00:00and Kristen let's talk about finding mentors right as you're finding out these things it's
00:06good to talk and have these conversations but how do you find mentors I think it's really
00:10important to look around your space and not necessarily focus on who is also in tech you
00:16know but who is doing just doing an amazing job in whatever industry that they're in I know one
00:22of my my mentors isn't a technical person at all but she's extremely extremely wonderful with
00:28business and I think it's really important when you're looking for a mentor to look for
00:32people who complement the skills that you don't necessarily have real biggest obstacle that you
00:38faced and how did you overcome it the biggest obstacle was believing that I could do it that
00:43is the honest to God truth yeah you had doubts yeah you have doubts from things that you were
00:48taught you know do I belong in this space I don't see anybody else that looks like me in this space
00:53that starts doubts you know but like just gaining confidence by learning to me that that gets rid
01:00of a lot of fear just learn as much as you can read as much as you can experiment as much as you can
01:06and again I just have to say you must form relationships with other like outstanding women
01:12like you said whether they are in the field or not you know because you can draw strength from
01:17everyone and what they're doing so Sheena let's talk funding right how difficult is it to get funding
01:24when you have an idea for an app or something along those lines well funding for an idea is pretty much
01:29impossible impossible you say um I I'm going to give it close to impossible you need to need traction
01:36um so you need to at least have validated that somebody's willing to pay for your product or download
01:41your app you got to kind of show that you need to show that somebody's willing to use it somebody's
01:45willing to pay for it your retention is there so they're not going to download it one time and never
01:49come back to it ever again because nobody wants to just invest in an idea um one thing that I learned
01:54for myself was I never went to someone asked for funding and so I could prove to them that I was
01:59worth being funded the other side of that is as a black woman it is really hard raising money I mean
02:05it's really hard raising money anyway but as a black woman it is very very difficult um the last numbers
02:11that came out the average black tech founder the woman only raised about $36,000 oh wow it's only
02:17been about maybe 30 to 40 black women who's raised over a million dollars so how do you overcome that
02:22though I know it's really difficult so then how on the flip side of that what tools do you have for
02:27people to overcome that um I mean there's other options now so you have crowdfunding um you have
02:33blockchain now people doing ICOs so that's there those are options there are a lot of black women
02:39now who are also getting into the angel angel uh feel so you have like Arlen Hamilton who does
02:44backstage capital there's Melissa Bradley who's a who's a BC um mathlet there are so many women now
02:50that are kind of getting into so the resources are there when it wasn't there when I first started
02:55five years ago yeah but it's it's still it's a hub it's a hustle oh it's uphill yeah what words of
03:00advice do you have for black women that when they get into tech like final tips don't wait for
03:05inclusion yeah include yourself you know I think we're we're constantly talking about diversity
03:12and inclusion this is how you can make your workplace more inclusive yeah I'm here yeah good luck
03:17like I'm not going anywhere I would say just go for it it's not about what you know it's about
03:23how much effort you're willing to put into it Dana what are your I just have to piggyback off of you
03:28yes like create your own door create your you know your own path um you can do it you know and
03:35there's so many other women that have done it and you can go talk to them the degrees of separation now
03:40is what it's very zero you know um and just get that community so you just need to see what's possible
03:47you know yeah and you'll see that it's you know it's it's it's very much possible and it's real it's a
03:53real world to be able to do your own thing yeah and Sheena I'm ready I'm pumped up give me a final
03:59word of advice um I'm gonna give you two actually I'm gonna keep them short uh one is don't ask for
04:04permission um stop asking for permission it's not gonna happen the last one is um we have to stop
04:11trying to prove somebody else wrong I always say work on always proving yourself right because trying
04:16to prove somebody else wrong you kind of you get thrown off the path you're supposed to be on because
04:19you're like I'm going to make sure that he knows I was able to do it even though he said I wasn't
04:22well if you stick to like trying to prove yourself right you you still the right journey and it gets
04:27you much further
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