Founder Fumbles Podcast

Build a Million Dollar Niche Company | Stephanie Laflora | #18

• Dahmari Taplin • Season 1 • Episode 18

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In this episode of Founder Fumbles, Dahmari Taplin sits down with Stephanie Laflora, Founder & Creative Director of Moxie AI and CEO of Crownhunt.

As a Techstars alum and AI go-to-market systems expert, Stephanie is helping founders and creators build scalable businesses using AI and strategic growth systems.

In this conversation, we discuss:
• Stephanie’s founder journey
• Lessons from Techstars
• The biggest challenges founders face
• Staying motivated through the startup grind
• Advice for new entrepreneurs

Connect with Stephanie:
https://www.moxieaibrands.com/

https://www.instagram.com/stephanielaflora/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanielaflora/

https://www.instagram.com/moxieai/

If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe and share it with another founder who needs to hear it.

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SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Founder Fumbles podcast where we go deep into real life startup struggles and comeback strategies. I'm your host, Damari, and today we have Stephanie La Flora. So just so y'all know, Stephanie is the founder and creative director of Moxie AI, founder and CEO of Crown Hunt. She's an AI and go-to market system expert, Tech Stars alumni, RVC alumni, and now she's helping founders and creators build businesses on their own terms. We got you? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. Alright, that's the hardest part. Everything after that, we good, you know. Um, how you been doing?

SPEAKER_00

What's been going on with you? Man, I've been out here. I've been um really taking away the pretext and the requirements that society puts on founders and really thinking about what makes a company move forward, right? And making sure that I'm doing those things and focusing on those things and not focusing on the public persona of a founder, which I think I can be very good at. And so that can be a distraction, but the way that your company operates and what's happening in it is the most important.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Um, so uh tell everybody about like Crown Hunt, you know, what's going on with Crown Hunt? Wait, wait, hold on, wait. First, first, sorry. Let's start off with Moxie AI.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yes. Let's start off with Moxie AI. So let's start with Moxie AI. So Moxie AI started as a uh marketing agency, and we um I really founded that because I had been a tech startup founder, and I realized that there was a huge gap in the average founder's understanding of how to tell the story of the product, how to tell the story of your business, and how to tell your own personal story in order to connect people with it and make people feel like this company, this brand, this product is something that feels connected to who they are. And that was natural to me because I've been a storyteller my whole life.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And because I've been a marketer my whole life. But when I became a startup founder, I learned that most founders are actually not creatives, they're not marketers, and they are technicians or they're subject matter experts, and they've realized there's a problem within their industry that they should solve, and and and they're amazing at that, but they're not amazing at being a storyteller, and so because of that, people can get you know lost in terms of what the value of that product is because they don't really tell it in a way that's compelling. And so I created Moxie to help other startup founders do that well. We have since evolved. Um, I think in the AI age, we've learned a lot, and one of the things that I'm most passionate about now, this is probably my first interview ever talking about it, is how founders have a unique opportunity now with the way the AI is going to create really niche, really small companies that solve an immediate problem and do not require crazy scale internally. They can scale a lot externally in terms of how many people they can serve, but internally they don't need to crazy scale. They can be one or three people and still do like 10 million.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_00

So that's like a new thing.

SPEAKER_01

Let me tell you something real quick. So uh just so every the whole audience know, we were both in the RVC Rocky's Venture Club, Rocky's Venture Capitalist, what you call them? Rocky's Venture. I think it's Rocky Rocky's Venture Club. Rocky's Venture Club. Uh we were in a hyper accelerated program. We did like, was it like 11 days, a whole week or something like that?

SPEAKER_00

It was a week, but it was really honestly, I've been in a couple of accelerators, and I felt like it was one of the better ones in terms of like teaching you a lot in a short amount of time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um and I was there with Crown Hunt.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, that's what I was saying.

SPEAKER_00

So like things have changed a lot since we last saw.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna tell you that, honestly, just between us, well, you probably never knew this, but I was a little bit intimidated by you, man. I was a little bit intimidated because you were so good at telling your story. And I I couldn't talk about my business the way you talk about your business. And I was just like, man, that's I was super inspired, like of how you like told your story. You know, I never got a chance to tell you that. But when they um when they told when they had us come up and pitch our business, you went first and you smashed it. My heart was beating for like an hour. Like, man, I gotta go up there. Like, you killed it, yo. Thank you. I appreciate it. You like one of my um my favorite pitchers that you know. Thank you. Yeah, business pitcher.

SPEAKER_00

So I just wanted you to know that because I really appreciate that. I do. I do genuinely. I think one of the things I realized early in the startup world, which wasn't something I've I mean, I had worked in startup prior, so it wasn't like I didn't know startup. But being startup as an employee and being startup as the founder is entirely different. So for whoever is out there working in startup and feeling like, okay, startup founder is my next move, just understand that leap is actually much bigger than you would ever imagine.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Because the knowledge of raising capital, um, making a viable business, um, scaling is actually pretty distant even from the average startup worker. It really just is. That like kind of stays in the C-suite. So if you're not there, you're not actually learning those skills, even though you might understand how to develop a product, how to market a start, you know, a new company. Um so I think for me, it was actually a discovery for me to understand that I could pitch. I don't think I went into that the experience of being a starter founder, being like, oh, pitching is my strength. I did not see it that way, even though it's crazy because I had actually raised five million before I started a company for another company, but because of the way that they finessed me, I didn't actually know that was a big deal, which sounds crazy, but I really didn't know. Um, and so it was actually after the fact that I was like, oh, pitching is like a big part of the game. It is. And I still suck at pitching. I didn't see it as that. And then when I learned that, that was when I was really passionate about having other people do the same.

SPEAKER_01

That's dope. Yeah. So um, so how is Crown Hunt? What's been going on with that? Because I haven't heard you up. All I've been saying is Moxie AI this moxie AI.

SPEAKER_00

No, Crown Hunt has been crickets, okay. I'm actually really excited for you to ask me that because the facts of the matter are that I am okay, let's talk about it. So, here's the truth. The truth is that when I went into creating Crown Hunt, I went into it as a novice startup founder.

SPEAKER_01

Wait, first before you say that, tell me what Crown Hunt is.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yes, okay, okay, okay. So I started Crown Hunt because I moved from Chicago to Colorado when I was um getting my career in the early tech world. And when I moved here, this is the first time I've ever been in a city that was not diverse at all.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I had only lived in Chicago and LA before that, so I've only lived in giant melting pot cities. I know that that's rare now. I understand how rare that is now, but for me, it was like, what is this place? And I remember um living here for like a month, and then after the first month, being like, I haven't seen a black person the whole month I've lived here because I didn't think about it. Like when I came here, I really came here on business. I came here with like, I have a goal, I want to work in this industry, I want this kind of job, I got interviewed for the job, I took the job, that was it. That was like my main focus. I wasn't thinking about like how fun is my city and what's going on. Right. I wasn't thinking about none of that. I was thinking about my career, and so when I came here, I came here with that mindset, and then like after the fact, I was like, oh, it's not diverse. I legit didn't think about that because I just wasn't focused on my social life at the time. And then when I did, I was like, oh, there's all these things that come with not being in a diverse city, and one of the biggest ones actually that stood out to me immediately was that I didn't have anybody do my hair. I I could not find someone to do my hair at all. And when I came, I actually came with box braids like this, and I took them out and was like, oh, I'll get my hair done this weekend.

SPEAKER_01

Couldn't find nobody.

SPEAKER_00

That was crazy, and at the time, you know, we talk in 2013, like things are different in that era, okay? Like, people are not like wearing their froze to work, certainly not to a tech startup work, and I was not sure how I would be accepted. So I took out my braids and I had a little short curly fro, and I was like, I need to get my hair done this weekend so I can go back to work on Monday without this fro. But I couldn't do that, and I went to as many salons as I could find. I'm talking like five, six salons, and they all rejected me. They took my appointment, and when I walked in with my fro, they were like, oh no, we don't. Actually, one of them said, we don't do African hair. So I'm sorry, we can't do your hair. And I was like, what do you mean? Like I just didn't now, to be fair, I had never really gone to majority white salons except to get color done in Chicago to places I have been referred to.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you couldn't.

SPEAKER_00

Um but like I really hadn't done that. But that's like a kind of internal, you know, black conversation of you don't go to non-black stylists. But what if there aren't any?

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And I didn't really know what to do about that, so I um at the time was just like I'm just gonna go around me because I don't know. And so when I went, I was rejected from every single one. Literally, no one ever did my hair, and I thought this is one bizarre, two, it felt very discriminatory, but also I just was like, what is the solution? Like, I actually don't even know what to do.

SPEAKER_01

Do you go out of town to get your hair done?

SPEAKER_00

I was like, I don't know what to do. Do I go back to Chicago to get my hair done? Like, obviously, that's a lot, right? So within that search, I ended up looking up African hair braiding on Google because at the time, you can't Google black hairstylists, there's no salon called black hair stylist, right? So I was just like, I don't know what to do. And so I looked up African hair braiding because I know that's like a search term, a keyword, and I found somebody braiding my hair. I get my hair braided all the time from patient. Come on, shout out to Patient, she is the best in Denver. Um, but also like I was realizing that those keywords did not match the average business search terms. And so because my daily job at that point was figuring out how you could better improve businesses based on the data of the populations and what they're looking for, it was just obvious to me, like immediately. I was like, I need to create a business to help people find hairstylists that can actually do their hair. And I also need to help people, hairstylists do hair all kinds of hair. So I created Crown Hunt because I was on the hunt for my crown. And um basically, Crown Hunt became a platform for hairstylists to learn how to style curly and coolly hair, taught by a curl specialist to everyone who would learn.

SPEAKER_01

That is fire.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So what's going on with it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So um, where Crown Hunt is at today, um, I think is a little bit of a story. And I'm gonna short version. The short version of the story.

SPEAKER_01

At least got a little more to go.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So the short version of the story is Crown Hunt today is on pause. And why is it on pause? It's on pause because in my journey of raising money, I learned a lot. And one of the things I learned was that something like Crown Hunt would either require a lot of capital up front or it would require a lot of time. And a lot of capital up front is a tricky thing when you are less than 1% of the funding that goes out uh annually. Let me say that more clearly. You could have got that funding.

SPEAKER_01

Because I remember in RVC it was a it was an investor there that was interested in you. Did you get in contact with that investor?

SPEAKER_00

Yes. Um, so I would articulate it as this. Um, I think that what I saw was the early writing on the wall of the blowback of DEI.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Um, this is pre-the current era, but at the time I knew, I felt, I was so sure that the that the DEI pushback was coming. And what I did not want to do was build my business, which was meant to inspire and support and promote diversity and all the hair textures that encompass it. Um, I didn't want to make that dependent on funding and funders who don't get it and don't care and would not stick with that agenda if the tides changed, which I felt very confident was going to change. Now, mind you, this was something I was thinking about pre-current administration. So I was already like, I could feel it. You could feel it in the rooms you were in, you could feel it when you were pitching, and like I'm a lot of things, but I'm also intuitive as hell.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

SPEAKER_00

And so when I was there, I was just like, this ain't gonna last. And so my thought was if this doesn't last, then what? I think another thing was to be completely clear was just I needed money. And then the company that I was running was one that was gonna be a later revenue generator. It was not gonna be an early revenue generator, and so I thought I needed to build something that could bring me income right away. So those two things kind of led me to where am I now?

SPEAKER_01

Dang, that's a story, yo. Um I I do want to know your plans on bringing it back up, but more than that, I kind of want to know about your experience in Techstars. How was that? Did you you you're a Techstars alum, you were in their accelerator program. Which accelerator? Workforce development one?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_00

In Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So um my experience in Tech Stars was really unique. And what was unique about it was I actually went into Techstars, not as Crown Hump, but as Moxie, but alongside another organization. Um, and they were a client of ours, and we're coming in as a um agency supporting them. And that company is called Liquid. Shout out to Liquid. Um, they are also in the hair industry creating um technology to help hairstylists get um more revenue and to become profitable. Um, so that is how we kind of entered that relationship. Um, but it was a great experience. It was.

SPEAKER_01

So um, what would you say was your uh like biggest challenge, you know, being like a founder, you know, not only just being a founder, but being because you're a mother too. You got two kids. I should have told I should have said that when I shouted you out earlier doing your intro. There's so many things, but you know, what'd you say your biggest challenge is being a founder?

SPEAKER_00

My first big challenge was um three weeks after I quit my job, I found out I was pregnant, my second child. Uh so that was wild. Um, because I did not plan on being a founder while pregnant at all. That was like not the plan. Um so at that point I had a lot of decisions to make and I did. Um, I would say also I think that you know, if you have a co-founder, that can be challenging. That was challenging for me. But ultimately, I think the greatest founder of any challenge of any um founder is really um the the greatest, you said the greatest challenge, okay.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you. Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Correct me. The greatest challenge of any founder, I believe, is staying focused on making sure that you're getting traction while being distracted by a million different things. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because you could be distracted by raising money and you could raise money. You could raise money, but you're not getting enough traction with your product, so you're gonna raise a little bit, and then by the time them checks is being cashed, you got no action, and you gotta figure out how to make that work. I think that is a really difficult thing as a founder. I think being distracted by a million things is is the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_01

So, um, do you have a uh co-founder with uh Moxie AI? I do not. You don't? No. So what what you doing about that?

SPEAKER_00

I'm happy with it. I think that it's a little bit of it's not popular, but I think that um not having a co-founder is something that is largely frowned upon, and at least in the tech world. Um, and I understand why that's the case a lot of times because you know it's good to bounce ideas off of someone else, it's good to have to agree between two people, all those things. But as a black woman, I disagree. And the reason why I disagree is because I think that most people are programmed to like not agree with us. Like, and that's a controversial thing to say, right? I think. Um, but I think as a black woman, having a co-founder may or may not be as necessary.

SPEAKER_01

Depends on what kind of business you have. Yeah, I mean, I think I think that not having a co-founder is a choice, and I think it is um because the main thing is like you gotta find somebody who because you don't have all the skills, right? What skills do you lack?

SPEAKER_00

Oh yes, but you can hire people to match those skills. I'm not alone. Right, right. I got a team of like 10 people on on another level. So I'm not without that. Yeah, yeah. I think it's just more about who's in the co-founder seat. It's not about what talent are you bringing to your team. I absolutely cannot possibly have all the talent necessary for my team. I got you.

SPEAKER_01

That's not possible. And plus you got the hardest part knocked out, the marketing part. That's you all day.

SPEAKER_00

I think marketing is really hard. I think pitching is really hard. It's hard. I think usually pitching and I think pitching and sales kind of is not always the same thing. You think pitching is hard? I don't think pitching is hard to me, but I think pitching is hard for most people.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah. You so good at pitching. Thank you. I know I'm just gonna keep telling you that because you're super good at pitching. Uh uh, you and uh Amber Simon, y'all like my favorite pitchers. Oh, and Regis, don't forget Regis. You, Regis and Amber, y'all are like my favorite pitchers. Um, so wait, I got another question. Um Have you ever felt like giving up doing all of this stuff?

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, are you kidding me? So many times? Well, okay, let me say it better. I felt like giving up a lot of things, but I never felt like giving up entrepreneurship. I felt like giving up having a co-founder, did that. I felt like giving up pursuing investors, honestly, did that. Not saying that's everybody's best choice.

SPEAKER_01

That's what I did. So I oh, okay, I got two questions. Dang I got. Yeah, come on, come on, come on, hit me. The first one is what happened with your co-founder with uh Crown Hunt? Y'all still cool or y'all break up?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I think that having a co-founder is a long and complex journey. I think in my case, we decided to part ways and do our own thing, and it was not easy. It was not a um fun time, if I'm honest.

SPEAKER_01

You gotta pick the right person, man.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I mean, you know, I think that's true. I think that also like marriage, honestly, you don't know what you're gonna encounter.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00

Especially as a first-time founder. I think after you've done it before, you can probably be more knowledgeable. But the way that I would um the way I would compare founding a company with someone else, it's kind of like marriage, but it's kind of not. Because most people when they get married, when they get in a marriage, they've dated a lot of people. Most founders have never had a co-founder.

SPEAKER_01

It's like your first relationship.

SPEAKER_00

So it's like you got married on your first relationship. Yes, that's what it feels like. So, you know, and so it doesn't even mean that this person is not good. Yeah, it just means that like I didn't have enough experience to know what to look for. They didn't have enough experience to know what to look for, and here we are, and also like this is a very mature experience, yeah, right? So I think that the facts are, and I and you know, I have mad love to my co my past co-founder. I would never say anything about him in any type of interview ever. Um, you know, he's a great person and he will go on to do amazing things, period. Um, I think also though, that picking a co-founder when you've never even had a company before is like almost an impossible decision. It's it's crazy hard to do that. And I think people don't really talk about how hard it is to actually do that well. Because if you've never founded a company, if you never started a company before, you don't even know what that, you don't even know what that it includes. So how could you possibly know how to choose the right person? You know, like you don't even know what to look for. So I think I learned a lot from that experience. And I feel like the facts are that I'm not a co-founder kind of person. I'm okay with saying that.

SPEAKER_01

That makes sense. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

Um, but I but I but I don't think many people are co are cool with saying that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's that's cool. Some people um I'm against that, you know, because it's my business, you know. I help people find co-founders and business partners and stuff. Yes. But it's funny you said that you brought up marriage and all of that stuff because uh I relate, you know, uh finding a co-founder to like finding uh a partner, you know what I mean? Like uh the marriage partner. It is like finding a partner, but like you said, one thing I never thought about is that it's the the difference is when you find a co-founder, it's like your first one.

SPEAKER_00

It's like you're you know, it's marriage, it's it's a it's a it's a uh arranged marriage. Yeah. If you get a co-founder on your first business, it's an arranged marriage. And you know, you might even choose it, but you don't really know what you signed up for.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's that's another reason I built the app is because you know it's it's like dating in a way as well, because you you could find a co- they like, oh, people always ask me, like, what happens if they find a co-founder? Are you gonna leave? I'm like, relationships don't always work. You know, you find somebody, uh, you know, you might be in a relationship with them for a year or six months or whatever, but then you gotta go back to the app. You gotta, you know what I mean? You gotta it's the same thing as like Tinder or whatever. You know, you find someone, you meet somebody on Tinder, it doesn't work out, you get back on Tinder. You know what I'm saying? So it's kind of like the same thing. People always ask me that, and I'm like, it's it's an obvious answer.

SPEAKER_00

I think a co-founder can be an incredible, incredible resource. I think what's important is knowing what role you really want to play and what role you want your co-founder to play.

SPEAKER_01

You know, in the co-founder, it it doesn't all I mean, you know, for Zega, you know, my company, it doesn't, it's not just for finding a co-founder. You can go in there and try to find a CTO, CMO, CFO, or whatever. It's like it's a skill matchmaking application.

SPEAKER_00

But that's the key, is a skill. Yeah, I think that a lot of times, kind of like what the analogy I was saying when you're early in a relationship, if you're finding your marriage partner while never dating, you don't know what role you play. You don't always know like what your strengths are in a relationship or what are your weaknesses in a relationship, and I think that makes it harder. Yeah, I think for a co-founder, I think a co-founder relationship can be incredible, but I think the best co-founder relationship is going to be based on you being incredibly sure of what role you play. And I think when you're a CEO, it's kind of awkward because if you've never been a CEO before, which if you're a first-time founder, you haven't, um you don't exactly know where the line is because you've been project manager, you've been CMO, you've been, you know, business development person. Right. You haven't worn as many hats as you're about to wear. So you don't know where, what's the hat you don't wear.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And I think that's one of the hardest things because you need to be able to, I think the best co-founder relationship is when from day one you are extremely clear about what my job is and what your job is. I can't believe it. And if you don't, and if you don't have that, yeah, it's pretty challenging from the start. And I think for me, I worked in tech startup and I was early in startups. So when you're early in startups, you play like every role. You don't have like a defined, this is all you do. And so it's harder to figure out where do what do I not want to do? What am I not good at? Um, you know, and my co-founder also was from tech startup. So it was like, and he also played a role that was very um. Tech startup. Do you mean tech stars? No, a tech, another tech startup. Another tech startup. Okay, okay. Another tech startup. Yeah. So my point is we were both from tech startups that were very early.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that means that we were used to putting on a lot of hats. If you're used to putting on a lot of hats, you don't really know what's my thing, what's your thing. What do I love? What do I not love?

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_00

If I don't know that, it's a lot harder to say, here's the line, here's what you need to do, here's what I need to do. And if you don't have that, then it can be a lot of overlap and there can be some, you know, poor communication around that.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know what I'm trying to, I'm starting to figure out is that I hate the financial side and stuff. I hate doing everything. I just don't like doing it. So I'm probably gonna try to find a CFO real soon. Um, hopefully that person's on the Z G app. Yeah. But anyway, um, so what would you say your biggest lesson? What was your biggest lesson that you learned being a founder?

SPEAKER_00

My biggest lesson that I have learned being a founder is that Let me answer that, ask that question a better way.

SPEAKER_01

No, I love it. Okay, go ahead. Is my biggest my biggest leg your biggest lesson learned.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. My biggest lesson being a founder has been that um my voice, my perspective, my intuition is actually really great. And I think that, especially as a black woman, I think there's this like um feeling that I need to humble myself. Even as I'm talking in this interview, I feel it. Like in my body, I'm like, oh, are you being too cocky? Are you being too arrogant? Are you being too whatever? Like, I think that that comes off in a black woman naturally because you feel like everybody's down in you. Also, people question whether you're qualified, and so you kind of feel like you need to like speak to that, but then when you start speaking to that, you start to feel like, am I doing too much? There's like a ton of crazy internal mind things that are happening when you are a black female entrepreneur, founder, and I think that the biggest lesson that I got was like, I already know what I already know what to do. I actually already know what to do. I haven't already done it, I haven't already achieved it, but like every time I was like, this is what I think we need to do next, and I didn't do it, it was always the wrong choice. Every single time. Don't mean I do everything right, it don't mean that everything is perfect, but I would say that my intuition would have the best record. And I did not follow it for a really long time. And I would say about two years ago, I was like, my intuition is the plan.

SPEAKER_01

Period. So um what I what keeps you going as an entrepreneur?

SPEAKER_00

It's hard to do because it'd be crazy out here in these streets.

SPEAKER_01

Um I don't know because I ain't even gonna lie, you come once I started this podcast, it was the only time I it it stopped me from what like wanting to like give up and stuff like that. You know what I mean? I wanted to quit this bazika shit so many times, y'all. I'm like, yo, this is expensive, it's hard, like stuff keeps breaking. Some customers don't be happy, and like I'm doing my best. Like, what do I do here? So that's why I'm like, I'm about to just try a new approach, which is this. I feel like I got my um my spark back doing this whole podcast. I don't want to quit right now. Right now, I just want to keep going and do more and more. But before I started this, I like I just I wanted to quit so many times. But it's what keeps you going?

SPEAKER_00

First of all, I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_01

You gotta be crazy. Every single heart every single entrepreneur is crazy. We are crazy.

SPEAKER_00

I just want to start with that because I think that's the fact. I think that um what makes me want to start from putting I'm gonna get deep for a second. So just let me do it. Do you think? First of all, my ancestors have overcome crazy stuff to get for me to get here, and I mean that from my whole heart. I always say that it's so true. I really believe that so deep. Like I feel like our ancestors overcame insane shit, crazy odds, actual, pure, in your face, unfiltered hatred. And in the middle of that, they were able to say, I believe I can. We don't even know what that shit is like. We've never experienced what they experienced. And in the middle of that experience, they were like, I can read, I can um mother children, I can become a senator, I can be a lawmaker, I can build communities, you know, like they had crazy dreams. They had crazy dreams, like they had dreams beyond anything we could ever even freaking imagine. Okay, they were dreaming that they could own when they couldn't even buy. Like, we don't know what that shit is like, and so what I'm always encouraged by is their courage. I'm always encouraged by their imagination. Imagine that, like the imagination to be like, I can I can run this, I can own this, I can have this, I can do this when like you're a literal slave. Like, I don't know, and that's not all our ancestors are there, much more than that. But I'm just saying, like, for me, every time I doubt myself, I think about the fact that I have a dad who has a master's degree, I had a grandfather who had a master's degree, I was educated, I was, you know, like I have so many more resources, I have so much more like audacity in some ways than my ancestors were able to have, at least naturally. And I think about that and I'm like, there ain't nobody who could tell me I can't. Who could? Who is qualified to tell me that I can't do something? It does not exist. And whoever is out there that would try to tell me, because my aunt, my people wouldn't, whoever is out there who would tell me that I can't, they ancestors say they have the shit we did. Period. And that's what makes that's what makes me think it. It's just like the fact that I even have the imagination to do something is the proof that it can happen. And I really do feel like that, and I'm delusional like that, and that's how I really am. That's just true. Like I wake up like that. So I never really want to quit because I never believe it's not possible. I genuinely never believe it's not possible. The question I always ask myself is, do I want it? Because once I believe that I genuinely want it, I believe it's possible. It's not possible if I don't want it though. And there's a lot of um inherited wants that we have as people. There's a lot of inherited scripts that are told to us to say you need to have this and this matters, it's so important, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And like, you know, we like inherit that and we're like, yes, I do want it. I want to do it, and blah, blah, blah. And then you don't really want it, and you can't do it because you don't really want it. So whenever I can't do something, I think to myself, do I really want this? And is that the reason why I can't do it? Because I don't actually want it. But if I lock in and I say I want it, then I'm like, okay, cool. 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years. I don't care. If I want it, it will happen. If it doesn't happen, then I'm not here anymore. But I'm not gonna stop pursuing it because I genuinely think this is the best thing that I could have in my entire lifetime. And I'm not saying that BSing you, like I really am like that, and I cannot help it, but be like that. That's just like kind of how I'm wired. That is fire. Like, that's genuinely how I'm wired.

SPEAKER_01

You were creating a whole vision in my head, like as you speak, and it's like that's dope. Just like like all these interviews. I never had nobody just like take me back.

SPEAKER_00

I'm looking at you like daydream, like, no, we come from too much. We come from too much, like for real. You know, people we never even heard of for real. Because like our history would say, oh, this person, that person, it's gotta be that name, that name. No, forget that. Right. People we never ever heard of. A man and a woman on a plantation dreamed of some shit that never could be. And they made it happen.

SPEAKER_01

Made it happen with nothing.

SPEAKER_00

And nobody ever heard of them. But because they did that, their kids, and then their grandkids, and then their great-grandkids. So I just never believe in, I never believe that my belief is not enough.

SPEAKER_01

No, I like how you said, um, you know, like if if I if I don't achieve something, maybe it's because I never really wanted to do it. That's the biggest thing for me. That's the biggest thing. Like, and if you really want something, you're just gonna do it. So you just maybe And you have you rather been doing something for somebody else and not truly for yourself, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00

Because when you have a job, if somebody says you're gonna get fired, if you don't do it, oh my god, it's when you pull out the tricks, okay? You make it happen. And if you don't make it happen, you don't. But I'm just saying, like, in general, the greatest achievements that most people have ever had have been for someone else, most of the time. And it's because of the pressure, but like, if you really believe it, then you can. And if you haven't, you just haven't yet. Not everything has to happen before you're 20, before you're 30, before you're 40, before you're 50. I don't believe in that. I think that your life is a work, it's a body of work, and the timing is irrelevant. Some people do shit at seven, some people do shit at 70. It doesn't matter. It's your life. Yeah, and you get to decide how you live it, and nobody can take that from you.

unknown

Damn.

SPEAKER_00

I I genuinely believe that. That's like no hype or nothing.

SPEAKER_01

Like, that's just I'm so happy you came to this thing. Because I was I like I you see why I really want you here because you make this episode like so entertaining. I'm just I'm just so happy to have you here. Um, but I do have uh a few more questions, just a few more. Um so if you can give uh some new entrepreneurs some advice starting up, never started a business. What would you tell that born entrepreneur? Somebody can your your uh your niece or something, little cousin came up to you like, hey, Auntie, big cousin, I want to I want to start a new business. Um, you know, what would you tell her? What's your what would you tell me? That's fine.

SPEAKER_00

I just had a cousin call me like two days ago. I would say that the only thing that matters is what problem are you solving and who are you solving it for? Is that problem critical? The classic thing. Is it a vitamin or is it a painkiller? A vitamin is a nice to have. When's the last time you took a vitamin? A painkiller is a must-have. If you're in pain, you're gonna take the vitamin as fast as possible. If you're at home, ain't no, I mean, sorry, the painkiller as fast as possible. If you're at home and you ain't got no aspirin, no Tylenol out, no avile, you're gonna get in your car right now, in pain, and you are gonna drive to the nearest pharmacy and you are gonna get that and you're gonna take it, you're gonna get some drink in the pharmacy, right? Like some water, whatever, and you're gonna take that in the car. Like before you even get home. So the question is if you are creating something, are you creating something that's a vitamin or is it a painkiller? And if it's a painkiller, how do you know? Who is the painkiller for? What problem does it solve? Why is that problem urgent? If you don't have something like that, then you need to go back to drawing boards.

SPEAKER_01

And the biggest thing that you might be forgetting, will people pay for it?

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah, if it's a painkiller, people gonna pay for it all day.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00

Vitamins is what people don't really care to pay for. Honestly, if nobody paying for your shit, it's probably vitamin.

unknown

That's the fact.

SPEAKER_01

Vitamins versus painkillers. Oh, I can't wait.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, that's like a common like little um I've never heard that thing, but yeah, like if you're not doing that, then you don't have something that people critically need. A nice to have is a I'll pay for it at some point. You don't want that. You can do it, it could be great for you emotionally, but it's not gonna be great for your money.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't I didn't ask you this. Um, I'm pretty sure I skipped over this question. Do you have like any daily routines that you do to keep your head in the game?

SPEAKER_00

I'm like the worst daily routine person ever.

SPEAKER_01

You don't have nothing.

SPEAKER_00

So, first of all, I'm like severely ADHD. That's cool. Let's start with that. Yeah, yeah. Uh, I think the biggest routine for me is probably that in the morning I try, because I have two kids. So like these kids, they don't they don't care. They'll wake up at 5 a.m. sometimes, sometimes. So if I can, I'll if I wake up before my kids, this is gonna sound crazy. What you do? I go and I get a I usually have Say it! No, no, this is healthy. Let's go. Okay, so I have like an energy drink usually in the bed. I'll go to the fridge, get my energy drink. If my kids are not awake, I'll go sit in my bed, check my emails, and drink the energy drink before I even get out of bed. Damn. That way, when I get up, I'm really up. What's what kind of uh energy drink? Celsius all day. Watermelon hollering.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's no coffee. So you don't must not drink coffee.

SPEAKER_00

Uh yes.

SPEAKER_01

You drink coffee too?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. My energy drink consumption is out of control. But I will tell you this. Oh my god, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01

Um Celsius is one of the cheap, uh not cheaper ones, but less sugar, right? I think it has less sugar. I don't know. But you're about to say, let me tell you, let me tell you this.

SPEAKER_00

I was just gonna say, like, so that's like one of my routines. I think another one, like to be more on the healthy side. So that's like my morning, you know. I don't have a more healthy morning routine. I got two key young kids, I got a three-year-old and a seven-year-old. My morning routine is survive. That's the real truth. After that, um, I take walks almost every day. There you go. That was like my that's my healthy one. Yeah. Um, I need walks to process my day. To be honest, most times when I'm taking a walk, I'm talking to AI. And I'm telling it about what I'm processing it, for what I'm processing, and it's telling me back, what it hears, and then we're reframing, and we do all that before we come back home.

SPEAKER_01

Which which which AI do you use to talk to?

SPEAKER_00

I use them all. Honestly, Claude is good, has been my favorite when it comes to processing like deep thoughts. Chat GPT is also good, but Claude has like Yeah, you can get it too. I feel like the language is a little bit more rich.

SPEAKER_01

I just started using uh uh meta AI, it's not that good, but it's connected to my glasses.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I got I got some too.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you got the glasses, you can just have a conversation with your glasses on, it's like it's in your head.

SPEAKER_00

It's so great.

SPEAKER_01

It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00

Honestly, I think okay, I'm like totally obsessed with AI. I think that um what is possible is nuts. I'm gonna be real. I talk to AI all day.

SPEAKER_01

As soon as everybody link it and how to get everything set up, it's it's about to get real.

SPEAKER_00

Because like just I mainly use it as a thought partner. So when I'm starting my day, I'm like, here's all the things that's going on my day, here's what I'm trying to figure out, yeah, here's what feels challenging, you know, and it's like, okay, here's what you do today, here's how you organize your day. And the biggest thing, the biggest thing is reframes. Like reframing my day, reframing a moment that felt negative is the biggest game changer, has been the biggest game changer of my life. How do you how do you prompt that? Okay, so the way I would do it is I would just tell it straight up. Like I just talk to it. I don't do the type in because I feel like type in makes you think more about what you're saying. I feel like when you do a voice note, you think less about it, and you just say what you really want to say. And it actually is very intelligent, so it is good at perceiving all your little, yeah, in my case, sass, and how to respond to it.

SPEAKER_01

You can tell is if you're yelling or frustrating or it just like understands tone, I think.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's what I mean. Um, yeah. So I tell it, you know, here's what's going on, this is how I felt about it, but I know I need to reframe because I know that this is like an emotional reaction to this situation, and I want to think about it in a different way and help me understand it that way. And then it will be like, okay, here's a different way to look at it. That's totally accurate, but just different, right? You can have one version of the story where you're in your feelings and you're like, they shouldn't have said, and this shouldn't have happened, or you know, if it's not about another person, it's like I feel terrible, this didn't work out. Right. Another option option is this wasn't you weren't ready yet, or this wasn't for you, or this wasn't a good fit. And here's how you your AI tell you that, yeah. And here's how you find the fit for you. Like, so reframing is a big part of what I do to be like I need to use cloud confident.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I really love cloud, but I I need to use cloud.

SPEAKER_00

I use Chat GBT a lot. I just feel like Cloud is a better sensitive communicator, if that makes sense. Like it's more the language is more nuanced.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. So um if everything went right with Moxie AI this year, um, what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00

I'm so happy to answer that question.

SPEAKER_01

A perfect Moxie AI.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so first of all, we are dead setting on some new stuff. So I'm gonna briefly explain it.

SPEAKER_01

Well, well, that's my last question. Do you have any new stuff coming out?

SPEAKER_00

So Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna start with if everything went right with Moxie this year. I think what we would do most is help people who are in the middle of transition um figure out their next move and feel confident about it and maybe come out the other end better than they even started. That's like the the like teaser version of it.

SPEAKER_01

It's the light teaser version. All right, so now about the new stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What new stuff you got going on? Um so we started, I started Moxie as an agency to help startup founders tell their stories better. When I started Moxie AI, I started it really with the intention of making it easier for founders to tell their stories better and for them to tell the stories of their companies better. Because I think the average person, especially the average black or brown person, is creating a company not because they just always envision themselves being a startup founder, they're starting it because they saw a problem that they couldn't ignore, that they must fix, that that solves something critical for a population they care about, right? So I wanted to help them tell that story better because that's that's a big deal, that's a huge life decision, and it's meaningful enough to you. It probably is also pretty meaningful for other people, especially the people you're trying to do it for. And I found that a lot of founders are subject matter experts, and a lot of them are service providers, and they're trying to create a tech company or a SaaS company in order to solve that problem for that audience they care about in a subject that they understand really well. But what doesn't translate often is their ability to tell that story well to those people because they're just not natural storytellers, and so I wanted to create I created a Moxie AI to help founders in that position tell that story better and to do better at um both raising money and also scaling their company, and I've been grateful to have helped um other founders raise you know over five million dollars in just telling their stories better, right? And these are black founders, every one of them, raising this money, and so that is like crazy statistically impossible, but we were able to do it because of how compelling the story was, and so I felt really proud about that. Where we have evolved to is helping um founders be more independent, and that's a big deal to me because what do you mean by that? What I mean by that is like, okay, so I came into the startup world from being in a startup that was extremely financially backed.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

What are you thinking?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And no, I'm just saying, what are you thinking?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, so I came from a really financially, like a super financially backed, like$30 million rounds type type, early, early startup, like pre-remember$30 million rounds type startup. I came from that. And so I um had a little different perspective on what it looks like to raise and what it looks like to um protect the integrity of your startup. And as I entered the world as a black female startup founder, which was not what I came from, I learned about what are the opportunities and what are the challenges that come for us. And what I learned was that the choice to be venture-backed is a big choice. To be clear, and I will always say this I don't think it's the wrong choice. I think it's for everybody, I think it's a choice, and I think what I am always trying to articulate is that it's not the only choice. Okay, and so it is a choice and it has its purpose and it has its reasons and it is viable in its own right for 100% sure. I think there are also other choices, and so for those who want to be um, you know, bootstrapped, which I know is a renegade choice, it's a renegade choice, it is, but to be real, it's a it is actually the thing that most people have to do. Because we talk about bootstrapping like it's like a uh, you know, it's my desire. In this case, in my case, it is. But a lot of people are bootstrapping by default, right? Like, so I think that with black women being the fastest growing population of founders and business owners in this country, which is a fact, with them being the largest group, and well, fastest group, I think I should say, is the accurate statistics.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, fastest group, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Fastest group, um, a majority less than 1% of those are funded by venture capital. So, like, let's just like look at that stat, like for what it is. So it's hella black women starting companies, and almost none of them get any venture funding ever at all. That's a huge deal. And so, if that many people are doing this and they're not gonna get that funding, then what are their options? What are their opportunities? And I think what are their opportunities is a really good question. Because there are things you can do when you are not venture back, that you cannot do when you are. And so, one what Moxie is doing now is helping those companies think differently and think um more um think smaller. And I think AI presents a unique opportunity like has never existed before. So we like pivoted our whole model, and that was to focus on that. And essentially, what we're able to do is create these micro companies, which I'm calling nanocorps, and these nanocorps are able to create companies that can scale to 10 million, 50 million with three people. Three people, yeah, because of the fact that they are using AI and they're AI native companies, okay? So their products are AI, their operations are AI, like everything is AI. Because of that, they're able to scale these companies at crazy amounts in order to maintain their integrity, but have a small group of people and do what they want to do. Let me give you an example in case because I know a lot of people are probably still really skeptical about what I'm saying. I'm not um Y Combinator, the the like the big dog, the big dog of um accelerators, yeah, co-founder. Why combinator just recently said that in their next cohort, they want companies that have 10 people or less, and instead of but no, because we know about the unicorn thing, right? Like we've raised, you know, we've been raising interest stuff. Okay, so let me just tell you. So Unicorn Company is essentially a company that can get to a billion dollar valuation. A billion dollar valuation in tech, usually tech, at least historically, except until recently, was like a 10x multiple. What is a 10x multiple? A 10x multiple is essentially 10x your revenue, is what the company is valued at, and that's what you can sell it at. So that means that if you're looking at a 10x multiple and you want a billion dollar company, you're looking at a hundred million in revenue. I think I did that math right. Admittedly, that is not my specialty. Although I can spreadsheet the shit out of some stuff, so don't test me. Anyways, my point I'm trying to say is that's the thing. So what um Y Combinator just recently said is that they want companies that can be a$10 billion company. That means one billion in revenue. And they want 10 people to run that company. Why am I saying they just made a whole statement about that? Like we cohorts that's correct. Accelerators? So their very next cohort in an accelerator. So you hear me because we've been in accelerators together. Their very next cohort of accelerators, they want teams of 10 that are going to scale to be a$10 billion company. I think it might even be more than that. I really want to look it up right now. But I'm not gonna look it up, but I know it's more than what was unicorn. It might be$10 billion. I think it's$10 billion. Might be more than that. It might be more than that. Yeah, we'll fact check. We'll fact check. But my point I'm trying to make, we'll put it over this. But my point I'm trying to make is way more than what used to be in Unicorn. And they want way less people. Why do they think that's possible? Because it fucking is. So my point is if these companies can be venture funded in the new era and scale to amounts that have never been seen with teams that are way smaller than have ever existed. Because they're using AI. Yeah, because they're using AI, which is specifically what they've talked about, right? Then that means that your one self or you and two of your homies can do 10 million.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. I got you.

SPEAKER_00

What does that mean though? For I think for minority founders, I think it means a lot. Because it means that you may not even need the same kind of funding. One, because you can scale like crazy with less. Right? These soft the software ain't that expensive. I'm building AI shit right now. I'm building AR software, I'm building AI agents right now with a few people and not that much money, so don't get it twisted. It don't take that much. What we are in right now is the early YouTube era, the early, you know, we're in the early YouTube era of startup right now with AI. And I'm trying to communicate that to a new audience who includes startup founders, but mainly startup founders who are like kind of burnt out from grinding and trying to raise money and trying to do that whole like investor slog, which becomes a job that is separate from the job of making a product people care about will pay for, and also all these people who are being laid off from tech, including the 300,000 black women who were laid off in April in this country. Uh you know, like all of these people are looking for answers and they're looking to use their expertise. And I think AI is gonna lay off more and more people, not to be a doomsday type person, but I just think it's true. I think AI is gonna lay off a stupid amount of people who are talented and smart. And I think the solution, if they are tech savvy, is to build a nanocorp. And to build a small and what I mean by that, I mean a small company that is essentially like a micro SaaS company that solves a niche problem in a field that they understand and can be built in a very short amount of time with AI and can be scaled with very few people and ran.

SPEAKER_01

So let me ask you a question. I'm not gonna ask you how much you charge for these uh nano companies. Not much. However, I am gonna ask if the people that watch this video can get a discount.

SPEAKER_00

You know, I love that, and the answer will be yes, and I will give you a code for that. Yes. Um, so we'll we'll we'll put that on there. But yes, they can get a code. Um, but I will say that like our earliest tool is something called Nano Spark. Nano Spark is actually free, and it's really what it starts as is a tool to help you figure out what you should build in the first place. I think there's a lot of people like myself and you that like, you know, we wanted to be founders, we had a specific idea in our minds, we had a specific problem we wanted to solve that was a painkiller, not a vitamin. Um, but there's gonna be people who want to enter the entrepreneurial fields because they they have to, because they've been pushed out of the job world. I I really am thinking about America 10 years from now, 20 years from now. That's really where my head is. And I think America 10 years, 20 years from now is crazy unemployment. I'm thinking like 10%. I'm not and I know this. Oh, I can't wait for this video. I cannot wait for this video to come out. Like, I can't wait to look at this video like 10 years from now because I swear to God, I think we'll be at like 7 or 10% unemployment. And when we get there, people are gonna be looking for work, period. They don't care what they do. And in environments and in cultures and communities where um unemployment is rampant, people become entrepreneurs. Not because they think that that's what they're capable of or that's their vision or their aspiration, they become that because they need money, right? You can look at a bunch of company, um, sorry, you can look at a bunch of countries around the world, and you can see where there's like huge population of entrepreneurs, there's also huge unemployment because that's what you have to do. And so I think in that situation, people I think AI is the freaking solution, and I think that a nanocorp has the right attributes, it is small in nature, it is um technology-based, it is AI first, and it allows you to scale without um, you know, having to have a huge company or having to have a huge tech stack. So that's what we're building for, and so we're creating tools for them. So Nano Spark is a tool that helps you figure out what you should build in the first place, and it's based on your interest and your skill set, and it gives you a code, and this is the key. It gives you an actual prompt to go build it in 30 minutes and in a in a platform. So there's a platform called Lovable that I like promote all the time. No, they don't pay me no money. I wish they would. Love lovable.

SPEAKER_01

Um let me let me I'm gonna put that in the chat. I'm so serious.

SPEAKER_00

Lovable.dev is what it is. Lovable.dev. But literally, if you go to um spark.moxyai brands.com, you are able to put in your interest and your skill set, and it gives you a prompt to then put into lovable, which is free. And then in lovable, you can build your MVP in five minutes. I'm not kidding. We've done it. My son did it.

SPEAKER_01

So so don't give, don't, don't give up that that's fire.

SPEAKER_00

So this is real. This is like real shit. I'm talking about like a real MVP, working MVP, in like five to ten minutes.

SPEAKER_01

I'm I'm definitely this is real, and it's live.

SPEAKER_00

I could I could uh give it to you right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, as soon as this is over, but uh that was some solid information. I'm trying that tonight.

SPEAKER_00

Please do, because I mean it. It's like it's real. And what's even more fun is guess what? I built Spark, the tool you're gonna try, and lovable. So the proof is already there. Nice, and lovable isn't my product, but I think what I'm trying to do is help people understand how AI tools, even right now, we are so early in the AI age, these tools can help you build real ass companies that can make real ass money like right now with no development skill. So it's really about empowering people who um deserve to have a voice in the entrepreneur world um with no-code tools, with education, and like really um simple solutions. So I'm looking to build really simple solutions, and Spark is our first one.

SPEAKER_01

That's dope.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Um, but yeah, that was uh actually like my last question. I'm super happy. Like, let me tell you, it was it was it was uh I didn't think I was gonna get you here for this interview, but I'm so glad you came. I'm so glad I put in the hard work to get you here. Um, but before we go, please let everybody know where to find you, like website if you're on LinkedIn, all that good stuff. Give up all your information where they can find you.

SPEAKER_00

I am Stephanie La Flora. La Flora as an L-A-F-L-O-R-A, like the flower in Spanish. That I am everywhere. So that's on Instagram, um, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Um, and our tool that I think you should use today is spark.moxie a i brands, that's plural, dot com. And um on there you can basically get an idea for what you should do next. You actually get three ideas once you fill it out, it takes like five minutes, and after you fill that out, you get your link and your specific prompt to then go build your MVP. So you go from no idea at all what you should build to MVP in like 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01

It's gonna be a lot of people free.

SPEAKER_00

I don't think you can really beat that. Yeah, that's like, and this is all free, by the way. My tool's free. The next tool that you use to build the MVP is free.

SPEAKER_01

So what about Instagram?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yes, I'm on Instagram at Stephanie Laflora, so it's my name.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, and um, so we got Instagram, LinkedIn, and Moxie AI on all platforms.

SPEAKER_00

So that's Moxie AI on Instagram, on Facebook, on X. I'm saying Twitter, because I'm a millennial and screw Elon. But um, but yes, um, so my at Moxie AI.

SPEAKER_01

No, you're good, but um anyway, thank you so much for being here. Everybody, thank you so much for joining this episode of Founder Fumbles. Um, if Stephanie inspired you by any way, shape, or form, please, please, please go reach out to her. And uh a please for me is don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to this episode. I hear it really, really helps. And I need that, you know what I mean? Uh, anyway, until next time, peace.