VC Fundraising as a Woman of Color and Building a Culture-First Team, with Sofiat Abdulrazaaq

Sophie, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah, I appreciate you taking the time. With GoodFind, I always like to kind of set the story. What are you doing today with GoodFind? What is this company?

Oh my gosh. So today, building just amazing technology for food truck owners and operators. You know, that's what we do day in and day out. And to that vein, that's what's coming, right? Always building for this community. Right now we're a fintech company and we'll continue to dive deeper into fintech tools and services for this industry. And as new things come up that are new and novel, we'll dig into those things too. So just having a good time, honestly. Yeah.

Building some dope tech. I love it. There's so much I want to dive into with this company. And I always love to start at the beginning, kind of come back. So take me through the idea for this. How did this come about in the first place, Sophie?

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So my co-founders and I are all first-generation Americans. And so we are always on the hunt for really great authentic cuisine. At one point, one of my co-founders, Kyle, went to a food truck, loved it, was telling our other co-founder about it and was like, you know, you got to try this. You got to try it. And we're like, okay, cool. And then he couldn't find it. Right. Quintessential food truck problem, loving their food, never being able to find them again. You kind of happen upon a food truck. And so he had the great idea of like, you know, I should build this out, wireframe it. He's a UX designer. And Elle, our CTO, was like, okay, well, like, if you can build it, then, you know, I can— well, if you can design it, I can build it. And I'm like, okay, if you can design it, you can build it. I can like product manage it. Right. And so, you know, we made up our own, you know, 4-in-a-box. For lack of better words, for the product pros out there. And we could build, design, and manage everything in-house. And that was kind of the start, wanting to just locate really great food trucks and do it in a central place because people don't like to follow a million social medias. You only have so many, so much app space on your phone. So we set out to solve that problem and then ended up in the fintech space, but all started with just loving great food and wanting to find it again.

Okay. There's something I want to dive into that I heard from before in a different interview of yours. So with this company, you were not full-time right away, which is the case for a lot of people. I'm curious for you, that switch from working on this on the side to full-time, what made that happen?

Being venture-backed was very helpful. That will do it. I mean, I would love to say it was something else, but bootstrapping is a part of the game, especially for founders like myself. And so we bootstrapped, we needed money and capital. We had to put in our own money and our own sweat equity upfront. And it was important for us to be able to show traction and to show that owners and operators would really use the platform before we could go out and get venture dollars. And the statistics are all out there for For founders like myself. And so we kind of knew we had an uphill battle to climb, but happy to be on the other side of it. And frankly, it was the money that helped make a dream come true.

So with that, Sophie, how much traction did you have? Where were you at by the time you raised? I always think of other founders when I'm doing these interviews around, they're building their company, they're kind of wondering the same things. Just take me through kind of where GoodFind was at when you then started to raise? I'd just be curious about that too.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so we're a payments company, so we're thinking about all the payments that we process. And at the time, I'll tell you the time that we knew that we could maybe start having conversations was when we hit that $100K mark. We were like, okay, because anything lower than that, it's kind of like it's traction, but is it a number that makes people say like, okay, You're being trusted by more than 5 people, right? You're at this point maybe being trusted by hundreds of people to get to that number and then to compound that number, thousands, and that starts to move the needle. So that 100 came out. So, I mean, I remember doing a gift. We printed out these cards and we were super excited about it because for us, that was a big moment. And that was the moment that we started to say to ourselves, okay, we think we could start thinking about venture. And then we started to see the month-over-month growth, right? So it would be like 30%, 40%. Eventually we're like 100% growth quarter over quarter. And we're like, all right, we're definitely onto something now. We can definitely have some more strategic type conversations, right? I'm not going to be completely embarrassed by all of these super hard investor questions. And those questions run the gamut. And so It was really there, $100K mark for us. And then seeing that month-over-month growth, because those are the types of numbers and the types of metrics that you're responsible for. And then once it was quarter over quarter, we're like, all right, we can see what these conversations are like.

With that too, I want to talk about the investing side and raising venture capital, but I want to also go to the growth. So in that early days, what fueled that growth to get to that, let's say $100K and beyond, that early growth phase? The things you guys were doing to actually make that happen in the early days?

Yeah. Not sleeping was a big part of it. We didn't sleep. But connections and relationships. I think so far or too often founders who build great tech really just want to rely on that, right? I certainly would've loved to just rely on building great tech because I mean, I feel like we'd be know, in the stratosphere now. That's all it took. Um, but, but really, you know, building out relationships early days, um, with our users, um, and, and, and just our community writ large, um, really helped to fuel that early growth. Um, and in the early stages, you, you really do need to be as close to the, close to the customer's perspective on all sides as you can be. Like, not one— you can't leave a single stone unturned. For lack of a better analogy, and we didn't. We were we were in the streets. We were visiting people, you know, in person. We were talking to people who were using our app. You know, just like again, just every every piece of the business we were hands-on in building relationships and ensuring that the technology actually worked. And and and I truly believe that fueled the growth because we had a really great reputation. And oddly enough, the pandemic was a really great happenstance for us, right? Like, sucked for me as an individual.

Yeah.

Really great for my company because the value proposition of what it meant to have a seamless technology to interface with customers contactless, it was like right place, right time, right? Like, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. That was kind of us for us. Luck meets opportunity. All those great analogies. that exists in the world. But yeah, we just stayed ready and then we didn't have to get ready when the pandemic hit. We were ready to really launch and show people the value and it turned out fairly well for us.

Real quick for context for people, was this your first company?

Yeah.

Okay. That's what I thought. I just want to give people that context. So going into this then, you obviously get the traction, you get to $100K doing that, but then you want to raise funding, obviously. The numbers are absolutely terrible. for people of color, especially women of color. So you know that going into it, take me through that. And I have to talk about the fundraising. How did that process go? Where'd you even start with that? Just take us through that side of things.

Oh my gosh, it was crazy. So our first lucky moment was getting into accelerator. We got into Lighthouse Labs, Richmond, Virginia, where I'm from. Shout out to Richmond. That's where they made me at. You know, we got in our Lighthouse Lab. They gave us $25K equity-free, and huge for us, right? Because a lot of a lot of the other accelerators, what people don't know is that's that's really the first money that you get is $25K, but it usually comes at a cost, and then there's like a some type of investment vehicle after that. But we got this, we got this money, and and we that was our first access to like a network of where we could actually talk about our ideas, right? And really and really get feedback from industry experts. And fueled by a little bit of capital. That kind of— that was like step one, right? And then when you open your network and you realize, like, access to network is really, I think, the true deficit for Black and brown founders.

Yeah.

We just don't have access. But once you get access, you start to understand, you know, what it takes to raise, you know, venture funds. And so that was first step for us. Built out our really, like, our first, like, revenue-generating products that led us into growth, that led us into VC. And so it was all like, I want to say it was just like this linear path. Like, I read something in an article, and then that article, like, really gave me the steps to make it to this, that, and the third, you know. But it wasn't like that. We got access to a network. We got tons of different advice. Some of it stuck. Some of it didn't. But that entry started to get us our first nos. And let me tell you something very powerful about getting your first nos. It sucks. It's a really big ego hit.

Yeah.

But getting your first nos is what leads you to your first yes, right? Because you start to understand the types of questions that are going to be asked, the types of traction that you need. And doors that are closed aren't necessarily like, a door that won't give you your next opportunity, right? Like, a lot of, um, the, the funds that, that said no really early on, um, and, and it really did delay our, our eventual venture process, they opened the door to other funds that might be, you know, interested, etc., etc.

Yeah.

Um, so, so, so, so it was, it was Lighthouse Labs that got us our first network. Our first check, though, came, um, by complete happenstance. My co-founder filled out a matching— it was like a startup matching system that Lolita Tao put out.

Yeah, I interviewed her actually.

Yeah, it's super cool. We filled out a questionnaire. We got connected to what ended up being our lead investor. Hardest call of my life, and I almost missed it because I was like, oh, this isn't for investment. We're just getting advice. And I had a full-time job, and I'm like, I'm running a team. I got to be at this meeting. Meeting got canceled with my SVP. And I was like, oh, I'll just hop on the call. I have the time.

Oh my goodness.

And that led to my lead investment. So insane. But again, all those nos and the access to the network ahead of time really made me prepared for a lot of those questions that I ended up getting on that call, which eventually led to our first venture check. So winding road.

With that, you mentioned with Lighthouse, obviously that's an accelerator. Like you said, it's no equity. So they give you $25K equity-free, which is great, huge for founders. Take me through, I think in another podcast you mentioned you had done maybe a couple accelerators. Just take me through how you even found the accelerators you did, which ones you ended up going with, why you went with them. I'm curious about that because a lot of founders are thinking about, especially if you have no networks, as you mentioned, do I go to an accelerator or not? Just take me through your thinking around that and how the experience was around accelerators for you.

Yeah, we started off in incubators, which are like accelerator light. And they're helpful for many reasons and a little less helpful in many ways too. But great starting points, great launchpads, because they basically tell you what you need to get into accelerator, right? An accelerator really is to take your company or a good idea and accelerate it. Incubator is one of those things where you can have the ideas and you can go back and forth with other founders, et cetera. So we kind of started there and just hungry in the space, really wanted to understand what it takes And after incubators like SeedSpot, et cetera, we then heard about Lighthouse Labs, right? It really was just one of those things where in the incubator they were talking to us about accelerators. You heard big names like Techstars, Y Combinator. I mean, the big ones are out there and they're awesome. But we got word of Lighthouse and we heard that it was equity-free and we were like, whoa, really? Like, this is going to— like, they don't want anything? They were like, this has to be a trick.

Yeah.

But it was a catch. But it wasn't. And so we applied and we got accepted and the rest is history. But it really was just being in an incubator first, hearing about accelerators, and they would tell you about all the different ones that are out there, how to search. There are really big accelerator networks like GAN and others where you can— where they— where they— where there are tons of GAN members, right? So Lighthouse Labs is a part of the GAN network, but you can kind of look them up, right? Like, the great thing about funders is they want, for the most part, family funds being excluded, but they want to be found, right? And they— and they— so the information is out there for you. from accelerators to apply. And so we did that. We looked at the GAN Network, we applied to Lighthouse Labs, we applied to some others, and that was the fit for us. And we launched from there. But Google is still king for research and finding your fit. So there are—

I love that you mentioned that because there are so many different accelerators out there. It can be overwhelming, but To your point, you do your research, you do your homework, start talking to people, you get a feel for what is what, you know, what the different ones have to offer, especially like different locations too. Especially, you know, if you're not on the coast necessarily, there's some— there's ones everywhere, let's put that way, that can be really helpful for founders in finding that. And, um, you know, depending on their networks as well, then obviously they introduce you to the next check, which is very important to continue the company growth, um, because you're not going to probably just have the pre-seed check. So with that as well, raising those funds— so you raise like I think it's $1.8 million, which is amazing. Take me through then after that, you raised the funds, how did the company grow from there? What happened after that?

Yeah, absolutely. So initially raised $1.8 million and that really fueled the growth of our fintech products and services. We, like, again, we started off wanting to solve a problem for ourselves. And I think, you know, so, and that's how we happened upon entrepreneurship. We, I think we always kind of knew we wanted to do something special. for people much like ourselves. But what that looked like, we had no idea. And so we found this problem that we wanted to solve for ourselves, and we solved it. And as we started to do that, we learned that it wasn't really solving the problem that the community was having. Right. Inherently, it was, because if your customers can't find you, it's a problem. But that wasn't the problem that they perceived. Right. They perceived other things as As problems to solve. And we listened to them all and kind of were like, okay, this is where we can start. This is where we can add value. And we built that out first. And so the money really helped to accelerate that vision. It probably would've taken us a year and a half or so to be able to build what we were able to build in 6 months. with funding, right? And we are a technical team, so we are able to build all of our things in-house. We didn't have to outsource, but that extra fuel of people was really necessary to accelerate that growth. And then we started to think about, okay, what does it look like to scale and get the word out? And so, you know, and now we're in that really fun phase of being more in one place and what complications that brings on. And of course, you know, you kind of go back to the funding well when you're at that stage as well. So at this point, I've raised over $3 million, but I think it's been really enlightening to me to see my company go, you know, first I wanted, I needed, you know, I use the money for product. Then now I'm like, okay, product's solid. Like, it's just really good. And so now it's like, scale, what does that look like? Right. And how do you attract customers and what is that secret sauce and all of that? So that's what it is now. And it's fun and it's every— at every stage is different. And at every stage of capital you're doing, you're raising for a different reason.

Absolutely.

But interesting every time nonetheless.

Okay, with this too. So think about, you mentioned scaling, you mentioned going to beyond one city. So how do you, how do you look at expansion in terms of, do you go city, are you going city by city by city? Is it like you can bring anyone on board anytime? Like, just walk me through that. Cause I've had these different businesses on the show before where you have that some have to go city by city. They have like an execution plan for each city. Some they don't necessarily have to. So they end up going more broadly, not necessarily the best strategy. It depends on what you're looking at. For you and Goodfyre, like how do you look at that?

I mean, at the end of the day, I think we look at it as a two-pronged approach, right? There's a part of me that always wants to go broad, right? And to your point, there are a lot of complexities with going broad because do you really— what is your messaging in that case, right?

Yeah.

How do you come up with that evergreen tone that makes sense for everyone. I think it takes a lot of learning to get there. And so my gut and where we're looking at GF right now is like, what makes sense from city to city? Right.

Yeah.

Knowing that that's not the holistic plan, but what does it look like to make relationships in different cities that look different from each other, right? And then figuring out from there what's that steady drumbeat tone that kind of gets everyone going, like what gets the people going, and then using that to go broad, right? For me has been the better strategic approach. And I've been at big tech companies, right?

Yeah.

And I've seen what it was like even launching products there. And I can honestly say that even in companies that you can scale at mass, they usually take this more strategic two-pronged approach.

Yeah.

And so for us, we're kind of leaning toward that way. And how we identify those cities are very much based on, you know, what we're seeing from our internal data and how it's resonating Um, with, with, you know, members of the community that we cared to work with on, on different sides of the business. Um, but, but yeah, but it definitely is a more of a two-pronged approach. Like, let me, let me, let me build relationships, let me test that out, um, see where the messaging really rings true, and then, you know, going, going broader. Because I see a lot of founders, um, burn a lot of capital really quickly Going broad super fast, and then there's nothing you know to to catch them when they fall.

So so you know I mean my I have the marketing brain, so I'm always thinking about what is the messaging going to be, and that seems impossible when you go broad. You're going to be way more expensive. It's not going to be as focused, etc. And I think about the companies I've interviewed or talked to before. So one of the founders of Eat Street was competing with like Grubhub at the time, and like Grubhub was going to these major cities. So they're going you know like LA, New York, whatever, and then EatStreet found out, well, we can go to these mid-market cities, Madison, Wisconsin, things like that. And then you found this opportunity that people didn't really realize existed. Like, okay, if we go middle market, they need the same thing, but we can offer it in a better way. It's like with you, I'm sure there's different ones you're looking at. It's like, oh, this is perfect for us because we do XYZ, you know, like, and that's what it's exciting about figuring out your strategy with that as well. And with what you've mentioned already, with raising now $3 million in total and growing a lot in the last couple of years, How have you approached growing your team? Because every founder I talk to, that is like the main struggle. It's fundraising and it's like building a team. For you, Sophie, how have you gone about that? Just curious.

I mean, I built my team with a culture-first focus and that has been super powerful for me. I did come from a job where I led teams and led people. And I remember thinking to myself, if I could do it differently, right? Because I— because, because of whatever reason, we lost a lot of good people along the way, right?

Yeah.

And I realized how important company culture, um, is investing in people and, and their happiness and, and what they're looking for, as well as having the technical skills, right? Like, the thing is, in life or in business, you can always find somebody to do a job, right? Will you find somebody to do the job and love it? That's the key. And I found by leading with culture, especially our interviews, um, you know, and saying like, this is what, this is what the culture is like. Like, this is, this is what we bring to the table. This is the amount of openness. We actually have a culture doc that everyone signs on to, um, and we, we have culture activities every month. And we, you know, it's like, it's really ingrained. Like, like the Good Find gang has a real family-forward vibe. And when people interview for jobs at our company, that's what they tell our recruiters. Like, oh my God, everybody in this team is totally drinking from the Kool-Aid. Everybody believes in it. Everybody's passionate about it. They seem to really like each other. And I think so that culture-first focus was really important for me. And I found it really impactful in a space that, especially from a development side of things, right? Like the market is hot. You know, I get messages all the time on LinkedIn, and I'm clearly leaning one way in life, right?

Yeah.

But, like, people are out there for tech talent and good talent in general. So you really have to bring something novel to the table, and it can't be fake, right? Like, you can't put on airs. People can suss that out. really well. You see a lot of stories right now with people leaving big companies, middle-sized companies, just saying like, no, you just can't treat me like trash. Yeah, I just don't want to be in a bad environment.

I got options now. I got options.

I don't have to stand for it. I got options. Everybody's going to pay me this money. So it's just like, it's like, what else are you giving? Um, and it can't, and it can't be fake. So that's the, that's the approach that I have. It's a culture-first approach. I take care of my people. Um, and, and in turn, they, they take care of the company. And it's just really good vibes. Nobody hates being at work, you know, 8 to 12 hours a day. No one. And I mean, and I can, I can say this easily because I know, I know those that are in our company would back me up unequivocally. And, and I find that that's been a competitive edge and advantage for me in such a tough market when, when quite frankly, like the salaries are sky high, everybody can be, you know, remote in some way. What really wins out is culture. And so we keep that tight.

You're a few years in and we're almost out of time now. You're a few years in this company. You had not started a company previously. Is it what you expected, Sophie? Is it— just take me through. Take me through your experience. How are you feeling about it?

I'm exhausted every day. You know, I'm— I still don't sleep. I thought, you know, I would sleep a little bit more when I had great people, but it's it's a grind, you know. Um, and I think, I think I thought because I was good at jobs before that it would come, you know, more naturally. But honestly, it's something that I work hard at every day. Like, I don't just work hard for the people that use my platform or for my investors or for my employees. I work hard for everyone. Um, and I'm, I'm every day I'm trying to own, you know, earn their, their, their respect in there and their, you know, Um, and then, and, and, you know, return the trust that they've given to me, um, tenfold. So it's, it's hard. It's nothing that I expect. Every day is different. Um, I woke up this morning, I had a plan, you know, I had meetings on the calendar. I read every— I wrote everything down. I was ready to, you know, cross off my list. Um, and nothing went according to plan. So it's going to be a long night trying to get that, that list cut, um, you know, checked off. But I love it.

Yeah.

Right. And that's something that I did expect. I knew if I could spend every day helping a community that I really thought was valuable and building really just dope technology with people that I really cared about in a culture that I really love, that I would love it in spite of all the difficulties, right? In spite of the sleepless nights, in spite of a lack of, like, personal life. My family's always like, where are you at? I'm like, I don't know.

Right.

Um, both physically, I'm always traveling, and also, you know, just like absent-mindedness of like, oh my God, I really need to call my mom who I'm obsessed with, or my dad who I love, you know, immensely. Um, and I just, you know, some— sometimes I fall short, but, uh, because every day is different. But, but I love it. I love it. So nothing, nothing that I expected at all, but everything That I need to fuel me from day to day.

So, Sophie, I know we're out of time, but where's the best place for people to learn more and also connect with you if they'd like to?

GoodFind everywhere on all socials, a Y instead of an I because we'd like to make it fancy. So you can always check us out there. Me, LinkedIn, I'm always happy to talk to founders who care about what it's like to raise and Um, and, or just want to like vent or complain or whatever the case may be, like, I'm your girl. Um, there were a lot of people who opened doors for me, um, on LinkedIn and, and sat through tons of conversations. And so paying that forward is super, super important to me. Uh, so you can, if you, if you slide in my DMs, I will, I will reply right back. Um, and, and look forward to any conversations that come my way because of this.

Sophie, thank you so much for the time today. Really appreciate it. Absolutely.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate being here.