MLT | Accelerating Change

Welcome to Grey Matter, the podcast from Greylock, where we share inspiring stories from today's most insightful company builders. I'm Elisa Schreiber, a partner at Greylock and an advisory board member at Allrays. Today we are having a conversation about race and career mobility in the technology industry. The venture backed startup ecosystem is arguably the epicenter of wealth creation and, and unfortunately the epicenter of wealth disparity. The fact is that Black, Latinx and Native American people have largely been left out as founders, early employees and funders. Changing this reality is the mission of John Rice, who is the founder of Career Advancement Nonprofit Management Leadership of Tomorrow, also known as mlt. John is joining us today on Grey Matter along with David Z, my partner at Greylock. Our two organizations have launched a broad partnership in effort to accelerate the change for people of color in the venture capital and tech startup ecosystem. Diversifying tech and venture capital is a complex undertaking and this partnership is just a start towards the much needed progress. But John and David already have a lot of ideas that they're ready to talk about today. Thanks for listening. We're going to get into the specifics on that partnership in just a little bit. But before we dig in on that, John, I would love to start with you. Can you give us an overview of your background and really what brought you to start mlt?

Thank you Elisa and Dave, it's great to spend some time with you on this podcast. There are probably two versions of the journey in starting and building MLT and one would be that over the course of 10 years after business school, working at the Walt Disney Company and later as an executive at the National Basketball association, through my own experience and mentoring and supporting other folks of color along the way, I thought there was a real opportunity and need to build a non profit that would expand the pipeline of people of color growing toward leadership positions across the private and social sectors. And it actually is true that like many of Greylock's startups, actually formally launched MLT out of my home in Burlingame over 15 years ago. But the reality is the other side of the story. The reality is that I've been working on this idea and refining it since I was a kid growing up in Washington D.C. watching my mother dedicate her career to passing legislation, actually the Pell Grant legislation that enabled millions of low income and minority students to afford college. And I knew as a kid that I needed to dedicate my career to to something that would build upon her word. And then in my own experience, coming out of college and Heading to business school, I made a number of mistakes, navigational mistakes, because I had no one to tell me what the bar was to get a job in a lot of the areas that folks were going into, like consulting and banking and how to approach applying to business school. Even though my parents were highly educated, their careers were not in the areas that they were largely in the public sector and they actually couldn't give me the playbook. And so I was lucky enough to not get too off track. But when I got to business school and I realized that there were so few people of color there with me experiencing what was a transformative experience for me, I realized that if I had made so many mistakes along the pipeline just coming out of college to the workforce, going back to grad school, that there had to be so many other folks who didn't have the opportunities that I had growing up, that didn't have parents who went to college, that had to be making so many more mistakes. And that was really, you know, the reason why there are so few folks there of color. And so taking advantage of the opportunity to meet some amazing folks that were coming to recruit and speak at these business schools. So that really started me on that path, you know, to create a better mousetrap for developing people of color through their academic and career potential, you know, that fill the gaps in exposure and social capital to help them understand the bar that would help them and then also help institutions which are really important pathways in our society for economic and career mobility, help them do more winning things to widen the road for people of color.

Tell me a little bit about the stated mission of MLT and give us a sense of the organization today, how big it is, how many people are there working full time.

At MLT, we focus on impact across three spheres. The first one is expanding economic mobility for low and moderate income college students and really focusing that last mile toward economic mobility from that really is that the college to career transition, where right now over 60% of Black and Latinx four year college graduates are not getting jobs that require a college degree. So we're focused on expanding the economic mobility for low and moderate income college students. Focus on that college career transition. The second sphere of our work is really focused on developing 1000 high impact leaders across the private and social sectors. And then the third sphere that we focus on is diversifying institutions and helping them widen the road for more access and success for people of color because they're important pathways, the most important pathways in our nation for career and economic mobility. As I mentioned, we've been at it for more than 15 years and we've had great results and got to a meaningful scale. Although I still think we're still scratching the surface. And we're about at the scale of a mid sized university working with about 2,000 students a year, over 10,000 to date. And our programs cut across, you know, college to early career. We have a graduate level program, we have a mid career set of programs and we work with about 130 institutions leading companies across all key sectors of our economy. We're about 100 staff and we're very excited to be placing 98% of our minority college students and jobs coming out of college that average 70 plus K a year on starting salary. And for folks who are Pell eligible students, most of our folks that's, you know, who are making, who are coming from families of 50k and below, that's immediately game changing. We're excited that 75% of the folks that go through our mid career programs that really focus on making that turn so that you're squirreling the path to senior management, 75% of those folks are getting promoted within a year coming out of our programs. And that, you know, if you go to Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Kellogg, you know, a lot of basically most of the top 10 business schools, about 50% of black and Hispanic MBAs at those schools are graduates of our MBA prep program.

When I hear about all the incredible growth and impact that you've had to date with MLT and then I hear people talk about a pipeline problem, it's, it makes it really hard for me to grok how those two ideas can coexist. Can you let me know how you react or respond when you hear folks talk about a pipeline problem in terms of recruitment of people of color.

So folks that know me well know that I'm very passionate about talking about pipeline and I think this has been a multi decade mission of mine to put that pipeline narrative to rest. I like to talk about it because you hear very smart, highly respected executives across all sectors, whether it's technology, you heard it just in the last few days with a very senior executive in the financial services space talk about the pipeline of qualified minorities and had to walk that back. One of the problems that we have as it relates to our journey on diversity inclusion is to help executives. I'm largely talking about white executives here, but it's really everybody be extremely well informed about two things. One is the contours of the talent recruitment pipeline. The other one is actually how different the experience is within Our organizations, if you're a person of color relative to one of your white peers, and we were missing, fundamentally not well informed about either of those things. When I continue to hear the most admired CEOs talk about, for example, the tech sector, well, we can't move the needle in tech until we go really far back in the pipeline and address high school, STEM education or first generation college students. And I say no, time out. Well, to be well informed, all you have to do is go to the National Science foundation website, look at their data and you'll see that 22% of all the BS degrees granted in 2015 in computer science, in engineering and in math were granted to blacks and Hispanics. And more importantly, that number equates to 50,000 BS degrees. So if you look at the last five years, okay, assuming 50,000 each year, and I'm sure it's higher than that, that's. That's 250,000 degrees granted to African Americans and Latinx college grads in those three areas. So we know the pipeline is there. And the similar narrative in financial services and other areas. The pipeline is there? Yes. Do we have to expand the pipeline? Yes. Do we need more folks at the mid levels? Yes. But there is a big enough pipeline of fantastic talent today that there is no excuse for us to be where we are as relates to our hiring and our development of this example technical talent of color and for the tech sector in particular. And so that one, that gives me optimism, but two, it frames the importance, I should say it speaks the importance of reframing the problem at least. Okay. And this is not a pipeline problem. This is actually a network app in information and relationship and exposure asymmetry. And that gives me optimism, actually more optimism that we can move the needle much more quickly than you are hearing in the rhetoric that most of our senior executives continue to spread.

I was going to hop in and maybe throw in one other comment there. So look, having spent time with Johnny and looked at this, whenever I hear someone say there's a pipeline problem, I agree. I hear what he says, which is, look, if there's a pipeline problem, it's not that there isn't enough talent out there, it's that it's on us to figure out how to create that pipeline to that talent to get it into the right places, into the right networks. That's what the pipeline problem is. When someone says a pipeline problem, when CEO of a major financial organization says it's pipeline, they should be looking at themselves because they're the pipeline problem. The Pipeline problem isn't on the other side. It isn't on the supply side. It's on the demand side. It's about creating the systems to allow those networks to build.

And Dave, how many times when you've heard that, has the person who said it followed up that statement with a quantitative assessment of that pipeline? I've never heard it once. I love to hear it. It actually isn't there. And if we're going to move the needle, if we're going to make advancements around racial equity wealth gaps in this important moment in our country's history, we've got to be grounded in the contours of the problem, why we are where we are. We have to be well informed. You would never get away with, with not being well informed about the impact of AI on your investments, on your portfolio, and then how you're thinking about the future of innovation. Financial services executives would never say, I don't really need to know anything about Bitcoin. That's an emerging thing. Leave that to somebody else. But when it comes to these issues, talent, what's more important than talent? The contour of the talent pipeline, the emerging issues in D and I, the diverse talent experience and how it's different. We need to call on folks to be well informed.

And you want some statistics. I mean, you've brought these to my attention and they are just stunning to me, the impact of not doing that. We have a situation where we have black college graduates with a median net worth 18% of white college grads in the United States and $30,000 less than white non college grads. And so those are the kind of statistics that are the real problems, and those are statistics that should be highlighted.

Once a person of color has joined a company. What are some of the things that the companies need to consider in terms of making sure that they're able to retain the talent and ensure that they're successful in the role.

You're hitting on two elements, and this again, we talked about being well informed and a comprehensive approach. If you're going to expand the leadership pipeline, there are two levers, the lever on the way in the recruitment pipeline and how you're advancing talent that you have. We talked about the recruiting piece, the talent pipeline. But there's something also that we're missing that's critically important that relates to how we as people of color experience organizations very differently than our white peers. Even when we went to the same schools, whether colleges or prep schools, or have similar backgrounds, as we go from meeting to meeting when we're one of one or one of a few twirling around questions in our head, do I measure up? How am I being perceived? If I make a mistake, does it reflect on not just me, but the other people of color? Why are there so few people of color in the organization? And some of these questions, am I being treated differently? Well, actually, the answers to the questions are actually not really important. In many cases, you're not being treated differently, but if you perceive that you are, it's distracting. And you can imagine those two things when within the context of the tech sector and the entrepreneurial ecosystem are deeply problematic. But also in any environment, when you get constructive feedback, someone comes to you and pulls you aside and is candid enough to say, hey, you need to work on these things. You don't know where that's coming from. A position of trying to build you up, take the next level, or cut you off at the knees. And then when someone is actually reaching out to provide some advice and mentoring, you're not sure. You're much more hesitant relative to your ability to trust that person. And I use the example that sort of, in the world of employer America, we all know that there's the importance of mentoring and sponsorship, right? But when you are dealing with the issues that I describe, what you need is actually a base level below the mentoring and sponsorship that focuses on high accountability, safe place coaching, the kind of coaching you get in the sports world. And you can imagine you probably been in this situation at least once yourself, where you're in a meeting and you think you've got an insightful point that will advance the conversation at least, and you think it's maybe 30% chance is probably not a good point. But you raise your hand, you're brave, you say, yeah, here's what I think we should do. And then the room, when you're the only woman in that room, everyone sort of reacts sort of sideways. And then five minutes later, some guy raises his hand and says the exact same thing, right? And everyone says, yes, let's go do that. And then you're asking yourself, hey, what just happened there? And then you have to go back to your office and say, ask yourself, how do I regroup? How do I go back to my manager, get feedback? And so this is the kind of thing that a mentor who, a sage mentor, the best mentor, meets with you once a month or once a quarter, they can't be around to help you with that. They don't know you well enough. They don't have the frequency. But this is the kind of thing that's happening every time, happening all the time. And it speaks the importance of sports, like coaching in addition to mentoring and sponsorship that are really important to move, the kinds of interventions that are really important. But in professional world, you don't get that kind of coaching unless you're already a senior executive, which is problematic, especially problematic if you're a person of God.

You touched on a lot there. And one of the points you made was specifically around the tech and startup ecosystem. And I'd like to dig in there. That's clearly the area that this relationship with Greylock and MLT is going to focus on. And I think it's worth unpacking a bit some of the unique and systemic issues that people of color face when they're making a decision about whether or not to join an early stage startup, you know, coming out of business school or coming out of college. Can you share a little bit about that? I think our listeners would really appreciate understanding some of the dynamics that go into that decision making.

I want to address that maybe on two levels. The first one, I could probably share my own experience. Okay. And I mentioned that I was not a first generation college student, but my parents were largely made their careers in the public government sector and they really didn't have the answers for me in terms of what's the bar to get into the tech sector, how to think about opportunities. And so many other folks are in the same boat. If you're a first generation college student and you have loans and you're in debt, whether you're coming out of college or even more so out of graduate school, and you think about the tech ecosystem, the vibrant, dynamic entrepreneurial world that is the tech venture in growth equity ecosystem, that's very disconnected. I'll give you an example. I went to a conference, it was maybe 10 years ago at the Black MBA association was a career fair for Black MBAs and large companies with these big booths and everyone's there talking, sharing their resumes, trying to set up interviews. And there was Facebook in this tiny booth. Okay. And not very well positioned in the room, but regardless. And there were about literally five people in the line, meaning no one was focused on actually pursuing careers at Facebook. They didn't really understand it as an employer brand. Yes, many of them were already on it as users. But the point is that there's a combination of a lack of exposure, a relationship asymmetry. We don't see people who are senior in the world of tech. We don't see any black and Hispanic Dave Z's we don't know the folks who work for those folks. The perspective around risk, not a household name and emerging company, entrepreneurial ecosystem, but without the relationships, without the role models and without a high touch, outreach, engagement model from the tech ecosystem coming to me similar to the way the banks and consulting firms and others are coming in major Fortune 500 companies. It just doesn't work. People who are engineers, people who are computer science undergrads who fashion themselves as entrepreneurs, okay, they're finding other paths and it's very addressable and it requires work on both ends. Institutions need to take a totally different approach. The ecosystem itself, leaders and then individuals, we have to lower the perceived risks. And you do that through relationships and you do that through exposure.

I think that's a great segue into getting into some of the meat around the partnership between MLT and Greylock. And I'd like to actually kick it over to you, David, to just share a little bit about how this relationship got started and then talk a little bit about the details of how we're going to be working together.

Well, great. Thank you, Lisa. Yeah. So, you know, I've been lucky enough to know Johnny since our college days together and we've kept in touch over the years. And recently he came to me when they were looking to expand their presence in the Valley and increase sort of their focus on opportunities in the tech space. And that was sort of probably the initial seed of the idea. But, you know, recent events have really kicked things forward in our mind and we've been very focused on how do we try to do some things that will make a difference in the ecosystem over time. Internally in Greylock, we had been working on a whole bunch of lists and a bunch of areas to work on. So I'd reached back out to Johnny and talked about how we can work together. And it's amazing how much MLT's work lines up with all the things that we been trying to do. So, for example, we have a group in Greylock that is called Core Talent, that focuses on hiring out of universities and then up through VP in primarily design and engineering and product, among other functions. And Johnny, as he just mentioned, his whole group at MLT is focused on how do we get talent exposed to those opportunities. And so we're going to lock those teams together and they're working on setting down how they're going to work together, what their goals and metrics are going to be and, and how we're going to get MLT's alumni and MLT Fellows into Greylock, companies exposed to Greylock, companies exposed to other companies. In the Valley, we have an executive team function that does executive recruiting and they also are connected with members in Johnny's team working on looking at the rising leader alumni network that Johnny has over the years, the 9,000 plus people and the ones that are relevant in tech companies that we should be working with to help the get into our companies, to help our companies be much more successful by integrating and working with them, you know, and then we're, you know, going to help them to understand the playbook of how startups think about hiring, how they look at how the interview process, what are the skills they're looking for and how do we mesh with the programs and systems that MLT has built and provide a view from the Valley on how that works from our perspective so that we can make success happen for both of us. Another way that Greylock wants to work with MLT is navigating and understanding how to work with raising funds, whether that's with VCs like Greylock or with the accelerator and incubator environments which have exploded over the last decade. And again, that also is a system that is completely opaque if you come from the outside. And we can be very helpful in understanding, giving them a sense of what's the playbooks, what are the bars, what are the ways you think about positioning yourself, what are the ways you communicate and what are people looking for. We have a lot of experience obviously with that with our tech startups, and now we're going to apply that to work with the MLT team. And then lastly, I think we will connect and support MLT talent interested in pursuing careers in venture capital. Another world that is very opaque and is very unclear and probably the most opaque and the least clear of how you get a role and having the least roles available, period. And it's very somewhat ad hoc and not specific in how it's navigated. And so one of our goals is to work with the MLT team to help expand our network of talent. And we hope at Greylock to have goals for ourselves in terms of bringing people of color into our team, but also exposing talents to other VCs and other funders around the Valley to let them expand as well. So this isn't really about Greylock, honestly. This is about mlt and this is about creating access and opportunity. And we're taking a first step to help grease the wheels and create some systems to help support that. But we want everyone to be involved and we want everyone to make this Successful because it's really about how do we work to change the trajectory so that 10 years we look back and can feel really happy about the impact that it's had.

I can testify to the enthusiasm of the partnership around this work that we're doing with MLT and diversifying our LP base. I'm wondering if you can just expand on why it is a priority for Greylock to commit time and energy to this kind of initiative and why you picked up the phone and called Johnny and knew he would be the right partner for moving this forward.

First of all, you know, shame on us for not having done this earlier, period. That's just the reality of the situation. But the other reality is, you know, big moments of systematic change usually come about because of catalyzing events. And clearly there are large injustices that have been existing for a long while that have come to the forefront in American life and are now causing catalyzing events here. And that really unique energy has gripped our country, but it's also gripped Greylock. The team really wanted to do something meaningful and proactive. We didn't want to just put out a corporate statement that had no teeth. And we have a lot of work to do and the partnership is committing to doing the work and the energy is coming from every vector, from investing partners sending notes to me about ideas and how to work and help work with mlt, to our operating team sending notes about how excited they are about engaging and having metrics for themselves that are not only about the number of folks that they place in our startups, but also now the number of MLT fellows and MLT teams members that they can place into the systems. And so there's a lot of energy. And of course, we're not the only ones working on this issue. And there's lots of different kinds of programs going on and we need lots of different kind of programs. This is about how do we have everyone doing as many things as we can to try to make a difference and lay lots of seeds and try to see what will grow and what will flourish. And, you know, it's fantastic that so many people have dug into work on this, both inside Grellock and I believe, across the industry. And now we just need to keep doing the hard work.

Yes, we're going to keep doing the hard work together. And we feel like we've got a really strong foundation to build this partnership on top of. And thanks to the hard work of my team over at MLT and our very scrappy MLT's, we've already got 1700 MLT's who are working in the tech sector. We got almost 60, maybe 60 plus working who are at Inventure Capital. And I think five firms, five venture firms, just within the last few years have been founded by MLT rising leaders who have raised a combined almost $350 million. So we've got a starting point and I think that's one of the reasons why we all feel confident that we can build upon this foundation. And if we just apply our respective competencies and energy to this, this ecosystem can look completely different in five years and totally different in seven to 10 years.

David, you mentioned that you went to college with John and that's how you know each other. Can you tell me a little bit more about just some color around how the idea for the broader partnership came together?

Yeah. So John and I have known each other for a long time. We met in the late 80s in college together and have became friends there and spent time together over the years. We've kept in touch through his founding of MLT and through me joining a bunch of startups and then greylock back in 2000, and then more recently we've both gone on the board of trustees of our alma mater. And so we've spent a lot of time together there. And so the. There's really a long history. And that long history built up a lot of trust and a lot of understanding. I've always admired Johnny and what he's done at mlt. And that allowed us, as we were looking to figure out how to create some action around impact around our diversity and inclusion initiatives at Greylock. It allowed us to quickly reconnect and really sort of fast track the entire process because of the trust and because of the deep understanding that Johnny had of Greylock and that I had of mlt. And so it made it really possible for us to do this and take hopefully what is some big swings together and do it in very short order.

Our relationship is an example of the power that folks who have a shared vision, who are fired up to attack problems and who have a level of comfort with each other, the kinds of things that can take place at important moments in time. And I think that that speaks to both the opportunity that we have jointly here in the tech ecosystem to facilitate the kinds of relationships that are important. Well before a deal happens or a hire or an offer happens, we've got to work hard to expand networks and facilitate trusted relationships between very, very talented people of color and very, very, very talented people who have been in this ecosystem. For a long time. And I think the ironic thing is that, you know, for me is that just a stroke of luck that David and I ended up in the same class in college and freshman year of the same dorm and four years in the same essentially dorm. We used to call it a residential college and shared so many great stories in our formative years that it made it easier. But there's another side of this that's worth mentioning, which is at some level it took the level of trust and long term relationship for this to happen. That is what I would call sort of a lightning strike that isn't scalable or repeatable. And what we need to do to close this network gap in the tech sector is to facilitate a lot more of these relationships. So we're not expecting future lightning strikes for us to move the needle on diversity in the ecosystem. And if you go back and I've studied this, you go back and look at some of the black and Latinx folks who've gotten to the CEO level in our major organizations, they will almost without question share a story of something fortunate that happened to them, that had nothing to do with their talent, that probably shouldn't have happened, but was so critical to them turning the corner to be on the path to that senior executive and CEO level. And I remember reading a piece about Xerox's former CEO Ursula Burns, who talked about walking down the hallway, I think it was, and heading toward the cafeteria and some older white gentlemen sort of pulled her aside and this is when she's like a mid level engineer and he says to her, hey, why don't you come over this way because I'd really like to expose you to a broader part of our business, all other things that we do. And I think the story is that she initially said, no, actually I'm not really interested in doing that. I'm enjoying being an engineer. I think I'm a good trajectory. And the gentleman said, no, no, no, I've heard great things about you. You got to come this way. And she did. And everything changed from there. And that isn't going to happen in a repeatable way. So we've got to take the responsibility to turn what has been lightning strikes, okay, for the very few people of color that have made it to the executive roles and who have started companies, who have gotten into venture firms, turn that into a, a repeatable ecosystem that looks like the kinds of very high leverage networks that the Valley is really built upon.

Look, as Johnny talks about this, it's so much rings of truth of what goes on in the Valley today already, if you aren't in the collision points that so many people in Silicon Valley have access to the network of having worked at a Facebook or a LinkedIn or having gone to Stanford, it could take a massive stroke of luck for someone to find and build powerful networks. And in the Valley, we talk so much about social networks, we talk about network graphs, we talk about social capital and social proof as ways to increase trust and to move quickly. If you don't have access and you aren't integrated into those, it is like the random lightning strike. And instead we need to turn it into so much access that we have chances for these collisions to happen all the time, that it's more like a large electrical storm where these kind of things are happening. Or right now that's happening in the Valley for white males primarily. And we need to increase that so that we have access to people who are of color so that they can be part of these networks. Today you're going to see alumni from Airbnb and Stripe and other high growth startup companies found the next generation startups. And you'll see VCs eager to back those teams and recruit from them as investors, because that's the network that's been built, that's how the Valley works. And it's crucial to make sure that people of color are included in, in that entire flow as early employees at breakout companies and as potential investors downstream as well.

If I could just jump in on that. That resonates so deeply with me and it reminds me of when I was in the early days of MLT and I can't remember maybe 206, 207, 208. And I came across an article in the New York Times and the title was It Pays to have Pals in Silicon Valley. And it talked about exactly what Dave just described. Then there was this graph, this chart that ironically, coincidentally, Reid Hoffman, Dave's partner, was a member of this chart. It talked about the cohesive network that emanated from PayPal to so many other organizations, whether they're tech companies, other VC firms, even hedge funds. I was just floored by this concept. And I had that article. I've had it in my briefcase literally for probably two years. And every time I got and talked to somebody like Dave, Silicon Valley veterans and talk about MLT and say, I would say, this is what we are trying to create. And I would say to them, look, I remember going to my board and saying, look, if just one of these folks on this graph, okay, was African American or Hispanic, a person of color. Think how much would be different in the Valley today in terms of people of color led startups being funded by venture firms, investors at venture firms, executives at operating companies, even philanthropy in our most vulnerable communities. That's the power of these networks and it goes well beyond a near term transaction. It's the kind of thing that we need to recreate with people of color in it and that widens the road, that widens pot for everybody. And I think that's the model. What Dave described is really the model of where we're trying to go. And so we know what that model is. Now we just need to expand it and replicate it to include people of color.

Look, we've been lucky enough at Greylock to be involved in a bunch of social networks. And so we understand how this works and it puts an onus on us, we believe, to really engage in this and try to be part of making a difference. I think it's also important to note that this is early and there's a lot of hard work to do. We are our industry, whether you say technology writ large, whether you say startups, or whether you say the VC industry is another sub segment, we're all pathetically bad at this. It's unacceptable where we are. And we're eager to work with other VC firms and startups in the industry to help move this forward in the right way. It's not gonna be about Greylock changing the world. This has gotta be how do we as an industry work together? How do we find great organizations like MLT to engage and bring into our networks, to expand our networks and to really change this dynamic that we're talking about.

Yeah, but Dave, I think, you know, I got it. I know you're a very humble guy, but I will say too humble in this case because you all are best in class. World class, maybe the best in the world as it relates to how to build and sustain networks and make them work in a very high leverage way across your ecosystem. That's the kind of expertise that will be really important to move the needle and helping us figure out how to recreate these networks for people of color. So I know you like to say that, you know, you're. I know we are early stage in this relationship, but I know you like to say that you all have a lot of work to do and we all have a lot of work to do. But I think that I encourage you, you know, to be less humble in this case about what you all have created, because within it really lies the power of the opportunity that we have together.

Well, look, I appreciate you saying that. We're excited to work with you guys, but we're also excited to introduce you and get you involved with other firms in the valley and other startups in the Valley, because we think that's where the compounding power happens. If my knowledge and the power of networks only is captured in the fact that I know you and then I can help introduce you to a bunch of people, I will have done, I think, a very good thing. So I'm really excited about working with you.

MLT as part of this, is also launching an impact fund. And so I wanted to hear a little bit more from you, John, about why you're raising the Impact fund and what it means for MLT in the long term.

It's a critically important starting point for a new and more ambitious approach to taking our work in the tech sector to the next level. And we're proud that we've laid a strong foundation. But there's a lot more work to do, a ton more work to do as it relates to expanding the number of black and brown founders that have access and are ready for venture investment from firms like Greylock, working at places like Greylock Talent for their portfolio and those of other venture firms, and even collaborations between venture firms that are minority led. We see this impact fund as a way to, over time, really to become a capital creation vehicle to scale and supercharge our work and tackle at a different, even at a much bigger level, what you even referred to at least as sort of the epicenter of wealth creation. It's also the epicenter of wealth disparities. And the reason why it's important for us is that with Greylock giving us the opportunity to be an LP in their Greylock 16 fund, that creates the beginnings of a model that Dave and his partners are so kind to help us introduce and engage with other VC and private equity firms. And if we can do that, I think we're going to have a uniquely compelling fundraising proposition for philanthropists and even impact investors. Think about it. With access to the kinds of the most exclusive capital pools in the world and the ability to work, as Dave said on all these different threads, to move the needle on minority participation, racial equity and diversity and inclusion in the tech ecosystem. Think about the ability to go to philanthropists and impact investors and say for every dollar that you contribute to our impact fund that will be invested in these exclusive 4X plus returning capital pools that will create a forex impact multiplier on their Contributions and that impact multiplier will be focused on diversifying this tech ecosystem and attacking the opportunities to create more wealth, to create more impact in our communities, more jobs, more economic mobility for people of color. So this is a beginnings of something I'm incredibly excited about. It's a new and unique approach. It's not just about MLT or Greylock. They're really focused on helping us build relationships more broadly and expand this platform so that it really moves the needle over the next five to ten years on diversity in the tech ecosystem.

And look, this has been a very energizing thing for our partnership as well. There's incredible enthusiasm about all the vectors of this relationship. Many of Greylock's partners personally ceded the first $5 million to anchor this new fund because we think it really has a force power multiplier. And we look forward to, you know, inviting and encouraging other great firms, other great funds around the valley to think about working with MLT as well. I'm also excited to be joining the MLT Advisory board as part of that commitment.

We've talked a little bit about having the ecosystem look different in the long term. What does success look like? How are you going to measure the progress of this partnership? Start with you, John. You have 15 years now of working on programs to move the needle in this way in other industries. So what does success look like in the venture backed startup ecosystem?

So we're taking a long view as it relates to this partnership and as it relates to the progress that we want to see in the tech ecosystem. And we believe that we can actually expand our impact, our footprint by 5 to 10x overall. And think about the dimensions of that. We've got about just under 2,000 folks in MLT, people working in tech and we think we can take that to 10,000. We've got about 18 startups that are funded by venture capital. We think we can take that to over 200. We've got about 300 MLT's right now who are working in venture capital portfolio companies and, and we think we can 10x that to 3,000. And then the last two areas that we're going to be really focused on in terms of exponential growth are number of venture capital investors as well as the number of companies that achieve a billion dollar or more valuation in the venture capital space. I mentioned that we've got about 60 folks who are working in venture capital firms just from the past few years. Five RMLters are leading venture capital firms that have raised a collective about $350 million. Between them, we think we can take that number to 200 and we've got one MLT that's been a founder and built a company that's achieved a billion dollar valuation. We think we can take that to at least $10 billion. 10, 1 billion plus dollar value companies that are worth a billion or more over the next several years. So very ambitious goals. We know it's going to be a lot of work, but we also think that the path is there and that working together and engaging a broader subset of like minded leaders in the valley, that we can do that. And we think this collectively will result in massive increases in economic mobility, in job creation, wealth creation and those three things. Job creation, wealth creation, economic mobility will in turn transform philanthropy in our most vulnerable communities. And so we are focused on exponential growth. We know that's going to be hard. We also believe that this is going to lead to massive increases in economic mobility in jobs for people of color at all levels, wealth creation and the closing of wealth gaps between people of color and their white peers. And I also say that it's going to be really important as it relates to transforming philanthropy in our most vulnerable communities.

And look, I think the good news is as it should be, in a partnership, our goals mirror their goals. In the short term, I think it's about getting our groups together and lining up the places where our operations match and setting up the specific KPIs to really start chipping away and creating progress, placing people inside our companies, exposing them to other opportunities if the right fit is inside our portfolio, hiring inside our own organization over time, and then increasingly densifying the networks and the exposure to networks. The lightning storms that we talked about, creating the density of social capital and network density, that really leads to great outcomes in the longer term. And I think in the longer term, again, ideally, we hopefully should look back on this work and the work that other people are doing with pride because hopefully it leads to many black, Latinx and Native American founders building billion dollar companies. Something that we have not seen and we need to see. And the workforces at those companies need to better reflect the actual demographics of our country. So this is the hard work that needs to be done by us and others. And it's going to have to start now and it's going to take time. But I think, you know, I'm really excited that over the long term there's an opportunity to make a significant difference.

That's fantastic. Thank you both so much for all of this. If folks are listening to this podcast and they want to get more involved. How would you direct them to get more involved? And I guess I'll start with you, John.

We love to begin that engagement. You know, we're@MLT.org and where you can learn more about our programs, our comprehensive work across the with individuals and with institutions. But I'd say, you know, the at a higher level, if I am a well intentioned senior executive or any person who wants to make a difference, my broader call to action, you know, at this moment in our country, if you're connected at all to the tech ecosystem, is to find a way to one get really informed about why we are where we are. And then once you feel like you're well informed and we're very much happy to help you along that journey, but as you get well informed, as your confidence grows, then I'd also say take some big swings at move the needle. And the things that Dave and I have been talking about today and those can be re examining how your organization approaches your journey around racial equity. And D and I those can be investing in organizations like ours who are ambitiously trying to move the needle or taking a little bit of time and figuring out a way to expand your professional networks enough such that you can engage somebody, a person of color who is trying to get into or is already in the tech ecosystem and find a way to help them close the network gap.

I agree with everything that Johnny said and I won't repeat, but I'll just say some more basic actions. Look, if you're a Greylock company or you're involved with Greylock, reach out to Holly Rose Faith around executive recruiting and our relationship with mlt. Reach out to Glenn Evans around our core recruiting. And look, if you're a VC firm or your firm's interested in being part of this, please reach out to us at Greylock or or John at MLT. We'd love to get more fellow VCs on board with this.

Thank you both so much for joining us today. This was a really important conversation and I appreciate so much your time and sharing your perspectives.

Thank you so much Elisa.

Okay everyone, that concludes this episode of Gray Matter. You can subscribe to our podcast on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find new episodes and blogs on our website@greylock.com. please follow us on Twitter reylockvc. I'm Elisa Schreiber and thanks so much for listening.