The Jennifer Kamara Podcast

Aaron: the best way to counterbalance that.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Aaron: Is to inundate the market with content about black joy. For every single article that we're putting out about black pain we were matching it with an article about black joy.

Jennifer: Hey, Jacob V. Crew. I talk with my dear friend, Aaron Samuels. He co-founded Blavity and Afro Tech currently sits on their board and is the current founder of Clyde Capital.

Aaron and I talk all things building a business, being an artist slash writer slash poet. What growing up as a mixed kid was like as well as what's important to him these days.

Jennifer: Erin, I'm so glad that you're here.

I'm so excited to dig in. I wanna start with taking us all the way back to Baby Erin, growing up in Rhode Island, the son of, not one y'all, but two therapists. I can't even begin to comprehend what that's like. But on top of that, Erin, you're, you have such a fascinating background. You are black and you're Jewish.

you're a poet and you're a math geek. I had the privilege of being in classes with you in accounting , and I was like, what is this professor talking about? Erin be like, oh yeah, it's this. And I'm just so curious for you to tell us what growing up was like for you.

Aaron: No, I, I appreciate it. You know, I want to start by saying that as a, as a mixed kid, it's, it's always an honor to be interviewed by another mixed kid. Um, it's so rare and I feel like the, the questions come from a, a different place. Um, like there's, there's an assumption of hybridity, there's an assumption of duality.

Um, and kind of knowing what I know about your background and upbringing from a biracial household by cultural household, um, uh, that, that led you to have multiple different homelands, um, you know, to this day, multiple different places that you call home. Um, I carry some of that with me too. Uh, I'm black and Jewish.

Um, you know, I guess the most recent homeland that both my parents are from is New York City, um, but generationally, um, from other places. Um, mom's family, uh, immigrants from Russia, Poland, um, dad's family, uh, from Jamaica and, um, Like Slave, legacy African American, um, you know, they, they brought all of that together as they, as they raised me.

Um, so I was always raised to have a very strong, uh, and active respect, reverence, appreciation for the cultural backgrounds that existed on, on both sides of my family and. raised firmly as part of the black community, firmly as part of the Jewish community. Um, as I've, as I've grown up firmly as a part of a, a growing unification of Jews of color, um, across the United States and across the world.

Um, and always from a very young age, my parents echoed the importance of community of family.

Jennifer: I so resonate. Given what we talked about being a mixed kid, it all, it's like community is everything. It takes a village and you go far by going together. . I am half Ukrainian, half Sierra Leonian, so like really resonating with the Russian polish, like much in my husband's Polish.

And then the Jamaican, I feel like these were just folks from West Africa going to Jamaica. So we are so, so, so similar for me, I always felt growing up like. . I had this huge strength of coming from this mixed identity where I could really understand people coming from different walks of life because my parents and of themselves were so different, and even, I always felt like there were multiple aspects to, to me, I'm curious what your experience was like.

Aaron: Yeah, I mean, I want to, I want to go deep on this with you, you know, because there's, there's pain there. Um, there's also so, so much joy and celebration. Um, you know, I, I definitely have had experiences where, I have felt not completely similar to the people sitting next to me, uh, even at a place that was supposed to be my home.

Um, I've also felt what it means to be part of a vast and accepting beloved community. Um, that looks many different ways, and I think that I've had both versions of that experience in the black community and both versions of that experience in the Jewish community. . Um, and oftentimes you can have both of those experiences within the same day, uh, or within the same interaction.

exactly with, with, with the person feeling love and acceptance, and also feeling slightly othered, slightly different. Um, this is an experience that I talk about with many writers and many artists. . Um, cuz I think most writers feel this way, not necessarily because they're big, they're, they're mixed, right?

Um, but I think like most writers find themselves in a moment and having the experience of simultaneously being present and also annotating the experience of that moment live, right? I'm here and I'm also my meta self observing the moment watching what's happening. And having that, that dual experience, um, I think enables you to think about how a world could look different.

It's one of the reasons that I, that I love writing and, and, and why, why I enjoy interaction with artists. Because one of the things that artists do is they, they look at the world and they say, how can I bend it? How can I bend it in my mind? How can I bend it in my heart? How can I bend it in a community?

To make it better, um, to make it more interesting, to make it cooler. Um, and I think that that tendency is something that is also shared among entrepreneurs. Uh, that same feeling of being present and also annotating a moment saying, how could that moment have been different? X technology or X process or X system.

Um, this is artistry. Um, this is entrepreneurship, right? This is the world that, that I've grown to love and grown to, to be a part of. And, and all of that is ultimately rooted for me and in my mixed identity.

Jennifer: Totally. And it makes me think about even just taking everything back to first principles, um, like why is this table designed the way it's designed? But if you zoom that all the way out, why is the world designed the way it's designed? Why do we think about people the way we think about people and how it goes back to you look at the 15 hundreds and travel.

Exploration and how that led to slavery and all of this. And what if the world was turned upside down and how could that have looked differently? You're getting my mind going in all of these directions, but I love what you're bringing up about entrepreneurs and artists, and I think that's why. . These are some of the most interesting people that I personally love engaging with because of this tendency and mindset.

The other thing you brought up, Erin, is this feeling of you can simultaneously be felt like you're understood, and then not at all in the same interaction. I feel like I every interaction. , I've never . It's very rare that I have an interaction where I feel completely understood or like someone fully appreciates the whole sense of me.

And I am still working through, expressing the whole version of myself in a way that is. Super, super authentic and for instance, Ukraine is such a different culture from Sierra Leone and growing up in Sierra Leone, I was called white and going, going to Ukraine, I was called black.

And in the US people were like, oh, you're not African American. What are you? What is your, cuz you have a different experience. It's not the African American experience, it's the African experience. For me, I'm constantly going back and forth between these worlds and stay authentic and true and express my experience and have that also be accepted.

Um, . And something that gets me excited is I think folks are more and more open to not putting you in a box, not putting your, your square peg in a round hole per se, and getting more and more open to that. Um, but yeah. I am curious what, what your experiences there have been like, or any insights and how you are walking through the world as this mixed kid.

Aaron: Yeah. Well I think, you know, for me, if, if you wanna take it. The first principles, um, I was raised to love my people. Um, as I've gotten older, I think I've developed more nuance, um, around what that means. What does it mean to truly love, um, how do I define a people? And I think when I was, when I was younger and, and my, you know, my parents, um, raised me with what they knew.

So it was very clear black people, Jewish people. Rhode Islanders, . Like, this is who you are. This is where you're from. You will, you will, you will love this, your family. A, a Samuels, a levy, right? Like th this is where it comes from. Um, as I've gotten older, I think I've just gotten more expansive. Yes, yes.

Still to all of those things. I still love black people. I still love Jewish people. I still love Rhode Islanders. I also have an appreciation for Jews of color. I have an appreciation for entrepreneurs. I have an appreciation for artists. I have an appreciation for math nerds, as you've said, uh, for builders, for operators.

Um, but it still comes from that, that same premise of love. Uh, and I think, you know, if you start there, it's hard to lose because you always remember who you're building for and, and what's driving you and what's motivating you. Um, it's the same thing that, that led me to my career as a poet, where I was spending time literally traveling around the united. Um, sharing my experience being a Jewish color, um, it's what led me to, to Blavity, um, to a team that, that our explicit purpose was to try to create a world in which all black people are happy. And I think ultimately, um, that's why I'm investing now to try to help create the next generation of founders, uh, to empower and, and enable, uh, the next generation of, uh, of incredible founders to build products and solutions.

Um, For, you know, for, for this, for this breaking world.

Jennifer: And love comes so much. More naturally than, for instance, a strong emotion like hate and building community all starts with love and sharing more of that and lifting each other up is, is what it's all

Aaron: Although hate can also be motivating too. Um, I, I think that, I think that some of, some of my, you know, my strongest moments of persistence have been driven by some of the darker emotions, um, rage, hatred, anger. Yeah. So I, I think that, um, You know, I, I'm not, I'm not only here to, to preach the love gospel either.

You know, I think, I think this world is deeply broken, built on structural racism that was designed to extract, um, and exploit. Uh, and I also think, you know, if you, if you observe and you research the way that the world is built and you don't feel a bit. Then, um, then, then for me, it means you're, you're a bit outta touch.

It's almost impossible to look at the world without holding that anger. I think it's just important to also couple that with love, right? But I'm in no way am I, am I saying Don't, don't be mad. We, we should, we should be very mad. Like this, this world is a very deeply broken place. Um, I just don't know that, uh, only using anger is gonna be the solution to building, uh, a better world.

Jennifer: that makes me think of Mandela, right? And being imprisoned and channeling this anger into productive behavior. Building a country in a way where he hoped it would be better. So for me it's about how do you channel these strong negative emotions into productivity and the bigger, longer term goal that you have in mind.

It's so funny, Aaron, cuz growing up in Sierra Leone I learned African history. . And so I learned about all the kings and queens and the people of Sierra Leone and the first universities and of Egypt and all of this magnificent culture. That was amazing and wonderful. And then I come to the US and it's like, you folks here learn a very different history where it's about the white people and how they were in charge and powerful.

Uh, even when you were talking about that, it was just so funny to me because even to this day, like folks talk about, oh, world War, this and that, and there's some things that I'm just like, but you didn't learn about this stuff and you don't know about this stuff. And just speaking of how, like if you go back to first principles and look at how the world is structured today and the things you can learn from that.

Aaron: Well, you know, infor information is power, right? And, and one tool that, that oppressors have. From the beginning of time, it's just rewriting the narrative, rewriting history, leaving things out. Um, it's one of the reasons why I think writers have a very important role in the building and the next world. Um, we need to document the stories of our successes, document the, the stories of our people.

Um, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I, so I com

Jennifer: I loved. . I loved Woman King. It was for me the first time I saw African culture in the big screen. Yes, we've seen Wakanda, but this feels very much like a Hollywood version. But Woman King actually felt like an af. Like I saw women in African clothing and Warriors, like some of the stuff

Aaron: Fiola Davis from From Rhode Island

Jennifer: I didn't know she was from Rhode Island.

And, but I did read.

Aaron: Island. Fiola Davis

Jennifer: I did read about how tough it was for her to get that, uh, project off the ground, and I'm so grateful that she did, because again, it, it felt like I was seeing my culture up on the screen and I can't describe to you how amazing that is. It must, it must, I think for many people who always see themselves on the victory, they're probably like, what, what is this feeling?

Um, but yeah, totally. Yes to more writers and more creators and more representation and all of that.

Aaron: Yeah, more women came.

Jennifer: Yes. More women. King. Erin, I'd love to learn more about what growing up as a son of two therapists was like, and why I ask is because I personally know you for over, I think it's like six, seven years now, , since 2016.

Aaron: getting old. We're getting old. Jennifer, we're we're getting old.

Jennifer: And one of the things I love about you is again, like your ability to derive meaning and value between positive and negative emotion. For instance, like first year of business school together, you were sharing your poetry book, which will link so folks can, look into it. And I remember I grew up during a war in Sierra Leone and I had developed this coping mechanism of almost siloing away the negative emotions, like the fear, et cetera.

And. I remember having a conversation with you about what value and how meaningful negative emotions can. and as a poet, we've talked a little bit about this, um, and then you, you just are so passionate about your craft and poetry and all of this, and bringing it back to your parents. It feels like you developed at a very young age, really great ways of mediating your emotions and channeling them into various pursuits like art and poetry and entrepreneurship, et cetera.

So just wanted to get a sense of what, what that upbringing was like and what you learned from them.

Aaron: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, I, I think in many ways we're, we're all a reflection of our, of our childhood, you know? Um, we all, we all en engage in some amount of trauma as a kid, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to undo that . Um, we're trying to build on it and. You know, I, I, I had a very different childhood than you did.

You know, I can't, I can't even imagine what it was like growing up during a war, having to leaving your home, having to leave your country. Um, so shoot, you know, if you wanna deal with your negative emotions differently than the way that I deal with my negative emotions, like more, more, more power to you.

Um, me, it was an important tool to be able to name my, my emotions, and to harness them. And, and I think that that's something that, that you learned subtly from having therapist parents and, and you know, my, my parents were, were therapists, but I also wanna shout them out cuz I, I think that they were also very excellent at what they do.

Uh, so there's all these stereotypes of like, oh, you know, the children of therapists end up screwed up and , things like that. And, and, and actually I, I,

Jennifer: I haven't heard too much of that narrative.

Aaron: oh, that's a pretty popular one in the states. Um, , but, uh, but I think for me, um, it was really a source of strength. You know, coming home, my, my parents would very subtly they'd say, oh, hey Aaron.

Um, you know, how was your day? and I say, oh, you know, my day, blah, blah, blah. I was just, and they say, oh great, great. What'd you do? And I'd say, oh, you know, did these things and say, oh, that's awesome. How'd that make you feel? I'm like, oh yeah, it made me feel like this. And they say, oh, that's awesome. Like, why do you think it made you feel that way?

I'm like, oh, probably because of this, this other, and you know, and that was it. But like you do that every day for 18 years, you realize that you're building a muscle of always being aware of what you're feeling. And that deeper level of then also trying to unpack the reason why you're feeling the way you're feeling.

Um, and that's a muscle that my parents like slowly helped me flex over the course of my childhood. It was only when I got to college and I would talk to my friends about. Interactions with their parents, and they'd say, Aaron, we don't, we don't do that. That's, that's a, that's such very, very different. I'm like, oh, yeah.

What do you say when your parents ask you like, why you felt this way? And they're like, my parents have

Jennifer: Don't

Aaron: question. Um, and if I asked my parents that question, they would know how to answer it. And, and I realized that that was like, that was like table stakes. That was, that was, that was what we were talking about.

Every single dinner. So that then when things got hard, when we dealt with difficult moments as a family, when we dealt with family, family tragedies, or we dealt with global tragedies, um, we already had those tools to process, you know, my parents. Um, often said, I think I, I I, I, I said this in the conversation with, with marching, um, at, at a certain point in time in G S V, um, you know, my parents equate therapy to, to working out, to, to kind of, to go into, to, to, to the gym.

Like you don't, you don't start working out when you get a broken leg. Um, That that's actually a very difficult time to start to start working out. You, you start working out when you're healthy, to build strength, to build flexibility so that when you inevitably do get injur. You heal faster, you, you recover better and you prevent yourself, uh, you reduce the likelihood of getting injured in the first place cuz you build that strength.

And, um, my parents kind of raised me to feel the exact same way about therapy and, and broader than therapy about the general tools of, uh, emotional wellness, of mindfulness, mind, body, self care. Um, and I grew up in a, in a household that really valued, valued these, these elements as and, and viewed them as sources of strength.

Jennifer: Absolutely such a huge source of strength. I'm so glad about how far the market has now come on, the value of therapy and that it's hopefully less and less and less and less taboo now. Like so many of our friends now openly talk about having therapists, et cetera. I'm sure that that's what's just the self-awareness and ability to self-manage that's helped you even growing your businesses, et cetera, because I think so many entrepreneurs just don't always take great care of themselves to this point of going to the gym only when something's broken or going to the doctor, only when something's broken.

Aaron: Yeah, I mean I probably still have some way to go. Um,

Jennifer: It's all a work in progress.

Aaron: It is a work in progress. Indeed. It is a work in progress. Indeed.

Jennifer: All right, Erin, let's talk about what you're doing these days. Well, are you still doing, Blavity and Afro,

Aaron: i, so it's a great, it's a great question. I appreciate you asking. Um, so I graduated.

Jennifer: Nice. I like that. Okay.

Aaron: so I, um, I now am in purely a board role. For B Blabbity and Afro Tech and for blavity.org, our nonprofit sister organization.

Jennifer: Okay.

Aaron: sit on, I sit on the board. Um, Blavity Incorporated is, um, the for-profit arm that, that also owns Afro Tech as a subsidiary.

And, um, and blavity.org is the nonprofit, um, in January. Of 2022, I stepped into a board role for, uh, for those organizations so that I could pursue my next initiative full-time. And that is, um, a venture capital fund called Collide Capital.

Jennifer: awesome. We'll talk about all of these. Let's start with Blavity, which is the largest. Global Black media company and then Afro Tech, which is the largest black tech conference that you built both of these and co-founded, would love you to give us the highlights of what was starting it. Like what, how did the idea come about, and then what was getting it off the ground like

Aaron: Yeah, that was great. I mean, um, yeah, we're the largest global black media company for millennials and Gen Z. Uh, it was Morgan's idea. Uh, Morgan, really good friend of mine from college, I've known Morgan since she was 17. Um, we met actually during, like a pre-freshman orientation weekend when she was a senior in high school, and I was a freshman in. um, always a powerhouse. And so good friends in college, me, Morgan, and Jeff and Jonathan, the, the four of us. And a few years out, Morgan kind of got the band back together and, you know, called us all and said that she had this idea for a black media company. Did we want to, did we wanna start it with her? at the time in my life I was kind of, I, I think I was a little lost. Um, I had been working at Bain and Company, um, doing strategy consulting in New York. I also was working nights as a spoken word artist and performing all over New York City as well as, as well as nationally. And I actually had, I was taking a six month leave of absence from Bain to go on a book tour with my, with my book Yamakas and Fitted. and so I was in the Bay Area at the tail end of my book tour, um, I think December of 2013. and Morgan was living in San Francisco at the time. Um, and I went over to her apartment and, and we hashed it out. And, and you know, she, she had this vision. She was living in Silicon Valley, she was working it Intuit.

She saw. You know, technology and, and, and access and saw how black people weren't, weren't getting that. On top of that, the four of us had all, you know, went to college in St. Louis, Morgan grew up in St. Louis. Around the time this was, around the, the time of the murder of Michael Brown. Um, and the subsequent, um, the subsequent righteous anger that, that al that, that, that emerged in Ferguson, um, the, the protests and, We were watching all of that happen and, and we were watching our story not being told in a way that that was actually reflective of the truth.

Jennifer: And coming back to what we talked about earlier about the narrative and being in control of the narrative.

Aaron: exactly, exactly. And, you know, for us, the narrative was, and this, this wasn't, this wasn't the first of course, you know, and it was a string of really intense media moments for black. This was, um, the government execution of Troy Davis. I think that was in, in, or, you know, around 2012, followed by the, the murder of Trayvon Martin, um, I think, you know, subs, right?

Subsequently after that, and then the murder of Michael Brown. So all of these things kind of happened and were happening while in parallel me, Morgan and Jeff and Jonathan were having this conversation about black storytelling and black narrative and. Where, where the source of source of truth should be for our community.

Um, and what was happening is when we were, when we were logging into mainstream news publications to try to figure out what was going on, the story that we were seeing were angry black people steals televisions from local tech store, right? Like where the, you know, there's looting, there's anger, we need to quell the masses.

Like that was the story that was being told as opposed to the deeper story, which is. We were living in a society where it was acceptable to murder black people with no repercussion. And people were legitimately upset about, about that. Right. And, and furious as as they should be. And the, the answer wasn't that we need to stop the looting.

The answer is

that we

Jennifer: to stop the shooting.

Aaron: the murder. We need to stop the shooting. Exactly. We need to stop the murder, the murder of black people. Um, and the government sanctioning of, of, of, of. Um, of, of said things. So, um, we said, where does that happen? Like, where are we having these conversations? Where are we having these, these legitimate and, and important conversations?

Because we were having them, like when you were talking talk, talking to black millennials, we were having those conversations, but it wasn't happening in mainstream news. And we were realizing there was, it's, it's funny almost saying this in 2023 because it's so obvious in 2023, um, but it wasn't obvious in 2013 and 2014, but we were having these conversations on social.

That's, that's where the conversations were, were, were being had, we were having them on Twitter. We were having them on Instagram. TikTok didn't exist yet. Um, but we ultimately, we were ha we were having them on a thing called Vine. And I think Vine culture ultimately like evolved into, into TikTok culture.

Um, and, and we said we need to find a way to aggregate and source news, um, from social, from, from the places where we were actually living and actually having these conversations. Something that was mobile first, something that was social first, something that was actually representative of our community.

And that's, that's where it started. Um, and then where it progressed in a very important way was we realized we didn't just want to create. Content about black pain. Um, the world, at least the world that I knew it in the United States, was what we found was often willing to let an article or a news story go viral if it was about black pain, but not as often willing to let a story go viral if it was about black joy

Jennifer: That reminds me, Erin, of the commercials above the poor African kid with the flies on their face and donate and this being the story and image of Africa and I totally, totally resonated. There's so much celebration and joy and beauty in the culture of the continent and I totally get.

Aaron: Yes. Ex. Exactly. That's exactly right. Um, there, there's a, there's a, a received narrative that black people get in this country and in this world. And if you put out media stories that are in alignment with that received narrative, they're allowed to flourish. And you, if you put things that run counter to that received narrative, oftentimes they get suppressed.

And maybe they're getting suppressed by individual people. Maybe they're getting suppressed algorithmically. There's a lot of problems. But we said the best way to counterbalance that.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Aaron: Is to inundate the market with content about black joy. For every single article that we're putting out about black pain, we were matching it with an article about black joy.

Just as much as we live in the age of Black Lives Matter. We also live in the age of Beyonce. Just as much as we live in the age of the murders of Michael Brown, or years later, the murders of George Floyd, we also live in the world of Black Panther. We also live in the world of the woman King and Viola Davis.

These things are true throughout history. Black people have been leaders in art, in science, in culture, in mathematics. We've been vanguards of building. We've built, we built this country, the United States, we built substantial parts of the world, right? And we need to tell the narrative a little bit differently.

And so ultimately that became the root, the, the underlying principle of Blavity. Um, which is what, what, where, where we ultimately changed our, our vision statement to, um, our goal is to create a world in which all black people are happy. And everything that we do is ultimately oriented around that goal.

Jennifer: I love it. And Afro Tech also similarly, is a way for us to celebrate

Aaron: Well, AFEC came out of that exact, exactly. So Afec came

Jennifer: in the black community and technology and business

Aaron: in technology. That's exactly right.

Jennifer: I love it. I also love Erin seeing more and more black media company, black owners in various industries come up and it feels like we, it honestly feels like we are transforming and we're on the cusp of something that is going to be even bigger.

Does that resonate or do you feel like we're already there?

Aaron: We're definitely not already there. There's, there's still, there's still a lot of work to be. . I, I'm excited about the work that Blavity continues to do and will continue to do. I'm also excited about the multiple other organizations in the Ether that are also working and building toward that goal. And, you know, we've never been alone.

We've never been the only builder. Um, and I, in fact, that I think that narrative hurts us. You know, there are a lot of incredible black media companies, um, building a lot of what we do actually behind the scenes is support other black media. We created an ad network that actually works behind the scenes to help multiple black media companies help monetize their content, help operationalize their content.

And you know, we, we, we run dozens of, of those through our, our larger tech ecosystem. Um, so a big, a big value that we have is building the field. Uh, we need more truth tellers, we need more black people empowered, uh, to share their stories. Um, and ul ultimately we need to change the public.

Jennifer: Totally. And ultimately it's not just about the black community sharing the black media, it's about everyone sharing the black media. And so also wanting to invite other folks to come in and consume and learn and share, because I think we're all in it together and the change doesn't just step with us.

Aaron: Yeah, I think that's important. I mean, and you know, we put our stuff online so anybody can access our content and on any given day, you know, 30 to 40% of our content is consumed by non-black people. So we're definitely aware of that. But it's also important to us that the content that we're putting out, Um, is focused on a black audience and, and comes from a black perspective.

And, uh, so, so oftentimes content is designed with an imagined white audience in mind. Um, or, or a, a general market audience, um, in, in in mind, which, which oftentimes breaks, breaks down to kind of white middle class. Um, . And so it's important that, that we say yes, we want everybody consuming this content.

And we also think it's, it's great for the world if non-black people are consuming content that is written by black people and designed with a black audience in mind.

Jennifer: Let's talk about Collide capital, because I know this has seemed like an overnight success. That was years in the making, and you your partner Brian Hos huge, huge congrats, Aaron. Y'all raised a fund of $66 million to invest in the black community and. I just wanna have you soak that in.

Aaron: Thank you. No, I, um, I, I appreciate it. And, and what I, what I will say is that the, the, the Blavity in the Afro tech project was explicitly a black project. Um, Clyde Capitals is a little bit broader. We're still focused, we're still focused on, on underrepresentation. Um, but we did a bit of research and, and if, if you look at the numbers, less, less than 1%, um, of venture capital funding, uh, goes to black funded startups.

Um, but similarly, less than 1% of venture capital funding goes to female founders, um, of, of any race. Um, and it's around that mark that the number, the number changes, but less, less than 2% goes to Latin found. . Um, and so, and again that, that part, part of that is I don't think that this country is, has really nailed how, how we, how we catalog and, and, and, and define, uh, Latin, um, people , right?

So, so, so we can, we can double click on some of that later. But the point is, three of the most underrepresented groups relative to their index of the population, black people, Latin people, and female.

Um, are not getting access to venture capital. So we made those, our core focus audiences for the fund. So we raised 66 million, um, that primarily is designed to go to black, Latin and female founders.

Jennifer: And so are you focused on, in particular industry? Tell us a little bit about your thesis. How founders can get involved, and all of that.

Aaron: Totally, totally. So our, our, our theory of change is that, uh, we wanna back intersectional founders that ultimately are going to be building unicorn companies, um, because we believe that, uh, we believe that victory, uh, is the , is the, is is the best revenge, so to speak. So, um, success is the best revenge. So, um, We look at three primary sectors.

Um, we look at enterprise SaaS, um, we look at, uh, supply chain software and specifically regenerative economy. So this is the, the software side of, of climate, um, technology. And, um, and we look at Gen Z, empowerment, um, and that's future of work, future of workers. What types of softwares are going to be required when Gen Z is the primary decision maker in, in their lives, in their homes, in, in their, in their workplace settings?

Um, we believe that, that these, uh, that these three sectors are going to be persistent, um, and persistently important over the next decade. And we believe that the most innovative solutions in these sectors are gonna be built by people, not just in Silicon Valley. Um, and so we wanna look at the, the rest of the United States, the rest of world.

Um, outside of, outside of what, what historically has gotten the majority of venture capital dollars, which was rich white men. Over six feet tall from Harvard or Stanford and saying, we look May maybe, you know, maybe we're gonna see a few more great companies from that archetype too over the next decade.

But we think that there's gonna be incredible solutions from people outside of that archetype as well. And we wanna make sure that we're paying attention to where these solutions are coming from.

Jennifer: And it's about time that the funding goes to representative population

Aaron: and growing. Look, we're we're trending on, on becoming a majority

POC country in the United States. Um, and you know, the job with a venture capitalist is to invest now into the companies that are going to become. Dominant over the course of the next decade. And so if we ask the question, where is this country going?

It seems almost an obvious and an inevitable conclusion that we should be investing in founders that look like the new majority will look like in this country.

Jennifer: It's good for business. It's not even a thing to do for representation. It's just good for business, period. All right. Erin, a lot of the times we talk to folks who are very successful and it's like, oh my gosh. There's such a big difference between where someone is to where this.

Successful person is in whoever's eyes, and I want us to make sure to talk about the challenges along the way and building Blavity, AFEC collide capital. It has not been an easy journey. You've told me some of them, 2020, for instance, was a really difficult year and I wanted to ask you to share with me some or one of the most challenging things you've had to go through and what that has taught you about leadership as well as by yourself.

Aaron: Yeah, well, I mean, it's, it's timely. Um, but we should talk about it because I, you know, we haven't really talked about this publicly yet. Silicon Valley Bank,

um, this, this, this, we're in it now. This, this just happened this past week. Um, and, and, you know, talk about a moment of crisis. Um,

Jennifer: was that for y'all? Did you have exposure? Did you move quickly? Did you, do you have fun

Aaron: yeah, we did. Uh, you know, yeah. So our, as a fund, our primary bank, um, with Silicon Valley Bank, Um, and about 30%, 35% of our portfolio companies, um, their, their primary bank was Silicon Valley Bank. So did we have exposure? Yes. Uh, we did, we did have exposure. Um, and, you know, we, we, we, you know, our money is safe, um, now and. the, the federal government backs stopped. Um, the do the dollars and, and you know, so, so everything is okay with me and my portfolio, but there were definitely a few days there where we were all kind of asking the question, did this money that I put in the bank just disappear, ,

Jennifer: Which isn't something you think to ask yourself, do I need to be diversifying my bank?

Aaron: May and maybe I sh, maybe I should have May. I think all of us in the venture, in the venture industry, like, yeah, I think, I think we all had to do a, a long, hard look at ourselves and say, what are we doing ? Like, what's going on in the venture capital industry? Like how are so many VC firms startups on diversified?

And it's hard, you know, you put your money in the. It's the bank. You know, you, you, you assume that

Jennifer: It's

the safe space for

Aaron: it's the sa it's the same. Put my money in the bank. Um, and it was like a wild thing to say, wow, maybe, maybe it's not. Or maybe again, it's just a reminder that, that nothing is guaranteed. I also wanna say, and I think this is important for your listeners and, and for the world, that there are many elements of a crisis.

And I think that, um, you know, the initial impact of Silicon Valley Bank at the federal backstop, I think we're, we're behind that moment now, but there are second and third order fallout consequences that we're still gonna be potentially dealing with. Um, I think one of the biggest ones is that there are several founders who were in the process of a capital raise.

um, right now that many VC funds now, because they're saying, oh, I need to be diversified. I need to deal with the Silicon Valley bank situation, um, are pausing action. And many VC funds are saying, oh, well actually I need a couple weeks to

open up some new bank accounts, , um, to like, to like, take care of myself.

But for startups that were in vulnerable situations that were at, at the very end of a capital raise, but we're actually relying on that, that to close. Um, Exactly. Some, some of them are gonna be in, in, in difficult, in difficult moments, in situations. And as, as always, whenever a large crisis happens, the people affected the most are the most vulnerable populations.

And I think in the venture world, oftentimes that looks like black, Latin and female founders. And so, um, you know, as a, one of the things that I'm really being cautious. , um, when I look at my portfolio or when I'm talking, when I'm talking to fellow venture capitalists with their portfolios, is to really take, take a look at your portfolio and, and see, and see what, what the needs are.

Um, because there are, there are going to be multiple founders that are still dealing with the fallout from what happened with svb. Um, even if the initial moment is behind us.

Jennifer: Yeah, and just for context for listeners, SVB is a lender to, I think it's over half of Silicon Valley. They support 2,500 VC firms. Most of tech has money tied up with them, so really impactful to the community. Aaron, what's important to you these days?

Aaron: I think I spent my twenties running around, um, like a wild person.

I was, I don't know, between being a traveling spoken word artist, being a. Strategy consultant or being a founder, I basically had three consecutive careers that required me to be on a plane or, or some mode of transportation, um, to leave my city almost once a week.

And so for about a decade, I was never in one place. Now, for somebody that's so grounded in community as a, as a first principle, that that was hard. Um, in some ways it was beautiful cuz it made my community vast. There are people that I deeply love and care about in most major cities in the world, um, which is great, and it's an opportunity to, to grow and, and, and see them. But I think I lost something, uh, in terms of having a very, very strong and vibrant local community and home life. In terms of where, where I wanna look and, you know, I turned 34 in, in May, this coming May. And I'm asking myself what I. to prioritize for the, the remainder of my thirties. And I think, um, I think focusing on home and building something that, that looks a little bit more stable, consistent, and local, um, it doesn't mean that I'm gonna stop doing things on the national level.

Doesn't mean that I'm stop gonna stop investing in, in many ways my work is only getting more and more international and global. It just means I don't want to forsake also the, the strength of, uh, of, of a local home community as well.

Jennifer: Totally. The most important thing to me home are the people that I love. Just as a mixed kid who's from everywhere at the same time, and I love that. That brings us back to how we started with your family and this, these values that they instilled in you. All right, Erin, we gotta wrap. I know you gotta run to something else.

This was lovely catching up with you and thank you so much for being with us.

Aaron: It's an honor. Uh, I really appreciate you having. I get to do these podcasts and interviews every now and then. Um, but to, to be interviewed by a friend, to be interviewed by a fellow mixed person, a fellow entrepreneur, a fellow builder, um, it's a, it's a rare treat and an honor, and I'm super excited about what you're building.

So thank you for, for the opportunity for being, uh, a part of your show.

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