with TechStars and Pharrell William’s non-profit, Black Ambition. Brooke holds an Executive MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler and is an advisor for the entrepreneurship program.

This is Michelle McKenzie and welcome to the WTF? podcast where we demystify entrepreneurship and the fog around funding.

In this episode we discussed:

The 5 top things that entrepreneurs should know before they start a business or at the very startup stage of their business.
What entrepreneurs should understand about capital when they start their business before they embark on their fundraising journey
Why it’s important for Black and Brown investors to take up space on cap tables of businesses led by Black and other underrepresented founders
How to displace the toxic entrepreneurship hustle mentality and replace it with a holistic hustle mentality.

Both Brooke and I are proponents of the holistic hustle so, when was the last time you enjoyed REST?

At the WTF? Podcast we are big proponents of rest as a productivity hack. Book your next relaxing luxury getaway with our partner in rest and luxury at Farringdon Jets!

Learn more about Brooke:

Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Website

Learn more about the Daniels and Co.:

Instagram
Website

Books Mentioned:

Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with 3 friends.

Subscribe to the podcast at its home on the ALIVE Podcast Network, here https://wheres-the-funding.onpodium.com/ and here https://bit.ly/wheresthefundingpodcast. Follow the podcast 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, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine

Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist

View Details

How to Use Social Media Marketing to Grow Your Business with Dr. Reza Eftekhar S7 Ep. 11

Dr. Reza Eftekhar is the owner and Clinical Director of Metropolitan Headache and Spine Center with offices at VA, DC, and Georgia. He’s an adjunct associate professor at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Science. He’s also the #1 chiropractor on social media within the DMV area with a TikTok following of over 400k and over 40k followers on Instagram.

Key Takeaways:

Be consistent and persistent while building your business
Don’t judge a person’s value by the size of their social media following
Don’t be afraid to show your work on social media

PR is an important part of a businesses marketing strategy. The WTF? Podcast has partnered with The PR University to help your business get SEEN and VALUED by your target customers.

If you want to learn How to be SEEN and HEARD via social and other media, follow these steps to use the WTF25 code to get a 25% discount on the Do It Yourself PR 101 class at The PR University:

Go to www.thePRuniversity.com to view all course options or go straight to the class at Do It Yourself PR (thinkific.com)
Go to the sign up option with either one of the buttons and follow the prompt to purchase the course - use the code "wtf25” - to get the course access for 25% off.
You can start the DIY course as soon as you are ready!

Learn more about Reza:

Instagram

Tiktok

Website

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with friends.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

Five Things Business and Nonprofit Leaders Should Know About Corporate Fundraising with Lori Zoss Kraska S7. Ep.10

Lori Zoss Kraska is Growth Owl, LLC's Founder and Chief Principal. She possesses over 22 years of expertise in revenue generation management, corporate sponsorship support, corporate cause marketing, fundraising, corporate social responsibility, nonprofit consulting, executive sales management, training, and marketing strategy roles earning her a reputation for establishing pathways quickly to exceeding revenue/fundraising goals, building high-performance teams, developing relationships quickly, and outpacing expectations.

In this episode we discuss:

Strategies for helping business and social entrepreneurs successfully engage with corporate funders to raise funds to support their businesses and nonprofit's goals.

Takeaways from this episode:

Five things that business and nonprofit leaders need to know or understand about the nuances of the corporate support landscapes and its decision makers before pursuing corporate funding:

Know what the interests of the corporate funders are that you are pursuing and how your organization's mission, your program or your business align with their interests.
Brevity and clarity in communication to corporate decision-makers is important, especially when writing funding or sponsorship proposals. Avoid what Lori calls the “pumpkin spice and stick to the coffee. Drop the fluff and stuff and stick to the essentials.
Make sure your needs are clear and well aligned to their goals, mission and what they want to achieve.
Speak to other nonprofits or entrepreneurs who have relationships with corporate funders that you want to connect with to learn from their insights.
Research competitors or organizations that work on similar issues as yours to find out who their donors are and use LinkedIn to do outreach to staff in those corporations.

Fundraising Tips for Business or Nonprofit Leaders

Use LinkedIn to conduct outreach corporate contacts
Use your Board of Directors to help make funding connections
Research who is finding peer organizations that do similar work as your organization and reach out to those sponsors now that you know they support your cause.
Set up Google alerts for available funding for your cause, organization or business

PR is an important part of a businesses marketing strategy. The WTF? Podcast has partnered with The PR University to help your business get SEEN and VALUED by your target customers.

If you want to learn How to be SEEN and HEARD via social and other media, follow these steps to use the WTF25 code to get a 25% discount on the Do It Yourself PR 101 class at The PR University:

Go to www.thePRuniversity.com to view all course options or go straight to the class at Do It Yourself PR (thinkific.com)
Go to the sign up option with either one of the buttons and follow the prompt to purchase the course - use the code "wtf25” - to get the course access for 25% off.
You can start the DIY course as soon as you are ready!

Learn more about Lori here:

https://www.thegrowthowl.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorizoss/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/growth-owl-llc/

https://www.facebook.com/GrowthOwl

Lor’is book: The Boardroom Playbook:The Not So Ordinary Guide to Corporate Funding for Your Purpose Driven Organization

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with friends.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

View Details

Looking Back to Look Forward 100TH EPISODE! With Michelle McKenzie S7. Ep. 9

Hello, WTF podcast listeners, welcome to the 100 episode of the WTF podcast. Woo hoo hoo!!!!!!

I am so excited for this milestone moment and I am so grateful for those of you who have been with me from the beginning, and those of you who just discovered the podcast. I appreciate you.

This episode will be a look back to the very beginning of the podcast. To the origin story of how the podcast started. I remound the clock to the very first episode with Funlay Alabi, co-founder and CEO of the Shea Radiance beauty brand, who is the inspiration for the podcast and the very first guest and her business partner, Francesca Opoku, who we made a cheer-up video for (which inspired the idea for the podcast) when she was feeling down about being unable to secure funding for some distribution expansion plans her and Funlayo were about to embark on. also inspired the start enough to podcast.

For those of you who are new, you will get to hear the OG music and my then cohost, who I started with for the first season. We were very green and our audio quality wasn't great. The audio might not have been stellar back then, but I assure you that the quality of the conversations has been and is currently top tier.

Looking back reminded me of how we started and where I am now, 100 episodes later. We started with very little knowledge of podcasting, but a big desire to use our voices, to shine light on the challenges and triumphs of black entrepreneurs and black women and dropping yours in particular to access capital to scale and grow their businesses. There were many times I wanted to stop but I am glad I didn’t and kept going to this milestone.

In this episode we discuss:

How to prepare for product distribution expansion in large distribution stores (especially for beauty brands)
Lesson learned from early failures
How to use your why as your north star to remain resilient when things get tough (inevitably, it will)
The importance of collaboration over competition and how to collaborate with others to better compete against bigger competition, especially if you are a small indie beauty brand

Here are the links to the first two episodes with Funlayo and Francesca if you want to go back and listen to them in their entirety, imperfect audio and all.

S1 Ep. 1: Entrepreneurship is a Marathon, Not a Sprint with Funlayo Alabi

S1 Ep. 2: What Business Do I Have Being Mediocre When the World Is Mine to Take? with Francesca Opoku

Check out the new podcast website where you can find all 7 seasons of the podcast: https://wheres-the-funding.onpodium.co/. If you like this podcast, let me and others know by writing a review on the podcast website here. Please sign up to join the mailing list to get informed with new episodes and blogs drop and get access to the e-book that I am collaborating with Kutloano Skosana of the Shades and Layers podcast to produce to share lesson we have learned from speaking with almost two hundred entrepreneurs and investors on our podcasts. You don’t want to miss this when it drops so sign up for my email list here.

This is an indy podcast so if you would like to donate to help keep it going, please feel free to donate here.

During the episodes I zoomed in on something that Funlayo said about the importance of marketing and branding for business growth. Over the seasons I have featured several marketing and PR focused episodes because those aspects are also important for business growth. I am linking below a couple PR-focused episodes from last season that were also keen on the importance of collaboration, which was a strong theme in my initial interview with Funlayo and which I drilled down on again in this episode.

PR-focused Episodes from Season 6:

Strategies to Standout on Social Media, Market and Increase Revenues with Danielle Jeter S6 Ep.9
5 Ways to Improve Your PR and Business Communication with Phoenix Jackson S6 Ep. 5

PR is an important part of a businesses marketing strategy. The WTF? Podcast has partnered with The PR University to help your business get SEEN and VALUED by your target customers.

If you want to learn How to be SEEN and HEARD via social and other media, follow these steps to use the WTF25 code to get a 25% discount on the Do It Yourself PR 101 class at The PR University:

Go to www.thePRuniversity.com to view all course options or go straight to the class at Do It Yourself PR (thinkific.com)
Go to the sign up option with either one of the buttons and follow the prompt to purchase the course - use the code "wtf25” - to get the course access for 25% off.
You can start the DIY course as soon as you are ready!

Subscribe to the podcast at its home on the ALIVE Podcast Network, and on its website here https://wheres-the-funding.onpodium.com/. Follow the podcast 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, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

View Details

How To Successfully Lead Sales and Manage Growth with Joel Stevenson S7 Ep. 8

Joel Stevenson is the CEO of Yesware, a leader in sales productivity software. Before joining Wayfair, Joel held a variety of sales and marketing roles at Ariba, Innovus, and Verizon, and he was a consultant at ZS Associates. He served as managing director of Wayfair UK, where he drove the growth of the company’s international presence then served as vice president of financial planning and analysis while Wayfair was transitioning to a public company.

He earned an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management, a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois, and studied Chinese at Harvard-Beijing Academy.

In this episode we discuss:

How to successfully lead sales and manage growth in a company; and
How to use software like Yesware to help with your marketing campaigns.

PR is an important part of a businesses marketing strategy. The WTF? Podcast has partnered with The PR University to help your business get SEEN and VALUED by your target customers.

If you want to learn How to be SEEN and HEARD via social and other media, follow these steps to use the WTF25 code to get a 25% discount on the Do It Yourself PR 101 class at The PR University:

Go to www.thePRuniversity.com to view all course options or go straight to the class at Do It Yourself PR (thinkific.com)
Go to the sign up option with either one of the buttons and follow the prompt to purchase the course - use the code "wtf25” - to get the course access for 25% off.
You can start the DIY course as soon as you are ready!

Learn more about Joel and Yesware:

LinkedIn:

Website: https://www.yesware.com/

Book and Blog Recommendations:

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

Neil Rackham's Spin Selling

Blog: Occam’s Razor

Joel’s podcast: The Hard Sell

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with friends.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition

View Details

Lauren Washignton is the co-founder and CEO of Fundr, a platform that uses data and AI to empower decision-making in seed investing. Prior to this, Lauren co-founded Black Women Talk Tech, the largest membership organization and only conference for black women founders, and KeepUp, an automated social listening platform. Her companies have won multiple awards including 43North, the Advanced Imaging Society’s Distinguished Leadership Award, and the Austin Inno Fire Award. She has been featured in The New York Times, TechCrunch, Elle, Inc, and Fortune and listed as a top entrepreneur in Essence Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, CIO Magazine, the ForbesNEXT1000 list, and Austin Black Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.

In this episode we discuss:

How Fundr is using AI to eliminate bias, increase access, decrease the time to funding and help even the playing field of investor-to-founder relationships; and
How she plans to use the data generated from Fundr to help inform change and hopefully bring more equity to the funding ecosystem.

When was the last time you enjoyed REST?

At the WTF? Podcast we are big proponents of rest as a productivity hack. Book your next relaxing luxury getaway with our partner in rest and luxury at Farringdon Jets!

Learn more about Lauren:

Learn more about Fundr: https://www.fundr.ai/

Fundr on Instagram

Fundr on Twitter

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with 3 friends.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagramat whereisthefunding_podcast and follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie and the show page on LinkedIn.

View Details

How Foundation and Government Grants Stifle Social Innovation with Linc Kroeger S5 Ep.12

Linc Kroeger is the President of Knight Moves, a limiting profit company creating the next generation of elite technology professionals through extensive training in technology disciplines, with an intentional focus on including Native Americans, and rural, and urban underserved communities. His passion for fighting social inequality led him to leverage his 35 years of enterprise technology experience to create a creative solution to help level the playing field while also delivering technology solutions for the world’s most important causes.

In this episode we discussed:

The problem Knight Moves is solving in rural and marginalized communities
How digital innovation can solve social problems
Bridging the digital divide; and
Advancing racial and place equity through digital access; and ‘
How Foundation and Government funding can stifle social innovation

Learn more about Knight Moves here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlvmZ3hgqd8

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I always say you shouldn’t keep good content to yourself so if you liked it, leave a rating and review and share this episode with other people who need to hear it. Click here to review: https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F

Ezinne was kind enough to share a discount link "WTF10" exclusively for WTF? Podcast listeners at https://sknmuse.com/. Don’t say I don’t look out for you. Enjoy!

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

View Details

How Foundation and Government Grants Stifle Social Innovation with Linc Kroeger S5 Ep.12

Linc Kroeger is the President of Knight Moves, a limiting profit company creating the next generation of elite technology professionals through extensive training

in technology disciplines, with an intentional focus on including Native Americans,

and rural, and urban underserved communities. His passion for fighting social inequality led him to leverage his 35 years of enterprise technology experience to create a creative solution to help level the playing field while also delivering technology solutions for the world’s most important causes.

In this episode we discussed:

The problem Knight Moves is solving in rural and marginalized communities
How digital innovation can solve social problems
Bridging the digital divide; and
Advancing racial and place equity through digital access; and ‘
How Foundation and Government funding can stifle social innovation

Learn more about Knight Moves here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlvmZ3hgqd8

Ezinne was kind enough to share a discount link "WTF10" exclusively for WTF? Podcast listeners at https://sknmuse.com/. Don’t say I don’t look out for you. Enjoy!

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

View Details

Beauty Entrepreneurs Shares How She Caught Beypnce’s Attention + How She Wins Grants to Fund Her Business with Ezinne Iroanya S5 Ep. 11

Ezinne Iroanya is the CEO of SKNMUSE, a premium beauty brand championing Inclusivity and Sustainability in luxury. She comes with over a decade of experience working for brands like Lancome, and Dior. For her, beauty is culture and she believes everyone, especially black women, deserves to have an authentic representation of beauty. Her brand, SKNMUSE, has been featured by Beyonce, Issa Rae, Essence, and Vogue, rated top 10 by ELLE USA, and many more. She is a recent Glossier and Cantu Grant winner and has raised over $200,000.00 in national grants.

In this episode we discussed:

Why she started SKNMUSE and the problem that she is solving
Her goal is to show others how to use beauty as a means of financial empowerment.
How her branding got her products got featured by top celebrities and magazines
Her fundraising journey, including bootstrapping, grant funds, and other forms of funding
Her top 5 fundraising strategies
Her top 5 pieces of advice for Black female startup founders in the beauty industry about raising capital and growing a successful business

Ezinne was kind enough to share a discount link "WTF10" exclusively for WTF? Podcast listeners at https://sknmuse.com/. Don’t say I don’t look out for you. Enjoy!

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

WTF10
TYPE AND METHOD

Amount off order
Code

DETAILS

Available on online sales channels and point of Sale
10% off entire order
Applies to one time purchases
No minimum purchase requirement
All customers
One use per customer
Can't combine with other discounts
Active from Sep 2 to Dec 18

View Details

Dr. Jackie Bouvier Copeland has been laying tracks for the narrative on Black Philanthropy for over 20 years. With the support of Reunity, formerly the Pan-African Women's Philanthropy Network, Black Philanthropy Month launched in 2001 with its first official global summit to commemorate the United Nations Year and Decade of People of African Descent. Over 30 diverse women from multiple countries throughout the global Black Diaspora worked with Dr. Copeland to co-organize BPM Summits and public awareness campaigns over its 20-year history.

In this episode you’ll learn:

How BPM is supporting Black businesses and social enterprises
How you can benefit from Black Philanthropy
Misconceptions about Black Philanthropy
How BPM is helping corporations and corporate foundations achieve more equitable funding outcomes ane more!

See More Information About BPM!

Black Philanthropy Month (blackphilanthropymonth.com) is documenting and celebrating Black-led funding, while advancing fair access to private capital (philanthropy and business investment) for Black nonprofit and business founders worldwide, inclusive of all Black identities and genders everywhere. https://thewisefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BPM-Community-Participation-Guide.pdf?utm_campaign=BPM+2022

The Women Invested to Save Earth Fund (thewisefund.org)

WISE is a global funding equity enterprise supporting diverse founders with solutions to the pressing challenges and is the backbone organization for Black Philanthropy Month. See bit.ly/WISEleaders and bit.ly/WISEPIF for more and become a donor or investor today. Note that new grants or loans are on hold until 2023 as we raise more funding. To help fund WISE and Black Philanthropy Month contact info@theWISEfund.org with questions or to join our mailing list for future events and funding equity initiatives. Email: give@theWISEfund.org Phone: (602) 759-0105

Suppor

View Details

Investor Shares What Every Startup Founder Should Know About Structuring a Successful Board with Mahendra Ramsinghani S5 Ep.9

Mahendra Ramsinghani is the author of two books - The Business of Venture Capital and The Resilient Founder and co-author of Startup Boards with Brad Feld and Matt Blumberg. He is also the Founder of Secure Octane - a cybersecurity seed fund based in San Francisco and led the legislation for two Fund-of-Fund programs.

In this episode, we discussed:

The business of venture capital
The philosophy of building meaningful companies
The importance of putting the right Board in place; and
The importance of building resilience as a founder.

To learn more about the business or venture capital, resilient founders, and startup boards, you can find Mahendra’s books here on Amazon:

The Business of Venture Capital
The Resilient Founder
Startup Boards

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode with others. Click here to review: Podkite link:https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F

Subscribe to the podcast at its home on the ALIVE Podcast Network and follow the podcast 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, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

Standing in the Gap for Women and African Founders with Steven Friedmutter S5 Ep. 8

Steven Freidmutter is the CEO of SF Ventures who has been navigating the world of business and entrepreneurship for decades, donning many hats ranging from passionate start-up investor to advisory board member and mentor to young founders. Steven has dedicated himself to helping young companies and startups, especially on the African continent, and to empowering female entrepreneurs in finding the right investments to take their vision forward.

In this episode we discussed:

The importance of investing, advising, and mentoring startup founders
His interest and involvement in the African tech startup ecosystem
His recent partnership with Launch Africa Ventures
The most important pieces of advice for startup founders raising capital and growing a successful business.
His latest African investment adventures

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t keep good content to yourself so if you liked it, leave a rating and review and share this episode with other people who need to hear it. Click here to review: https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

The Secrets to Business Legacy Revealed with Nike Anani S5 Ep.7

Nike Anani is a succession specialist with over a decade of family enterprise expertise as a second-generation business owner and family office pioneer. She is co-founder of African Family Firms, the largest pan-African community of family business owners and the author of Lifetime to Legacy.

In this episode we discussed:

Her new book Lifetime to Legacy and how it is helping founders and Next Gen manage the succession process in a family business.

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, or share this episode with other people who need to hear it. Don’t keep good content to yourself!
You can find Lifetime to Legacy on Amazon and visit nikeanani.com for more information about her book, and podcast and to connect with her on her socials.
Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.
Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.
Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

5 Tips for Women of Color When Raising Capital with Susan Jeffers S.5 Ep.6My guest is Susan Jeffers. Susan is an investor and founder and CEO of XY Retail, a new platform helping luxury retailers streamline & manage operations in-store and online (reduced return time from 3 minutes to less than a second), as consumers return to in-store shopping post-pandemic -- even while e-commerce continues to accelerate.

In this episode we discussed:How XY Retail is optimizing the luxury retail market
Her recent seed investment round; and
Advice for women and BIPOC founders about fundraising and growing a high-growth company.

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, or share this episode with other people who need to hear it.
Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

View Details

Monopolize the Real Estate Capital Raising Game with Tyla Flowers S5. Ep.5

Tyla Flowers is an entrepreneur, and VP of Investor Relations & Managing Partner at Smile Hospitality Inc., Hotel Owner, Published Author, and Hospitality Real Estate Investor with over 15 years of experience and hospitality expertise.
In this episode we discussed:

Why she started Smile Hospitality
The pathway from host to hotel ownership for everyday folks; and
Her incredible funding journey with Smile Hospitality

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, let me and other know by leaving a rating and review or share this episode with other people who need to hear it. Don’t keep good content to yourself! Click here to review: Podkite link:https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F. Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

You can find more information at https://www.smilehospitality.co/ about real estate investment and Monopolizing the Game University.
Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

View Details

Monopolize the Real Estate Capital Raising Game with Tyla Flowers S5. Ep.5

Why she started Smile Hospitality
The pathway from host to hotel ownership for everyday folks; and
Her incredible funding journey with Smile Hospitality

View Details

Shaking the VC and Tech Table with Kelli Jones S5 Ep. 4

Kelli Jones is the Sixty8 Capital co-founder, managing director, and the first-ever Black, female VC in the state of Indiana. She is also the co-founder of Be Nimble, a not-for-profit social enterprise with the goal of advancing diversity initiatives to create a fully inclusive tech ecosystem in Indianapolis.

Be seen, heard, and funded is the tagline for Sixty8 capital, an early-stage $20 million venture fund shining a light on undercapitalized founders and innovators. Founders with billion-dollar ideas, but limited access to capital because of race, gender, sexual orientation, or proximity. 68 capital is the first Indiana-based venture capital firm dedicated to investing in startups led by Black, Latino, female and LGBTQ+ founders.

In this episode we discussed:

Why she started Be Nimble and SixtyCapital
How she is making the VC funding ecosystem equitable for undercapitalized founders
How she identifies talent to invest in
Her fundraising journey for Sixty8 Capital
5 Key pieces of advice for Black tech founders who are getting ready to fundraise

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I say don’t keep good content to yourself. If you enjoyed this episode, let me and others know by rating, reviewing, and sharing this episode.

Click here to review: https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

View Details

How the Onyx Family Built a YouTube Media Empire with Rita Mitchell S5 Ep.3

Rita is the mastermind, Founder, and CEO of the Onyx Family brands. Rita is the mastermind, Founder, and CEO of the Onyx Family brand and a self-made media giant. The Onyx Family had 7M total subscribers on Youtube, 81.3M average monthly views, and 4 billion total lifetime views. Rita appears in many of the Onyx Family productions but her focus has also been behind the camera establishing and managing new businesses under the Onyx Family umbrella, cohosting

The Onyx Life podcast, authoring fiction books for adults and kids, and writing non-fiction books based on the life lessons she and Mirthell have learned with over twenty years of marriage. Born in Los Angeles, California, this highly ambitious entrepreneur has proven that she lives the example of her inspirational mantra “Don’t wait for an opportunity, create it.”

In this episode we discussed:

Her entrepreneurship journey from nursing to founding an entertainment company; and
How she built a multi-million-dollar entertainment company with no funding.
The secret to creating sticky content in the social media world
How to monetize your content into a company.

To my listeners, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you liked it, leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts, or share this episode with other people who need to hear it. Click here to review: https://kite.link/where-E2-80-99s-the-funding-3F

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to unreleased bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

What I Love About Revenue-Based Financing with Melissa Widner S.5 Ep.2
Melissa Widner is an entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of Lighter Capital, the pioneer and leader in revenue-based financing for tech startups, founders, and companies. She was the founder and CEO of 7Software, a Silicon Valley-based enterprise software company acquired by Concur. She was also the CEO of Northwest Industrial Supply and is the co-founder and Chairperson of Sydney-based Heads Over Heels an organization that supports women entrepreneurs running companies with high growth potential. Previously, Melissa was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the VC arm of the National Australia Bank, and a General Partner at Seattle-based Seapoint Ventures.

In this episode we discussed:

The benefits of revenue-based financing
The advantages and disadvantages of different types of capital
What is mean to bootstrap a business and why founders are doing so; and
The hallmarks of success for a bootstrapped business

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

How to Use Corporate Sponsorship to Grow Your Business with Chantel George S5 Ep.1

Chantel George is the founder of Sistas In Sales (SIS) - the largest global organization for women of color in sales. She founded Sistas In Sales out of a determination to promote, support, and encourage women of color in sales across all industries. Sistas In Sales partners with Fortune 500 companies, tech start-ups, and consulting businesses to help them attract, hire and retain women of color sales professionals. SIS also provides world-class training, networking opportunities, and above all else, sisterhood for this underrepresented community.

In this episode we discussed:

How to grow a business using corporate sponsorships
How to sell a concept to corporate sponsors
How to pitch your event idea to corporations
Things to include in your pitch and things to avoid

Subscribe to the podcast on the ALIVE Podcast Network: https://alivepodcastnetwork.com/wtf/ to get access to bonus content.

Keep tuning in on your favorite podcast streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, and more and follow or subscribe to the show to get notified when new episodes drop.

To be a guest or sponsor the podcast, email whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and on LinkedIn at WHERE'S THE FUNDING? PODCAST.

Follow me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

What you will learn from Lindsay in this episode:
Some misconceptions that entrepreneurs have about marketing how to marketing success.
The top 5 marketing mistakes that small business owners make and what can they do immediately to avoid those mistakes
The 3 most cost effective marketing strategies that entrepreneurs with small marketing budgets should invest in with their limited ad dollars.
Helpful marketing tools or apps that help entrepreneurs overcome the overwhelm of marketing.
About Lindsay:

Lindsay Sims is an entrepreneur, educator, and coach with a knack for reducing entrepreneurial noise and increasing the digital literacy of small business owners. Her leveraged years of
experience (including a PhD and her work as a Grow With Google Digital Coach) led her to developing a unique marketing program for small businesses. Now, she focuses her efforts as the Founder and CEO of 30 Day Funnels on providing small business owners of diverse backgrounds with no-gimmick, no-fad strategies to leverage their digital marketing so they can step away from overwhelm and get back to what they actually love.

To learn more about Lindsay, visit her website at 30dayfunnels.com, follow her on Instagram at lindsaylsims and on LinkedIn.
Lindsay, thanks for stopping by the WTF podcast and to our 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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.
Join me next Friday for another episode.

View Details

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

View Details

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 it’s 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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

View Details

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 Welath 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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.
Follow the podcast on Instagram at whereisthefunding_podcast and me, your host Michelle J. McKenzie on LinkedIn.

View Details

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 firm’s
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 you’re 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 Monrae’s 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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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:

That being a pioneer and the first mover means building a market that doesn't exist and it takes time to build it and figure things out.
How she survived the 9-year wait and what she did to build grit.
Become internally driven; embrace radical self-love; become your own cheerleader while tapping into the cheerleaders around you; double down on the belief in your self-purpose; and become solutions-oriented
Entrepreneurs should hustle smart, not hard. Target the right investors for your sector and ensure that you only approach investors that are interested in what you do. Make sure to focus on revenue growth and meeting at least 4 out of 5 of the criteria those investors look for.
What she thinks are the key things that will help meet the agribusiness financing gap; and
Three (3) lessons learned from her entrepreneurship and funding journey for female entrepreneurs.

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.

View Details

"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:

How to fundraise with confidence.
How her experience in the public sector influenced her to become an entrepreneur and investor
How the current funding ecosystem and VC, in particular, excludes the majority of African women entrepreneurs.
Why she is a champion for African women in agribusiness and why she invests in women.
How she bounces back from crushing setbacks.
Where she thinks she has the biggest opportunity to create change.
A breakdown of how the Nuli Foods franchise is reducing barriers to entrepreneurship for women.

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.

View Details

"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:

Diversity is where everyone is invited to the party
Inclusion means that everyone gets to contribute to the playlist
Equity means that everyone has the opportunity to dance

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:

Transformational vs transactional DEI, what's the difference?
Defining what transformational change looks like
How money can be used as a facade to avoid more meaningful DEI work
And what it will take to achieve racial and gender equity in the funding ecosystem

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.

View Details

"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:

How to become the type of person that people want to take a risk on.
When you don't have a plan B, plan A has a way of making itself work. Don't give up!
Bootstrapping is what you do when all the doors are closed and you can't find a window.
Why he did it and why he thinks that you shouldn't. Hint: it's really hard!
What he considers the hardest part of bootstrapping and how he deals with it.
Why he thinks it's important to put good into the world and how Givelify does that.

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.

View Details

"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.

View Details

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.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!

View Details

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 Perpetual’s 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, Perpetual’s 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: sales@kaneshiemarketusa.com or kaneshiemarketllc@gmail.com

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.

View Details

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

Ayinde Alakoye is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of his third live broadcast radio streaming venture, nēdl – 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 Nēdl 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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

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 don’t allow it to stop them.
Surround yourself with people who remind you frequently to own your awesomeness. How Hema’s 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, don’t 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: hema@five35.ventures 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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com. 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

View Details

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!

View Details

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com with feedback, to be a guest or a sponsor.

View Details

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

Ann-Marie Hosang Archer is the founder and CEO of Mauritian-based Lignum Vitae Health Africa (LVH) and the founder of LVH International Ltd based in South Africa. Ann-Marie started LVH after 23 years in the pharmaceutical industry with Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals serving in senior leadership positions in Central America, the Caribbean, Brazil, and South Africa. She is also an angel investor with Future Females Invest (FFI).

What you will learn from this episode:

Mentorship is important for women entrepreneurs to thrive in addition to funding and FFI Angels provides both to its portfolio companies. Sharing knowledge and experience is a value-add to investing.
Not to be afraid of fundraising but the process will be hard and you have to do your research and do the work that is required to fundraise
Women +Health = Wealth and Healthy women make healthy economies
Get in touch with FFI Angels if you are an African female founder (or a non-Africa-based female founder with a business that serves the African market) looking for seed capital, business, and moral support to help you grow and scale your business.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

Raeesa Gabriels is the CEO & Co-Founder of Level Finance, a South African fintech focusing on earned wage access that builds wealth and dignity for employees through savings, automated budgeting, and access to pay when they need it - all before payday arrives. Level Finance is a B2B platform that works with employers to offer employees access to their earned but unpaid income. Earned wage access is shown to positively impact worker productivity, employer brand, and job retention. Raeesa talks about why she chose angel investors Future Females Invest (FFI) as investment partners at this stage of her entrepreneurship journey vs. a larger fund.

What you will learn from this episode:

Why Raeesa started Level Finance.
Why Raeesa accepted investment from FFI Angels when other offers were on the table.
How FFI Angels support women founders and how to become an angel investor if you are also interested in playing in a role in bridging the gender funding gap.

Contact FFI Angels if you are an African female founder (or a non-Africa-based female founder with a business that serves the African market) looking for seed capital, business, and moral support to help you grow and scale your business.

Guest Contact: Raeesa Gabriels on LinkedIn. Instagram: levelfinancesa

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/levelfinancesa/ Website: www.levelfinance.co.za

We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

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

View Details

Chen Hindi is the Co-Founder & Head of Digital at Quantum, Trainer for Digital Marketing, and Angel Investor. Since 2015, she serves as head of Digital at Quantum helping businesses in Mauritius and overseas to create and improve their visibility over the internet. She joined FFI Angels to empower women entrepreneurs in Africa and supports the startups she invests in via sharing her knowledge and experience as a digital marketer.

What you will learn from this episode:

Founders should look for investors who can help them well beyond just investing money but also provide wrap-around advising and networking assistance to help them and the business grow.
How Chen uses her digital/online marketing expertise to help portfolio companies.
Chen's tips on how founders can leverage social media and the difference in how to make connections online vs. in real life.
Simple things an overwhelmed early-stage founder without a full team can do right now to improve their and the company’s digital presence.

Contact FFI Angels if you are an African female founder (or a non-Africa-based female founder with a business that serves the African market) looking for seed capital, business, and moral support to help you grow and scale your business.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

Lucia Brawley is one of the co-Founders of AMP Global Technologies, a Digital Media platform that helps content producers build a direct relationship with their audience. The interactive mobile solution combines TV-quality content with the interactivity of social media so creators can build a direct relationship with their top fans. The “AMP-powered series”, Take Back the Mic: The World Cup of Hip Hop was the first example of how the platform made content interactive and easy to syndicate worldwide. It was the first 100% fan-curated series to get an Emmy nod, becoming a back-to-back Emmy Finalist for Outstanding Interactive Programming and proving itself in the market with deep engagement, media impressions, and ROI across Mobile, Digital, TV, VR, and Live media.

What you will learn from this episode:

How Lucia and her husband were able to 3X their raise for AMP and their flagship program Take Back The Mic, when they moved from the US to Mauritius.
Bias in funding ecosystems can keep Black and underrepresented founders underfunded and keep great ideas from flourishing and impacting the world.
Learn more about AMP Global and Take Back the Mic!, which is disrupting traditional media by engaging with & amplifying great content and providing users with unprecedented access and brands insights into their audience.
How the FFI Angels are helping to bridge the funding gap for women founders.

Guest Contact: Lucia Brawleyon LinkedIn. Instagram: takebackthemicWebsite: www.amp.it

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Aysha Tegally is the co-founder of Future Females Invest and founder of FFI Angels. Future Females Invest is changing systems by providing consultancy, training, access to investment and markets, ecosystem support to African women entrepreneurs, investors, NGOs, and gender empowerment advocates in public and private sector organizations.

What you will learn from this episode:

Mentorship is nice but women need access to capital to complement that in order for them to make the financial investments needed to grow their business.
Women themselves can act as barriers to accessing investment by not always having the confidence to ask for what they want or they feel the need to over-prepare before they make an ask compared to their male counterparts.
A system change is needed that includes more women in decision-making roles such as women on the boards of funds and in C-suites and senior positions where decisions are made and also as investors to improve the ecosystem for more women to access capital.
Women angel investors have a unique role to play by investing in more business sectors where you tend to find more women entrepreneurs such as in the beauty industry and the baby market for example.
Support that women angel investors provide goes beyond funding to help women founders connect to other sources of capital and networks that can help them and their businesses to grow.
Get in touch with FFI Angels if you are an African female founder (or a non-Africa-based female founder with a business that serves the African market) looking for seed capital, business, and moral support to help you grow and scale your business.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo is an empowerment coach, career transition strategist, and CEO of Melanin & Medicine. In less than 12 months, she built Melanin & Medicine into a successful, multi-six-figure company that provides support, strategy & skills to help Black women physicians pivot into purpose-led careers & businesses & live more fulfilled & integrated lives. As a career transition strategist, she provides women with culturally informed strategies and systems to reduce burnout, achieve personal and professional fulfillment, rediscover their purpose, and ultimately, achieve their vision for life, without struggle or sacrifice. Prior to founding Melanin, & Medicine, Dr.Uwemedimo worked as a board-certified pediatrician for over 15 years and professor for over a decade, mentoring women in medicine to live more fulfilled lives.

Key interview highlights:

Busyness, exhaustion, and burnout are not signs of excellence! Weathering, the effect of premature biological aging impacts Black women at a higher rate than White women. Weathering is associated with health risks and is often caused by being repeatedly exposed to social adversity and marginalization.
Omolara is helping black women doctors overcome what is called the Human Giver Syndrome - a framework for examining the inequality in the time and effort spent on childcare and housekeeping between men and women see Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle 12-week Medicine and Melanin incubator for black women in medicine to pivot from burnout into purpose and profit. Visit Melanin and Medicine to learn more.

Guest Contact: Email: hello@omolaramd.com FB: @melaninmedi LI: @omolaramd Twitter: @dromolara IG: @melaninmedicineco Youtube: Website: melaninandmedicine.co

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

View Details

PS: This audio is from a Live session on Fishbowl so pardon any audio issues.

Dr. Loleta Robinson is a seasoned physician entrepreneur, startup advisor, venture partner with extensive healthcare technology and services expertise. She is the Founder and Principal of Fortis Industries, LLC, a firm specializing in blending data analytics, due diligence, and a strong industry network to identify and evaluate prospective healthcare investment, in-licensing, and partnership opportunities for various clients. Dr. Robinson calls on her extensive industry experience and relationships to help bring together venture capital and corporate innovation firms with appropriate healthcare startups and early-stage companies with the potential to significantly improve the quality of care. She also facilitates their collaboration via incubators, accelerators, and other entrepreneurial support organizations.

Key interview highlights:

Mistakes health tech startups make when approaching VCs for funding VC start-up evaluation criteria Advice for Healthtech startups - your technology should not disrupt physician workflow
Other non-dilutive funding options to pursue if you are not VC ready - grants and innovation hubs and accelerators. If you are in the US, think local and think State.
Some states like the State of Maryland have great support and resources for entrepreneurs.

Guest/sponsorship requests: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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!

View Details

Franziska Reh is the CEO & Co-Founder of Uncap, a German fintech focusing on early-stage investing in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2019, Franziska Co-Founded Uncap, to revolutionize access to funding for early-stage entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa. Uncap raised an undisclosed 7-figure funding round to test its data-driven, automated, and remote investment platform and so far invested in 27 entrepreneurs in 8 different countries. Over the next 10 years, UnCap wants to invest 1 billion in 50,000 entrepreneurs. Key interview highlights: The virality of the initial proposal leading to over 200 applicants signing up from a viral WhatsApp message was an indicator of a funding problem that needed the UnCap solution. Lowering investment costs to ensure that more deals can be made to fill the financing need for African entrepreneurs. You need ideas that others think are crazy to be game-changers. More bias-free funding is needed to fully unlock and unleash the potential of African entrepreneurs.

Guest Contact: Franziska Reh on LinkedIn. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

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

View Details

Jessye Mouangué Bimono is the CEO & co-founder of Stark Ai LABS a Design & Software development company enabling small and medium-size businesses digital transformation. A tech entrepreneur turned emerging fund manager out of the challenges she alongside diverse tech founders experienced in raising capital in France and Luxembourg.

As an emerging fund manager at Audax Ventures, a $15 million upcoming fund, Jessye believes that diverse tech entrepreneurs are the most untapped and undeserved asset management classes in Europe. She primarily leads Audax Alliance, the capital enablement platform backbone of her fund that is enabling access to European VCs and normalizing investment allocation into Black & PoC led seed-stage tech ventures across Fintech, Media, and Software verticals. In that line of work. She is hosting the first capital enablement summit the Audax Alliance Virtual Summit | Diversity Venture Capital Allocation - France | Luxembourg | Global.

The Audax Alliance Summit sheds light on a diverse set of capital allocators from Europe and the US intentionally investing in diverse founders in these geographies.

Key interview highlights:

When looking for funding do the following:
- Outbound research of the right VCs that are investing in your sector.
- Look for alignment
- If you are a diverse founder look for diverse fund allocators who can bring relevant experience and expertise to your business, e.g., women founders looking for women fund allocators who might have experience in their sectors
In Europe, there is a misunderstanding of the market potential for funding diverse founders specifically in France and Luxembourg which is why Jessye is raising funds to address that market opportunity.
Jessye’s experience as a founder of color led her to organize the Audax Alliance to the VC fund that she is in the process of raising to capitalize diverse BIPOC founders who are solving global problems and bringing value to global consumers.
Register for free to Audax Alliance Summit, September 18th, 2021: https://bit.ly/3ghz9ha
Contact: Jessye Bimono on LinkedIn for more details.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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 at https://www.instagram.com/whereisthefunding_podcast/

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

View Details

Nike Anani is a Speaker, Author, and Consultant to NextGens that seeks to lead their Family Businesses. She helps NextGens rise above operations into a non-executive board role with credibility, so that they are able to lead and formulate a plan to future-proof the business, becoming more effective change agents. Nike fuses her inside experience as a NextGen executive in her Family’s Enterprise, as a Chartered Accountant, and as a Family Business Advisor to bring practical proven solutions to the table.

Key interview highlights:

It can be lonely in a NextGen leader in a family business if you don’t have any peers in a similar position to share those particular struggles with in a what that they can really understand because they have also faced similar challenges Founders find it hard to let go and make room for NextGen leaders to make their mark on a business that the Founder started.
Having a succession plan for a business is not only about the financial security of the family itself but also the employees and the ecosystem created around that business such as customers and suppliers who would lose if that business were to go under if the Founder passed and there was no succession plan in place.
Succession plans take time and should be put in place as the business is being built and not at the point the Founder is ready to retire or unfortunately passes away.
Succession planning is not a transaction, it's a transition.

Guest Contact: Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie

Join us for the next episode!

View Details

Adenike Sheriff is a VC investor, Co-founder, and Principal at Future Africa, a platform that provides capital, coaching, and community for mission-driven innovators building an African Future where purpose and prosperity are within everyone’s reach. Future Africa is helping early-stage entrepreneurs solve some of Africa’s most pressing problems. Other co-founders include Iyinola Aboyeji, co-founder of Flutterwave (Fintech company), and Andela (a tech talent sourcing company).

Key interview highlights:

Over 3.5 million dollars have been deployed to companies through the fund since March of 2020. 20 companies are presented within a year to members of the collective and if they are interested in a company they can invest via a special purpose vehicle.
The Future Africa Fund enables limited partners to get diversified returns without having to take on deal-specific risk.
Limited partners can commit a minimum of $25,000 per quarter and gain pro-rata exposure to all investments Future Africa participates in.
Do not approach VC for funding if you are not prepared.
VC funding isn’t the only way to raise funding for your business.

Glossary:

Secondaries: Secondary investments are primarily purchases of funds that are three to seven years old with existing underlying portfolio companies. Sales are often driven by an investor's need for liquidity or an active approach in managing their private equity portfolio.

Limited partners: In the context of private equity, a limited partner (or LP) is a third-party investor in a private equity fund. They are passive investors with the income and expenses flowing directly to their hands to be taxed in the year when they accrue.

Special Purpose Vehicle: An SPV is created as a separate company with its own balance sheet. It may be used to undertake a risky venture while reducing any negative financial impact upon the parent company and its investors.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie

Join us for the next episode!

View Details

Kiko founded Angaza Elimu as an inspiration on his personal education journey. Having gone through the same education system he has a clear understanding of the first-hand challenges that exist for young Kenyans and he is committed to addressing the challenges by implementing innovative ways of learning and teaching

Key interview highlights:

Ed-tech only received 4.3% of the $305 million in investor funding that went to Kenya last year mostly to fintech, e-commerce, and health-tech.
COVID and the demand for online learning platforms caused an increase in demand but also an increase in cost to service the spike in demand.
Grant funding ($129K) has supported the company to build an MVP and launch to present.
The current deficit of $700K to meet the needs of current customers.
More funding goes to ex-pat founders in Kenya from foreign investors than to local Kenyan founders.

Guest Contact: Kiko Muuo on LinkedIn.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so email us with your feedback.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!

View Details

Jantzen Young is a real estate expert with a passion for helping investors build businesses that promote time freedom and financial stability. Jantzen spent 14 years in financial services traveling the country teaching thousands of clients how to adopt technology to optimize, digitize and grow their advisory businesses. While she watched her colleagues flourish, she lacked that financial security in her own life. That’s when Jantzen discovered the power of passive income. Once she did, she grew her rental portfolio from 1 to 6 in only 60 days.

When a lack of capital halted her expansion, she turned to selling vacant land and completed 31 land deals in 14 months all while working full-time. With experience in multifamily and commercial real estate along with vacant land, Jantzen now focuses on wholesaling and owner-financing high-value land; and putting her capital to work with transactional funding, bridge loans, and joint venture partnerships.

Key interview highlights:

Land flipping is more profitable than house flipping!
You don’t need bank financing to flip land!
Land flipping can be done remotely with Google Earth, unlike with a house, you don’t need to physically see land to buy it!
Call the County office where you are buying the land to get all of the due diligence about the land before purchasing it.
Visit the Fish and Wildlife Service (fws.gov) a U.S. government website for land maps all over the country.

Things to look out for when buying land:

Ensure that no endangered animals inhabit the land or you will not be able to develop and that has endangered species on it.
If you are in the U.S. Midwest, ensure that the land you are buying has water rights to rivers or other water sources.
If you are buying land in a mountainous area, make sure that the land is buildable and not on a slope.

CONNECT WITH JANTZEN:

www.FlippingWithoutRehab.com
Email: FlippingWithoutRehab@gmail.com
Facebook: /ThePlotSquad
Linked In: /in/FlippingWithoutRehab
Tick Tock: @FlippingWithoutRehab

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Help us grow: Please SUBSCRIBE, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.

Follow me on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie

View Details

Aysha Tegally and Torera (Tori) Abiola are the co-founders of Future Females Invest. Both Aysha and Tori came together around the lack of access to finance for African female founders. In 2019 Future Females Invest merged with Tori’s WOWe (Women of West Africa Entrepreneurs) to become truly Pan-African; financially empowering and enabling African female founders. Future Females Invest is changing systems by providing consultancy, training, access to investment and markets, ecosystem support to African women entrepreneurs, investors, NGOs, and gender empowerment advocates in public and private sector organizations.

Key interview highlights:

Mentorship is nice but women need access to capital to complement that in order for them to make the financial investments needed to grow their business
Women themselves can act as barriers to accessing investment by not always having the confidence to ask for what they want or feel the need to over-prepare before they make an ask compared to their male counterparts.
To improve the ecosystem for more women to be able to access capital systems change is needed to have more women in decision-making roles such as women on the Boards of funds and in C-suites and senior positions are banks where decisions are made also as investors.
Women Angel Investors have a unique role to play by investing in more business sectors where you tend to find more women entrepreneurs such as in the beauty industry and the baby market.

Guest Social Media: Torera Abiola and Aysha Tegally

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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 onInstagram. Follow Michelle on LinkedIn:

Michelle J. McKenzie

Join us for the next episode!

View Details

Comfort Adjahoe-Jennings is an entrepreneur in Ghana and CEO of the fair trade social enterprise, Ele Agbe Co. that works with shea butter producers and recycled glass bead jewelry artisans to find markets for their products. Ele Agbe produces a variety of body creams, soaps, lotion bars, body oils, and lip balms from shea butter that are exported to the US, UK, Canadian and Japanese markets. Comfort is also the President of the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program, (AWEP) West Africa Region platform and the immediate past President of Africa Women's Entrepreneurship Program, Ghana Chapter.

Key interview highlights:

Supporting women (especially at the grassroots) is key in every aspect because women invest to make sure that their families are supported.
AWEPGhana has 100 members composed of professional women and entrepreneurs who work with other women to build their capacity. AWEP is in 13 countries across the West Africa region. Marketing and packaging are major challenges to product-based entrepreneurs in Africa. Local solutions are needed to solve the quality packaging problem.
The certification (organic, fair trade, etc.) process for entering international markets is also a major challenge. Financing qualification criteria are often a barrier to women accessing business financing. Quality work or product speaks for itself and brings you more customers.

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast. We would love your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Guest Social Media: Follow Comfort on LinkedIn Social Media: Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram. Follow hosts on LinkedIn: Michelle J. McKenzie Join us for the next episode!

View Details

Jeffrey Boakye Appiagyei is a young Ghanaian agriculture and biosystems engineer, ag-tech entrepreneur, and co-founder of SayeTech an agricultural manufacturing company in Ghana. As a student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana, he developed his design and fabrication skills that he applied to portable soybean threshers, solar evaporative cooling units for fruits and vegetables, and vibrating seed cleaners. During his youth service as an elementary teacher in a rural community in Northern Ghana, he noticed student absenteeism was high during the harvest season when parents usually remove children from class time to help with the harvest. His solution to the problem was to use his technical design skills with his co-founder to make machines that help farmers with post-harvest processing, improve post-harvest losses and help students stay in school throughout the school year.

Key interview highlights:

Necessity IS the mother of invention, at least in the SAYeTECH case. The need to reduce school attrition rates for students in Northern Ghana during the harvest season led Jeffrey and his co-founder to build local mechanized solutions placed in rural areas to help reduce drudgery for smallholder farmers and their families. A byproduct of the SAYeTECH mechanized harvesting machines is reduced post-harvest loss. Mechanization allows farmers to preserve more of their production and fetch premium prices on the market.
Machines installed in 32 rural communities throughout Ghana create jobs and a circular economy in rural areas around the installation of the machines that helps to stem rural-urban migration You might have to change your initial business/product idea after you launch based on customer behavior and continue to innovate to ensure that you are meeting customer needs.

Follow Jeffrey of LinkedIn Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.

Guest appearance/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, and on our website agazella.com/podcasts. Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.

Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram. Follow me on LinkedIn Join us for the next episode!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Seyram Kofi Mantey (CEO) of Kwidex is a young, energetic, and consummate entrepreneur experienced in running small businesses ranging from branding, lending, imports, and crowdfunding. Eugene Ofori Asiedu (CTO) is a computer science and software developer experienced in building applications. Seyram and Eugene came together to create Kwidex, Ghana's biggest agricultural crowdfunding platform that gives everyday people an opportunity to own part of the value in agriculture.

Key interview highlights:

KWIDEX was launched with a $10,000 grant from VAI global. KWIDEX is a crowdfunding platform for agricultural SMEs that is helping to solve the financing problems in the agricultural sector. It links farmers and agribusiness to investors and gives funding opportunities to novice investors who are interested in making a return on investment and impacting the agribusiness sector.
KWIDEX is a commission-based model that generates revenue by charging 10% on investments made via the platform and has so far had over $500,000 in transactions.
The KWIDEX platform is open to investment from anyone in any part of the world. Projects on the platform can be funded via mobile money and bank transfer. Investors could make a profit of 15-30% between 3-12 months of investment.
Over 2,500 farmers have already benefited from the platform. The KWIDEX fundraising goal is to raise $100,000 via investors for 10% equity.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

Guest Social Media: LinkedIn: Seyram Mantey; Eugene Asiedu

Where to find us: Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, and on our website agazella.com/podcasts.

Help us grow: Please subscribe, stream, or download, leave a rating or review and share your favorite episodes with family, friends, and colleagues.

Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram. Follow me on LinkedIn: Join us for the next episode!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Tinotenda Chibebe is the author of The Black Opportunity: Conversations on Belgian Venture Capital and Afropean Entrepreneurship that explores how the inclusion of black voices in the venture capital space will shape the world for generations to come. Tino has also written articles on Medium and for Complex’s Greenlabel. He works on projects geared to advancing underdeveloped regions, regarding education and entrepreneurship in Africa.

Key interview highlights:

The Black Opportunity is about creating access to opportunities and mass of wealth to black entrepreneurs all over the world and pulling a global conversation around venture capital. Europe operates within an ecosystem where a lot of things about race are less specific, unlike the US, with specific valid data that inform policies to track activities within VC and companies at large.
Therefore, Venture capital is largely about the network ( who you know, how you know them, and your similarities). Best businesses are those who have access to such opportunities.
The level of inclusion and equity in the VC ecosystem in Africa is low, black founders in Africa face biases, just as it is in the UK and US. Only 6% of African startups seeking funding receive $1M or more, the rest goes to non-black founders.
The pattern matching practice among Venture Capital financiers creates a blueprint of what a successful founder should be, based on what has worked in the past. Black founders get left behind because they don't fit into the key signal.
The global opportunity cost of pattern matching among others is the inability to maximize the societies' potentials to bring better solutions and better products that make the world a better place. Diversification of VCs is a big step to attracting a different set of founders and diversifying the venture capitalist network.
The Black Opportunity is out now! Buy it on Amazon!

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow Tino on LinkedIn Follow me on LinkedIn Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram. Join us for the next episode!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

WHERE’S THE FUNDING chronicles entrepreneurship, the funding challenges faced by Black entrepreneurs, and demystifies the fog around funding.

View Details

Umulinga Karangwa is a Rwandese Fund Manager and Investment Advisor with 17 years of experience in financial services with a focus on investments in Africa. Over the past 13 years, Umulinga has raised and managed funds investing in Africa for different asset classes and is passionate about developing African capital markets and home-grown asset managers on the continent.

Key interview highlights:

All investors take risks, but in different aspects and degrees; Private equities take a calculated risk by investing in companies with a good track record, growing but stable and promising.
V.Cs invest in fast-growing companies with strong client attraction at an early stage. Angel investors take higher risk, as Investments are done with fair ticket sizes when founders are still quite unstable and without sizable revenue which is one of the reasons angel investors are crucial and critical for supporting start-ups.
It is essential for founders to have a good networking approach and to understand the rudiments of fundraising as well as ways to connect investors, Part of which is getting coached for fundraising, connecting to incubators (most of which have serious investors with specialties backing them) and other entrepreneurs.
The likeability of investors is higher when the business idea is scalable, can solve problems, create job opportunities, and have a strong founding team. Founders must be intentional and positive about their pitch. Confident, committed, strong, open to collaboration, and inquiring of feedback from investors.
Founders should be resilient enough to go back with a better module when feedback is negative.

Connect with Umulinga on LinkedIn

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast. We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram and Facebook.

Join us for the next episode!

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Hakeem Jimo is a Vegan entrepreneur who co-founded VeggieVictory together with Bola Adeyanju - Nigeria's pioneer plant-based restaurant turned food company. VeggieVictory started in 2013 as a restaurant, before introducing VegChunks, the first commercially produced meat substitute in Nigeria, which emanated from the urge to provide for vegan needs, and now available in QSR in Nigeria and many other stores nationwide. VegChunks is a food option for people prone to non-communicable diseases, those looking for more affordable protein sources, and of course lifestyle changes.

In 2013 it started as Nigeria's first plant-based restaurant and is now the country's first mover plant-based food tech company. Hakeem has a Nigerian-German background and was a communication professional before VeggieVictory.

Key interview highlights:

Entrepreneurship is a process that may not yield exponential results until after two years or more. The early stage is a period to network, invest energy, organic funds, and time to build the business and create traction.
Organic funding (self-investment or investment from family or friends and then funds from business cash flow) at the start-up stage is important before pursuing external funding from investors.
Investors often expect a founder to be 100% dedicated to their venture when seeking external funding. Investors want to feel confident that the founder is fully vested and dedicated to the success of the venture.
Fundraising is a journey that requires getting trained to become investment-ready. Look for training or accelerators/incubators to get the skills needed to pursue angel, venture capital, or private equity funding.
Grants are an alternative but be mindful because you cannot build a business on grants alone.
Angel investors are easier to work with compared to development institutions, and venture capitalists. Angels offer small ticket sizes that give the right-size funding needed by some SMEs to evolve.
Angel investment can convince other investors to invest in your business faster than if you have only been funded by grants.

Social Media: @veggievictory.com @vegchuncks.africa @Africavegannigeria

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF (Africa Edition) podcast.

We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey.

If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

Follow the WTF podcast on Instagram and on Facebook.

Follow hosts 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

View Details

Freda Isingoma is the founder of Eye Candy Brow and Lash Bar and the founder and CEO of KIISA, LLC. Freda is an entrepreneur and ex-investment banking professional who has worked in multinational and leading investment institutions in London, New York, and Cape Town. She has experience in establishing successful business initiatives as well as managing investment funds. This includes her role as a venture capitalist for an award-winning team at Close Brothers Group (UK) and an African Investment consultant at Nile Capital Management based in New York.

Key interview highlights:

There are more voices for SMEs in developed countries like the UK and the USA. There is an absence of mid-cap firms in the African capital market compared to more developed markets in the US and the UK. In most of Africa, there are either large-cap traditional family-owned businesses that have been around for generations or small-cap businesses often characterized by tiny companies and early-stage start-ups with very few mid-cap firms.
In addition to access to funding, technical assistance in developing executive teams and roots to market support is necessary to scale up micro-firms into mid-cap firms.
When starting a new entrepreneurship venture:
entrepreneurship does not require 100% certainty before venturing in;
become a scholar of your business and make sure that you believe in your idea;
make sure that you have enough runway (cash to pay your living expenses) for several months because your business might not be profitable right away and it might even take up to 5 yrs to reach break-even of profitability even if it is cash generative;
finding funding is not as swift as imagined, therefore build relationships and a network for support
prioritize your clients and suppliers to serve as brand ambassadors for your businesses--referral is vital for consistent growth of SMEs;
a capable executive team/leadership structure is necessary to build the business and drive the mission
Art is a valuable asset if more people understand the role that art can play in wealth-building as a viable alternative asset to cash and other forms of investments.

Guest contact info/social media: LinkedIn : @ Freda Isingoma Instagram : @Freda Isingoma

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

Franklin Olakunle Amoo is a co-founder and the Managing Partner of Baylis Emerging Markets. As an active investor in a number of operating companies across Africa, Franklin serves on the boards of several African companies. Prior to co-founding Baylis, Franklin helped lead the Strategic Credit Group the $1.8 trillion Mizuho Financial Group, where he helped establish the High Yield sales and trading, secondary loan trading, structured finance, and asset finance businesses. Franklin worked at Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. A Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Franklin holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Key interview highlights:

Raising funds takes time whether you are raising investment funds or you are an entrepreneur looking for investment. Make sure you have a long runway; having enough funds to survive and mobilize the business for the first few years cannot be overemphasized! Fundraising by fund investors can be as equally strenuous. It takes a lot of time and effort to raise funds whether you are raising funds as an investor or as a founder. Emerging Market Funds like Baylis are looking for alignment around values and understanding the companies that they include in their portfolios Africa's primary source of capital is still the Development Financial Institutions. The appetite for investing in Africa is low and unevenly targeted to a few countries, mostly the Anglophone countries with a dearth of investment opportunities for Francophone countries. Only about 10% of private-equity deals from African funds raised ever earn any carry or hit the hurdle rate of around 8% above the hurdle rate one of the reasons being poor alignment between investment funds and recipients of investment funds Guest contact info/social media: Connect with Franklin on LinkedIn

If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

Violet Nyando is an Agricultural Innovation Expert with over 15 years of experience in Agribusiness Advisory Services and Agricultural Rural Innovations Studies with a particular interest in Youth Entrepreneurship, Governance, and Leadership of Agri-Enterprises. Her experience in Kenya and Eastern Africa and engagement with International Development Practitioners across the World have earned her a deeper understanding of the African Agricultural and Community Landscape.

Key interview highlights:

Many African business ideas fail not because they are not good but because they did not get sufficient support. Many African SMEs fail before the 3rd year because of insufficient interrogation of the business idea and the foundation that they were built on wasn’t strong enough to last
Youth-led African businesses need better institutional support and business development services, in addition, to access to finance, technical assistance, skill-building, and good governance/management training
Access to finance is still a major challenge to growing good ideas into profitable businesses. In Kenya there are some Youth Entrepreneurship Funding Models that include:
Group lending
Government program-based funding (declared funds) that target youth
Cost-share funding models promoted by development partners (bundled with technical assistance) where partial funding is provided and bundled with technical assistance and mentoring
The entrepreneurship process needs to be demystified in terms of the timelines for business growth and profitability and the hard work that goes into creating a successful business.
The importance of prioritizing customers by creating a great customer experience. Customers are not only a form of funding but also the best advertising. Happy customers are the best advertisers and repeat customers are good for cash flow.

Connect with Violet on LinkedIn: Violet Nyando

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the WTF podcast.

We would love to hear your feedback on the show and how we could improve so please complete this short survey

Guest/sponsorship request: If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

LaKisha Greenwade is an award-winning Forbes Leadership Coach, Tech Founder of Wearable Tech Ventures, and Harvard University Guest Lecturer. Affectionately known as “Coach L,” LaKisha also teaches ambitious entrepreneurs, experienced professionals, senior and mid-level managers how to push past their self-imposed limits, unleash their innovative spirit, and design the life of their dreams. Order Rejection to Reward a book of transparent and winning strategies for founders & LEADERS facing resistance in any area of their lives now! Wearable Tech is an interchangeable device and sensor that can transmit data and provide an understanding of things and are referred to as IoT, which can be in form of watches, gloves, and bands, to track health and are used in mini corporations to ensure vehicles and employee's safety. The technological devices developed by wearable tech have been a tremendous factor in the navigation of the Covid-19 pandemic, they can measure temperature as well as distance among people.

Other wearable tech products include devices used by diabetic, kidney failure patients, and also hearing aids. Wearable Tech Ventures (WTV), is the official global ecosystem for Wearable Technology with the goal to develop and promote technological wearables and support 100staff by 2030. Basically, WTV is the main connector for expiring founders, current founders, investors, and corporations that can benefit to help the main industry. WTV features ICONPAN, an inclusive workshop, an avenue for tech and non-tech founders who come together to proffer solutions to everyday problems. Founders must have their stories together, be passionate about their businesses, recognize that they are their first investor, and build a successful track record, pitching, understanding essential principles such as executive summary, pitch tech as well as elevator pitch development before seeking external funds.

Unfortunately, people of color, especially females, are less privileged in raising substantial funds, unlike their counterparts. Therefore, Wearable Tech is reinventing the wheel by understanding the weak start of black female founders by creating a unique new generation team of Angels. Trained, certified, and licensed to score founder's ideas and allocate worthy funds between $500-$10,000. The WTV Angel Investment concept is a platform that allows 100 potential angel investors to help the ecosystem via the under-represented founders and gain knowledge as well, with a commitment of $1000 to WTV. It is important for investors to understand the risk associated with the route of funding they choose. To women in tech; You Are Enough. Be mentally prepared to face rejection with good fate, stay committed; Amidst all, allow yourself to recover and recoup when things get crammed up.

Connect with LaKisha Greenwade on all platforms @lakishagreenwade

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Temidayo Adebayo is the Founder and Managing Partner of BAYI Capital with experience in identifying and nurturing high-impact investment opportunities in small-to-medium enterprises (SME). The Bayi Foundation arm of the business focuses on developing and supporting the small business community with the right support to breakeven and found their group with limited dilution.

Key interview highlights:

Where is the “Made in Africa Product”? How many black-owned and managed companies are earning at a minimum of $100 M in revenues? For African entrepreneurs, it is important to focus on creating “Made in Africa’ products.
There are too few products in the global market that are made in Africa. Black entrepreneurs (no matter where they are located) should focus on building businesses that can become “blue-chip'' companies that sustain and thrive well beyond their founders' lifespan. The Bayi Foundation supports entrepreneurs in the US and Africa in product development and business services.
The first person who buys into your product or business idea is YOU! Small business entrepreneurs MUST invest in themselves and their businesses as the first investor if they are serious about growing their business and attracting external investors. Many African entrepreneurs have an inability or unwillingness to pay for business development services that they need to grow their business, which is a major barrier to business development on the continent.
Entrepreneurship is another name for a leader, leadership and entrepreneurship are intertwined. Follow the BAYI Foundation on Facebook and Instagram.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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.

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

View Details

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. If you would like to be a guest or sponsor the podcast, please contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

Morgan Limo Morgan Limo is the founder and principal consultant at Molo Global Consulting, LLC. Here, she guides the preparation and review of quality written products, including published literary works. She is a mother, author, and career international development professional, leading efforts to address complex development challenges with the United States Foreign Service.

Key interview highlights:

Molo Global is in the business of telling lesser told interesting, more nuanced, and diverse stories Bootstrapped initial capital investment to start Molo Global Publishing is an expensive business and the start-up costs are more significant.
There is significant risk in publishing Understand all of your business costs when starting a business if you are bootstrapping your initial start-up costs Marketing and promotion are major costs that many entrepreneurs underestimate and do not factor into their costs.
Check out Morgan’s new children's book “Trip of Your Dreams” out now on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Consult the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies for funding for authors.

Guest contact info/social media: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-limo/

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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. 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

View Details

John Kavyavu is a Senior Small Business Loan officer and Director of Small Business Lending at Life Asset Inc. a non-profit organization that provides affordable financial services and education to micro and small entrepreneurs in the DC Metropolitan Area. At Life Asset John is responsible for providing outreach to African and Caribbean entrepreneurs who might benefit from Life Asset services, Lending Program Readiness training, and planning and executing a needs-based technical assistance program for the African and Caribbean’s portfolio. John is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Pro-Microfinance International, a Maryland-based nonprofit organization that provides Technical Assistance and financial services to local entrepreneurs in DR Congo where he is from. John also serves as Executive Director of Mavuno a non-profit organization with the mission to eradicate extreme poverty in rural areas of Eastern DR Congo (where he is from) through entrepreneurship.

Key interview highlights:

Microfinance is needed in America and other developed countries for underserved communities - Microfinance helps to reintegrate felons into economic life as entrepreneurs when they struggle to find formal employment
The importance of proper business record keeping. COVID and the PPP process revealed to many small business owners the importance of proper record keeping to qualify for COVID relief support.

Guest contact info/social media: You can find John on LinkedIn if you would like to connect.

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 whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

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

View Details

Evelyn Lewis is the CEO of SBTS (Sierra Business Technology Systems) Group Inc., a global technology firm that helps governments understand and coordinate attention to economic organizational, technological innovation, and integrated enterprise. Evelyn talks about how his childhood curiosity with computers and technology led to the creation of the SBTS Group of companies to make an impact on people's lives, especially in Sierra Leone where he is from. He chronicles how he started and grew his business and how he got into youth training and creating job opportunities for youth, not just in Sierra Leone but also in other countries on the African continent. Some of his most important work was with using technology for contact tracing to help manage and defeat the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone between 2013 - 2016 that killed 11,323 people. The SBTS Group developed the Health Outbreak Manager (HOM) software which consists of an app and a comprehensive suite of tools that help collect and manage data for users for EVD responders and have been updated for use with COVID-19 responders. To connect with Evelyn, you can find him on LinkedIn.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Samuel Suraphel is an entrepreneur, global program manager and technology specialist. Since 2014, he has led Mansa Colabs, a company that supports the growth of early-stage companies and non-profit projects in both North America and Africa with A strong focus is also placed on entrepreneurship ecosystem building, particularly for African Diaspora businesses, and the promotion of the Creative Sector as a source for entrepreneurial and employment opportunities.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Seun Shokunbi is Brooklyn raised, Nigerian bred and seeks to connect her diaspora community with their native roots to spark a generational revolution in Africa. Her work with Karfi, a consulting and leadership development firm, and its charitable arm the Karfi Foundation, tackles the issue of untapped talent among youth and the most marginalized communities in Africa. She strongly believes that democratizing the entrepreneurial space is vital to Africa’s economic development. That means empowering any and all, regardless of wealth, status or geography, with the resources and tools needed to lead and succeed. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

**Pardon the audio issues!

CEO of Naasakle International Naa-Sakle Akuete has an MBA from Harvard, but the best business professor she has ever had is her mother, Eugenia, Founder of Mother Shea and Chairwoman of Naa-Sakle International. Episode 13 of the WTF podcast featured the inspiring and resilient Eugenia Akuete, Naa-Sakle’s mother who started with a family business with $30 dollars and a lot of determination and conviction to help improve the lives of women in Northern Ghana’s shea belt. Naa-Sakle joined the family business in 2014 when she established Naa-Sakle International to help her mother who had just defeated breast cancer and was then struck by meningitis and was in a coma for a number of weeks.

While her mother was in recovery, Naa-Sakle took reign of the business as it was, which focus mainly on the production of bulk shea with a business to a business approach started two finished product lines, Mothers Shea, a mass-market line available in over 900 Target stores and Eugenia Shea available in more up-scale clean beauty stores such as Detox Market, Credo Beauty, Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie. Naa-Sakle brought a new vision to the business and embarked on fundraising to support that vision. One of the most important things that Naa-Sakle learned when she joined the family business was that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in school. You learn it on the job! There was a lot she had to learn that her Harvard MBA did not prepare her for. Social Impact Funders: Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF Social Finance) MCE Social Capital (MCE Socap) The Palladium Group (Impact Investing) Vested World (Vested World Venture Capital Fund) IMP Key

Take-Aways:

• Funding isn’t everything – sometimes businesses need investors who can help open doors and provide thought-leadership and business development growth.

• You have to get comfortable asking for help when you are trying to grow a business. Your networks can help to introduce you to opportunities in their networks.

• Networking is about relationship building and not just coming in cold for an ask without relationship building.

• Tertiary relationships or the power of weak ties can be very valuable. More opportunities might come from your tertiary network than from your primary network, i.e. people who you network know who can introduce you to other people who can help you.

Subscribe, like, rate, review, and share your favorite episodes to grow the WTF listener community.

If you like the content of the WTF podcast, let us know and reach out to share your thoughts or pitch guests and show ideas at whereisthefunding@gmail.com.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Eugenia Akuete is the true definition of a survivor. Queue Destiny’s Child “I’m a survivor, I’m gonna make it, I’m a survivor, I keep on surviving…” She is also an avid advocate for women who is staunchly committed to fighting against gender bias and unjust inheritance laws, education, and all of the other barriers in Ghana and other parts of Africa that prevent women from the pursuit of their full potential. Eugenia is the founder of Mother’s Shea and Chairwoman of Naasakle International. She has been a force in the shea butter industry since 2000 when she founded the initial business Naasakle Ltd to help her aged and ailing mother and empower herself after a divorce that left her with very little in assets and $30 which she called her war chest. She used this money to buy a calabash of shea butter in the market to package and resell togenerate income.Mother’s Shea products are found in Target stores in Anthropology and Urban Outfitters, Costco and Macy’s online, and clean beauty stores like Credo Beauty and Detox Market. Despite many challenges over the years, Eugenia did not give up because her purpose is far bigger than her. She is trying to create change in an entire value chain which is considered liquid gold for poor rural women in Ghana and other African countries across the continent where shea trees are found. Sources of financing mentioned in the podcast:- $30 self-financing- Investing initial profits back into the business- $100,000 USADF grant- Ecobank small business loanYou can follow Eu’Genia Shea and Mothers Shea on Instagram and Facebook. Mother’s Shea products can be found at Target in over 900 stores and Target online. Eu’Genia Shea products can be found at their website and in retailers such as Credo Beauty, Macy’s, Anthropology ad Urban Outfitters, and Costco online.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

This episode features Nichelle McCall-Brown, a startup strategist and venture-backed Tech Entrepreneur who makes up the .02% of black women founders in tech to raise venture capital. Entrepreneurship: “I started my career in the non-profit sector and I never knew that I would become an entrepreneur let alone in tech. After graduating from school, I found myself unemployed and decided that I would never leave my financial future in the hands of anyone else.” Nichelle’s original business was a consulting practice and it took her a year before she got her first contract. She decided to shift and connect with a mentor who had experience starting, scaling and selling several software companies who taught her how to start a company that was worth investing in and could actually make money. Nichelle then started Bold Guidance, a software company to help students navigate the college application process on their mobile devices. That mentorship enabled her to understand her right paying customer and how to create a solution that is addressing the customer’s main challenges. Seeking Funding: Nichelle scoured both coasts of the country looking for funding by attending conferences and events that had pitching competitions such as Essence Festival and South by Southwest (SXSW) to connect to investors. These events were also great for networking with other entrepreneurs for brain share around how to seek out investment and sharing. She found her initial funding in Ohio from the accelerator program and funding for early-stage tech entrepreneurs managed by a non-profit in Ohio with funds from Ohio State.

Key Take-Aways:

Accepting investment is a union, it becomes a marriage. Early investors invest in the founder more than they are investing in the business idea. Make sure that the relationship is mutual because not all money is good money.
Funding is good but get into the mindset of building your business without needing funding. Build a business that has the best form of investment, which is revenues for organic self-investment to scale and grow there possible based on your business model.
Women-focused funds: I Fund Women Conference to network and find investors in the tech space: AfroTech Black Women Talk Tech Women Tech Founders South by Southwest Black entrepreneur-friendly venture funds: Hustle Fund Precursor Ventures Harlem Capital Catalyst Fund Accelerators: BIG Backstage Capital Current Ventures: Nichelle founded Bold Startups™ to help organizations and individuals uncover Bold Startups™ and launch profitable service-based and online businesses.
She is the creator of #MoneyMilestones, an online intensive program to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses, so they can be full-time and financially free! She has been helping entrepreneurs boldly launch and grow businesses since 2007 and managed two business accelerators, where entrepreneurs have made collectively over $3.6M in revenue within a few years. Nichelle is in the process of launching as the Co-Founder of Bramework, a software company that creates top-ranking blog posts in minutes for small businesses and is currently seeking funding for this new tech venture.

How to connect with Nichelle: Website: http://nichellemccall.com/ Email: nichelle@nichellemccall.com Social media: LinkedIn: Nichelle McCall-Browne Instagram: @Nichelle_McCall Twitter: @Nichelle_McCall

Come back to check out new episodes released every two weeks on Wednesdays.

If you like this content go to Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and hit the subscribe button and stream or download your favorite episodes.

Don’t forget to leave a rating and review to get the podcast more listeners and spread its impact.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast.

View Details

Shirley Billot is the founder of the organic beauty brand Kadalys. Shirley is a global expert in banana science who founded Kadalys in 2012. Kadalys specializes in upcycling and eco-extraction of the banana plant to develop 100% natural bio-active ingredients generated by bananas from Martinique and Guadeloupe in the French Caribbean using an eco-responsible approach. Kadalys is the first natural cosmetic brand made with banana tree antioxidants.

The banana plant holds a special place in the traditional medicine of the French Caribbean islands where it is used for its soothing, healing, and revitalizing cosmetics properties. The Kadalys brand won 8 beauty awards in 2 years. Shirly makes sure that she looks out for her entrepreneur community in the French overseas department to work together during the COVID crisis and produce hand sanitizers for distribution to the French overseas departments. Shirley talks about where she found funding for the research component of her business (she holds several patents for her banana research, go girl!) and support to grow the business.

The banana producers in the Kadalys supply chain are also shareholders in the business. Not only is Shirley breaking ground in her banana science research and eco-conscious production, but she is also exhibiting a business model that takes care of its supply chain and views them as business partners in what she calls benevolent capitalism. Shirley faced some challenges finding funding after the early-stage funding for banana science research.

According to her, the French Caribbean Island of Martinique is seen as a tourist destination and not an entrepreneurship hub. Therefore, there are few funds interested in funding entrepreneurs on the Island. She was however fortunate to receive investment from Josh Game with Junction Injunction dedicated to supporting African women entrepreneurs. Additional funding came from a L’Oreal entrepreneurship program Her products are coming to US stores soon so keep your eyes out for more news from Kadalys and make sure you pick up some products when they drop in US stores.

You can purchase Kadalys products now online at https://www.kadalys.com/en/ and a shop on Amazon is coming soon. Social media: follow Kadalys on Instagram and Facebook. Shirley can be found on LinkedIn where there is also a Kadalys company page.

Rate, review, subscribe and come back for more. We would also love to hear from you.

Drop us an email at whereisthefunding@gmail.com and tell us what you like about the show and what topics you want us to explore as it relates to funding for black entrepreneurs and particularly black women entrepreneurs.

--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

In this solo episode we talk about so much that was on our minds covering a range of topics namely: What should global funding, finance and support look like to address COVID shocks? Will remittances be enough?The McKinsey Report Worldwide, estimate that government deficits could reach $30 trillion by 2023.What can the world learn from a global pandemic? Is there a golden goose amid all these black swans?Racial injustice in the US and its impact globally? Personal experiences of being black in America?What can/should Africans on the continent do to amplify the strugglesImpact investing, bias and the need for local angel and VC investor networks?The Buy Black/African movement and how individuals can support SME entrepreneurs around the world but thinking thoughtfully about where they spend their dollars?--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Mabinty's career took her from public affairs to international development engagements at the World Bank and GIIN looking at how best to leverage private sector financing to address societal challenges. These experiences led her to Nairobi, motivated by a need to shift gears to create development approaches and solutions that use finance more effectively. Wakiuru worked in the NGO sector but yearned for work with a core emphasis on sustainability and impact. After developing expertise in finance during a stint at the Nest Collective - Wakiuru’s expertise in finance prompted analysis work on the creative sector which led to her joining HEVA - the continent’s first investment fund focused on creative enterprises in 2014. Wakiuru and Mabinty, fueled by the same passion to invest in young women in the continent, started LIVE Africa in 2019 to address the gap and opportunity they saw in the sector. Legacy Impact Venture Enterprise Africa (LIVE Africa) is an impact investing company providing Impact Measurement and Management (IMM) services and working to drive capital to African, women-led businesses and gender-balanced teams. The company through expertise in health, education, the arts/creative economy, agribusiness, and technology shapes our practice and investment strategy and offers a combination of skills, including data analysis, research, training on IMM, and impact assessments. In the episode, Wakuiru talked about investor reticence around a financial commitment to creative sectors and talked about the critical need for a less traditional investment ethos around investment and more emphasis on technical assistance and capacity building, highlighting the snowball effect of these inventions in growing and scaling the creative art sector. Wakiuru also highlighted the correlation of women’s participation at all business levels with company development and growth.Part 2 of this interview will be released on June 24 so come back to hear the rest of what Mabinty and Wakiuru have to say. Don't forget to listen, subscribe, rate, and review. Contact us at whereisthefunding@gmail.com and let us know what you think of the show, propose questions or suggestions for topics to cover on future episodes.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Daniel Koroma, a Business Liaison Manager for Montgomery County, Maryland starts the show sharing his journey as a Sierra Leonean who emigrated and studied at the University of Maryland and Harvard University, developed an expertise in finance and banking before a career transition moved him into local and county government. Daniel talked about the Montgomery County Business approach and its deliberate focus on Access to Information & Access to Capital Daniel shared impressive stats on small business in the County - with over 1 in 3 residents foreign-born or immigrants to the US and 20% of that total being residents of African descent, the diaspora populations are a critical element of the high and growing rate of entrepreneurs contributing to the counties over a trillion-dollar economy and the rich cultural fabric of the state of Maryland. Daniel shared information about the Montgomery County business portal, an award-winning dynamic website that acts as a single entry point for government contracting, finance and funding opportunities, and other relevant training and resources. Daniel touched on the rise of women-owned businesses as a focus for Maryland, which tops the US for the largest number of women-owned businesses with 47% of all County businesses female-owned and 34% of science and biotech business led by women. Daniel acknowledged the realities of access to capital. He mentioned Maryland's tiered approach of microloans support via Life Asset & Latino Economic Development Center who can provide loans and technical assistance up to $250,0000. Daniel also talked about one on one counseling and training classes and technical assistance provided by the following organizations: Maryland Women's Business Center, SBDC, Montgomery County Chambers of Commerce, Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, SCORE, and VITA. Daniel touched on the multi-faceted approach to addressing the business needs of county residents on any giving day, from liaising with chambers of commerce, citizen advisory boards and counseling business one on one on concerns or needed support with the ethos that he always meets entrepreneurs where they are. On the global front, he discussed the success of the legacy African Diaspora Marketplace and its role in connecting local businesses to the Continent and spoke about the genesis of IO Spaces, an entrepreneurship hub in Silver Spring. He rounds out the show by sharing his hopes for connecting diaspora resiliency, purchasing power, and telling and owning our own stories as key drivers to entrepreneurship growth and success. Daniel can be found at the Montgomery County Business Portal at BizPortal@montgomerycountymd.gov.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Margaret Kamara is the co-Founder of District Chop Bar, a West Africa fusion concept based in Washington DC. Developed from Margaret’s love of food and her culture and buoyed from advice from a personal life coach, she started her business over two years ago with a focus on pop-ups, local festivals and catering events in DC, Maryland and Virginia or the DMV. District Chop Bar takes West African food and other fusion favorites and brings them to a wider DMV audience, hungry for a unique culinary experience.Margaret has been a leader in the local community founding Young African Professionals,, which has been supporting the over 10,000 diasporans in the area attain professional growth through workshops, conferences and events. Margaret became intimately connected to the area's culinary opportunities as well as the programs and organizations available in the District of Columbia to support entrepreneurs.Margaret discussed the decision making process of going into “food experience” versus a sit down venue or food truck, conscious of the failure rates and meagre margins associated with restaurants. She finally settled on operating from a commercial kitchen which has been a key factor in being able to not only scale but also currently pivoting to provide curb-side pick up and delivering food to customers within the area. Margaret also talks about how taking District Chop Bar from year 2 to year 5 and beyond is not only a labor of love but a family affair, requiring engaging her extended family in food operations and delivery.Margaret’s business funding philosophy for District Chop Bar is focused on grants tailored to support entrepreneurs working in the local community, whether that's supporting economic vitality in DC’s Ward 7 or 8 or addressing food deserts and the lack of healthy options. She stressed the need to research and network and pointed out Chambers of Commerce or business cultivation workshops as key hubs for funding information and opportunities. Focusing on grants rather than loans at this time allows Margaret to ensure true understanding of tax liabilities as an LLC and a clean credit line should loans be necessary as the company grows.Margaret discussed learning from the success and insights from DMV staple Swahili Village and how they exemplify the best balance of presentation and customer service and discussed unveiling the District Chop Bar “African Fusion Lunch Box” - allowing a weekly sign up for a lunch portion size of delicious food available for busy families all currently at home due to the pandemic. Resources shared by MargaretDC Seed Grant. Catherlic University of America for Start-up Business Conference Latino economic development centerDC Department of small and local business developmentSister Economics Empowerment GrantsChobani Incubator Program Ebay Start CupDistrict Chop Bar can be found on Instagram. Facebook and Twitter and the TastemakersCommercial Kitchen on Sundays starting at 2pm --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

In this extended episode, Desiree shares her experiences and perspectives on many things including entrepreneurship, funding and much more. She also shares her experience working in venture philanthropy and impact investing. Navigating her way as a "prospector expert" has taken her from the Robin Hood Foundation in New York to spearheading philanthropy on the continent, specifically Nigeria with the Tony Elumelu Foundation where philanthropic intent drives progress without any of the tax incentives commonly associated with foundations in the West, and then recently creating a legacy program at the Tory Burch Foundation working on cross-generational and sectoral female entrepreneurship and leadership development. Based on her own experience growing up and running her grandmother's bakery in Sierra Leone, Desiree honed an interest and passion for entrepreneurship early on and talked about the disparity of investment between East and West Africa regionally and how East African countries have been able to galvanize investment and finance due to the relative political stability and security in the region. Desiree discussed working with TEF and its focus on using entrepreneurship as a building block to international development and creating opportunity with a focus on startups but also discussed the double-edged sword of microfinance and the sector's lack of emphasis on planned growth. Desiree shared the challenges of developing the building blocks to investor confidence which include financials, taxes, business governance, and transparency within the over 40 million SMEs in Nigeria and stressed the need for SMEs to develop clarity around purpose and how finance would be used to grow and scale. Understanding investor focus and vetting SMEs is crucial in finding alignment. With only 3% of women entrepreneurs getting investment capital, understanding why there is a lack of growth capital, and the opportunities and barriers of debt financing, grants, and other forms of "patient capital" is vital research that all entrepreneurs should master.Desiree reflected on Covid-related necessity being the mother of entrepreneurial invention and that many people are looking to start a business at this time and address needs and previous blind spots in a post-Covid-19 world such as comprehensive child care provision as an untapped opportunity. With 90% of enterprises failing in the first 3 years and only 2% of women-led businesses in the US generating a million dollars in revenue, long term success has much more to with creating need-driven value-added products and services with a large funnel of customers. As businesses try to adapt, Desirees' adage of “NBC” - Nobody's Coming is wise advice to make entrepreneurs focus on sales and profit rather than loans and emergency stimulus assistance. Desiree has coached women on leading with data and numbers rather than personal anecdotes but also being clear on knowing the source of impact investment funds and gauging real interest in your business will help save precious time and manage expectations. Resources shared during the episode include: Research Crowdfunding platformsSpanks Elevating Women InitiativeGrant Station Shea Moisture New Voice Fund Verizon Fund through LISC Desiree can be found on LinkedIn and Instagram --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Iddy John is an entrepreneur running two online, tech-based businesses in Tanzania, one in the online travel booking industry Safari Wallet and Place Listed an online directory for restaurants and lodgings. With the current economic realities around COVID-19, there are many challenges to businesses such as restaurants, many of which are closed as a part of the disease mitigation process, micro food businesses such as informal food sellers would be hard hit with no safety net or way to continue to make a living if they cannot sell food on the street. The food delivery platform for Place Listed could fill a critical need by pulling in the micro food businesses into the food delivery business so that they can continue to earn a living in these trying economic times. The food delivery platform could also provide opportunity for the motorcycle taxis to integrate them into the food delivery system to supplement their incomes considering that less people will be out riding on these taxis in close proximity. COVID-19 Funding Resources:Tech FundingIBM is offering $270,000 in cash prizes and direct IBM developer support to build, fortify, test, and deploy the winning ideas through IBM Code and Response. Submissions should address three main COVID-19 areas: crisis communications, remote learning, community cooperation.Apply Now: $270,000 IBM Funding for COVID-19 Digital ResponseApply Now: $5 Million from Gates Foundation for Digital Health ProjectsApply Now: 10 Million CHF to Improve Adolescent Wellbeing with TechnologyApply Now: $100 Million for Digital Health Informatics in PEPFAR CountriesGeneralGrant Station: https://grantstation.com/covid-19-related-fundingOpportunities for Youth: https://www.opportunitiesforyouth.org/2020/04/04/digifi-request-for-research-proposals-on-covid-19What is covidcap.com?On March 26, 2020, CASE and CASE i3 at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business launched a searchable website to help any entrepreneur in the world, for-profit or nonprofit, struggling due to the economic impacts of COVID19, to locate cash relief resources in their community.This is a searchable database where you can search Africa or by specific country name.DEVEX has an interactive platform for COVID-19 funding at https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/zqG5wY --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

This episode features the fabulous Francesca Brenda Opoku, a Social Entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer of Solution Oasis Ltd; a Ghanaian agro-processing company that manufactures the BEAUTY SECRETS, EXOTIC MAN, and KIPENZI brands of natural beauty products from shea butter and agricultural waste. Entrepreneurship: After leaving her corporate job and despite a rocky start to her entrepreneurship journey, Francesca pushed through in the face of early challenges and now curate high-quality shea butter products sourced directly from cooperatives in Ghana. One of her key lessons learned is that “as an entrepreneur, I have learned that a lot is possible.” Francesca shares many gems and pearls of wisdom that demystify entrepreneurship and paint a more accurate but still quite inspiring image of what entrepreneurship is really like. Entrepreneurship is not a thing that you do alone, it is a thing that you do in partnership. Funding Challenges: When asked about her challenges with funding she emphasized how much time and dedication the process of securing funding or financing requires. She often wonders whether she has spent a whole lifetime fundraising—knowing that it is necessary although trying part of the process of growing and scaling a business. She shares how frustrating and sometimes demoralizing fundraising can be to the point of bringing her to tears sometimes, but it is part of the hurdles that many entrepreneurs will have to overcome to get to where they want to take their business. Her many challenges with fundraising have often left her disheartened but her resilience has always allowed her to rally when she thinks about why she does what she does and what she has already invested. Her resilience is anchored by the hunger and appetite for what she has created, and the blood sweat, and tears that have been invested, and a bit of hope. “What business do I have staying at the mediocre stage when I know that the world is mine to take and that if I do, I am not going alone. I am taking so many people with me and also that I am very qualified for what is available and why are the doors being closed?” This is a question that she is still looking for answers to. Partnership: Francesca talks fondly about the beautiful relationship that she has developed with a competitor turned partner and friend who has become like family—Funlayo Alabi of Shea Radiance skin and haircare brand. Francesca supplies the black soaps marketed by Shea Radiance and is a part of the Shea Radiance supply chain while maintaining her own skincare product lines and living and defining what it means to ‘collaborate to compete. As entrepreneurs and black women in the case of Francesca and Funlayo, they are proving that women can collaborate to win while competing in the same business. Connect with Francesca: Email: beautysecretsusa.com Social media: beautysecretsusa on Instagram and Facebook beauty secrets Africa Come back to check out new episodes released every two weeks on Wednesdays. If you like this content go to Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts and hit the subscribe button and stream or download your favorite episodes. Don’t forget to leave a rating and review to get the podcast more listeners and spread its impact.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

Episode 1: Funlayo Alabi - “Entrepreneurship is crying into your kombucha”Our inaugural episode showcases Funlayo Alabi, CEO and Founder of Shea Radiance, a natural beauty brand dedicated to transforming hair, skin, thinking and lives into something beautiful.Entrepreneurship:Funlayo spent a decade working in healthcare as a business analyst and software developer while she created the Shea Radiance brand in her free time. She spent nearly a decade working on all-natural product formulations from her own kitchen.Her business was born out of the need to find a natural solution for her young sons eczema-prone skin. That need sent her on a quest to her homeland of West Africa, where she rediscovered the healing properties of shea butter. Harkening back to her memories of being chased around the house by her grandmother with a tub of shea butter and camphor and smelling like an “old suitcase”, Funlayo describes that rediscovery as finding the “holy grail” Not only did she find the missing ingredient for her skin and hair care products; she found a way to link her own journey of motherhood, heritage and economic freedom to that of women shea producers in Africa.According to Funlayo, entrepreneurship is a “marathon and not a sprint” and there are NO shortcuts. Despite not having many examples of role models in the hair and beauty space to emulate, business like the Body Shop spurred her to weave her own authentic story about shea into her branding to promote it as one of many super products indigeous to the Africa continent.Business Opportunities and Challenges:When asked about her challenges with funding she emphasized doing what you love, but that passion is about “20% of what you need to be successful” Branding, marketing and funding are critical for success and she estimated that over $250,000 is the ideal buffer to support the upstream and downstream costs in the supply chain for a beauty brand. She discussed the high and lows of getting into big box stores and the need to understand your margins and discussed the challenges of an independent brand working in a space dominated by commercial brands readily able to pay for space placement and other associated costs. She acknowledges the lessons learned on making sure you have good digital presence and her growing partnership with Whole Foods Market. She says that doing demos and meeting her customers has “taught her more about her brand” and advises that finding local stores who believe in you is key to your “organic growth”. Funlayo reflects on how important it is to find reasons for being in business that are bigger than yourself, her “why” continues to be the women shea producers in her supply chain and her customers who love her products. Funlayo talks about the need to still convince investors on the viability of her business and calls the under investment of female-led entreprises and specifically those run by women of color as “depriving the market of amazing products and services” Partnership:Funlayo talks about her partnership, mentorship and sisterhood with Francesca Opoku from Beauty Secrets as the epitome of ‘collaborate to compete’. As entrepreneurs the two partners dream, network and “leverage collective strengths' to scale and grow which allows Funlayo to concentrate on other efforts like the new Dara Beauty Labs, a formulation and product development hub which brings other amazing beauty products to the marketplace.How to connect with Funlayo: https://shearadiance.com--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

View Details

This scene-setting episode is where co-hosts Michelle McKenzie and Lydia Nylander introduce themselves and talk about what the show stands for, why it’s and the value it offers to the conversation around development finance and funding for black entrepreneurs with a focus on black women entrepreneurs.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

WHERE’S THE FUNDING?: Recent Episodes

WTF (Where Is The Funding?!) Podcast