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Speaker 1

00:00

Maybe the best place to start would be, let's explain what Jopwell is and then we can kind of go back in time and get to where we are now. Cool. Cool. So also thanks for coming in.

Speaker 2

00:09

Absolutely. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1

00:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2

00:13

So Jopwell is a career advancement platform built specifically for black, Latinx and Native American students and professionals. And we basically allow companies to diversify their applicant funnels before they hire the best people for the job. We got really frustrated when companies would say, we can't find this talent.

Speaker 2

00:34

It doesn't exist. And for us, me being a part of the community, it was kind of like, B.S. It definitely does. I'm here.

Speaker 2

00:43

And there are 44 million black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American students and professionals in the workforce that exist as well. And so we wanted to create a platform so companies can no longer say, oh, this is like a pipeline issue. We can't find this talent. They exist and they're on job well.

Speaker 1

00:58

And what made this problem obvious to you when you were at Goldman?

Speaker 2

01:02

So it starts actually before Goldman. And it actually goes back to kind of where I'm from and kind of how I grew up.

Speaker 1

01:13

Let's do it.

Speaker 2

01:14

So my dad's from the Bronx originally. And he was the first person in his family to go to college and work in corporate America. He became a general counsel for a publicly traded utility company.

Speaker 2

01:28

And so I grew up in the type of household where to be successful, and I put air quotes around that, you have to be a doctor, you have to be a lawyer, you can go into finance and that's it. And I felt this large responsibility to kind of move the family forward as my dad did. And it was kind of like this thing that I grew up in this middle-class family where that was like a responsibility that my sister and I both felt. And so when I was in high school, Morgan Stanley was offering a diversity internship program.

Speaker 2

01:58

Somebody tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey, this is like that finance industry, you should pay attention to it. And I got lucky, I applied, I got the internship and I started working there my junior, senior summers in high school. Went on to college, went to Yale, played basketball there. And instead of playing basketball in the summers, I continued in a really early access pipeline focused around diversity recruiting.

Speaker 2

02:21

And I spent 3 summers interning at Goldman Sachs. And I started my career there. And I was there for 3 years buying and selling currencies. And so while my background was getting early access, really starting when I was about 15 or 16 years old, and I found my way into buying and selling currencies, I recognized how unusual my path was, how fortunate my path was, and it struck me that despite me finding my way to my seat, I knew that a lot of other people weren't finding their way to a similar seat.

Speaker 2

02:57

And I kind of looked around and realized that it wasn't just a finance challenge when it comes to recruitment of people of color, it was really all industries. And at that time, the summer of 2014, right before I left, all the tech companies came out with these stats of the lack of diversity, which is something we all knew. But it was the first time it became really a national conversation. And so my co-founder and I decided that we can make a solution for this.

Speaker 2

03:25

We can build a platform of people of color And we can leverage technology to directly connect them with opportunities that historically we haven't been exposed to and Create that authentic connection between the employers and potential employees And so that that was really how we started it We wanted to make impact And as a result of that impact, we also wanted to be able to build a profitable, successful business on top of it. So we set out from the start to build it as a for-profit entity and not a nonprofit, which there are many amazing nonprofits that focus on diversity recruitment. But we just took their approach to leverage technology, do it at scale, and solve a problem. You know, going back to the whole YC mantra stuff.

Speaker 1

04:08

Were you guys engineers? Like, you know, so you're trading currency. What gives you the idea that like you're going to build this recruiting platform?

Speaker 2

04:15

I am to this day still probably the least technical person at Jopwell. I was a political science major in college. 0 tech bones in my body, but I lived through this.

Speaker 2

04:29

I'm passionate about diversity recruiting. I'm very intimately interwoven within all of the stuff that kind of goes on within recruiting and so I from experience knew that this was like a major problem and I knew that technology can can help solve it. And even though I didn't know, I wasn't thinking through the code of what that would look like, I had a platform in mind of what it could be.

Speaker 1

04:55

So how did you test it out in the beginning? Or did you wait until you had something built before you started?

Speaker 2

05:01

Yeah, so basically what ended up happening for me is that after my second year at Goldman, my cousin passed away. And for me, when that happened, it was kind of like the first, I've had plenty of people that I've known that have passed in different settings, whether it's my parents, friends, or neighbors, or whatever the case may be. But this was the first time that somebody that I would consider, not only family, but a close friend passed.

Speaker 2

05:28

And given that he wasn't much older than me, it dawned on me that you can die at any time. And it was a true awakening for me to really figure out what the hell I want to do with my life. And So after my second year, I decided that I'm gonna go on this journey to figure out what do I wanna do. And I felt that given that I had an opportunity to play basketball at Yale and had this amazing network at Goldman Sachs, I had a responsibility to leverage that for impact.

Speaker 2

06:00

And I didn't know what that impact was gonna come in the form of or the shape of. But when I kind of took a step back and after a year of kind of going through this thought exercise around challenges I see in the world, what I'm passionate about, what my experiences have been, it all kind of tied to diversity recruiting and providing opportunities for others through leveraging my personal networks. And so I told my parents at the time that I'm going to quit and build this company. And they said, okay, let me get this straight.

Speaker 2

06:29

You're non-technical. You've never built a business. You've never done recruiting. And that's going to be the company you start.

Speaker 2

06:34

Yeah. I was like, that's exactly what I'm gonna do. And

Speaker 1

06:37

you're saying this to fairly conservative parents who are like, you have 3 options in life.

Speaker 2

06:41

They were not feeling it. They were like, you're literally going to die if you try to do that. And that was a really frightening thing to have my parents say that to me.

Speaker 2

06:51

It's a really awkward thing. If you really look up to your parents and you respect them and you view them as like your role models, it's really not a natural thing to kind of go against what they're telling you is a really bad idea. But in terms of testing this out, I never really tested it out because I lived through it. I was so convicted with it.

Speaker 2

07:13

And I intimately understood what the pain points were. So, you know, ignorance is bliss to some degree. And so I had this vision of like, of course this is gonna work out. I don't really have to test it.

Speaker 2

07:25

And I was so focused on doing my job really well when I was at Goldman that I didn't have the time to try to build a business on the side. I wanted to give 110% to what I was doing. And when the time was right to leave, then to give 110% to that. And so, you know, it wasn't probably a wise thing to do, but definitely took a leap of faith and said, this has to work.

Speaker 2

07:50

Why wouldn't it work?

Speaker 1

07:51

Yeah. I mean, I mean, just being in a large company, even, I mean, now it's more obvious, but even a few years ago, it was obvious that these companies really care and people like yourself want those jobs, so why not match them together? So did you start with a demand? Like, did you start with 1 partnership?

Speaker 1

08:08

How did that work?

Speaker 2

08:09

So going back to me being non-technical, it actually really helped. Because when you're building this two-sided thing, and I didn't come to find this out that this was a challenge until probably when we were going through funding for our seed round during demo day, that you have to pick a side first. At the time, there was no choice because we couldn't build a platform for users because I couldn't build anything.

Speaker 2

08:36

So all I could do is make a pitch deck because that's what I was really good at being an analyst at Goldman Sachs. So I just set out to make a deck and I made this deck along with Ryan, my co-founder, and we just showed it to companies and said, this is what we're gonna build, and if we build this, will you be a customer? And so we got really fortunate that when we made these phone calls, people answered, They took our meetings, they took the deck seriously, and they said, sure, if you build this, we'll definitely be a customer, because what you're trying to solve for is a real pain point of ours. And we took a couple of very flimsy yeses as, yes, we have customers.

Speaker 2

09:16

And then from that, we were able to raise a little bit of money, hire some people, built the platform, got the other side.

Speaker 1

09:22

Okay. And did you wait, can you? Yeah, there's a lot.

Speaker 2

09:24

How do

Speaker 1

09:24

I see in the timeline of this? Okay.

Speaker 2

09:26

So the July 3rd, 2014 was my last day at Goldman Sachs. All right. September, let's call it September 1st was when we kind of set out to make this pitch deck to show to companies.

Speaker 2

09:38

Let's say by the end of September, we had about 3 or 4 soft yes, sure, when you build that, let us know, maybe we'll be a customer. But for us, that was like, okay, they're gonna be a customer. And we had them sign this 1 page letter of intent that says if you build it, we'll partner with you. And then once we had that, by October, We decided, okay, we have customers, we need a platform, we have to raise money, and we need to hire people who can build it.

Speaker 2

10:07

And so we got very fortunate that people invested in Ryan and me, and we were able to raise $500,000 with family, friends, networks, within a course of about a month and a half. Wow. Yeah, and it was like shocking to us. It's something that we didn't foresee happening.

Speaker 2

10:25

We thought it was gonna take a year, but what ended up happening is that going back to, you know, like the networks that we were able to build, people invested in Ryan and me. And it was great to kind of go back to places and tell them what we were doing with people that have known us in the past and they were so supportive. And then it started kind of, as we all know, when you don't need capital, you start to get the capital. So once we started getting our first few checks, it was downhill from there.

Speaker 2

10:53

Okay. And then so now in November or so, we hired our first engineer, person I went to high school with. And so now we had a team of 3 and we also hired another individual who I went to high school with. So we had a team of 4.

Speaker 1

11:10

With 1 engineer?

Speaker 2

11:11

With 1 engineer, 3 non-technical, 1 engineer.

Speaker 1

11:15

All right.

Speaker 2

11:17

And now this is in, call it November, December, we built the MVP.

Speaker 1

11:21

Yeah, so side note, were you in any way experienced vetting engineers?

Speaker 2

11:27

0.

Speaker 1

11:28

Okay. So you're just like, I don't know. They seem nice.

Speaker 2

11:30

I went back to my high school 50th reunion for their first black student.

Speaker 1

11:35

And there

Speaker 2

11:35

was this amazing gathering. And we were kind of, you know, networking with 1 another. And Randy Brown was standing next to me, a person that was a couple years younger than me in high school.

Speaker 2

11:50

I'm going, hey, Randy, how's it going? What are you up to? He's like, well, just graduated college and I'm still working on my thesis. I was a computer science major in college and so I'm kind of playing out my thesis full time now, but it's not really going that well and I'm just trying to figure out what I want to do." And, well, we just raised a little bit of money and we're looking for an engineer.

Speaker 2

12:10

So Randy became our first engineer. And so, you know, I think that's the story of a lot of people where you just hire your closest friends

Speaker 1

12:17

and people. Yeah, it's pretty common.

Speaker 2

12:19

And common. And so that was our story. And it also ties into our first 4 people were African-American.

Speaker 2

12:28

And the reason why I even bring that up is because you'll have a lot of small companies that their first 4 employees are white males and it grows from there. And so in our DNA, we started out as an incredibly diverse, actually not diverse because we were all the same, similar backgrounds and ethnicities. And so we have to grow out of that and you have to be you have to be really intentional about growing out of that Yeah, but as you hire your friends and for friends friends, and that's how companies scale. So when we think about like the Difficulties of how companies kind of get to where they are where there's a lack of diversity We experienced it from a very extreme other side of things.

Speaker 1

13:03

But it's the same thing, right? It's not flawless. It's just like, hire your friend, go from there.

Speaker 1

13:08

And then, yeah.

Speaker 2

13:09

But you have to be intentional about it and you have to be aware of it. Yeah. And so.

Speaker 1

13:12

So then you apply to YC for the winner batch? No. So

Speaker 2

13:16

we then actually applied to New York Techstars and did not get in.

Speaker 1

13:21

This

Speaker 2

13:21

was in December. We made it to the final round. They basically said, I don't understand diversity.

Speaker 2

13:26

Recruiting is not a big challenge And you guys don't have anything. Like, I don't know why you think this would be a good idea. And so we're like, okay, all right. We appreciate the feedback.

Speaker 2

13:41

We then launched the platform in January. Users came onto the platform rather seamlessly. And it was kind of like a no brainer. Why wouldn't you sign up?

Speaker 2

13:50

We had those companies that said that they would be there. They were there. They were actual employers. Started getting a lot of traction, a lot of users, a lot more companies, And it kicked off really quickly.

Speaker 2

14:02

And then, so around March or so, applied to YC for their summer session.

Speaker 1

14:08

Got you.

Speaker 2

14:09

And got in. And so, yeah. Good thing we didn't get in the rest of the system.

Speaker 2

14:13

So good thing that, you know, you have these setbacks and you get so excited about these accelerator programs and it becomes this distraction. And it was so fortunate that we didn't get in. And it was so devastating at the time. But then 6 months later, $4 million later, we're in YC.

Speaker 1

14:34

Yeah, you're still here, you're still alive, the company exists. Yeah, so yeah. So just so I understand from the supply side, these people, these underrepresented employees in tech and finance, it's all across industries, right?

Speaker 1

14:48

Yeah. They're still applying to these companies, right? So why are they looking for a platform like JobWell versus just applying LinkedIn or

Speaker 2

14:57

whatever? Absolutely. So the way that we like to think about it is that many, many people when they are applying for roles or opportunities, you generally know somebody. There's some attraction to that organization.

Speaker 2

15:10

There's some connection to that company. And for people of color, if you look at the numbers in tech, for instance, if 2% of your workforce is black and 3% are Latino or Hispanic, odds are you don't know anybody that works there. And odds are you're not gonna have that champion that kinda says, hey guys, I'm looking out for this person, make sure you screen this candidate. And so what we want to do and what we want to be is the referral at scale for our community.

Speaker 2

15:40

So if Joppa will partners with these organizations, we want to be your foot in the door and that entity that becomes your referral, if you will. And so when users on Jopwell are saying, why don't I just apply? You can and you should, but you're gonna go into a black box unless you know somebody. And when you apply on Jopwell, really what that means is that you're applying to companies that truly value diversity because they are partnering and paying Jopwell to have access to this community.

Speaker 2

16:12

And when you apply through our technology, we can flag candidates to companies. And so we can ensure that they have a more diversified pipeline. Now, we can't ensure you want to get a job. We can't, we don't know the candidates on our platform.

Speaker 2

16:28

On that 1 to 1 level, we have, we have, we are fortunate that we have a large community

Speaker 1

16:33

and anyone just sign up Is

Speaker 2

16:34

anybody can sign up but we're very direct and who the platform is built for it's built for black Latino Hispanic Native Americans and so that's what the community has grown to be just that and so when candidates when candidates are applying and when we let the companies that work with Joppa will know, hey, you had a thousand people apply for this 1 role or you had 30 people apply for this 1 role. Now they can ensure that they have a more diversified pipeline because they have Joppa candidates in their funnel along with other candidates. And now we can at least make sure that before they hire the best person for the job, that they have a diverse applicant pool.

Speaker 2

17:20

And that's where we come in.

Speaker 1

17:22

So yeah, a couple questions. So we had 1 question from Twitter about the pipeline in particular. Where are people coming from that are signing up for Jopwell?

Speaker 2

17:30

Yeah. So we've been incredibly fortunate that the community has really accepted what we're trying to achieve We fundamentally believe and and truly understand that we can't be successful unless we have the support of the community Yeah, we were we're a product of the community. We're building this for the community. And so they've grown our community.

Speaker 2

17:52

And it's largely been through word of mouth. Joppa being incredibly involved with various activations and clubs and organizations and forming really strategic partnerships and really being the solution at scale that a lot of smaller organizations haven't been able to really focus on. They focus on a lot of coaching, training, mentoring, which is so important. And for us, we just took a different approach that we wanted to do it at scale and leverage technology to connect people to opportunities, but formalize relationships with all these amazing organizations that are doing such amazing work, right.

Speaker 2

18:31

To figure out a way to both help them and for them to help us. And so a large part of our growth on the community side of the platform has been a result of the community, really leveraging Jopwell.

Speaker 1

18:43

And regionally, you said they're East coast, west coast for the most part?

Speaker 2

18:46

The major metropolitan areas is really where we do the best. We tend to focus most of our employers to be within major metropolitan areas. A lot of our user base comes from those similar surrounding areas.

Speaker 2

19:00

Gotcha. And so we stay kind of focused on that.

Speaker 1

19:04

And then on the second part of the question from Twitter was about, are there certain roles that maybe differ from the average in terms of job well candidates getting and doing well in?

Speaker 2

19:14

Or Do you have that data? I would say all across the board, the candidates do really well in terms of the types of roles, whether it's in finance or tech or consulting or sports. But what I would say is that what we do really well in is call it people within their 20 or 30 somethings within their age range.

Speaker 2

19:34

And so really that entry level to mid-level talent is where we thrive the most. We do have people that we would consider executives on the platform, but it's less of a sweet spot for what we do. So if you are typically, you know, in college or call it sub 12 years or so in the workforce, that's kind of where we operate the most.

Speaker 1

19:56

Okay, got you. And so in terms of the industry as a whole, you guys are I mean, obviously this diversity conversation, super important and only more talked about in the past couple of years since you guys have been around and you're 10 years. What have you noticed in terms of changes in the industry and where do you see it going from here?

Speaker 2

20:18

So the first thing, and it's more of a frustration, but when I hear the word diversity and I hear people describe diversity challenges, I think that, 1, when I hear that, I don't really hear much because that diversity, it could be anything. You can make an argument that anybody is diverse and that really, I think, inhibits companies from actually moving the needle when it comes to what their actual challenges are. So if you're looking across corporate America, and the reason why Joppa is built for black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native Americans, it's because it's the most underrepresented groups within corporate America.

Speaker 2

21:01

And so companies that have a really difficult time connecting with this audience, they should just say that and not just say we have a diversity challenge. They need to be able to truly identify what diversity challenge, like what vertical of diversity are you kind of focusing on? And then you can find solutions for that particular thing. And so I think the companies that are the most intentional and are willing to have the most uncomfortable conversations are the ones that do the best.

Speaker 2

21:33

And they need to be able to clearly articulate to their organization about why diversity or a particular subset of people within the diversity umbrella is so important to that organization. It's been proven time and time again now through multiple studies, McKinsey has come out with a couple of studies, BCG, around having a more diverse workforce leads to bottom line success. And it just makes sense. And if you're trying to build a world-class organization and you're trying to invent products that are gonna change the world, how can you do that without people at the table who have differing backgrounds and experiences and opinions?

Speaker 2

22:12

And by the nature of being a person of color, I'm going to experience the world differently than maybe my white peer. And so even using me as an example where yes, I had a fabulous opportunity to go to Yale. I'm so fortunate for that. But at the end of the day, I'm a black male in this country.

Speaker 2

22:30

And when I'm outside and I'm engaging with people, I don't have a Yale tattoo slapped on my forehead. People first identify, and as I first identify, as a black male, and so therefore, I am seeing the world through a different lens, I'm experiencing the world through a different lens. Even if I had a white counterpart that also went to Yale, we're still gonna experience the world in a different lens. So when I come to the table and I'm giving you my experiences and my background and my opinions, just being a person of color in America, I'm going to have a different thought than what you might come to the table with.

Speaker 2

23:05

And that's important and that leads to innovation. And so it's so important that companies have a mixture of people from different backgrounds, ethnicity, sexual orientations, you name it, you need that, that you need that tension, that those conversations to occur, because that's where innovation happens.

Speaker 1

23:23

Yeah, so I agree with you, but the, what I'm trying to figure out is you say, okay, diversity, saying broad, like, we want a diverse workplace, like to you, it's just like, nah, noise for the most part. But you wanna be specific, right? So how do you be specific and inclusive of those people without being by default, exclusive of other people?

Speaker 2

23:43

Yeah, absolutely. So I think that's something that a lot of companies feel that they, again, it's going back to that uncomfortable conversation.

Speaker 1

23:52

Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, because people are scared, right? They're like, oh, shit, I didn't want to offend that person by trying to include this person, whatever.

Speaker 2

23:59

Absolutely, I think so long as companies frame it within the organization itself as, we're doing this because it makes business sense. And stick to like, this leads to bottom line success for this company if we diversify and we really start to attract candidates from different backgrounds that we haven't recruited from in the past, we need that in order to stay relevant. The demographics of America is shifting.

Speaker 2

24:26

By 2040, the people of color in this country are going to be the majority for the first time. So if you can't build for the future, you're going to get passed. And it's such a business imperative conversation that if you keep it at the business level, I think it becomes less of an awkward conversation and less so of, oh, we can't bring this group of people in we can only focus on this. It's like no We're trying to be the best organization possible.

Speaker 1

24:51

Yeah,

Speaker 2

24:52

we don't have a lot of representation We need more representation from these groups within America We don't look like what the broader American society looks like and what it's shifting to be Yeah So we need to double down and triple down on those efforts. And I think that if you can have that conversation and keep it at the business level, then it becomes less uncomfortable.

Speaker 1

25:10

I guess the question that I'm asking is like on the positioning side, so like outwardly facing, how do you best deal with that to attract the most like the most different kinds of candidates to make your company better? So, you know, like work with Joppa, right? Like, obviously, but yeah,

Speaker 2

25:27

that's the obvious thing. But I think the more important thing is recognizing that you're struggling in a particular area. And as a result, you should ask for help.

Speaker 2

25:41

I don't care if it's through Joppa or somebody else, but I feel that a lot of tech companies want to build a way out of it or they want to solve it themselves.

Speaker 1

25:50

Okay. So, yeah. And so,

Speaker 2

25:53

and so I think that a lot of organizations, again, going back to kind of how Joppa started hiring a couple of friends and how many organizations starts where you hire a couple of friends, you have to get outside of your comfort zone. You have to find different pipelines to attract different types of talent. And you need to be vocal about that and publicly facing about that because companies like Joppa and other organizations will come to the call.

Speaker 2

26:21

And so, and by being so out there and being so public about what you're lacking in, you more authentically present yourself in a favorable light to a community of people that you're calling out to try to attract. And you're saying, we're looking for you, we need you because we're trying to out innovate our competitors. And so I think raising your hand and just saying publicly, like, we need assistance with a particular challenge is the way that you kind of get out of your own way and you start to unlock other pipelines of talent.

Speaker 1

26:54

Right, and so does Facebook's, I mean, not Facebook, but like tech in general, the breakdown of, you know, these types of employees, does that match the computer science enrollment in terms of percentages or is there a drop off? What I'm wondering is about, if we're gonna increase the number overall, does it start when people are 7 years old and you get them into CS? Or how does that work?

Speaker 2

27:21

So what also kind of frustrates me about when we hear the reasons as to why they can't find this talent, It all goes back to why we started Joppa with people saying, oh, we can't find this talent. And when companies say, oh, you know, there's not even like the pipeline of black, Latino, Hispanic, and Native American engineers, 1, that's not true. And the data does not suggest that at all.

Speaker 2

27:49

And what is laughable is that, let's say that is even the case. Okay, let's just say that is even the case, which it's not, but let's just concede that and say, okay, sure, sure. What about everything else? What about every other

Speaker 1

28:08

non technical

Speaker 2

28:08

non technical role within your company, if your company is 2% black, or 3%, you know, Hispanic, or Latino, you can't say that you can't find enough people who are people of color in non-technical roles, sales, consulting, finance, HR, you name it. And so if your organization is still not a representation of what America is broadly, you can't point to the pipeline thing. That just doesn't, it doesn't hold up.

Speaker 1

28:38

Do you, do you just kind of not have that conversation with companies?

Speaker 2

28:42

What we're really fortunate about, and again, from like a business perspective, I fundamentally believe that if you're making 2 pitches to a company, you're making 2 different sales, hey, this concept is a really good concept and you should use us for this particular concept. That's a lot of convincing in a conversation. We're incredibly fortunate.

Speaker 2

29:04

I don't even call it. We're fortunate, but we are very strategic about the companies we work with because we're only making 1 cell. We don't choose companies to work with that don't believe in the value of diversity. So the only sell we make is why you should use Jopwell.

Speaker 2

29:20

So we never get into the conversations around why diversity is important to your organization because they understand it, they've reached out to us. We're very transparent and very vocal about what Jopwell stands for. So as a company, if you're reaching out to work with Jopwell, we shouldn't have to educate you on the value that a diverse workforce can bring. And so we just talk about why you should be leveraging Jopwell and our technology and how we can diversify your applicant funnels.

Speaker 1

29:45

Okay. Yeah, Let's, let's talk about that actually. Cause there, there are, there are a bunch of companies that have gone through YC or just are interested in listening to the podcast or whatever that are doing recruiting. Right.

Speaker 1

29:58

So Zooming out a little bit from Jopo specific focus, what is your advice for running a recruiting platform for entrepreneurs?

Speaker 2

30:08

I would say that if you're trying to build a hiring platform, you have to be known for something. You have to have a particular focus. You can't just claim to have quality talent.

Speaker 2

30:27

You have to be providing a real solution to a real problem that companies face. You should probably associate with that problem. You should probably have experienced that in some capacity or have empathy as to why that challenge exists. You should be very passionate about whatever group of individuals you're trying to serve to unlock that opportunity.

Speaker 2

30:56

And, and you should be doing it because it's making impact, not because you think it's a company that can make a lot of money. And if you can kind of stick to those things and you can build something that becomes sticky and everything else happens as a result of that, then great, happy days for everybody. But to start the company, you really have to isolate a particular challenge and pain point that employers face and just work on that 1 thing.

Speaker 1

31:29

Okay, and Can you talk about that specifically in the context of your product? Like, what are some things that you guys have worked on that have been meaningful increases in like, you know, whether it's people getting jobs or onboarding new companies or whatever?

Speaker 2

31:42

So going back to kind of like my story, how when I was when I was kind of growing up and, you know, again, like as my parents told me with air quotes now, you know, you gotta go into finance if you're gonna be successful or you have to be a doctor or a lawyer. There are a lot of people of color, particularly in America, where you grow up thinking, I can only work for these particular industries or these particular companies. And so you go through life thinking, that's really all I'm qualified for.

Speaker 2

32:13

And what we've been able to do is through technology, which has been so awesome to be able to do this, is that when you create a profile and you give us all this information that's proprietary to Jopwell from yes, your background and your work experience, but more importantly, what your interests are. What types of work environment do you wanna work in? Where do you wanna live and work in the country? What words describe yourself?

Speaker 2

32:41

Write a leadership moment, write a personal bio about yourself. What are your dream companies? When we collect all of that information and we can take an account what you've done and what you're currently doing, now we can expose you to opportunities that you didn't even realize you were qualified for. And so we are showing candidates that, you know what, you were pre-med in college, do you know how incredibly qualified you are to work in tech or to work in finance or to work in a variety of different other industries?

Speaker 2

33:14

Or that political science major like I was, but I was very operational in my mindset, which enabled me to kind of build a tech company, how qualified I am to work in particular industries. And so what we're now able to do is expose our community to opportunities that historically they haven't been exposed to and really start to truly diversify industries that didn't know how to connect with this audience. Yeah. And so, but we've only been able to do that through a product in leveraging technology.

Speaker 1

33:45

And do you, is it common for these, people on job well to be getting their first job here? Or is it, do you have people coming back to Jopwell to like trade up or switch out or whatever that might be? So we're

Speaker 2

33:56

3 and a half years old and we're just starting to see candidates that have got their first job and now they're getting their second job on Jopwell. And that's been awesome to kind of go through for the first time. But again, like our sweet spot is typically that entry to mid level.

Speaker 2

34:11

So sometimes it's candidates looking for like their third job, their first job and everything in between.

Speaker 1

34:16

So yeah, because I'm just curious, because you mentioned showing people the path and I totally agree. I think that's like basically how every person goes through life and they're like, oh, you know, a friend of a friend started a tech company. So I know them, I'm the smartest of them, I can do a tech company.

Speaker 1

34:31

But if you don't have that, it's really difficult. So yeah, I mean, you're talking about this is your sweet spot. Will that evolve over time?

Speaker 2

34:38

Or do you

Speaker 1

34:38

think this is the area that'll always be?

Speaker 2

34:40

No, absolutely. So going back to kind of like the YC mantra of like doing things that don't scale. Like When we first started, we were very campus focused and it was just university.

Speaker 2

34:49

And then by the brand of Joppa just being in the world, people just started signing up from all different age ranges. And so we kind of took a step back and examined the community and we decided, okay, Joppa needs to be more than just internships. It needs to be professional opportunities as well. But as a result, we should speak to you very differently Depending on the stage of your career.

Speaker 2

35:17

So what we've now done with our platform is that based on certain tags and triggers and whatnot, we speak to you in a different tone. So people, when they interact with Jopwell, they have different personas at Jopwell that they're interacting with. Not everybody has the same experience on the platform. And the more experienced you are, the more personalized it feels.

Speaker 2

35:40

And that's a really important thing for us.

Speaker 1

35:43

It's kind of a random question, But I know certain people that are fairly vocal in, for example, like women in tech, but then sometimes they're just like, I wanna just talk about product. Do you ever feel that way?

Speaker 2

35:56

I do, but I have a responsibility to speak about being a black founder. You know, it really is painful to see the lack of black funding that occurs. And it's, again, when VCs say, oh, well, there just aren't black founders, that is so, it's like scratching on a chalkboard.

Speaker 2

36:23

It's, and it's so frustrating. And so I feel like I do have a responsibility to speak a lot about diversity, speak a lot about the funding path that Joppa went down, speak about my experiences going through Y Combinator. I recognize that with this position of being the CEO of the company, that's part of the role. And so yes, I would love to just speak about product and what we're working on, but our entire ethos as a business is to unlock opportunity.

Speaker 2

36:54

If I'm not talking about those things that can help others become entrepreneurs and hear my story about my parents telling me I'm crazy, but still kind of taking that leap, then I'm not, I'm not living up to what I'm supposed to be doing as a CEO of this particular company.

Speaker 1

37:11

Right. Well, it's also just, I mean, it's kind of like part of you, so you can't not talk about it. It's impossible not to. Did you find, again, it's like you, so it's hard to compare and contrast an experience, raising money as a black founder, do you find it to be different?

Speaker 2

37:28

It is very different.

Speaker 1

37:29

And

Speaker 2

37:31

it can feel very intimidating. Until what ended up happening for me is that during 1 of our pitches with a really prominent, very prominent VC, the conversation started with a lot of associates and a lot of partners around this table following Y Combinator. And the question to basically start the meeting before ever going through the first slide was, I don't think this is a good idea.

Speaker 2

38:06

This is not a publicly traded company. And when you start out the conversation like that without even going through slide 1, something happens in you. And for me, that something happened was where I fully recognized for the, not for the first time, I mean, I've always had the confidence and whatever, and being an athlete and having that athletic mindset, but it was really the first time where I kinda came back and was like, you know, to be honest, like you don't know what you're talking about. Like I'm from this community, I know the pain points, I know what the opportunity is, I know how much money our community spends in this country, I know how much of a challenge it is for these organizations to hire people of color, that I'm the expert in this and you're not.