the needs in the marketplace ( for ) families … affected by food allergies , because she was able to study the market ( and ) realize there weren ’ t a lot of choices , and it was also a huge business opportunity . When I met her , she was literally selling ( vegan ) cookies out of her car .
Fast forward to 2019 when we started investing in her company . She was raising a million dollars , and we invested , Jay-Z came in with $ 600,000 and closed out the round . … Fast forward to December of 2020 , she is in every Target store in America . She is rolling out in Trader Joe ’ s across the country . She finished last year with almost $ 4 million in sales . Rihanna became an investor last year as well . The artist H . E . R . came on as an investor . The company is now seen as a national success story — great brand , healthy cookies and snacks sold everywhere you can imagine , great team , great business messaging in the marketplace .
We were able to get in early in that company and will do very well later when that company is sold or goes public . All of that stemmed from being at a pitch competition in Raleigh , North Carolina .
In terms of Sacramento ’ s innovation and startup ecosystem , from your perspective , what is good about it , or what is still lacking ? I think what ’ s good about it is the people who lead the various parts of the ecosystem are a close community and have a shared vision and work really well together . I work and consult and travel and have companies all over the country , and part of the biggest problem in a lot of other markets is their ecosystem is very fragmented . In Sacramento , it ’ s the exact opposite . …
What ’ s lacking is significant institutional capital commitments . We ’ ve got a lot of high-net-worth individuals in Sacramento who believe in that ecosystem and are making great investments in companies and small funds . But what we need is the corporate culture to start to step up , because we ’ ve got so many corporate headquarters here that have control of such significant capital that if they came to the table , making significant capital commitments to the innovation ecosystem , this place could be like any of the rapidly emerging tech and innovation hubs that we see in different parts of the country .
We have a new administration in the White House . What should be the role of government when it comes to entrepreneurship ? I think it ’ s three things . It ’ s really simple . The first is convening ( people ) … doing the White House summit on venture capital , doing the White House summit on emerging fund managers … because it ’ s such a validation . It brings people together , and it helps us in the marketplace because it gives us credibility .
The second thing is working with us on policy . What are the things that ( we ) need that will help in what ( we ’ re ) doing ? For example , Mariah Lichtenstern , here in Sacramento , who ’ s the head of DiverseCity Ventures , has been one of the leading advocates in terms of changing the policy around accredited investors . Before , you had to have made $ 200,000 a year to be able to make equity investments . So that literally eliminated huge swaths of people who may have been able to invest but didn ’ t make that income requirement . She ’ s one of the leading advocates on that policy change . The new administration can help us with creating the kind of policies that are going to be more conducive to the kind of work that we want to do and need to do .
The third is just a very deliberate focus on getting our entrepreneurs government contracts . Because our entrepreneurs are doing everything from business intelligence to SaaS ( software as a service ) products to cybersecurity to virtual reality to communication . There ’ s so many different verticals that we invest in , and for our entrepreneurs to be getting government contracts would be a huge boost to those companies . Because , again , it ’ s not just the contract value of working with the United States government , but it ’ s also the validation which then allows you to get other deals with everybody else .
Your public-speaking bio says you speak about “ encouraging diverse audiences to think differently about social inclusion and technology .” How should people be thinking about these things ? It goes back to what we were talking about earlier . If you ’ re looking at the problem being : How do we get Facebook to hire more Black people ? That ’ s a certain frame within which you think ( about ) the problem and how the problem can actually be solved . If you ask the question : How do we create a Facebook , created by and led by a woman of color ? That puts you in a completely different arena . And that ’ s what I challenge people to do , to say , let ’ s think about these issues , challenges and problems in a completely different way . Let ’ s ask different questions . And then let ’ s create different ways to get where we want to get to .
I ’ m less interested in how … we get Facebook to hire more Black people than I am interested in creating more technology companies that are founded by , led by and funded by African American folks . … I challenge us to ask different questions and to reframe conversations that we ’ ve been having for decades that haven ’ t led us to solutions , with the goal to empower people , because if we ’ re looking for the government to change things , or we ’ re blaming other sides , then we stay in the same place . But if we ask different questions and come from a frame of reference where we have the agency to actually create the change , then you have the power to create the reality that you want to live in , in a society that you want to live in .
Edited for length and clarity .
Sena Christian is managing editor of Comstock ’ s . Online at www . senachristian . com and on Twitter @ SenaCChristian .
May 2021 | comstocksmag . com 25