YouSaid · the spoken record

Kathryn Finney

lines on the record: 29
first: 2022-06-09
most recent: 2022-06-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You're an entrepreneur of color, a woman entrepreneur, anyone who's like kind of outside this sort of thing, it's really important to know that the universe is conspiring for your greatness. And I say that because it can get to be so hard and you could feel like you're just kind of like walking up this hill and you just can't ever get to the top of it. But know that there are people in places and things that want you to win and know that the universe really wants you to win even when it doesn't seem like it. And I'm a living example of that.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Virginia skill is really proving on our thesis. You know, venture capital is a long game. The horizon is seven to ten years. You know, I find when you're a person of color, like people want a return like tomorrow. But that's not how this system works. And one of the things I try to do with Genius Guild is make sure that we hold space for us to get the same amount of opportunities and run way that everyone else gets. We're developing a project around childcare. Everyone, even like super wealthy people are having problems with childcare. And there has been very little innovation around that. But it's a problem that everyone experiences. We're also looking at things around urban mobility. Most people who live in urban communities, particularly in”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It does. I'm very conscious and aware each day of the power that I have in terms of being able to really support and help someone get to the next level. I think for a lot of my white male colleagues, they don't see it that way. The question isn't like how to get rid of the privilege. It's like, how do you use it to give other people the privilege? How do you transfer a little bit of your privilege to those who don't have it? We all have this power. We all are a little bit ahead of someone else. Like I said, I'm a venture capitalist. I manage large sums of money and I know I have the power to help people in really profound ways. And it's a responsibility that I take very seriously. For me, even if I'm not going to invest in you, if we're in a meeting together, I'm going to give you feedback that hopefully will help you get to the next step.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want your money, or you know what? Tell me a little bit more about the strings attached to this money. And I know this to be true because there have been times where I've turned down money from people who are very powerful white men who literally were insulted that I did not want their money or insulted that I asked questions about what is the cost of this money to me? Like what do I need to do in return? What are your expectations around this money? Because I just want to be clear. So if the expectation is you're giving this to me for a marketing reason, just to say that you invest in someone black, great. I'll take it. But I want to make sure two years later you're not coming and questioning why I didn't reach some certain marketing things or certain growth metrics because that wasn't what the deal was. You weren't giving me the money for the growth metrics. You were giving me it for your own marketing.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Imagine if the max money you've ever had in your bank account was $1,000 or even $10,000. And within a month or so, you all of a sudden have a million dollars plus in your bank account. It is a mental shift that happens that I don't think venture or others really quite understand. When you come from a community that has had scarcity where abundance has not been allowed in many cases, you can rationalize it, you can intellectualize it, you know it's yours. But man, if you've never seen six zeros in your bank account that didn't have a decimal in there someplace, you know, it is an out-of-body experience. So I think it's an unfair burden to put on these entrepreneurs to somehow say this to people who have power and access to unimaginable amounts of wealth, to say to them,”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The goalposter moved for us. I had a conversation with a great entrepreneur yesterday who's building a company in the hair care space. And I was like, have you thought about like the scale you have to reach to make $10,000 off of this? And no one had ever said that to her, which mind-boggles”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that they weren't quit businesses and see we tried, we told you they don't know how to manage money, or we told you that they're not great business people when really it was the investors for the most part of driving up these valuations in order to justify investments to prove that they're not racist. And it's just such a weird quagmire for a lot of entrepreneurs. I've had a lot of counseling sessions with various entrepreneurs who are really stuck, and particularly entrepreneurs of color, who are really, really stuck, who weren't, you know, told what growth metrics they need to meet. They got $2 million and no one told them that we want to see 25% month over month growth until two years later, and they're like, well, I didn't know that. I would have invested differently. I didn't know that was what I was being measured by. And I think that's always a challenge for any entrepreneur who's outside of whatever the mainstream system is, whether you're a woman, whether you're immigrant, whether you're a person of color is.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two years later, where now everything is getting much tighter and people are starting to look at what your metrics are and their valuations are way too high. But whose fault is that? Like whose fault is it that their evaluations is too high? So there have been a number of amazing companies that have come in at too high valuation and said, I can't invest.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think what happened in 2020 is that many of their investors looked at the cap tables. That's the tables of where ownership lies. And they looked at their portfolios and they said, oh, we hadn't invested anyone black ever. And it became this mad rush to invest in someone black. And so what happened was that for many venture funds, because of their size, they could only do certain size investments, right? They couldn't do smaller investments. So in order for them to fulfill their needs, they drove up valuations of a lot of startups. The problem is that a lot of the companies were precede, meaning they were pre-revenue. They hadn't actually generated revenue and many hadn't generated customers. So the valuations were kind of like whatever this VC wanted. It couldn't be based on an actual number, an actual metric, because they didn't have customers yet. And so now fast.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I'm kind of like flowing like water. But optimistic. I think the challenge is that we're in a real historical moment. It's like everything's coming together, I think, right now in our country, in the world, in a very interesting way. So it's both political challenges, it's environmental challenges, it's health challenges, it's interpersonal. There is a philosopher named Valerie Kerr, and she has sort of a saying, which is, what if we're not in the darkness of the tomb, but we're in the darkness of the womb? Meaning, what if we're in this darkness right before we birth something new? And so I have to think in that sort of way that we're in the darkness of the womb and that we're going through these really tough challenges to get out and birth something new. I have to believe that because otherwise I think it would be very difficult to get up in the morning sometimes.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think my skepticism is well founded. This is an American problem. This is almost like America's original sin. And until we take a moment and really invest and really do some very hard work, it's not going to be solved. The companies that are tying it to business imperatives, now they're starting to see some real movements like Microsoft's and other folks where as a manager, one of the things you're assessed on is your ability to recruit and retain, which is even more important, diverse talent on your team. But a vast majority are just lip service marketing. I'm afraid that we're going to be five years later and we're going to be right back here and I'm going to be talking to you about my next book and we're going to have that same question. And I'm really concerned about that.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it kind of like threw me off quite a bit. And I would like to stare and like check each day if they were going to take the wire bat. I remember going into Chase Bank in Manhattan on 21st of Madison and taking out money. The teller who was African American and he brings up my account and he was like paused. He was like, sister, you are doing so well for yourselves. You are just doing so well for yourself. entrepreneurship did that And I often think of what did that teller say to his family that night when he saw another African American come in you had this much money in the bank and what type of possibilities that might have opened up for his family”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a bit of a code of entrepreneurship right now, right? I think there's a difference between being an entrepreneur and entrepreneurial thinking. And entrepreneurial thinking, you can bring into anything that you're doing. It's thinking big. It's thinking outside the box. All of those things can be brought into any job. But being an entrepreneur as a sort of occupation or even a vocation is a whole different sort of ball of wax. And being an entrepreneur, you have to be tough. You have to be very comfortable with failure. I talk about this a lot in a book of like, as an entrepreneur, you're going to fail. For some people, the fear of failure is so fatal that they can't take it as a data point. And for them, entrepreneurship may not be the best. And that's okay. That is very, very okay. But for those who can do that, entrepreneurship is an amazing path to let you lead the life that you want to lead. When I sell my company, I'd never seen that much money in my bank before.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know what's been most interesting about this book? The book was written for anyone who's not a white guy. So that's like not just black women, but the number of rich white men who've really liked the book, who've endorsed it, who supported it. So Steve Case, who's amazing, and he was kind of like, you know, these are things I didn't even think about, especially as we have people of color in our portfolio and not understanding the challenges like at a real granular level that they have to go through. He's like, now I'm like a little bit more aware.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And she was with us for four years. And I think about that, it would have been thousands and thousands of dollars of value that she created. That wasn't her writing me a check for $200,000, but her time, her love, you know, cooking dinner for us, washing. I mean, like all of these different things that you can't put a price on, but is valuable as an entrepreneur. It was peace of mind. So those sort of resources I talk about a lot in the book that our families bring and to look at them as resources. I had never read a business book that even talked about those things and even thought about them.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To take care of my child and feel comfortable leaving my child with that person, and all these things were never addressed in any business book because they were all written by like rich white guys or they would make this assumption that you can go and raise 50k from your family. It was all these assumptions in these business books and being a person of color and just thinking about the things that my family has done for me that wasn't a check. It wasn't an exchange of money, but it was definitely worth a lot. My mother When I started Digital Divided in the first couple of years we were okay and then we moved to Atlanta to start this incubator and I was just struggling. I was like a new mom, like didn't find good childcare. My husband at the time was traveling all the time too. It was just like a mess. And I called my mother as many of us often do and was like crying. And I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm stressed. I just, I don't know what to do. And she's like, I'll move to Atlanta and I'll help you through this period.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started writing the book actually several years ago and was thinking of it just working with Digital Divided and working very closely with women of color entrepreneurs, myself being a woman of color entrepreneur and just the advice they were getting was just horrible. It was not applicable to us. If I come in to a meeting demanding what I want, it's not going to be read the same as you. Like I guarantee it's not going to be read the same as you. And so I've never seen a business book that talked about how to utilize your family to help you as your first employees. But every person of color I know their family was somehow involved in their business, whether it was informal or formally. And it was just never acknowledged in any business book I read or the fact that, you know, I'm a mom and I have to navigate things very differently. I can't just get on the plane and leave tomorrow. I have to figure out who.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To wealth building within a community. And as an investor, not only do I get the return in terms of the monetary return, but I also get the return of helping community build essentially and create additional role models who other folks can see and look towards as they build their companies.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The return goes back to the community because we trust that the community knows what's best to do with the money. We trust black communities. And if you look at traditional modes of philanthropy, impact investing, and even traditional investing, within that, it's like this lack of trust of communities. And it's not just within the black community, but if you look investing in Latinx communities, within women, it's just inherent distrust that somehow we don't know how to handle money or that we don't know what to do with money. And that's so incredibly false because we've been so resource poor for so long that we are probably some of the best money managers because we have to keep it. We don't have a safety net. And so for us, the money goes back to the entrepreneurs, but our entrepreneurs happen to live in the communities that they serve. They happen to hire other people of color and give chances for other people of color to get into the system, to build equity within companies, to be early employees, all of these things that are really important.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Involved too, and then Genius Guild was created. All our equity investments are in Black women. We have an unaudited mocha of 2.7, which is amazing. Even our LP investments were limited partners and other funds led by black investors, even there doing well, like everyone's doing well. And we're kind of proving this thesis, which is black entrepreneurs generate returns for their communities, for their investors, and also themselves.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is 2016. The average raised by black women-led startups was $36,000 at that point. The average raised by mostly white, mostly male failed startups was 1.4 million. So we weren't even raising enough to fail properly. And that's when I kind of knew that eventually I was going to be able to do genius skill, that once they were kind of embarrassed, then people started to open up and see capital in different ways, particularly for people of color. And it was when George Floyd was murdered that all these things came together, digital divided, the Duny Fund, the show what capital can do for our communities when you give them access. And so I have this idea, I want to try to do something a little bit different and venture and then also convince some other people, Barbara Clark, one of the most prolific investors in black women. Most people don't know her, but should know her. She came in as like our lead LP. And we start to get other folks.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Digital Divided was originally going to be genius guild, but it was too early. The market wasn't there. At that time, it was in 2012. And so we then pivoted to a nonprofit. People didn't see black women as entrepreneurs. They saw us as employees, but not necessarily as entrepreneurs. And it wasn't until we did a report called Project Diane, and we did it in 2016, where we documented the landscape for black women and later Latinx women in venture capital. And the report was shocking to the point where originally we were going to do it internally and just keep it internally that we had to make it public. And it embarrassed the venture capital industry in many, many ways. Because it was less than 11 black women had received over a million dollars in funding. This was out of like hundreds and hundreds of venture funds. This is 2016. This isn't 1999 and 1970.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Absolutely not. That's like the story of my life. I grew up with parents who I saw take a big risk and win. And I think that's a big deal for any child to see your parents take a risk and win, but particularly a young African-American.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And systems can be really helpful in doing that. But how do we deal with this other hand that's in there that doesn't allow the markets to act in the way that markets are supposed to act?”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If we're left alone in a market based system, it can positively help with racism. What we've seen in history is how outside forces that have nothing to do with capitalism and nothing to do with markets come in to disrupt what would be the natural flow. My grandparents had a restaurant and they had a grocery store on Greenwood. What would have happened if their fellow business people were allowed to progress without this hand of racism coming in? Who knows what type of wealth would have been created if they had just been left alone? The challenge right now is that we still have this really heavy hand of racism that has nothing to do with our economic system. But at the same time has everything to do with our economic system. And for many people, we want to live a creative life in which we control. And entrepreneurship is a tool in which we get to do that. And my community hasn't always had that opportunity. So I do think market-based economies”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Into her friends. Do what you have to do, and we got you. If you need a lawyer, we got you. We can bail you out. We now as a community have resources to fight. Whereas if I think of my parents generation and generations before that, they couldn't.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I am from Minneapolis, and I actually went to elementary school about six blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered. And so I had received a text from my niece, who is a young activist on the ground in Minneapolis that a black man had been murdered in a way that was suspicious. And throughout the day, like the news start to come out of what happened. And of course, the video was released. I never watched the video. I have no desire to watch it. I say to people, I've witnessed enough. I don't need to witness anymore to know what happened. These are my people, not just because they're African-American, because literally these are the people I grew up with in Minnesota. So it was a gun punch. It was, what can I do? What type of resources can I galvanize? And I think we're probably the first generation of African Americans who could say this is I could say to my niece.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're an entrepreneur of color, it's really important to know that the universe is conspiring for your greatness. Know that the universe really wants you to win even when it doesn't seem like it, and I'm in a living example of that.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I sell my company, I'd never seen that much money in my bank before. So it kind of like threw me off quite a bit. And I would like just stare and check each day if they were going to take the wire back. People didn't see black women as entrepreneurs, they saw us as employees, but not necessarily as entrepreneurs. Challenge right now is that we still have this really heavy hand of racism that has nothing to do with our economic system. But at the same time, has everything to do with our economic system. Was only about seven venture funds that had actually even invested in a black woman. This was out of like hundreds and hundreds of venture funds. This is 2016. This isn't 1999 and 1979. This is 2016.”
2022-06-09 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Don’t wait for the system, build it!, w/Genius Guild’s Kathryn Finney · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT