digitalundivided

Choosing yourself isn’t always easy. But after eight years leading digitalundivided -- an organization that she founded to help Black and Latinx women tech entrepreneurs get the mentorship and support they desperately needed -- Kathryn had to do just that. She chose herself, and her sanity, and decided to walk away from the business.

Innovation and the goal of disrupting the industry isn’t just about the work, it also requires a significant emotional lift that many don’t anticipate.

In this episode of Build the Damn Thing, Kathryn openly shares the financial challenges of building DID, why the first cohort was -- in her words, a “hot mess” -- how they “blew things up” to make things better and how initial support from a city or community doesn’t always guarantee ongoing support. She also reveals the impact of building her business while starting her new journey as a mom -- a reality many women entrepreneurs have to face.

The lessons in the episode will help you understand how to take a step back, honestly evaluate where things are in your business (and your life), and when it might be time to courageously let go and make a fresh start.

 

 

Quotes from the show:

“What struck me about the no’s is that they felt weak… You had to wonder if the space was really ready for the work that [DigitalUndivided] was doing and for the work that Kathryn was doing." -- Danielle Robinson Bell, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

“It was really about supporting other Black women who were building things, but there was no money.” — Darlene Gillard Jones, Guest Speaker, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

“People often want to believe the worst of Black women.” --Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

“Something my mom always taught me was go where you wanted.”--Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

“I could leave feeling empowered because I knew I could build something else.” --Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

“Sometimes we’re so afraid to leave things, like: “What if I don’t have the next thing...?” But realize that you’re the prize. It’s not the thing; you’re the thing. You’re the one who created it, you’re the one who built it, you’re the one who grew it. So you are, in fact, that prize.” --Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode #6

 

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

 

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Credits:


Produced by Genius Guild Content Studios

Executive Producers: Kathryn Finney and Darlene Gillard Jones
Post-Production Company: Prosper Digital TV
Post-Production Manager: Joanes Prosper
Post-Production Supervisor: Jason Pierre
Post-Production Sound Editor: Evan Joseph
Co-Music Supervisors: Jason Pierre and Darlene Gillard Jones
Show Music: provided by Prosper Digital TV
Main Show Theme Music: "Self Motivated" Written & Performed by Tamara Bubble

 

Full Transcript

Valeska Toro
I think the greatest challenge that I saw Kathryn overcome was the challenge of being in a place where you've created something that you absolutely love and adore  and then taking a step back and asking yourself what you want and being willing to make a change. And I think that any entrepreneur that has decided to move on from their startup, whether they're selling it, whether they're stepping down, whether they're deciding to pivot, it's incredibly challenging because no one is harsher to ourselves than we are, right? We're our worst critic.

So I think that for her, I I honestly feel like I have so much empathy for leaders and for CEOs when they're in those places, because I know that it takes a lot of courage and a lot of self reflection to be able to not only identify that something may or may not be right, or that you want something new but then also 

Kathryn Finney
So, in 2012 we started off with this conference, with then mayor Corey Booker who had a startup called Waywire as our  keynote. Now what we did at that first conference is we matched founders up with mentors, and we had people like Anil Dash, and we had these like amazing mentors. And so every founder got two sessions with a mentor. We had about 40 founders at our first focus. And you can imagine partnering them up with mentors was like a Herculean task. It was like really really crazy, but we did it. And we saw the success of that. We saw the partnership of that. In fact, many people who met at focus are still in a mentor mentee relationship, or at least in a friendship based relationship to this day. And we were like, we want to turn this into something a little bit more.

because we could see the future, but partners, potential partners, and corporations did not see black women as innovators, and the future. And so we just couldn't explain it to them. And it was really, really difficult for us. And it was really, really hard. 

Danielle Robinson Bell
During my time with DID, one of the biggest challenges that I experienced with the organization that I actually witnessed Kathryn navigate as well is just dealing with a lot of nos. I got to see up close and personal the rejection, the flat-out nos that the organization received after ya know-a pitch for funding or a pitch for some type of partnership. And what struck me about the nos was that they felt weak and it really made me question why they were saying, no

My name is Danielle Robinson Bell and I handled all things communications both internally and externally for digitalundivided.

They were so surface level. And didn't match the level of work that had been put into the initiative.  But again, it wasn't just the rejection. It was the rejection just felt so weak. And so you had to wonder if the space was really ready for the work that DID was doing and the work that Kathryn was doing. 

Kathryn Finney 
One of the things we had was this sort of virtual incubator program, where we were training black women entrepreneurs to be in a space. And one of the things that was really hardest about that is that we took a lot of shit from people. And that's because we're bringing people to this vulnerable space. Technology which can be scary, and vulnerable for our community.  Entrepreneurship and money, which is also another area of vulnerability for our community. And so it really triggered people, and I didn't realize how much it triggered people. And as a result at digitalundivided, we often absorbed that trigger     many times unfairly so.

and sometimes it was directed directly at me. Sometimes it was directly at Darlene, it was directed at other people. And so we knew in order for us to do this, it was going to be really hard for us to maintain. It wasn't a business because it wasn't generating any income. I couldn't no longer put money in, because it was starting to tap into my own safety net. So I was covering losses, and things like that. And I just couldn't do it anymore. There was no end in sight. And then on the emotional end, we didn't have enough staff to be able to absorb, to spread out some of the emotional um punches that we took from from founders. Like we just didn't have enough staff to spread it out.

So, I said, "Hey, ya know we can't do this in New York city. We tried to do it in New York City. um-It was virtually impossible to find an office space to be able to do the sort of thing that we wanted to do." We wanted our own space because we knew that space was really important. And we knew that black women, in particular, didn't feel welcomed in the spaces at that time. Particularly, the tech space was heavily male, heavily white male, heavily a certain sort of tech culture that wasn't, at that time, open to other people.

So-But in Atlanta, we could. And we knew that Atlanta was going to be sort of the future. Like I had saw what was happening in Atlanta. um-I had saw how tech industry was really excluding black people. uh-Atlanta had so many advantages, with an amazing airport. um-The weather is incredible, It had the infrastructure available there. It had a talent pool with the AUC, the Atlanta University Center, which is Spelman, Clark Atlanta and Morehouse.

It also had the university that graduates the most black undergrads at Georgia state. So, it had this pool of talent of black talent that was really, really interesting. And we knew by doing and testing this incubator in Atlanta that we would be able to convince people to come there, because the cost of living was so low. I actually remodeled the space myself with help from my husband, Tobias, as well as a number of task rabbiters. We painted the space ourselves because we didn't have any money. That $100,000 we got went completely to the program. I I think I didn't collect the salary.

I convinced Darlene to help with this... I think Darlene maybe got 20,000 that year. Literally, this was, again, me sort of funding it and stuff like that. But this was a nonprofit and that was okay. um-But we really didn't have any money because nobody, at that time, really cared about black woman in tech, if I'm being really, really honest. 

Darlene Gillard
I remember vividly Kathryn calling me to tell me that Surdna had given us funding to create a space in Atlanta And I was shocked. I was shocked because we had decided that it was over. But when that came through, we, dove head first into the opportunity. And there was a lot of sacrifice involved. And I don't know if people really know that, but but, um, it was difficult. 

I’m Darlene Gillard Jones, an Executive Producer at the Genius Guild, and a friend of Kathryn Finney.

It was really just about wanting to support other black women who were building things, but there was no money. I mean, I got paid pennies on the dollar to be part of an organization. And, and It was really, really hard. And I don't know if I would have been able to do it, had it not been for the support that I received from my family.

Kathryn Finney
In hindsight, maybe that wasn't the best way to do it, because our first cohort... Because our first cohort was a hot mess, a hot boiling pot of mess. Think of like Fatal Attraction bunny boiling in pot mess. I mean like that's how much of a hot mess it was.

I was being blamed for things that, frankly, I didn't have time. Like I was a mom, I was a wife. I just moved to a new city. I'm trying to run these things like I literally didn't have time to be nefarious with anyone. Because I was barely sleeping at that point.

I also wasn't making any money. Like there was no money coming in. And so, we just started to get shitted on. I mean, it was just crazy. And I realized that the founders in the program were being promised things that I didn't even know they were being promised, and that the expectations weren't aligned. And because I was so busy trying to be the superwoman, I was in DC trying to get them, during the last years of the Obama administration, to invest in black women entrepreneurs, to fund VCs, all this sort of stuff, that I didn't realize on the backend, sort of those insecurities and things weren't being managed. They were being left to fester.

And it was just a lot of finger-pointing and blame. And it was... To this day, I'm surprised I didn't give up. I really maybe should have, to be perfectly honest, at that point. Because I think from that point on, it became really hard to do Digital Undivided for me, because I felt that umm... Not that I expected people to pat me on the back for the things that I was doing, but I didn't expect to get personal darts thrown at me for things that were like literally there to help others.

And the one lesson I've learned is that people often want to believe the worst of black women. even when things say differently, people will believe the worst of black women. And other black women saying that will often help people believe that.

But I understand now, again, if I had to look back on that first cohort, they weren't in a safe space and they didn't have guidance that they needed and they didn't have leadership. And that's a responsibility I have to accept, but the responsibility I won't accept is for people treating me like shit, and not being adult about it and not coming to me and not talking. That I won't I won’t accept.

That's not on me. And so we made a lot of changes after that first cohort.

We blew up the whole thing. That's what we did. We completely restructured everything.  We changed it to call it the Big Accelerator. 

Kelechi Anydieagwu
I think that, being part of the accelerator, one thing that really helped me to understand is where the gaps were. Right. I mean, I, I felt like I was trying to build a team. I was, you know, trying to get the funds necessary to continue growing the company. I was trying to better understand the overall operations of, running the tech company. And so I think that, there are a lot of nuances there when it comes to what you really need. Right. And so I think that, you know, being part of DID really helped me to better understand okay, what I needed and when? And kind of what that, trajectory needs to be. 

My name is  Kelechi Anyadiegwu. I am the CEO Uju, I was at the first focus 100 conference as a focus fellow and I've worked for the organization in different capacities over the past last couple of years. 

I think for me, you know, I had a tendency to like want to micromanage every aspect of the business Versus being comfortable with like letting go and letting people handle things while I kind of worry worried about some of like the kind of bigger aspects of the business. And I think that,-that was probably my biggest lesson, but it's just learning how to, for me, as a CEO focus on the big picture, versus, dwelling too much in the nitty gritty and the day-to-day of the business. 

Kathryn Finney
But it still was hard managing DID. We we never really had the money to do it right. we never were able to hire the people we really needed to hire. Um-What we realized too is that there weren't many people in the space that we could hire.

And so we hired people that we had to train. We hired people who we thought were going to be good fits. And that was really, really difficult. Any leader who's been through the hiring process knows the hiring process is incredibly hard. It's made even harder when you don't have resources because you don't have the resources to get the right recruiters to help you. We couldn't afford recruiters. um-You don't have the resources to pay people at the level in which they should get paid.

So we kind of pieced it together with chopsticks and band-aids and some Elmer's glue um-in order to do this. Now from the outside, it seemed like we were killing it and we were amazing. But internally, it was like we were putting things together and I was really learning how to um-be a better manager and leader. We had four generations in our organization, from baby boomer down to gen Z. We haaad white and black folks who I realized later, living in Atlanta, there isn't actually a lot of interaction between white and black people here. I didn't know that. That's naivety on my part. I did not know that, I was naive. But I had an organization that had white and black people together who normally don't interact together.

Our mission was so clearly focused on supporting black and Latinx women. And I realized that some of our white staff didn't really believe in that, which was really hard for me. And that some of the constructs that I had built was really to make these white staff members feel comfortable. it took  one of our founders, became my chief of staff, Valeska Toro, who's an amazing woman. And it was many years later, we were at a conference  in San Francisco, was her first time going to San Francisco. And we're sitting at this table. We had this house that we had rented. It was just her and I, and she told me what I did. She told me about myself.  And In the gentlest kindest way you can tell someone that you kind of effed up, she did. And I had to come to the realization as a black woman who is unabashedly pro black and pro people and pro woman that I had created a space in which a white woman was centered.

Valeska Toro
So when I came into digital divided, as chief of staff, I had already been trained as a organizational and executive coach, and that made a huge difference because it meant that I could assess the organization and like, understand what the unspoken agreements or like the implicit biases were within the organization. And I was also able to lead a confronting conversation with the leader and also I had built so much trust with Katherine cause we had been working together for so long. And so when I gave her the feedback, the feedback had actually very little to do with the people themselves. What I was speaking to and I was giving her feedback on, as a CEO was on how the system was designed 

Hi, my name is Valeska Toro. I was formerly digitalundivided chief of staff and I am now the founder of uncommonly.

And so, um, and giving her the feedback. I think the thing was one, making it clear that my intentions were not to blame not to criticize, um, not to judge the intention was to identify it, to, um, address it and then to co-create a better system. Right. Uh, and then I think also by focusing on the system itself and not like the people or this person or that person or whatever, um, we were able to create a long-term solution. We weren't looking at it like as something small, we were able to see how it's playing out in every interaction. Uh, so I think that's, that was definitely my intention. And I think framing it that way and bringing it to her that way was what allowed us to just continue to work through it. And there were so many changes that we made after that conversation. And I think, you know, it leads to digital divided still being around today.

Kathryn Finney
that's probably one of the hardest things that I had to come to in my professional life, because that was the opposite of what I was trying to do.

 And that was really a a management lesson for me and a lesson about understanding where you're at, meaning even physical location and coming in and taking time to really absorb and see, which is why I say our first cohort, it probably would have been better if that cohort had been delayed a bit. We did it because of money, the funding to do it, not money that came into my pocket. But the funding to do it, we had to complete the programming in a certain time period.

But in hindsight, it would have been better for us if we had waited a year, and if I had spent some time really understanding the community that I was coming into, because I frankly didn't understand.

And so it created all this friction. The program was going amazing. We were hitting all of our key performance indicators, our KPIs, we were just killing it. But that part I missed. That part I missed. And um so, we were just scaling and we had this great space and amazing people like Stacey Abrams. And we were starting to help put Atlanta on the map. Atlanta was already on the map, but when we came in, in the tech space, people start to ask what was going on in Atlanta, because there was a lot of news that was coming out. In 2018, we did our second ProjectDiane that had received significantly more financial support. So it was a significantly better and bigger report. And we did massive. It was like massive promotion and PR from it. And it was just everyone was talking, I was sort of everywhere.

And everyone's talking about what's going on in Atlanta. What's happening in Atlanta? Because we're hearing about Atlanta, we're hearing about ProjectDiane, we're hearing about Kathryn Finney and people started to like really notice. And I think if there's one thing that has come out really well of me doing DID in Atlanta was that it helped Atlanta, which is a great city, get more shine in the tech space, specifically the tech space.

Atlanta had already had shine and music and other spaces, but tech, no one was really paying attention to. So uh-from that standpoint, it was amazing. And if that's the thing that I could give to Atlanta, Um then-then it was a great thing. But it was really hard for me because I didn't spend time in the South. I didn't understand Southern dynamics. I didn't understand how deep race and racism is in the soil here, in the constructs here.

And so I realized that it was going to be hard to win in Atlanta. There was a number of things that happened, again, because of my own being naive. I I didn't understand there were certain expectations of me as a black woman. There were certain existing relationships that kind of dictated how things move.  In fact, we would get these sort of interestingly veiled threats. There was a threat that Darlene got, which was a very well-known investor in Atlanta said to her, this sort of analogy about “sometimes you wade in the water too deep and before you know it, you're in over your head.” And he said that to us.

But it was stuff like that, these sort of thinly veiled threats of you're not being who we need you to be, you're not playing the game.

And so being in that space, I knew that this wasn't going to be the right environment for me. And that's difficult because  there's so many great, amazing things about Atlanta. But at least in the tech space, and that's the only space that I can talk about, it was not necessarily at that time, welcoming to women.

Darlene Gillard
one of the things that I was responsible for was going out into the community, meeting folks attending events and representing DID in the city of Atlanta. And I was at an event at Morehouse college and saw an investor who I had known and gotten to know over the years and had seen, you know, at a number of events around the country. And he says to me, you know, let me, let me tell you how it worked down here in Atlanta and Atlanta. it's like, you're waiting in the water and everything is fine. And then, you know, you take that step and you're into deep. That's how it works here in Atlanta.

I'm like, okay, thanks for telling me that, you know, not thinking anything of it, but as I thought deeper about it and shared it with Catherine and some of the other team members, I realized that dude was trying to tell us that we're doing too much, that we're overstepping, which was a little disconcerting for me, right? Because we were only trying to be additive to the community.

And, but I think people were maybe a little jealous about some of the attention that we were getting. it was, you know, all for the good we thought, but I think people had a problem with that and felt like we were overstepping. And so initially we had support, we thought we had support in Atlanta, but then not so much things sort of changed or maybe they were the same. I don't know, but we definitely had a tough time in Atlanta.

But the good news is that we as black women, strong black women decided that we were going to still continue this mission to uplift other black women in spite of any opposition that we received. In Atlanta

Kathryn Finney
The ProjectDiane in 2018 found that over 50% of black women founders came from either LA or New York. so if we were going to build an incubator program that was really going to be this catalyst and pipeline, we need to be in the New York area because that's where black women founders were. So we talk with Prudential, we talked with our partners, found an amazing space and started to build on our space in Newark. Newark embraced us in a way that frankly, Atlanta didn't. So where Atlanta was unsure about us, at least towards the end, Newark embraced us with like running arms. They were like, "Come on in," from the mayor down to the economic development.

I had went to Rutgers, so Rutgers had a really strong presence there and it was Lyneir Richardson and Jeff Robinson, both at Rutgers who were like, "Hey, we want you guys to come. We think this is really great." And they were just selling some Newark, just selling us in Newark." And that was something that we didn't get  in Atlanta. And something that my mom always taught me was go where you're wanted. And there's something about going where you wanted, the people see your value. Basically go where people see the value that you're bringing.

Jeffrey Robinson
I remember uh-when we were talking about bringing digitalundivided to Newark and I was, I was  convinced once I heard the story, the first time, let alone when ya know Kathryn and Darlene brought the data. I mean to me, that combination was a slam dunk, digitalundivided does something that most groups aren't able to do well. uh-Number one, they have a successful program.  They've  got a way of working with women of color who are entrepreneurial and taking them through the the steps in the path and and hopefully the proof of concept to get to that to that stage, to present uh their their ideas to investors uh-but then, digitalundivided does a second thing, which most groups aren't able to do.

My name's Jeffrey Robinson. I am a professor at the Rutgers Business School. I'm also the academic director of the center for urban entrepreneurship and economic development.

Lots of folks have programs with varying levels of success but to be able to see how the data is changing over a period of time and what your efforts and other people's efforts are doing to make a difference, that uh that to me, separated digitalundivided from the rest. So It was easy for me to support uh to support them coming to Newark.

Kathryn Finney
And we built this amazingly beautiful space. If you ever get a chance to go to the digitalundivided space in Newark, like go, don't pass it up. . It's just beautiful. We were right down the hall from our friends at Rutgers. It was this community that we had. We were working with Newark Tech Week and amazing, amazing leaders like Medina, who is so pro Newark that youuu can't help but also to be pro Newark. And so it was just the welcome that we received. The clarity, the partnership, it was not something that we had in Atlanta.

Medina
So I'm going to tell you about my love affair with Digital Undivided. Because when the ladies, the leadership team came into Newark, it was such a unique introduction to a organization that I had respected from the work that was being done in Atlanta. So when Digital Undivided came, for me, the unique points were the invitation to the table and what would be built. And the offering of one of the very powerful components of the entity known as Digital Undivided, which is even the sister organization, the project Diana Initiative.

My name is Medina. I am the proud founder of Equal Space and I am a digital advocate for equity space for people of color.

For me, Digital Undivided came and said let's look at what the ecosystem is, let's identify the pain points, the gaps, and talk about how together we can bridge those things.

And for Digital Undivided to have been so focused on black and Latinx women who are doing all the work, who are getting none of the accolades, for me it was like, this is an institution I don't only have to get behind, I have to get behind in such a way that it looks like I am a partner, if not a part of the team. And so many opportunities popped up that gave us that kind of unique bonding experience to do something in a city that I love, that I have been a part of.

Kathryn Finney
And so we were able to build and really build strong partnerships and relationships. And so as a result of this, I had to start discussions several years before with Pivotal Ventures. Pivotal is a investment firm led by Melinda Gates and a number of people, and then met them at South by Southwest and spent a long time talking about digitalundivided and what we were thinking of and things like that. I didn't think anything of it. And over the years we would have these discussions just about what I was thinking of and how I was building and very intellectual like discussions, discussions on research, what were the things that I was seeing,  what resources.

And so, .We were building out a sort of advisory board of people and we had reconnected and they had said, "Hey, ya know we’re-we're kind of interested in maybe giving you funding," uhm digitalundivided funding. And I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's great." I wasn't thinking about the level of funding. I was just thinking that's great.  And we received a significant amount of funding from Pivotal Ventures  in the spring of 2019.

It was interesting because we received it at the same time I was sort of thinking of what's next for me. At that point, I had been at DID for seven years. I had found DID, I grew it and was kind of thinking of, what's next for me? Um- I felt that I had did the most that I could do for the organization and start to think about what does transition look like? What does life for me look like after DID. What does DID look like after Kathryn? And so I started to really think, and the Pivotal money came at the same time that I was thinking about it. And I hadn't made a clear decision, but I had started talking with mentors of like, what does life look like afterwards?

Kendra Bracken Ferguson
nothing is ever stagnant or nothing can ever stay stagnant. You have to pivot, you have to change, you have to evolve. And it's hard. It's hard to change. It's hard to pivot. It's hard to not get lost in the comfort zone of what may have been, or even knowing that what you may have set out is not exactly how it is right then. Right. So being able to restrategize, refocus, um, reset your intentionality to move and intentionality

my name is Kendra Bracken Ferguson. I'm an entrepreneur founder advisor investor, and the founder of brain trust. 

And so for me, it's always been about, understanding the journey. If I can learn something and carry that with me into the next business, into the next opportunity into the next deal, then that's success, right? Because we constantly have to move and pivot. And we have to find our own validation from within, especially as an entrepreneur, because you're constantly told no, or it's not going to work, or you should do this, or you should do that. 

Kathryn Finney
And so, when we got our investment from Pivotal, it created a space for me to leave. It actually created me the space where I saw that I could set the organization up with an amazing foundation and I could go forth. 

I wanted to leave it in a position that whoever took over from me, whoever became this next CEO was going to come in already winning. They already had the cash. They had the staff, they had everything that they needed. So any sort of changes they wanted to make would be cosmetic. It was almost like the house was remodeled, you didn't have to do anything. If you want to do stuff, go ahead, but you didn't have to do anything. And that was my goal when I left, but I knew that I had to leave.

We had a board meeting in February where I had said that I wanted to leave. I don't think ... We had a board meeting in February. I said, I want to leave. None of the board took me seriously. I said, I want to leave. I said, I'm burnt, I am done, I'm tired. I'm doing so much. The organization's in a point where it doesn't ... like we could start the process to find a new CEO. We can get somebody else and it doesn't have to just be me. We have amazing amount of women who are available. They didn't believe me, I think, or hear me or listen or whatever, it wasn't heard.

And so, I was really thinking in earnest that February after coming from that board meeting of feeling, not listened to, not appreciated, not understood, not understanding that me moving on wasn't anything about the organization, it was just, I need to grow, and feeling not being allowed to grow. 

Laura Weidman Powers
my first impression with Kathryn, which I think has proven to be true is that she's a total powerhouse,, just a really,, sort of commanding presence., but the thing that I've always appreciated about her is that she's a very intentional listener., and she is really gifted, I think, at,, getting to know others and what their needs are,, and thinking about how she can, kind of help, help folks move their goals, move closer to their goals., and she's someone who,, doesn't need or ask for permission, she takes initiative and she, she does what she thinks is necessary, both in terms of her own goals and aspirations, but also in terms of, helping push others towards theirs.

my name is Laura Weidman Powers. I am, the outgoing head of impact at echoing green, and the incoming operating partner at phase 10 of venture firm in San Francisco. 

and I, I feel like I saw that pretty early on with, with her work at digitalundivided divided, but it's, it's proven to be the case over and over again over the years, that combination of, just sort of strong personalities, strong willpower, and also a strong listener and, uh, someone who's willing to be in service of others is quite Rare.

Kathryn Finney
I left DID for me. I left it because... I had a vision and I want to do something and I just felt constricted, restricted. And that I couldn't be myself. Like I couldn’t,  I couldn't be cute. I couldn't wear great hair because if I a great hair and "Oh, she's not really serious about tech." It was all these things, I just couldn't be me. I like style. I like fashion. I like hair. I like nails. I like money. I like investing. I like startups. I like building. I like people. I like being funny. I like being goofy. I like laughing. I like swear words. I like hip hop. I like classical. I like jazz. I like a lot of stuff. And I felt like I couldn't like and be fully myself in the space. So I left digitalundivided for me.

But what I did was I, I left everything. I left DID with nothing. I didn't get any money. I didn't have severance. I didn't have anything. I just left because my sanity is priceless. And I always reflect back to the story that Dr. Dre tells about leaving death row records, where they were like, "If you leave, we're going to keep everything. You don't get anything." And he was like, "So what? You're not the prize I am." And that's the thing that I realize, is that I'm a builder. Digitalundivided wasn't my first thing, it was my third successful thing. 

So I could leave feeling empowered because I knew I could build something else. And I knew I could do other things. And I knew I had ideas and the ideas were great. And so I think it's really important because sometimes we are so afraid to leave things like, "What if I don't have a next thing?" Or "What if I don't... Something doesn't happen." But realize that you're the prize. It's not the thing. You're the thing. You're the one who created it. You're the one who built it. You're the one who grew it. So you are in fact that prize. And that's what I realized. 

Darlene  Gillard
One of the things I've often said to Catherine during our time at digitalundivded was that we were doing the impossible for the ungrateful and I sacrificed quite a bit,time with my family, time for myself, sacrifice myself, my income for digitalundivided. But in all honesty, I think it was worth it because we've really done a tremendous amount of work in changing the face of entrepreneurship for black women in technology. And my life has been changed because of it. My husband is an investor in technology companies because of his proximity to tech. My son graduated from Hampton university as a computer science major an HBCU because his interest was piqued because of my affiliation with the organization. And my daughter works for Tesla. So I'm grateful. I'm thankful to Kathy, and appreciate being part of her journey. 

Calling All Disruptors!

In this episode of Build The Damn Thing, you get to hear how friends, associates and the early attendees of Kathryn Finney’s FOCUS event were positively influenced by the Genius Guild CEO’s visionary thinking as a disrupter in the tech space. Kathryn shares how her “co-conspirators” — such as the founders of BlogHer and her business partner Darlene Gillard Jones — helped her build a powerful company based on her mission of empowering Black and Latina women in technology and helping them raise money through Digital Undivided. She also pioneered the groundbreaking research study, Project Diane, which exposed the disparities in venture capital investing in Black women businesses and went viral.

But while all of this was going on, Kathryn not only had to combat some people misunderstanding her as a Black woman visionary who was often one step ahead, she had to overcome an unexpected health challenge and make some major decisions about her business and her personal life.

Kathryn Finney is known as a pioneer in the fashion blogging community thanks to her blog “The Budget Fashionista” which has helped thousands of women dress chic and cheap. Kathryn not only has built a huge blogging community but also has been featured among "America's Top 50 Women In Tech" by Forbes and is greatly recognized by books like How to Be a Budget Fashionista and The Ultimate Guide to Looking Fabulous for Less. In fact, Kathryn is the living definition of a businesswoman who is always trying to generate new ways to share her knowledge about fashion and entrepreneurship just like she does through her platform the Genius Guild which, apart from having the podcast “Build that Damn Thing”, invests in companies led by Black founders.

Insights from the Podcast:
- How to build your team
- How to leverage relationships
- How to cultivate a work environment that creates a winning  organization
- Women of color often have to face tough decisions in their journey
- How to know when to walk away
- How sharing the data about the disparities in venture capital investing in Black women’s businesses helped change an industry

Quotes from the show:
“One of the hardest things as an entrepreneur is to sell others on your big idea. That’s exactly what I did when I started Digital Undivided.”— Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“They not only gave us the check, [BlogHer] literally gave us the manual for how they run events.” — Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“She asked me if I'd be willing to partner with her on an organization called Digital Undivided, that will…support Black women in technology. and I haven't looked back since." — Darlene Gillard Jones, Guest Speaker, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“Because of that relationship because of the trust and the friendship that we were able to grow and establish, we were able to, create something special and my life personally has changed because of it.”— Darlene Gillard Jones, Guest Speaker, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“But when we realized it was too early, like most things in my life and being a visionary — being a Black woman visionary — that's not necessarily celebrated. I see things many steps ahead.” — Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“Oftentimes, the people who are the strongest and who have it together are the very people that you need to check after.”— Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“Before ProjectDiane was released, the experiences of women in color in entrepreneurship were purely anecdotal—so whether you were a person of color or not, you had some idea that things just weren't the same for people of color in particular women and women of color in the startup space; but it wasn't until Kathryn and Digital Undivided came along to quantify that experience that really blew the lid off of that entire dynamic and conversation.”— Danielle Robinson Bell, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

“The hope was that Project Diane would be a catalyst. What I did not know was that Project Diane was going to fundamentally change the venture capital space in ways that still vibrate to this day.” —Kathryn Finney, Build the Damn Thing, Episode 5

 

Stay Connected:

Kathryn Finney
Website: https://www.kathrynfinney.com/
Twitter: @KathrynFinney
Instagram: @hiiamkathryn
Facebook: Kathryn Finney

Genius Guild
Website: Genius Guild
Twitter: @GeniusGuild
Instagram: @geniusguild
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/genius-guild

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

 

__________

 

 Credits:  


Produced by Genius Guild Content Studios


Executive Producers:  Kathryn Finney and Darlene Gillard Jones

Post-Production Company: Prosper Digital TV

Post-Production Manager: Joanes Prosper

Post-Production Supervisor: Jason Pierre

Post-Production Sound Editor: Evan Joseph

Co-Music Supervisors: Jason Pierre and Darlene Gillard Jones

Show Music: provided by Prosper Digital TV

Main Show Theme Music: "Self Motivated" Written & Performed by Tamara Bubble

Special thanks to Baratunde Thurston, Champions of Change: Tech Inclusion, and The Obama Administration  

 

Full Transcript

Darlene Gillard
I met Kathryn when I was fashion editor at essence magazine and she was the budget fashionista. When I left essence and started a company, Kathryn became one of my clients and she was a great client.

I mean, we made a ton of money together. I brokered a lot of deals on her behalf and we worked on a number of projects and a project that she wanted to do was put together a conference for black women in technology to gather. And she asked me if I would produce it. I agreed. And it was a hit. when it was over. She asked me if I'd be willing to partner with her on an organization called Digital Undivided, that will continue the mission of the conference and support black women in technology. and I haven't looked back since,, because of that relationship because of the trust and the friendship that we were able to grow and establish, we were able to, create something special and my life personally has changed because of it.       My husband is an investor in technology companies because of his proximity to tech. My son graduated from an HBCU as a computer science major because his interest was piqued because of my affiliation with the organization and my daughter works for Tesla. 

And so I'm thankful for that Kathy vortex that everyone speaks about and appreciate being on this journey. And, um, I'm forever grateful

Kathryn
One of the hardest things as an entrepreneur is to sell others on your big idea. That’s exactly what I did when I started Digital Undivided. And while I founded the company, there was a core group of co-conspirators who helped me build it. This episode of Build The Damn Thing focuses on me building teams, leveraging relationships, and cultivating a work environment that creates a winning organization.

It was, while at BlogHer, I was doing a lot of conferences.  So they would send me to speak at like Southwest, Southwest and Web 2.0, all these sort of gatherings of people where I was literally the only black person. Um Sometimes the only woman at these conferences, and these conferences weren't like in Minneapolis or something, they were like in Chicago. I would go in Chicago, which has got a lot of black folks, many related to me, and it would be no black people at this conference. And I was like, "What the hell is going on here?" And it just really stuck with me. And so BlogHer had a conference in San Francisco,And I was there, and it wasn't a lot of black women there.

And I knew Blogger is organization like really were interested in getting women of color. They were before it even became cute, before it became cool, before it became a thing, they were doing it. And so to not see us there I was like, "What's going on?" So, I had an idea to do a conference for black women called Focus 100. So I talked to BlogHer because, like no one ran a conference like BlogHer. And so I turned to them and I said, "Telisa, I have this idea of this conference for black women in business." And they said, Oh wow! We think that's really, really great. I'm asking, I know of black women in startups.

There's a lot of us, but there's no, we're not gathering, we're not getting together.  And so she said, "Wow! That's something that we would love to support." And so they gave me the first check, which was for $5,000. And not only did they give the first check, they did something else that was even more important. ----- They gave us the manual, like literally gave us the manual of how they run events.

Elisa Camahort Page:
When Kathryn came to us, um my co-founders of BlogHer, Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins and I, and had the idea of taking what... She had attended our BlogHer Entrepreneurs Conference, and wanted to replicate something similar for women of color, um she came to us with the idea, and we were immediately like, "We're in, let's help, let's do it, you're the perfect person."

This is Elisa Camahort Page, author and entrepreneur.

We helped her not just financially, but operationally, because if you've never thrown a conference before, which by the way, Lisa, Jory, and I hadn't done when we did the first BlogHer, you have no idea the logistics behind it, so we did things like share contract templates with her, and share other kinds of logistical and operational intelligence from our years of doing conferences, to help her first conference be maybe easier than it was for us in the beginning, and help it have a faster path to success.

Uh ya know our belief was always that we weren't going to try to do everything all the time for everybody, and that sometimes, communities really want to be led and and find um resources that are within their communities, and so we wanted to amplify that movement, and we wanted to help augment um what she did in any way that we could. 

Kathryn Finney
I wasn't an event planner. And I wasn't someone who was used to running major conferences. That's just not wasn't my skillset. But I realized I knew someone who did, and that was Darleen. We had just did this massive $100,000 with the close 25 real people model, amazing crazy fashion show. And she kept calm throughout the whole thing.

And there were moments, Woo! where- where calm was need-ed. 

we got $10,000 from Andreessen Horwitz. And this was again in 2012, this is before everyone was talking about diversity in tech. No one really knew what that even meant. And so I realized that we needed even more money. So, we have the space and the food, and stuff, but there were little things that we needed, like that was costing. And so I spent almost $30,000 of my own money from advertisement to helping people get there. We had a little scholarship um that I gave, and basically paid for people to come. And we had our first Focus Fellow Conference in 2012. And it was amazing. It was every woman you could think of in tech was there and startup space. Uhm And it launched a lot of people.

Kelechi:
So I learned about digitalundivided through, um, another friend; she was with a fellow, um, black woman entrepreneur. Um, I was living in Pittsburgh at the time and she just told me about this conference. Um, and I was really excited to hear about it because I was a black woman in tech and didn't really know a lot of other black women in tech. And when I heard about it, I had applied for the scholarship. I mi- I  I received the scholarship and next night I was on the bus from Pittsburgh to New York for the focus 100 conference. And from there it just was a trajectory to a lot of other great things in my entrepreneurship career.

my name is  Kelechi Anyadiegwu. I am the CEO Uju Um, we are a brand development studio for women of color focused brands. I was at the first focus 100 conference as a focus fellow...

...and I've worked for the organization in different capacities over the past last couple of years. 

the conference for me, um, was just, uh introduction into this new ecosystem, around black women entrepreneurs and black women in tech. Iwas in grad school at the time studying user experience design. Um, there weren't a lot of other people who like me. Um, and I always knew that I had this inclination to also wanting to like, just start something. And so, um, being at that room and focus 100 around all of these really visionary women, um, just really inspired me. Um, and then to see what Kathryn was doing, what she was building to see, um, the other focus fellows who, you know, I had, you know, built a really great relationship with. Um, and to just finally feel like I was somewhere where I belonged. It's just, I think something that really set up my career, you know, as an entrepreneur. Um, and, and that's just the feeling that I'll never forget.

Kathryn Finney
in 2014, we kind of saw that things were kind of headed towards another place. It was really, really difficult to get the type of funding we needed to make the Focus Conference, be truly a business at the time Corporate America was looking for employees, not for innovators. And Focus was all about innovators. It was people who were building stuff. 

Kellee James
When I was at Focus, ..Mecaris was more of a concept at that point than a, than an actual company. 

we were incorporated, but, [smooth out] we hadn't raised our first money yet. We didn't have our first customers. It was, it was just, uh, it was all in my head, you know, at that point, I think we did have a landing page, but that's, that's about it.

So - for me, I really liked the, uh, the focus on raising money. Um, that's what attracted me to focus fellows. I think it's an example of why programs need to have specific and can have specific applications for black women. So lots of the critique on venture capital right now, or in general is that it's all about raising money and that's what grabs the headlines and, and, you know, to the detriment of the other sound fundamentals of business. But what I found as a black woman who had not raised money before was that I had an idea of what I needed to do business wise. I had an idea of where to go for, um, industry level expertise. I was working in a field that I had been working in for 10 years prior. What I didn't have, what I didn't have was the experience in raising money before.

And so focus was really a great program for me, um, because that's, that's precisely what I needed at that moment. 

my name is Kellee James, and I am the founder and CEO of Mercaris as a market information service, as well as an online trading platform for organic and non GMO and other what's known as identity preserved agricultural commodities. 

some of the highlights that I found included, oh gosh, there were so many, but, you know, meeting face to face with investors that, uh, folks like Freada Kapor Klein and William Crowder of the catalyst fund, which was a fund run by, uh, Comcast ventures. So some of these folks I had heard about or read about some, I had even, um, maybe corresponded with via email, but this was the first time I got to sit down and ya know have coffee with them, or just sit down around a round table and just, you know, chat. And I think it was just really helpful for developing those relationships.

Now there's a million startup events in every city. Um, but none really at the time were targeted towards black women tech startup founders. So, uh, I took the opportunity to just kind of went up there. I think I learned about the conference only a week before it was happening. Um, but I just made it a point to get up there and it was just a brilliant, brilliant event.

Kathryn Finney
all these people who, before they became with these leaders, they were always innovators. And what we realized is that the innovators that we had corporations did not want to connect with. They didn't even know they needed to connect with these people. And it's interesting now, almost 10 years later to see how connecting with innovators, and influencers are now the language of Corporate America. But when we realized it was too early, like most things in my life and being a visionary, being a black woman visionary, that's not necessarily celebrated. I see things many steps ahead. I've always been able to do that. I think people think sometimes when you're a talker, when you're someone like me, that you're not a good listener and I actually am a really, really good listener. And I pay attention to people and to things. And so with the Focus Conference, we were just several steps, we were about three or four years too early. We really were, we were several steps ahead.

Also at that same time of building focus, especially after the first focus, and before the second focus, I actually became quite sick and a lot of people didn't know that. And so I became sick with stage one Endometrial Cancer. It was a real shock to me.  And so I had this crazy diagnosis, and there's really two courses of treatment. You can take medication or you get surgery. I was trying to like put off getting surgery, um which would have impacted my ability to have children. So, that pushed off and was taking these crazy steroids at the same time as running this sort of organization, at the same time as people triggering, and putting all sorts of ish on me, all their likes sort of stuff.

And so it was really, really hard. Um but there's something about focus that really triggered. And I remember later I decided to have the surgery mostly because I just needed peace of mind. And the day after the surgery, um it's so crazy. Anytime you have major surgery, they make you get up and walk. So I remember walking around because I'm not about ready to stay in the hospital, but I'm on this floor, and I heard this woman who had this amazing suite.

I mean, if you are going to be sick, she had the room you want to be in. I mean, it was beautiful. It was great lighting it had bookcases with books in it, and all this stuff and I'm walking by her room and I hear her like yelling on the phone with somebody. And the nurse who was walking with me was like, "Yeah. She's some big time businesswoman CEO." And I'm like, obviously she had just gone through a certain major surgery. She had obviously went through chemo before because she had a scarf on her head, and she didn't have hair. And she's sitting there yelling at this person and I'm like... It just was such a lesson in life. It was one of those life lessons, a life portal, a life moment of like, "I don't want to be that."

If I'm at the end of my life, the last thing I want to give two Fs about is yelling at someone about something that's just not what I want to do. 

And so the next morning I got up, and I was in the room and of course I checked my email because I actually felt okay after having major abdominal surgery. I thought, "Okay. I did robotics." Because we're tech people. So I was like, I did this robotics, I walked into the surgery. They didn't wheel me in, I saw the machine, I saw the whole apparatus. It was like amazing and stuff. And so afterwards I got this email that said that I got the Champion of Change Award, which was from The White House, and I'm getting a little emotional because I had went through probably the toughest thing I ever went through.

I made a decision about my life, a decision that was that I wasn't going to be able to carry my own children. And I wasn't sure if it was the right decision. I wasn't sure if I had made the right decision. So the morning after, to receive an email that says The White House is honoring you as a champion of change for the work that you do, was incredibly important to me. It was life affirming. It affirmed that I made this tough decision, was the right decision. And I think as women, as people of color, as human beings, we are often met with incredibly tough decisions we have to make in life. And we don't know if they're right or wrong, and we're just asking God for a sign. To just tell me am I doing right? And for me to get that sign, when I say literally in my hospital bed, the very next day after my surgery, I got that email.

It was incredible. And I and I suspect I was nominated by the Kapors, Freada and Mitch Kapor. And I've never told them how important it was to receive that. It wasn't just like, "Oh yeah, I got award from The White House, and I got to go to The White House, and look at me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." It was, it was life affirming and what they did and by celebrating me they helped me celebrate my life. And so the ceremony was two weeks in DC, two weeks after this major abdominal surgery.

And so I went and my mother, and uhm Tobias, my husband, Darlene, uhm went with me and we went to the White House to get this award.

and I was exhausted and very sick. I don't think anybody knew how tired and unwell I was when I was there.

(AUDIO of panel)   (0:01 - 0:06) (Welcome to Champion of Change) ~ [brief Applause] (50:30 - 50:36) (Kathryn is introduced)  ~ (1:02:41 - 1:07) _ 

Baratunde:
….."Your tech aha moment, how that led in some ways to what you’re doing now and by the way what are you doing now?...
Kathryn,  your aha moment.....bucket list..."  [Laughter and extended applause fades out]

Kathryn Finney (addt’l)
“Good afternoon everyone…jazz hands...”

Kathryn Finney
And I think to everybody who saw me in the panel was probably like, "Oh my gosh, she's funny, she's fabulous, she's engaging, she's great." Inside, I was like dying. Like I was hurting.

And one of the things that Iiiii that taught me was humility and also empathy. You don't know what other people are going through, including the people who you may think are the strongest, and who have it together. Oftentimes, the people who are the strongest and who have it together are the very people that you need to check after. (PAUSE) And at that time, there was so much expectations placed on me by people who frankly didn't deserve to place any expectations on me. And here I am sick, going through this major surgery, I had cancer and yet, uhm I was able to come out of it.

So in 2014, when we were doing the final focus, I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I didn't want to leave this life where I wasn't winning, and I felt like I wasn't winning. And I didn't feel like anyone could win. Like we weren't getting the support that we needed. It wasn't going to come anyway soon. Uhm What we wanted to do and what corporations wanted, which were like engineers or something that we couldn't produce. It wasn't like there was a batch of like a big brownstone in Harlem full of engineers, like hidin’ out and chillin’ and not telling anybody, there just really wasn't very many black engineers. There actually needed to be a lot more groundwork that happen in order to create the pipeline that was needed.

And what we realized, the expectation was that we were going to somehow find things that couldn't be found, and that we would somehow make it so they didn't have to do the real work that they needed to do, which was really investing in our community. And I remember getting up on stage, and uhm saying that this is the last focus. What I didn't expect was there to be almost a discussion, church service, a testimonial, people got up and gave testimonials about how much FOCUS meant to them, and how much I meant to them.

Jeanne Sullivan
The actual focus meetings, so vibrant, so exciting, so interesting. And so that's why attending those conferences so important to me. And I remember I declared myself as president of the Kathryn Finney fan club, because I believe in her and her team and her mission,

I am Jean Sullivan. I'm a long time investor in tech.  ...for many years, I attended each of the digital undivided sessions that fabulous Katherine Finney created and curated.

I wouldn't have missed one. Why not? Because I am inspired by her inspiration, showing people, especially women of color, how to take a blank piece of paper and build a business. That's pretty exciting. That's one of the many things I love and loved about digital and divided. 

Kathryn Finney
Now, the irony of it is, is that that last FOCUS conference would have been a great thing to end on. Right? What else did I have to leave behind? But I wanted to document the problem that we were having in raising money. I want to document how hard it was to be a black woman in the startup space.yourself?"

And so I did what was called Project Diane, the very first Project Diane 

Danielle Robinson Bell
So ProjectDiane essentially was the first time that the challenges of women of color in entrepreneurship were quantified and it was this wonderfully but yet shocking report about what women of color were experiencing in the startup space as it relates to funding, networks and training.

My name is Danielle Robinson Bell and I handled all things communications both internally and externally for digitalundivided.

Before ProjectDiane was released, the experiences of women in color in entrepreneurship were purely anecdotal so   whether you were a person of color or not, you    had some idea that things just weren't the same for people of color in particular women and women of color in the startup space, but it wasn't until Kathryn and digitalundivided came along to quantify that experience that really blew the lid off of that entire uhm dynamic and conversation.

Kathryn Finney
the results were just like startling. Like we check, double check, triple check, quadruple check the results of that first Project Diane. Uhm And it was startling. There was only 84 black women startups using the Steve Blanks definition of startups which is a temporary organization that is going to be scaled, and then, possibly exit. And that was just startling to me.

Geri Stengel
The importance of research such as ProjectDiane is that it focuses media on inequities uhh in the ecosystem, or just in the world in general. And uhm there's a lot of research showing uhmm uhh the small percentage of funding that goes to women entrepreneurs. Uhm And that's done primarily through PitchBook, but PitchBook doesn't track uhh race and ethnicity. Um And it was really critical to have some measurement showing um really the minuscule percentage of funding that is going to black and latinx female founders. So, uhm if you take a look at the entire uhm uhh ecosystem, and the percentages uhm  of funding female founded teams, It could be as high as, 13% last year. It actually dropped uh from uh 2017. 

Okay. I'm Geri Stengel, and I'm President of Ventureneer.

and I'm best known for writing in Forbes, about the success factors of uh women entrepreneurs.

….What is really uh the importance of ProjectDiane, is showing that of all the funding going to female founders, which is small. It is minuscule going to black and uh latinx women. Uh It is less than 1%. And um uh when the research, the first ProjectDiane came out, I watched in um amazement the amount of attention that that research uh-uh  got.

So, I do research, and honestly I was a little bit jealous of the attention that that research um study got. It went viral. Uhm I uhm track a lot of feeds, news feeds. And everywhere I looked, everybody was um uh talking about uh ProjectDiane and the numbers, because it highlighted really um horrific inequity in funding going to uh black and brown uh women.

Kathryn Finney:
And so, when we found this data, I was like, "Oh, shit. This is like crazy." I didn't really believe it myself. Like I actually questioned it myself. And I realized that we couldn't keep it to ourselves. It had to be released. We had no money to release it. Um All the money was coming from myself. 

And so, went to a friend. Uhm Again, blogHer connection. Lisa Stone's partner worked at GoDaddy at that time. And she shared with him what I was doing with Project Diane. And he was like, "You know what? I think I have some support for you." And he gave us $5,000, 

Chris Carfi
What made me invest in project Diane in 2015 and 2016, having already been around the startup ecosystem for a number of years. I was seeing the same types of companies and the same types of people that were all getting the investment... 

My name is Christopher Carfi. I'm an angel investor advisor and marketing executive working with entrepreneurs, startups, and growth stage companies. 

...It was disproportionately male, disproportionately white. And I was convinced that if the research was done and the data was out there, there was a path to making entrepreneurship more inclusive and accessible for all.

Kathryn Finney
I mean, it went everywhere. It was from Forbes to Fortune, to all these different communities, Essence to People Magazine. I mean, everyone was talking about Project Diane...

...the hope was that it would be a catalyst. What I did not know was that Project Diane was going to fundamentally change the venture capital space in ways that still uhm vibrate to this day. 

A friend of mine saw the report. It was somebody I went to college with, and he had gotten the report, and he was a officer at a foundation called Surdna. And he had, for many years, been thinking of different ways in which we could address economic insecurity and instability, uhm and really, economic terrorism in the black community. And he was looking for new ways. He thought that traditional ways of just even CDFIs which are community development financial institutions, uhm these sort of savings and loans, like all of these sort of traditional ways he thought were like antiquated. And that there weren't going to really have any impact. So, he was looking for ideas.

Shawn Escoffrey
So I first learned about digital undivided, um, sort of through an article I'm forgetting, I'm forgetting what publication, um, but, uh, the article focused on, um, black women and women entrepreneurs in the tech space. Um, and it was something that, uh, sort of, I was interested in because I was managing and sort of a economic development portfolio portfolio. And that was really focusing on economic inclusion and looking at, uh, people of color in a very different way than philanthropy, philanthropy traditionally looks at people's color. So Um, my thesis was, you know, just stating the fact that we are assets um to the economy that we create jobs. We create businesses. Um, we are leaders, um, and I was looking for organizations that believe the same thing.

My name is Shawn Escoffrey  previously our resi program director for the strong local economies program at the certainty foundation. I am now the executive director of the Rory and Patricia Disney family foundation. 

Um, and not just in the sense of, of micro businesses, but, um, tech enabled businesses, uh, businesses that can  grow to hundreds, if not thousands of employees and businesses that could um disrupt the status quo as well. Um, so I first, um, you know, sort of read the article and saw, um, what digital undivided was doing and sort of waving the flag around women entrepreneurs. Um, and I was intrigued, so I sort of put a pin in, okay, I need to, I need to talk to them eventually, as I'm building out my portfolio 

Kathryn Finney
So, he called me and I said, "Well, the most successful part of the FOCUS conference was this incubator accelerator program we had. It was really hard to do it, but it was also the place where we saw the most impact. And he said, "Well, you know have you guys thought about becoming a nonprofit? I can help you if you become a non-profit. I'm a little bit tied, if you don't." And we'd already been thinking about, through Project Diane just making, DiD a nonprofit And so, we had already started the process, and had just gotten our designation. So, I said to him, "Sure." He was like, "Well, I'm going to give you $100,000. Is that enough for you to test um this concept?" And I was like, "Well, you know what, we'll make it work."

Around the same time, my husband got a job, a new position with Microsoft for Startups. And that position was based in Atlanta. Digital Undivided had done a number of things in Atlanta before. Often, in between the conferences, Darlene and I would go across the country. I mean, we went everywhere. We were from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Houston, Texas to Los Angeles, to Portland, Oregon, you name it, Minneapolis, Chicago, we were there. In fact, people would call the Thelma & Louise of tech. And so, we did a lot of things in Atlanta, and we had relationships in Atlanta and people wanted us to come to Atlanta. This was in 2014 and '15. 

Shawn Escoffrey
Yea- so so with Digital undivi-um Undivided being, you know, sort of new and the conversation around women in tech and entrepreneurship being new or unheard of in in the sort of philanthropic circles. I think there was a little skepticism but I had a very supportive president at the time, Phil Henderson, um, who believed in my vision uh for the program and you know, I started the program, uh, the strong local economies program during the height of the recession. Uh, you know, the country was hemorrhaging jobs. Um,  we were trying to figure out what's next. How do you, how do you reimagine cities? Um, how do you create new jobs? And I was looking at, um, these new job creators and the leaders of the, the next economy as people of color and women. Um, and I was, you know, sort of determined to identify those organizations that were lifting up those approaches. 

So for me, I'm black, I'm black as hell. Um, and I, I, I take my with me wherever I go, whatever in any spaces that I'm in, and I have an agenda and a narrative that I'm pushing and that starts with people that look like me. Right. And that also starts with, um, people who've always been ignored, um,disinvested or, um, unappreciated. And, um, I used the ability to, to move resources, um, to show that I appreciate these minds and to show that, um, everyone else should appreciate them as well. 

Kathryn Finney is one of the most influential woman in tech, an entrepreneur, a social media visionary, an investor, writer, and advocate for women. Having her on the side of women is a big deal, I'm a huge fan! On this podcast episode she's sharing her unconventional journey to motherhood and what she's doing to help the women around her and support them as she grows in motherhood and life.

Key takeaways

1. Taking pauses helps to manage anxiety and decide who needs you the most at the moment
2. It's helpful to remind moms that our kids will be okay and we are doing our best every day, things don't have to look perfect
3. Accepting and offering support can be hard, especially in the early days, but you need to take it

Check out Episode 11 of She Leads Podcast Season 3 for Leadership Empowerment with Kathryn Finney, Advocate for WOC in Tech, Echoing Green Global Fellow, and White House Champion of Change.

In this episode of She Leads Podcast, Kathryn Finney founder of Digitalundivided (DID) shares insight on:

• Mindfulness
• Following Your Gut
• Useful Business Applications
• Being a Mentor

Listen in to learn about Kathryn’s experiences and lessons on her quest to be an Ultimate Leader! And, Don’t forget to share and subscribe to She Leads Podcast for first access to future episodes.

“Be Empowered and Empower On!” ~ Nicole Walker

On this episode of Support is Sexy, DigitalUndivided CEO Kathryn Finney talks about dispelling the myths about Black and Latina technology founders, what DigitalUndivided is doing to make a BIG difference in the industry and why she says getting an investor for your startup is NOT ideal. (Apply now for the BIG Incubator, if you're a tech founder who needs support with your vision! Go to digitalundivided.com.)

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