Adeola Adejobi, Founder & CEO, Avant-Garde Network, joins ChedHER to discuss her mission to fuel diversity across industries from real estate to law to technology and more.

Opening Bell

Impact of Women of Color and Capital

everyone shut her brought to you by Jpmorgan Chase, our next guest on a mission to fuel diversity across different industries, ranging from real estate to law, technology and so much more. She's bringing together diverse women entrepreneurs and professionals all to learn about money, finance, capital investing through the women of color and capital initiative. So joining us now is Adeola at Adobe founder and Ceo of avant garde network. Adeola. Such a pleasure to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. So what's your mission with this initiative? And what do women take away from this amazing experience? Yeah. So for women of color and capital were all about economic opportunities. So we really focus on financial Ackman, making sure women have capital for their businesses, connecting with investors, resources, tools and career opportunities. Okay, so this is by the way, not your first venture into an industry that's in need of diversity, desperate need of diversity. You've created initiatives in real estate and law just to name a few. So tell me more about why diversity is so vital in these fields. Yeah, I mean, it's vital because I mean, all the stats show that when we have more diversity, it really helps to make a better pipeline and it helps people stay at their communities as well as for us to create more economic opportunities across the board. So with diversity and commercial real estate, for example, which we host, which is the largest conference in the nation of its kind. We focus on capital opportunities, helping people build their networks because we have more of us in the industry reflective of the industry. It makes better for our overall communities well and also better for businesses at the end of the day to write Yes, for sure. All right. So what are some of the biggest challenges women are facing that come to women of color capital? And how are you sort of support? And what sort of support are they seeking here? Yeah, Great question. So when we're talking about, you know, the challenge is really, it's something that I coined called triple validation, which basically means that, you know, we are required to over validate our businesses before we get support. So coming from one having to validate your business without capital to meeting with partners and partners saying, well, you know, could you do it again because we want to make sure that it's not a fluke. So now you're validating again. And then even after that some of these companies don't necessarily want to be the first mover to partner. So now you're waiting for someone else to validate your business in order for you to be able to get the investment that you need. So what we do is we bring together capital partners, we bring together investors and we also teach and train folks so they have the information that they need to be able to do successfully in business as well is creating those career opportunities so that we can also diversify the opportunities and diversify the industry when they come, I was gonna say something, they come to us really. Its capital, connections, capacity building and community. I love it. And by the way, Women of color and capital partnering with our friends over at Jpmorgan Chase to collaborate on some in person events as well. So what's in store for these upcoming events is pretty amazing. Yeah, for sure. We're extremely excited to be partnering with Jpmorgan Chase on this initiative. And so we'll be talking about things from the power of capital to invest in one of investing one on one and your business and money and your personal financial journey, all things that women want information on. And so we're excited that we can bring this information to the community. And what kind of impact has women of color and capital had so far to date so far? Yeah, in terms of impact, we really have connected people with investors. They've gotten invest investments in their businesses connected to career opportunities and build out their over all. I would say community of entrepreneurs, right? If you're in this, sometimes you feel like you're in it by yourself. And so we want to make sure that we're building community to encourage people as they're trying to get capital as they're trying to increase their business acumen and really creating something where they don't feel alone. Okay, so Adeola what are the plans for growing women of color and capital? What's sort of next on the horizon for you guys? Yeah. So what's next on the horizon for us? Really is our conference, We have an annual conference which is coming up in the fall and at that conference we have investors, we have deal makers, we have folks that are just really looking to learn about finance overall. And so with that and with our partnership with Jpmorgan Chase, we're going to different cities, providing this information more locally and allowing people to create more networks, both locally and nationally. And we have a lot of viewers on the show looking for all sorts of great advice. What's the best advice that you would give women entrepreneurs, no matter the space that they're getting into? I mean, I think the best advice is like keep going. When I started Women of Color and Capital in 2018, no one was looking at the industry. No one was paying attention to the fact that Women of color were not getting capital for their businesses. And when I launched the conference the first year, it was a sold out conference with over 500 women. So if you know, you have a passion, you know that there's a mark for your product, just pull as many resources together as you can to make it happen. And that's what we try to do with Women of color and Capital. So you can also connect with us at Women of Color and capital dot com. Love that you said the website. Okay, I gotta ask also because I asked my last guest this what's the best advice that you've ever received when it comes to being in business? I think it's what I gave. Don't quit, don't quit whatever you do, don't quit. The market will meet you at some point. So just continue, get some good advisers, um pressure test your ideas and just don't stop. There's someone waiting on the other side for you to fulfill what it is that you're truly meant to do. So don't stop because people need you absolutely amen so well, said Adeola, such a pleasure to meet you, Adeola at A. J. O. B, the founder and Ceo of avant garde network. Thank you so much for joining us. And by the way, JPMorgan Chase committed to providing the education and the tools to advance financial equality for women everywhere. So to learn more visit Jpmorgan Chase dot com slash W. O. T. M.