- 7 weeks ago
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm the founder and CEO of the Folklore Group.
00:03So the Folklore Group is a commerce company that empowers diverse brands in global markets.
00:09And the way that we do that is through technology.
00:12So our main product is the Folklore Connect, which is a B2B wholesale e-commerce platform that provides brands.
00:20And when I say diverse, I mean, you know, we focus mostly on Africa and the diaspora,
00:24but we've also expanded into, you know, Asian-owned, Latinx-owned, indigenous-owned brands.
00:31Or if you're a brand that's in an emerging market like Southeast Asia or Africa,
00:36we're focused on providing them with technology to manage and scale their wholesale business.
00:41And then we're providing retailers with access to these brands where they can actually discover them online and place wholesale orders.
00:48So we are the first B2B wholesale platform that's focused on giving retailers around the world access to diverse brands.
00:56And so what's really exciting about what we're doing is, you know, oftentimes you'll go on Instagram
01:02and you'll discover a great, you know, brand that's a black-owned brand.
01:05And you're like, okay, cool.
01:06Like, I'm about to support this brand.
01:08Then you go on their website and it's four to six weeks for shipping.
01:12Then move in the middle.
01:14Okay, hold on.
01:14So you'll go on their website and it's like four to six weeks for shipping.
01:20Then you've got to pay $50 for the shipping.
01:23It doesn't get the most – and the thing is, it's like, I don't blame them.
01:26We're small black business owners.
01:28We need to be able to, you know, have some sort of financing or support in order for us to be able to compete at an Amazon level.
01:35So I would also like y'all to give these brands grace because we are not Amazon and we don't got Amazon money.
01:40So – but what's really important about our platform is that we want to provide more options where the brand doesn't have to be the only one fulfilling orders.
01:50We want you to be able to go into your local store in Oregon and be able to find a boutique that's stocking that black-owned brand you just found on Instagram.
01:58Or be in Seattle and go to the Nordstrom's there and see that brand on the rack so that you do have more ways to access this brand.
02:06And honestly, our brands that we work with, they want to be able to scale through wholesale because it's very expensive, honestly, to create a direct-to-consumer brand that is consistently bringing in money without having to spend thousands of dollars on ads.
02:20And so I actually thought of the idea to launch the folklore after taking my first trip to South Africa.
02:27It was my first time in Africa. I was an African-American and African Studies major at Rutgers, so I got super radicalized and, like, nobody could tell me nothing.
02:36So I was like, I'm going to Africa to hang out with my people.
02:40So I made my trip out there and what I discovered was these amazing brands that I had no idea about.
02:46And I bought a bunch of pieces, you know, cute furry sandals, you know, bags.
02:52And also, shout out, I'm wearing my E-Dust bag, black-owned brand.
02:56I think Sade, the founder, is somewhere back there. I don't know, but I saw her earlier.
03:00But I ended up finding a bunch of pieces.
03:02And so what I did was when I got back to New York, people were stopping me on the street and saying, where did you get this and where did you get that?
03:09And I started doing some research and recognized that, you know, these brands didn't have direct-to-consumer platforms of their own at the time.
03:17And then retailers were just as ignorant to me about the talent that was on the continent.
03:21And so I knew that this wasn't just a problem for South African brands.
03:26This is a problem for brands in Africa as well as people within our community who did not have access to the Saks buyer, who didn't have access to even the local boutique buyer.
03:35And so I decided to actually leave my job.
03:38I started off in media, working at V Magazine.
03:41And I quit my job and moved to South Africa to start the business.
03:45So I spent two years traveling around Africa, going to Lagos Fashion Week, going to Ghana, going to Kenya, really wanting to know the brands that I wanted to work with.
03:58Because, you know, I grew up born and raised in New Jersey.
04:01You know, I can't tie my ancestry back to the continent.
04:03So I still needed to learn.
04:05I wanted to be a student and really let these brands inform how I, you know, developed this platform.
04:11And so, you know, while I was there, I was also getting my master's in African studies at the University of Cape Town.
04:16So that also allowed me to get, you know, more information around the history of the continent as a whole.
04:22And so we were able to launch the folklore in 2018 as originally as a direct-to-consumer platform that focused on getting these brands into the hands of consumers like yourselves.
04:33So we would, you know, go there.
04:37We'd pick out designs across apparel, accessories, homeware, and beauty.
04:41We'd have them shipped to the U.S.
04:43Actually, the first, when we launched, I actually went to Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Lagos with three different suitcases to get the stuff to the U.S.
04:51because I didn't have enough money to do the shipping.
04:53It's real expensive to ship there.
04:55So I actually went with three suitcases by myself to each city and brought it back through JFK.
05:02And somehow TSA didn't check me.
05:05But so what was, you know, we ran the direct-to-consumer platform for a nice amount of time.
05:13But really what we wanted to do was to make a really big impact on African and diasporic brands.
05:21And we learned very early on that that impact could be much bigger than us being the only ones stocking these brands.
05:27Because it was about 20 brands that we started with.
05:3080% of them, we were the only people stocking them online or in general.
05:35And so we started getting feedback.
05:37Retailers started reaching out to us asking, hey, can you connect me with this brand?
05:41And so we started recognizing that retailers want the same experience that we have curated for consumers.
05:47And so it's time for us to be able to listen to the market.
05:50And it's so easy to get comfortable on what your initial idea was and, like, this is just what we're going to do, so we're going to stick to it.
05:57That does not serve anyone but your ego.
06:00You really have to be able to say and listen to not only the customers but also listen to the brands you're serving.
06:07And if our main mission is to be able to economically empower these brands, to be able to create more jobs on the continent, to be able to really create that generational wealth that everybody is talking about on Twitter, then you have to be able to learn from them how they want to succeed.
06:24And so we did that.
06:24Earlier this year we, or actually later last year, we actually talked to our brands and said, hey, we're thinking about doing a B2B platform and discontinuing D2C.
06:34How does that look for you?
06:35And they were like, bet.
06:37And so now we're here.
06:39And I know what I'm supposed to be talking about is fundraising, so I'm going to get into that.
06:43But I wanted to give you the whole back story, and I wanted to also be able to share that story with you because that is actually how I pitch an investor.
06:51So that is the type of story that I'm telling.
06:53It's a five-minute spiel where I'll say, you know, this is my background.
06:56You've got to big up yourself, number one, because when you're raising capital, and by the way, I've raised a little under $2 million for this company starting in, I don't know.
07:07Thank you, thank you.
07:10So raised a little under $2 million for this company, and the first time we raised money, or tried to raise money, it was unsuccessful because I did not know what I was doing.
07:22Like, we launched this company in 2018.
07:24I didn't get a real check until 2021, I believe.
07:29So I was bootstrapping the entire time.
07:32And so what I learned from, you know, initially trying to raise is that you don't know what you don't know.
07:37And so I was going and talking to investors I really had no business talking to because they don't even really invest in my space.
07:43I wasn't really telling a great story.
07:46And so what really changed the game for me is when I got into Techstars, which is a startup accelerator where it's around the world.
07:56They invite about, like, 10 companies to go through, like, a startup boot camp.
08:01And so what I really learned from that experience and what I really want to impart on the crowd here is that you have to tell an amazing story and not just a story about your business but about you.
08:11Because when you're raising early and you don't have a lot of traction to show, the investors are betting on you.
08:17They're betting that you are a strong enough founder that despite any, you know, hardships, despite, you know, the market turning, that you're going to be able to keep going.
08:26And you're going to be able to turn whatever money that they invested in you into the return that they're looking for.
08:32And when it comes to tech, they're looking for a 40X return.
08:35They're looking for the billion-dollar unicorns that you hear about.
08:38And so that is really what I focused on.
08:40During that, you know, four to five months I was in Techstars, they drilled into me telling that story and telling it in a way that investors want to hear it.
08:48So they want to hear that, okay, this is a huge problem and that you have either a very – that you have an idea of why it's a problem and as well as expertise within that space.
09:01So me having gone to South Africa and quitting my job and having that time over there, that showed my dedication.
09:08That showed my knowledge that I was able to go in there and touch and talk to those brands that I really wanted to work with.
09:15Also, a part of that story is being able to share, hey, people were stopping me on the street, asking me where I got this from, where there's a demand for it.
09:23So I was showing that demand when I was talking to investors.
09:26And another thing that I really focused on is, you know, bragging about myself.
09:30Like, usually I think a lot of people try to, especially with black women, try to humble us.
09:35You know, go in there, humble us.
09:37You know, you shouldn't be really bragging about yourself.
09:40Brag on yourself because the white men that are going in there and raising, that's what they are doing.
09:44So that's what we need to be doing.
09:46And so actually, something that was very strategic, you get mentors when you're at Techstars.
09:51And I purposely chose all white men to be my mentors because I wanted to learn how to raise like they raise.
09:58So when I would ask them questions, I'd be like, okay, so what do you do in this investor pitch?
10:02What questions do you ask?
10:03And these are questions I would have never thought to ask.
10:06So one, for example, if you're talking to an investor is, you know, after you give the pitch towards the end of the call, you know, based off of the information that I told you,
10:13do you think that this is a good opportunity for your fund based off of your thesis so that you can make sure that you have an answer?
10:21And it kind of like throws them off a little bit because they're not used to it.
10:24They're like, oh, yeah, I'll just send you an email after we look through the materials.
10:26No, let me know right now.
10:27Is this something that you're interested in?
10:30Because if not, if it doesn't even fit your thesis, okay, thank you.
10:33This was a great opportunity.
10:34But, you know, and it really lets you know which investors you should be talking to versus which investors are about to waste your time.
10:41So asking questions so that, you know, how do you typically support your portfolio companies?
10:46Because once you're taking, and by the way, I forgot to mention I raised venture capital money.
10:50Once you're taking venture capital money from these investors, you know, they should be providing more than just money.
10:56If you need connections to another investor, if you need connections to a potential customer, you should be able to send them an email and get a response back and get that support.
11:04So if that's something that you need, it could be an investor that you're taking their money.
11:09You already have enough advisors, so that's fine.
11:11But asking the questions, how do you support them?
11:14What's your typical check size?
11:16These are, like, the really important questions to ask.
11:19And also just being really prepared.
11:21So Techstars also helped me in making sure I was talking to the right investors.
11:26So I knew it was important for our mission to go out and get primarily black investors, and so that's what I did.
11:32So we closed our $1.7 million pre-seed round last summer with 73% black investors, I think 60% women, and 60% women, and it ended up being 80% POC.
11:46And I intentionally went and got those investors because I knew that this is an opportunity that I'm letting them in on.
11:52We're going to make them a lot of money.
11:54And if we're going to do this for the culture, we need to take money from the culture so that we can give it back.
12:00And so I went out and I made a list of all of the black-owned funds that I could find, and then I looked to see what their thesis was.
12:08So that's a really important part of making your list of investors.
12:12If you see that they only invest in FinTech, but you've got a fashion consumer brand, don't talk to them.
12:17Like, because they're really going to just, and they'll even, some people will take a call, which doesn't make any sense.
12:21Don't even go after them because it doesn't make sense.
12:24Try to get people who you see have invested in a company that is similar to yours, not a competitor, because they will take that call and find out information about your business.
12:33So check that.
12:34But you really want to be able to be intentional about your list.
12:38So I said, you know, right at the end of Techstars, which was April, I'd made my list and I said, I want Slauson & Co., which is an L.A.-based venture fund, to be our leads.
12:49So when we close, and I said, I want to start the round off in May and close in July.
12:55So armed with this list of investors that I wanted and armed with a very strategic and meticulous air table, I'm a Virgo.
13:02I'm, like, super organized.
13:03You, like, I log every conversation, everything.
13:05I went out and I went out and I got Slauson & Co. to lead our round with a million dollars, and we closed our round in July, like I said we would.
13:16And that's really all based off of organization and that confidence.
13:21You go out, you do the research, you know who you're talking to, and then you go out with that confidence and that story to tell that really, and you could actually craft that story to meet the, you know,
13:33if you know that the thesis for this fund is that we like companies that have some sort of cultural context to it, you know, that's perfect for us.
13:41You know, we're a commerce company, and it's all about diversity and being able to amplify the voices of African and diasporic brands.
13:47And so that was a really important part of that.
13:51But now that you've got the money in the bank, you've got to do something with it.
13:56And you have to make sure that you are, because once you raise VC money, you're on that track to keep raising VC money.
14:02And, again, it's either IPO or it's you, IPO or you sell it to another company.
14:09Okay.
14:10And so that is the end of my time here.
14:13I'm glad.
14:13I hope you guys got some great information.
14:16And I appreciate you all for coming.
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