Investment Dollars and Impact Initiatives for an Inclusive Economy

Foreign. Hello and welcome back to the day two of the SBA Innovation Ecosystem Summit. I don't know how many times you said supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but hopefully it wasn't too much. In any case, we just heard from a number of representatives from states and local governments. Let's hear a little bit more now from the private investment side of things. So it is my great honor and pleasure to introduce my colleague, Ricky O'Reilly Jones, who is an Investment Officer and financial analyst with the Office of Investment and Innovation here at the Small Business Administration where she really focuses to increase economic outcomes for U.S. small businesses and lower middle market investment firms while supporting policy and process improvements. She came to SBA as a Presidential Management Fellow and I'm really glad that she has decided to dedicate her talents with us here in Office of Investment Innovation and I'm really looking forward to hearing this conversation. So over to you Ricky.

Thank you so much Jennifer. I appreciate the kind welcome and good afternoon everyone. Welcome to today's timely discussion on the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and the audacious strategies, bold ideas and of course the dollars and cents supporting rising innovators. Our panel, Investment Dollars and Impact Initiatives for an Inclusive Economy will be nothing short of very exciting. During yesterday's opening remarks by SBA administrator Isabella Casios Guzman and later echoed by OII's Associate Administrator Bailey Devries, they said unequal barriers and disparities from entrepreneurs limit the country and our economy. Great ideas come from everywhere, but opportunity and access have never been equal. I have the unique privilege and honor today to serve as the moderator for a panel of esteemed innovators who are solving for the nuance of opportunity and access. They are turning deep rooted inequities into actionable pathways of proven success. Folks, we are thrilled to be here with you today. As a reminder, please put your questions in the chat and if we don't have an opportunity to get to them, which I will be monitoring throughout the session. But if we don't, Please remember that at 2:40 join us for the Further Discovery breakout session. So to start, I will first ask each panelist to provide a brief introduction and also discuss their background relevant to building break. Excuse me, relevant to building inclusive funding opportunities. So panelists, are we ready? First up, founder and Managing partner at Zane Venture Fund, Shaila Nieves Bernie. Shaila, thank you for joining us today.

Thank you so much for having me, Ricky. Hi everyone, I am Shaila Nieves Bernie and I'm the founder and managing partner for Zane Venture Fund and the founder of Zane Access. So I've spent about 20 plus years, I say, investing in human capital through programs and services for large institutions in the public school sector and found myself in venture because of an entrepreneur who was looking to source capital. And I jumped right in. And so I saw the problem firsthand, I saw the inequities. And because of my past work working with marginalized communities, I felt I could use that lens to be able to find and fund great companies founded by diverse founders and teams. And so that's where Zane Venture Fund was formed. But I went a little bit further because I realized also that venture capital has become this sexy word that everybody wants, but nobody really understands what it is. And so I decided to educate entrepreneurs about the asset class, how to get capital ready. And so that's where Zane Access comes in, our nonprofit arm, where we also not only talk about one particular part of capital, but all capital and educating entrepreneurs how to become capital ready.

Thank you, Shiloh. We're so honored to have you here with us today. Next up, she holds the title of managing partner for Ingeborg Investments, Ana Mason. Thank you for joining us. Hi everyone.

It's so great to be with you all today. My name is Ana Mason. I'm the managing partner for Ingeborg Investments, which is an investment platform founded by Olivia Walton. And our exclusive focus is on investing in women prior to Ingeborg, which I love noting, is the namesake of Olivia's maternal grandmother. And so the work that we do there is very much so focused, informed and inspired by the women who came before us and how their legacy can inform the investment work that we do investing in women moving forward. Prior to this, I was the managing partner of another venture fund called Rise of the Rest, which focused on seeing opportunity first through the lens of geography. And so my perspective and approach when thinking about early stage venture, investing and investing more broadly, irrespective of asset class, is to think through ways where we can both leverage our actual cash money, capital, and also other types of capital. To Shyla's point earlier about how we level the playing field for entrepreneurs, leaders, executives, irrespective of the various lenses like geography, gender and beyond, so that everyone, everywhere has an equal shot at the American dream and the entrepreneurial opportunity.

Thank you so much, Anna. I love the focused, informed and inspired by those that came before us. It's a true testament to some of the things that I'm sure that you're doing at Ingleborg Investments and things that we'll dive into a bit Deeper. But last but not least, serving as a Tulsa program manager for Lightship Foundation. Charlton Cunningham, thank you for joining us today.

Thanks for having me. I'm a big fan of my other panelists, so this is like I'm having a fan moment, as I'm sure everyone else who's getting to be here is. My name is Charlton Cunningham. I'm the program manager at Lightship Foundation. Lightship was brought to Tulsa to be a part of the revitalization of Black Wall Street. There's kind of this reimagining of, if Black Wall street was never. If the race massacre never happened, what could it have become? So we have the unique privilege to work with partners on the ground here to make investments into the entrepreneurs in Tulsa as well as be a really integral part of the community of accelerator programs that exist here. Prior to that, I spent some time leading programs at HBCU vc, which is focused on creating kind of the next generation of black investors, and really got to do some incredible and intentional work around how do we provide access to HBCU students and other students of color. And for about the past decade, I've spent my career as an entrepreneurial ecosystem builder, talking to founders, figuring out what are the challenges they face, and, you know, doing everything I could possible to remove those barriers. So really excited to be a part of this conversation today.

We're so great thankful to have all of you here. So jumping into the questions now, the pressing matters. Shaila, I want to go to you first. You talked about how. How education has really been fundamental to the growth and evolution of the work that you're doing today. I also had an opportunity to look through your LinkedIn and was inspired by having a prepared mind. So talk to us about how developing a prepared mind, an informed point of view that enables you to be an additive partner. How has that helped you to imagine your work and steer Zane's programming and investment?

That was on my LinkedIn. Okay, so I'll start with this, you know, first, starting in this work, I didn't know anyone. I came from nowhere. Right. I spent my time in places where we were really, and I don't want to say solving real problems, but we were at the front lines of solving a lot of problems. Right. And so for me, that's just been my history, if you will. And I believe in, you know, someone who. I'm one of these people. If I see a problem, I feel like I'm uniquely qualified to solve it. Not all of them. I'm not a space I can't Do Space X or anything like that. But coming into venture capital, there are a couple of things I will say for me that were important. I wasn't trying to make any waves. I saw a huge opportunity in the market that apparently people weren't paying attention to, was about 4 trillion at the time for me, in terms of being prepared like I know what I don't know, and having people around you, right? Having the forethought to bring the people around you who are going to help you succeed in whatever goal that you sort of lay out for yourself. And so when I first started doing, I had to research an entire year before I even set foot talking about, I'm going to raise a fund. I had to educate, get educated, get informed, and learn what this was all about. But one thing I did, I'll tell everyone, is I found. Found someone just through a Google search to basically say who is the best person in my town that does this type of investment? And I need him or him or her on my team. And I found Sig Moseley. I'm sure, Charlton, you've lived in Atlanta. Everyone knows Sig Sig is one of the most prolific investors in the Southeast. And you're talking about someone who is, in terms of helping me prepare for every and any decision that we've ever made. I felt like I needed to surround myself with someone who had a historical lens of investing. I had an historical lens of, you know, working in marginalized communities. And I hate to say marginalized communities so much because the community themselves aren't marginalized. It's the systems in place that make them marginalized. And so I just brought that lens and coupled that with Sig's lens and decided to go and do this work. Always along the way, going back to Sig and saying, sig, hey, I want to be able to do this. I want to start a fund. What are your thoughts? You know, and getting feedback from him. Now, that's one thing to be kind of prepared, but I needed to know. I needed a full spectrum. And if you go to our website, you'll see these amazing people who come from all different backgrounds. You're talking about inclusivity. I needed all of those people around me to be able to do this work. And I think Ana alluded to that earlier. So people with different sort of lived experience. I'm focused on the Southeast, but I don't know everything in the Southeast. Right. And so have people who have that sort of lived experience. We have the woman who on our team, who was the first Black woman on Wall street, on the New York Stock Exchange. Martina Edwards is one of my advisors. So she comes with a historical lens. And so when a prepared mind basically is putting all these little puzzles into place to ensure success, yes, I have obstacles, right. I'm still fundraising, I have made investments and all that sort of stuff, but at the same time, I'm prepared for whatever is next just because of the team and the people that I've surrounded myself with.

Anything greatly accomplished, we never accomplish alone. Right. So what I'm hearing you say is be confident. Surround yourself with the people that have done it and done it well. I think that's great advice. Ana, the next question is for you. This panel is about focused, informed and inspired by those that came before us, to use your own quote. Right. And following up on what Shyla just said and surrounding ourselves with people that have done it before. And that's a big part of the innovative process. Right. Startups and small businesses rely on support organizations to launch, to iterate to scale. Today, it's really about learning and sharing these experiences. Based on your background, you were the managing partner at Revolution's Rise of the Rest seed fund, where you helped lead the transformation of the firm from a startup community bus tour initiative, a fund with 300 million in assets under management and nearly 200 early stage investments across 75 plus cities. So no small feat. And you did all of this in five short years. Can you talk to us about Revolution's approach? So where it invests, how many cities it invests in a year, how many startups it invests in, and is this model replicable?

Sure, sure. Well, at its core, a lot of the work that Rise the Rest really focused on was really the bullseye of color collaboration. Big focus on place, big focus on people, and importantly, big focus on partnership. And I think that that's a thread. Just to answer the very last part of your question up front, I'm a resounding and hearty yes that those models can and should be replicated all across the venture and entrepreneurial landscape. One of the greatest privileges, not just of my working life, but I think, frankly of my life, is that over the last half dozen years, I had the true privilege of traveling and experiencing the country through the eyes of entrepreneurs all across the United States who were fundamentally focused on how you innovate to create a better future. Just incredibly realistic optimists who fundamentally say there must be a better way. And one of the most impactful lessons learned for me was one the spirit of collaboration that I think exists in so many cities and so many communities all across the country. And two and this was a space as a convener that rise the rest focused on now in my work focused on women with Olivia at Ingeborg is something we think about a lot is I think apropos of this gathering. The SBA does incredibly well. How can you use convening power to actually step out of the conversation and connect the people, whether it's entrepreneurs, whether it's funders, whether it's other types of innovators, economic developers, small business owners who are fundamentally going through parallel experiences. And how do you take those parallel tracks and have them intersect so that they become a shared experience. And you really do have sort of the potential for exponential outcomes returns in our world when. When you. I always. I call it the shortcut Sherpa. There's so much that has been done in the past and at the end of the day, so much of the startup world, the venture world, I think the small business world in general is about the efficient use of capital. So the quicker you can get to that solution for how you do, whether it's a basic business function, sort of a background operational function, a strategic go to market question, customer acquisition, et cetera. At the end of the day, I think with any business there's. There's probably one small piece of it that is the critical moat, the critical innovation, the piece that's unique. And then 90 plus percent of it is something you can oftentimes quote, unquote, get off the shelf. You have to know the right shelf to look at. You have to know the right aisle to be in. I could continue to butcher that metaphor, but at the end of the day, leveraging the power of community is I think, the secret sauce that you see behind so many successful endeavors. Startups and businesses all across the country.

I love that. And so it sounds like for some of our esos who may be thinking similarly about maybe future investment opportunities or where they could potentially direct their entrepreneurs for financing, it's looking in community, going to some of the institutions that exist for maybe that direction. Charlton, you shared a little bit about your background and helping to build opportunities with your work at hbcuvc. One might argue that life and one's own experiences can expose certain systemic vulnerabilities. And sometimes without realizing it, we commit to ideating and developing solutions around some of these gaps. Can you talk to us about how you got here, where you are, and what an inclusive funding opportunity means to you and what it means to the communities you work with.

For sure. I would say to, you know, to bring up this theme of community. I found a community when I first got off the ground in Atlanta. I connected with folks that were doing, you know, the real work work. I'll drop Joey Womack's name. He has been doing great work in the ecosystem. And so getting connected to these folks that I can look up to and I can collaborate with has been a huge help to get to where I am. And then I was also involved in the community. So it's. I can't. You can't work and serve the people if you're not among them, talking to them day in and day out. And so how I got here was really just building a community with the immediate context of entrepreneurs and founders and really learning how to serve and support them. And, you know, when I think about inclusive funding and creating inclusive funding opportunities, I think of a word, the word intentionality, because we're in this place where VC dollars aren't flowing to where they need to flow. Why is that? It was a systemic issue. It was intentional. You know, how we got here. And so how can we be intentional about flowing those dollars back to the communities that need them? I think about the work that we do here in Tulsa. You know, they're committed through the. Through the support of the George Kaiser Family foundation, they're committed to making Tulsa be the best place for black entrepreneur to build their business. And they're being intentional about the. The programs that they bring in and the community and the networks they build. And so that intentionality piece comes up, and I would say IN H. @ HBCUVC, you know, we look through the lens of how can we create these new innovators, how can we create these new investors, how can we put them on a path where they can begin to be the. The check writers of the future? And I think our lens was through awareness, access and opportunity, they can't become something they don't know exists. And so let's talk about entrepreneurship and startups and this ability for wealth creation. But also let's talk about how venture capital plays a huge piece in this. So that education piece was big. And then after you have the awareness piece, do you have access to those communities, to those networks that will help you get into some of those doors? And for us, that was making sure that we had paid VC internship opportunities where they can begin to build these relationships and kind of rub the elbows of folks that could be a huge help at the end of their career. And so, yeah, and so that kind of that pulls in the last piece of the opportunity. Are they able to find a pathway into it? It might not be direct. You know, a lot of times they have their own startup ideas or they choose to get an attack, but they can find their back because they have that education and they have that awareness and they have the networks to kind of find, find those roles that could potentially they can be the ones who start to flow that capital to the communities that they're a part of and that they know are underrepresented of being.

Intentional. I want to go back to you. The broader VC world has faced some serious headwinds in 2022 as the market conditions soared following the boom of 2020, if you will. But one area of concern within the industry now is whether the downturn will disproportionately affect female founders who, as some may know, whose valuations and exit are impacted by macroeconomic changes. So in thinking through this concern and considering the presence of female angel investors and female decision makers within VC firms, we know that they can transform and create opportunities for female founded company thinking of being intentional. Can you please talk to us about what happens when focused and intentional measures of equity and inclusion who may be the hiring of women GPs determine who has access to controls and benefits from investment.

Capital? Was that for me or for Charlton? I didn't really.

Know. Ana.

Or. No, no, go ahead, go.

Ahead. I think your mic is off.

Ana. Oh, oh, I was just saying. Charlotte, do you want to, do you want to take a crack at it and. Sure. Well, where to start on this.

Front? I think.

First, just to the underlying premise of the question and the comment that with this downturn which is absolutely being felt all across venture, that there's a lot of concern that female founders may feel that. May feel it the most. I was actually personally heartened to see that just recently, just within the last, I think month or so, Pitchbook put a report out that where the headline really was actually that there's been a tremendous amount of resilience that we've seen with the funding that's gone to female founders. Now granted, the caveat here is the headline percentages are still, you know, are still pretty distressing in terms of, you know, less than 10% going to female founders. It's actually far less than that when you focus just on female founders exclusively. But what you did see is that There were about 2,800 deals. This is all US based venture. There were just over 2,800 deals that were done rounds that were completed and were invested into Startups led by women that was clocking to the tune of about it was just over $32 billion was invested in female founders in 22. So you did see a bit of a drop off but headline that really broke through there was around resilience. Now to speak to the second part of the question and sort of how we think about systemic change. I think. Well, let me. I interpret your question as how do we think about the structures, tactics, strategies that very tangibly need to be put into place in addition to the capital that needs to get put into place to operate, succeed, thrive and at the end of the day improve these statistics that are just so darn sticky and don't seem to move despite all the work we're all doing in the face of a system that I would personally and unfortunately say just has a lot of systemic bias in it. I think about it as the believability gap that I think fundamentally exists. When a female founder makes an assertion about where her company is going to be in five years, a male founder could make that same assertion. And at the end of the day there's research out of Columbia and Harvard that shows that both male and female investors in interpret that differently when a female founder says it versus when a male founder says it. So I think some of the focus areas that we're seeing in the space, and I think this is in part a reflection of the evolution, the maturation of ventures and asset class and of more women in more check writing positions coming into the space is there's been a lot of work, I think that's happened. I think we are seeing the needle move at the earliest stages, more dollars flowing at the pre seed, seed, even series A levels. The place where in particular in a market like this, which, which is a bit frozen up across the board for everyone, I think you need to see more of a focus on how do we come together as check writers and also as almost these consortiums of, you know, there's a, there is a herd mentality. So how do you find your pack that you travel with when you are investing in support of women and making the business case around that there's nothing charitable about what we're doing so that you're focused on how do you get funded at that series B stage increasingly how do you think about the M and A that's happening in that space? And I think there's an emerging class of not just female investors, but female investor dealmakers who are connecting a lot of these dots so that it's not only about how you bend the arc on the way up. But then how do you actually realize those liquidity events? I think, I personally think Blackstone, for example, is starting to get a bunch of well deserved credit on this front. They, you know, in the last couple of years they did either the major growth equity or exits for, you know, for. They were very involved in Bumble, they were very involved in hello Sunshine, they were very involved in Supergoop, a lot of these larger brands led by women, where you actually start to then see sort of the transactional liquidity behind the scenes. There's been some articles now that are coming out that speak to the female deal makers and the venture deal makers that were behind the scenes. So I just love seeing that our own sort of herds or packs are forming. And again, just to sort of bring it full circle, it comes back to community. Right? Like how are we connecting the dots for each other and forming those clubs? Because the individual checks we can write will be nice to have, are nice to have or important to have, but can be so much more catalytic if we think about how that transforms into something bigger on the deal making.

From. Yeah, I love that. And some common themes that just keep coming up in each of your responses. Community, collaboration, awareness, access. This is all great. Shaila, I want to go to you and Ana brought up a good point about systemic bias. I know you touched a little on this. As a founder and innovator, can you talk to us about ways that you have been forced, if not just had to overcome and some of the growing pains in this space? How have you relied on other support organizations for.

Growth? Sure. And yeah, like I will say the one primary thing that's neat, because the biases are going to be there, right? Some of them are so built in that people don't even recognize some of the things when they're asking you. So if you raise the fund, are you no longer going to be the black woman VC on the panel? Like, I can never change. Like I was asked that question by a potential investor. I can never change who I am and I'm going to continue to show up like this for the rest of my life. So how do I overcome that in real time right there? So let me just tell you how I deal it with me. For me, I mean, I've just got out of a couple of programs. Even at this level, I still need to be educated about, you know, some of the things that are happening with Inventure, some of the, you know, biases and all of that. And I just completed a program Called Recast and it's out of the West Coast. Wonderful program. I think it was about 12 weeks long. We had mentors, we had all kind of folks coming to talk to us. And then another recent one was Catalyzed Community. We were the inaugural cohort for that particular one. And so, you know, we talk about the nuances of investing and fundraising and all of that sort of stuff. But what I've done on the ESO side, because I know it's critically important, especially for a lot of these young entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs who don't know what they don't know. And so going into a room, being asked a question and getting knocked off your game, it's like, how do we educate you all around that? And so part of we have a capital readiness cohort that we've done for so far. They raised $13 million and have about 10 million in revenue. One basic tenement of this program is that we have to educate them on how to overcome biases. And so I have a colleague, she's a Brown University professor who developed this program called Venture Inclusive Lab or like something like that. And so she comes in, she, and she, she does that program every cohort we have. And so she talks about some of the things that founders are gonna encounter while fundraising. But how do you overcome that and continue to go on and build a great business without allowing some of these things to get in the way of that? And so that's how I combat it for the entrepreneurs, for me is just having that built in confidence, right? To even say that you're going to raise a venture fund like that takes a lot of sort of guts to say you're going to do that in a male dominated environment and a white male dominated environment at that. And I don't come from any sort of background like that. So I already had the confidence within me. And just understanding I'm going to face biases, they're going to be bare set up for me to fail. And I got to learn with my prepared mind on how to overcome those particular things. And so again, it's education, still learning things are going to happen. How do I stay a professional in the moment of someone asking me a question like that, knowing at the end of the day I can't change anything about myself. I'm still going to be who I am in terms of being a black woman, being a black Latina at that. And so, yeah, it's just about having that confidence. And I share that with all women, right, who encounter men, who ask all sorts of questions, just Remember who you are and why you're here and what you're building. And at the end of the day that's the only thing that's really important in that.

Conversation. I think that's beautiful. The community, the confidence and being able to, to be courageous enough to share some of this information. It benefits us.

All. Yeah, for.

Sure. And so this next question is for anyone. Let's talk about LPs, let's talk about the investor base. Are foundations playing a bigger role in supporting funds focused on specific communities, whether minority, women, veteran, what have you, what changes have or are being made to get more of the non traditional investors in the.

Mix? I'm happy to start with that one. So there's been a. So of course there's been a lot of change since 2020, you brought that up earlier. And there's been a lot of commitment, including from foundations, I think. And so yeah, you see programs set up investing in first time managers and has to be catalytic capital for them to go in and raise their fund. And so but I think another part of this is that foundations have been overwhelmed. I was just talking to, we did a call yesterday with this group that I'm a part of, with one of these institutions and they're like we're overwhelmed by the number of applications we get from managers. And so because they're so small in nature, it takes some time to kind of build up to get to know them and get the relationship going. And there's a trust. And so I think like we see the change. It's slow, but it is happening. There have been commitments that have been made from foundations. I've even benefited from myself from a couple of LPs who are parts a part of a foundation. And so and I think that's a whole lot easier and I think in my opinion better because a lot of the major programs that have been set up by corporations, those are one time sort of invest investments. And so how can you build a relationship for them to come for Fund 2, 3 and 4, where foundations are kind of set up that way. Right. They want to see you succeed. They're not in it for, you know, just a short period, they're in for the long game. And so and I'm sure Anna could answer that way better than I can and probably Charlton too around how foundations play a part in investing in new.

Managers. I appreciate that. Does anyone else want to take a stab at it or we can move.

On? I think so.

Yeah. Okay. Charlton. When ecosystem builders are looking to expand their programs, networks and Portfolios to include populations that have been historically underserved. What are some strategies for beginning to build those relationships? And please draw on maybe what you're doing now at. In.

Tulsa. Yeah, I think what's very important is understanding the context of who you're serving and thinking through how to develop and build trust. I think a lot of times when you're approaching work like this, you, you know, you automatically think, oh, I need to. I need to get a lot of data. I need to audit. We need to do surveys. But if you don't understand the history of a community. So like in Tulsa, a lot of times people have taken surveys in the.

Past. And.

Where. Where does the data go? What. What actually. What change actually happens? And so I found with some of the folks that, you know, I've connected with here is that you need to sit in those community spaces. You need to find where. Where they hang out. You don't need, you know, it's not all about inviting them to your event. It's where are they already hanging out? Is it. It might be a local church, it might be, you know, these community organizations to really. To really gain that trust where you can then begin to engage in the work. And I think that's so important and something that I'm doing now. So Shiloh mentioned, I was in Atlanta, been in Atlanta, built my community and network in Atlanta, and I'm about four months into a new role in Tulsa, and I'm developing these relationships and I'm kind of having to start from the, you know, from the bottom up. But I love it. I love connecting with people and meeting them where they are and then to. With the community and in collaboration, probably joining a work that's already happening and not necessarily creating a new program or creating a new initiative, but finding the ways that I can help support what's already happening. And if there are ways for me to. To do something new, to strategize and make sure that I'm connecting with.

The. So we are getting near on time. I think we have about three minutes. So I want to pose this to everyone and just thinking through the work that still needs to be done, because we know that there's a lot of work. What are some tangible things that need to happen, what is possible in order to build a more inclusive economy for everyone. And in your comments, please also provide. How can people get in touch with you because we are getting short on time. Do you want to start.

Shiloh? Sure. I'm happy to kick this off. I think the fact that we are all here from the venture community for an event that in a space that the SBA is hosting and convening, is really the perfect example of what my answer is to this question. When the public sector and the private sector partner to get things done and utilize the different levers that are at our respective disposals, I think that's where a lot of the transformation really ends up happening. And so there's an opportunity, whether it's the power to convene, the power for the public sector to underwrite risk that is actually so early stage that the private sector isn't prepared to underwrite it and to touch it yet. There's an opportunity for each of us to convene. There's an opportunity for each of us to invest. There's an opportunity for each of us to continue to dialogue like this in a way where it broadens the access and the transparency that's put into the market specifically for the benefit of the entrepreneurs who are building. And so I think never losing sight of who's really at the center of the conversation, which is the entrepreneurs on the front line doing all the hard work and figuring out how to innovate for a better tomorrow, for a better country, for a better future, that to me is really where it's.

At. And how can people get in contact with.

You? Ah, I forgot your question. You feel free to DM me on LinkedIn. That's actually one of the best places to reach me. So. Ana Mason on.

LinkedIn. Thank you. Shaila, do you want to go.

Next? Sure. And so I'm just going to continue to piggyback on community. And so for me, I think one of the tangible things that I do is I create these sort of moments to bring women entrepreneurs together around a table, giving them voice sometimes when they feel voiceless. And I think the more we kind of create these inclusive moments where everybody has a sense of belonging, I think we just. That's going to create a more inclusive community because they will go out economy, because they will go out and do the same thing in their networks. And so I've done this in Oakland and different cities, Miami, everywhere I travel to. I try to bring people together. And yes, it's primarily women because we tend to be left out of a lot of things. And so I just say let's continue to build and lift up not only women entrepreneurs, but all underrepresented entrepreneurs who are out there seeking some type of community. And I think that's one of the tangible ways that we can create an inclusive economy. How to reach me. LinkedIn is the best place. It's Shailenieves, Bernie and I would love to connect with you.

There. Thank you. And finally.

Charlton, and it's been said so beautifully before, but embracing the collective. I liked what Ana said about understanding the various levers that each organization has. So there's a lot of esos here. Here in Tulsa. I'm trying to understand how do entrepreneurs engage with each ESO that I meet, what types of entrepreneurs they, you know, are talking to and at what stage. And if I can do that for every organization I can connect with, then I can then give back that information and that education to entrepreneurs. So at the right moment they get the information they need. And so I think that's a just a tangible thing that I do that helps me in my work so much. And feel free to connect. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Charlton Cunningham, happy to chat with.

Anyone. Wonderful. Again, back to the themes. Community, collaboration, trust, education. We could go on and we could keep this conversation going for another 45 minutes or so, but we finally we reached time. I want to thank our panelists so much. This has been enlightening. I hope that everyone has enjoyed it as much as I have. For those in the audience that are interested, we have a breakout session starting soon at 2:40. So we hope that you're here. Stand by with us. Turning back to.

Jamila. Yes, thank you, Ricky, Shaila, Ana and Charlton. Very insightful conversation that's near and.

Dear to my own.

Heart. To my folks in the audience, you know the drill is given them. Give them an emoji or a gifty round of applause. This has been such a great day so far. We appreciate all of your participation in the chat. I have a few important announcements to make before we head out into our breakout sessions. We, our team is going to share some links in the chat as I'm talking, so be on the lookout for those. First, we would like to hear your feedback about the conference. So please use this link that we're sharing to share your thoughts with us. It should take no more than two minutes. Second, if you'll be at CES in January, I hope you will stop by the SBA booth in Eureka Park. It's part of the overall US Government booth along with the USPTO and other agencies link in the chat. Third, if you missed yesterday and would like access to view all of the wonderful information and links shared in the chat, you can access our show notes on the americaseed Fund US website. The direct link is going to be in the chat. All right, we're going to keep things moving. To continue collaboration similar to yesterday, we've set aside time for you all to connect with one another. There are three breakout sessions happening from now until 3:30pm Eastern. It's an opportunity to dive deep into topic areas of your choice, share your thoughts, and participate in some interesting conversations. To join, just look for the tab on your screen that says Breakouts. You're going to click that tab, then click on which breakout you're most interested in. I'll meet you back here on the Main Stage at 3:30pm Eastern to continue with the.

Program. See you.