Megan Holston-Alexander Addresses AI Job Concerns, The Culture Leadership Fund + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's up? Its way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela Yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
On a Wealth Wednesday, so you know what that means.
My partner for Wealth Wednesdays, Stacy Tisday is here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays, everybody. I hope you all enjoyed the
eclipse and we are about to shed some sunshine on
your life's, especially the entrepreneurs out there, by introducing you
to an incredible woman, Megan Holston Alexander. She is a
star in the venture capital arena and you're all going
to learn more about that right now, because I know
(00:31):
a lot of entrepreneurs are out there and they're all
scratching their heads about raising capital and we really need
to learn about this, and we really need to learn
how our community can jump into the AI economy. No pressure, no.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Pressure at all. That's easy.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Word.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I've been listening to Beyonce all week. I'm very turned up.
I'm ready, you ready, I'm ready all right.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But Meghan host and Alexander is here with us. It's
a pleasure to have you here. I know we've been
wanting to get to sit down with you because a
lot of times people come here and talk about having
access to venture capital funds. Some people will talk about,
you know, the access that we have as black women
is way less than everybody else across the board, So
it's nice to have somebody from the other side of
(01:12):
things come in and sit down and talk to us.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Absolutely, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you both
for having me. You've built such a special platform, and
I'm just happy to be around, So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thanks, thanks, it's our pleasure. First of all, start by
educating our audience. What is venture capital?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Great startup question. So, venture capital is early stage investment
capital that is for high growth startups, typically in the
tech space. It doesn't have to be in the tech space,
but more often than not it's in the tech space.
And the way that I usually try to explain it
and compare it to something that people do know about
is like the stock market, right, so everybody knows about
(01:48):
stock market and the stock exchange and Nasdaq where you
can go and buy equity in a company. Venture capital
happens before that. So before a company is available to
purchase on the stock market, there's usually investors who've been
investing for five to ten years into that company already.
But by the time it gets to IPO which everybody
hears about, which is when you can buy it. That
(02:10):
company has been de risked for a number of years
where the government is now comfortable with the general public
being able to purchase it. So, prior to a company
going public, venture investors come in, they take on that risk,
They help build the company, help them hire, or help
them grow, and a lot of times the hope is
that it gets to the market to where the average
person can purchase it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
What are some things that you would look for in
a company to say, Okay, we believe in this company
enough to feel like we can invest yep.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
So there's any number of things. CLF tends to focus
on the investor side. So where do we get the.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Black Cultural Leadership Fund CLF.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yep, Oh Cultural Leadership Fund. Yes, we tend to focus
on the investor side and on the talent side. But
our firm has a number of different investment verticals from
bio and crypto and games, and each one kind of
has their own criteria of what they're looking for, So
I won't speak to what each of them focuses on,
but always want to have a really great founder, a
really great team, and a really quality product. Or vision,
(03:09):
but the details. Each one of the teams has something different.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
People in communities of color don't think of venture capital
as something that's within their reach, accessible, accessible to them,
or realistic. Most of us bootstrap our businesses. Should we
think about that differently because what the venture capital world
reflects back to us isn't good. It barely gives us
any money.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So I think there are a number of different ways
to fund a business. Venture capital is just one of those.
There's a venture you can do, small business loans you
can bootstrap. Bootstrapping is always good because you keep the
ownership for yourself as you build it. And I'm really
really optimistic, Like, you're right, the data shows that venture
capital has historically been you know, black founders haven't received
(03:54):
a whole bunch of venture capital. But I'm really optimistic
about the future. There's like a number of new funds
coming out, different gps coming out who are making that commitment,
so I'm hopeful that there will be more. But you're right,
the data shows that absolutely has not been the case.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know, we're talking about the new funds that are
coming out and the culture of leadership fund you guys
do focus on a specific group, right, So.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
We focus on black investors, getting black capital into tech companies. Okay,
getting black talent into tech companies. And our goal is
to invest black money into all of the best companies.
So we don't focus on a type of founder, but
we focus on a type of investors.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And okay, the investors because I'm asking this because you know,
when we talk about the Fairless Fund and we watch
what's happening, shout out to a shout out to Arian
and she was up here previously too, But what does
that mean for you?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Like, what are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Because that is something that is going to affect I
would think, you know, funds that can focus on black
owned businesses and black investors period.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yep. So I think the work the Arian and a
lot of other kind of gps who are focused on
founders of color, particularly black women founders, who are the
most educated and most founding group that's out there. I
think it's going to be highly impactful because to have
somebody like an Arian or like many others who can
(05:12):
say like, I'm from this community, I can see what
success looks like. I know how to evaluate a company
that is going to be critical because a lot of times.
The argument is that like sometimes other firms just may
not understand. And so I think having that black voice
as an investor is going to be important. So you
have to have somebody who can see the vision.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Talk a little bit more about CLF, and you said,
it's black investors, but it's a really big deal. You
have seventy one million under management and it is all
blacks who are investing in it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yes, yes, So the Cultural Leadership Fund is a strategic
co investment vehicle inside of Andresent Horowitz Andres and Horowitz
is a venture capital firm that's got about thirty five
billion under management. And then CLF is a co investment vehicle.
So we invest alongside those other funds I just mentioned,
you know, I said, and Crypto and games. So they'll
write a check and then we'll come in and put
(06:04):
additional capital. But the reason why we think it's so
interesting and exciting is that we put in that additional
capital with two missions in mind. So connecting the world's
greatest cultural leaders to the best new technology companies and
getting more young African Americans in tech. And for US,
cultural leader means black athletes, entertainers, musicians, C level executives
(06:25):
who are excited about tech, they're interested in innovation, they
want to play a role in the things that are
being built across this industry, and we get to be
there on ramp into doing that. So anytime you hear
about like this athlete invested in that tech company, or
this entertainer invested in another.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Too, like nas invested in ring and here.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Now it's not always the case, but there's a pretty
good chance that we played a part in making that happen.
And so for the people in the culture who have
the capital to invest in technology, we want to be
sure that they get their names on that cap table.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
What would you say to some entertainment entertainers and athletes
who do have the money to invest, but they're nervous
because obviously any investment is not guaranteed, and so what.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Type of thing one more time, Angela, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Every investment is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So just because it looks great on paper and everybody's
investing doesn't mean it's gonna work out. And it is
always a risk. But you can lessen that risk, you know,
as much as you possibly can. But what would you
say to people who do have money that want to
invest but they're nervous because maybe something they did in
the past didn't go the way that they anticipated, or
somebody they know got burned.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
What would you tell them.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yep, So I would say there are experts in never field,
and like you said, there's no guarantee to any investment.
Find yourself a good partner, find somebody who does know
about the industry, somebody who has been investing in the space,
and kind of work through them to learn. And we
do that a ton at COF. So we get connected
with a lot of folks who have the capitol and
(07:52):
they're like, I don't want my career to end in
five years and now no one knows where my money
went right, and I'm broke, and I can't you do
the things that I want to do. And so we
try to teach people about you know, when you hear
jay Z say I'm at the cap table, what the
splits is? What is a cap table? We're trying to
teach people those things and a lot and we tell
them very, you know, in a very forward way, like
(08:15):
venture is the riskiest asset class. It's early a company,
you don't know if they're gonna make it right. And
one of the other facts about venture that people don't
know is that we actually expect most of our investments
to fail. That's what the economics is. A venture. It's
about your slugging percentage, it's not your batting average, right,
So we really depend on a couple of really big
(08:36):
hits in any portfolio, and people have to get that mindset.
So a dventure is a very long game.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And that's like a record label. You know, record label
sign tons of artists and there's only a few that
are gonna make the money and the rest are not
going to do much, absolutely right, And.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
It's such a long game venture, like it's not day
trading like stocks. Right by the today it goes up.
I can feel it tomorrow. I always tell my LPs,
don't come to me in two years looking for money.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
There'll be people like if I would have invested fifteen
years ago in this, But you can't tell. You can't
do that what something's gonna end up being. And then yeah,
so could.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You guys touch on something that's so important to our
economy AI and tech? I mean, that's what you're really
focused on. And I heard you speak at the Power
Summit at Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Oh yeah, we had a good time.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And you had Reverend now Sharpton was there, you had
Mark Morial there, Robert Smith was there, and you could
not be struck harder by how much all of them
were talking about how important it is for the black
community to get on the AI sure technology bandwagon. When
we hear you talk about these celebrities and artists and
entertainers to the average person listening out there, that's like, well,
(09:48):
that's not me, but tech has to be them. Talk
more about that.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know, we the thing about AI
is that it's not new. People think AI is new,
but it's not. People been investing in AI for years
at this point. But a lot of new consumer opportunities
like usage for the average person, that's what's becoming available
these days. And I think one of the ways that
(10:13):
people can really dive in is figuring out ways to
let AI work for you in whatever job you do,
whether it's a radio host or you work in marketing,
real estate or real estate, think about how can I
use AI as like one my creative copilot and to
supercharge the work that you do. You don't have to
be a coder or an engineer to like utilize AI
(10:35):
and a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It can level the playing field.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
It can level the playing field. And I think, gosh,
somebody said a quote two days ago about like AI is.
You know. The debate is like, hey, is AI gonna
take jobs? Is gonna change? I don't know. I can't
speak one way or the other, but they said, the
person who uses AI will take your job, right, And.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We see how letting people go but hiring all these
people for AI.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
The people, I think, the people who learn how to
utilize it and make it a tool and make it
a superpower, that's what's gonna help me people be successful.
And we can all do that. We all figure out
how to use it to our benefit.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I sell you posting about a app and I was like, oh,
let me get this that can help you find the
lowest prices for flights. Oh that AI can help you
with something like that. And AI can help you with
like putting together a workout plan, a diet.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
That can waver your calendar everything. And one of the
coolest things about AI is like there are now websites
that will tell you how to make a good prompt
in chat GPT, So when you're trying to use chat
GBT to figure out something or make a list. It'll
tell you exactly like Okay, first put the ask and
then put this type of phrase and then do this
(11:43):
and it will get you the responses that you need.
So we're working on it and people are tinkering and
it can be really impactful. So don't be scared, right people.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
For consumers, also for the economy jobs, yep. A lot
of people think, oh, I'm in the beauty in the
street or in the accounting industry or something. But that
technology company that wants to create an AI product or
something to serve they still need your help. Like what
you do can be moved into the AI industry. You
(12:14):
just have to learn the tech.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Absolutely, you just have to learn the tech. And the
other thing is that I want to let my community
know is that AI is built on data. Right training
models to data. We have to be sure that our
data about black people and the black community is in
the data that we train on. There's a lot of
organizations that are focused on like how do we get
archives from like HBCUs digitized and get them into the
(12:39):
models that are going to be trained on. Because I
know it can be scary, right, it's like a new technology.
People are like whoa. But it's important for us to
be in the front, right right and be sure that
we're included. Otherwise the solutions aren't going to include us.
So we have to be okay with like being sure
that our data is in these models.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Megan, you went to Clerk, right, I did. We gotta
make sure we shout Atlanta. So how do you think
that affected where you are today going to an HBCU,
going to Clark. Talk to us about that because now
you're in a space that you know, traditionally in this
venture capital space, it's not a lot of people that
look like us yep in that space.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Ye, Clark Atlanta was everything. Like Clark Atlanta was everything
the motto literally, no matter where I work, in all
my years where I went to school after Clark, I
always had our model like on a post it or
behind me in a picture frame, I'll find a way
or make one right because we don't accept like it's
(13:36):
just too hard out here for our community, Like you
just got to keep going, like somebody closed the door.
I'll find a way or make one. I'll find a
way or make one. We'll see each other and another
amazing Clark Atlanta. Pinky Coal embodies that's my girl, and
we always like just use it in regular conversation. I'll
find a way or make one, and you just you
(13:57):
just keep pushing. And I think that's something you don't
get everywhere. It's very much like an HPCU and a
cultural mindset. I'll find away and make one.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But you weren't thinking venture capital when you were there,
not at all. You had a fancy, not even close.
And that then went from Clark to Stanford because she's
really smart and you had a pretty cool u VC
teacher I had.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I did the funny middle part of the story, though,
is I went to Clark Atlanta was on a very
very different path. I wanted to teach and do research
full time, and I was gonna go get a PhD.
And I dropped out. So I'm gonna drop out. I
think a lot of people tend to think that the
path is easy, and it's so clear I'm a dropout.
It's okay to it's okay to quit a thing because
(14:41):
it put me in a position to eventually move to
California and go to Stanford. And it's so funny because
I actually told the Dean of Stanford this at one time,
I'm like, I don't claim Stanford unless I have to. Right,
I'm Clark Atlanta, through and through. That's always going to be,
you know, my first love. But Stanford gave me. It
really opened up the world to see, like, when you
(15:02):
do have that grit and you have that commitment and
that kind of workhorse attitude and the world opens up
to you, there's so much you can do. But one
of the funny stories, when I was at GSB, I
still wasn't focused on finance, but I ended up in
a venture capitol class and my professor was Eric Schmidt,
who was the former CEO of Google. People call him
(15:25):
they said he was the first adult in the room
at Google. And it was great because I had never
done anything adventure before, it had never taken a class.
I took it because it was at a good time
and I didn't want to be in traffic on the
one on one, you know about the one O one,
And so I took the class and kind of towards
the end, we go for a walk, yes, you know
around he would go for walks with students, and he
told me two things. One I committed to not repeating again.
(15:48):
But the other he gave me like some good secret
life advice. But the other one he said, Megan, you're
one of my best students, and I know ventures not
your thing, but I think you should try it for real.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
And I was like, sir, I don't know black people
do venture, right, just very like dismissive of it because
I didn't think I could do it. And He's like,
I'm serious, I think you should try. And kind of
from there, I just I was like, you know what
if Eric Schmid said you could try And he may
not even remember the story, he may not even remember me,
but I say it changed my mindset of like if
(16:23):
he thinks I can do it, why don't know? I
think I can do it right right? And so I
started doing a ton of internships. You're supposed to do
one internship in business school between your first and second year.
I ended up doing four internships while I was there.
I wasn't playing because I was making a career change.
So like running up and down, saying into a road,
like taking meetings with people, and it turned into my
full time I love.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
That's my internships. That's so important.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I always talk about that when you're in college and
trying to figure out what you want to do in
after you know, if you can.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Too, as we're talking about the Cultural Leadership Fund, how
important is it for people who are getting VC funding
the people who are investing Sometimes you know VC funds,
they just give money and they're quiet about it and
not at all involved. But for you guys, you want
to make sure that the people who are providing the
(17:12):
funding are also involved.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yep. Absolutely. Like we talked about VC a lot being
like a marriage, right, it's a long term relationship, it's
a financial relationship. They can go really well or really
not well. And so we encourage the LPs limited partners,
the folks that the cultural leaders that we take money from.
We tend to ask them upfront, like do you want
(17:35):
to talk on the phone to founders? Do you want
to spend time with them and join advisory boards and
support them and help them with all the things that
are your area of expertise? And I tend to find
that people who are willing to put their money in
at the early stage, they want to stay close to it, right,
They want to know the founder, They want to be
able to call them up on the phone and have
the founder feel like they can call them as well.
(17:56):
And so we try to really teach people how to
lean in to those moments because that's where the magic happens, right.
And our firm is really big generally on like operational support.
So we have like a full on marketing team to
help our portfolio companies. And we've got to go to
market team and we've got, you know, a talent team
that helps you know them think about hiring. We take
that very seriously and same for CLF. We want our
(18:18):
founders to know that they can depend on us, and
a lot of our investors feel the same way.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
What are the types of groups CLFS invested in?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
So CLF we again follow on to the Injuries in
Horowitz portfolio. We're a co investment vehicle. So most of
the companies that you see on the Injuries and Horowitz
website are also cultural Leadership Fund investment.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
When you're telling me they're like twenty five non profits or.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yes, ooh, I like where you're taking me stay So actually,
so CLF, one of the things that we do is
we donate all of our management fee and carry, so
that means every single dollar that we make of profit
inside of CLF, not our LP's profits, but our on
the firm. We donate to organizations that are specifically focused
(19:02):
on getting more young African Americans in tech, and there's
no other firm doing that, and we're really really proud,
and we've been doing it since twenty eighteen, so pre pandemic,
and have done about two and a half million dollars
so far. But we support organizations like the Hidden Genius
Project and Black in Gaming and Black Collegiates and Gaming
and Pursuit and Perscoless and so many that are actually
(19:22):
based here in New York as well. But a lot
of times when it comes to nonprofits, people feel like
they need to start something new, Right, I got to
start my own nonprofit. I got to do my own
thing when.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You can support what's already.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
But there are people who have been doing the work
to get black people in tech four years.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think that's great.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We wanted to supercharge them and it's been such a joy.
Like we've seen people get placements into two early tech companies,
we've seen people learn how to code, we've seen people
figure out other ways to contribute to tech. And then
we also fund so we fund organizations, but we also
fund like initiatives, right because it's wonderful to teach people
how to code. But we are of the belief that
(20:01):
there's a number of ways to get people involved in tech.
So we funded an initiative, a new thing called the
Black Digital Art Collective and it BATAC and basically it's
a collective of people who buy black digital art with
the goal of like trying to help blow up black
digital artists because we saw in the big crypto art
(20:23):
world there weren't a lot of black artists being highlighted.
So we said, how do we put capital into what
they're building and then support them and blow them up.
So BTC has been really successful so far, and there'll
be a number of other things coming out like that,
like how do we get our community at the front
part of technology.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
That's one other thing I wanted to touch on. There's
money to be made in tech by getting into companies early. Yes,
for anybody out there is like my career path. You know,
maybe you're not an entrepreneur, there's I mean, there's really
a lot of money to be made by getting started
up early.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yep. So you always hear when a company goes public.
Oh my god, the employees became millionaires overnight. Wasn't overnight,
it seemed like overnight, But a lot of them have
been working there, like I said, for a very long time,
five six, seven, eight, nine years before they went public.
So this concept of like early employeehood. When you go
and started a tech company, oftentimes they give you employee
(21:23):
equity meaning some options, stock options, some you know, equity
into the company and that company is valued at a
specific place when you come in. But the expectation is
that as that company grows, the value of the company
will grow, and so will your early employee equity. So
(21:44):
if you're there long enough and early enough, you have
the opportunity to when that company goes public or they
get sold, because that happened sometimes too. They may not
go public, but there there'll be m and a activity,
you have the chance for your equity to be really,
really valuable. So tell you years later, they go public
and now you have a windfall and you can now
go and best what you couldn't do before, or you
(22:05):
can now go start a company which you couldn't do before.
So there's a ton of opportunity as an early employee
to build wealth And what a lot of people don't
know is that tech has been the greatest generator of
wealth yea over the last twenty years, and so as
an individual, it is one of the I think clearest
paths to building wealth is going to a tech company early.
(22:26):
The flip side of it, again, it's very risky in
early stage, but there's so much opportunity there if you're
interested in the space.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
How do we get our tech skills up?
Speaker 4 (22:36):
How do you get your tech skills up? Here's the
interesting thing. Tech companies need everybody. They need hr people,
they need marketing people, they need finance and graphic designers.
So whatever skill you already have, there's a likelihood that
a tech company needs it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Even if you think about as we discuss AI right,
and we were discussing this last week, this open letter
warning against the predatory use of in the music industry,
you know YouTube. Now they put like a little disclaimer
if this is something that was AI generated, and even
for to keep track of things like that, to make
sure that you know you're taking care of people who
(23:15):
want to make sure they're protecting their art and their
voice and their likeness and things like that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
That's important too.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Moving forward as people are trying to figure out, Okay,
I just want to make sure they can't just take
you know, my image or my likeness and do something
with it.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yep. And one of the things that I think you're
absolutely right about that, and I think one of the
things that I want to point out is this happens
with every industry. There's always going to be bad actors,
right in finance or when the internet first came out
and they would like steal your identity.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That's still happening, right.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
There are bad actors in every industry. And what we
have to figure out is like how do we counteract
that and overpowered with people who are trying to use
the technology in the right way Because a lot of
you know, AI companies, and we've invested in several, they
want to do it the right way. They don't they
don't want people stealing somebody's voice and their image, et cetera.
(24:07):
And so they're tinkering to try to figure that out.
But I think if people's hope that is that like
there will be no version of people doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
That's not human nature, right, That's not human nature.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So there will always be bad actors. We just need
to figure out, like how do we do it bigger
and better for the people who are trying to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I tell you, guys had an event and the Dream
performed at it. I saw you posted him because he
was like, I haven't been performing and like, over, yeah,
not go outside.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
He said it. He said, y'all, he said, I don't
come outside. So this is a big deal. We were
very proud. We were very proud.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
So we every year we try to bring our investors
together because, especially after the pandemic, people just hadn't been
around each other, and we want to give them opportunity
one to meet each other because there's a lot of
chances for our executives to meet our entertainers, athletes, to
meet our general partners who do the investing. But also
(25:04):
we want to give them a chance to learn about
the technologies that we're investing in. So we can have
our games team come in and say like, here's how
we're thinking about the future of games. Here, that's how
we're thinking about the future of AI. And so we
try to do that once a year. It is only
for our investors, so I'm said, I can't invite everybody,
but it wouldn't be COLF if we didn't throw a
little sauce on it. We had to throw a little sauce.
(25:26):
So having the dream come was a great addition. He
showed out. He did a great job. But I encourage
people to even if you don't, you know, whatever funds
you invest in, or if you find a way to invest,
always find the moments where you can meet the founders
and meet the other investors that just happens to be.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Ours, you know, Megan, I want to ask you this,
what happens when investor and a founder they a founder
and a funder. They're not connecting and clicking, and they
want to like, you know, is there always an exit plan?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
How does that work? And how frequent does that happen?
How frequently?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I mean, like I said, it can be like a marriage,
and people don't always.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Because marriage don't always last.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
They don't always last more than half of the data.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
The data shows it's like more than fifty percent do not.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, it's it's insane, but I think of it very similar.
Friends break up, you get a job that you hate.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Because money definitely can put a damper on any.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Type of any relationship.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, especially when your goals aren't necessarily aligned or you know.
I think even as a founder, when you have people
that you have to I know Pinky will talk about
this like used to having your own thing, but now
you have other people that you have to be accountable
for an answitude, and that could be beneficial or it cannot.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yep, one thousand percent stressful. I think a lot of
it comes with like communication and maturity. The hope is
that if something is not working out, that people can
talk it out and figure it out right. And if
you can't, you can find an exit plan, whether it's
selling your shares in the company you know somebody else,
or just saying okay, from this point on, this is
how we're gonna divide it out.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But it happens because I can imagine that as for
myself being like a founder also, it is very emotional
connecting you to your business and sometimes it's hard to discuss,
you know, what you see as something that's your a
baby with somebody that may not have been there.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
From may not have been there from the beginning, but
what one You always have to remember, nobody's gonna love
your baby like you, and then nobody's gonna love your baby,
like you my baby, not ugly, just a little bit
completely ugly, are cute. But also you want people who
(27:42):
are going to challenge you. You want people who are
going to challenge your thinking because you don't want yes
men around you, whether they're your friends or your investors,
So you want them to be able to call you out.
But then also you want them to be there through
the hard times if you have because companies go through
hard times. Sometimes there's a dipping revenue, sometimes you don't
make your numbers. But you want people to say, like,
(28:02):
I'm missed because I believed in you. Let's figure this out,
and usually I'm assuming when it falls apart. It might
be a failure in one of those three things, but
the hope is that people can resolve it amicably. And
sometimes it's just saying, hey, this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Is where we part ways, okay, m all right?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Wow? So how can people follow you in CLF? Oh?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yes, so CLF is at a sixteen z CLF on
my personal page. I don't talk a lot about CLF,
but it's at Megan h Alexander on Instagram. But a
sixteen and z CLF on x and Instagram? Is that right?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Beauty and we'll share that with everybody, and we really
appreciate you lighting the fire under people that we were
all in the tech AI economy and I'm just going
to figure out how to be in it and how
we can all capitalize it because we can.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Because we can capitalize, and we deserve to be a
part of the economics that are being created, and I
want to help ensure and clf overall. It's like, how
do we ensure that we have some economics, some ownership,
because that's where the game changes. It's ownership. How do
we get involved in that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I thank you so much for coming here too. I
think that you're so empowering and for people to see
you speaking about things like this is going to be
a lot more of a connection than if somebody.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Else trying to be empowering like you was. So you
got to voids that people here all over the world,
and so in your own way, you are absolutely pushing
the culture forward. And I'm just trying.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
To manage this is our responsibility to bring people like
you up here that I think are credible, are vetted out,
that have the experience, and this means a lot to
our audience.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It is Financial Literacy Month, but for us it's Financial
Literacy year every year.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
So every day they are well ones days is about listen.
Such an honor, such an honor. I'm so please, A
shes fly too. Let's just talk about that for a secondly,
because I don't get to put on real clothes today,
so I say, when I got to go outside, I
got to put on something real. But thank you so much.
Such an honor, thank you pleasure, thank you Stacey Well
What's up? Its way up with Angela Yee. I'm Angela Yee.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
On a Wealth Wednesday, so you know what that means.
My partner for Wealth Wednesdays, Stacy Tisday is here.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Happy Wealth Wednesdays, everybody. I hope you all enjoyed the
eclipse and we are about to shed some sunshine on
your life's, especially the entrepreneurs out there, by introducing you
to an incredible woman, Megan Holston Alexander. She is a
star in the venture capital arena and you're all going
to learn more about that right now, because I know
(00:31):
a lot of entrepreneurs are out there and they're all
scratching their heads about raising capital and we really need
to learn about this, and we really need to learn
how our community can jump into the AI economy. No pressure, no.
Speaker 4 (00:44):
Pressure at all. That's easy.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Word.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
I've been listening to Beyonce all week. I'm very turned up.
I'm ready, you ready, I'm ready all right.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
But Meghan host and Alexander is here with us. It's
a pleasure to have you here. I know we've been
wanting to get to sit down with you because a
lot of times people come here and talk about having
access to venture capital funds. Some people will talk about,
you know, the access that we have as black women
is way less than everybody else across the board, So
it's nice to have somebody from the other side of
(01:12):
things come in and sit down and talk to us.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Absolutely, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you both
for having me. You've built such a special platform, and
I'm just happy to be around, So thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Thanks, thanks, it's our pleasure. First of all, start by
educating our audience. What is venture capital?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Great startup question. So, venture capital is early stage investment
capital that is for high growth startups, typically in the
tech space. It doesn't have to be in the tech space,
but more often than not it's in the tech space.
And the way that I usually try to explain it
and compare it to something that people do know about
is like the stock market, right, so everybody knows about
(01:48):
stock market and the stock exchange and Nasdaq where you
can go and buy equity in a company. Venture capital
happens before that. So before a company is available to
purchase on the stock market, there's usually investors who've been
investing for five to ten years into that company already.
But by the time it gets to IPO which everybody
hears about, which is when you can buy it. That
(02:10):
company has been de risked for a number of years
where the government is now comfortable with the general public
being able to purchase it. So, prior to a company
going public, venture investors come in, they take on that risk,
They help build the company, help them hire, or help
them grow, and a lot of times the hope is
that it gets to the market to where the average
person can purchase it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
What are some things that you would look for in
a company to say, Okay, we believe in this company
enough to feel like we can invest yep.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
So there's any number of things. CLF tends to focus
on the investor side. So where do we get the.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Black Cultural Leadership Fund CLF.
Speaker 4 (02:46):
Yep, Oh Cultural Leadership Fund. Yes, we tend to focus
on the investor side and on the talent side. But
our firm has a number of different investment verticals from
bio and crypto and games, and each one kind of
has their own criteria of what they're looking for, So
I won't speak to what each of them focuses on,
but always want to have a really great founder, a
really great team, and a really quality product. Or vision,
(03:09):
but the details. Each one of the teams has something different.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
People in communities of color don't think of venture capital
as something that's within their reach, accessible, accessible to them,
or realistic. Most of us bootstrap our businesses. Should we
think about that differently because what the venture capital world
reflects back to us isn't good. It barely gives us
any money.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
So I think there are a number of different ways
to fund a business. Venture capital is just one of those.
There's a venture you can do, small business loans you
can bootstrap. Bootstrapping is always good because you keep the
ownership for yourself as you build it. And I'm really
really optimistic, Like, you're right, the data shows that venture
capital has historically been you know, black founders haven't received
(03:54):
a whole bunch of venture capital. But I'm really optimistic
about the future. There's like a number of new funds
coming out, different gps coming out who are making that commitment,
so I'm hopeful that there will be more. But you're right,
the data shows that absolutely has not been the case.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
You know, we're talking about the new funds that are
coming out and the culture of leadership fund you guys
do focus on a specific group, right, So.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
We focus on black investors, getting black capital into tech companies. Okay,
getting black talent into tech companies. And our goal is
to invest black money into all of the best companies.
So we don't focus on a type of founder, but
we focus on a type of investors.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And okay, the investors because I'm asking this because you know,
when we talk about the Fairless Fund and we watch
what's happening, shout out to a shout out to Arian
and she was up here previously too, But what does
that mean for you?
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Like, what are we looking at?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Because that is something that is going to affect I
would think, you know, funds that can focus on black
owned businesses and black investors period.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
Yep. So I think the work the Arian and a
lot of other kind of gps who are focused on
founders of color, particularly black women founders, who are the
most educated and most founding group that's out there. I
think it's going to be highly impactful because to have
somebody like an Arian or like many others who can
(05:12):
say like, I'm from this community, I can see what
success looks like. I know how to evaluate a company
that is going to be critical because a lot of times.
The argument is that like sometimes other firms just may
not understand. And so I think having that black voice
as an investor is going to be important. So you
have to have somebody who can see the vision.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Talk a little bit more about CLF, and you said,
it's black investors, but it's a really big deal. You
have seventy one million under management and it is all
blacks who are investing in it.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
Yes, yes, So the Cultural Leadership Fund is a strategic
co investment vehicle inside of Andresent Horowitz Andres and Horowitz
is a venture capital firm that's got about thirty five
billion under management. And then CLF is a co investment vehicle.
So we invest alongside those other funds I just mentioned,
you know, I said, and Crypto and games. So they'll
write a check and then we'll come in and put
(06:04):
additional capital. But the reason why we think it's so
interesting and exciting is that we put in that additional
capital with two missions in mind. So connecting the world's
greatest cultural leaders to the best new technology companies and
getting more young African Americans in tech. And for US,
cultural leader means black athletes, entertainers, musicians, C level executives
(06:25):
who are excited about tech, they're interested in innovation, they
want to play a role in the things that are
being built across this industry, and we get to be
there on ramp into doing that. So anytime you hear
about like this athlete invested in that tech company, or
this entertainer invested in another.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Too, like nas invested in ring and here.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Now it's not always the case, but there's a pretty
good chance that we played a part in making that happen.
And so for the people in the culture who have
the capital to invest in technology, we want to be
sure that they get their names on that cap table.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
What would you say to some entertainment entertainers and athletes
who do have the money to invest, but they're nervous
because obviously any investment is not guaranteed, and so what.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Type of thing one more time, Angela, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Every investment is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
So just because it looks great on paper and everybody's
investing doesn't mean it's gonna work out. And it is
always a risk. But you can lessen that risk, you know,
as much as you possibly can. But what would you
say to people who do have money that want to
invest but they're nervous because maybe something they did in
the past didn't go the way that they anticipated, or
somebody they know got burned.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
What would you tell them.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Yep, So I would say there are experts in never field,
and like you said, there's no guarantee to any investment.
Find yourself a good partner, find somebody who does know
about the industry, somebody who has been investing in the space,
and kind of work through them to learn. And we
do that a ton at COF. So we get connected
with a lot of folks who have the capitol and
(07:52):
they're like, I don't want my career to end in
five years and now no one knows where my money
went right, and I'm broke, and I can't you do
the things that I want to do. And so we
try to teach people about you know, when you hear
jay Z say I'm at the cap table, what the
splits is? What is a cap table? We're trying to
teach people those things and a lot and we tell
them very, you know, in a very forward way, like
(08:15):
venture is the riskiest asset class. It's early a company,
you don't know if they're gonna make it right. And
one of the other facts about venture that people don't
know is that we actually expect most of our investments
to fail. That's what the economics is. A venture. It's
about your slugging percentage, it's not your batting average, right,
So we really depend on a couple of really big
(08:36):
hits in any portfolio, and people have to get that mindset.
So a dventure is a very long game.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
That's a good point.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
And that's like a record label. You know, record label
sign tons of artists and there's only a few that
are gonna make the money and the rest are not
going to do much, absolutely right, And.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
It's such a long game venture, like it's not day
trading like stocks. Right by the today it goes up.
I can feel it tomorrow. I always tell my LPs,
don't come to me in two years looking for money.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
There'll be people like if I would have invested fifteen
years ago in this, But you can't tell. You can't
do that what something's gonna end up being. And then yeah,
so could.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
You guys touch on something that's so important to our
economy AI and tech? I mean, that's what you're really
focused on. And I heard you speak at the Power
Summit at Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Oh yeah, we had a good time.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
And you had Reverend now Sharpton was there, you had
Mark Morial there, Robert Smith was there, and you could
not be struck harder by how much all of them
were talking about how important it is for the black
community to get on the AI sure technology bandwagon. When
we hear you talk about these celebrities and artists and
entertainers to the average person listening out there, that's like, well,
(09:48):
that's not me, but tech has to be them. Talk
more about that.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Yeah, absolutely, And you know, we the thing about AI
is that it's not new. People think AI is new,
but it's not. People been investing in AI for years
at this point. But a lot of new consumer opportunities
like usage for the average person, that's what's becoming available
these days. And I think one of the ways that
(10:13):
people can really dive in is figuring out ways to
let AI work for you in whatever job you do,
whether it's a radio host or you work in marketing,
real estate or real estate, think about how can I
use AI as like one my creative copilot and to
supercharge the work that you do. You don't have to
be a coder or an engineer to like utilize AI
(10:35):
and a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
It can level the playing field.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
It can level the playing field. And I think, gosh,
somebody said a quote two days ago about like AI is.
You know. The debate is like, hey, is AI gonna
take jobs? Is gonna change? I don't know. I can't
speak one way or the other, but they said, the
person who uses AI will take your job, right, And.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
We see how letting people go but hiring all these
people for AI.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
The people, I think, the people who learn how to
utilize it and make it a tool and make it
a superpower, that's what's gonna help me people be successful.
And we can all do that. We all figure out
how to use it to our benefit.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I sell you posting about a app and I was like, oh,
let me get this that can help you find the
lowest prices for flights. Oh that AI can help you
with something like that. And AI can help you with
like putting together a workout plan, a diet.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
That can waver your calendar everything. And one of the
coolest things about AI is like there are now websites
that will tell you how to make a good prompt
in chat GPT, So when you're trying to use chat
GBT to figure out something or make a list. It'll
tell you exactly like Okay, first put the ask and
then put this type of phrase and then do this
(11:43):
and it will get you the responses that you need.
So we're working on it and people are tinkering and
it can be really impactful. So don't be scared, right people.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
For consumers, also for the economy jobs, yep. A lot
of people think, oh, I'm in the beauty in the
street or in the accounting industry or something. But that
technology company that wants to create an AI product or
something to serve they still need your help. Like what
you do can be moved into the AI industry. You
(12:14):
just have to learn the tech.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Absolutely, you just have to learn the tech. And the
other thing is that I want to let my community
know is that AI is built on data. Right training
models to data. We have to be sure that our
data about black people and the black community is in
the data that we train on. There's a lot of
organizations that are focused on like how do we get
archives from like HBCUs digitized and get them into the
(12:39):
models that are going to be trained on. Because I
know it can be scary, right, it's like a new technology.
People are like whoa. But it's important for us to
be in the front, right right and be sure that
we're included. Otherwise the solutions aren't going to include us.
So we have to be okay with like being sure
that our data is in these models.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Megan, you went to Clerk, right, I did. We gotta
make sure we shout Atlanta. So how do you think
that affected where you are today going to an HBCU,
going to Clark. Talk to us about that because now
you're in a space that you know, traditionally in this
venture capital space, it's not a lot of people that
look like us yep in that space.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Ye, Clark Atlanta was everything. Like Clark Atlanta was everything
the motto literally, no matter where I work, in all
my years where I went to school after Clark, I
always had our model like on a post it or
behind me in a picture frame, I'll find a way
or make one right because we don't accept like it's
(13:36):
just too hard out here for our community, Like you
just got to keep going, like somebody closed the door.
I'll find a way or make one. I'll find a
way or make one. We'll see each other and another
amazing Clark Atlanta. Pinky Coal embodies that's my girl, and
we always like just use it in regular conversation. I'll
find a way or make one, and you just you
(13:57):
just keep pushing. And I think that's something you don't
get everywhere. It's very much like an HPCU and a
cultural mindset. I'll find away and make one.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
But you weren't thinking venture capital when you were there,
not at all. You had a fancy, not even close.
And that then went from Clark to Stanford because she's
really smart and you had a pretty cool u VC
teacher I had.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
I did the funny middle part of the story, though,
is I went to Clark Atlanta was on a very
very different path. I wanted to teach and do research
full time, and I was gonna go get a PhD.
And I dropped out. So I'm gonna drop out. I
think a lot of people tend to think that the
path is easy, and it's so clear I'm a dropout.
It's okay to it's okay to quit a thing because
(14:41):
it put me in a position to eventually move to
California and go to Stanford. And it's so funny because
I actually told the Dean of Stanford this at one time,
I'm like, I don't claim Stanford unless I have to. Right,
I'm Clark Atlanta, through and through. That's always going to be,
you know, my first love. But Stanford gave me. It
really opened up the world to see, like, when you
(15:02):
do have that grit and you have that commitment and
that kind of workhorse attitude and the world opens up
to you, there's so much you can do. But one
of the funny stories, when I was at GSB, I
still wasn't focused on finance, but I ended up in
a venture capitol class and my professor was Eric Schmidt,
who was the former CEO of Google. People call him
(15:25):
they said he was the first adult in the room
at Google. And it was great because I had never
done anything adventure before, it had never taken a class.
I took it because it was at a good time
and I didn't want to be in traffic on the
one on one, you know about the one O one,
And so I took the class and kind of towards
the end, we go for a walk, yes, you know
around he would go for walks with students, and he
told me two things. One I committed to not repeating again.
(15:48):
But the other he gave me like some good secret
life advice. But the other one he said, Megan, you're
one of my best students, and I know ventures not
your thing, but I think you should try it for real.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Oh wow.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
And I was like, sir, I don't know black people
do venture, right, just very like dismissive of it because
I didn't think I could do it. And He's like,
I'm serious, I think you should try. And kind of
from there, I just I was like, you know what
if Eric Schmid said you could try And he may
not even remember the story, he may not even remember me,
but I say it changed my mindset of like if
(16:23):
he thinks I can do it, why don't know? I
think I can do it right right? And so I
started doing a ton of internships. You're supposed to do
one internship in business school between your first and second year.
I ended up doing four internships while I was there.
I wasn't playing because I was making a career change.
So like running up and down, saying into a road,
like taking meetings with people, and it turned into my
full time I love.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
That's my internships. That's so important.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
I always talk about that when you're in college and
trying to figure out what you want to do in
after you know, if you can.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I want to ask you this.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
Too, as we're talking about the Cultural Leadership Fund, how
important is it for people who are getting VC funding
the people who are investing Sometimes you know VC funds,
they just give money and they're quiet about it and
not at all involved. But for you guys, you want
to make sure that the people who are providing the
(17:12):
funding are also involved.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Yep. Absolutely. Like we talked about VC a lot being
like a marriage, right, it's a long term relationship, it's
a financial relationship. They can go really well or really
not well. And so we encourage the LPs limited partners,
the folks that the cultural leaders that we take money from.
We tend to ask them upfront, like do you want
(17:35):
to talk on the phone to founders? Do you want
to spend time with them and join advisory boards and
support them and help them with all the things that
are your area of expertise? And I tend to find
that people who are willing to put their money in
at the early stage, they want to stay close to it, right,
They want to know the founder, They want to be
able to call them up on the phone and have
the founder feel like they can call them as well.
(17:56):
And so we try to really teach people how to
lean in to those moments because that's where the magic happens, right.
And our firm is really big generally on like operational support.
So we have like a full on marketing team to
help our portfolio companies. And we've got to go to
market team and we've got, you know, a talent team
that helps you know them think about hiring. We take
that very seriously and same for CLF. We want our
(18:18):
founders to know that they can depend on us, and
a lot of our investors feel the same way.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
What are the types of groups CLFS invested in?
Speaker 4 (18:27):
So CLF we again follow on to the Injuries in
Horowitz portfolio. We're a co investment vehicle. So most of
the companies that you see on the Injuries and Horowitz
website are also cultural Leadership Fund investment.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
When you're telling me they're like twenty five non profits or.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
Yes, ooh, I like where you're taking me stay So actually,
so CLF, one of the things that we do is
we donate all of our management fee and carry, so
that means every single dollar that we make of profit
inside of CLF, not our LP's profits, but our on
the firm. We donate to organizations that are specifically focused
(19:02):
on getting more young African Americans in tech, and there's
no other firm doing that, and we're really really proud,
and we've been doing it since twenty eighteen, so pre pandemic,
and have done about two and a half million dollars
so far. But we support organizations like the Hidden Genius
Project and Black in Gaming and Black Collegiates and Gaming
and Pursuit and Perscoless and so many that are actually
(19:22):
based here in New York as well. But a lot
of times when it comes to nonprofits, people feel like
they need to start something new, Right, I got to
start my own nonprofit. I got to do my own
thing when.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
You can support what's already.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
But there are people who have been doing the work
to get black people in tech four years.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I think that's great.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We wanted to supercharge them and it's been such a joy.
Like we've seen people get placements into two early tech companies,
we've seen people learn how to code, we've seen people
figure out other ways to contribute to tech. And then
we also fund so we fund organizations, but we also
fund like initiatives, right because it's wonderful to teach people
how to code. But we are of the belief that
(20:01):
there's a number of ways to get people involved in tech.
So we funded an initiative, a new thing called the
Black Digital Art Collective and it BATAC and basically it's
a collective of people who buy black digital art with
the goal of like trying to help blow up black
digital artists because we saw in the big crypto art
(20:23):
world there weren't a lot of black artists being highlighted.
So we said, how do we put capital into what
they're building and then support them and blow them up.
So BTC has been really successful so far, and there'll
be a number of other things coming out like that,
like how do we get our community at the front
part of technology.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
That's one other thing I wanted to touch on. There's
money to be made in tech by getting into companies early. Yes,
for anybody out there is like my career path. You know,
maybe you're not an entrepreneur, there's I mean, there's really
a lot of money to be made by getting started
up early.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Yep. So you always hear when a company goes public.
Oh my god, the employees became millionaires overnight. Wasn't overnight,
it seemed like overnight, But a lot of them have
been working there, like I said, for a very long time,
five six, seven, eight, nine years before they went public.
So this concept of like early employeehood. When you go
and started a tech company, oftentimes they give you employee
(21:23):
equity meaning some options, stock options, some you know, equity
into the company and that company is valued at a
specific place when you come in. But the expectation is
that as that company grows, the value of the company
will grow, and so will your early employee equity. So
(21:44):
if you're there long enough and early enough, you have
the opportunity to when that company goes public or they
get sold, because that happened sometimes too. They may not
go public, but there there'll be m and a activity,
you have the chance for your equity to be really,
really valuable. So tell you years later, they go public
and now you have a windfall and you can now
go and best what you couldn't do before, or you
(22:05):
can now go start a company which you couldn't do before.
So there's a ton of opportunity as an early employee
to build wealth And what a lot of people don't
know is that tech has been the greatest generator of
wealth yea over the last twenty years, and so as
an individual, it is one of the I think clearest
paths to building wealth is going to a tech company early.
(22:26):
The flip side of it, again, it's very risky in
early stage, but there's so much opportunity there if you're
interested in the space.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
How do we get our tech skills up?
Speaker 4 (22:36):
How do you get your tech skills up? Here's the
interesting thing. Tech companies need everybody. They need hr people,
they need marketing people, they need finance and graphic designers.
So whatever skill you already have, there's a likelihood that
a tech company needs it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Even if you think about as we discuss AI right,
and we were discussing this last week, this open letter
warning against the predatory use of in the music industry,
you know YouTube. Now they put like a little disclaimer
if this is something that was AI generated, and even
for to keep track of things like that, to make
sure that you know you're taking care of people who
(23:15):
want to make sure they're protecting their art and their
voice and their likeness and things like that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
That's important too.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Moving forward as people are trying to figure out, Okay,
I just want to make sure they can't just take
you know, my image or my likeness and do something
with it.
Speaker 4 (23:28):
Yep. And one of the things that I think you're
absolutely right about that, and I think one of the
things that I want to point out is this happens
with every industry. There's always going to be bad actors,
right in finance or when the internet first came out
and they would like steal your identity.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
That's still happening, right.
Speaker 4 (23:46):
There are bad actors in every industry. And what we
have to figure out is like how do we counteract
that and overpowered with people who are trying to use
the technology in the right way Because a lot of
you know, AI companies, and we've invested in several, they
want to do it the right way. They don't they
don't want people stealing somebody's voice and their image, et cetera.
(24:07):
And so they're tinkering to try to figure that out.
But I think if people's hope that is that like
there will be no version of people doing the wrong thing.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
That's not human nature, right, That's not human nature.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So there will always be bad actors. We just need
to figure out, like how do we do it bigger
and better for the people who are trying to do
it right.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
I tell you, guys had an event and the Dream
performed at it. I saw you posted him because he
was like, I haven't been performing and like, over, yeah,
not go outside.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
He said it. He said, y'all, he said, I don't
come outside. So this is a big deal. We were
very proud. We were very proud.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (24:43):
So we every year we try to bring our investors
together because, especially after the pandemic, people just hadn't been
around each other, and we want to give them opportunity
one to meet each other because there's a lot of
chances for our executives to meet our entertainers, athletes, to
meet our general partners who do the investing. But also
(25:04):
we want to give them a chance to learn about
the technologies that we're investing in. So we can have
our games team come in and say like, here's how
we're thinking about the future of games. Here, that's how
we're thinking about the future of AI. And so we
try to do that once a year. It is only
for our investors, so I'm said, I can't invite everybody,
but it wouldn't be COLF if we didn't throw a
little sauce on it. We had to throw a little sauce.
(25:26):
So having the dream come was a great addition. He
showed out. He did a great job. But I encourage
people to even if you don't, you know, whatever funds
you invest in, or if you find a way to invest,
always find the moments where you can meet the founders
and meet the other investors that just happens to be.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Ours, you know, Megan, I want to ask you this,
what happens when investor and a founder they a founder
and a funder. They're not connecting and clicking, and they
want to like, you know, is there always an exit plan?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
Like?
Speaker 1 (26:00):
How does that work? And how frequent does that happen?
How frequently?
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:03):
I mean, like I said, it can be like a marriage,
and people don't always.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Because marriage don't always last.
Speaker 4 (26:09):
They don't always last more than half of the data.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
The data shows it's like more than fifty percent do not.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
Yeah, it's it's insane, but I think of it very similar.
Friends break up, you get a job that you hate.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Because money definitely can put a damper on any.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Type of any relationship.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yeah, especially when your goals aren't necessarily aligned or you know.
I think even as a founder, when you have people
that you have to I know Pinky will talk about
this like used to having your own thing, but now
you have other people that you have to be accountable
for an answitude, and that could be beneficial or it cannot.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Yep, one thousand percent stressful. I think a lot of
it comes with like communication and maturity. The hope is
that if something is not working out, that people can
talk it out and figure it out right. And if
you can't, you can find an exit plan, whether it's
selling your shares in the company you know somebody else,
or just saying okay, from this point on, this is
how we're gonna divide it out.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
But it happens because I can imagine that as for
myself being like a founder also, it is very emotional
connecting you to your business and sometimes it's hard to discuss,
you know, what you see as something that's your a
baby with somebody that may not have been there.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
From may not have been there from the beginning, but
what one You always have to remember, nobody's gonna love
your baby like you, and then nobody's gonna love your baby,
like you my baby, not ugly, just a little bit
completely ugly, are cute. But also you want people who
(27:42):
are going to challenge you. You want people who are
going to challenge your thinking because you don't want yes
men around you, whether they're your friends or your investors,
So you want them to be able to call you out.
But then also you want them to be there through
the hard times if you have because companies go through
hard times. Sometimes there's a dipping revenue, sometimes you don't
make your numbers. But you want people to say, like,
(28:02):
I'm missed because I believed in you. Let's figure this out,
and usually I'm assuming when it falls apart. It might
be a failure in one of those three things, but
the hope is that people can resolve it amicably. And
sometimes it's just saying, hey, this.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Is where we part ways, okay, m all right?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Wow? So how can people follow you in CLF? Oh?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Yes, so CLF is at a sixteen z CLF on
my personal page. I don't talk a lot about CLF,
but it's at Megan h Alexander on Instagram. But a
sixteen and z CLF on x and Instagram? Is that right?
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Beauty and we'll share that with everybody, and we really
appreciate you lighting the fire under people that we were
all in the tech AI economy and I'm just going
to figure out how to be in it and how
we can all capitalize it because we can.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
Because we can capitalize, and we deserve to be a
part of the economics that are being created, and I
want to help ensure and clf overall. It's like, how
do we ensure that we have some economics, some ownership,
because that's where the game changes. It's ownership. How do
we get involved in that.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I thank you so much for coming here too. I
think that you're so empowering and for people to see
you speaking about things like this is going to be
a lot more of a connection than if somebody.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Else trying to be empowering like you was. So you
got to voids that people here all over the world,
and so in your own way, you are absolutely pushing
the culture forward. And I'm just trying.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
To manage this is our responsibility to bring people like
you up here that I think are credible, are vetted out,
that have the experience, and this means a lot to
our audience.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
It is Financial Literacy Month, but for us it's Financial
Literacy year every year.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
So every day they are well ones days is about listen.
Such an honor, such an honor. I'm so please, A
shes fly too. Let's just talk about that for a secondly,
because I don't get to put on real clothes today,
so I say, when I got to go outside, I
got to put on something real. But thank you so much.
Such an honor, thank you pleasure, thank you Stacey Well
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