EPISODE 71: VENTURE CAPITAL AND REPRESENTATION WITH JUSTIN KAN
MEET: JUSTIN KANG
Justin Kang is currently a general partner with Visible Hands. He was most recently the Vice President of Economic Growth for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce where he oversaw strategic initiatives focused on talent attraction and retention, industry growth, and racial equity in the private sector.
In addition, he was the Executive Director of City Awake - a program of the Boston Chamber - which serves as the regional platform to empower and mobilize the next generation of talent. He has been named as a “Top 25 Emerging Leader of Color” and "Top 100 Most Influential Leader of Color" by Get Konnected!, and as one of “The Next Generation of Powerful People in Boston” by Boston Magazine. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Brandeis University.
He spends his free time reading in the morning, playing chess, and plotting to start a farm one day.
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Takeaways
As a child of immigrant parents who owned small businesses but struggled to build a comfortable life for our family, I often get apprehensive about my choice to go into entrepreneurship.
Justin Kang, our guest on the podcast today, taught me in our conversation together that many of these feelings of helplessness and imposter syndrome aren't the result of our lack of talent or work ethics. Yet these feelings are incredibly pervasive throughout underrepresented communities because we are just that — underrepresented.
The system simply isn't set up for us because of our "otherness." There are still systemic and structural barriers that reject otherwise talented and creative people from pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams.
I'm so excited to have you tune into our conversation because Justin talks about what VC means, how it's changing representation for the better, what Visible Hands and similar investing companies are doing to empower people of color to become entrepreneurs, and why it’s valuable to be vulnerable, real, and transparent about the struggles entrepreneurs face.
We also explore:
Transcript
Judy Tsuei 00:00
Okay, who among you is an entrepreneur, and how many of you have gotten venture capitalist funding? I didn't even realize what that was. My parents were small business owners, but always struggling to the point that, you know, when I was in junior high, our phone line would get disconnected. And I'd have to explain to my best friend B, why we couldn't talk on the phone and trust me, B and I talked for hours, we just have the phone on and hang out with each other after school.
Judy Tsuei 00:35
And I'm so grateful for her that a decade and a half later, or whatever it was, when I was living in Taiwan, she happened to have moved from New York to the Philippines, and was running her family resort. So when I had to get divorced from my husband, she saw that that was happening, because I post about it on, you know, my private Facebook group. And then she invited me to go over there with my daughter. And it was very much life changing, and life saving. And just to have someone who watched out for me, who kind of took care of things when I just felt like the whole world was crumbling down.
Judy Tsuei 01:09
I remember sleeping beside my daughter in her daughter's bedroom and just feeling terror, like what is going to happen, what's gonna come next. And I distinctly remember one moment when we were out to lunch at one of her friends restaurants, where I was there with my daughter, she was there with her two kids, her friend recently had had a young daughter. And, you know, they saw me with Wilder and asked, What are you doing here? And I'm like, Well, I'm trying to figure out about how to get divorced. And this other mom said, you can't get divorced, what about your daughter, and it was so heartbreaking to me in that moment, because it encapsulated all of my fears, all of the cultural and familial impressions that you're supposed to stay together no matter what to create a healthy dynamic.
Judy Tsuei 01:51
And thankfully, my friend B, who was always so outspoken, looked at her friend and said, This is the very best thing she could do for her daughter. And it was just this moment of deep kindness and, you know, feeling stood up for when I didn't have the words. And as a writer, you know, that it's rare that I don't have the words to be able to express the things that I'm feeling. So when I was talking to her husband, as well, you know, he ran this very successful startup, this blog that I actually had my blog when I was living in China on it's how I started getting 1000s of readers a day, it was called Venga. And she ended up marrying him. And together, they have been very successful entrepreneurs.
Judy Tsuei 02:36
You know, the crowds that they were running in New York were very different from what I was used to. So I think that those conversations around money, were just very different from my conversations around money, my conversations around money, we're that debt that you know, the shame and the guilt and remembering seeing my dad on the roof in our house in LA trying to repair it with my cousin's, while there was a crazy rainstorm. So as you can imagine, I didn't know anything about funding, I didn't know until I started working in the startup space, and hearing all of these people talking about series, a funding and just things that were not even in my vernacular.
Judy Tsuei 03:15
So if you haven't yet listened, I would highly encourage you to go listen to Natalie Molina Nino's interview that I did with her. She talks a lot about this a lot about you know, how to educate yourself how to become better informed. And that's why we are so excited to be talking to Justin King, who is most recently the vice president of economic growth for the greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, where he oversaw strategic initiatives focused on talent attraction and retention, industry growth and racial equity in the private sector.
Judy Tsuei 03:46
He was the executive director of city awake, which serves as a regional platform to empower and mobilize the next generation of talent. And he has been named as a top 25, emerging leader of color, top 100, most influential leader of color, and one of the next generation of powerful people in Boston. The reason that I found out about Justin is because he created this organization called visible hands. And it's all about helping to fund bipoc API, marginalized populations in bringing their dreams to light by giving them the resources that they need, and also serving as an accelerator, incubator kind of program.
Judy Tsuei 04:26
So I had applied, I made it through several rounds. And then I didn't get in in the end, but I did reach out, which was very uncomfortable and find out why I didn't make it. And so that's when Justin reached back out to me and, you know, gave me feedback that was very constructive and helpful. And just saying like you rated very highly, I think you just needed a clear idea that was more rooted in tech, and I highly encourage you to apply again. And so that's how we got into this conversation where I mentioned that I have this podcast and I would love to interview him.
Judy Tsuei 04:56
I'd love to hear his story as his parents were immigrants and how He got into the space of VC funding. So if all of these topics are also words that you didn't know, or that seemed very intimidating, then I'm excited for you to listen to today's interview because he breaks it down in different ways to make it much more accessible to understand the systemic problems, and to really advocate for these people who are getting out there, similar to Natalie, and really focusing on funding people who may not look like the people who are in the Ivy League classrooms or in you know, the boardrooms and really changing that dynamic up.
Judy Tsuei 05:35
Also, if you are an entrepreneur, and you want to apply for their program and their fellowship, I highly encourage that you do that go to visible hand stop VC, and you'll find out more about what it is that they're up to. Alrighty, without further ado, here's the interview.
Judy Tsuei 05:57
Welcome to the f*ck saving face podcast. I'm your host, Judy Tsuei. And together we'll explore mental and emotional health for Asian Americans and beyond all by breaking through taboo topics, like may not always be pretty, but it is indeed beautiful. Let's make your story beautiful today. Welcome back to the flex saving face podcast, we are going to have an incredible conversation because as a child of I wouldn't call them entrepreneurs, I would call them small business owners, we had to struggle and hustle a lot, we went into a lot of debt. And so I think this idea of entrepreneurship from the lens of venture capital money, and being part of a different kind of system of business building and growing is something that I'm really excited about.
Judy Tsuei 06:45
So I have just thinking here. And he's founded this incredible organization called visible hands that I'll let him talk about more. And the reason that we even connected was because I applied for this. And you know, just understanding that there are many different avenues in which you can get an infusion of capital into your business. And if anybody will, I'm 43 now, so I went to Berkeley, and I applied for grants and loans and financial aid. And then once I realized, oh, there were all these other opportunities where you could apply based on your skill set, or the things that you're passionate about, or what you qualified for.
Judy Tsuei 07:16
It was such an eye opener to see that, you know, Hey, you don't just have to trade time for money. And you can do different things like that. But the other reason that I have Justin here today is because he is an Asian American male. And I really want to broaden the platform for what we're talking about. I think that a lot of the people who reached out to me have been doing so surprisingly, to me who are men, I never think that I'm talking to men, I always say I'm talking about like feelings, like your life stories. But I'm surprised because I think that there's a whole audience who's just really waiting and wanting to have an opportunity to share what your experience has been like, and you know, some of the things that maybe other people aren't aware of, or just to give voice to a collective experience. So it's a big introduction. I'm going to turn it over to Justin, can you tell us a little bit more just about your story about what makes you
08:07
thank you so much, Judy, for this opportunity. And kudos to you of everything that you've built. As Judy mentioned, I'm Justin, I'm one of the cofounders of visible hands where precede fun where we invest in proving out the genius and market opportunities, 70% of the population, women and people of color. And, you know, if you're not aware, less than 10% of venture capital dollars, goes to black, brown and female entrepreneurs. And that's not some statistical anomaly. That's not like, hey, we had one bad year, but there's some structural disadvantages that are amplified for people of color and women.
08:38
So for us, we see ourselves as sort of that institutional friends and family you know, too often we hear, you know, some person being like, Oh, just get your friends and family to fund this. And I think that's a very privileged thing to have and to rely on. So, for us, we work with entrepreneurs at their earliest, earliest stage, pre idea, idea prototype stage. You know, over the last couple years, we've seen more VC funds with diversity as its focus, which is amazing, but many of them are at seed in Series A, which basically means you need to have a certain level of traction. Our belief is that there are institutional barriers that begin on day zero even before starting a company social, financial and inspiration capital.
09:19
So the question we asked is, How do you realistically expect the healthy deal flow to get to seed in series A so for us, we see ourselves as that first check, really empowering people and providing some financial stability to work on their startup idea full time, so that we believe that they are able to commit full time to it that they can, you know, reach for the star. So we launched this year, I myself and my co founders took that leap of faith last May June of 2020, and didn't pay ourselves for a good chunk of time, but we are now secure, financially unable to make investments.
09:54
And we announced our cohort last week of 51 amazing entrepreneurs that were super excited. So that's what I do for a living. But as Judy mentioned, I'm an Asian American male. And I think being a son of immigrants, son of Asian immigrants, Korean immigrants, I think that has really shaped my identity and who I am and my decision making and my life choices more than anything. So it's something that I look forward to chatting more about today.
Judy Tsuei 10:19
Thank you so much. And that was a great introduction. So I have so many questions, because I feel like, you know, growing up, this idea of venture capital was so intimidating and daunting. And as you mentioned, and alluded to, in your introduction, there's systemic, just before day zero, there are challenges that we may encounter, just given the way that we grew up, and you know, our mindset, inspirational capital that you were talking about. So can you explain a little bit more about that, and how you even got into this field in the first place?
10:48
Yeah, you know, myself, I come from a family of small business owners, my dad runs a construction company, and my mom, you know, has done some real estate investments. And even my grandma herself was an entrepreneur, small business owner, but you know, for a lot of folks, they don't see ourselves as entrepreneurs. And it was never something that I saw myself getting into, truthfully, you know, I graduated in 2009, I was more of your social justice, activist walk, protesting, marches, all that stuff in college, but I found a article about you know, and I graduate in 2009, where jobs were sparse. And so in the Great Recession, I read this article about this new accelerator program called mass challenge.
11:30
I didn't know what an accelerator was, I didn't know what entrepreneurship really was. I didn't know what VC was, but it sounded cool. And, you know, I was looking for a job. So I emailed them cold, and they responded back, and I started volunteering a little bit. And, you know, eventually, they hired me full time. And that was my first introduction to sort of the startup ecosystem. But, you know, as you pointed out, it's such a opaque world, regardless, you know, you know, seem to be people go to Stanford or MIT.
11:58
And, you know, we still have a wild way to go. But it's been amazing to see in the last 10 years that more and more people are seeing themselves as entrepreneurs, and it's super important to increase the representation, because, you know, otherwise, people won't see themselves as that. So I'm just grateful that I get to play a little part of that. And it's so for mass challenge, and I just kept growing in my entrepreneurial journey. And then, you know, a year ago, I started this plants with my good friends.
Judy Tsuei 12:27
That's awesome. So you know, just as a basic introductory lesson, what is an accelerator?
12:34
an accelerator is sort of a time bound program, maybe eight weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks, which just sort of accelerates the progress of a company by infusing them with capital, sometimes between, let's say, 25k, to maybe 150 to 100k. They'll take largely equity most times, sometimes their grants, and then they just provide different wraparound services, mentorships, programming, etc. But the goal is, is within that 810 12 weeks, this cohort based model is sort of accelerates what you're building by just infusing all these different resources to you.
Judy Tsuei 13:10
And why do you feel like you know, this idea of venture capital is so intimidating for so many people, that people of color, and marginalized populations don't think about pursuing this, or it just seems so unattainable at times,
13:23
you know, what I learned, especially talking to hundreds of candidates and applicants, and people who didn't even apply, there's a cultural barrier that is sort of, you know, infused into people of color and women and that you're not good enough, you know, the level of imposter syndrome is amplified. And it's pretty incredible, where you meet people who have maybe the same pedigree of your traditional technology founder, going to even the IVs of all schools and working at the biggest tech companies. And even they, as you know, people of color, women just don't see themselves as entrepreneurs.
13:59
And you would say, like, you have the pedigree of the profile, and then we have amazing other people who might not be in those traditional pathways. Maybe they're content creators, maybe their podcast offers, maybe they're small business owners, restaurant owners, and we you know, but they just the seed was never planted for them. And I think it's just symbolic of just like, who we see in media who is portrayed, both in a storytelling perspective, and also statistically, you know, if we don't see ourselves in those, you know, corridors of power, you know, we people don't see themselves as politicians or they don't see themselves as entrepreneurs, or they don't see themselves as a be, you know, anything else.
14:38
So, you know, it's been really interesting, this cultural phenomenon of people just, you know, because of the institutional barriers society is persistent on and then there's just these real barriers of finances of social capital, you know, even if you're a millennial that I think the average millennial debt for student loans are 25 30k and then it's like Two 3x More for, you know, students of color with college debt. So, you know, you just have all these all these considerations of just how society has placed onto overlooked communities. And then from financial, just, you know, financial realities around wealth, creation, generational wealth, to just social capital, you know, we just saw sort of those those things, three things. So we classify it, and we took, we borrowed it from the Case Foundation of social capital, financial capital and inspiration capital.
Judy Tsuei 15:32
So, in all of this experience that you've had working with all these different people, what are some of like the key tenants about money that people can start to reframe, to increase accessibility or to shift that mindset around, you know, going from imposter syndrome to believing that you are deserving, that you're capable, that you're qualified, that you will probably make mistakes along the way, just as everybody else does. But that the weight doesn't have to feel so heavy in order to move forward?
15:58
You know, I think one of the things that we're doing is building a cohort. So we're not just simply investing in individual entrepreneurs, but, you know, we're creating this community of 51 entrepreneurs who now have access to each other. So certainly will provide resources and help with networking and such. But at the end of the day, we think having people who are their peers, you know, we think there's something to be said around peer mentorship, and having people as part of their own trust and trusted community.
16:26
And, you know, I think there's just something to be said, where people can empathize and saying, like, you're not the only person who feels this way. And even amongst our cohort, it's interesting, see, I'm talking to each entrepreneur, they're like, I don't know how I've got, you know, the reading everyone else's bio. And they're saying, like, how did I get in when this amazing person got in. And the funny thing is that, like, that amazing person saying the same thing, person, and, you know, we have such a culture of comparison. And, you know, we just got to really, for us, just really championing everyone and, you know, make sure that our insecurities don't cripple them, and not becoming what they could be, which is great entrepreneurs.
Judy Tsuei 17:03
I love that. So, you know, I've been getting the emails that you stand out from visible hands, and the collaborations that you have are huge. Some of the biggest organization, the biggest financial institutions, how are you all creating those connections? And what do you see in those bigger establishments? What are they looking for in newer businesses that are coming up? Now?
17:24
Yeah, we appreciate those connections a lot. And ultimately, you know, for any, you know, business to grow, having access to some of these corporations, as customers as, as research partners is key. You know, we built these relationships with a lot of these companies over the last year, and, you know, they saw our traction, we're grateful for their support. So, you know, JPMorgan Chase, and Liberty Mutual and Bank of America all have come in, in such big ways.
17:50
And, you know, for the entrepreneur, you know, they get access to all the resources of a big corporation, right. And for those corporations, you know, they're doing it for a number of reasons, one being, they get access to some of the most innovative minds, and they've now also are showing their commitment to, you know, certainly they are the big, big companies, but they believe that the next generation of big companies should be led by people of diverse backgrounds. So, you know, it just seemed with a lot of these companies, just such a mutual benefit, where we're giving them access and the expertise of this great cohort, and, you know, vice versa.
Judy Tsuei 18:26
So you and I, before we jumped on this call, when we connected last, you had mentioned that when you got into this field, did you say that your parents cried? That your mom cried about it? Or that? Yeah, so can you tell me about what that was about?
18:41
Why she was not happy? You know, I think similar, you know, as many of us probably have faced, you know, the expectations of an immigrant parent is of one of stability, you know, they've taken a lot of risk, and they want you to have stable, you know, well, Prudential careers and VCs, certainly not something that's familiar to a lot of our parents, so And obviously, me starting my own VC fund adds another layer of risk and anxiety to anyone and especially to someone's parents. So, you know, she just couldn't, you know, and she's been, you know, she's such an important figure in my life. And, but there was obviously a language barrier.
19:20
There's, I don't think a word for VC, and we had some a friend help translate it, and that she's, you know, she's, you know, it wasn't that she wasn't supportive, but it was simply just like, you know, her mentality was like, this is something completely foreign to her and back to your earlier point of like, how opaque and how unknown, the world of VC and entrepreneurship is, you know, as evidenced by my mom crying and, you know, not knowing what it is and me her thinking that I was doing this very, very risky thing.
Judy Tsuei 19:50
Hmm. And I think that that, you know, translates for a lot of people that if we can get to the place of empathy for our parents and what it is that they Want for us, I think every parent wants better for their children or you know, doing the best that we can to create a better life and then having a lot of trust and faith that your child can go out there into the world and create whatever it is they want. I think that that's another thing of, I mean, that is a thing of privilege to be able to give your child the gift that they have the freedom to go explore these things.
Judy Tsuei 20:19
And I love that you brought someone in to help translate, because that was actually a point of conversation that I had with my partner, now who, you know, he's Caucasian, his parents, they all grew up speaking English. And so even just telling him, I can't really call my parents and have like, an everyday conversation with them, because we don't have that shared language. And that makes it hard on so many levels to create that connection, or even just that connection without judgment, like, what are you doing with your life? Why are you doing this? So I think coming up with innovative ways to approach those conversations is great.
Judy Tsuei 20:50
And you, you know, underscore the understanding that your mom did just want the best for you and was able to come around. And I think giving them the opportunity of understanding to be able to transform themselves, they're still on a growing path just as much as we are. What are some of the experiences that you've had as an Asian American male that you'd like to highlight whether it's in the world of finance, or otherwise?
21:13
Yeah, you know, I think, certainly, you know, I definitely has the privilege and it's, you know, for my own sort of challenges, especially growing up in predominantly white neighborhoods, and in the suburbs, and prep school. And, you know, the, I just never saw myself as a leader, because I never thought of myself in that way. And I think it took some great teachers that help empowered me and really, you know, challenged me putting me on the spot to seize the moment of leadership whenever presented. So but, you know, as a kid, you know, it wasn't so much that I was bullied, but I was definitely seen as a sidekick.
21:48
And that was something I think that just is representative across, you know, depictions of Asian American men and culture of being, you know, passive, emasculated, you know, just, you know, now we have Marvel superhero coming out next week. Right. So that's, like, you know, what, you know, in our childhoods, you know, being Asian being an Asian man or woman we were seen as submissive, or whatever it might be. And it really just applied your voice. So it's just great to see, you know, hopefully for my nieces and nephews and younger Asian children, just to know their power and their leadership and their voice. And, you know, just glad to see sort of this cultural tide happening, your ship happening right now. That's awesome.
Judy Tsuei 22:30
Where did you grow up?
22:31
New Jersey and Maryland?
Judy Tsuei 22:32
Ah, I see. Yeah, I think a lot of the guests that have been on this show have all grown up in predominantly white neighborhoods as well. So I think that that created kind of an othering, and then a code switching of learning how to fit in here. But then one thing that you kind of talked about now is this title shift. And I think that this is something interesting that a lot of the people that I've spoken with have explored that it's taken this long in our own journeys of our own lives, to get to a point where we can actually feel comfortable speaking up and speaking louder. Is that something that you've experienced as well, like, it's kind of later in life, that, you know,
23:08
and for you, I don't think I was ever proud of my heritage until over the last decade in my adulthood. And it's something that I've always grappled with whether explicitly or subconsciously, and it's something that I take more pride in, as well as just I think it's the most identifying defining thing of my identity of being a son of, of Asian immigrant of Asian immigrant parents, you know, I think that's who I am. And like, we've seen it both politically, you know, it's not an either or thing, like there are prejudices and discrimination for Asians and in terms of poverty, in terms of job advancement, in terms of violence, and, but too often, we, you know, as Asians, we sit on the sidelines, because that's culturally, like being quiet. And doing that is sort of just ingrained. But, you know, I think it's just a beautiful thing, especially for a younger demographic, for not taking any, you know, giving up any rope here, because it's super important to be loud. And I think it's great to see what's happening in Hollywood at DC and across the country.
Judy Tsuei 24:13
So you know, the idea of the bamboo ceiling and about like hitting up against it, you're playing in different fields, because are different levels, because the amount of money that you're working with is, you know, like a bigger pool. And so as you're going to these traditional establishments and whatnot, have you hit against anything that you, you know, would like to see change in terms of the larger companies or yeah, in terms of the larger companies and just like thinking about, like you and your personal journey as you're like breaking through to each other.
24:43
You know, I think I've been privileged enough that, you know, I've been treated well, and that certainly I think, I can't complain there but I've seen a number of peers and colleagues and just statistics like we focus a lot on talent attraction, and that's great. But you know, what, in regard To the bamboo ceiling or the glass ceiling, it's just the advancement to senior leadership is sparse, you know, and something that I look at different companies is not like if they hire young employees of color or female employees, but like, what are their VPS? Looking like? Or what is their sweet, sweet look like?
25:17
Are their board members at how do they spend their money in terms of their, to their vendors or their vendors diverse, you know, so, you know, I think, and there's more attention being held here now, which is good, but it's, you know, at the end of the day, the culture at a lot of these companies, and maybe, you know, you know, I think for most companies is are inherently, you know, white and male and cetera, right. And it takes a toll on people who aren't conditioned in that way to have to sacrifice 5% of yourself, or 10% of yourself, or even more, you know, for a lot of people, and you know, it's a grind, and ultimately, people will leave. And that's where we see such great attrition, and happening across the country, because that's the beautiful thing now that workers have power right now to negotiate those things now. So I think it's a, I think we're heading in the right direction, and hope, and hopefully it holds up.
Judy Tsuei 26:11
So it's great. So as in all the insights that you've gleaned, and all the work that you've done, what are like some key points that you would tell people to focus on, if they're on this entrepreneurial journey, and they want to keep growing?
26:23
You know, I think in the beginning, I would say, first, to be very obsessed with the problem versus the idea itself. You know, people often position that, you know, the idea sort of like this MAC, magnificent thing, but, you know, every idea will shift and change, etc. But being very customer centric, and being focused on the problem, and being open to being like, what are other ways to solve this problem? I think AR is super critical. I mean, a skill set when you're talking to an entrepreneur, you know, are they really talking about the idea or the problem, and where do their passions lie.
26:58
And then I also think, you know, for any that's like, for much, you know, that's like a tactical thing on the business building sense. But on a social emotional side, it's like, being vulnerable, I think is super helpful. We meet with, you know, every entrepreneur, even ourselves will say, Everything's great stuff. And I think surrounding yourself with cure entrepreneurs, I have a couple buddies that I check in with regularly about the entrepreneurial journey. So and even my co founders and I are very vulnerable about the ups and downs. And I would just try to not put always a smile on the faces and make it seem that everything is going well, because it's just not healthy for you internally. And the moment that you ask for help, you never know what might happen. So I think having a level of vulnerability is important as an entrepreneur, because it'll keep you sane as well as it might unlock doors that you didn't even think possible.
Judy Tsuei 27:52
I love that you're saying that, um, Gary Vee is coming out with a new book. And it's all about these kind of soft skills that people wouldn't associate that he has, and that he really is a proponent of like kindness, and kind candor, and like, you know, things like that. He's like, I know, people view me as being a very tenacious, like, you know, hardcore person. But if you ask my team, and you ask my staff, like, I really put the people first. So I think that that's wonderful, you know, everything that you're sharing. And as we come to a close on this interview, I asked you this before we got on, but along the ideas of, you know, flex saving face, and because we're trying to break through taboo topics, and really empower mental emotional health, but you just alluded to, what would be something that you'd really like to challenge the audience to reframe, or rethink, or just to, you know, adapt or practice in their own lives. Just any? Yeah,
28:43
I guess. I mean, it would be that, you know, what I just spoke about in terms of, like, if you're an entrepreneur, you know, you don't always have to be telling everyone like, things are amazing. Or, you know, every time I talk to an entrepreneur, like, everything's going great, and we do that, too, you know, people ask those kind of things going and like, even if they genuinely are, but you know, ultimately, it's important just to be able to, you know, share those struggles and more openly, so to share to other people
29:11
that it's okay that there are these down moments as an entrepreneur, that you're not a failure. And, you know, a lot of times the media and ourselves as a culture really just tried to put all these great entrepreneurs on pedestals and, you know, try to be Elon Musk or Steve Jobs, but, you know, we have to acknowledge and recognize, like, it's such a long journey, and you're going to screw up and there's going to be things that happen negatively that are out of your control, but you know, it's okay.
29:39
And I think being you know, you don't need to save face in terms of like putting up this, this mask of like, everything's going great. And I think there's a benefit in terms of just being honest and such with yourself as well as with your co founders or team. You know, a lot I've been I worked at a few styles before and there's there were layoffs on times and it came out of the blue. And because the portrait that was being painted to us by leadership was like, everything is going great and all this stuff, right? And, you know, it's certainly not saying like paint the doomsday scenario, every conversation but you know, I think in terms of your stakeholders just being fair and honest and realistic, and not just saying, you know, we're going to be a unicorn billion dollar company next week, like, I think setting the expectations, being honest, I think is a great trait to have these days.
Judy Tsuei 30:32
That's awesome. And if people want to follow more about what Bizible Hans is doing, where can they find you?
30:38
We are at visible hand stock Vc as our website, and then we're on a different social media channels as physical hands
Judy Tsuei 30:45
or VC. One more question, How did you come up with the name visible hands,
30:50
we had, like a endless brainstorm session of like 100 Plus names, and then visible hands was voted as one of the top it's a play on sort of the popular economic theory of the invisible hand, which basically means the markets will just naturally correct itself, we believe that there needs to be active direct interventions to, you know, close these wealth gaps and to create opportunity for overlooked population so that these, you know, for us, it can't be invisible, has to be visible. And it can't just be one hand, it has to be hands as like a community to help lift up these great entrepreneurs.
Judy Tsuei 31:25
I love that. And I think that going back to what you're saying, with the cohort that we were building, there's so much power and being able to normalize the experiences that you have, and knowing that you're not the only person who's going through it. And I think that that translates in business and across life, just knowing that you're not alone. And you're not like just some anomaly who's going through this thing. But the more as you said, you're vulnerable, and you open up, the more you might find other people echoing your experience, or as you said, you never know like, what kind of help or opportunity might arise when you're honest.
Judy Tsuei 31:54
Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed it, I highly encourage you to rate and review this podcast so that more people can find out about it and find out about these topics and to take these intimidating, taboo awkward discussions that we maybe just don't have, or maybe don't have access to people where we want to process these things and to expand our realm of possibility and what we believe is possible for our lives.
Judy Tsuei 32:28
I hope that this podcast is here making a change. I would love to hear from you personally. Hello at F*ck saving face.com If you want to send me a message and as always, I'm really grateful for your time and I've loved the messages and the donations and the support that I have gotten this farm. It truly requires a team and my team is incredible. So I hope that you will support all of us however it feels best for you. See you next week.
Judy Tsuei 32:57
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. You can follow me on Instagram at F*ck saving face or have an honest conversation with me in my private Facebook group f*ck saving face. That's f*ck without the U if you enjoy this work, please help support and sustain it. The best ways to do that are to share it with your friends and networks. Subscribe rate and review on your listening platforms and of course through your thoughtful financial donations. You can buy me a coffee or treat me lunch or share even bigger lab at F*ck saving face.com Again, that's fuck without the U.
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