Resources & Strategies for Underrepresented Business Owners to Thrive in the Post-COVID Future

My name is Ryan Micheletti. I'm Head of Global Operations for the Founder Institute, and I'm also the Managing Director of the Founder Institute Silicon Valley virtual program, which is launching next week. And we're very, very honored to have Elizabeth Gore here, who is the co-founder and president of Hello Alice. She's— Hello Alice is a smart technology company that connects entrepreneurs and small business owners to curated resources, experts, opportunities, events, and communities to help them launch and grow their companies. So Elizabeth, you've got a ton of really great experience, um, and I, I've got the list here and I can go through it, but I really think like maybe, uh, it'd be better coming from you to talk a little bit about your background and, and Hello Alice for a little bit.

Sure. Well, thank you for having me, and, um, we're big fans of Founders Institute, and it's great getting to know you, Ryan. So I am originally from Texas and now live in Northern California, and I grew up on a cattle ranch there, but very quickly got into humanitarian work. So I had a full career at the UN, so Peace Corps, and then a decade serving the United Nations, mostly in Africa, LATAM, and out of DC and New York. However, it was there that towards the end of my term, I was super, super motivated by small business owners, actually, and entrepreneurs. When we were coming out of deployment, I very quickly would see that the folks that were picking up after a civil war, natural disaster, or some kind of crisis were business owners. And they would monetize solutions, they would get commerce going again, and it just— I just became pretty obsessed. So I had the great opportunity to, when I left the UN, to move over to Dell Technologies as Michael Dell's Entrepreneur-in-Residence for 3 years. And my job there was to run around the world and find the next best technologies to help small business owners. And I learned a ton, but I was lucky to meet my co-founder, Carolyn Rodds, who is an amazing technical expert, Latina entrepreneur out of Houston, Texas, where I'm from. And we both really bonded on not actually the problems, but the huge opportunities on connecting underrepresented owners to networks they need to be successful. And this is right when machine learning was starting to trickle to the rest of us through digital transformation. So We teamed up and built Hello Alice on top of a machine learning platform. So we help small business owners launch and grow, but very specifically through data based on their stage of growth, physical location, and industry. However, we made a commitment the day we launched that we would always prioritize services for women, people of color, and US veterans. And have since, 3 years later, rolled out features for the LGBTQ+ community, entrepreneurs with disabilities, and then very specifically for military spouses. So we have grown, Ryan, beyond our wildest dreams. We help around 200,000 small business owners a week at this point. And we've had a huge pivot through COVID, which we'll talk about in a minute. But We're a Series A-backed company with a social enterprise arm. We're free for owners and we make money through data. Not your personal data, but aggregate trend data for enterprise business services. So I am also now a third grade math teacher because I am homeschooling my children, which is a bitch. And so I'm running the business and running my household and drinking a lot, and here we are.

Well, you're in the heart of Sonoma, so I don't know what else you would be doing. That's true.

Fair point.

We're super honored to have you today. You know, I would say, you know, given the reach of Hello Alice and some of the opportunities that we were just discussing, you know, before we went live between the Founder Institute network and Hello Alice, like, we couldn't have a better speaker to talk about the topic of today. And so just so everyone knows, this is live, and the way that we like to run these webinars is make it as interactive as possible. So if you have questions that you'd like to ask me or Elizabeth, please go ahead and put into the chat. You can introduce yourself. I see people are already doing that, and that's great. And we'd love to dive into the topic and maybe ask some questions to begin and get to your questions as soon as you start sending them through. So obviously, the elephant in the room today is COVID-19. And if underrepresented communities didn't have a hard enough time breaking through the barrier and making progress before COVID-19. It sure is a challenge now, right? And so what are— what have you seen? Like, what are some of the strategies and what's some general advice and perspectives that you have on underrepresented communities in the post-COVID era?

Sure. So, you know, I'll just acknowledge that this is a bitch for everybody, whether you're a small business, high-growth enterprise, no matter what state you're in. I will say though, the one good thing is it's gonna be the great equalizer. We're all kind of getting screwed at the same time, which is helpful. However, we very quickly at Hello Alice pivoted and built the COVID-19 Business Center. So y'all can access it anytime, COVID19BusinessCenter.com. And we have been trying as fast as we can to aggregate thousands of resources per day that we're seeing are actually helpful to owners. And as we're doing that, we look at the data weekly to really understand what folks need, where are they heading, where are the gaps. And my biggest concern is capital and cash flow right now, not for everyone, but specifically for underrepresented founders. Most women, people of color, or US veterans start businesses with less cash. Also, if obviously we're getting less than 2% of venture capital if you're a female, those numbers go down as you add in people of color. We didn't start with a lot to begin with. However, we are the most resilient community out there and can do a lot with a lot less. So we're, we're a woman Latino-owned business. And, you know, one of the things I'm encouraging everyone is to apply for literally everything you can right now. Whether that's, you know, we've all had our PPP challenges or thought about applying. If we have a Third Cares Act, really understanding where you fall in that. But additionally, on the COVID-19 Business Center, we've put up a channel that helps you navigate private funds. So there are funds out there based on industry, based on location, based on demographics. So funds for African Americans, for Latino business owners, US veterans. We have a grants program going right now in the COVID-19 Business Center as well. So I've been encouraging folks to really think about applying. The other thing I'll just say, Ryan, is I am shocked at how great underrepresented founders are at finding and saving money. We are running classes right now that just help you think through how to cut costs to— and we're finding money from $5,000 to $20,000 a month. Or you can look at loan forgiveness. You can look at, um, some counties and states right now are doing mortgage deferment, rent forgiveness, even down to your Salesforce account, your QuickBooks account. Are they actually allowing you to pause payments? So the other place to find money is actually within your own company and really be cutting and accessing anything out there you can think about.

Yeah, that's a, that's a really great point. One of the pieces of advice that we've given our grads, and we have 4,000 global is something that we called the COVID-19 discount, which is going to your suppliers, your vendors, and saying, hey, shit's hitting the fan right now. I either not pay you moving forward and we're gonna cut it, or you can give me a 20% discount and we'll go back up to the normal rates once we get through this. And it's actually been very effective. A lot of grads like have written in and said that it's been effective in reducing their burn, and that enables them to keep employee headcount at that level. And so it's really, really important to see.

The other thing I'll just say is, folks, you know, the hardest thing you probably have to do is furlough employees, let go employees. And it's something maybe you've never imagined to do as a founder. But because there's unemployment right now, because there is stimulus money, sometimes furloughing employees is the smartest way to save money as well. Even though that is emotionally a very difficult decision, I, you know, I really encourage folks to think that through as an option.

Yeah, unfortunately, like with the PPP loan, and we were just talking about this, you know, some people aren't getting access to it, and that money would be used to retain, you know, payroll and headcount. And, you know, it's unfortunate, but some businesses aren't able to access it because of the high demand there.

Absolutely.

Priyanka asks, you know, it sounds like Alice's work is global, so she wants to confirm if today's content is also targeted for businesses outside of the US. So maybe you can talk about the global perspective.

Yeah, we are— I call us accidentally global. We actually have owners in every country but two. I will say that basic business fundamentals in terms of building the infrastructure of your business, leadership, your accounting practices, are quite global. We also right now have a partnership with the Global Entrepreneur Network, GEN Global, in the COVID-19 Business Center. So if you click on global resources, it has what I think is one of the best resource navigators per country. So you can either find your own country in there and the resources available, or if you have a business that has supply chain in other countries, manufacturing in other countries, employees in other country, it's a really good navigator. So I would definitely look at that as well. There are also emergency grants programs that we're highlighting that are global that I would also flag.

That's great to know. Raghav asks, or he says, I am a cold caller and salesperson, and it's been difficult to wake up with motivation that he had previous to COVID. How do you motivate yourself given the current crisis? And how should those of us who cannot pay rent right now look to long-term growth?

Okay, so two questions. How do I motivate myself? So, alcohol and exercise, and then routine. So, I'll start with the routine. I realized pretty quickly that both for my family and my employees, we needed to establish a new normal. And routine was really critical, whether it's for you personally establishing a routine, even if it has to change every couple of weeks because we don't know what the next week brings. I think it's also really important for your personal mental health, your employees, or your children, or you. So if you can establish a routine and stick to it, I think that helps. For me, exercise is critical so I don't murder someone. And also, you know, you know, obviously every statistic on the planet talks about exercise. Even if you're jogging in place, I had to buy a jump rope because the gyms are closed, whatever that means. And then to be highly inappropriate, I— the cocktail hour gets a little earlier every day, I'll just say. And then finally, I get motivated by our owners. I was telling Ryan earlier in this call, entrepreneurs are so I don't know, they're just, they pivot, they're, they're full of optimism and just keep beating down and pop back up. And when I'm struggling, I look to other entrepreneurs to talk to them, to reach out to them, to go into sessions like this and learn. So struggling to pay rent. So I don't know if that is as a business or an individual, but again, as a business, I highly encourage you to look at if there, your state or county has rent relief. Or rent deferment. And then also, to Ryan's point, going into a landlord and just having a really transparent conversation with them, I think, is your best keys right now.

Yeah, I definitely agree. And it's okay to bring the cocktail hour a little bit earlier, as long as you're waking up and having the coffee hour a little bit earlier.

There you go. I like it.

I like it. So, you know, there's obviously what's really great, and what I actually learned by through Hello Alice, is that there's a lot of private grants available. And so, you know, we talked about this a little bit, but We know that Hello Alice has had to pivot due to COVID-19 to help support these SMBs, and you're providing emergency grants. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Mm-hmm. So through our data, we're asking every week a pretty large sample size, over 100,000 of owners, what are your biggest barriers, what are your biggest challenges. We ask what their opinions that the government should be doing, and we're We're open sharing that data biweekly to our partners. But one of the early things we found was small gap funding between $10,000 and $25,000, but immediately in cash. And so, and most of that we found was either for a pivot or to pause. So for the pivots, it was folks who figure out how to move their business to actually jump into the COVID-19 atmosphere, whether it was creating PPEs, ventilators. We've had sanitation services that figured out how to clean. We've had construction folks who figured out how to deem themselves essential services, but those pivots cost money. So that we've been granting to those types of activities. Also folks who have to pause their business to keep maybe their shop or keep their supply chain going but still needed to pay rent or something we've been granting for that. And then we've really been working for— to prioritize groups that we found are not applying for PPP or other support mechanisms, whether our Hispanic business owners, for example. We were shocked to see that a huge amount of applications are not in Spanish. There's no place to be supportive there. So we pivoted to build the Hispanic Business Center with grants to try and funnel money there. So what we're doing is, frankly, Ryan, just every week looking at the data, finding the gaps, and seeing where either we can step in or we can push enterprise partners or policymakers to step in.

Yeah, that's amazing and such a great resource out there. And we know that there's lots of companies and organizations that are making these private grants available. And so that's, that's very motivating. From your perspective, what is the biggest challenge that underrepresented founders are facing right now?

I think the lack of networks. You know, I'll start with, as a military family, in our family, even applications, and you have to have an established residence for 2 years, you have to have an established banking relationship for several years. You know, a lot of vets who just came home don't have that yet, and so they're not networked in that way. If you look at our Latino community, having walk-in services with networks just isn't there. So I'll just say the lack of being networked, I think we've all known that, but it's gonna be so blatantly apparent. And on the flip side of that, there's no excuse not for us to be networked anymore because of digital transformation. You don't have to walk in anywhere right now. And so I'm hoping there might be a pendulum shift. I heard a lady say there's no reason anyone shouldn't have a seat at the table at this point, because it's all a digital table. So I'm hoping that we can help people get more networked. That's why I love Founder Institute, because you all do such a great job making connections for the right people. So that's been my biggest concern. And that's where I think it's so apparent when folks can't apply for something or don't have the banking relationship or don't have the VC relationship is probably the biggest challenge. And then, as I mentioned before, really doing more with less capital, it hurts a little bit— a lot right now.

Yeah, to piggyback on what you're saying, and this kind of goes to Ragav's question around motivation, right? I mean, this is really the time to be doubling down. Right? Because there's so much uncertainty, things are changing really rapidly, and you frankly don't have a lot of control. The only thing you do have control over is like, what are you doing every day to move things forward? And so many times in my life, there's been times where right when something really bad happens is usually the moment right before something really good happens.

That's very true. Yeah.

And so, you know, right now the world is kind of on fire, but there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. And I think like the actions that you take now, you have to really understand and know that it has this exponential effect as to what happens in the future. So even though maybe in your example of being a cold call or a salesperson, right, maybe doing that one extra call, right, pushing yourself to do just one more thing and just every day kind of going out on what I like to call offense so that you're not just kind of maintaining and treading water, you're actually making progress. And that could be anything like coming to a webinar and educating yourself, or it could be taking a class, or it could be, you know, spending an extra 20 minutes like doing something, uh, doing something for your employer if you still have a job. So all of these things will compound over time, and you really have to look at that as the long game, right? And so when you're thinking about these different networks and how do you get plugged in, you really want to look at, um, you know, the different affinities that you have. So one thing that I've seen in the veteran community is that there's all these really great resources out there for veterans, and you should absolutely tap into that if you're a veteran. But at the same time, if you're looking to, you know, launch a startup, you also need to tap into the startup community that has non-veterans in it.

Right.

Right? And you can't—

Don't isolate yourself. Yeah.

Exactly. Like, you want to kind of diversify, and you can almost leverage the two off of each other because people in the tech community are going to say, oh, wow, you're a veteran. That's really interesting. Tell me about it. And it gives you a little bit of an edge. And then vice versa, like in the veteran community, you're a tech entrepreneur or you're building a business and that gives you an edge in that community. And so, you know, someone once told me a long time ago that your network is your net worth.

Totally. Absolutely.

It's extremely important that everyone on this call is tapping into the different networks that they have. And everyone has a network. Doesn't matter who you are.

That's very true. And Ryan, I'll just say the thing I'm most excited about with underrepresented founders is their resiliency. Every enterprise group or corporation is going to have to pivot just like we all are, and the small, small guys and gals. And it— if, you know, if I think about my experience at Dell or at the UN, it is really hard to move those giant ships fast. And so it— I think that you're going to see a lot of entrepreneurs slide in there really quick and fill holes. Yeah, so we're all pivoting right now. Everyone's gonna have to, but entrepreneurs and smaller organizations can pivot faster. They can be more nimble. They're more closer to the ground. And so I think you're gonna see some really competitive startups grow out of this. The second thing I'll just mention is that look where those big enterprise groups aren't pivoting and see if you can saddle up with them. That is a great source of funding and support. If you can go in and to an Amazon or a Dell and say, hey, I think I can solve a problem for you. That is a great way to get funding and your infrastructure back up and running. And, you know, alongside a behemoth company.

Yeah, absolutely. Entrepreneurs have the competitive advantage and really it's your only advantage of moving quickly. And, you know, we were joking around. But like, the market, like entrepreneurs will spend their entire life trying to disrupt the market, and here it is, the market's been disrupted for them.

Right.

Go out, like this is the time, right? You'll probably, depends on what you're doing, some people may have to pivot, they'll have to figure it out, right? But like, now is the time to be moving fast and making big decisions, right?

Absolutely.

So, some other questions here. Ingrid asks, or says that there's no relief funds that are available to new businesses. Because of COVID-19. Is there anywhere that they should look?

Yeah, so you're right, there is— most of them want you to have been in business at a minimum 2 years. We actually have been giving grants even if you are a new business, as long as you are a registered business who has launched. Again, if you are supporting the COVID-19 situation, The other thing I would say is, Ingrid, I have been seeing, just like Founders Institute has great opportunities to join their virtual cohorts, if I'm not saying it right, Ryan, I'm sorry, but a lot of groups are starting to fund again. They're starting to open their doors virtually. I've seen a few term sheets thrown around lately, which made me really happy. So, You know, what I would look is to the future for you, not necessarily COVID emergency, but how are you looking to fund yourself future forward-looking?

Yeah, that makes sense. And a lot of the advice we've been giving some of our grads is like, every company is a COVID-19 company, and you need to essentially figure out your positioning, right, of how you're going to help in the new world, the new economy. Those are some terms that have been thrown around. And so, what would you say? I mean, is this the time to kind of clear the whiteboard and start fresh and think of— give each business owner a new perspective?

Yes. I would say there are no sacred cows in your business plan anymore. So, I don't care what industry you're in, where you're located, if you just launched or you launched 20 years ago, if you have no capital or a lot of capital, absolutely everyone needs to relook at their business plan. Re-look at how your customers are going to access your goods. How do people shop? How do people purchase? How are enterprise business services going to do marketing? So even if you launch strong, you need to really understand what the new normal is for whoever your customers are and the services you're offering. How are they going to, going to access those How much are they willing to pay? And then finally, for those of you who are more brick and mortar, I really encourage folks, even if you are legally allowed to open tomorrow, make sure it is the right time. Your community, you might open your doors, that means you're paying your light bills, your employees, everything again, but are they going to walk in the front door? So really be smart about holding that capital until you know that your customers are ready. But I would say for everybody, you should really look at, you know, what I would say is June or July as the first time you've ever launched. Treat it that way and really be smart about this fall. I think we need to be prepared to have as much money in the bank as you can and be prepared to pivot again. I think this fall we're going to see, you know, if you really put your ear to the ground, you look at the economists, you look at state leadership, which is who I look to these days, is you're going to have to pivot again come November, December, January. So, so put room in your brain, your budget, and your team to prepare for an additional pivot later.

Yeah, that's, that's solid advice. Cheryl asks, are the grants that Hello Alice offers directly or indirectly tied to the SBA or PPP?

They are not. We are not tied whatsoever to it. We are helping folks apply for PPP and EIDL through e-learning modules, but these grants are very specific to Hello Alice.

And then, you know, Cheryl, you go on to say that you've applied to the PPP already and don't want to apply twice. You know, I've heard, I've heard mixed things about applying multiple times. It might get you kicked back to the back of the line, but You know, to be 100% transparent, I applied for it like 6 different times through 6 different groups.

You did too.

So, you know, I wouldn't be afraid of that. I, you know, I don't think there's going to be any repercussions. I think the issue is if you take the money twice, then there might be some issues there. But, you know, I think everyone understands how much of a crazy time this is. And so I would highly encourage you if your business depends on it, doesn't matter, just go for it. Go out and get it if you can.

I agree. And Ryan, can I just add that we've been seeing a lot of luck with community, local community banks. So the smaller the bank, the greater the success. And then not to forget things like Kabbage, Carta, PayPal, these— what you wouldn't think of as banking, but they are approved for those as well.

Yeah, we— so we applied through I think it was like 4 different banks. And it wasn't until we got the loan through Gusto, which is our payroll provider. I forget, it was like Cross River Bank that they partnered with. But I still remember the day, it was like they sent me the final, we had already submitted the application and they sent me this final paperwork for signatures. And this was during the time where I'm signing all sorts of different things. And I wasn't sure if they were gonna give me the money or not. Does this mean I got it?

Like, so it is very confusing.

It is very confused. So there's a lot of like information out there and there's a lot of misinformation and there's a lot of noise. So make sure you educate yourself, but make sure you go for it at the same time.

Ryan, my favorite resource for PPP, EIDL, as well as the CARES Act, and if there is another one coming, the National Chamber of Commerce has a live policy blog that's quite good. A guy named Tom runs it, and we have now linked it directly to the COVID Business Center because we really have trusted that. And so if you go to COVID-19 Business Center and there's a thing you click on for policy updates, we are directly linking to the National Chamber's live policy blog. And I— it has been right on point all the way through. I think that's a good way to cut through the noise and get the real news of what is coming, what you can expect. And then finally, for those who did get PPP, I am stressing to you to be very sacrosanct about putting that in a separate account, keeping every invoice, really watching that you're spending it on maintaining, not on growth. Um, the IRS standards and what they're thinking about is not super clear, so a really important way to protect yourself is just to watch that with a fine-tooth comb.

100%. So, you know, let's kind of shift the conversation a little bit, right, to recovery. So what role do you think diversity plays in the collective recovery effort?

You know, I was on a call with a group of organizations yesterday, and we kept saying back to normal, back to normal, and a woman who leads Black Female Founders says You know, normal sucked. She said what was normal before did not have everyone at the table. It, you know, women weren't getting capital, veterans weren't included. She reminded us that only 18 Black females got over $1 million in venture capital. And so her point was, how do we make a more, a new normal that's more inclusive and open? And we call it at Hello Alice the new majority. We want the new normal to be inclusive of the new majority. So if you look collectively again at people of color, women, US veterans, and so on, that is the new majority of business owners in America. And so what we really want to think about is how is recovery inclusive of the fastest growing business populations? Hispanics, US veterans, African Americans. And so what we've been trying to do, and I encourage everyone, is to contact our policymakers as much as humanly possible on the state and federal level to say what you need as business owners. It's— all you do is go to congress.gov, you put in your zip code, and that's the easiest way to get in touch with your folks. As it relates to you as business owners yourself, I would say again, I like Ryan's point on, on offense. So find the holes, be aggressive as possible. The other thing I like about us all being digital right now is it's kind of a blind game, which I like, so that if you have the best possible service out there, it's not going to be a cocktail reception where it's being chosen or a golf game or those old boys kind of networks. It's really— there's a lot of legitimate business going on, which I like, actually. If you're, if you're a working mother and have to go home at 5 and can't do that networking event, I think there's going to be a much more equal playing field for a lot of us that I really like. So finally, with our US veterans, I just wanted to spend a second on that. As a— I'm in an Air Force family and I really think that we need to be pushing for Veterans Affairs to get out more potential CARES Act funding specifically for vets and military-affiliated families. And I know there's a big group working towards that, which is super, super exciting.

You know, that's surprisingly— this is one of the first times I've heard of that. A lot of the time, you know, I've been pretty heavily involved in the veteran entrepreneur community. And so it's really good to hear that. I think that's a good choice. So, I mean, you know, we were talking about adversity muscle before this, and I think that there's a common thread with underrepresented communities, immigrants, women, minorities, veterans, right? And kind of having this strength of overcoming adversities that have come their way. And so do you have any advice for these founders in terms of ways that they should be thinking about pivoting their companies? Any industries or topics that are of interest?

Yeah, I would say if you are not already tech-enabled, you better damn sure be it now. Anyone who does not consider themselves a tech company, it's time to make that 100% switch, no matter what industry you're in. So you spend some time really understanding all of your systems, Have you gone through digital transformation? Could you be 100% online if you needed to be? I think that's really important no matter what industry you're in. The thing that I'm most excited about is I think, I think the services industry is going to get disrupted in a positive way where people really want to talk to people right now. They want to get advice. They don't want to have as much pure technology-driven decision-making. So again, I want us to be tech-enabled, but at the same time, people want to talk to humans. So I think there's going to be a lot of opportunity in the services industry. I think data is king right now. So if you in any way— again, not personal data, but data that's driving decision-making— I think that is going to be a massive opportunity. I think security is a whopper. That's coming our way. And I think, again, anyone who's able to really get in front of what is the future of work, I think that's gonna be fascinating. And, you know, at Hello Alice, we talk a lot about underrepresented owners. We serve everyone. We love our white male counterparts. We are very focused on really being strong and important to those who still wanna start up. And not just those that are surviving. So if those of you on the phone were about to launch your business, I also want to encourage you that this is still a time of optimism. And to Ryan's point, man, how do you slide in there with your biggest offense and be in a different place than those of us who are catching up?

Yeah, that's 100% correct. We were on a— we had a meeting earlier today and we had originally put out this blog post of like all of these companies that were started in the 2008 financial crisis. And, you know, it's like Airbnb, Uber, right? All the big ones. And, you know, there were so many of them, we actually had to create a second blog post about the second half.

I love that.

I mean, this is the time where people should be really rethinking about like, how do you provide for your family? What does the future of you look like? There's never been a better time to start a company. And, you know, even though it can be daunting, right, and you don't necessarily have all the answers. The truth is that even well-established CEOs don't have all the answers, and they're learning just as much every day as the initial founder. The only difference is they started way earlier.

Yeah.

So if you start today, you'll make the progress and you'll get to where you need to go.

Yeah, and I will tell you the funniest thing that sticks in my mind when I'm up all night figuring out cash flow, which I'm sure all of you do, um, whether you're in a crisis or not, I asked Michael Dell once, what keeps you up at night? And he said cash flow. And he has a billion-dollar company. And it just made me realize that a lot of the, the challenges of being an owner and an entrepreneur— that's why you're an entrepreneur, because we get through these challenges. We have extreme highs and lows even within an hour. But that's why we chose to do this, right, is, is the roller coaster, which is exciting. And the challenges are just truly heightened right now, obviously, because of what we're going through. But learning, you know, how do you make a penny stretch as far as humanly possible, you will need that again and again and again, not just through COVID. How do you manage employee anxiety and mental health issues with your customers, right? Because they're worried and they're going through tough stuff, and you're going to have to manage that again someday. So there are certainly skill sets right now that we can gain. Now, I'm rested today and in a super good mood. Tomorrow I might be like, holy shit, this is awful, it's so hard, what are we doing? But again, that's part of being an owner, right?

100%. And so speaking of traits, you know, you're launching some veteran-specific resources. We have the Veteran Founder Initiative at the Founder Institute where our goal is to help launch 100 veteran-led companies every single single year. What traits do you have, or that have you seen, that veterans possess that make them great entrepreneurs?

Oh my gosh, everything. So my dad is Air Force. He's a great— was Air Force. He's a 3-time entrepreneur. And watching him growing up in his company, you know, embodying leadership— I shared earlier that He was laughing at me complaining how much we have to pivot, and he, you know, in dad fashion said, well, I had to pivot every day in the Air Force or I would have died, you know. And so veterans, I think, truly have the leadership training to go through extreme situations, crisis, limited options. How do you get enough information that's not all the information to make a fast decision? Team, leadership. I mean, there's just so much there. And so when I see a veteran-owned company come through our door, I just know that there's going to be a lot of qualities that are frankly already there that don't need to be taught. And so, and I will just say through crisis, I especially see extreme optimism with both veterans, and I'll also say military spouses because they They have to move a lot, they have to pivot, they have to pick up and do a lot of change, be very resilient. So I'll add them there as well. So, you know, I just see a lot of success metrics around veterans. All the data shows when veterans get equal access to capital, they tend to outperform civilian owners. And so I think that's important because I sometimes hear, oh, this is a high-risk community, and that is actually not true through the data. So, and at Alice, we, you know, we do not program for veterans. We actually try to point veterans to the best initiatives for them based on their industry, stage of growth, location, and so on. So we're just a backseat data nerd that's pointing to things like Founder Institute or Bunker Labs or Navso and so on.

Yeah, there's a ton of really great support resources out there for veterans. And, you know, that's why we've, launched the Hello Alice Veterans Fellowship.

Thrilled about that.

Yeah, so, so for the, the vets that are on the call, if you're interested in starting a technology company, we've partnered with Hello Alice actually in multiple ways. We have the Female Founder Fellowship and the Veterans Fellowship, and through this initiative, we are— we're giving away these scholarships to allow veterans to access the Founder Institute program for free. We also have the same scholarship available to women and depending on where you are in the world, because we have chapters in 185 cities, there's various programs and grants and things that we offer to help the founders who are launching companies deal with some of the stresses of launching a company in the post-COVID-19 era. And so, from my perspective, what we've been doing over the last couple years at Founder Institute, and one of the big kind of secrets of FI, I'm just gonna disclose it to everyone here, is that the secret of entrepreneurship success is really like tenacity and perseverance, right? The number one failure or reason why companies fail is it's really when the founder gives up. It's not when you run out of money. It's not when you, you know, when you—

Oh, we've run out of money so many times. It's like—

Exactly. But you never give up, right? Like you kind of figure it out. And sure, like there's optimal situations and there's less optimal situations. So There's a lot of uncertainty out there, but your job is to navigate through those treacherous waters, right? And that's part of being a leader, and that's part of the job you're signing up to be as a startup leader. And so, you know, we see that it's the founders themselves that are really like the unicorns and the people that are making big things happen, not necessarily the startup idea or the business opportunity. That will change, right? We know that that will, they'll pivot in the program, they'll pivot after the program. It's really about the core of who the founder is. And that's the most important thing. And so, you know, what I'd love to ask because I've never actually had the chance to ask this is, you were in the Peace Corps. So there's a lot of adversity muscle gains that you probably experienced. And so I'd love to hear a little bit more about your experience and kind of what has that taught you And how has that shaped you as an entrepreneur?

Oh, wow. Well, Peace Corps' motto is "the hardest job you'll ever love." And it was by far the hardest job I've ever had. So I was 2 years, 6 months in Bolivia in South America. And I will say that with the Peace Corps, it's interesting because you live at the same level as the community you're in. So if they're in a hut, you're in a hut. Make $200 a month, you're making $200 a month. And so you learn to live in this adversity that's around you. However, that to me was fun and an adventure. The hardest part was to go somewhere fully isolated and have to create a project with no money. And most of all, basically pull the community around you to do that project. And the biggest learning I had was my second year. The first year I had all these ideas and I wanted to save the world and we would do this and this and this, and it just wasn't working. And when I figured out that I was a complete idiot and everyone there in my village, village with 36 families, very small, very remote, had amazing ideas already. They knew what their community need. They completely understood the situation they were in. They certainly didn't need a gringa in there telling them. My job was to be a connector, a facilitator, to listen, to bring people together, to help advance the solutions that were already in their minds, but maybe they didn't have the capital, a piece of education around it, or so on. And so to me, that's the way I've approached every job since, is how are you really listening to what a customer needs? How are you really listening to the environment around you. Yeah, there's adversity. Oh, there's no resources, there's no money. Well, guess what? Everyone pretty much starts out that way. So that to me was the number one learning. And I thought about it at the UN, I thought about it at Dell, I think about it now, I think about it in my own just volunteer work in my community. So that to me was it. The only other thing I'll say is just extreme circumstances. You have sickness, drought, deaths, abuse. You know, I saw some crazy shit there, and I did in the UN as well. And so it certainly allowed me as an entrepreneur when we had these extreme highs and lows to kind of lead through those with my team. And so it's not easy, but it certainly taught me a lot. So I picked up a husband there too. Super cute. Still got him. You're the loud guy in the other side of the room.

Ingrid asked, and this is kind of piggybacking on the question, it's like, how did that— how did you identify your strengths in that situation?

Oh man, I think this sounds really counterintuitive, but being vulnerable enough to know that you absolutely have no idea what you're doing and asking the right questions. I don't know if anyone saw Obama's commencement speech. There's two things I've seen over the last three weeks that I adored. One was Obama's commencement speech last Saturday, and the other was George W. Bush's PSA about unity. Ironically, the two of them I thought were very close. But Obama said, I'm worried that people aren't asking the right questions. And I just thought that was such an important thing. That I learned back then was like, I'm telling people my ideas instead of asking questions. And so being vulnerable enough to know what you don't know, ask questions, I guess to me has served me pretty well in this process.

Yeah, that's really great. It's all about asking the right kind of question.

And make sure you listen to the answer, P.S. There's that part too.

So Buck asked, what resources are available for women-owned businesses? I know we touched on this at the beginning, but any favorites, any ones that you'd like to highlight?

Yeah, well, I'll toot our horns at Hello Alice. That's certainly where we lean in as much as we can. So we meta tag anything we find based on if it's a really strong resource for women. I'm actually a big proponent of women registering their businesses as women-owned or vets as veteran-owned and so on. The world is getting better at supplier diversity contracts, at discounts, at prioritizing women-owned. You can do that through the SBA, through WBENC. There's a lot of certification organizations that can do that. And it might take a lot of paperwork, but I think it'll behoove you later. And then I'm a member. So if you're in more of the high-growth tech sector, I'm a member of WPO. I'm a big fan of it. Women's Presidents Organization. They are all business. It's not about, you know, I'm of course support feminist groups and so on. But WPO is about running a company as a woman. And I'm a huge fan of them. You know, my big thing is for women is build your network, just as Ryan said, but build it even stronger. We tend to have to do more with less. And so get in, build that network. You might use it now, you might use it later, but you've got to get involved in these big networks.

Yeah. So Priyanka kind of asked a really interesting question, which is there's a lot of resources for women. Yeah. And there's a lot of resources for people of color. You see any resources that are for women of color?

Yes, absolutely. There's a lot, which I love. Black Female Founders, I'm a huge fan of that group. Digital Undivided is a great woman, people of color group. DivInc. I can list a million. Again, I feel like I'm a salesperson for Alice, but if you go on Hello Alice and search for women of color orgs, they'll pop up and then you can navigate them through geography, industry, or so on.

Cool. Alicia asked a tactical question, which is that she started an online lingerie boutique at the very beginning of the shutdown. What is a good way to advertise during this time?

Good question. I will tell you, I am— I don't know if y'all been tracking Instagram advertising, but sponsored ads on Instagram, particularly for retail So excuse my old dog, I guess he's sneezing as much as I am. So sponsored ads on Insta and Facebook are doing quite well during COVID-19. People are spending more time on their phones. They're also, I like both of those because you can track your ads through data and really understand how they're doing and if they're hyper-targeted. And I would say especially for apparel that people really care how it looks. Those are two really, really good avenues. So the other thing I will just say is people, when you join these networks, like if you're a female of color and you join Black Female Founders, make sure you talk about your company. There's probably 300 new customers right there.

Yeah, that's a really great point. You know, a lot of time founders, especially first-time founders, they're sort of wary about self-promotion and they don't want to be like too pushy or salesy. But I think at a certain point you just have to own it and you have to make sure that everyone in the room understands who you are and what you need so that, you know, that they understand how they can help you.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

So that's where, you know, working on your pitch and having it really refined is great. The other thing I would say for you, Alicia, is that, you know, when you're first starting out, you want to be very, very targeted in your customer demographic, right? Because that's how you're going to get that initial traction. Online lingerie boutique, you would think it's already segmented towards a certain audience, but there's probably a variety of people buying it in different ages and different ethnicities. And so if you can become very hyper-focused on one segment of the market, that will help you position everything, position your marketing, your website, and everything towards that customer. And it will essentially double down on that channel until it runs out, and then you can broaden it a little bit more, and then you can add more more resources and more things on top of it. But maybe look at like your customers and who's buying and try to double down on them. And you can simply just do it through paid advertising as well.

Yeah, that's a good call.

Cool. So, you know, there's some questions here around mental health, which I think is a massive topic.

Absolutely.

So what data are you seeing on mental health, specifically around— and this is very specific— so around non-native speakers or immigrants? Or other minority groups who are founders or board members or top employees. So have you come across any interesting data points around, around that?

So I say shockingly because we, when we collect data, which we do collect a lot of it, we have never seen mental health ever come up in any of our data. It is now 5 weeks in a row within the top 5 barriers to company success right now. And it has been third the last 3 weeks. And so number 1 has been cash flow. Number 2 has been lack of customer access because of shelter in place. And 3 has been mental health. Sorry, my dog's just having it. So I say that because it is a real— always been, but right now it's a legitimate issue for for business, not just personal. And that has broken— we broke— started breaking into it. It was either a founder's mental health because they felt isolated, they're, they're making very difficult decisions, or they're balancing childcare, running the business, whatever else. The second piece of it, which is quite different, was the mental health of their employees. So spending a lot of time talking with employees, managing anxiety, Am I going back to the office? Am I not? And so on. So we, after seeing that 3 weeks in a row, popped up a mental health center— I'm sorry, a mental health navigation within the COVID-19 Business Center. We have zero expertise in this. What we have been doing is aggregating when owners tell us, this resource really helped me. When we hear that over 1,000 times, we lift those resources up. So in the COVID-19 Business Center, you will see a navigation on mental health for yourself and your employees, and that's what that is. Delineating now to different groups, interestingly enough, where it has risen to the top is around our Hispanic Small Business Center. So what we're finding is Hispanic small business owners the fear and anxiety about family is really starting to trickle through with business as well. And so there is a group of— that my co-founder Carolyn, who's Latina, is leading called a Latino Business Roundtable. Within 2 weeks, they're trying to come out with suggestions and reports on how to support this issue. So within that community specifically, it's ranking even higher, and it's, it's an important thing to flag.

Yeah, that's, that's really great. One of our Founder Institute companies is called Femigrants, and it stands for female immigrants, and it's this international community that, that had, has, or used to have local meetups, and they pivoted to a virtual model, and they just had a big announcement yesterday. So definitely recommend any women immigrants who are interested in connecting with other immigrants, that could also be a good community for you.

That's awesome. Great.

Yeah. And so, so, you know, in the closing kind of comments here, because we only have a couple minutes left, you know, something that we're really focused on is helping entrepreneurs think about what solutions fit into the world and what it looks like after COVID-19. And so do you have any advice, or what does beyond COVID really mean to you and Hello Alice?

Well, from a theory standpoint, we're really working towards, again, the new normal, not back to normal. And so how are we ensuring that small business owners and startups are getting the respect and attention that they deserve, no matter if you're a man, a woman, white, black, you're a veteran? But we're really seeing both the media and Congress and enterprise folks understand how powerful small business and entrepreneurship is, and if we don't have it, what a problem it is. So to us, that is an exciting opportunity that we want to pounce on. For our business owners, again, my number one piece of advice is to erase the whiteboard, rebuild your business plan. No matter how good it was in February, please redo it. It's so important. It's been painful to me to pull pull apart things that I was so sure about, excited about, and so on. But you've got to do it. I really encourage you. And don't do it in isolation. Really reach out to other business owners, lean on the Founders Institute to do it. Look at other industry peers to understand how to do that. And finally, I'll just close saying that find that bit of optimism no matter how hard it is right now. And go after it. If you're excited about something, if you're sure in your heart about a business move that you've always wanted to make, everyone's in the toilet right now, so why not give it a shot and go for it? And maybe you'll be the next 2008 crisis Uber, Airbnb, or so on.

We'll certainly put you on the blog if that's the case.

Yes.

Well, so it's been a pleasure for everyone here. You know, we're going to make the recording of this webinar available to you, so you'll have access to some of the resources I definitely recommend checking out Hello Alice for up-to-date resources. They do a really fantastic job of curating them across multiple networks. And if you're a veteran or a woman entrepreneur, you can check out our Veteran Founder Initiative at veteranfounderinitiative.com or femalefounderinitiative.com. And we look forward to helping you launch your company. If you need some expert advice, check out fi.co and we're more than happy to help. Elizabeth, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much. I look forward to sharing a bottle of wine one day when I can make it back up to Sonoma, and I'm sure we'll be in touch.

Yeah, and if anyone has more questions for me, I'm @ElizabethGore on any social media, so I'm more than happy to chat and be helpful in any way, and to learn from all of you. So thanks again, Ryan.

Thank you. Bye everyone.