The First Billion Dollar Pitch
Disclaimer:
Everything below is a mix of what I observed and heard during the event. The goal isn’t to pinpoint "who exactly said what," but to share (usually) an outsider's view and overall perspective on these industries. I’m not here to act as a definitive firsthand source—readers should do their own research. I hope this inspires you to attend events, explore new industries, and hear what leaders are presenting. These notes combine my observations with thoughts on how things could run smoother and how ideas connect (IMO). I’m not an expert, you know? Just hanging out in the room with them. Enjoy!Topics: Underrepresented Founders, Manifestation, Venture Capitalists, Origin Stories, Karaoke
Uh ohhhh ahhaha. Guess who is going out into the world and trying to get peopel to see what I see? Me! I have multiple companies that I have started/co-lead that I am sure can be worth billions. Why? How? Huh? You’ll see…. and I’ll see… if i can be taken that seriously or not. It’s like, I’m seriously joking a lot, but I’m not joking about being serious.
Why Attend: I was invited to pitch to VC’s about my company. This event has the theme of underrepresented founders - so that is me (woman)!! I did not technically found the company I’m pitching at this event. No - but I have an idea to found a second company associted with them (and I founded two other companies) so… you know. It’ll work. These details don’t matter a lot, I think, in this stage. If someone is truly interested - then we can talk after my 3 min. pitch. Plus, you know the ending of this event? KARAOKE. Omg. what to singggg??? Even though I don’t drink - ‘whiskey lullaby’ was my favorite song lately hahah. Cause I had a mega broken heart like a month ago. So, I feel like that’s a fun duet. But, we’ll see waht I come up with.
Overall Event Ratings: Venue (4/5), Food (4/5), Speaker Content (4.5/5), Networing (3.5/5), Likeliness to Return (5/5)
Photo Collage and Commentary
Notes from the Event:
Karaoke was wiped off the schedule. But, it wasn’t too crowded. So, that was fine. Just letting you guys know (and I didn’t have to pick a song hahaha). Now, let’s get to the notes!
I arrive as a speech is going on about a kids brand.
Raising money often starts with people believing the founder will figure it out.
Pitch well and hava a good team
In person always matters.
Pitching in person makes all the difference. It makes all the difference to see people in person.
Send me your data room and diligence. And then called the corporate lawyer - had a friend in the business world. So they had the best of the best, called - what is our diligence. What does that mean? What is a data roo. She had to be walked through.
Let us know when you have a lead investor. The 500k and the first round was the hardest money to raise. Even though they had 1M in traction + a community.
As educators they didn’t know how to articulate and play the fundraising game.
They said, “come back when you’ve learned the glossary of business” . Some people sa they don’t know how to articulate it, but tehy saw the traction.
Why not just write your own terms sheet. So tehy wrote their first terms sheet, put hte cap they felt comfortable with and on tehy went. Then theystarted getting 50, 25k… eventually it all added up to 500k
It does help to have a lawyer to build those things for you. It’s a good sign they didn’t take advantage of you.
How many people did you have to talk to for the first 500k, but now we’ve talked to probably 1000 people. Fundraising was the hardest the first time and in 2022 when the market really shifted. After SVB. We were a part of that crisis, our community showed up and rallied and saved us. They replaced the cash lost in teh bank with sales that weekend. But all of that to say -
2022 was rough, trying to raise seriesB… meeting with light speed capital in their lobby. Cuase everyone was canceling and talking to anyone new and only wanting to talk to current portfolio companies.
Building a community nad understanding your customers and finding the rapid fanbase as your first target customers. That echo chamber you can access and create really will help with the growth and scale. But, man, that’s tough to go through the SVB closure and all that
Any advice for founders here in the room. At ideas stage and maybe a little bit beyond, what would you advise for fundraising?
Be patient but also tenacious. Stay ontop of inboxes. Overcommunicate progress, traction, and updates.
Know your numbers. The playbook is so different today. Top line revenue matters. Profitability matters.
You have to know your unit economics. You have to go in knowing your data. Even to this day, trying to sell something to investors without revenue is really really tough.
- this picture behind her has a cartoon character with blacked out eyes, one of the mother character’s eyes is covered up by the chlid’s ear - so you can only see one eye
also the character is surrounded by hair or fur or designs that end up in spirals. spirals all over the entire bottom of this - its just all spirals.
this is a toy for night time and coping with mental health.
there is another character in this same picture on screen, its an octopus with an upside down star starfish.
Audience question:
How many characters in your lineup
Is there a group or collective of people that are selfishly holding onto the original hand sewn one?
15 core characters.
Yes, there are some handmade ones sold by trade groups for liek 1k. That’s funny to me. She says she remembers selling them, they’re all so unique and hand stitched.
People are hanging onto them.
As the company grew from bootstrapped to this, how did your relationship with the work evolve and change?
Early days you need to learn all the things. You need to start stating things that held back from growth.
Once we grew to a certain stage, working too with JH, they took a lot of ownership in that relatinship. Worked with that show. IT was a five year process and debuted years later. We realized along the way as co-CEO’s, our ability to learn and scale the company from 0-7M in revenue… we would stop or halt its growth if we were in those positions. So we found someone in to come in as the president and CEO. Thank god. Now I get to be chief brand officer, chief therapeutic officer. And we do what we want to do.
Our identities were built around this, but now we’re getting out of the way for hte business to grow and evolve.
For me I’m not sure that she’s sure of the vibes this is sending hahah. Idk. Just some strange things in this book and hte details. But maybe it’s just me noticing this?? not the lady cause she has nice presence on stage and seems liek she lveos this company and wants to help.
She said she loves being hands on and loves not having to deal with HR, finance, stuff she doesn’t have interest in learning how to do. She still loves it every day and excited this is what she gets to do as a full-time job. And it didnt die in 2023.
Yes. I can tell this. I wonder to what extent.
so much of her speech shocked me. did i write in here that they outsourced a CEO and most of their company?
this speech, being what i walked into. it made me shift my speech a bit. especially after this girl left early, before i even gave my pitch. then she wasn’t even in the room to hear it.
You learn a lot more on the way down than the way up. On the way down are the real had lessons we have to go through.
Audience member says she’s into kids products. So what does it take and mean to be a VC backed company in children’s products and space. Sometihng outside of software, something the VC wouldn’t buy, but their wife woudl buy.
It’s so hard, the VC world is so tough. We got lucky with a VC out of Chicago and both were very engaged dads. They bought our product and used it with their kids to test it out. They flew out to Portland to meet them.
With VC’s you can tell by their engagement and momentum.
We’d be VC backed with VC money… but you can do just as much with strategic angel investors.
Once you take investments, you’re on a path to return that money.
So what is your goal? There are so many paths these days that are not VC specific. But hte VC money we did take, it’s famous for brand building and in the segment of consumer. Not every VC is the right fit for what you’re building.
Instead of verbal vomiting everything about themselves, they learned to ask questions and understand where the VC is, their thesis, their amount of capital to deploy. What are they looking for?
What do they do for founders?
Recommendations for founders and their portfolio.
Helped them figure out how to write a good pitch.
They’d always heard of funds that say “oh yeah we’ll invest but here are our service fees” - they added a lot of value. But we took moeny from funds that never talked to us again except for the updates. But now on our board, we have engaged investors that are so hands on.
Finding peopel that lean in is so important.
Whose idea was it to go to couples therapy for co-founders. It is so brilliant and like, “duh!”. If you want to lose friends, start talking about investing in a business. The way you handled it shoudl be in startup 101 book. And they were both in couples therapy with their spouses, so they used the same therapist.
Dude. Omg hahaha. This world is really suffering and therapy is… idk hahah. Okay. No comments for now. Therapy is good! But geese. Therapy themselves in their relationship haha. Anyway. Yeah relationships are hard.
It helped deepen the trust and separate business from friendship.
And waht is she tryin gto do if she’s workign to promote mental health if she can’t do it herself. I just say this cause i’m like….
Her characters have some weird symbolism in them. I wonder if she knows this? Just on this slide they have hanging out here I see four. And I dont even know them all. I don’t even know this language really, i just keep picking it up from the teddy books… and then like twitter. cause i’m like waht the heck. i’m here to defend kids, but its covering the industry!!!! HEAD TO TOE AND DO THESE PEOPLE EVEN REALIZE IT? :O
and i’ll let chatGPT add these line for me. cause this is how it put it:
one symbol ≠ proof of evil
clusters + business incentives + narrative patterns = worth a deeper look.
and: “True discernment doesn’t flinch at every triangle. But it also doesn’t dismiss the thirteenth triangle on the eighth product launch of a trauma-coded kids brand tied to a gamified wellness app funded by (MacRock).”
For sure investors know or something and many peopel are enforcing and embracing this, but for me. Idk if they have no clue what this looks like. With what I know of the world. And the things I’m frustrated in with the children industry.
As an investor, what’s next? Are you raising moeny again, gong public? Are you going to sell? What’s the path look like.
Preschool properties, usually things launch as tv shows, movies, then consumer follows. We boostratpped and dint know that path. SO now we’re in this moment of maintaining focus to maintain profitability while working with major licensing partners to debut a mass lien. A great entry point at mass retailers. That’s the next exciting thing A licensing deal, we dont have to take risk on inventory. Profit straight to the bottom line.
Season one is on tv. We’re excited for theentertainment side to contain to build.
What is your exciting plan. IP is a longer game than traditional 3-7 year exit. We have some great patient investors that really believe in the mission. Cause that’s been so important time to build out and gain more and more brand awareness in the market. W’ere trying to build a legacy brand. IF we go public, but likely just looking to find the right home for someone who understands the educational value and maximize the entertainment and then really seize the DTC as the upside with the building community of parents.
Plush fabric stats in china, the chain starts there… but it’s not sustainable to do this domestically.
Binding ruling to say they’re educational - if so they’re exempt. They’ll get cheaper tariffs. Everything is bundled as a set. But now they may import books separately. Then have hte warehouse it them stateside. It its always evolving.
sounds like in shanghai when the english classes got banned and i aske dmy firend if she was upset cause she had so many english schoos there, and she said “no, its fine, now we just do drama” - lol they just changed the name/style, and book - legal again.
Company in the video game space, looking for initial investing. And how do you get patient money. Waiting for it to build. How are you able to find that patient money for your business? Angle investors and family offices doing impact investing based oy our mission and products and the goal.
Any sort of mental health components can get grant funding. Though that can be a whole other job. But yeah, building relationships. People need to deploy capital and sometimes they are more patient than others. Knowing that some VCs love consumers.
We want to see good brand building worldwide. NO need to rush.
They have parenting communities online to talk.
oof. good idea. but i bet it’s got a few different groups.
NEXT SPEECH: WOMEN LED COMPANIES RECEIVING MONEY
There are bad stats out there, but there are big reasons to be optimistic.
But the number of women investors is growing dramatically.
Used to be 5% of angel investors were women, but now it’s sometimes up to 40 in some regions.
There is more of an awareness in supporting women nd listening to women and giving them a chance to speak.
We are also in the great wealth transfer. As the boomers are slowly getting old, 84T is going to pass to the next generation. 30B is going to be inherited by women by 2030. It’s not that far away. Women are going to come into wealth, more educated, earning more wealth. Now we need to teach them how to invest. And know that there is a support system out there.
Unconscious bias, how are women received in business?
Women entrepreneurs & founders are perceived as less successful than males.
When women are in business, founding a business, and putting themselves out there, what are the common mistakes you’ve observed?
Perfectionism
Wanting things just right before launching, showing the world… that’s not the best way to build your business.
Often when women talk about their companies and pitch and fundraise, they may be too grounded in reality. You need to paint the picture for invests
Men are more likely to apply for a job where fewer requirements match their experiences than women are.
Lol I’m just thinking about how this audience is like 70% men. I wonder what they think of this speech.
Later someone said they felt liek this speech applied entirely to most men, too - a man said that hahhaa.
Women pitch vs tech bros.
Tech bros say this is going to be a billion dollar company.
A woman wouldn’t ‘usually say that
Ma’am… I’m literally bout to get on stage and do that. And say these things.
Investor don’t want to know the details, what’s coming out next month - they want to know what the vision is.
Women, in pitches, tend to be asked more prevision than promotion questions - questions focused on risk… competition, costs, the problems. Promotions are more tailored to your vision. What markets?
You’re going to be asked really stupid questions. Questions that don’t seem relevant. And some on risk get you into a risk of a rabbit hole. Be prepared for this. Have FAQ’s. Areas probably asked questions. Practice short, concise answers. Spending Horus on Q&A practice… because you need to be able to change the trajectory of the Q&A. If asked about competition or risks, it’s like politicians with media training and then finish the answer on teh areas they want to talk about. It takes practice, don’t think you can wing it. It takes practice.
DD conversations, you can get into a negative feedback loop. Then you defend, then they poke more. And then you go into this negative feedback loop and spirals being on defense. Instead of pivoting to waht you want to be talking about, opportunites, and an incredible business.
Another technique that she heard was effective is - if someone asked a prevention’s question, specpicism. Look at examples of successful companies that went through hte same situation nd made it out great. So, respond with how others have had the dilemma, tehy faced it - and they used their strategy and anchoring a successful company. They initially start with a negative dollar value for you, but with the successful company, you’re subtly shifting the anchor to something more positive. It Ames the transition easier
Btw I’m think gin about the fact I hugged the guy where to say hello and how lately I’m more huggy. Its finally changed. I’m glad.
How can the eco system better support some and women investors.
The first thing is that the VC community must realize that bias impacts them as well. A bias is making… leading to a poor decisions. Leaving money on the table. Money you’ve lost. Awareness helps a lot, understanding with gender bias and what you have a lot.
Look at how you make secisions, make them clear, and consistent. You ask the same idns of questions, same bar as what your MBVP shoudl look like, when to fund and not fund.
You don’t rely as much on your gut instinct. Your gut tends to be flawed with these biases.
Investors are human and studies/converations show that investors invest in peopel tehy like and are comfortable with. Sometimes it’s not gut reaction, it needs to be a bit more. Why was I less comfortable? We’re different? What’s gut? Comfort? And bias?
Event, showing up for conversations… its part of how we effect the change we want. IT’s hard to easily impact an ecosystem top down I ts all us as individuals.
Thanks for having events like this and thanks for showing up.
aw - its so true. lol this community/place is so sweet.
These are tough conversations.
By having these conversations and learning, we can met it better for everybody.
One of the key things to help founders is collaboration. Learning from each other. Events like this, and workshops. Other events where we are aleanring and sharing our knowledge and meeting more people and supporting each other. It makes a big difference.
The host interjects. I love it they’re so funny. I like this group.
idk waht it is i just alwys love it here, even though it take 1.5 hours by transit hahahaha. worth it every time.
How many more women there are… it was on NPR marketplace, and thy noted something he had observed but not consciously, its that… raising moeny for 41 years, thinking of it as a blood sport. They’re going to see how quickly they can destroy you. The commentary from that reporter. And now with more women in the room, behavior is changing.
There are still old guard dudes out there, but that has been the nicest thing for meat a founder. Having observed this tangible change.
Comparing to today in angel groups, there is more empathy, compassion, and men bheaving better in front of women. Before that it was liek a frat party. And it has turned more professional and respectful and positive.
She says when she one too her fist, it was very friendly. But maybe it was impact investors. But it was such a wonderful experience. I was learning, everyone could ask questions. But trust me there are always stupid questions. Not feel stupid or like you do’nt know your tech.
Men are free to ask question stupid questions… women will be more careful - though sometimes you say, “okay I shoudl have asked my question it was better than that one
You have to do your due diligence on investors, too.
IT’s okay to make your ideal investor profile, if you don’t want jerks, then somebody is being a jerk - say I think we’re nt a fit. Walk out. How empowering is that. Don’t put up with bad behavior from investors.
She never met one behaving that bad.
But I’ve heard stories of epoepl behaving really badly and disrespectly. You don’t want them.
Keep that in mind.
Just note even supportive investors… one thing to manage them is that theylll send you random articles and say “have you looked at /thought about this” even if it’s completely irrelevant to our businesses.
They want to be helping. You know?
This made everyone laugh, cause the host admitted she did the same
What are challenges and opporutntiesi observed in fundraising?
The number of women are investing. But women often don’t have much moeny in their funds. Women focused VC’s and women investors in lots of funds, but often women focused funds are short on cash. So, it’s important to invest in those more.
Final question: relationships move this industry more than anything else in this industry.
A big strength of women is building relationships. Any human being can be good at relationships, but women are on average more empathetic, relationship oriented, and the kidns of things you can do are come to events like this. Good job group. Good job Ron - lol.
Get to know other founder, funders… you should show up - whatever that means to you. Flying to go meet with someone who could potentially help them and probably say no. .still go on that flight, show up, it makes the difference to build relationships.
Relationships - women put in more effort. Women are more empathetic so they’re good at it. But own have been forced to do it more and more so tehy get better at it. Even at work, being able to build relationships they do better. It’s the same thing… but the one difference I see is sometimes as a founder it can be hard to find relationships and build them. But having events and opoptunties where women are able to interact with investors in a low stress environment, not being evaluated. More friendly. Those opportunities can help build relationships and make it better for women.
VC says, “the first time we meet is not going to be when you pitch”. She wants to meet peopel early, when they’re building, so she can follow them, get to know them, see their traction… so that when they’re ready to raise money, she knows quickly if she’s in or not.
Some people open their round, a week later it’s closed. Alright it’s open, peopel are ready . These thing take effort in putting yourself out there.
Peopel want to meet you, go to events. Folow them online. Say hi. Ask to chat, ask for advice.
Ask for funding get advice, ask for advice and get funding.
Early interaction is so important. It’s rare to invest quickly. But you invest in what you know.
SO true - this made me rework my speech, too. I decided to go full-fledge and really stand out. Some peopel here knew me and have seem me over they year, but never heard me pitch. So I really went all out and was full fledge Kelly Tutors on this stage like I’ve never been before in my life.
Sometimes your first investments are your ex-colleagues. People know you’re reliable and capable. They may not need the long DD.
After finding ways to meet peopel early. Then build the relationship over time. Send good updates. - People want to invest and be part of your story. Tell them the story over time to let them buy in.
One lady speaks up and says she wants to go to couples therapy. The host goes “oh! Wow. On the open mic, okay”
hahah i really crack up at this community. it is so unique and i always like when people interupt with well timed/not too offensive jokes. like ones everyone can laugh about hopefully - though its so hard to achieve.
Cause she said she wants to test the product but her husband says “WHO CARES”
It’s sad we can go on and on - but use it.
Prove them wrong.
Some people aren’t worth wasting your time.
Indian and Chinese men have never been underrepresented in this area. Get frequent messages on linkedin, why are there so few women in the room here. This has been
Aww and one of the panelists is pregnant.
NEXT comes up two guys - one to be interviewed by a guy i’m friends with on linkedin… cause i recognize his pic… but idk when we met…….. the interviewerrrr :)
No story anything like this guy’s. It ever uncommon and inspiring.
Now they’re on stage arranging chairs. One guy tried to help him but then he didnt ant the help and he said “let the professionals do their work (the interviewer/emcee said this to the stage/working guy who’s job is to like help with stage stuff 😂 - this is a tough debate. who is the true professional in this? the interviewer or the guy in charge of on-stage furniture?) and then the guy left the stage to help him. Now they’re good to start, testing testing.
And now they begin.
How’s everyone doing today? He says
(Two people reply) - bro, i always judge this intro - when. yousay like, how’s it going? you feeling good? got drinks in ya? that kinda stuff hahaha. ever since i noticed it, i notice it, y o know?
Good, I’m happy you’re here. We’re here at the summit for underrepresented founders. Around entrepreneurs that wouldn’t get hte publicity or looks tehy deserve. For those who have been here since the beginning, you know I like to ask a lot of questions.
Now here is a guy.. his story that is incredible for this particular reason… many say hte hardest thing we’ve ever done is start a burins… agree? Having children, starting a business… getting married. Staying married. Those are some of the hardest challenges. But I would say that he things this man has experienced tops all of that. So him starting a business is him going on the easy side.
Which is easier? Sentenced to 20 years in a Nicaraguan prison or starting a business to change the wrold
Starting a business is first world problems
When we first talked we connected over a story of resilience. This is someting an entrepreneur must have.
Let’s backtrack and get some background.
He had a degree from a local university, then worked to peace corp.
If you join CIA you can’t be in teh peace for… if you join the peace corp you can’t be in the CIA
Then he did his service in Nicaragua, sustainable agriculture, fell in love with the company.
After the service ended, saved up enough, bought a truck, and drove back on his own.
The trip was done in five days. Drivign as far as he could, then pull over. Sleeping bag on one side.
Had to bribe people on the way there.
Then he got there and while a volunteer, he saw other volunteers buy up an acre in front of hte beach for 3k, he heard of the market there, and there was an emphasis that Nicaragua was the net Costa Rica. He wanted to play for vet school, he’s 27 years old. Let me take some years off, get into real estate. Then got a job in remax in a small town. Did well, immediately started managing it, then was able to buy out the broker.
Then his mic goes out and they need to get a new mic. It’s funny they have like 3 tech peopel here and 20 peopel in the audience. And every audience member, or 90% are speakers hahaha. So, this event is so funny.
Started buying 200-300 acres of land, alternative energy, organic farming, community development. Model intentional communities, employee local folks and build community.
Then startd consulting for large land developers throughout the country.
Water, land mangamgent. Then… in teh process of adding hte construction company and property management, but then he was wrongfully inprisoned for crimes he didnt commit. He knew how to bribe peopel on the way down, but not while you’re in the country.
SO… maybe some peopel were upset that a foreigner was coming down, taking advantage of the oppotuniay, but not in a exploitive way, building community… your way of helping peopel and giving back and making money for yourself. IS that a fair assessment.
Sure
So… you went from successful real estate to 22 years? 20 years. Yes 22 years maximum security prison for crimes he did NOT commit. They charged him for international drug trafficking, money laundering, and organized crime with 1- people he’d never met before.
Right place at the right time.
What when through your head at the moment?
I’d imagine angry, confused, frustrated, helpless…
The money I was arrested? Which moment? The moment you got arrested. The moment you went into the court room. Tell us more about that experience.
Yeah, so throughout the case I jsut thought they had the wrong person. Initally then they arrested me, beachfront, but 10-15 guys showed up dup with assault rifles. I thought I was being robbed. Then a guy in plain clothes has a badge, asked for me by name. Won’t let me call anyone. Held me at gunpoint for 6-7 hours. Then throws me int eh back of a pickup truck, parades me around, moves me around to multiple prisons. Underground torture facilities. Hiding me from my family nad the embassy.
I kept thinking they’ve got hte wrong guy and I din’t know what I was being charge with.
They read it Mouloud, I obviously didn’t do this. They’ve got hte wrong guy, they’re going to let me go.
I kept thinking they’re going to let me go… I guess thats my American entitlement privilege speaking, but it didn’t happen that quickly.
All the sudden successful, then an international drug trafficking money launderer. Then after that, what happened?
- It took 9 months to get hte trail. That eve violated the country’s laws, and at trial, we were not allowed to present any evidence, testimony… their bank said they knew all the money, no laundering. The DEA singed a letter and said he’s not on the list.
And we had all this testimony and we’re not allowed to present any of it. The judge wasn’t even a judge, he was wanted for fraud in another country. He served this only, then was meeting with police between. He said “you’re all guilty” and then fled to Spain. The whole time my family was focused on workign the judicial system in Nicaragua. There ice no case here, let’s work and belive in the system. Then he can be let go. Then 22 years. There goes the rest of your life. So we had to take a different strategy.
The emcee keeps taking a while to ask questions. Of course.
What was going to happen to you, in your mind… after 9 months in this underground torture facility. Realizing this was going to be your life. What happened next?
- I was suffering physically. You know, I lost 40 pounds. I was uuusalyl in a 12 by 15 cell with 9-12 guys. You have to go haul your bucket every day. It has hair and dir. You have a hot plate that the other prisoners wire together to be able to cook food or boil water. I burned my legs from the waist down. Got burns.
There are ticks and mosquitoes and cockroaches. It’s not a pleasant place. So I was suffering physically. Hair loss, bleeding gums.
So after hearing the sentence. I essentially assumed if I stayd in that system I was going to die and wasting away. You have no control over anything in your life in prison.
The police, the guards, tehy tell you waht you can do - when you can use the bathroom, you can’t. You have to… I was lucky. They’d steal everything down to the toothbrush. But the books in English they wouldn’t touch. I read over 200 books. I did yoga and mediation every day. I practiced a lot of buddhism of nonattachement. After trial I made a dieciosn of “what do I have control over” and what don’t I have control over.
I had a son, my first born with special needs, down syndrome. Once a month you get a family visit. My wife was robbed many times coming to visit me. Even my own family I was not able to veto keep in touch with. But what I had control lf was me as a person and what’s important to me.
I made a decision to show up the way I want to show up in the space I’m at.
Id’ gone as a person of color int eh USA feeling like I didn’t have a voice. I couldn’t be represented here. I wanted to be around peopel who looked like me. Being dow there. I felt like I made a conscious decision that I am a child of the universe. And I belong if I choose to belong. My mindset switched and I decided what Wass important was to serve community. Help those around me.
Volunteer in peace fore, fire fighting, helping those around me.
I started teaching yoga, weight lifting to other prisoners. Coke hotels, fill with bottle. Rope with plastic. I used to work at a gym. I picked the biggest guys in there and showed them how to properly lift weights.
I had a blackbelt in taikawn do… teaching the defense moves to smaller guys. Triyng to help those around me, and that made me feel like I’m still me in prison.
genius mindset and advice. you know? finding yourself in any circumstance.
Obviously something went right - instead of 22 years there, your’e here now starting a business with a successful startup. What changed? What micracles happened that you went from this epdecien in jail, a hell hole to sy hte list, to now living the America dram of stating a business and enterprise.
I’m blessed to have a family that loves and supports me. My younger sisters, one is an attorney. They immediately took on ymcas, started a Facebook page. Civil litigation, she put her whole practice on hold, Still working, but the firm gave her enough leeway to take on my case. She built a coolition, but they spent over 700k securing g my freedom over 2 years. Raising capital, taking out loans. Putting on fundraising events. Some inheritance.
All of inheritance and everything towards his case. Built a cohelition that stated with Facebook, twitter, wikipedia, globally on the news. CNN, good morning America, today show. The strategy was media. The idea was - let’s put pressure on teh country so that them holding him in prison becomes a liability. Tourism is a big GDP for htem. For hte first 18 months the state wouldn’t touch it - it was a drug case, tough on the war on drugs. But no acountabilty for the toughness. So the state devpartment wouldn’t get involved until his sister one there.
If you dint’ support- I’ll say you’re leaving gan American to die in teh nicaraguan prison.
Then every day in the White House there’s prewritten statements about hat journalst will ask about. She wrote and planted a journalist - they got hte state department on record. Immediately removed, put in isolation.
Blessing to have a supportive family like that.
It took a year after the trial to get to an appellate level. Then a three judge panel annulled it. Then they let everyone in the case go. So then he’s seen guys in prison, they have their letter of freedom. If you’re a foreigner without a bus ticket or plane, you’re stuck in immigration. SO we didnt know after the court let him go, we didnt know how long it’d take to get out of prison. We were scared the police woudl rearrest me. They had a team on the ground there, took him out of the prison, hid him in a hotel, then went up - and then Anderson Cooper paid for him and everyone to fy and have the reunion to film the reunion.
That sounds like taken, instead of some little white girl it was you. says the emcee
omg. (and btw this guy ended up just hardly smiling for my entire presentation… i looked at him a few times while i was being brave/vocal - the guy who was being interviewed, not hte emcee hahah- maybe i liooked at him too)
-Then you’re on TV, tears, now what’s your view on life, peopel… it has now changed. Take us from there. 40lbs lighter, alopecia. Where do you go from there?
-He started to read a lot about climate change. He felt an urgency to do more. He had all these ideas of what he was going to do - and inspired by his sisters. These two sisters who were able to take their case to the highest levels in teh government in Nicaragua and the USA. So my scope of impact in the world shifted. Before, I was tutoring little kids. Volunteer, peace corp. Intentionl communities.. I’m thinking too small. I can have a voice, I just need to be strategic about how to have an impact.
Got an MBA as soon as I got out of business. I figured it out on my own. Lemme see how the rest of hte world does business.
Second quarter in, had to pitch my ideas as if it was a VC. One guy was arguing for the legality of industrial hemp. Everything he did was all around the hemp industry. How do you add value to the farmers. Best practice sharing, net zero manufacturing, waht end products can we produce cradle to cradle. Customer discovery, farmers want to pub seeds in the ground. Who will buy and process it. Focused on the demand side of the equation.
Focus on driving sustainable integrated supply chain. There is a barrier in the marketplace for chemical manufacturing.
Talk to customers. Is this important to you? How important? Is anything you know of as high performing as what you’ve seen?
Surround yourself with peopel smarter than you. Know enough to assemble the team and then get out of the way.
‘What do you need to see from us in order to get a bigger check?”
Your expertise is in building teams, right? Waht advice would you give to build a team that can last 11 years?
Think of yourself as a coach more than anything else.
My team, every person on my team, I try to make sure that I’m supporting them to be the best “them” that they can be.
Empower peopel to have balance and whatever is important for them to show up as their best self. Support them nad coach them in what needs to happen for the business, as a person or as a whole.
Having a stroke or wahtever it is… everyone has competing commitments. Recognize whole people, support them through the tough times… waht can you do? What can’t you do? Where can you fill in?
This is going to sound like a dad joke, but this is a real question. So as you started trying to build a hemp industry, a lot of peopel were afraid to go inot that industry. Liek cannabis when it was legalized. Does the fact you beat a drug chanrge in teh past, does it empower you
It taught me to not chase quick money.
Then everyone went into CBD and finding loopholes. Quick oversaturated money.
I wanted to stay away from any red tape having to do with the drug part, because of my case.
We were way ahead of even when the state legalized industrial hemp. We saw the writing on the wall that it was coming and we saw the legalization in Canada in i1998. So let just go buy it andready processed and bring it into the states. It’s not regulated by the DEA. No THC in it. Supply chain is here already. W don’t have to wait for regulation here.
Was hemp seed a marketing decision?
Yeah, cause the boom in the industry + the carbon sequestration of the crop.
Upstream to the farmers its an annual that gives multiple revenue streams from the same acreage. They don’t need to rotate crops.
Family question, two brothers, we never saved each others life. At thanksgiving do tehy remind you - liek “you shoudl cook, cause I saved your life” or everyone is now even again.
They don’t call in favors, but I feel in their debt and o whatevferi can to support them.
They’ve been so supportive, both sisters invested in the company.
- Now they help others get their lvoed ones out of prison. She speaks around teh innocence movement. I tell my story from the prisoner side. Usually we deal with lawyers that don’t hear my perspective. So tehy continent o invest or give me advice.
NEXT SPEEECH: SALON BOOKING
Their pictures and their team are shown. Under the hood. Pretty website. Scaling with Ai powered design matching, visual filtering, smart search. Experimenting with Ai tryones for selected nail designs.
Let your eyes be your inspiration source with the glasses on. Then we take it from there to find salons nearby and instantly book you. Get the services done. And livestream the whole experience.
We are starting with nails, making a whole beauty operating system for professionals. Enabling realtime content to beauty experiences.
Revenue will be based on booking commissions, brand partnerships, premium listings, booking consultations.
They’re raising a million to scale, tow the user base, and etc.
OMG can’t believe this girl is literally reading her script over on her phoneeee. Asking for a million dollars hahaha.
She got 18,000 salons. Scraped from sources, collaborated with salons. Have info onboarded. Yeah. And then tehy relied on public sourced data - like google maps, for entities information.
Currently they have zero revenue. Currently all premium, www want to prove to the clients (salons) that we can generate revenue and bring them customers. And then charge them.
Providing infrastructure into an existing industry and everything.
the organizer of this event said he’s literally impressed and surprised with her cause she’s doing such a good job and he heard her pitch this only months back and he’s surpirsed with how well its doing hahaha.
i mean, me too. i’m like whatthe heck? you can ready your speech off of a phone?
NEXT SPEECH: shoes that you can change hte bottom/heel.
Working hard to create footwear to help women. What she’d experienced in pain from wearing shoes
OMG she she a picture of her feet with sores and stuff all over it. Omg it’s liek pictures of her feet with all these sores on it. Omg hahaha. Omg. Waht a brave mood. Omg hahah. Gross right? But memorable. omg.
71% of women experience pain from wearing high heels. It leads to significant foot discomfort. Your high heel is more pressure on your foot. It causes significant pain.
Weight is redistributed in unhealthy ways, too. No middle ground with high heel and low heal and no middle ground. This footwear can transform to high heels to low heels in seconds. Change your heel from high to low instantly.
-Fold down shoes. You pull on and off your shoes. You carry around the heels. High heel + low heel sandals.
these were lame upon first glance, but then epic the more you looked at them. a bit expensive, but literalyl legendary.
Market size is 37.6B
USa and international patents held by her and herself. Medical doctor painters care about consumer’s wellbeing. It’s a game changer. And it is a go to msrket strategy. Online store. Digital marketing, isnstagram. Marking progress
Probably as time flies, grown margins can break even and extend/grow.
MY SPEECH:
These were my instant notes after:
I gave my presentation. It went pretty well. I kept cool and stayed confident and excited But yeah I told them that many companies are wolves in sheep’s clothing and they may not realize the messages they’re sending, so I’m working on creating the solutions .
One guy asked for a company that is doing this poorly and one doing it well. I said I don’t quite want to get into it right here. But (i siad more below), and then independent teachers are doing well.
Then after, a guy told me how he’s working to gamify financial literacy.
I said its oozing with perversion, symbolism, and grooming. And I don’t even know if the founders know what they’re getting themselves into .
I mentioned how sexiness probably won’t be a characteristic peopel keep debating kids content on or not.
IDK about this. It was kinda random.
i just will summarize it again here, a few days later:
I said that apps are a commodity, they’re not going anywhere. They’re like tier 1 - and they feed into our need to escape, as humans. No matter who you are or what circumstance… whether you’re running from the guilt of having it all (running marathons) or running from your problems into a beer or addiction… or just books, songs, whatever. Escapism is survival. So, what if our escaping can solve the root problem. Finances are the nubmer one root of stress and kinda all problems worldwide. So what if we turn screentime into ROI. I talked about how generations can learn all at once through this kids tv show. This is a multibillion dollar industry with a global market. The USA is epic at making kids brands. This was made to be a stab at the federal reserve, how we’ve been taken advantage of in our lack of financial understandings. It’s a chance to fight back and give power to people. How I have learned this for myself making money by understanding cultures and intentions (with dogecoin, netflix, amc/gme all in the past). I was nominated as a rising leader in the Women in Toys world and now I see ways to solve this. I also hear that “is it sexy or not” is a huge factor of waht sells in the kids industry. THe industry is oozing with symbolism and idk if people even realize it or not. But once you learn the language you se it everywhere, perverse, grooming, and terrible. So, I’m creating solutoins. I know it will work. Time on my content is an investment in your future and yourself.
one guy asked what it is exaclty that i’m making: i siad an app, online classes, on zoom - with teachers, it provides jobs, too.
one guy asked if i’m trying to be in schools, i said no, outside of schools to start.
one guy asked for an example of a perverse kids brand and one doing it right - i said (a popular kids cartoon tv show about a blue dog and its family) and then independent teachers are doing it right. THere is a huge market there.
A number of investors added me on linkeidn. I talked to a few people after, but mostly i was jolted and surprsied from that whole experience, and even surprised myself, so i left after and even took a taxi home. Which was kinda expensive (but not too bad at that time) but just felt so shocked. For real. By sorta, as I said, being Kelly Tutors IRL like that.
Kelly Tutors IRL Like That -
Kelly Tutors IRL Like That -
Elaborated Event Ratings:
Venue (4/5), this place is pretty great. i like to hang out here and it has good vibes (though it needs an outdoor area, in a dream magical world)
Food (4/5), they had lots of food and variety. even chocolate covered almonds, sandwiches, veggies, tea
Speaker Content (4.5/5), super interesting and full of info. they always have good speakers here!! how?
Networking (3.5/5), it was easy to meet people (and also not talk) hahaha.
Likeliness to Return (5/5), for sure. I like this place and its really amazing and I think it has a good community, but also its far from my house - and plenty of people in this place are literally in multibillion dollar industires that make like flashlights that can pick up soundwaves and stuff. I mean, i’ve seen crazy amazing presentations here. Military grade stuff hahahaha. So, you know. Maybe perfect for my epic kids tv show to save hte world and teach financial literacy/longterm thinking skills!!!
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time.
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
