Episode 76: Black Entrepreneurs and Social Justice: A Conversation with X-Factor Capital

Welcome to Race and Democracy, a podcast on the intersection between race, democracy, public policy, social justice, and citizenship.

Okay. On today’s. Program. We are excited to be with two of my friends, uh, Rodell Razor, and Jeremiah Captain. Um, and they have extensive experience as entrepreneurs as well, creators as motivational speakers. Uh, they’re former athletes turned, uh, really, um, pro black venture capital activist, right. In a lot of ways I’ll read just a.

Smattering of these very, very long bios. I’ll start with Razor first. Uh, Rodell has, uh, over 10 years of experience in launching and consulting small and mid-sized businesses as the CA CEO of X-Factor capital. He’s focused on creating concrete capital solutions and growth strategies for black businesses.

Uh, Rodel serves as a director and co-founder on the. Construct diversity and not-for-profit committed to a higher level of racial and gender diversity in the construction industry and related businesses. And Jeremiah captain, Jeremiah has over 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, public relations and talent matters.

As co-founder of X-Factor consulting group, Jeremiah has played a key role in motivating employees in large organizations and educating employers to help close the gap between corporate leaders and their diversity and inclusion efforts. And I’ve seen this online on Instagram as well. Um, you know, speaking.

Before huge crowds of thousands and thousands of people. Really. Excellent. Brilliant. Uh, so, uh, razor and captain, welcome to race and democracy. Thanks doc. I appreciate it, man. It’s great to be here. We love, uh, we love what you’re doing and it’s a, it’s a pleasure to be here. Very excited, honored, and Humboldt man, long overdue.

Excited to be here. So I want to talk about how we met. Cause it’s interesting. This is kind of like when you do the breakfast club, I feel like I’ve done breakfast club.

it’s a privilege. It’s a privilege because with you all, you know, um, we met during the pandemic we met during the pandemic and uh, we created something called black man creating social impact and we had a big. Here at university of Texas at Austin last November. So I want to talk about, um, both how we met and how the last couple of years has accelerated the pace of people in the United States and globally talking about social change, but not just social change through things like ending police brutality, not just social change through things like, um, uh, voting rights, which are really important, but really.

I think this is the first time in American history, where we are really in a big, big way talking about social change through wealth creation, through wealth creation and with, with black people being, um, entrepreneurs and creators. And we’re going to get into the weeds during our discussion, but being on boards, being part of the venture capital space, the venture philanthropy space, the tech space, the hedge fund and private equity space.

Um, the financialization. Uh, of ourselves space because that’s the new space in the 21st century where everything we do is financial lies. And that includes in good and bad ways because when you look at Instagram and Twitter and different stuff, it’s not just religion. That is financialized food is activism is, but one of the things that as a father and all three of us, our fathers here.

That I’ve seen our children, our financial lives. People are putting their kids on and I’m not, I’m not criticizing. I’m just saying that there they’re like these brilliant families who are doing all kinds of positive stuff, but you see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 kids, you know, with them. And you’re like, wow, this is a brand.

So let’s, let’s say sponsored by Disney or something like exactly. So, I mean, before I even diamonds, I mean the beautiful thing of living in a capitalist society. And when you look at the tax code, there’s benefits for having your family be a part of your business, you know, having a family business, having a trust, all the things to where you break down to kind of protect it, wealth and grow well.

So having a family office, you know, there’s so many things we could dive into later and talk about it, but starting from the top, you know, diving back into my attic, you know, remembering how we met. Back if it was April or may of 2020, probably. Yeah, probably April. And I remember you. Yeah. Pre George Floyd, you wrote your book and I saw, I get posted on social media and anything that gets dropped with Malcolm.

Anyone that knows me, I just devour it. I love everything about Malcolm. Obviously go and respecting both Martin and Malcolm, but over the later years of my life, I’ve become a little bit more Malcolm and philosophy. So when I saw your book, I just devoured it, you know, loved it, you know, read it from front to back and really just love how you articulated their story.

Um, being more, you know, being more one at the end of their lives. And I reached out to you through social media and saw that you had a decent following, but I was like, man, this guy needs to grow. Like, you know, we got to get this man’s message out to the world. Cause I know you spent your whole. Um, uh, world just working behind the scenes, you know, being an activist, but really grassroots on the streets, but in the social world, you know, you just were kind of new coming to the party.

Uh, so definitely want to connect with you. You were very gracious with your time and when obviously the world galvanized behind the killing of, uh, George Floyd, uh, you were probably one of the, the third calls that we made in, in our. Reflection of like, what do we do to kind of stay sane as black men and what’s going on?

Uh, we made some critical calls to help us. Um, from a professional standpoint, we have some calls that helped us start our nonprofits. You mentioned construct diversity, and then we want to talk to you as a black male leader. That’s been doing this for years, you know, how do we cope personally with ourselves?

Cause the struggling I was going through, you know, waking up in the morning, shout out to uncle nearest black whiskey, uh, owner. But I was drinking that at 11:00 AM. You know, three, four days after George Floyd, knowing that I was struggling with something, you know, just emotionally and personally. So I needed to kind of have you help me walk through that and then, okay.

What do we do moving forward to be a part of that? Uh, so obviously we’ve, we’ve been connected over, we create the black man creating social impact, and that’s been phenomenal coming out to Austin, speaking to the young men, um, at the, at that event with super dynamic, really appreciate you just giving us that platform.

And it’s opened up so many doors for us out here in Austin with it becoming more of a tech hub. And we actually saw something online. I don’t know if the data’s actually true, but Austin is the third. Top city out of the top 10 where black professionals are doing well, not only financially from their job, but also owning land and like living in a capitalist society, you can’t solve structural problems with just charity.

You have to come in from a capitalistic approach. We bring in capital into people’s lives so that they can create. Fun in launch businesses where they can take care of themselves. So in a nutshell, that’s a little bit of how we met and that’s how we did the programming. And really what we’re up to with X-Factor capital is finding funding and fueling black entrepreneurs in the tech ecosystem.

So a little bit of the outlet Radell share a little bit. Yeah, no, I remember I’m thinking back of when we did meet, um, we actually programmed that entire event. Without meeting in person. Uh, we were telling Emily back, we’re like, yeah, the first time we met Docker, we’re like, Hey, nice to meet you. There’s a spot on the stage.

Um, and so it was a, it was really great. Uh, I think you spoke to something doc that I think is interesting. What’s going on in America, especially black America, where being black and being pro black doesn’t mean being anti, uh, Economic, uh, you can actually be both. And I think there was a time where if you were an activist, you couldn’t have a, you couldn’t be heavy on the economic conversation.

Um, and you know, many people believe that’s why Martin was eventually killed is because he started to bring economics to his conversation. But I think where we’re at now as a, as a country, as a people, um, we have more. Um, permission, um, or maybe courage, um, and tools to have these conversations. The Internet’s been a very powerful tool for many of us to educate ourselves on our history, but also in what we can create in our future.

So, um, yeah, black man created social impact was in, was an amazing weekend. And for us. It’s been a catalyst. Um, you know, we, we wanted to make sure that that event was special for the attendees and for the mission, what we wanted to create, but it’s been a catalyst into Austin becoming really a hub for X-Factor, which we’re very grateful for.

So thank you. We didn’t need, we haven’t even updated you on that. So thank you very much. No, I w we’re going to, we’re going to talk about that off the podcast and ways to leverage, you know, I want us to talk about. You know, when you think about X-Factor capital, but also X-Factor capital in the context of the world we live in because in a lot of ways with 2020 show.

It was all these opportunities, but in the ensuing two years, we see all the challenges too, right? Because I think the same way that we’re seeing challenges about critical race theory right here in Texas. Right. And not being able to, uh, be allowed to talk about black history, the challenges of voter suppression.

Um, in fact, it was just a big win for voting rights activists because the Supreme court refused to hear a challenge by. Uh, Republicans in Pennsylvania and North Carolina who wanted to revert back to gerrymander districts. And in both of those cases, um, uh, lower courts had decided that, um, one court in North Carolina allowed a nonpartisan blue ribbon.

To, to do the, the lines, uh, instead of gerrymandering and in the other, something else happened, but instead of what they want it to happen in terms of suppressing votes and having more ours, it was, it was actually a win. But I, I would say that in the space of entrepreneurship and venture entrepreneurship, there’s also been pushback.

And so I want us to talk about that in the sense of. What are there, certainly we’ve seen the, and we’ll, we’ll get to the opportunities cause we’re very optimistic podcasts, but what are some of the challenges, you know, because in a lot of ways, um, and when we think about these issues like diversity right now at the LBJ school, I’m associate Dean for what we’re calling justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

Diversity is great, but I’m always been a big push for black equality. And the reason why I am as a historian is my argument. And I think we see this even, and I said, we’re going to have a wide range in conversation. We see this in the Ukraine right now. Ukraine, there’s a human rights tragedy happening Ukraine, but it’s impacting.

Uh, people who are white, but also people are nonwhite and Ukraine, Ukraine, African immigrants, um, Indian and south Asian immigrants. But one of the things the press is not talking about, there are mixed race. Ukrainians were acting as if people do not procreate together and fall in love together. There are mixed race, Ukrainian.

Yeah, my, my, my daughter’s mixed race. Um, um, you know, razor, you’re mixed race and, and she’s proudly black and you’re probably black, but still it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a dynamic, right? So when we, when we think about where we’re at in terms of, uh, these, these challenges, right? This idea of diversity, I think we should be talking about black equality because it’s only by getting black equality, will it reverberate out to everyone?

We’re not going to have a world where there’s. Equality and black equity. Right. And then we’re somehow abusing other people. It’s just not going to happen. It’s just not going to happen. Right. And so how can w what are some of the challenges you’re seeing just even in the space right here, because on some levels through X factor capital, you are.

Creating something that’s brand new in terms of that’s focused on investment strategies and impact strategies, specifically from black creators and entrepreneurs that are going to impact, uh, black communities and future black creators. But at the same time, it’s going to be for profit and creating. Yeah.

And that’s the whole thing. So it’s basically this win-win, but it’s really a paradigm shift too, because capitalism and business, historically, hasn’t allowed black people to do this. Right. Right. And even then you’re still in a position where you’re having to align yourselves with a lot of non-black, uh, entrepreneurs and allies.

Yeah. Yeah. No, I think one of the things. Um, and we’re getting more, more information on this over the last, just even 90 days is you can have a pro black organization, but if it’s, if it’s underneath the umbrella of capitalism in America, it’s hard to do. It would just all black, you have to have the white allies and not permission.

Um, but the access and the opportunity or people, because the. The mass amount of wealth is being held by white people. Um, and so in the venture capital world or in the investment, you know, the startup investment world, we can say we’re a black organization, ran by black men who invest in black people, but a lot of our money isn’t our own money.

So we’re raising money from institutions that are white ran, uh, individuals who are white men, white women, white families, um, who. Pro our mission, but our don’t look like us. And so having some of those challenges, and I think that historically those families, those institutions, for them to align what they pro-black investment firm was.

Taboo, um, or it wasn’t as normalized. And so the, the challenge that we face or that, you know, entrepreneurs face who are fundraising is finding those organization, like an X factor to where they have enough leverage and power to make an investment. Um, and then for us finding the right people that are, uh, aware enough, not necessarily woke, but aware enough where they’re like.

We want to see this solved with capitalism. We want to be part of the capital solution. We may not want to be a part of, um, you know, the political suit solution or, um, the justice solution. They want to solve it with capitalism. And so that’s where extract capital comes in. Um, but the challenges, those.

Networks are not easy to get access to. Uh, they’re really not. We’re very fortunate at some of the networks that have been opened up to us. Um, some of the, the gatekeepers, the key makers, um, who have said, you know what, X factor Rodel, jet reason, it wasn’t even X factor Rodel, Jeremiah. Like let’s sit down, let’s have a conversation, let’s hear your guys’s vision.

Um, and those pieces. The only way to get to the next person in that network is through introduction. So we have to impress, we have to sway. Um, and that’s tough. That’s tough because we don’t come from the same background. So finding that common ground, or, you know, even when we’re, you know, pre talking the, the meeting, you know, it’s like the, the talk before the talk, it’s like, all right, what, what are we gonna talk, right?

Where are we going to talk football? That’s what we go to. Right. Cause that’s what we know. That’s what they want to talk about. They want to talk about the Seahawks or whatever it is. And it’s so. Our common ground. Isn’t always easy to find. Um, and so how do you influence people, ask for their money, ask for their investment, ask for their buy-in or even more valuable to them is access to their network.

Yeah, a lot of these people, their money is more disposable than their network is. Um, and so they’re more willing to open up their pocket book then their than their Rolodex. Um, and so being someone that can be. Um, that can articulate our vision in the, in the plight of our people, um, in a way that we were going to show capital solutions, um, and it’s with good returns, um, in, because right now we’re all in thesis in dairy.

Uh, we don’t have concrete evidence to show that our thesis is going to be true. We just we’re believing that, uh, people that have been pressed down have been scratching for opportunity. And we’ll talk about that. Like you said, a little bit later of the upside of what could be, but I think the, the, the challenges are really.

The networks that, um, they have to almost allow us in, um, because there isn’t enough black wealth to build a lot of black investment firms just off of black wealth. Um, the white wealth and the white, uh, the government money, those types of things are all held by a white men who have the power and the influence.

And so those allies are really important. And Jeremiah, what are, I want to build off of what a razor just said in terms of capitalism? And historians would say racial capitalism really instead and biracial capitalism. Everyone. We just mean that historically capitalism has been based in the United States, at least on the super exploitation of black bodies, the removal of indigenous bodies, exploitation of women as well.

So it hasn’t been, it hasn’t been this ethical, moral, political, legal, equal playing field that, you know, what a lot of people are surprised about that lot of people would say that. Hey, I disagree with you. I think factually I’m correct. But in terms of people’s imagination, capitalism is this equitable system and the people who rise to the top have risen to the top based on merit.

Right? So it’s important for us to understand that when we say racial capitalism, we’re going against the grain, the popular grain right now, I’m interested in this idea that razor talked about saying people didn’t want to talk about politics and justice. But I think with X factor and all of us who are in this space, we do.

In what ways do you think. Capitalism a kind of progressive capitalism. It’s interesting. I think about what ice cream tried to do with the contract with black America, which Derek Hamilton, who a friend who was a black economist, brilliant, helped him with. And when you look at the weeds in terms of what they want to happen with FDI sea banking, it’s a real legitimate part of when we think about repertoire.

It really is because it provides a blueprint for us to be connected to the financialization. Of of wealth and wealth production, what it takes to build wealth, but especially at the federal and the state level, alongside of some private actors that when people don’t know, we all do constantly and consistently use the federal government in exploitative way.

So everybody’s always talking about low taxes and no government. It’s not true. You need the government, the reason why there’s a money supply, the reason why there’s a federal reserve. Even if you’re Jeff Bezos, you need that because you need a backing for the ventures you’re going to do, you need to stop.

That’s what play your way. Yeah. You want it to play your way. Right? So, so talk about that in terms of capitalism, um, justice and politics, because it really is all intertwined and all works together. Our monetary policy policy, our, the, the. Janet yelling. This is all politics, even as it’s capitalism and it can be towards justice.

Well, you look at our nation, which has been perceived as one of the greatest nations of all time, what it has created. Um, but what could it have been if this particular group would have had a seat at the table early on as well? So historically we haven’t had a seat at the table to create wealth because of, like you said, the race.

Co creation of wealth was, you know, to exclude us. But you look at what you’re creating now with this third book, right? The third reconstruction, right? So we have the first reconstruction that didn’t actually really take place to allow for us to at least be free, at least potentially on paper, but not actually, when you have the Jim Crow era that came in and then civil rights was okay, now we’re going to be perceived as equal, but we still didn’t make up for all the injustice has happened for the last, you know, two, 300 years, 400 years, and now we’re coming.

Third phase of the paradigm shift of like, oh yes, we need to support the black community in creating wealth. As we look at post slavery, 98% of the wealth was held by pretty much white male black community. Still own 2%. If you look at the data, don’t quote me a hundred percent. It’s still the same, even though there’s been a lot of progressive black Wolf created through the entertainment industries, through athleticism and all that, and music and arts and acting and all that, but still, we still control 2% of the wealth.

So there’s still this 2% hump that we haven’t got over 12% of the population, 12, 13. So if you can imagine us being representative of, of, um, One of the ways you can think about sort of the end of racism or one kind of racism would be 12 black people having 12% of the welfare, 12% of all the board seats, but also 12% of a venture capitalist investment, you know, like beautiful.

Like it’s like . Yeah, but, but going back into that of like, how was, how did America. What has been perceived as one of the greatest dynasties in the world, right? Obviously through expectation, but also through allowing a particular group, specifically white male European males to come to this country and have access to.

Free land homestead act. Okay. Let’s talk about that. And then we talk with this historical context because you know, the, the whole concept of X factor is solving for X, the variable, right? You, if you’re looking at it from a mathematics standpoint, if I look at equation, just look at the tail end of the equation, try to solve for X.

I’m going to be wrong. Every single time you have to look at the entire equation. So you look at the homestead act. These are just some. Things that we can kind of educate some of the people that want to know how do I be a part of the solution? Okay. There was a homestead act created. There was the new deal that was created to create pretty much a household income that people have been able to create, you know, millions of dollars.

I think it’s 70 Troy and that’s going to transfer over the next 10 years, do generational wealth through the wealth transfer. And that was created back then with the new deal and the black community didn’t have access to that. The GI bill, the GI bill. So those three distinct right there. But it’s so polarizing just to specifically talk about one specific group and that’s, you know, historically kind of like the left hand hiding from the right hand of kind of creating this, Hey, this equality, but we can’t just focus on one particular group, but if you want to create initiative, you have to be specifically focused on that one target.

So the black community specifically hasn’t had that access. So we’re not just saying in this form of reparations, like, Hey, just give us money. That solves all problems. It’s not just solving with money. The access to low interest rates is to access to potential better tax strategies. So, um, to, uh, education, financial literacy that we just didn’t have access to black founders.

I mean, I think one of the things you’re saying, which I completely agree with, um, and I would add that, you know, part of the wealth creation United States was black labor producing that. Well, because sometimes we think about Chinese Coolie, so-called Coolie labor and the building of the railroads. But when you think of.

Look at it. Historically, the people who built the railroads were black people and really even after racial slavery, um, uh, there are great books, including a book by ed errs on the promise of the new south. Uh, who’s former president of, um, uh, uh, uh, uh, maybe Virginia Commonwealth university, uh, is, um, black people became, uh, coal miners, turpentine labor, uh, We were the lumberyard workers, a lot of us as conscripts because of the convict lease system.

Okay. As constantly. Right. So when we think about textile industries, black women from around 1865, all the way into the first three decades of the 20th century are the biggest, uh, uh, domestic workers in the, in the United States. So a lot of people look at Spanish speaking immigrants now. Central America, south America, Latin America, the Caribbean Mexico, and think, okay, this has always been how it was.

No, no, every single moment. We’re black people’s jobs. So, so Medea. So when we think of, and there’s a great new book, everyone called south to America by Imani Perry. So razor just said, uh, where she talks about that. It’s brilliant. It was New York times bestseller. Now, when we think. Um, this idea of, of wealth and wealth creation.

Now I want to get us into the weeds because we have a program here at the center for the study of race and democracy that we’re trying to launch a program in black innovation and entrepreneurship. And we’re trying to introduce into the ecosphere. These are undergraduates, um, eight new founders per class, you know, and they’re, they’re going to be connected to McCombs.

They’re going to be connected to people like you are. And we’re going to teach them about, you know, a business plan, teach them about boards, teach them about, you know, pre IPO, just like the whole works. Right. But what I want us to talk about now is what are some of the specific ways. That you imagine X factor being able to be a part of this in terms of that ecosphere, like, what are some of the metrics you’re thinking about?

Like, you know, in five years, how will your thesis have been proven out? And when you think about your thesis, this thesis about investing in black founders creators in a way that is going to be both lucrative and going to sort of reverberate back to those communities exponentially. Right. Um, and, and right now your, your, your workshop.

The thesis, you’re doing all these things. I want to get into the weeds of how, how is it going to, how is it going to look? How is it going to scale? You know, um, when we did our black men creating social impact in a way that was, um, one of the many proofs of concepts that you all are doing, you’re you all are on social media and tell us your.

Yeah, so you can find me a create and champions just as a sound is creating champions at Instagram. You can find me on LinkedIn on a Jeremiah captain, and I note to the best place to find me. And I’ll let Radell share a little bit more to your question. I’d want to point this out. Historically, the VC world was created out of.

A lot of who don’t know that. So it was basically big business do welding, but some of the best I’m learning some of the best guests, guests who some of the best whalers were that went hunting for whales, black men. Well, you can see that when you know, I I’m, I’m old enough to remember when they used to make you read Moby Dick.

So I read, I read Herman Melville. Yeah. So I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m older than the two young, young men here. Um, and there is a black character, uh, in Moby Dick, you know, I think he’s an unnamed black character. And, but when he says, you know, what’s interesting, there’s a quote where he says, Um, he’s black, but he’s, he’s fine.

And he’s excellent with, uh, with a rich mind and, you know, and he moves on, but it’s really interesting Melville with black people. And blackness is very interesting and that people have written scores of books and stuff, but, um, I, I love that you said that that is the basis of venture capital. At least in the United States, although, cause I would say if we go back to the old, um, Italian city states in terms of Venice and the muddy cheese and stuff, they were venture capitalists to that’s again, doers and Columbus convincing the queen to fund his vision and come back.

So yeah, it’s all forms. Absolutely. But from an American. You know, some of the early venture capital deals, if you looked at the way the deals were structured, the way it was invested in from wealthy families would invest into this particular captain who would be pretty much like the fund manager. And then he would go recruit a team and they would go build something that will be successful or go hunt something and bring it back.

And it was very risky, was super high risk and they’d put a lot of money into it, but when they catch the big wave, Um, they all ate off of that. And even the black, you know, sailors, they made good money off of it too, and went and started their businesses. But you just don’t hear about just that, that rich history of black wealth being created.

Part of that 2% wealth that was owned was from those black sailors that took that money and went and started their own communities, built their own businesses. Uh, so yeah, by all that, Radell share a little bit more about how do we think this can kind of marry together? Yeah, I think for. You talked about like some success indicators.

Tell us your social too. Oh, Radell razor it’s Radell R O D E L L razor, R a Z O R um, on every platform. Um, actually we saw that there was another like rod razor out there, but, um, I’m the only one. Yeah. Uh, he’s the old G the original. But, um, I think some success indicators, um, job creation is, uh, is a big portion of, uh, capitalism that gets celebrated by, you know, a lot of the billionaire or the billion dollar companies is the jobs that they then go create.

Um, I think for us, what we’re hyper-focused on is dollars invested and then dollars returned, uh, because. In, you know, that’s the bottom line. And so our, our 10 year vision is a hundred million dollars invested. And then if you think what is considered like a venture style return, you don’t, we’re taking these, this large amount of money, a relatively large amount of money.

Put it in, in high risk categories that are not physical assets, like a piece of real estate or the S and P 500. You’re taking him, put it in a very high risk. So it has to have returns that exceed. What you would get in another investment vehicle. And so I venture style return. You don’t want just two times your money or three times your money.

A hundred times your money. Um, and so for us, our focus is a hundred million dollars invested with a 10 X return is a billion dollar, uh, you know, valuations that we create in the black community. And so those are some of the things that we’re, hyper-focused on in the, the vehicles of getting there. Our first three investments will be what we call foundational investments.

Um, and that’s what we’re actually looking for right now. Uh, we’re in Austin right now looking for, you know, to narrow down our 10 and take that 10 down to five that we. Take through what we call a diligence process and then those five will be sorted and we’ll make three investments over the next 90 days to six months, we’ll make about a million dollars, uh, of, of investments.

Um, and so that’s our target right now as we speak, um, is to get that first million into the ecosystem. Um, and then scale that to a hundred. That’s great. And what, what do you think in terms of when we talk about sort of educating and like right here in Austin, we’re building all this wealth, but there’s all this racial segregation.

We’ve got students, not just that Houston Tillotson, which is historically black college, but also here at UT. You know, I’m always concerned with UT. Cause I teach here at UT and my black students and black folks here. We’re not letting them be part of this ecosystem. Right. You know, so many, you, you all are brilliant in the sense of that.

You’re naturally gifted, but you’ve also hustled and hustled and sort of become self-taught and are curious students. So that’s how you learn the most is by being a lifelong student, what are ways that you think we can leverage what you’re trying to do in terms of higher ed? You know, especially, and really specifically, because already we have a partnership here, uh, through black men creating social impact, but I do think that.

Part of our destiny, if we’re going to succeed is scale, you know, and being able to scale this, both what you’re doing at X-Factor capital, but, but really around the United States where, where young gifted black people are. And I think they’re there in the. That’s the depth excite, you know, the exciting thing is they’re, they’re, they’re, they’re in the millions, right?

And they’re everywhere. They’re athletes, they’re future doctors, their future entrepreneurs, teachers, lawyers, chefs, cooks artists. They’re everything. They’re just everything. Right. Preachers they’re there in every specific sphere. So what are some things that both of you all think about in terms of doing.

To, to end in this case, I’m going to be specific, you know, higher ed, like we’re trying to do with the program, black innovation, entrepreneurship, you know, a class of eight future founders per year. And we want to scale that up. We’re going to start small. What are things that we can do in the higher ed?

Because obviously this isn’t things that you learned in undergrad, you know, you are, I said, you’re young, but you’re not like 21. This is stuff that you got along the way. Sort of hustling and then, you know, it’s, it’s almost like the crisis of George Floyd, Brianna Taylor also presented this major opportunity.

Right. And there are some people who’ve made billions of dollars during the pandemic, but even for racial justice, There was a lot more money, you know, black lives matter, different people in that space of reforming the criminal justice system. There’s been a lot of opportunity. So what are some of the things you think that can be done or should be done in terms of trying to leverage this?

Uh, For black students and young people, people, our future founders, but who, who don’t know it, they might be a history major or black studies major or psychology major, but truly their destiny is going to be to run something that they. Yeah, I think the four, what I’ve found for specifically for students, uh, students are have such an advantage when it comes to available resources on a campus, um, in campuses have an immense amount of resources.

Um, and I think building networks while you’re here, uh, while you’re on campus, if you’re a student, uh, building those networks, While you’re here and not having to revert back to those networks. Um, like not having to go, oh man, I need to plug into an alumni. I need to do like build them now. Um, and we’ll share a story.

Um, we had an athlete friend and I’ll love him to be nameless for now, but an athlete friend went on to play in the NFL. I had a great career in the NFL and very proud of, you know, the success that he had there. Um, but one of his classmates was the founder of Instagram. And you think about those.

Relationships that he can now go back to and he can, because he had a real relationship with that person. He studied it. He was in school. He was taking programs that support. Being in those networks. And I think those are things that, you know, like you said, if you’re a history major or whatever, it may be like building those networks within the business community, in a city like Austin, where the, the, the business community is really thriving.

Uh, the business community is doing really well here. So I think trying to be intentional with building those bridges, hosting those events, using the resources, like a large campus, like meeting rooms, things like that, where you just have available to you, uh, to build those kinds of networks, because it’s not going to be.

The books that you read in college, it’s going to be the hands that you shake. And so I think those students really being able to know that they can build those networks now, not only with professors, but with business people in offering themselves available. You know, if you’re here and you’re a student you’re having to work, like rather than going back groceries, like go find a low paying job at one of these, you know, one of these startups and go get some experience in th into this ecosystem.

Um, You know, some of the things that can tangibly be done by universities is allowing startups to house. Um, that’s one thing that startups suffer from is they don’t have resources to, so having to say, Hey, you can, you can build your startup in one of our, uh, meeting rooms, you know, can we have some innovation lab, but we don’t have really, and that’s why we’re trying to do something dedicated to black innovators and entrepreneurs.

And I think. If you look at black entrepreneurs as a whole, you know, we, we all brag and you know, there’s a lot of stories around the garage to global companies, you know, the basis and all these people that these guys were building out a garage, but 300,000 in seed money, could’ve got you an office, right?

So like we actually built out of garages because we have to, um, and we build companies that have millions of dollars in revenue from. Working from home with our kids at home. And so being able to have office space. So what universities can do is, you know, offer, offer office space in these innovation labs to startups, um, or mid-stage companies, companies that are at, you know, pre-seed seed series a, um, less than maybe $5 million in revenue.

Because if you can use, rather than paying $2,500. $5,000 a month for rent. You could use that to continue to fuel your company, especially if you’re bootstrapped, um, and then put on those type of events where VCs can come and have access to the talent so they can showcase. Um, because there, the problem that Silicon valley says is that we, we don’t know where the talents at.

Um, and so making sure that we’re showcasing talent nonstop, whether it be through pitch competitions, networking events, uh, happy hours, things like that, that. Facilities like a university can put on those types of things and have that kind of reach and marketing power. Um, that an individual just can’t do.

Okay. Thank you, captain. Okay. I want to ask you both about leadership, um, because in a lot of ways, which you are. Are doing and the journey and in certain ways we are all on this journey of sort of service oriented leadership. But what, what, um, you know, one, what motivates you and what kind of leader, um, do you aspire to be and how do you, you know, in that, in that space, how do you see.

Sort of wealth creation, um, social justice, uh, impact all converging in that space of, of leadership. Yeah. Well, leadership has ownership and, um, you have to own, you know, your, your ownership is more than obviously wealth, but ownership is owning your decisions, owning who you are as an individual. But going back to, we said earlier, Diversity is like winning a game one game, you know, uh, inclusion.

You want to inclusive organization. That’s awesome. That’s like getting to the playoffs, but ownership is winning the championship Superbowl man. And that’s all, it really matters, you know, when it’s all said and done, you know, so we want to get to winning more super bowl shifts, having ownerships in our decisions, in our wealth that we’re creating.

Um, but the leader I try to aspire to be when you look at nature, Um, I try to go back to everything. That’s natural, a Linus when she has her Cubs, she doesn’t hover over her Cubs all day, every day. She leads by example and in protects when there’s harm, but you role model the behavior that you want to see.

So being the person that I want to. But also the people that come behind me, like my children and the people that have been connected with me will see the things that I’m doing. And it will start to rub off case in point. Me and my daughters now have two daughters, one that’s 16 and 18 and near their mother have co-parent, you know, over the last 15 years together, we’ve been separate, separated, and she’s, uh, she’s married.

She has. But now we’re seeing the fruit of the seeds we planted early on in their life where now my youngest daughter, um, for the past two months has got employee of the month. Not saying that she’s going to work for the rest of her life, because there’s nothing wrong with having a job. I think they both have some entrepreneurship spirit inside of them from watching me, but they watched her mother do very well and get to middle management in the company that she works for.

And the work ethic that they have is through. The work that they’ve seen me at her mother, um, and in my oldest daughter, she’s working at a grocery store right now and she has aspirations to get into real estate. So she’s taking some real estate online courses and they’re doing it organically without us pushing it on them.

So that’s leadership to me is basically the model that we’ve set me and her mother, and now our children are falling behind that. So we have to be the leaders that we not only want to be for ourselves, but for the next generation coming behind us. Um, because the. Coming behind us, whether we like it or not.

And what examples are we setting in by the, um, the behaviors that we do day to day? All right. My final question is really about. What would you tell your younger self, you know, what would you tell your younger self? And I’m talking about yourself that was 18, 19 years old. Might’ve been in a position where you’re struggling, you need, you needed to overcome something.

Um, what’s the, what’s the one thing that you would have liked to have known that you didn’t at the time, that sort of, you know, hard earned wisdom, maturity, um, and time and experience has brought to the fore. Um, This is an audio podcast, but I’m 5, 760 pounds. I probably would have paid a little bit less attention to football, um, and focused a little bit more on business when I was younger.

Um, and I say that, you know, tongue in cheek, but reality, um, is. Our young people, um, are so inspired by, uh, entertainment, sports, and entertainment. Um, and there’s so much opportunity outside of that world. Um, and I didn’t until, um, Until I had the shortest NFL career in history, uh, which was just the tryout, um, until then team.

Uh, so we had an open tryout, so there was a few Scouts at the, it was a, the Patriots and the Niners were at the, uh, we’re at the tryout. And, uh, that was my stint. And until that point, um, that was plan a plan B plan Z. Um, and so it wasn’t till I was 23, 24, 25 years old till I said, oh, I’m going to be a businessman.

Um, and most people don’t know what they’re going to do with their life at 18 years old, but I wish I would have been a bit more diverse in my, uh, networking. Um, I really didn’t take advantage of networking. And that’s why when you asked the question originally, um, I networked with my teammates, um, and that was it.

And my teammates weren’t. In Ahrendts active business people. And there was people on campus that I could have met. Um, but I was so focused on making it, um, plan a was the only plan. And, um, and you know, something, my sister’s a student right now. Um, and something that I think our community, the black community is a lot of us are first generation, whatever we are, whether it be entrepreneur college, graduate, whatever it may be.

How this country was built was on favors and nepotism. And. So badly won our own merit that sometimes we are closed-minded to someone giving us an open door. And I think that that’s going to be a demise of young people that they want so badly to earn their own stripes. Um, but the, the white kid who’s in that position of that job that you actually want, or the boss that’s hiring you.

He got there because his dad, he got there because of his uncle. Um, and so being okay that like someone won like a network. Uh, something that you still earned, um, whether it was you earned it by shaking someone’s hand or your parents earned it, it’s earned through your lineages, earned through your bloodline.

So take those opportunities that. Earned. Um, even if it didn’t come cause you got the interview on your own and you sold yourself and like take the jobs that are open, that are open doors to you, um, and take those opportunities that are through networks, um, and nepotism or whatever. It may be, whatever advantage you can gain, uh, because the, the deck is stacked against us.

So we need advantages to climb to the top. So. That’s something I would tell my, my younger self. Wow. Fucking go back to 18, man. I would just say, Hey man, buy apple stock, invest in these startups. It go save George Floyd. And every other black man that I knew was getting taken out, man. So much, so much to share in that.

But, uh, but as Radell said, Yeah, I probably would have pulled out a football lot faster, man. The joke is I got drafted by the Seahawks to watch him practice pretty much was like a catcher and T-ball uh, so when, when needed, but a with a focus more on the stem area, probably would’ve spent more time in that, in that, um, development of my, my career.

Um, also would’ve just taught me more about just, uh, the piece of understanding. Not only the real game that’s getting played in America, because it’s like we haven’t been able to participate in this game. Um, for hundreds of years, the black community. But you learn the rules of the game, kind of late, a lot of black men, a lot of black people, we learn the rules like in our mid thirties.

And I still like, I’m still learning some of those rules to this day versus getting, you know, up to speed on the rules that are early age, like so many other groups potentially get to. And you look at the game. Capitalism in America. I always go back to sports because that’s where we kind of started our, our, our career of Dyke pursuing success at a high level.

Um, and there’s so many transferable skills in sports, but you look at like, America’s created so much, like we created WD 40. We sent someone to the moon, but where would we have been if we would have. Some of our best talent that has been hidden away to have the same access to the same weight room, same equipment, same cleats.

It’s like, you’re playing a game, you have 11 players out there and five of your players don’t have helmets on and cleats and they’re not performing at the standard of the gods who could be like, well, what if you gave them helmets? What if you gave them cleats? Like we would dominate. Right? So, um, now we’re in this chance, where are.

Our community is finally having access to potentially having better equipment so they can actually go play the game. Um, but you know, going back into that narrative of, you know, what would I have wanted to know that I didn’t know now, just that being more present in the moment? I think I, yeah, I think we all can look back on reflection of how fast we’re moving, just trying to survive.

I had kids at a very young age. I was 20 years old and sometimes like my kids were leading me, uh, saw I thanked them for them helping me develop me to who I am now. Um, but yeah. More present in the moment and not being focused on the past because that’s was, you know, the path was a memory and the future is a mystery.

So really being present in those moments, I think that’s something I would really want it to focus on being 18. All right. Great. I I’m so excited about this conversation. Um, I’ve had friends of mine here today. Uh, Rodel, razor and Jeremiah captain, who are the co-founders of X factor capital. Um, Oh, I see here.

It says you’re CEO of X-Factor capital and Jeremiah is co-founder of X-Factor consulting group. Is there a, is there a difference? Yeah, so the consulting group was actually what we transitioned from. So Jeremiah and I were building a consulting firm. We were going around the country doing keynote speaking.

Do we workshops for major organizations like CDW, Intel companies like that, where we were working and then. We finally had the courage. Once we saw a knee on George Floyd’s neck, we actually had the courage to go. This will we ultimately want to do, and we got to do it now. Um, and so we got to help, you know, that, and that’s how we saw that was our bridge, um, that relate to character capital.

So we changed the name of the company, uh, from X-Factor consulting to X-Factor capital, where we were focused on small business development, um, size doing workshops, and then large companies doing keynote, keynote speaking, and things like that. Um, We can shut down, essentially all of those, uh, practices. We still do, uh, very little consulting.

Uh, but most of what we’re doing is focusing on capital. Oh, wow. That’s great. That’s great. So I’ll, I’ll say that they’re co-founders of X-Factor capital Rodel serves as CEO and captain. What do you serve as. I just serve as serving our people, eat how serving our people, man. So what we do, so this is, this is great.

Um, uh, I want to tell everybody to check them both out on Instagram, uh, and social media, they have, you know, an enormous, um, enormously impactful. Uh, discussions about wealth creation, entrepreneurship in our communities, all future black founders should follow both of you because I think, uh, you know, I follow, I follow both of them and it’s usually, um, inspirational as well.

It’s inspirational and educational. Uh, so that’s it. Thank you for joining us today. Uh, thank you for having us, man. It’s been an honor and love to continue to build our relationship and support you and your endeavors with Jedi. And thank you for opening up the doors at university of Texas. It’s really opened up a lot for us since the power of relationships.

Thanks for listening to this episode and you can check out related content on Twitter at Peniel Joseph that’s, P E N I E L J O S E P H. And our website, CSR D dot LBJ that you texas.edu and the center for study of race and democracy is on Facebook as well. This podcast was recorded at the liberal arts development studio at the college of liberal arts at the university of Texas at Austin.

Thank you. .