Jessica Norwood and Professor Easley discuss why Black entrepreneurs face steeper odds than their white counterparts. The racial wealth gap means less family money to fall back on, and friends can't help when they're broke too. Reimagining financial support systems becomes essential when failure isn't an option.
Chapters
There is $60 billion a year that's.
Spent on friends and family money.
And, you know, you've probably all heard.
The term friends and family.
It is when people tell you you.
Have a fantastic idea, but you should.
Borrow money from your friends and your family.
And, you know, on average, that number.
Is about $30,000 of gift or investment.
That folks receive when they're getting started.
But when you look at the racial wealth gap, when you look at that.
Number, you realize really quickly that black.
Folks are not going to have friends.
And family that can put that kind.
Of money into their businesses.
So this is the beginning of the.
Entrepreneurship journey that I want to lay out for everyone.
Right at the very beginning, you're already facing systemic racism and discrimination right at the very beginning.
And so when we look at this, and what I really like about how.
You talk about this, Professor Easley, is.
This piece around mindset of opportunity and not fearing failure.
So what happens when you don't have.
That $30,000 to get going, and you.
Can'T go to a bank or friends.
Or family or anybody because those loans.
At the beginning are deemed too risky.
Right.
And so what happens is that this.
Mindset of opportunity for a black entrepreneur, they're going to always be perpetually living.
Inside of a fear because they can't afford to fail.
There is no backup.
There is no other money.
There is nobody coming. And what they're having to do is take a little money from their regular.
Their main income, or they're having to move money from here, or they're perpetually in this startup mode, sometimes even five years still on this whole startup thing, and then the innovation moves forward, or.
Somebody else gets a wind of that.
Idea and pushes forward. And because they didn't have the capitalization, those ideas don't ever leave the back of that napkin.
And what I like to talk about.
Inside of this, and the reason why.
Runway and why I start off with.
Friends and family is because, as I.
Mentioned earlier about reimagining, and this is.
A word that I'm going to keep saying a lot of about reimagining.
Because what I was looking for was.
An opportunity for people to reimagine or what it was like to really be.
Friends and family, what would it look.
Like if the system responded in a way where it gave and made investments.
As friends and family?
And what I call the money that.
We put out is I believe in you money.
Because what's lost inside of this is.
That place where people actually look at.
Black and brown entrepreneurs and see them as innovators, see them as creators, see.
Them as worthy and, and needed in.
Solving the problems that are impacting their communities. So the startup part, this sort of bootstrapping, it impacts the psyche, it impacts the actual business itself.
Because a lot of this, what we're saying is we don't really find what.
You have to be credible.
We don't think you're worthy, we don't think you're valuable. When we don't put those early kinds of resources in.
