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The Impact Mentors Podcast

By: Impact Mentors
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  • Summary

  • The Impact Mentors Podcast is a space where critical conversations are had to collaborate with thought leaders who seek to dismantle the roadblocks that obstruct the minority entrepreneurial ecosystem from accessing capital by building stronger social capital networks in the process.
    © 2021 Impact Mentors
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Episodes
  • Impact Mentors: a chat with Karim Fugel

    Impact Mentors: a chat with Karim Fugel
    Aug 19 2021
    Simone: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Simone Tarantino managing partner at impact mentors, and I'm here with my business partner and co-founder Donald Pollard. In today's podcast, we're talking with Karim Fugel, Chief Business Development Officer for several startups, angel investor, and mentor at the ERA accelerator in New York, as a guest in our series about accelerating the success of minority-funded companies in the US. Karim, thank you so much for being with us.Karim: It's my pleasure, Simone. S: Let's just jump right in, you've been part of the startup ecosystem for a while, you work in New York, you’ve worked in LA, how have you seen it evolve in this time?K: I have seen many changes, as far as the emphasis on supporting underrepresented founders. And so there are, and the needle is moving slowly, towards more investment in female-founded businesses, in more investment in minority founded businesses. Not enough progress. But there the discussion is being had on several platforms. And so it's encouraging, but we all need to do a bit more.S: I think you touched a very important point about underrepresented founders, minority founders, and how the global ecosystem not just in the US, and the global ecosystem, has to react and has to react fast, is doing something we saw data about investment in female-led companies, growing in, minority-led companies growing, it's still a number of sort of very low. So the action is needed to go faster. And we need to do way more in that direction. What what's your take on that? K: I agree, 100%. And if we do see the growth of VCs, certain funds that are focused on those particular areas, Female Founders Fund, I mean, there are many that we could mention, she loves tech, which is a great organization that provides the opportunity for women-founded startups to pitch and be part of this global equal ecosystem. And so it those are positive strides. And as the investment comes from those types of VCs or investors, that also provides the kind of viewpoint for the founders to have something to strive towards, and to someone to connect with that is of like, minded to them and like being, culturally. And I think that helps. And it actually also just opens up the minds of all the millions of people in the world who have wonderful ideas, and don't know how to carve that path towards trying to start a new business. So there, again, progress and these great VCs and businesses that are built to support this ecosystem. So it is great to see that but obviously more progress and more room to for others to enter, and start to motivate and just keep that wheel turning. Donald: So Karim, you work with She1k, a female lead organization that supports each future female leader. You know, can you tell us a little bit about how they help the overall female entrepreneurial ecosystem? K: Absolutely. It's a very unique organization. So the founder, Christina is from Singapore. And she just had a mission to kind of really get involved in the startup world and make a difference after her success, and just shows you the power of one woman to have a mission. Just kind of fearlessly dip our toe into this world and see what would happen. And that's exactly what she did. And the most interesting story is we connected over LinkedIn, her content was very motivating to me and I felt very aligned with her. And she came to New York, and I said to her via LinkedIn, hey, if you ever come to New York, I would love to support you and help you. And so we connected that way she pre COVID it was putting on these events called Women changemakers. And that content just was so aligned with so many women. That's just kind of putting it out organically, she attracted a credible number of women. And she comes from the corporate world. And so she really wanted to support women in corporate to grow. So that's one piece of what she created. And then the other piece of She1K is, is an investment arm is, she calls it labeled it a shark tank. So it's a pitching event, and how they've, they're in, I've done several rounds now and are investing in all types of founders, but with a focus on helping women who grew up in corporate, and never even thought of being part of the startup ecosystem, that, that they never thought they could utilize their savings and their income, to be involved in this world to have exposure to all of the newness and ingenuity that's coming up through the startup world. You know, it's kind of like, I'm in the corporate bubble. This is what I do, you know, and thought, Well, what do you do if your savings you in maybe invest in real estate or travel or whatnot. And so she's opened their eyes to this whole other world that they were never exposed to, and has brought them in to be part of having the ability to invest in these startups.
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    39 mins
  • Impact Mentors: a chat with Mark Anthony Thomas

    Impact Mentors: a chat with Mark Anthony Thomas
    Aug 5 2021
    In today's podcast, we're talking with Mark Anthony Thomas, President at Pittsburgh regional Alliance as part of our series accelerating the success of minority-funded companies. Impact mentors, we believe there is value in creating meaningful dialogue around the actionable steps that our guests are working on to eradicate the systemic inequalities in our startup ecosystem. While symbol stands the working on achieving their short and long term goals, Mark as two decades of experience crafting and executing economic growth strategies, and cross-sector collaboration from New York City, Los Angeles in Atlanta, and now Pittsburgh, he led the city of Los Angeles effort to make neighborhoods more livable and served as director of the mayor's operation innovation team. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he was selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to serve as his first Senior Vice President of partnership. Establishing teams to foster and manage industry and international relationships and business attraction. S Mark, thank you, thank you so much for being with us today. M I'm happy to be here. S You've been to several places. And the last one was New York. Now Pittsburgh, how was the transition from New York to Pittsburgh being?M I would say what I like about the United States is that all of our cities are so different, right? So Pittsburgh is a lot smaller, but a lot more of a boutique place, meaning the technologies economy is very specific in regards to what is strong at. Whereas New York is kind of good at a lot of things. And it's just a metropolis and a way that very few places are so transitioning from there to here has been pretty sweet. It has allowed me to really delve deep into a place where I feel I can get my hands around much easier. D It's great. Well, from one Pennsylvanian to another I'd like to say welcome. I don't know if you know, but I'm originally from Harrisburg. So I'm happy to see you in Pittsburgh, you're doing some great work. So I have a quick question. I want to jump right into it. I would like to hear more about the startup ecosystem in Pittsburgh, how it's growing and in the space around helping minority entrepreneurs and startups. M Okay. Yeah. So I was gonna two different things, right. So from a purely economic perspective, Pittsburgh has a lot of what a lot of cities want, where it has great universities, great technology, great innovation. What it historically has not had is the commercialization and the ecosystem that really transforms those ideas into great companies. And so over the last few years, there's been a lot of intentionality change that, obviously, with Carnegie Mellon, University of Pitt, can we have 30 plus other universities, that's kind of a lot of opportunities to really bloom in a way that we've always wanted to hear, but it hasn't happened.And so kind of look for a number of IPOs, a lot of just announcements of things that are expanding, that really transform it into a bona fide competitive tech hub in a way that Boston or Raleigh, or Austin arein relation to bringing more black and brown founders in particular into our tech scene, we actually have a number of pretty prominent players, one that comes to mind is black techniques, and that really cultivate diversity in our local ecosystem. And I would say obviously, over the last year, nearly everyone from the VCs to the companies to the public sector evolved made investments to further ensure that we're equitable and our tech economy. D Yeah, I can recall a few years ago doing some research around the venture space in comparison to Pittsburgh and other markets like Philadelphia, that Pittsburgh had more exits than any other city in the state. And the retention around that talent is definitely growing as well. Can you speak a little bit about that? M Yeah. So actually, in lead, through my role are reasonably talented, and we're considered export market.We have a lot of students, a lot of people who go to school here and graduate but haveHistorically left for other markets with New York actually being one of those tough markets. And so now we're trying to be very intentional to keep entrepreneurial talent, student talent, talent that can really help companies scale and grow from leaving insurance people know about the opportunity here. But I will say you have to be very active and have initiatives and be very thoughtful and making sure that happens, or else people will display to the main brand mark is innocent and cover mine. S So that's actually one of the biggest problem of, you know, what we call like, secondary and tertiary cities, where, you know, it's it's the ecosystem that has a problem of retaining talent. And it's specific, you know, minority tolerance. So all the activities that are being, you know, that you kind of described are meant to retain the talent, is there anything specific for minorities, or is about retaining the global talent that you have in the seat, ...
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    34 mins
  • How Supporting The Minority Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Creates Value

    How Supporting The Minority Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Creates Value
    Mar 1 2021

    Addressing the systemic inequality in capital access has to be goal number one of the startup world after the pandemic. What can investors, entrepreneurs and global, and local leaders do to help?

    The Impact Mentors Podcast is willing to find answers to these questions, discussing ideas, new projects, and innovative solutions. Helping funding the minority entrepreneurial ecosystem is a value for the business development of everyone. Here is why and what we can do about it.


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    11 mins
Leadership Economics Social Sciences
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