James Kemp: Perfecting Pitches and Building Investor Relations

 Discover the intriguing journey of a man who’s navigated through giants like Microsoft, Novell, Omniture, and Adobe and now dedicates his expertise to helping founders craft compelling pitches and prepare for investor presentations. Join us as we sit down with James Kemp, Executive Director of Connect Capital, who shares his remarkable insights from Utah's Silicon Slopes. James shares invaluable lessons on recognizing viable business models and the art of "failing quickly" to sidestep long-term pitfalls.

This episode reveals the secrets of effective pitching strategies and investor relations. James draws from his experience to highlight the importance of capturing investor attention, primarily through emotional connections and personal stories. Reflecting on a recent pitch competition, he underscores the necessity of understanding your audience and the significance of building relationships over time. There's a golden nugget of wisdom: seeking advice can often lead to financial support while asking directly for money might just get you advice. These nuggets are essential for anyone looking to secure that next significant investment.

Finally, we delve into the critical issues of gender disparities in venture capital funding and the importance of supporting women in business. Through James's lens, we explore how organizations can foster diversity and inclusivity, breaking barriers for women founders. We also discuss the vital role of mentorship and sponsorship in professional growth and why financial literacy is a game-changer for entrepreneurs. Wrapping up, we highlight community support and collaboration in Utah's entrepreneurial ecosystem and how Connect Capital is spearheading this movement. Join us for an episode packed with insights, strategies, and inspiration!

www.kinnectcapital.com

www.wliut.com
@utwomenleaders

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Welcome to Elevate, a Women's Leadership Institute podcast where we showcase stories, celebrate successes and shift culture. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Women's Leadership Institute podcast, elevate. I am here with the amazing James Kemp. He is the Executive Director of Connect Capital and we welcome you to the show today.

Speaker 2 0:26

Thank you. It's great to be here. I've listened to many of the podcasts that you guys do and have been a big fan of yours for some time now, so thank you.

Speaker 1 0:35

Thank you so much. So let's just kick it off with having you explain a little bit about what you do and then maybe share something personal, just so we can get to know you a little bit.

Speaker 2 0:45

Sure, sure. I've actually been in the Silicon Slopes area in Utah for about 35 years now. It makes me feel really old when I say that, but I started way back in 87.

Speaker 1 0:57

That were perfect, and then Novell and bounced around to a few different places and Omniture and then bounced around to a few different places, then Omniture and then ultimately Adobe that acquired Omniture back in 2009.

Speaker 2 1:10

And then I stayed for another 10 years. So I've been in the enterprise software area for quite some time. Now I'm doing something that's a bit of an off-ramp for me. You know, working with Kinect Capital. We basically search for businesses and founders that have really good ideas and we help them with training and preparation and then we give them a voice or a microphone and they are able to pitch their presentations and their businesses to prospective investors or to people that might be interested in their product or service. So it is a bit of a departure, although I have done a lot of work with evaluating companies.

Speaker 2 1:55

When I was at Adobe, I ran the due diligence and then post-acquisition integration of, and then post-acquisition integration of, 20 acquisitions that we did during that 10, 15 years I was there.

Speaker 2 2:14

But we did many more diligence reviews well over 100 diligence reviews of companies with the intent of trying to find the ones that fit best, that have the best business model and that.

Speaker 2 2:21

So I've actually had quite a bit of experience working with founders and trying to identify whether businesses have what it takes, so to speak, to be successful, and we weren't successful with all of them, but we were really close on most of them. A few of them were home runs and there were a couple of strikeouts that we did as well along the way. And then I just have a passion for it. My father was an entrepreneur uh, pretty much his whole life, and so I kind of grew up around that and saw the good and bad side of being an entrepreneur and um, but I'm excited to be a part of this organization. You know, 41 years of an organization is is a lot of uh history, but it's also a pretty heavy weight on your shoulders to make sure you don't mess it up. So that's my goal is to hopefully keep it going and not screw it up.

Speaker 1 3:13

Well, I love that you pointed out that everything has hits and misses, or you know just the learning through it, and starting out with Microsoft and Novell, wow, that whole journey right here in this valley of tech has been interesting.

Speaker 2 3:29

I remember one of the worst days at least we thought was one of our worst days was when Microsoft kind of turned their guns on Novell and WordPerfect and kind of ran us out of town and those two companies kind of went away, you know with the wind, so to speak. But I actually think it was one of the greatest things that could have happened to this area. There were literally thousands of employees that needed to find new work and many of them started their own businesses, started their own. Yeah, I kind of think about it like those dandelions that have all the white seeds around them, not the orange ones, that every season they're long, but the other ones.

Speaker 2 4:09

when you blow those seeds they go everywhere and they just start. And that's kind of what happened with this Silicon Slopes arena and it really led to a lot of the success that's come from that.

Speaker 1 4:22

I had never thought about it like that, but I can see that. How interesting, yeah, very cool, okay. So let's talk about some. People have said that in the startup space, you have dramatically changed the landscape and, as you've become the executive director of Connect Capital, I'm interested in your perspective on one of the hardest ways of shaping a company into a fundable entity. Like you talked about your experience of bringing people into the corporate space and seeing if they were a fit. And now with Connect Capital, when people come pitch, what do you look for? To see if it is fundable or if it will work?

Speaker 2 5:06

You know it's interesting, most companies are founded by people that had a passion about a particular product or service. Very few people just say I'm going to start doing this and you know, out of the blue and some other different arena. And so there's usually passion. There's usually a background or a story of some sort that causes people to to start businesses. Yeah, but the passion for something or a desire to do something isn't necessarily a roadmap for success. Sad stories of people that have started businesses by taking loans out on their own credit or taking home equity loans or that kind of thing in it and businesses don't work and then it causes financial problems and divorce and all the other things that come with it.

Speaker 2 5:58

So there's a reason why most enterprises, most startup enterprises, fail, and it's sad that that's the case, but that really is. It's the Serengeti plane. Right, you're the gazelle that has to get to water and then back every single day.

Speaker 2 6:16

And there are lions and jackals and all those things running around trying to get you. But that's kind of what it is, and so what we try and do is is one of two things. One is we try and help the individuals to fail quickly, which sounds bad, but we try and help them understand that, look, this may or may not be the right thing for you or the business model, it may not be a good thing and that sounds crazy. You would do that. But sometimes the biggest gift or the greatest gift you can give to someone is, before they go down that road, absolutely Kind of head that off and say, well, this maybe isn't quite the business either for you, or it's not really a business that's marketable, or you know the ability to make it work.

Speaker 1 6:54

Because just because it's someone's passion doesn't mean that they are going to get money for their passion, exactly.

Speaker 2 6:59

And their passion will be what other people have a passion for. That's right, so their success may not be tied to this particular venture that they're going through, but there are so many that are good, incredible businesses, incredible ideas, and the biggest challenge that people have is they just have a hard time getting the word out to the right audience. So there are literally thousands of investors and companies that are looking to invest in new companies and find trying to find good uh, good ideas in that, and sometimes they just need a little bit of a leg up to get in front of that right on it.

Speaker 2 7:38

And so one of the things that really sets kind of capital apart is we have a incredible network of what we call mentors. Um, a mentor is typically someone who's had a lot of success in business, usually has started their own businesses and have exited, uh, successfully. And so, um, when, when someone comes in with a business idea, one of the things that we do that's different than really any other accelerator is we we hook them up with those mentors, and normally these mentors would charge a significant rate. You know, they're all successful businesses. They either have financial backgrounds or whatever, and so to get access to this group of people it would be very expensive under normal circumstances, but with connect they there's. But with Connect we go out and we find these mentors that are looking to give back and looking to pay it forward.

Speaker 1 8:33

So they're willing to invest some time.

Speaker 2 8:35

Yeah, and they're willing to do it on a pro bono basis and they're willing to help out these companies, and that's really kind of the secret sauce of the Connect model is the fact that we have those mentors that are willing to do that.

Speaker 2 8:50

And so that's a big part of the success that these companies have with Connect and over the years I was doing some research. This week, 41 years that we've been doing what we call Investors Choice events, which are these annual events. Over 500 companies have pitched on stage at these events and about 26% of those have received funding. And these are all the rock stars of Utah. In fact, josh James and John Pistana presented on stage, jan Newman and Greg Butterfield, so there's a number of companies out there that have really had success, that were on stage as young founders looking for, you know that, that big break, and so it's a.

Speaker 1 9:43

It's an incredible organization you know that big break and so it's an incredible organization. Okay, so tell me, for those of us who don't know, tell me, the difference between your pitch competitions and the mentors so is how they get into mentorship is so I go, I pitch and then, if they're interested, then they start to mentor me and invest.

Speaker 2 10:05

It's actually the reverse of that. Okay, so when we find a company that is a good candidate for what we believe is a good business, we actually assign them a team of mentors Typically it's six to eight people and they actually meet with those mentors leading up to the event.

Speaker 1 10:23

Oh, leading up to the event?

Speaker 2 10:24

Yeah, so six to eight weeks out, usually even before. Then they'll start meeting with them on a on at least a weekly basis. Sometimes, as you get closer to the event, they'll do it multiple times a week and they just do weekly meetings with them and they review their, their business model, they look at their financial models, they they look at their go-to-market plans, things like that. They look at their financial models, they look at their go-to-market plans, things like that, and they help them with their pitch deck and they refine it and they work with them and they actually go through examples of. They'll actually go through the pitch event with those mentors and the mentors will stop them and say I think you should say it this way or do it that way Amazing.

Speaker 2 11:04

Yeah, and so when they finally do get on stage, they have had significant experience and their comfort and their confidence level is at a high because they've been through that process and so and in fact in most cases, those mentors are in the green room with them right before they go on the stage and then they're able to celebrate that success afterwards. We had 21 founders on stage at our event in April and it was so fun to see the green room with all of the mentors there. It was almost as if the founder success is what the mentors found success in as well, so it's really kind of a pretty incredible recipe of success over the years.

Speaker 1 11:49

Yeah, and I think that most of what I hear is people who want, people who've been there. Right, you've done this. What does this look like? You know, I have an idea this, this and this. I went to my first pitch competition and watched it in April and it was really amazing, and they were also different. The pitches were also different in how they presented, whether they focused on finances or whether they focused on the product or the market. It was really interesting to see people pitching what, in your opinion, makes a great pitch. To see people pitching what, in your opinion, makes a great pitch, you know.

Speaker 2 12:28

I think it's like everything else right, and it's becoming even more and more important now, with our devices and the things that make it, our attention spans are rapidly shrinking, for better or for worse, right?

Speaker 2 12:42

You see the goldfish oh look, it's a castle. Oh look, it's a castle. Oh look, it's a castle of the fish that swims around. That's kind of how our society is, and so they've got to have the ability to capture the hearts and minds of those individuals pretty quickly. So, you know, we had each of our presenters had 10 minutes. There's some people that said that's too long, it needs to be like five minutes. There's some people that said that's too long, it needs to be like five minutes. And you would think that it would be hard to portray a message or build excitement around a particular company in that short amount of time. And I would say they really only have like one minute or even 30 seconds to capture the interest of the individual investors. Like everybody else, right, they, they have a short attention spans, they're looking to move on, they're looking to try and find the next thing, and if you lose them in the first few minutes, it's not likely you're going to get them back. You may find them down the road in another event or whatever.

Speaker 2 13:38

So people have got to capture those hearts and minds and I think a few of them did a tremendous job, those that heart those hearts and minds, and I think a few of them did a tremendous job. One of the one of the ones that we had talked about a very personal experience he had with a relative that had um, had sepsis and and nearly died Um and interesting to my own daughter, uh, was in a very similar situation and they didn't know what she had at first, and so he has a business that does a test to identify sepsis and it's, it's it's back within, I think, 45 minutes, whereas it used to be several hours or whatever, and that could have saved her some time.

Speaker 2 14:16

She was fine, she ended up making it, but, um, but that was something that captured at least my attention.

Speaker 1 14:22

I think a lot of other people.

Speaker 2 14:24

Um, and so you gotta have that hook, you've gotta have that, that um, that's that story or that compelling reason that captures people's attention. And then, once you've got their attention, then you can talk about the financial piece and the go to market and talk about what the return on investment would be for an investor. But they've got to believe some buy in for product or the service. They've got to capture their imagination early.

Speaker 1 14:51

And does that go back to knowing your demographics, knowing who you're speaking to?

Speaker 2 14:56

It is.

Speaker 1 14:56

Or who particularly you want to pitch for this specific?

Speaker 2 14:59

Yeah, I think there are always particular investors that are maybe a little bit more within your, your target market, um, and sometimes that's hard to gauge. You know cause, at our event we had about there were 400, some odd people that were there. A hundred of them at least, you know, at least a hundred were investors, um, but it's hard to know what those investors are interested in and that.

Speaker 2 15:23

So it is a challenge, and that's where I think you mentioned this. I think there's some founders that hit the mark more than others and that could have been just who the investors were, that were in the space.

Speaker 2 15:36

Or it could have just been that their story or their pitch was more refined or more compelling. It's hard to tell sometimes, and sometimes you find it in very unique and unexpected ways. You'll be talking to somebody, or you know you're, you're, you're at the movie, or you're here or there, and you talk to somebody. You know we're all very social people. I am a huge introvert I have been my whole life but I've kind of forced myself, I've trained myself to to kind of step out of that, that shell. But you know entrepreneurs love to talk about their business.

Speaker 2 16:12

And so sometimes it's just in a hallway conversation, at an event or at some other activity where you find somebody that might be a good potential investor might be a good potential investor.

Speaker 1 16:26

So yeah, sales and the ability to get people on board with you is not like a one-time conversation in a specific place, it's an ongoing. Yeah, you know it's interesting.

Speaker 2 16:33

Investors, friends of mine, have said the first meeting is only intended to get a second meeting and the second meeting is only intended to get a third meeting.

Speaker 1 16:43

And it's after, it's after.

Speaker 2 16:44

You know, you know a dozen or more conversations with an investor before they actually will bring out their checkbook and write a check. And so some people think you've got to close that deal on that first interaction. Really, all you're doing is just trying to set up the second interaction, because no winning, nobody that first meets you is going to give you money right out of the chute. They're going to have to know about you.

Speaker 1 17:07

They're going to have to spend time with you? Sure, because they want to know their investment is sound.

Speaker 2 17:11

Yeah, so sometimes people, I think, try and go for the clothes on day one.

Speaker 1 17:16

And that might be offensive.

Speaker 2 17:17

Yeah, actually it is. They say if you ask for advice, you get money, and if you ask for money, you get money.

Speaker 1 17:24

And if you ask for money, you get advice. That's good. I want you to say that again. That's really good.

Speaker 2 17:29

If you ask for money, you get advice. If you ask for advice, you get money.

Speaker 1 17:35

I can see that.

Speaker 2 17:36

And it's because people just you know they're not interested in that hard sell during that first interaction.

Speaker 1 17:43

That's really interesting interaction. That's really interesting because as I was, so you know, we also teach a political development series for women wanting to run and we were talking to some fundraisers and they were saying that a woman went in kind of dodged around the question. Right, this was a big funder who often gave to political candidates and she didn't close the deal, she didn't ask, and afterwards the story was that they were offended. She didn't ask because they wanted to give money. They wanted to give money but they wouldn't because she never asked. So I think it's really interesting to know the ecosystem you're in and what that looks like.

Speaker 2 18:21

Well, and I think it's very clear for you to indicate that that that is something you're either asking or will be asking for. I think it's important to do that, um, but I think the difference is you don't have to convince them in that first interaction, right you?

Speaker 2 18:36

you can start to talk about your business, you can talk about the things you're doing and in the background there's always that under current of this says hey look, I need funding for this to be successful. But going hard at the close on that first interaction can often backfire. So I think it depends on the situation. But you know they should be very clear that you're a business looking for investors.

Speaker 1 19:00

Sure.

Speaker 2 19:01

But if you push to try and close the whole thing all in one interaction, then sometimes you'll turn people off.

Speaker 1 19:07

So it's kind of like mansplaining right. These are people who know money and investing very well, so a hard close might be like slow your roll, Like let's chat a minute.

Speaker 2 19:17

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:18

Okay, very cool. So we talked a little bit about your experience for Adobe Digital, where you played a pivotal role in facilitating substantial growth from $300 million to $3 billion. It's huge in reoccurring revenue over the decade. So for these people who are looking to start a business or participate or start an initiative within their business, what are a couple growth strategies?

Nimbleness and Entrepreneurial Success

Speaker 2 19:48

How does that look? Yeah, so so very few companies get to unicorn status yes, um um, we all can hope. Yes, we all can hope. Uh, the interesting thing, though, is that. Omniture, which is the company that I was with before Adobe, acquired us. So in 2009, I was a member of the corporate development team. Adobe announced the acquisition of Omniture.

Speaker 2 20:15

I remember I was at Disneyland in the frontier land, sitting on a little bench with my son when the email came out. But shortly after that I joined the executive team as kind of that chief of staff, business operations leader, and so we. It was funny every day we were running a business that was bigger than it was the day before and it was bigger than a business that we had ever run. So we grew from 300 million in annual revenues to 3 billion in annual revenues over that 10 year window and it was a rocket ship ride. It was.

Speaker 2 20:49

It was crazy, and a lot of it came because Adobe saw the vision and they were able to invest in the and they really kind of rat ratcheted up our, our activity, um, but prior to that, that's where a lot of that growth came from, and I got to give you know Josh James and John Pestan and those guys a tremendous amount of credit Back in the early nineties. They were those rough up and comer type entrepreneurs. They were very aggressive in their model. They were very focused on sales. They were very focused on customer execution, and one of the things that you can never, you can never fake is a product or service that your customers love. Right, you can, you can try and find what that is. You know, sometimes you can at least say you can put lipstick on the pig and make it look like it's better than it is. But at the end of the day, if the customers don't love what your product or service is, you're not going to be successful. And so for them, it was a new industry, it was web analytics. Everybody was involved in the Internet, and these guys came up with this brilliant idea of trying to figure out, okay, how many people are coming to your website and what pages are the most engaging and how do you market back to those individuals. So they just had a tremendous idea and then they just worked harder than anyone else.

Speaker 2 22:11

And I remember a conversation I had with Josh, just kind of in passing he goes we were willing to work harder than anyone else because, you know, and by doing that, by working harder than anyone else, we were able to live like very few people live. And so a lot of times it's just hard work, it's it's the ability to be tenacious and and to just stick to it and and move, you know, and don't make the same mistakes over and over to learn from them. But um, but just be tenacious about just staying with it. And some businesses you can't do that because, no matter what you do, it's not going to work. And we help, we try and help founders, you know, with that like that fail quickly I was talking about. But for the most part, if you have passion for a business and it's a product your customers love, it's usually just a matter of outworking them, outworking the competition.

Speaker 1 23:03

Well, and it sounds like there's also an element of being nimble, right, because it's hardworking, but it's also like oh, we're shifting this here, we're moving this here, and sometimes, when corporations get bigger, I feel like startups are so good at that, but sometimes, when corporations get bigger, they don't pivot as quickly.

Speaker 2 23:21

Well, it's because their margin for error is much bigger. When you're a founder, every dollar matters. I mean, there's a reason why most companies have that story right of Amazon Jeff Bezos in his garage. Yeah they're hungry, the Amazon word kind of handwritten on the wall. And then you know, I'm sure, that there were many occasions where a lot of the superstar companies that have come out of Silicon Slopes, where they were, you know, their tables were those pop up folding tables.

Speaker 2 23:54

I remember it's not where the story came from, but there was one it nobody you know. The odds of it shutting down the network or the power network is pretty high. So they said save your work, save your work, all right.

Speaker 2 24:13

And then you know there's always those kind of early stories that you just kind of laugh about and but yeah, they're nimble, they're willing to, you know, work harder and every dollar makes a difference, Whereas a large corporation, there's so much room for margin for error. You're not as hungry, you're not as dedicated, so sometimes you don't pivot as quickly as you should.

Speaker 1 24:37

Interesting. So you are. I met you because you're such a great ally for the work that we do at the Women's Leadership Institute. I'm getting more women involved in investing, pitching. I think it's like 3% of the money from venture capitalists goes to women and yet women own a lot of businesses, so there's kind of a disparity there. What is the and I know there are many, but what is the one thing you think will help that disparity?

Speaker 2 25:10

You know, I, I, thought about this a lot. I first of all. I have four daughters.

Speaker 1 25:14

Okay.

Speaker 2 25:14

Um, three of them are, you know, solopreneurs. Right, they do work out of their home and they're, you know, training, so they're raising kids, but they're also running businesses. Yeah, and I think the biggest thing that I found, at least that we can do, is, you know, Utah is one of the best business environments in the country. In fact, I think it's been ranked number one in a number of different you know calculations or whatever.

Speaker 1 25:42

Sometimes I wonder how they figured all that stuff out.

Speaker 2 25:44

But anyway, utah is a tremendous opportunity. But you're right, very small percentage of that goes to women and I think the work that you guys are doing, the Women's Leadership Institute, as well as other groups, that in the Governor's Office of Economic- Opportunity the Chamber of Commerce.

Breaking Barriers for Women Founders

Speaker 2 26:05

All the work that these individual key leaders have done is making a difference. But I think the biggest thing is I don't think there's necessarily a an intentional effort to cut women out of that market. I just think that there is a I don't know if it's a societal bias, I don't know what it is, but for some reason there's. We're just not getting as much traction there as we could, and so I guess what I would say is that I think men in the community need to change and and and I, and we were we I think we met a week or so back and I talked about it.

Speaker 2 26:45

Men are just dumb. We just don't even know what we're doing. Even impacts.

Speaker 1 26:51

I don't know that. I'd say that men are dumb.

Speaker 2 26:54

I think they're very smart in some ways, but in some ways they're just accustomed to things being the way that they have been, and so I think in many cases it's just a matter of getting people to think differently when it comes to that. And you know, sadly, some of the problem is is that you know there's this feeling, hey, there's a good old boys network and that. And I think in some cases there are, I mean, the investment communities. If you go to, you know, angel startup groups or whatever, a lot of them are there and they're just with all of the same kind of people yeah.

Speaker 2 27:27

And so you know, I don't think they intentionally say, hey, we're going to go into this event today and we're going to help the men, the male founders, and we're not going to help the women founders, but because they're surrounded by a lot of the same people and that that that kind of um, you know, just thought process dominates those community.

Speaker 2 27:46

So this conversation, and I think men need to step up. I think we need to, we need to be aware that there is an issue there and we need to be aware that that maybe we're looking at things through that bias and I may not be very popular if I say that, but I think that, um, I think we have a responsibility and you know I I've had a wonderful opportunity of working for companies that have very good diversity. You know, adobe is one of the greatest companies when it comes to that. Um, probably half of the people I worked with, uh, were considered to be in that minority class women and people of color, et cetera and, and I just think you know, you almost just get used to the idea that they're just part of the organization and they're just part of the success.

Speaker 1 28:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2 28:33

And so I think it's kind of a mindset as much as anything, and I guess I would challenge men in those roles to question their thoughts and you know that kind of a thing.

Speaker 1 28:44

And.

Speaker 2 28:44

I don't know what the best option or best decision is to make that happen, but I think we've got some work to do.

Speaker 1 28:50

It's interesting because often my co-host is Chris Jenkins, who is a startup founder with Mobley, and we've talked about the fact that when you're just starting, like, you get your friend, you get your best friend, you get who you went to college with, you know, like people very similar to you to just start running and building this thing. And so there comes a point when you're like wait, we need to have some women on our team, we need some minorities. But where that happens as businesses grow is really up to the company, right, especially in Utah. It's not regulated, it's not mandated, it's just up to the company. But I do think it's easier for those founders and startups to pivot than larger corporations. Um, do you know about the state startup initiative? That is just, um, yeah, I'm interested in if you'd ever think it'd fly with a business community to put something in there, Like, do you have a? If you reach I don't know what the number is 2050, do you have a woman in your group? Do you have a minority? Like I don't know what do you think?

Speaker 2 29:57

You know I there's. There's a lot of debate about the best way to fix that issue.

Speaker 2 30:02

Right, and I'm not a politician. I don't know the best way to solve things, but I do know this we tend to associate with people that are similar to ourselves, and it is difficult to break outside of that sometimes, and so I think that there is a need for us to change the way we think about that. One of the nice things about Adobe, and really even Omniture before, was a lot of my colleagues were women, and I didn't even think about that. I didn't even think, oh well, there's four women.

Speaker 1 30:43

It wasn't like. It wasn't like that.

Speaker 2 30:46

And it just kind of came. But you know what, Adobe worked really hard to get to that point. Yeah, it's gotta be deliberate, yeah, it's gotta be, and I guess what I would say is that it is sad that we have a society where that's still an issue.

Speaker 2 30:59

It's still a struggle. Um, I think we need to admit that that's the case, and I think we need to admit that that's the case, and I think we need to try and address that Now. I don't know if affirmative action or things of that nature are the best way to do that. All I know is some of the most talented people I've ever worked with were considered to be part of that minority class, and I got to the point where I didn't even think about it, and so you know, I don't know how we do that. I think there's programs that could work, that could help with that.

Speaker 2 31:32

One thing that we are very proud of is of the 21 founders, I think half were women, and we actually had four people of color that presented um you know whether it's happened on purpose or it's happened just by accident. Um connect capital has been very successful in having um lots of different uh groups of people involved in the process. In fact, we have a big event coming up later in the fall called we Rock.

Speaker 1 32:01

Yeah.

Speaker 2 32:03

So it's basically the investor's choice event that we did in April.

Speaker 2 32:08

It was 21 founders men, women, people of color and we had we had 500 people register and about 400 people that attended Um, and we had 21 people on stage for 10 minutes each, yeah, and then we had a spin room where they could come and talk to him, and all that. We're basically going to package that exact same thing and do it in September, september 19th, and it's going to be only women founders. Now the people in the audience will be men, women, investors, all that kind of thing but on stage it will be exclusively women founders. Now, some people say it's a gimmick or you know whatever. I don't care.

Speaker 1 32:51

It doesn't matter to me.

Speaker 2 32:58

I don't care what they say. What we're trying to do is help a group of individuals that have been underutilized and under not visible as much as they should, and so by us doing this, we're hopeful that we can start to kind of stem that tide. And yeah, it's obvious, I mean we're not. We're not saying, oh, it's just by happenstance, 20 of our founders were all women.

Speaker 2 33:14

No, we're going after it as a women's event, we're also doing a veterans event, we're also doing some other things like that. So some of these other groups that are kind of less, less advantaged, or you don't want to call it, they don't have as much of an opportunity.

Speaker 1 33:28

Yeah.

Speaker 2 33:28

I think that we you know groups like Kenneth Kappel and others can make a difference and and not even apologize about it and just say, yeah, we're just doing this and and it was very successful last year and we're excited about it coming up in September.

Speaker 1 33:44

Thank you for your work in doing that.

Speaker 1 33:46

I really appreciate that. Some of the things we talk about on the podcast are leadership at some point becomes about visibility Right, and so this is offering those women or veterans or whoever else hasn't had that platform to get the visibility they need to see if their ideas will work Right. Because, like you said at the beginning, with Connect Careful, sometimes you don't even know who to connect with or what the next step is, to see if it's viable or how it might be viable. Are the women ever nervous? Sometimes we need to talk women into claiming the mindset of like leadership. And yeah, I think everybody's nervous.

Speaker 2 34:27

Yes, of course I, I tell people that, um there, there's this, there's this illness that's just hit utah, called entrepreneurialitis, and the symptoms? The symptoms are um unrealistic optimism and the random psychiatrists.

Speaker 2 34:45

Where you're on the, on the, you know the train, or on the plane or whatever, you're always talking to people about your business. You have high expectations that are not really even rational in many cases. Um, you, you spend all of your time in a room with either yourself or a very small group of people. Um, so you're socially, you know, awkward. You don't really talk to anybody other than your business. So people that do entrepreneurial type activities are kind of crazy. Anyway, right, because people are like, their families are like why don't you just get a job, like Ronnie did?

Speaker 1 35:19

He goes to work every day and it's 40 hours, then you can be home at five.

Speaker 2 35:23

And you seem to be working really hard hours and for nothing. So you know it is. People in this kind of environment are a little little mental anyway and you mean that in the best way?

Speaker 2 35:35

yes, in the best way um, but my philosophy on this is that there's a difference between being a mentor and being a sponsor. Okay, a mentor is someone who will give you advice and give you counsel and help you. Yeah, we have a tremendous mentor group of people that do that. A sponsor is different. A sponsor will will promote you and talk about you and drive your and try and drive your success when you're not in the room. A mentor will help you prepare for that, and a mentor can also be a sponsor.

Founders, Mentors, and Opportunities

Speaker 2 36:09

Don't get me wrong but a sponsor is someone who's willing to promote you and to talk about you and to um, to give you a leg up in that in a room where you're not there.

Speaker 2 36:20

Yes or might not have access to yes and that that is a unique situation and it's something that a lot of people are willing to do. It takes there's a risk. There's not much of a risk of being a mentor, because most times people don't know that you were mentoring someone Sponsors, you're in a boardroom or you're in an executive team room or whatever and you tout or you promote someone. That's that's taking a risk. You tout or you promote someone that's taking a risk, that's going beyond just trying to help someone.

Speaker 2 36:49

That's actually putting yourself on the line, using your social capital and we need more people that are willing to help, be sponsors, and, and I think the more we do that, the more people will be comfortable doing that, and that, to me, is a big shift. That's, that's a change that we, that we need to promote and talk about more so.

Speaker 1 37:11

I really appreciate that and I can see how they're different. I feel like we have lots of mini groups working towards mentorship with women and claiming those things and coaching and feedback, and it also takes those sponsors, right in those rooms where decisions are made, who are willing to say no, let's take a chance on this, and then the women also being ready to say absolutely, I'm ready to step in and yeah, I mean once you get a chance you've got to nail it right.

Speaker 2 37:39

It's like a comedian you know somebody has to help you to get on stage. But once you're on stage it's either you're got to hire somebody, you've got to do this, or whatever.

Speaker 1 37:48

Yeah.

Speaker 2 38:01

I think that those programs sometimes don't work because the the best people don't always end up getting promoted by those initiatives Sure. However, you can not mandate, but you can. You can kind of drive towards getting people opportunities on stage, um, and they may win and they may do a great job and they may not.

Speaker 1 38:21

They may you know they're.

Speaker 2 38:22

Of those 21 founders you know, I think probably five or six of them probably nailed it and they've already. It's so fun Cause they've actually some of them have actually got fan funding and that as a byproduct, some are, you know, probably the majority, you know did an okay job. They didn't hurt themselves, but they also didn't maybe help themselves as much as they could, and there were two or three that really struggled and had a hard time and were nervous.

Speaker 1 38:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2 38:51

And so you know, once you're on stage, it's you. But to get on stage, that's where the hard part is, and you know, giving people that opportunity, that's something you can not mandate but you can drive towards. But but having people stand on their own two feet once they're on stage, that's the Serengeti plane right.

Speaker 1 39:11

Right, absolutely.

Speaker 2 39:12

Are you ready? Are you prepared? Have you done the work? Cause you don't get very many opportunities on stage. If you bomb, then you know, and that's just the reality right, that's just the reality.

Speaker 1 39:24

That's just the reality.

Speaker 2 39:26

If you don't do well, it's going to be hard for you to get another opportunity. I think those founders that were on stage that maybe struggled a little bit I don't think anyone bombed, I don't think anyone was not prepared. I think some were more in their element on stage. Yes, but that's not necessarily an indication of success either. Right, and some people are a little bit more introverted, they're a little bit nervous on stage. I tell people that nerves are not a bad thing. That just means you care.

Speaker 1 39:55

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 39:56

Yeah, and so I don't think you can ruin your chances, but you got to be ready and I think we can give, we can mandate the ability to give people opportunities, but when it all comes down to it, they're the ones that have got to take advantage of Excellent point. So you can only do so much.

Speaker 1 40:15

I know that one thing that Pat has talked about since the beginning of the Women's Leadership Institute is that we are non-prescriptive. We give you the principles, we show you how they apply, but we don't tell you exactly how to implement them, because that's under your own leadership purview, right. That's your own trial and error, that is your own workforce and you engaging with them. So it never can just be a checkbox, because change takes more than a checkbox. And I also love the idea that once people get the opportunity, maybe they step off the stage and say that is not what I ever want to do again, Right? Or maybe they're like that was so great and I need to fix this, this and this before I go on next time. You know just the learning process that can happen through that time.

Speaker 2 40:59

You know just the learning process that can happen through that and that's where you know that bright light changes because, like you said, some people may get on stage and realize this is the worst thing. In fact, you know, I joke with people that being a speaker, having a presentation, is, you know, there are people that would rather be in the casket than the person talking about, the person that was in the casket?

Speaker 1 41:22

Yes, totally.

Speaker 2 41:24

And there's some people they thrive in it. Yeah, they love it. Some people were very introverted and they kind of trained themselves. You know I joke about. You know I'm a very big introvert when it comes to a lot of stuff, but I've been able to do it enough and practice and you know I've gotten better at it. And there are people that are so much better than me on stage. You know, one of the things that we are so glad that we did was um had Christine Woodfelt from RevRoad come and be our MC.

Speaker 1 41:52

Um there are people that are. She was amazing.

Speaker 2 42:01

She's, and she's, a wonderful partner. Uh, revroroad's a great partner of ours. There's some people that are just naturally talented at being on stage. Some can work on it and practice and get better at it, but some people just don't like it, it's just not their thing. And what's funny is that it seems like in large, in companies that make it big, there's always someone who's the front man, right.

Speaker 1 42:22

Yes.

Speaker 2 42:23

And then there's the guy behind the scenes, the one behind the curtain, kind of doing all the work and not the work but doing all of the you know, the stuff that the front man does. All that, logistical operations and so for some people they're like, you know, I don't want to be on stage, I'd love to be working with the person preparing them to go on stage, or I'd like to be operationally, you know, focused on doing stuff around the company and that.

Speaker 2 42:45

So not everybody wants to be the lead singer of a rock band right Somewhere, okay, being a roadie or running around in the background, um, and you need both. So some people in where you realize you know what, this isn't really my thing. Or they may say you know what, this is my thing, but I need to find somebody who enjoys that.

Speaker 1 43:03

Yeah, that idea of getting the right people in the right seats on the bus, that idea, or, as I think back to different people that I know who have started companies, there's always like very different personalities, right the visionary, the one who's going to pitch it, the one who can talk to it, and then the person who can actually make it happen and execute on that vision. So I love that you said that. I think that's really important for founders and startups to really think about. Who is that? Especially in the age of social media, when founders and your brand are almost always synonymous? That's an important thing to consider. Yeah, okay, I love this conversation, especially because women and money has so many layers of nuance and bias, both with men and with women and in everything. So I think this conversation about money and founders is important. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is there anything we haven't talked about today that you would want to share with?

Financial Education and Empowerment

Speaker 2 44:06

this audience. My wife has been the one that's done our finances really throughout our marriage, partly because I can't keep two numbers together oh no, and I'm a very impulsive person when it comes to spending money. She's a little bit more, you know, thought, you know. Let's think about it Maybe we shouldn't do that.

Speaker 2 44:41

I think there are probably a lot of those kind of scenarios and I guess what I would say is that you know, it doesn't matter if you're a man or woman, it doesn't matter if you're good at that different thing or whatever. Everybody needs to have training on that, because lives change quickly. You know so if the husband in the family is the one that does the money. You know so if it, if the husband in the family is the one that does the money.

Speaker 2 45:06

um, you know, I have a uh, you know a brother-in-law that that passed away instantly had a heart attack, was gone before he even hit the ground and his wife really, really struggled Um cause.

Speaker 1 45:13

She wasn't involved. She wasn't involved.

Speaker 2 45:14

She wasn't prepared, she hadn't, she wasn't part of the conversation, she didn't do a lot of those things and it was a tremendous challenge for her. And that can go either way, right. And so the days of you know, hey, you go earn the money and I'll take care of the house, or vice versa, or whatever.

Speaker 2 45:32

Those days are they're just not really realistic anymore. And so people you know two of my daughters are married, the other one is single, and then every young, younger one and you know the ones that aren't married, have had to do that. You know that financial and I think I just think it's important in groups like the Women's Leadership Institute, people like she money and she place and you know Ann Marie Wallace at the Women's Leadership Institute, people like she Money and she Place and Ann Marie Wallace at the Women's Business Center and that there's so many opportunities out there for people to get training and education around these things.

Speaker 2 46:13

And I would just, in a parting chat, just encourage people. You don't have to go to WLA, you don't have to go to WPC. You don't have to go to WPC, you don't have to go to she, Lenny or she place or any of these organizations, but find something somewhere that can help you understand it, because everybody's got to have financial training and education.

Speaker 1 46:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2 46:33

Um, because otherwise you'll do dumb stuff and and you know you'll you'll struggle, and and there's so many resources out there that can help you with this, um, so I would encourage people to look into it and and to become educated, become aware of what's going on and take advantage of some of these organizations that are out there that that do this and, uh, do a great job of it.

Speaker 1 46:59

Yeah, really good point. Money's not going away and it impacts everything, right, whether you're working in a corporation or you're handling your own finances, or whatever that might be. So that is a great point.

Speaker 2 47:11

I can't remember where this came from. I'm gonna butcher it, but you know, money doesn't bring happiness, but neither does poverty right. And with money, at least, you have resources and you have options. Um and so, yeah, it's a necessary evil in our society and it's not going away. It's the by-product of a capitalist society. Um, and so you've got to educate yourself or you're going to struggle.

Speaker 1 47:39

Well, and along with money comes decision-making right, really leadership decision-making of where are you going to put your resources, what are your priorities, right? All those things are all tied together, james. If people want to get involved with Connect Capital, how do they do that?

Speaker 2 48:01

So we're always looking for three different types of people. The first is obviously founders, so anyone who has a business idea or feels like they have a good business, a good idea for a startup and they want help Go to. First of all, I hate our website right now. It's terrible, but it's the only way to get people to go. It's it's connect capital is spelled kind of funky. It's K I N E C T capitalorg, and so you can go there, and up in the top right-hand corner there's a little button that says you know, engage with Connect Capital. You can go there. So that's the first group, is the founder group. The second group is the mentor group. It's a group of people that they're looking to give back.

Investor Opportunities and Collaboration

Speaker 2 48:51

And we have 800, some odd people that have done mentoring over those 41 years. Probably 350 or so are still kind of in the game and a hundred are very active, um. So if you have an interest in doing that, um and I'm just going to throw this out there just send me an email, james, at connect capitalorg, um, and we'll get you involved in that process, um. And then the third group is investors. Um, and so same kind of thing. If you're an investor that's looking to attend some of these events, we, we do a monthly pitch event at the kiln offices, uh, in Lehigh, it's called third Thursday at three.

Speaker 1 49:30

Um.

Speaker 2 49:30

Ray Smithson is an amazing guy Um every month we do uh four founders on stage giving their uh, building their their, building their business or pitching their business, and we can help you get involved in that process. So there's lots of different groups that are in entail, but we please don't hesitate once again.

Speaker 1 49:52

It's james at connectcapitalorg we'll put it in the show send me information and and we'll get you involved.

Speaker 2 49:58

But we're doing some amazing things and and all of it is because of people willing to either stick their neck out or help those people that have stuck their neck out, or or help those people find people that are looking to put money on businesses like that. So it's kind of that three, uh, those three circles, I guess.

Speaker 1 50:15

Yeah, and Utah's really growing that way. So thank you for your work in this. And, um, and Utah's really growing that way. So thank you for your work in this and thank you for walking the talk Like I haven't known you very long, but in the times that I've known and I've met with you, you are very sincere and true to your word and I've really appreciated getting to know you in that way. Likewise, Thank you, thank you.