Overcoming Funding Hurdles For Entrepreneurs

0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human Earners, what's up? Look, building wealth isn't just about making money. It's about knowing where your money is working for you. That's why we partnered with Empower. Empower is all about helping you invest well so you can go out and live a little. Their free Empower personal dashboard gives you a complete view of your financial life in one place. Track your net worth, monitor your budget, analyze your investments, set retirement goals, and more. You've worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com.

0:37Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. Earners, what's up? Look, when you think about discovering small brands, what store pops in your mind? Well, it should be Walmart. Seriously, Walmart has thousands of small brands and they're all in one place. Just go online or in-store, discover and shop. It could not be easier. Every one of these brands has a real story and real people behind it. They're true American success stories, and you can find them all at Walmart. Discover thousands of small brands at walmart.com today. When traveling for events or festivals throughout the country, every dollar matters.

1:14We compare flights, prices, hotel rates, and restaurant options. So why wouldn't we compare rides? Personally, I always check Lyft before booking a ride. Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check lift could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience. Save money. Check lift. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora.

1:46And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business. Call 844-844-IHEART. I mean, we know statistics. We hear about it, the percentages that minority founders, you know, are able to have access to. What was that like for you, obviously, being a minority, being a woman, a founder? Talk about that. I really liked being an outsider in the sense. It was similar to when I started to start the business from NASA. at first people were telling me, hey, you've got to go with a pitch deck, go to the valley, go to VCs, but the VCs weren't trying to rock with me.

2:23They didn't think that there was a market for what I was looking to do. Business has been around for 10 years. You're wrong, right? So one of the things that I like to say is stop taking advice from people who haven't done what you're trying to do. With lingo, I'm like, I don't think I want to raise venture capital. I know what the stats are they're terrible how do I look at the model and how do I flip the model on its head because that's what I do and when I looked at it I said VCs get their money from family offices why don't I try to hit up a couple family offices now I know why people don't typically hit up family offices but I was determined once again to try and I had the time and oh by the way I had the patience because I'm already running a business that's successful that I've had for 10 years so let's try to figure this out.

3:12So I made a list of family offices who were in businesses that I thought that could be strategic investors. And the gamble that I made was, well, if I can get a multi-billion dollar family who has the right investment mindset and is willing to support me and understands the long term of what I'm looking to do, can I also bring in traditional capital? And the answer was yes. So I did a founder led seed round where I brought in a million and a half from a family office and then I went to the other VCs and said, do you want to play? It worked out well because if I've already brought in a million and a half and you're going to chip in a hundred thousand dollars, that million and a half is going to help your hundred thousand dollars.

3:55So I basically de-risked the round for you. And that's one of the areas that I've been big on telling other minorities to pursue was what I call friendly patient capital. I call my investors like they're my dad. I'm like, hey, what are you guys doing? Here's what I'm working on. And part of the things that were not, you know, non-negotiable for this family was that you were going to do good and you were going to do well, right? It's not just the dollar. It's about the legacy. And so when I tell them that kids in Ghana are doing our kits, have the video love it they're like that's what you're supposed to do right go out and make that impact whereas some people who have you know domestic vcs are not necessarily as lucky to have people who think in that way so okay so you raise the money that helps you with infrastructure employees i'm assuming so are you raising more money what's the goal yes you can definitely hit me up if you want to send a check.

4:53I accept check. How much are you trying to raise? I would like to raise about a million more and plot a path to our series A and I'll tell you why. Some of our clients are big firms. Talking Siemens, General Dynamics. General Dynamics has been at customers' hours for the last three years. Microsoft buys from us, right? We have big companies who have engineers who buy from us. What do they buy? The software? They buy the kits. So they can teach their employees? They have their employees go into the schools or they provide it as capacity building for the schools that they sponsor. And as I started to do this, we started talking to school districts.

5:38Shout out to Syracuse School District. And I'm realizing that this mission and this need is even bigger than I knew. Like when I thought about it, I was like, oh, we're just going to ship out some kits. but it's really become about how can we help make a district better and that is a problem of a much larger magnitude and it takes more time and we're also now building custom kits like we're about to drop three whole space lessons we got a climate satellite we got a buggy coming out that buggy's a moon rover and we also have a rocket launch and in building out all this content I'm like you know what Bo we need to take a little bit more capital take our time and really do something that is going to move the needle.

6:21How many lessons are inside these kids because I'm thinking and this was in elementary middle school and obviously high school probably different but it felt like they were just for semesters and so there was a semester worth of lessons and there was a new set of kids so four semesters four groups of kids in the grade every every year. How many lessons are inside of your kids right now? So it depends on what you want. And this is the beauty of it because we designed this to be flexible. You can have two to three semesters worth in your kid if you want. It's all about what you ask us for. So we developed content for every lesson for the classroom.

7:01And you could teach that over a semester. You could teach it over two. So school districts aren't really buying it for you for the most part. is corporations that's buying it it's mostly been corporations if you're out in the district hit me up i mean i think i think the challenge right is there's a lot going on in the district environment and we've got some good connections and we're making progress but this is where i'm not ashamed to say i need help the people who purchase from us they love us but i started to realize what we're really up against when it comes to like ads and marketing and all that stuff and that's really why I was like, I got to go back to the drawing board and raise more money because I did not know how expensive it was to really advertise and reach some of these people.

7:47Is it a price point issue? Because I feel like schools waste so much money on some of the most ridiculous things and they do it repetitively every single year. And so when you're approaching schools or school districts, are they saying, well, it's the price point or we don't have it in the budget this year? What is the resistance you feel? Because every school has STEM. So I'm just trying to figure out what would be the resistance. So we actually do not see resistance once we get in front of the right person. What I see is the amount of money that I have to invest to have somebody reach out, form the relationship, do the presentation, put the proposal in front of whoever has to make the decision, close the deal, and then get paid can be roughly six to eight months.

8:33And that's really where we have to support the operation until they can close the deal. And so the challenge in my mind is how can we do more of these deals and shorten the time? So what's the ultimate vision for the company? My vision for Lingo would be to not only be a global provider of immersive STEM experiences, like I would like to get to the point where some of our boxes interact with Oculus, but to combine that with the entrepreneurship thing, because when I teach the Lingo Box in the Bahamas, and I've had this camp for nearly 10 years. I couple it with entrepreneurship and then I give kids money to go out and try to run their business because I believe that you don't have to have a college degree to be a multimillionaire.

9:20You just need to have entrepreneurship skills and it's like a muscle. The more that you exercise it, the stronger that you're gonna get. So I want students trying to build their first startup when they're 12 or they're 13 because by the time they're 20, they're going to be beasts. Ernest, what's up? Look, when you think about discovering small brands, what store pops in your mind? Well, it should be Walmart. Seriously, Walmart has thousands of small brands, and they're all in one place. Just go online or in-store, discover, and shop. It could not be easier. Every one of these brands has a real story and real people behind it.

9:55They're true American success stories, and you can find them all at Walmart. Discover thousands of small brands at Walmart.com today.

10:29It's worked hard for your money. Now make sure it's working hard for you. Download the Empower personal dashboard or visit Empower.com. Not an Empower client paid or sponsored. When traveling for events or festivals throughout the country, every dollar matters. We compare flights, prices, hotel rates, and restaurant options. So why wouldn't we compare rides? Personally, I always check lift before booking a ride. Prices can change throughout the day depending on traffic, weather, and what's happening in the city. If you're headed to a concert, out to dinner, or catching up with your friends on a Friday night, taking a few seconds to check lift could leave you with more money to enjoy the experience.

11:08Save money. Check lift. You never know where your next unforgettable experience will pop up. That's why bringing along an American Express card opens the door to rewards wherever you go. Morning coffee run with an old friend? Earn cash back. Weekend getaway? Earn miles. Dinner at the hottest restaurant in town? You get the idea. No matter the place or the plan, Amex rewards your inner explorer. Learn about card options at americanexpress.com. Terms apply. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.