How to Get Into Venture Capital and Discover the Best Tech Trends with Kelli Jones

from America's Heartland in the Hoosier State of Indiana this is get in the podcast focused on the unfolding stories and extraordinary Innovations happening right now on the show today is Kelly Jones co-founder and general partner at 68 capital my passions are things like music or beauty or Commerce or products and but how do I connect that back to helping entrepreneurs like it's just interesting how that Journey turned into this Kelly Jones is the co-founder and general partner at 68 Capital which is the first indiana-based Venture Capital firm dedicated to investing in under capitalized Founders including black latinx women lgbtq plus and disabled Founders she's also the founder and CEO of B Nimble Foundation a social Enterprise with the goal of advancing diversity initiatives to create fully inclusive Tech ecosystems on today's show you'll hear about how Kelly and her team are using Capital connections and Community to support scalable and investable Tech and Tech enabled companies led by under capitalized Founders Kelly welcome to the show thank you for having me thanks so much for being here just before the show you're talking about some of the travel you've been doing tell us a little bit about where you've been lately and obviously you can't divulge all details on what companies you're investing in and what LPS are jumping into the fun but yeah yeah I feel like I'm always on the road I think essentially since everything has gotten started back with people doing things in person again and moving away from things being virtual it's just been a ton of travel so I think man I've been home maybe a total of one full week maybe once this quarter or past on the past quarter I've been to New York I've been to San Francisco I've been to Chicago I've been to where else Mexico which is my like work vacation place to go there to work and get deep where in Mexico in Tulum oh yeah so I spent a lot of time I spent most of December the latter half of December and most in a lot of January in Tulum sounds like right we just start strategy thinking about what we want to do more of and so I've been deep in that but also like work stuff too so last week with San Fran tomorrow go to Cincinnati next week is Michigan so when thinking about like strategic you're planning out what you want to be working on how do you find getting out of your daily routine like going to places like Tulu where there might be helps you focus on building the business versus working in the business yeah it's actually a decision I made for myself last year I don't do a great job at balance and a lot of times I'm really hard on myself and that we do stuff we try it we keep doing we do something else and I said I wanted to like pause right we have great stuff going on let's get really good at that let's like explain the team let's really like now we're doing like the next five years of strategy because we work in five-year Sprints and so it was for me like quarterly I'm gonna go somewhere I'm gonna shut down the office after Thanksgiving and the entire team is going to be known and we stuck to it and it's because we work really hard so we also deserve to have time off but also that time can be for me I'm never not gonna work but I need to be in places where I'm inspired to and so I have to sometimes leave here in order to get like all right what are we doing next what's 2024 to look like right yeah spending time in Mexico is tied up in that respite for me for the last couple years and this is the first time I spent an extended period of time here I was just gonna say five year Sprint that seems like so counter-intuitive right it's just a five-year Sprint and the interesting thing is I think the stuff that people see or things that we've talked about two and three years ago that we just put into a planning process so a lot of things we actually hit sooner than we anticipated like we like a fund was coming but a fund wasn't coming for me for another few years I didn't know I was gonna move as fast the start in 2019 so it's things like that kind of just quick in the timeline and so now it's okay we knocked all those things off the list sooner than we anticipated so what do we where's we where are we going next and so that's been such a great journey and I think that's come across on the B Nimble side like we we started with this really large fundraiser and we recently decided that was the last one we were going to do because we have new events that we want to do like goals have changed the focus has shifted so what are the new things we're going to bring so I'm excited about this next era because I'm like that was like this next stuff is gonna be great so yes yeah we're excited too I am you get to jump into some of that and some of the things that you have planned but I thought it might be fun to take things Way Way Back the some of your earliest entrepreneurial memories were you always interested in entrepreneurship and Innovation and Technology you know what's so funny yes yes and yes but never actually explored it I think in the way I'm exploring it I think for me it was always like this very nascent thing that I didn't understand I remember being younger like I has been pretty smart my mom although we didn't grow up like or anything but like my mom always made sure that we were in programs that we got to do things and I remember got my girls anchor off went to girls all the time I was like 12 until I aged out and so did my sisters and I remember like the summer camps we go to for Science and Tech and I remember like learning how to play golf in 11 like really interesting things that I got to do but I don't know if I ever thought about entrepreneurship that young I think what I thought about is I just know like I want to be in a position to make money and I know I'm smart enough to make money and I don't know what that means and I remember interesting story I was calling one of those like homework hotlines that were like what do you want to be we could grow up and I said a taxi driver and I said that it was like because they drive people and they get paid like in my mind it was just like this is Commerce like I want to figure out how to do something where people hand me cash now that doesn't sound like the most fancy job but that's how I was thinking about like me like when I remember that it was funny when I think back on it it's interesting right like I'm thinking about how do I have something that is mind that I do a service that I do where someone pays me for it and in the end they're in a better place what does that mean and I feel like that's been like my focus in life so it's not been naturally just I want to be an entrepreneur it's just been I'm a Problem Solver by Design and if I see a problem and I I can't fix it in the current state I got to figure out how to make it happen and I think that's naturally turned into that what I will say though is that I've always been a little bit of an overachiever so I'm the kid that like hey do a book report in me I was doing like a poster board with all sorts of things so I think those are the things that I kind of Nick he always just had this kind of big Vision kind of thing and why do you think that is I'm you I'm just innately curious like I'm always asking questions and I'm always thinking about but what if but what if it's not like that or what if it went like this or what if we thought about it this way and I think that curiosity is actually what keeps me going but it also is what keeps me bored which means that I'm always like right so I think it's just that big thinking but were there were there entrepreneurs or anyone that you like looked up to in those early days maybe you weren't thinking about entrepreneurship people you aspired and it inspired you yeah when I think about the people that I looked up to funny enough it was Dominique Dawes she was like a USA gymnast and she was like a black girl killing it like doing those reverses yeah crazy like those are things I remember being really attracted to and then I've always loved music like I've Loved music since I don't I don't all the time where music wasn't in my life and so what kind of music hip-hop specifically yeah but all but like hip-hop r b for sure oh that's easy it's Android 3000 Jay-Z go back and forth Kendrick is up there now Drake yeah and then I like to always throw in like a alley and for me it's sometimes fonte right now is fonte from little brother sometimes it's Nas sometimes it's Nas is in my face yeah as I get older like it shifts because there's new artists that I love and respect and I grow with music I enjoy the active listening of music so I've always looked up to Wu-Tang Clan like Method Man was always like my first crush really like I love them but yeah what I love and I think why I gravitated towards it was especially like a Jay-Z right listening to him from the beginning of his career and watching every single thing he did like he is a entrepreneurs entrepreneur and I think that's what I've looked at he's a business man yeah so it's so interesting how I ended up in this space because I think when my passions are things like music or beauty or Commerce or products and but how do I connect that back to helping entrepreneurs it's just interesting how that Journey turned into this yeah I love it what was the so fast forward to what was your first entrepreneurial Endeavor like when did you just like make that first dollar or whatever that might be I was always us yeah I think I was doing hair I was doing hair in college I was really good at doing hair I was the roller set I was the roller wrap Queen so watch people's hair roll it up put them in the dryer iron them out like that I think that was probably the first time like I made money or I've done something making money and then I think was always just like I would get jobs and be entrepreneur I'll always end up in these places where I was like on a team of six and we're all trying to figure out this thing from scratch so those experience were really great but I think my first like where I'm like dang I might really be doing something is when I chose to move to New York I started working in music and I launched my first company which ended up being the experiential marketing company and most of my clients were tech companies and that was just by accident because I was working in music quick break from our normal programming I have Erica schweire CEO from Elevate Ventures here in the studio today Erica thanks for being here yeah thanks for having me and you're gonna tell us a little bit about this rally Innovation conference that's coming up yep so it's the largest cross-sector Innovation conference in the world we're gonna feature six Innovation Studios so think hard tech software Sports Tech Ag and food Healthcare and Entrepreneurship is going to kind of be our catch-all I love that so tell me what is who's it for yeah it's for innovators entrepreneurs investors honestly anybody probably listening to this podcast it's going to be a multi-day thing that's multi-day in downtown Indianapolis yep people coming in from all over the country and maybe even all over the world to be here that's our hope yep and the dates are actually August 29th through the 31st perfect and if people want to find out more information about speakers tickets things like that where can they go yeah so they just go to rallyinnovation.

com and sign up for communications and they can also get their tickets I love it you heard it here rallyinnovation. com we'll see you there Kelly can you talk to us about experiential marketing and what that is yeah so I think what we see is experiential marketing now is like when you go to an event like a brand activation or you go to a trade show and you like their trade show set up it's what businesses use to sell directly to their end user and consumer I got started in that space working at a big music hip-hop Festival I was over PR marketing and sales and sponsorships and so brought in like big Brands and then came up with what they were gonna do at that time experiential wasn't as experiential as we know it now like I think now people recognize all this activation or oh this isn't this but this isn't a time where sponsorships were literally just logos on a banner and for me I was like I want to do something that's like really engaging because we're in like the early precipice of like social media and like blogs are the way that people are learning about music and like getting the news and so how do we like create this I'll take the offline and online experience and turn into a real life experience and let's just do some really interesting projects I think my favorite was my first real big one was like gutting a bus turning it into a studio and then all the artists that performed on the stage recorded a verse and we turned it into a mixtape that people could walk away with from the concert of original songs so cool and the brand was a music tech company that sold like product like microphones speakers DJ software all that kind of stuff so we got to outfit the bus with the stuff and then created this kind of like really cool experience and they loved it so much that was my first like big contract like I brought it to that event but they were like we want to take this everywhere and so that's what got me to do a 3C and then I started doing side by Southwest and Coachella and then I started picking up new clients and working with Red Bull and Monster and Airbnb and live like I was doing crazy stuff and I was like what in the heck but at the same time these are all tech companies yeah and then when you think about the music industry I always tell people it is built on the tech industry right like the way that you record it the way it's consumed the way it's mixed and mastered the way it's released everything is through Tech of some sort and even the way that we were getting the news of the music at that point was that too and so I found myself in this really interesting intersection I feel like that's been the theme of our work ever since it's like there's things that are technically enhanced and I watch people like me um and others like really innovate in this space but a lot of times they are not the founders or those are the times where they were just starting to harp have conversations around diversity and inclusion in Tech and we were learning about the lack of women and people of color this is when companies first started putting out diversity reports and people were like what is going on we're 2013 maybe 14.

that started happening decade ago and then it became and I think when that hit I was like this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life and I ended up and it's been the journey ever since can you talk more about that moment right when you're like hey I'm you're doing this you're working with Airbnb and like all these cool experiential marketing because it sounds amazing yeah and then you like find this passion yeah it actually happened the same way so I was working with Akai Newmark which makes like beat machines and the brand ambassador was younger young engineer so I just told you guys like Jay-Z's one of my favorite artists so in my mind this is the guy that recorded all of Jay-Z's music like Jay-Z's my favorite entrepreneur like clearly this is a person that I can't one I can't believe he wants to work with me he offered me a job because I'm trying to stand up this brand I think what people don't know about Guru is he's a tech guy and so he wanted to really talk about engineering from a cultural perspective so specifically he's a music engineer people may not see that as like engineering so how do you have conversations around engineering that are connected to things that people enjoy and he caught it air of the engineer and it was focused on seeing people that look like us get interested in Tech and engineering and that's like once that was like what he wanted me to do I said I found my this is exactly where I want to be and so we built a platform called ear sketch it taught kids how to code using music production it's still available it's in partnership with Georgia Tech the National Science Foundation we came up with some really cool Tech ideas trying to pitch them we started we worked really closely with techstars that got the music accelerator going like back in 2014-15 like he was one of the first people to participate in that like really interesting thing like things that I didn't even know existed like I didn't know what an accelerator was and right 2014 like those they were still fairly new like now you hear them all the time but they're everywhere I'm like there's a thing where you can like have a startup an idea go to this place they give you money and help you grow it this is incredible and like learning it like starting to learn about what was happening in San Francisco and other places was just really interesting and I was still in New York at the time but then got an opportunity to move to LA and take a like a full-time job as director of sales and marketing for hip-hop DX which is a tech back Media Company a VC back media company and they recently got acquired by Warner and so I got to grow and run their social media capabilities all their sales and a lot more of that same kind of experiential online offline work but at that point I was working at a tech startup one that was fully diverse which is something that you didn't see the entire team was of every race in Korean and color and I knew it could exist and then later went on to blavity which I think people know from afrotech and all of their focus on Tech and that was like the place that I was supposed to that was the drop for me I was like I'm gonna be here forever what were some of your early lessons breaking into yeah pretty first official this is a tech company yeah and I realized it you know basically I think every job I had up and to this point I was always this team five or six so I didn't like I'm like going I understand how startups were just from always being on this team where we all got to do everything right and that just continued to be the case different types of companies but same connection points I think the transition to what I say is true like working in Tech was obviously when I moved to California and I was working for online Media Company standing up sales during a time where Instagram was just becoming popular and people were weirded out by putting full stories on social because people were trying to get click backs to website that was that transition of social media owning the news versus an outlet owning the news and so that was a really interesting time because that's when lives were coming out and so I got to develop shows like I'm really good at that but that's actually not what I do anymore and I think when I share like the stuff that I I've done before choosing to make this transition people are genuinely surprised there's a lot I'm not surprised but it's directly informed every single thing I've done to this point it's basically brought it all together for me what makes a good show that's a great question a great personality like a great like face right the person knowledgeable draws people in um honestly no honestly that's a big one and then having entertaining times and I think like all of it comes down to the content just being genuine and real and not feeling manufactured and because that's where we are the era we're in now like at one point we're in an era it was very highly produced it felt like newsies no we're back to like it being a little off for things not being perfect because I think people connect with people so I think that's what I see now but it's interesting to see the shift from what we see now as normal at one point was new yeah and I think just watching how that grows is really fun like that big push into like native content yeah like the rise of tick tock right yeah people were starting that was a time where you could sell social and it was weird to think that's right like I can sell a post yeah that was that time like now we talk about some posts every day like its own industry now it's called influencer culture it's a Theater economy now that is a job at one point it was like I can get paid just to post something because people like it a lot it's why it's what ad engines like Facebook what Facebook have been born that's interesting interesting time to be to see that so much opportunity so from a Midwest kind of raised mostly all of my life in Indiana I'd love to hear your differences and like your thoughts on you're in California but you're in the Tech Community in La at that time versus The Hub of San Francisco where this these Tech unicorns are growing right in New York yeah but sometimes like from being from the Midwest we think like California is California it's this big Tech ecosystem all out there when I just love to hear about how La was at this time yeah so la at that time so we're talking for me 2014 15 16.

so one you're right I was working in music and entertainment so that was my surrounding so I wasn't like around like the tech folks however YouTube Instagram everybody has offices there like where I lived Netflix was like the Netflix building was next to me we were always working with people yeah that worked at those places because they had their offices there because that's where the movies are made and that's where all the studios are so that was coming out about that time too yes now everyone has an office in La yeah I'll say that so there's a there is an ecosystem but I think because it's so connected to the entertainment that's happening in La it just feels everything is together yeah because all those things are colliding with each other Netflix is right here and they're producing movies but they're also using this marketing agency that's a black lab Market agency that's here that does all their rollouts so that was the side of it I know like I feel like if you go to San Francisco obviously you're going to see the like all the coders are up there and all the people that are being code but I think in La it was like the people that needed to be there because of the industry that was like a lot less Patagonia vests too yeah it was a lot more like Jordans and not Alberts yeah like not a lot but it's there too though right because yeah at the time like I was a member at Noya house and so how so like those guys were there too but they were also there with people that were presidents of like labels like they were there to sell business more than they were there like standing up on another company I would say that's probably happening a lot more now because people are just starting companies wherever they want to be that's the difference in New York I would say though I probably saw more of because I spent a lot of time in Dumbo and one of my friends worked at huge which when they started was very small digital marketing coming now one of the like largest in that space and she was like early early there at product management and so I saw a lot of it more in New York being in dumbo all the time everybody was Tech yeah so that was interesting um seems like being immersed at the like epicenter of culture both in New York and la and not just meaning the city but like the industry itself yes probably gave you your 10 000 Plus hours in just understanding Trends what's hot what's gonna be hot how Trends rise and fall absolutely anything that you use with your team that you've learned from those areas just as I'm even thinking like checklists or values or anything like that you learned it's so funny you say that I would say it's the Cornerstone of everything that we've ever created it's been in the in embedded in to what be nimble is excuse me is be embedded into what 68 is like I don't know if you can tell like the tone the way we speak regular like normal speak it's not like you need to understand the valuation of it we don't do that because that's not who we're talking to like we're talking to people that need to understand what this means so there's always going to be this little bit of of it's gonna have a little attitude it's gonna have a little it's gonna feel cultural it's gonna feel inclusive and I think that's what people like about the content so I think that is something that we definitely carried over I'd say overall though it fully informs my investment thesis it fully informs how we've come up with the programs we've come up with it fully informs how we've rolled out the things that we've rolled out with the model that we've chosen to use all of it's informed from the work and from the people that I was surrounded by through those years of work understanding how to run a startup but also understanding how to raise money and also understanding how to actually solve a problem in the end and always focusing on the user first I have gone by a quote for years from Richard Branson that the best ideas are the ideas that are always solving a problem if it doesn't solve a problem I don't go after it and that's how we choose what we don't do it's why we can choose to say we're not doing that of it anymore like we've now shifted to this type of thing so how do we roll that out we can it be nimble as a name yeah on purpose like it means we can adapt we make change based on what the market says but most importantly what our people say so I think that informed response is actually a direct reflection of how I I'm matriculated in my career prior to coming back home do you have any advice for leaders that maybe don't work in the most Nimble of Industries or maybe their company isn't as quick to cut some things off and shift to other directions on how they can be like that Catalyst for change within their organization yeah honestly I feel like this is something else that I think helped make feel real right I think a lot of times it feels like you can't go after him like just start something or you feel like oh it's like somebody else's or host is like this I think the things that we managed to to do is find a niche that we knew we could actually work through something that I don't think got into anybody else's Lane but that was an additive so whatever else was happening in the ecosystem and choosing to focus I think focus is so important I think a lot of times we want to do this and we want to do that and we want to do this and if it doesn't end in this x being the outcome we try to figure out where else to put it it's really easy to say no and yes of things so I would say one is like just knowing like what your focus is and if something comes to you that doesn't fit that it's okay to say no it's also okay to adapt to it if you think you want to make it your thing but you have to go through your own process to do that I love it I love it I do too I I'm curious to learn you mentioned some of the programs that you've launched do you have any favorites and do you have any stories from getting those programs off the ground yeah I think there's an obvious shift and I don't think we spent a lot of time like talking about how those shifts have occurred for us one I shared like the entire precipice of nimble 68 is based in rooted in my experience and in this intersection of Commerce and culture and Blackness and all of these things that like had me feeling like we we could do a lot more I understand venture capital I understand how it works I understand how startups are funded and we started with the traditional like tech company which we still do and but I what's in this is a prime example of what I mean about this problem-solving thing we would get all these applications and then so we would have to do the first round of vetting in of a hundred maybe only 30 actually apply like actually make extent move forward to next so it's for me it's like the 70 is bothering me because are we not able to do something for them do we just leave them hanging so one of the things that we pull on is industry so we tell people to like choose what industry you're focused on and so I ran a query on the industries and just saw which ones were the top ones and I said there's a pattern and I think there's a need here and so the ones that came out top were food restaurant the second was like products e-commerce things like that and then the last was like music and sports and so for me it was like okay I know in food there's a lot of opportunities to to create Venture backable sorts of businesses like how might we layer in helping a restaurant understand the tech enablement or the opportunity with building something that could be Venture backable how do we put those things together and so that's the transition between traditional just like tech companies what we know like B2B SAS Enterprise to tech companies that also have this overlap of Industry that is specific to black and brown people and so food is where we started melon was born of that ghost kitchen model help people build essentially restaurants that can be repeatable without having overhead space license out the actual recipes and all of that you make money it's like your franchising without any overhead right that's how these virtual Brands work that's why Cloud kitchens and other things like I've been studying because I'm into food like I've been studying what's happening with ghost kitchens for a long time I've been studying delivery I've been like because I see it happening in front of me so this is how we can scale restaurants this is how we can make restaurants make sense for black people if we can help them like shift the way that they're thinking about the business model for those that aren't in the industry and haven't been following all the headlines all of the research all the reports over the last couple years why is it important to have programs specifically for these under capitalized groups and even specific funds for these under capitalized groups I think there's I think there's two reasons maybe three I think one I think like people so I think one is just like being able to understand a specific problem I always use Wale from givelify as a great example really you know like real the most brilliant idea at the time but it doesn't connect with the traditional investor if you don't understand the opportunity for having something that's not subscription based that's all transaction based to help churches have an electronic way to capture their ties and offering it doesn't make sense when you think about it unless you understand how the black church Works which is always passing around envelopes and everything is paper and checks and no one's doing that more they don't have ATMs so how do you help industries that have been I won't say behind but just don't innovate as quickly create new solutions to help them keep up and I think if I if that was pitched to me I would have been like this is the most brilliant thing ever but I can only imagine when you pitch it and there's no one that really understands it's harder to get it across the line so that's that's one I think the second is really around needing to to de-risk sometimes right that friends and family round that doesn't exist in in many black and brown communities so having the way we've done our programs is and even our pitches is like they've always had money attached because we don't give it to you regardless we don't care what you do with it we know you're probably going to use it for your business that's the interesting thing is like most these people really do just want money for their businesses I think we don't trust them with that but I think that's like the capital part had to be there and the support had to be there because we can support a mentor but if they're not getting the money they need to move forward you know that what's happening there but if we're able to work early with companies help get them de-risked surround them with support when they do go raise that First Institutional round they have something that actually is packaged up well and unfortunately there's not a lot of people that have done that look like us so there's a need to share what that is and how that works so I think a lot of times I know when we first started this like it was a lot of pushback it was just like Equity here talking about giving people giving up when I'm talking to the black community VC is not something that they have not I'm not saying everyone but most people are like BC what is that you take Equity I don't know how that works we know loans we know grants and so you're also talking about a capital stack that people aren't familiar with and I always say VC doesn't work for everybody but you should all know your options we all should know our options and so this first like kind of two three years of our work was just sharing what it was and how it makes sense and how it works and that you're not actually giving up 80 of your company like just the information getting out there which is why again we speak like normal people because we have to demystify the thing that's a you know and I don't understand the thing no I absolutely agree like and it feels like a lot of times VC make it more complex to make it seem like it's very gatekeeping yeah it doesn't have to be like that no you know I think I don't mean to keep going on but I will say the last thing because I do have a third I think is just like showing how it can apply in places that we don't think it applies that's been my journey or at least my emphasis I would say the last couple years it's why melon made sense for me it's why add to cart which is probably going to be my favorite I'm not even I thought melon was gonna be my favorite program I think it might be add to cart tell us about that program I had to Carter specifically for e-commerce businesses ones that are looking to scale into retail and so we do actual like monetary Capital but then there's also technical Capital so building the Shopify store making sure they have all of the bells and whistles on the back end making sure they have all the tools they need data analytics the whole thing built a whole team around it branding total brand refresh packaging but the most important is supply chain and Logistics and so they all have we print we have a space because we have fully funded thank God but we have a space where each of them have their own warehouse space and access to third-party Logistics partners and so in like a Content studio so they can shoot photos like the whole nine yards in that for me I think is going to be the most transformational because of our focus on kind of this beauty Health Wellness space and the number of women that are building these businesses that are turning into billion dollar businesses on 68 Capital our first investment into a beauty company is a company called We the People black owned body care line she's been selling direct to Consumer she's going into Sephora next month [Music] that sounds awesome she'll be in town in June so I'll make sure yeah all of our Founders are coming to town love it but like yeah brilliant XS Day Lottery start a company and that was in stores and so the and we have a few companies like that in our portfolio but the thing that they all had the same issues with was Logistics Partners Brokers to go between them and Target or them in Walmart order them and wherever they're being sold and then their 3pl partner and so that informed what the offering would be and I think where we are now with our programs is like for me we're solving problems that are on the further end of the growth spectrum because I think there's a lot of support at the early but as they start to grow what's next and so I think that's the direction that we're going and also just providing something that actually is helpful that you can walk away from like when Mel in the kitchen space is like game changing or geezy has been voted the best burger vegan burger company in the state yeah two years in a row like about to move into their own space that's what we deserve to have fast forward five years at the end of your five year Sprint what do you think will be different about the tech industry that you're really excited about there's things I'm actually excited about now I think speaking to Indiana like it's just so refreshing that like this conversation I can have so much more like freely like it for a while I was like what are you doing what are you doing what are you doing why is this so for like why are you doing this in this like how do these things connect and I think people see how they connect and I think people see the importance so I think that shift happening has been so exciting to see because it feels okay maybe we are on the right track maybe we are doing the right things what I'm most excited about or what I want to see is they're not being aligned between like Tech and Entrepreneurship but just like entrepreneurship and then like how to make sure the entrepreneurship goes well like it's really actually one like thing right rather you're the I always say and I've said this for man for years murder I don't know he always talks about how I say I don't see Tech as like an industry I see it as a business model like I feel like Tech sits on top of whatever it is that you're thinking about like Tech or innovation or whatever you want to call it sits on top of whatever idea you have it's different between do you open a barber shop or do you figure out a platform that Barbers can use to make transactions quicker like I think it's just re-defining how you think about what a business is yeah like if you use the term Tech enabled company yes find me a company that's not I don't know I don't know one that's not like I'm Tech enabled my whole body absolutely yeah but I think that merging of that all of that like not being so separate I think is what I'm most excited about because I think then we're really going to be able to see how Capital can work in so many different ways should we do the lightning round I have one one story that I want to hear okay Kelly so you raise your fun and talk to me about the first check you wrote and talk to me about that experience of one you're now a vcnt you just help fund in the business man that's the story is going to sound so like it was manufactured good I love it perfect my first check was in qualify and and if qualified Darian he's been on the show I've known Darian in qualify and Devin since Darian was still working at the I was like giblify if that's any education yeah I would still give if I I remember the first time we met I would still give a five he was still at the tech company he was at he rolled over I think we met at a taco place he rode over on his like skateboard motorized skateboard thing and that was the first time we met and and so obviously like he's been in our pitch competitions he's won our pitch competitions like we I think I've tried qualified for the first like part one of the first people to try when I was still at give a fight and then took it to Tech Stars 2 and tried it out and so to see now we've written three checks into Darien are we on check three maybe it's three yeah it's three we've done three checks now um but he was my first and to have there's a company that I've known from the beginning known him when we didn't have anything to like seeing where he's gone now he's three four years in he's about to raise a series a he's getting every customer has all the hospitals as a customer like he's hay and his team are killing the team is growing I'm so proud of him but that's my first check is I think the story it's the meaning behind our work right be nimble was like the engine the thing like we're trying we need to do more 68 comes apart and then the first thing that we do is write our first check into the first company we wrote a pretty significant so I actually have a follow-up question which is how did you get the money to write that first check how do you raise a fund oh my gosh no one's ever people have asked me that like when they want to learn learn about VC but no one's ever asked me that in this kind of in a podcast I don't know I still feel like it's still a blur like I still have PTSD for most of it you're hustling I don't remember yeah yeah it took me a long time so the funny story is that so I had started soft selling like in 2019 I was still at techstars and Wayne Patrick was like the first person who was like I'm down Wayne's amazing I call him a fairy Godfather like he he used to sponsor all the pizzas at our pitch events when I was in my early 20s making my poor Fellow salary yeah he's amazing yeah and like always behind the scenes too which is amazing he was the first person that just said I think you can do it I'm down and I was like in my deck my first decks were terrible I'm great at decks but though by building that kind of deck was terrible sure so the blessing though was like I'm like okay I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it I'm gonna do it Paul who was at Alice at the time calls me so I think we're gonna so also backtrack Paul and I tried to do a fun together before his name is Ellinger so he used to be at Alice and now he was at 68 now he's got his own company Flamel so we had tried this before we didn't get the grams like a Federal grant we didn't get oh my gosh and he's at aloe's I'm like still at tech store trying to figure out what I'm gonna do and he's I used thinking about doing this one I'm like yeah I got a couple people that are interested I think Aaron would do something like next level fun whatever you want to call it I was like I think he would like I know I'm gonna have to sell it like I have to get it right but I feel like we could get it done and he's I think I was gonna start something he's like I think since you're already working on something like maybe we can just collaborate Alice I feel like I call it I called him my accelerator like they supported they allowed me to like be able to raise full-time like I got to do like Project work for them while like secretly raising this fund and they helped me with the words and these are the things you need to use and being able to utilize like their CFO to do our fun admin was like very important but the act of raising was still something I had to do on my own I had to sell it and so at my background in sales and marketing I know how to do that but like selling to people for them to trust you with their money to put into other people is a totally different kind of cell sure and so the practice is in just repeating that I have 27 versions of the deck like I've been through every iteration and it was I think it came down to Passion know-how even though like I've not invested like I'm very transparent I've never invested before I've only worked at accelerators but I know how to pick companies because I pick companies for accelerators like I could tie that back and I think they believed me and then they said yes and then a few people said yes and I was like wait I think this might be happening like it wasn't it was this click this moment where I was like I might actually do this and like I was only thinking like a million maybe two and then it was like five and then I was like maybe I'll do ten it was like I'm gonna do 20.

let's just see what happens I didn't get to 20. that's okay I'm settled after 15. that's amazing it's still good yeah I stopped I said I can't really I don't want to raise anymore I'm tired of raising so I stopped but then I like ended up with some really great Partners too I'm like part of the next chapter of things is like talking about the process of starting a fun like I'm still not through with it like I'm still do I'm like I'm everything I'm doing right now is for the first time it's kind of being a Founder you're always raising I'm really good at founder stuff though like I'm really good at just life all right we gotta get it gotta get it done and now I feel like we're in this place where we're mostly deployed we're probably about 60 70 deployed at this point most of our deploying now is gonna be follow on every one of our companies are following on which is a good thing awesome now I'm like hosting and thinking about like how do we bring more value to the portfolio what other things can we be doing like how do we act on other strategies like how do we start prepping ourselves for what a fun two looks like those are like the spaces I'm in now but also like how do we bring these things closer together like I feel like sometimes be nimble and succeed feel very separate and I want them to be because I think they lean on each other how do we bring those things together even more how much when do we do more so much to think Kelly I'm going to ask you to brag about yourself what do you think that three five reasons that you convince people to to fund 15 a 15 million dollar fund and I know the model all this but I think a lot of it has to do with you right so tell me what those qualities that you find in like makes you the person to lead this chart forward my employee this man I wish my employees were here in this moment we did a very similar exercise at our Retreat where we had to talk about ourselves or what we thought we were good at so I'll say a few things so one I think there's people that are really good at seeing the big picture and there's people that are really good at seeing all the details I see both and so I think that's actually the strongest component I can I don't necessarily want to do the task stuff but I can construct the whole I can say this is what we're gonna do all parts of the machine this is how we're gonna get there I am trying to pull away so this is I'm in the I think we're always in the process of beingcoming better leaders for me it's always delegating and then hiring people that are smarter than me to do other things because I'm in a place where I'm just like I really want to focus and so I think that was like the that's the biggest part because I at the end of the day I could probably get it all done by myself I might not sleep but I can probably knock it all out if I needed to but then I also understood how to put plug people in where they need to plug I think the other is actually seeing the whole I call it I and when I talk to Founders I call it the moat right it's the competitive Advantage it's what is the thing that you do that no one else can do even if you guys were both doing the same thing I identify that in every single thing that we do that's my co-founder Jeff and I naturally do that I don't know maybe it's because we're family I don't know but we I see everything in this but this is missing this is amazing and I want to focus on that because that is where the need is so I think that's been the most important I think the third is I stole this from Jeff it's translation it's like knowing how to talk about things in a way that people understand that make it make sense and don't make them feel like you're talking over them or talking above them that's a thing I think when it comes to the fun though I think it was the track record of work that we had up until that point the kind of companies that we had the opportunity to be close to the deal flow that we had access to the relationships we had just because of my experience being all over the place like we knew a lot of people and honestly like it's gonna probably be passion like I actually love this this is I don't it's frustrating as and I'm a cuss as hell it's frustrating it's lonely I've not had great days I've had amazing days but I love I really do love this and I'll do it every day and I'll try to win at it every day and I think people could see that even and often I don't always feel like I'm doing the best job because we're we've been limited and now we're in a place where we can grow but like we've been very constrained we've been running a non-profit part-time like it's a full-time right organization and no one has even noticed that part we've all had we all have full-time jobs I don't know anybody else is gonna go get it yes that's great heck yes that's a good mic job so we like I don't know I maybe just have Jeff and I have these like pep-up talks like we go we're gonna get it regardless yes I love that okay do you have two minutes left yeah here we go so quick first thing comes to your mind just let it grow all right so outside of the amazing entrepreneurial ecosystem what is Indiana known for Michael Jackson yeah first time for that one okay what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana Town Thrift oh I'm not familiar I guess we know where we're going Friday afternoon heck yeah okay and final question for you who is someone that we need to keep on our radar someone who is doing big things Aaron Murdock same as Murdoch okay I'm always going to give it to young people seven house for sure they do art shows they've partner with us to do party away I think now for three or four years like the Gen Z the young kids are like they got stuff bubbling that no one's paying attention to that we need to pay attention to they were not on our radar so not on my road we should make that happen boom yeah I love it Kelly this was an amazing conversation thank you guys this is so great connect to collab I'm gonna keep throwing names out there and I will say final thing we gotta say is if people want to get plugged into 68 or be nimble what do they do so I'm Kelly Nicole on everything so Kelly with an eye Nicole with a K if you want to connect with me directly our emails are on our website so you can always just go straight to the website 68.

capital B nimbleco. com we're active on social we're active on LinkedIn we're really not hard to find oh come see us link get up in the show notes yeah I love it Kelly thanks for everything that you do for this ecosystem both locally and nationally globally it's amazing what you're doing I really appreciate you and being a part of this community I'm glad to be here this has been get in a powder kick production in partnership with Elevate Ventures and we want to hear from you if you have suggestions for a guest or a segment reach out to Matt or Nate on LinkedIn or on email to discover top tier tech companies outside of Silicon Valley in hubs like Indiana check out our newsletter at powderkeg. com newsletter and to apply for membership to the Powder Keg executive Community Check out powdercake. com premium we'll catch you next time and next week as we continue to help the world get in since you just listened to this podcast you might be thinking about starting one for your company lucky for you our partners over at cassid have you covered cassid is the first and only podcast in video marketing platform made specifically for B2B Brands I love this about them the platform makes it possible to publish Syndicate amplify and measure the value of your podcast and video content in fact we use it for our podcast here at powderkeg and if you're a startup you should listen up because cassid for startups is definitely for you they are offering exclusive deep discounts of up to 82 percent off retail price for qualifying startups connect with casted at casted.

us slash powderkeg