Black Tech Nation Ventures Goes Live on Business as Usual

 

Transcription: 

So good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and 40. By 80, very thrilled to have our guests on today, this is definitely going to be action packed. And I'm thrilled to have an opportunity to talk with them. Just before I introduce the leaders at Black tech nation ventures, let me just make sure to give appreciation to all those that help us do this work. And of course, that's Huntington bank, I want to thank them for every time that they support us in every experiment. And here we are a year later, excuse me, and they are still supporting us, and making sure that we are reaching the community far and wide. They are very active in the Small Business Administration. They're one of the top that have been involved in all the PPP activities. And they also offer a lot of services. But if you don't know them, get to know them, because they are really civic minded and really care about the growth of the region. I also want to mention 40 by 8040, by 80 is the longitude and latitude of Pittsburgh. It's a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh tech Council. And that is where we focus on things like entrepreneurship. And soon, very soon, you're going to hear about apprenticeship program that we're running and expanding to make sure that we are reaching all kinds of people who so that they can be part of the new knowledge in, you know, technologies, companies, anywhere, pretty excited about that. And stay tuned, but you can go to our site as well. So we've muted your microphones, Jonathan kersting, is here with us. He is vice president of all things, media and marketing for the tech Council. And he's pretty well known for all of his storytelling and keeping his ear to the ground. So he is going to make sure that if people have questions, they can you know, ask them. I have a list of questions, of course, and I'm pretty thrilled to bring on our guests. I also want to tell you that the chat is not to be used for your you selling your wares. That's not what this is about today. It is only about our guests. So focus on our guests. That's what it's about, and hopefully we'll have a lively conversation. So I let's bring the team to the forefront from black tech nation ventures. They include Kalani Jasmine, hi, Kalani, David motley and Shawn Sebastian. This is a great treat to hear. And I can't wait to hear from each and every one of you about what you're up to. So why and what First of all, I want to make sure it's everyone. Everyone feeling good. Everyone. Okay. Being okay. During COVID thumbs up

living the dream.

Living the dream. It's been. It's been a year hasn't it for everybody. Right. But yeah, right. Good right now.

Yeah. Okay, great, David. You safe and sound. Okay. So let's talk about the why. And what is black tech nation black tech nation ventures? So who wants to take that first? Kalani? Do you want to start up a?

Good I'll take a first stab at it. So um, yeah, black tech nation started a few years ago when a look shortly after I moved here to Pittsburgh. And mainly it was honestly supposed to be like a coffee shop meetup for black techies to just nerd out together. To be honest. I was a new techie had gone through Academy, Pittsburgh software, boot camp. And you know, I just didn't see people who looked like me. And I knew that the new economic driving force for Pittsburgh, you know, in this new renaissance of the city was technology. And I see all these headquarters here of different technology companies. And I'm like, Where, where? Why don't I see people who look like me. And really, I just made a lot of noise to all the right people back in 2017. It was supposed to be black tech nation, or excuse me, black tech, Pittsburgh, that's what it started out. But then I started having people from all over the country now even the world at this point, who were like, Oh, my gosh, we need this like this is even though it's digital, it's like feels like a space where I can, you know, relate to people who look like me and nerd out with them and have you know, this camaraderie in the tech space amongst other black folks. And yeah, it just turned into an amazing organization that's been supported by pretty much every major foundation here in Pittsburgh. We've got partnerships with Google and talking to some other huge companies at this point to really expand what we're trying to do, which is fill in the gaps in all of the pipeline areas where the black community has an entryway into the tech industry. And I will kind of just stop there and kind of let shine I think continue with how black tech nation ventures was. But I will say the most important part of that is that Sean was my very first donor. It's a black tech nation. Oh, yeah. And has definitely mentored me since in both business and just kind of, um, I'm a big dreamer. And so he's kind of like reeled me in at times. And so it's been it's been a great relationship having him as a mentor and my first VC I've ever met. And so, yeah, let him kind of ask you how black tech nation ventures. That's great. That's great. And so you're still based in Pittsburgh? Yeah, I'm still here in Pittsburgh. Yep.

Okay, great. Thanks, Sean. So you want to pick it up from where Kalani left off?

Yeah. So the evolution from there is Kalani first popped her head up and started making noises. She said back in 17. Why aren't there more people who look like me. And I said, Come see me. This is interesting. We've long had within birch mirror an informal Rooney Rule sort of attitude. Anytime we've had a major opening and senior ranks of our companies, we try to find people of diversity and color as candidates with mixed success. But it's definitely something that resonated with me her message and what we were trying to do. And over the subsequent couple years to Claudia's point, she would come to me with a big idea every time we connected, and I kept saying, stay in your lane, let's execute, let's prove what you can do move on to the next thing in an orderly fashion. And then 2020 happened, right? Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, and I called her and I said, I think the world's come to you in a way. And this is, in fact, the right time to collaborate and raising a fund. And that's how the conversation started. We said, She's got this incredible network and resource and talent pool on the black technician side. I've got the birch Mir investment platform. Is there a common good? Is there a one on one is three sort of intersect here? And then I get called David and said, David, if I got an idea for you,

David. Okay, David, let's pass the baton. He opened up the door for you.

Thank you. And Audrey, I'll start by saying great show that Pittsburgh Council has been putting off for the last year. Congratulations. I know. That's no small undertaking. Sean is actually right. This inbound call came from my multi decade friend Sean saying, David, I'm gonna give you some background. But I want you to call this young lady named Kalani. And once you've talked to her, I want you to call me back. So I gave Connie a call, I met this bundle of energy that you've just seen and an incredible track record of execution against this vision that she started with three, four years ago, because a lot of people have those ideas, but very few people achieve the kind of traction that Kalani has with first with black tech nation, the community side. And being able to connect that to Carnegie Mellon and Google and other leaders in the tech, corporate community, and then building out not just a Pittsburgh based but national base, and then build on top of that, this idea that you could take that on that platform that foundation and bolt onto it, a venture fund. So I call Shawn back and said, Wow, shot, I think this is the real deal. I really think that there's the opportunity to do something really special. Thank you for inviting me into the tent.

So here we have the three of you, trio. I wasn't gonna say musketeers, but definitely the three of you. And you know, I think it's great to hear how you all met, and how that just got knitted together. But what let's imagine like a year from now, let's just take ourselves like a year from now, what do you what do you imagine black tech nation ventures? And I'll start, I'll pick on you Kalani because you're the you're the big dreamer. So what do you think a year from now we're going to be saying and doing? Yeah, next spring 2022?

Well, first of all, I hope we are if not all vaccinated, we are all out and about, we can actually meet with people and talk to companies and potential, you know, investor investment skews me. Um, so a year from now, I would hope that we are well underway of like investing in promising companies, I personally can't wait for that part. That's where I feel like I'm going to have the most excitement and impact just simply because of the network I've built through black tech nation, myself being an entrepreneur growing this organization from a napkin to now national, and just getting to, again, if you go to my original mission for starting black tech nation, it's like watching it all just kind of come to be where I can work with actual black techies like tech unicorns and entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and know that it's through our fun that we can help them see a dream that, you know, it's just not it's not normal for our community. It just isn't and it's unfortunate, but I'm just happy to have the platform to make it a normal thing now. And yeah, so investing, I would say definitely having a staff that's something we're going to we're going to be About very soon here, particularly because we want, Shawn and David told me when we first got together that their main mandate was honestly mentoring me and other people like me to become the next like, like, the next group of VCs in the venture space, right? That, you know, aren't the traditional, no offense, Shawn, but that look like Shawn, like, you know, we want, we want more diversity, and they want that too. And so I hope to have a staff of like really diverse leaders, women, minority, brown, Native American, whomever wants to be a part of it. And it's smart and ready to take this on. I just hope those are the two things that I really hope to see in the next to next year.

No, that's not great either. If you want to jump in on that,

I would love to jump into the vision for what will be true 12 months from now. One is that we initially target $50 million, as far raise reception that we've had during our quiet period, then we just went public with the article that came on Pittsburgh business lines about two weeks ago, my assumption that we received during our quiet period was so strong that I think we have a very good shot of raising a much larger find perhaps 2x. aspiration. So what I hope will be true next year is we're talking about $100 million fund, not a $50 million fund. Secondly, we know that the institutional dollars are going to dwarf the individual dollars that come into our fund. But another aspiration of ours is that we would have as many black and diverse LPs invested in our fund as we do majority and institutional investors. And we're well on our way towards that now we're tracking almost even return to the account the number of minority LPs that are investing as compared to the majority of institutional LPs. I think the other thing that we absolutely have a potential of creating here is that there is the connection of black tech nation to both LPs and deals outside of Pittsburgh. But I really think another possibility for black tech nation ventures is to connect those external companies and opportunities and networks to Pittsburgh, and have this community of black and diverse founders and other sources and resources thinking of Pittsburgh in a very different way than they thought about this work before the what what was so apparent to Kalani when she looked around and saw CMU head, all the tech presences here and said, Wow, what a resource. I think that that wow is still out there for the rest of the country to understand what a big opportunity there is to connect and leverage all the things that the residents here in Pittsburgh.

Sean, you want to pipe in on that?

I'm not allowed to add to that. I think that the vision is there, the opportunity is there. I think this is sort of more of what I personally been doing for many years now, but with more focus and intent. And candidly now with an unfair advantage in the market of being able to attack tech access the black tech nation platform of these hundreds and hundreds of black and other diverse entrepreneurs that are capital sources, idea sources, talent sources, deal flow sources that we're going to have exclusive access to. So we're really excited, but we're gonna build.

I think it's great. And one thing I just want to make sure that this is not this fund is not only focused on Pittsburgh, is that correct? True.

Right, right. So right, we hope to elevate Pittsburgh in the stack of tech companies, venture capital source companies, right, currently fly the flag is this is our home, but we'll be investing nationally for sure.

Yeah. And to kind of just add to that, um, when I first started like tech, Pittsburgh, and I was very much so focused locally. Once I saw all of the interests nationally, a lot of my mentors in here said, you know, keep it focused, keep it on Pittsburgh. And I think I just had a different idea. I was like, No, no, no, no, no, like, this needs to be national. So the spotlight can be put on Pittsburgh. And then we could start to bring in more people in having a network of folks that the native black community here can also use to build them up. And I just felt like it could be as much larger connection point. And so we didn't stop that hole, that we didn't stop that idea with black ignition ventures is the same thing. And so why not utilize the national network that we have now?

For sunshine at Kalani, one of the most amazing things happened last week, as a client was coordinating our look see where we might be able to tap into marketing skills for black tech nation.

I didn't know if you're gonna say

the last Last week, Kalani set up a call for us. That was amazing the skill set the background experience and digital marketing and marketing for our fund. And that call was to a resource, then hold on to your hats, Rwanda. And it looks like there's some real traction possibility is when you begin to think about what could be true 12 months from now, when you think about black tech nation ventures, and the possibility of connecting not only our fund, but Pittsburgh to really kind of the International landscape of talent and resource. This, this could be a really big story.

Well, actually, you think about Carnegie Mellon's presence in Rwanda. So the ties there are just pretty natural. And I've been so impressed with the students that have come out of Rwanda, and the work that they've done, I've been to a couple of those graduations, and just that, you know, blown away. So that's, that's just perfect for us. So I was going to ask a question about the types of companies that you invest in Courtney, is a little bit ahead of me, she's saying, Are you industry field agnostic? My question was, you know, stage business model, geography exit excetera, can you talk about that, like, what the the profile might be, I mean, I, I realized that you're not going to stick, you know, within all those guardrails, but at least give us an you know, some understanding of your target.

Happy to do that. So with respect to stage, we absolutely want to play early. And we want to play a bad seed pre series a blank tables that people put on that now. But perhaps the the umbrella that falls on Knaresborough, we absolutely want to be first doors, and if not close the first dollars in terms of the size of the checks that we're going to write here. And then $200,000 to a million dollars first checks, and then an ability to protect our position as the company matures and earns the right to continue to play. With respect to industry and sector, we're absolutely going to be looking at what we might call more broadly tech enabled companies, specifically software related, and companies that have either SAS Enterprise systems, B, the B, B, the B, the C. And then there's there's an interesting placeholder out there for companies that are creating new marketplaces that still fall into the tech enabled space. And those are going to be very, very interesting for us as well. And then we've already talked about geographically that we will absolutely be looking at the hometown for opportunities, but the net that we're going to cast will be at least national, if not potentially International. Yeah, I'd expand on that. Just to be

clear, we are looking for top tier venture quality companies and top tier venture quality returns, we hope to be in the upper echelon on both of those, we're looking for multi 100 million dollar exit opportunities, companies that are really dent in the universe.

And so that can be a cost. I mean, we have a very community here. But that can be across almost every market sector. And any kind of technology is like a propensity in any area. Or, you know, like, will you be in life sciences, we be in, you know, medical device. That's,

that's a really good point, Audrey, and one of the things that will be a focus for us is we want to be capital efficient. I'll call them short tail opportunities. So typically talk about why sciences talk about capital intensive long tail opportunities, where if you're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars to get across the finish line, looking at something that's probably better measured in five to seven to 10 years to achieve an exit, we're looking at business models that potentially get from startup to exit and less than $40 million in total capital, and potentially have timelines that are measured in that call them 1836 to potentially 48 months, not not the three yards in a cloud of dust, if you will, opportunities. And then building on what Sean said, there's going to be a lot of great entrepreneur opportunities, they're going to cap out at 510 million dollars in revenue. those businesses are going to generate great well and lifestyle or their founders. But those aren't going to map into the kind of things that black tech nation ventures is going to invest in scale and scalability will be critical. So looking at things that had the ability to drive 100 plus million dollar top line, revenue, requisite bottom line performance. Last point of turn over the mic is to say things that fall into that pure entrepreneur. real space but don't fall into attracting institutional dollars can still have room with us that they will be on the black tech nation side. So the community side of our car collective, not on the measures.

Let's talk about that Kalani. Can you talk about that differentiation? Yeah. So

they are completely separate entities. I mean, we we make that very clear, I have to personally make that clear. The only thing that's tying the two is me. Um, however, it is an umbrella, right? Like it is an ecosystem, which is what I had set out to do from the very beginning. And I think the great part and kind of what David alluded to is, again, we have like this pipeline issue from exposure to tech all the way through funding. And so when we have as, as we grow our black tech nation, that community and all of our programs and partnerships to mitigate some of those gaps, to have this like funding part where, say, an entrepreneur isn't quite ready to be funded by btn B, like you're just not quite there yet, instead of what traditionally happens with our community, and traditionally happens with black LED and minority led startups, they get the no don't understand why it's hard, because of history and trauma and things like that not to think was a cousin This is because I'm black is because I'm a woman, like you just never know, here, at least black entrepreneurs and minority I mean, leaders of color can know that that's not the reason like at the end of the day like that is something that can be a concern taken off of you. And that in of itself is like beyond value. And I have to know that that's not the reason and for us to kind of say okay, well, you're missing ABC and D, go across the streets of black tech nation, right? You have a network of people, we're actually in talks of starting an accelerator and some other like really poor programming that can help fill in the gaps for these entrepreneurs that might not be ready for us on this side. And that part I'm particularly I think, is what sets us apart, but I'm particularly personally grateful about is that we don't just say no, and like, send them on our way we'll do what happened,

which is what we hear, which is what we what we hear that all the time. No, we'd like to mentor you. That's not that's not exactly what we're what we're talking about here. So do you plan on? Okay, I think there's some questions here. Why don't why don't we jump to a couple of questions? What about Mark Freeman's questions? Awesome. Can we get to that?

Yeah, exactly. So as a black tech nation ventures continues to grow, would there be opportunities for collaborations with similarly minded arts organizations thinking of like the August Wilson Center, Pittsburgh playwrights Theatre Company, etc. Um, in terms of considering signature fundraisers to raise awareness funds, and I guess fundraisers for your organization being a win win for the local Pittsburgh Arts in nonprofits?

I can take a stab at that one, particularly because I love the art, obviously, Wilson Center. I love the arts. I was a ballet dancer for 17 years. So totally my world. And I actually last year, I was actually talking to August Wilson about how do we marry like art and tech, right. And unfortunately, with COVID, I kind of you know, like, we all kind of lost our minds a little bit last year. So it was a little too much, but definitely a conversation I'm hoping to continue. And that would definitely that would probably be more so on the black technician community side. And that would be tmb, as we're definitely trying to stay focused on tech companies and high net high growth tech companies at that. And so yeah, on the community side, I'm always thinking of how do we pair in all of the areas and industries of interest for our community, which art is a huge part of the black community. So for sure, definitely. email contact at Black tech nation COMM

The coolest things the tech council everyday going back a few years, art and tech intersect. Genius. He was brilliant. And I think we three August Wilson, hey, we'll be PTC need to have a conversation down said.

So I appreciate everyone for the record. Sean Sebastian just called me brilliant. And this has been

so full disclosure. I've known Audrey as long as it's been at the Council, I was on the search committee that brought her to the council. Let me take your pick.

You've been a good champion. I cannot complain one bit, but we'd love to circle back on that, you know, that's near and dear to my heart. So if there are ways for us to do that, besides just being on boards, but really creating that kind of collaboration, we have the assets here we have the assets here. Carnegie Mellon on the art side, you know, Point Park, both really so you can count me in on that one song. Okay. So what about what about people who want to invest? Can we talk about that? Are we allowed to talk about that now? Yeah.

People want to invest in the fund. Hmm. Which means Absolutely, yeah. So the rules and all that have changed dramatically in the last few years, there were lots of strictures on patients. We have a website of btn.vc. And there's a be a friend of the funds click through. And if anybody wants to hear the story in further detail, we'd be delighted to talk to them. To David's point, we're seeking as diverse an investor base as we are a diverse portfolio. So we would welcome the conversations.

So what anything about Berkshire? What's going on with your former hat at Berkshire? Yeah, so

I'm still wearing the hat. Birchbox still does what it does, we are at the tail end of our fifth fund, it's fully committed, invested. So serendipitously, we're in a window between funds of not making new investments. So that gives me a little bit of license to come out and do something new and fresh, and I have some excess capacity. And we also have the opportunity to lend the Birchmere back office to this fund. There's this first time fund risk profile that a lot of institution a like oh, you know, we don't know if this is going to work, you're gonna have to build everything from scratch. That's not true in this instance. So I think we have a lot of behind the scenes resources that can get btn vi off to a fast start, but Bertram is going to keep doing what it does and the normal course of affairs.

Okay, that's great. So I want to go back to Kalani, there's one piece that I think is really important for people to know about your background, you just skimmed it, but you worked with Academy Pittsburgh, can you just talk about about that experience. I think that's really important.

It's so important. And just special shout out to Josh and that whole family over there at work car Pittsburgh, Josh Lucas. So I actually just a quick background, I lived in North Dakota, that's a we can do a whole nother event about that in and of itself. But I lived in North Dakota prior to moving to Pittsburgh. And I remember I was living in my sister's living with my sister, I was like kind of in between careers at the time just really didn't know where I wanted to really be. And my sister's mentor who was head of global marketing at Microsoft at the time, she'd known him forever. He said, If your sister's in between things right now tell her they need black women in tech, like she should get into tech. And so I'm like, no, that does not sound fun at all. And that was my honest reaction. And, um, you know, just because I hadn't been exposed to it, I didn't know much about it. And I looked at boot camps ended up finding some little boot camp in Pittsburgh, I was like Pittsburgh, okay. So I call, I call and Josh answered, who I didn't know at the time would be an amazing person in my life. But he said, Yep, you can get here. Come on down. You know, we'll have a spot for you. I said, so I'll just have to move to Pittsburgh in two weeks. And he's like, yeah, I can get here. So I packed my bags and moved to Pittsburgh in two weeks about a distant cousin that I stayed on, I stayed on their couch for a bit and just went to Academy Pittsburgh to learn to code for three months, and literally got a six figure job in my very first job right out of that book boot camp. And it changed my life, like obviously, right, like, here we are today. But I just saw applied with Josh in Academy, Pittsburgh, and built in the city as far as boot camps, and would highly recommend anyone who wants to learn to code. Like I send all of our people there if they want to learn to code in Pittsburgh.

So it looks like Kalani, Lauren might have jumped in a little late. I know, we covered some of this, but can you read her question? She's saying can you talk more about the benefits of having a like black tech nation, even though we covered some of it? And what are some of the common questions that you hear? I think we covered most of that. But if you want to just reiterate, for Lauren? Sure, Lauren, thank

you for the question. I think, you know, as we indicated, having this black existing black tech nation, we call it our hashtag, digital Wakanda. That's what we have our members call it but our digital Wakanda um, you know, having that as a community space, and which is digital, but like people from all over, and then tying it in with a funding arm, I think they should ventures, again, that that connects of having direct funding opportunity for entrepreneurs, which your second question was about, like, what are the biggest concerns that I often hear? And it is around capital, especially for the entrepreneurs? And just around access? And how do I get a tech job? And how do I stay? Like, how do I move up in tech? And what do I need to learn what like, it's just there's a lot of questions, simply because the black community unfortunately, historically has not been educated in the tech space at all, really. And so yeah, having this community I think the benefit is multiple, like, there's so many benefits to having a space and programs and opportunities and education and people who look like you and just camaraderie, we have happy hours. We you know, we drink a little and you know, and just talk about tech stuff. So, yeah, I think that's what it is a big family. It's a big family.

And it matters to have that kind of collaboration and collegial you moved to Pittsburgh. And what so now you're here. What do you think?

So it will be five years next month. What do I think about Pittsburgh in five years? Okay, so I'm not gonna lie. When I first got to Pittsburgh, the only thing I knew was the Steelers. That's all I knew. And I don't even really follow football. So I didn't know much. My very first thought when I literally when I landed here was, it is so beautiful here, I had no idea that, like, I was like, people don't know how pretty Pittsburgh is, I was so shocked. And once I told my family, I was actually going to stay because I saw the opportunity, especially in tech, I saw the opportunity to fill in the gap of black tech in the cities, but specifically, they were like, why would you stay in Pittsburgh? Like what's there and I was like, honestly, there's a great well intentioned community here. Like, I've gotten to know a lot of leaders here in the city, you know, everyone from city council members to Carnegie Mellon, people and all of these people, you know, Adri, yourself included, like, who really want to do the work is just figuring out how to do it. And I saw that potential here. And I'm like, you know what I'm saying, we're gonna figure this out. And I'll help do whatever I can't, because I just think Pittsburgh has the perfect, like, mix of everything to make it a great city. It's just we just, were just like, right there.

Like,

I think it's a little bit wider than right there. No, no, I

mean, like, right there in the sense of like, we're just like, right there to the city and like a national example. well intentioned conversations can actually lead to, that's the part I'm waiting for. It's like, let's actually like, right, and I think we can we can get there?

Well, I would like us to get as a city and as a region, to have the positive stories about what it's like, for a person color to be here, and not the inverse stories, right. And I would like to, because there are people like all of you that deeply care and are trying to move the needle and a lot of people that are on this call as well. I do want to give like a shout out to Josh Lucas, not because because he really was an early adopter and passionate about driving this boot camp that they have at Academy PGH and embedding himself into the Allentown community when everyone else was moving into the East End, and said, We can't leave people behind. And he has lived those words, we actually are starting in a new printing program at the tech Council, which will include a good partnership with with Academy Pittsburgh, so we're pretty excited about that. So listen, we we could talk to you folks for quite a while. And I want to be sensitive to everyone's time. But let's Is there anything, David, that you wish that I would have asked or that we would have talked about that maybe I I failed to do. You're on mute, you're on mute.

Thank you. I think the one thing that we haven't touched on, but I believe is unique about the space in which black tech nation ventures operates, is the fact that capital coming into black and diverse founding teams, has been something that's been pursued for a while. But I think with the advent of what happened in 2020, there's just a lot of tension and energy and resource flowing into the space. And the nature of the opportunity is one that i i believe is best described as one of collaboration. Perhaps in contrast to the venture fund world, in general, where sometimes there is the reputation of being a highly competitive marketplace with respect to both sourcing capital and sourcing deals. What we have found in our first four months of advancing black tech nation ventures, is that with respect to both sourcing capital and sourcing deals, and I believe we're going to find in lots of other ways, the opportunity is not one to compete with other players in the space, rather want to collaborate and try and find a way to close to equal sets. So I think that's a big part of the message that I want to make sure that we convey to the Pittsburgh marketplace.

It's great. Thank you. What about anyone else? Any any? Can anyone reach out to you three other ways if they go on to LinkedIn? Can they reach out to you?

LinkedIn and the website has all of our emails on there and there's a forum to just go and send all of us a message, okay, etc, etc.

A word of caution. We are drowning in this at the moment. Early reaction to the proposition has just been overwhelming. So be patient what will happen Please engage with everybody possible, but it may take a little bit of time to get personal.

Okay, that's great. So is there anything else that you think you want to give a shout out about? I mean, other than you should be proud, excited. We are. You're shining the light on Pittsburgh for sure. So we're all grateful for that. And the amount of contagion that's already taken place has been, you know, phenomenal. So again, you're shining the light on Pittsburgh, is there anything else that you want to make sure people know?

Um, you know, black women make 10% the wealth of white men, it really takes intentionality in this space. Like for those who are listening, who could be potential LPs, who want to invest in something that is not only just a potential moneymaker, obviously, like we we're not a charity fund, it's a real fund, we want to see financial gains, however, to do that work of like, closing that gap, that 10% 100, you know, to that 10% gap is just like it and for the black community as a whole minorities as a whole, like generational wealth building is so important. Closing that wealth gap is so important. And so that's literally if you're trying to make a difference, while also saying returns like, I don't think anyone else is really positioned the way we are in the space to do so.

Great, excellent. Well, we just did a little bit of a deep dive with three people who are changing the course of our exposure and making sure that minorities and people of color and you know, gender differences are all have a seat at the table and building, you know, building wealth, and building wealth creates equity. And that's, that's the real deal dollars matter. And so I applaud all of you. Thank you, Kalani. Thank you, Shawn, for being a mentor to Kalani and being behind the scenes on this. And thank you, David, for continuing to make sure that Pittsburgh really is a place because this is the time this is the time is now. Yeah. So thank you all for being with us today. expect that your inbox will increase. I'm sorry, but it will. We really look forward to hearing more from you. So thank you all so much, Jonathan, who do we have tomorrow?

Tomorrow's gonna be very exciting. Audrey. We're welcoming the Center for Women's Entrepreneurship at Chatham University. So it's a great follow up to this. Well,

totally. Thank you all. Thank you.

Council.

Yeah.

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