Short documentary-style transcript excerpt featuring two speakers (A and B) reflecting on entrepreneurship: the uncertainty of building something new, the emotional and financial pressures of fundraising, experiences of being a token investment, and the persistent fear that success could collapse despite raising millions. The speakers discuss personal drive to lead and scale a business and the burden of investor and family expectations.
I always wanted to sort of lead a large team and inspire them to achieve something.
I felt like it was a real opportunity to build a big business.
Entrepreneurship, it was more like, there's no trail map yet because you're building something new that no one's ever built. This is tiring process, right? Like you. I mean, if people are saying no to you thousand times, why should you even do it?
That was going to be the turning point. Like, wow, I made it. The average black woman only raised 36,000 in the whole course of her business. I've raised a million. But really, I was just like a token investment.
Even when you seem to be extremely successful, you just always have this fear that it could all fall apart right now. We started believing in this idea so much that we were able to raise a couple of million dollars from investors.
I was, this is my chance. This is my big idea that I could see scaling into billion dollar business.
When it's like your friends and their families and your family investing money, we're like, hey, I'm not gonna quit. I'm gonna go through walls. But at the same time, felt like a great burden, great pressure. We're always at the precipice.
