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Welcome to Founded On Purpose, the podcast where business meets impact. Hosted by Kt McBratney of Renew VC, each episode features founders, investors, and ecosystem builders answering the same set of questions. While the questions stay the same, the insights and conversations are always unique and thought-provoking. Join us to explore how these innovators are aligning profit with purpose.
FoP S2: Khadijah Robinson
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[00:00:00]
Kt: welcome to Founded On Purpose. I'm Kt Mc Bratney, and I'm so excited for today's guest. Khadijah Robinson is a Harvard trained attorney turn builder with two exits under her belt. She took the Nile list from a spreadsheet to an engine that kept dollars circulating in black communities.
Then led a post acquisition marketplace before crossing the table to be a GP at Fictive Ventures and across every chapter, Khadijah's chosen substance over hype. Action over vibes and stewardship over extraction. And now she backs founders with the same discipline and care that she used to build her companies.
Khadijah, welcome.
Khadijah Robinson: Hello, hello.
Kt: Okay, so there are so many places we could start with you and your journey, but let's start with Nile List, your first startup in your first exit. You said before you founded this outta frustration with how difficult it [00:01:00] was to find and support black-owned businesses online. You built the early version, as I said, like as a spreadsheet in March, 2020 when some other stuff was going on in the world.
Just a few things. Let's go back to that time because you were also still practicing law full-time.
Khadijah Robinson: Yeah.
Kt: how did you even structure your week and your days to develop the product to keep and build momentum?
Khadijah Robinson: Yeah. So we started, I started working on it in 2019, really? And it was the result of my, what I call quarter life crisis. I was. through fifth in what I thought I was gonna be doing versus what I knew, know, about halfway through the clerkship that I was doing with the US District Court judge that I to be doing.
So trying to figure out my life. I thought I was gonna go to a US attorney's office and be a [00:02:00] prosecutor. I realized quickly that was never gonna happen and I. Started working on the spreadsheet that became the Nile List as my hobby slash therapeutic exercise when I was very stressed out, which was basically the time because I was just sitting in court all the time watching defendant after defendant, and. I had a really great relationship with my judge. I like him a lot, I was the only black clerk. I was the first black clerk that he had hired I was one of a handful of black clerks in the courthouse. Um, at the time I think I was the only black clerk who did not have a black judge, so there. Was a disconnect I think between what I was experiencing, seeing probably [00:03:00] of those defendants come in and out, black versus what my judge was experiencing and what my cohort clerks who were also in the same chambers as me were, were experiencing.
And I was just going through it. I became a huge prison abolitionist. I would talk to my judge about like how we could, uh. How some of our sentencing should include like yoga kittens in prison. And he was like, what are you talking about? And I'm like, yoga has been shown to reduce recidivism. He's like,
Kt: I love it. You're like, there is data, which also has now translated into this thing called social prescribing. Like it's real.
Khadijah Robinson: It's real. So I was going through that and I started the spreadsheet for the Nile List as my therapeutic exercise. Like I want to, minimum, if I do nothing else, I wanna buy with black-owned [00:04:00] businesses. And so. That's how it was Bird. And then as I started really talking about it more with family and friends, they were like, that's cool.
Have you come across a company that does this? Do you know a company that makes this like, I wanna support black owned businesses too. our tagline was actually. Just from that back and forth experience, we know somebody black who makes that like whatever it is that you're looking for, you need batteries.
We know somebody black who makes that. So it was definitely me being confronted with a problem myself, talking to people around me who were experiencing the same thing and wanted some kind of solution, and then bringing that to life. Although what I. Was doing at the time, I had no idea was starting a startup.
I was like, oh, I'm building a database, and then I was building a website, then an app, and like, yeah, just making something for people to [00:05:00] help them shop with black folks. You know, I. And, uh, I don't know when the light bulb came on that like this was a startup and I needed tech, me and all this other stuff, but, um, it was a lot of me just stumbling around as a lawyer things in my spare time, which is mostly non-existent as a lawyer. And, um, I will say that with COVID it helped. Because I, well helped is a weird way to put it, but I was stranded Africa during the majority of 2020 and because of that, my. Schedule and days were very different and weird, and I had pockets of time where nobody was looking for me, that I could build the Nile List.
And so I did in the [00:06:00] time when everybody in the US was asleep. And then also in a litigation practice that slowed down a lot in the very beginning of COVID, so that also Just that my actual job was kind of slow. We were just. They trying to figure out what the hell is this thing that's happening all across the world, and when are we gonna get out of our houses?
Kt: None of us knew what was going on. Well, and you said you, there wasn't one, one light bulb moment where you realized this was a startup, but as those like moments going from spreadsheet to website to app, as those moments started to build, when did you realize. That you were building a company or, or how did you realize that you were serving customers?
This wasn't like a nonprofit. This wasn't like a nice little side project. This was something that really had the potential to scale, to meet the need that you experienced.
Khadijah Robinson: Honestly, because [00:07:00] the Nile List was almost a hundred percent bootstrapped, so. One day I looked in my bank account and I was like, wait a minute, what is going on here? And I started like really investigating and I was like, am spending a lot of money building this thing. We need to make some money or something because I can't pay for everything myself and. We, we did it a few things, but um, we, we started selling subscription boxes, which was really fun. And a quarter, there was a quarterly subscription box. We would pack this box with items from different black, black-owned businesses that people probably hadn't been exposed to before. them out to [00:08:00] our subscribers. But it was literally me being like. I'm spending so much of my own money on this thing.
I wanna do something that's going to generate some revenue, okay? We're all about, we, we are a discovery platform for black owned brands. So like, let's get more black owned brands in front of people in a different way this platform. And so we launched a subscription. think that really started to put me in the mindset of building this as a business. And then meeting people and talking about what I was doing, who started sending me to people who were build, also building startups. And I was like, oh, my building a startup. I startup founder. So I feel so cool. not just a lawyer, I'm a startup founder. And then. You know, because of what I was doing, I was interacting with a lot of business owners.
So honestly, I was learning from the people that I was interacting with and working with to highlight with the Nalu because some of them [00:09:00] had been in business for way longer than me. And and really. Were able to help me put myself in the mindset of serving customers and building out a product that people wanted to use and pay for.
Kt: I am hearing you embrace the learning side of it, the learning and the community aspect, which the community like, no surprise, like community, I feel like runs, runs through. Not just like how you move through the world, but why and your openness to be like, I'm learning this and with excitement versus fear or, um, defensiveness or, you know, other things that when you're doing something for the first time and you're brand new, it can feel scary.
Khadijah Robinson: Very scary. things felt very scary for a long time and my lawyer brain was always telling me like, refine and perfect before you, uh, take any. Unnecessary leaps. And of my [00:10:00] lawyer turned entrepreneur friends sat me down at one point and she was like, you need to launch this thing. Like it is not gonna be perfect.
You're never gonna get it to the level in your head that you think it should be in the first instance, you need to put it out there. Stop doing this lawyer shit of like. I've got to make sure all my i's are dotted and t's are crossed that I gotta go through the red line every single line in order to, uh, put this out.
And was so funny because when she gave me that kick in the butt, I said, okay. I set A date. I was like, we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this no matter what. And we launched literally March 1st, 2020, um, which was like. Two weeks before everything shut down. When I was stuck in Nigeria [00:11:00] most of the year, but the Nile List was focused on online shopping and suddenly everybody was shopping online, and then the Nile List was focused on black entrepreneurs.
And the murder of Judge Fo George Floyd, everybody was thinking about how they support black entrepreneurs. So that. Timing was so much better than I ever could have thought, uh, going into it. And I'm very happy that I got that kick in the butt to say Stop procrastinating and doing everything except just putting the thing out there.
Kt: So much love for the friends who are kind enough to be honest with us versus nice. Like I would take a kind and honest friend over somebody who is just playing nice any day.
Khadijah Robinson: It's Everybody who knows me knows that I'm very direct. somebody told me a few years ago, clarity is kindness [00:12:00] and is the best gift that you can give to an entrepreneur because the longer that they operate in delusion, money they spend, the more time they waste, and the more resources they burn. So.
Kt: Underline, I fully co-sign. Huge fan. Huge, huge believer in that. Okay, so you're, you're in Nigeria. It's taking off. You realize you have a startup, like not, you might have a startup, but you have customers, you have a business, you're growing and you're catching some attention, including Combs, enterprises, the company who ultimately acquired the Nile List.
At what point did you know? Like really know that an exit was possible and on the horizon, and were you ready for it?
Khadijah Robinson: No, I was not ready. I had no idea what it was, I was doing, what was going on. honestly, it wasn't until [00:13:00] they were like, you know, they approached me and we started talking about partnership and you know, working together. And then at, in one of the conversations, they're like, working together, we mean we purchased the stylist then we worked together. like, oh.
Kt: Okay.
Khadijah Robinson: And they're like, what are you valuing the company at? And I'm like, let me get back to you on that. I like picked up my phone. I was like, hi, how do you value a company?
Kt: This is a figure. Outness though of an entrepreneur is like, I don't know yet. I'll get back to you quick. Google search, phone calls.
Khadijah Robinson: Know, I don't wanna give you a number off the top of my head, let me put something together and I'll come back to you. And then, I went and figured out how to come up with a [00:14:00] number off the top of my head. I mean, at that early stage, at that point in time, I, it was just kinds of. I don't even know making things up to figure out what my valuation was supposed to be in that instance. But, um, I just called a couple of investor friends that I met or knew they were kind enough to help me. I called my financial advisor and I'm like, how much money do I need right now from this sale? Um. And like, what kind of salary do I need going into this company? Like, let me actually think about this logistically, called my accountant and I'm like, we gotta get all the books for the company in order because they're gonna wanna look at them. So we've got a lot of work to do. Here's a lot of receipts for the last two years.
Thanks so much.[00:15:00]
Kt: What they're there for.
Khadijah Robinson: Yeah, so I.
Kt: But I love that you, you like thought about what you're worth, right? From a few different angles. Like you coming into the company and contributing not just everything you built within Nile List, right? But you as a person, your time, your energy, your relationships were coming with it and.
It sounds like you weren't, it sounds like you were smart enough to know that you needed to get as much value out of it as they were, which I think sometimes, you know, doing something for the first time negotiations, especially with a company bigger than yours, or people who have perceived more power than you can feel like you need to cater to what you're able to get.
Versus coming in with an informed and confident number.
Khadijah Robinson: Yeah. One thing that [00:16:00] I think is, um. Very key where I was with my exit and I is always the differentiating factor for me when I see other founders going through is. The tone, the tenor and the negotiating position are always incredibly different this is an acquisition that you have solicited versus if you are being hoarded by someone who wants to buy you whatever strategic reasons.
So it was not something I needed or had to do at that point, and it wasn't something that was on my radar that I was looking for or. Even, you know, trying to push through and seek out. So my negotiating position was very different than a founder who's like, I've got six months of runway and I [00:17:00] need to sell this thing.
Kt: Having the awareness though, in the, in the, the awareness of self and of situation to say like, hold on, this might be my first time doing this, but I, I can read, I can read this map. I know where I sit in this kind of like,
Khadijah Robinson: That I will say is because of the lawyer background, the negotiation piece, uh, that was invaluable at that point in time because I definitely like, hmm. Okay, well, let me just think about this from a lawyer perspective. How would I approach this and yeah. I.
Kt: Yeah. Okay. So let's talk through, I, I wanna talk in a bit about, um, you know, what perspective that gives you, now that you're on the investor side, looking at folks going through acquisitions. But first let's talk through the transition part. So you went from being running the Nile List small team to [00:18:00] being a part of a much larger organization.
How did you manage the transition, both personally and as a leader to keep the mission in the community right intact and to not compromise what you spent a lot of time and energy and resources building.
Khadijah Robinson: That is an interesting question. I struggled with it a bit. I think the, the outward mission was always intact in terms of, You know, I went then to Empower Global as a part of the Cones Enterprises umbrella, and I was leading that as CEO. were building marketplace for luxury black, uh, products and brands as well as art. And so I was still able, and, and the company was still, um. Fully mission aligned [00:19:00] and focused on how we're uplifting and supporting black Um, I do think that I struggle a lot in terms of going from the and really small contracting to bringing in full-time employees in this, um. Ecosystem of companies, uh, in this umbrella almost as like a subsidiary. that was difficult. And I definitely made a bunch of mistakes, particularly when it came to the leadership part. And I learned a lot about myself because the Nile List, I the buck always stopped with me. Am very type A and very anal and very committed to excellence [00:20:00] the board. I'm very hard on myself, so I was like, if I have got to stay up until three o'clock in the morning to do this thing, or I've gotta just go to sleep or wake up at 4:00 AM to do this thing before I go to work, and I'm only averaging four hours of sleep a night so that I can make all these things happen, and that's what I'm gonna do.
Oh, I learned a lot about myself as a leader. And just as a person in general, um, I can be very self-critical, very hard on myself, high expectations, very type a, very, like everything has to be done and it has to be done well. And whatever we gotta do to make it happen, we're gonna do it. And so. I expected that from my team and I was very hard to work with.
And I know that in retrospect. Uh, and, but you know, when I was in it, particularly [00:21:00] because I am a, I was, you know, black female founder who had exited, which is not. Super common to have, will be considered a good exit and then was now in charge of building this company with, uh, you know, millions of dollars in funding and a team and celebrity attached.
And, and I knew, or I felt. Something that I think a lot of black founders and particularly women feel when you are in a position like that, that if you fuck it up, then you're not just fucking it up for yourself, fucking up for everybody, uh, everybody else who looks like you, who will come after you, because they're gonna be like, well, we, we gave Kisha money and we tried to help her and look at [00:22:00] what she did with it.
So. You know, can't give you next hundred black women any money because look at what Khadijah did. And I just did not want to be the barrier for anybody who came after me. So I know I put a lot of pressure on myself. I put a lot of pressure on my team, and I felt a lot of. Downward pressure as well from the ecosystem I was operating within in this new company.
So it was just very interesting. Um, and going through it, it was hard because I didn't have many people in my network who even could. Kind of understand that and what I was dealing with. Uh, now having met more founders who have exited, and particularly founders who have exited [00:23:00] in a way where they're now working within the acquiring entity, I understand that it's a lot more.
Comment of an experience, but I just didn't have that at the time. So it was weird. It was lonely. It was incredibly hard. And I will say that the next two years after my exit were probably some of the worst with respect to just mental health.
Kt: Thank you for sharing that because like that's, that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on to tell your story is because when you're going through it, does feel very isolating, very lonely, and we don't talk about it. Right. And there's a lot of different stigma and emotions and, um, we all, we're all walking through this world with our own baggage.
Some of it we inherited from other people. Some of it we picked up along our way and. Understanding that exits aren't [00:24:00] these, like, it isn't yacht problems all the time. It is challenges and hard work. And you've said before that you had a season where you worked, you know, seven days a week, you were operating off of four, four to five hours of sleep and you knew it wasn't, you knew it wasn't sustainable and it wasn't good for you as a person. Counter to that, we still see all this hustle culture out there, all this, you know, tech bro of, that's the price you should be willing to pay. Um, so it's really great to hear you say that to people who admire you. I know, I know personally several founders who look at you as such a role model and to hear like, this was this excellent milestone. And it was still hard. Like both things can be true and giving permission for them to, to, to do with that information what they can do. So it's very much the, the, the clarity is kind right. And being direct about the experience.[00:25:00]
Khadijah Robinson: Yeah.
Kt: elements of that, like, of that season of hard times you take with you now into the work that you do? And how you move through the world because all of your work is very beautifully integrated and connected. And what pieces of it were you like, not again? Nope. Leaving that there.
Khadijah Robinson: Uh, they're an archetype of people. Person now that I have just learned to avoid, I, when I say certain archetype, I mean actually a whole cast of characters in, in a film that I just never want to play in ever again. So I, uh, I definitely. Just you learn. You live and you learn in that sense. And now I am very direct and I am very, very, very, uh, I act a lot on my discernment when it comes to [00:26:00] people and these whole startup ecosystem.
I think having the experience of a founder in almost every. Sort of laying or stage has been incredibly helpful for me now as an investor because I get it and understand what folks are going through from the beginning to the end, and then even after the end. Um, and so I, I really try to take that 360 viewpoint of.
Founder and entrepreneurial life with me as an investor and also as somebody who's built simultaneously building organizations that are entrepreneurial support organizations. I'm helping founders bring their things to life and so I, I really try to weave [00:27:00] in that, uh. That understanding of like where people are and where they can be mentally, and also the things that you don't see, because always the, the background is that life still happens.
Like we might be talking about. Your MVP and this customer, and also you might have a sick kid at home or a sick parent, or go be going through the worst breakup of your life, or all of these things that are happening in life, things that were happening with me while I was like, I'm. Doing this interview and oh my, I'm in Oprah Magazine and somebody's calling me about it, but I'm at home crying myself to sleep because I'm, I just broke up with my boyfriend and, or, you know, I grandparent died.
All kinds of things going on that people just don't see. So I try to think about that and how I [00:28:00] approach founders, but I do always also have this, uh, undercurrent of. Of, you know, just very directness, a lot of directness and a lot of clarity around where they are and what I'm seeing. And if I am seeing something and the writing is on the wall from a mile away, I'm not the person who's like, oh, that's very nice, and just let them kind of go gently into the night.
But, uh, try to hopefully help people. Uh, at least a couple fewer mistakes than I made when I was out there beating around trying to figure how to be a founder.
Kt: Because that's the thing, it's like every founder is building that thing for the first time at that point in time with every, to your point, with going on. And I, I wanna talk about, actually, let's, let's go ahead. I wanna talk [00:29:00] about the work that you're doing now because it feels like such a through line and you have quite a full dance card. Um, already you lead the lead, the Lift Inc. I'm gonna say that again. You lead the Lyft Incubator program at the Center for Black Entrepreneurship, which is based at Spelman College in Morehouse. have, uh, the Pit, which is a nonprofit, coworking and community building initiative here in Atlanta. are a general partner at Fictive Ventures, which we want to hear more about, and you are also. Another role, you're, you're your unofficial or official family historian where you're doing research about your ancestors, like literally in person hacking through the brush with machete in libraries, talking to people just with that, and I'm sure, I know you're doing more, like I know you, and I know you're doing more than that, that I can list here, what purpose connects all this work together, but [00:30:00] also to where your entrepreneurial journey started.
Khadijah Robinson: I would say
family and community. My entrepreneurial journey started with my parents who. Yeah, I didn't even know this until after I started my first startup, but my mother, when I was younger, when I was basically a baby, um, had a business. She was making these. T-shirts. And at the time she was integrating, uh, like Kente cloth and Cara and other, uh, African, for lack of a better word, fabrics into.
A variety of T-shirt designs, which was unusual at the time, and Steve was apparently super successful. My dad told me the story about how she made [00:31:00] a few hundred shirts and charged him with. Taking them to the vendor table that she had set up at a football game at their, uh, alma mater, which was, it was Alabama State University and.
He was walking to the table with his arms just draped with all of these T-shirts, and he's like, I got stopped so many times by people who wanted to buy them on the spot that I literally could not make it to the table because I sold out of the shirts before I got to the place where we were supposed to be setting up to sell the shirts.
And then he's like, your mom had somebody who. Wanted to invest in her company. Like they wanted to invest in her and they had a site that she could manufacture at at a larger [00:32:00] scale. ' cause she was sewing these things. My mom, you know, has a sewing machine and she sews and sew. She was sewing these things.
They had manufacturer lined up for her and. Shortly after she met this person and they were gungho on investing and helping set her up with a manufacturer, she found out that she had breast cancer and she was 31 at the time. So incredibly young and that. Basically derailed my mom's entrepreneurial life from then on.
But it, and thankfully she, you know, beat cancer and is still with us, but I. My mom, my parents were excited to support me in my entrepreneurial leap when I started the Nile List, but even before that, as I was growing up, were just so purposeful about [00:33:00] instilling this spirit and this desire in me to be very community focused, particularly around black entrepreneurs and black entrepreneurship.
I'll never forget that. We used to buy from black entrepreneurs and black owned businesses as much as we could growing up. And my mom would buy this syrup and she would always buy this butter pecan flavor that I hated. And I'm like, why can't we just have regular syrup? And she looked at me and she was like, what is regular syrup?
And I was like, like aren't Jemima or something. What do you mean? What is regular Sarah? And she was like, why do you think that this syrup made by a black entrepreneur in your community is not regular? And I was like, wow. I'm six. I don't know.
Kt: A, a sense, a theme of [00:34:00] directness working here.
Khadijah Robinson: I was like, I'm six. I don't know. But that really has always stuck with me in my entire life because everything in this country has been set up to make us feel like we're not the norm. We're not. The standard American family or person were minorities, were diversity hires, were always less than other, uh, not the, you know, beacon of excellence and the, just the standard in which you see, and my parents were so purposeful about making sure that I did not feel that way and that I was very.
Focused on how I, I support and uplift this community and how I view myself and how I view the entrepreneurs around me. And that just carried into why I wanted to build the Nile List and everything that I've built. After that, it carried into [00:35:00] why I wanna invest into black startups now and black entrepreneurs.
Why I want to support black entrepreneurs to scale with the pet. Why I, you know, want to. Help rediscover parts of my family history as the Tatum family historian and, and really be able to connect more dots about who we are as a people. 'cause we are truly, truly amazing. And it is a history that deserves to be centered and remembered.
We are truly an American family, so yeah.
Kt: Yes, absolutely. two quick questions to follow up on that one. Do you still have one of these shirts that your mom made? Please tell me. You still have,
Khadijah Robinson: I don't, I.
Kt: that they just, she couldn't even keep them.
Khadijah Robinson: I don't have any, I, you know, I have pictures and some [00:36:00] that my mom made for me when I was a kid. I, uh, I know for a fact my mom has these things in the basement of their house because she's like a mini hoarder pack rat. So she, my mom has a box of all my baby teeth is somewhere in that house.
Like she's that person.
Kt: sure my parents have the cast from when I broke my arm when I was little. Still. I am in my forties, they, they can throw that thing away.
Khadijah Robinson: But you know what? My mom's always like, it's gonna come in handy. She kept some of our cutest baby outfits that, you know, she had us in when we were younger. My sister and I, my sister's 41 almost. I'm. 36. And when my sister had my niece who just turned two, she's like, see now Devin can wear the outfits.
Kt: The plant if the plan came to happen, like there was a reason. [00:37:00] other question is, does your mom and do your parents know how deeply, not just that moment that your mom said that to you about the syrup, how they modeled, showing up for centering community and also. Changing the perspective of what we view as the norm in America. Do they know how much that shaped who you are today?
Khadijah Robinson: I am sure they do. I'm sure they do. We've talked about it before. My parents were so purposeful in how they raised me, even to the point where I, I was not allowed to watch certain shows. Till to today, I still haven't seen them, and I was not allowed to read certain books such as, like when I say shows, I mean like Shirley Temple.
Or just random shows that you would think are [00:38:00] just very standard in the American mainstream. But my parents were like, Hmm, no, kind of racist. We don't like this Bo Jangle-ish black man dancing in the background. So no, you can't watch that or. My parents did not allow me to have any white dolls when I was growing up, and their philosophy was they did not want me to think that beauty was, uh, the equivalent of, or, uh, equal to whiteness.
They wanted me to see and understand that beauty, um. Can and it be and is encapsulated in blackness. And so I was only allowed to have black dolls. They did not want me to have any Barbies with that were bl that were white. The children's books that I read had [00:39:00] very limited white characters because they wanted me to see myself reflected around me and understand that I was.
A normal girl and I was pretty and I was smart and I was all the things and I was not this other, I was not DEI as they are saying now, but I was just a black girl, so
Kt: Just as American as someone who didn't look like you or had a different background or who lived in a different part of the country. Your P
Khadijah Robinson: And I remember we beefed a lot about it when I was, I wanted the American girl dolls that were not. I'm like, well, Addie, at the time, the only black American girl doll was a slave. And I was like, I want more than just Addie.
Kt: Your parents sound incredible and I just wanna thank you for sharing that Like, it's, it's really beautiful to hear [00:40:00] how your parents instilled that and centered it in black excellence for you. And charted kind of like gave you a, a compass that allowed you to chart your own course to here.
It's just beautiful. All right, if you're down for it, I wanna pull in a couple questions. So season one, I asked everyone, every single guest got the same eight questions, right? And we opened up conversations from there. So I wanna pull a couple back if you're down for a very quick lightning round. I,
Khadijah Robinson: Of course.
Kt: All right. When was the last time you were wrong? to ask you that one because you know, I agree with pretty much all your takes. But also I love your humility in that. You're like, yeah, I'm a human. Nobody's perfect. So when was the last time you were wrong, big or small?
Khadijah Robinson: When was the last time I was wrong? Probably this morning I was talking to one of my assistants and I was like, I sent you this thing. And [00:41:00] they're like, no, you didn't. I'm like, yes, and I did. And I went back and I'm like, oh, no, I didn't.
Kt: I am also sometimes guilty of thinking of writing the email and sending it, and it's so vivid in how I'm thinking about it. I'm like, oh yeah, I need to tell Khadijah this. Okay, da dah, dah, dah. In my mind, I click send and I have not touched a keyboard to even write it.
Khadijah Robinson: Oh yeah. I look at the text, I respond to the text in my head. I don't respond to the text in real life, and then I'm like, I texted you back crazy. What do you mean?
Kt: Guilty. Guilty. Okay. Next one. What's the, what is your favorite thing about your job right now and what's the biggest challenge?
Khadijah Robinson: Favorite thing about my job is when I see a founder get to the next step, and it can be tiny, but. For example, on Tuesday I had a call with the cohort that I'm running for the Lyft [00:42:00] incubator, and the last time that I'd seen one of the founders in the program, he was leaving to get on a flight to go to a client's office.
And because he was, or a potential client's office, so he was pitching, trying to lock in this client. So he logs into the call and I'm like, Hey, I'm gonna talk to you like what's been going on? What happened with the client? And he is like, we locked them in, we signed the contract, we good. They are here.
And I was like, yes. Like I love this part where, um. You know, it, it's, it might, it might just be that one client, but that's the next step for this little baby company that is trying to build this B2B platform. So I love that part. Um,
Kt: The best.
Khadijah Robinson: wait, and then what was the second thing that you asked?
Kt: What's the most challenging thing about your job? I think people think of investors like oftentimes there's not much empathy, right? [00:43:00] And some folks see investors as walking checkbooks and not full humans with balancing different needs, different obligations, getting told no what's the most challenging part?
Khadijah Robinson: Two things. Fundraising is I'm raising my fund and we're building kind of a new model with venture. And it's incredibly hard. Fundraising in 2025 is just hard because this economy is crap thanks to our, you know, supposedly very astute business person in our highest office. And so it, the, the economy is horrible.
It's just a mess. The environment is a mess. People are fearful and shy, and. People are definitely turning their back on everything that could be considered DEI, which apparently all black people [00:44:00] in anything that we do. And um, so it's really, really, really hard fundraising and also trying to, um, really.
Interact with founders in a way that is not like rude, standoffish, condescending, but is also, um, really clear around the fact that, right, like I have to fundraise in order to be able to invest in you. So I cannot, I cannot focus on, um. You know, you and, and maybe meeting for you to pitch me right now because it's not really much use to you or me.
I don't have the money in the bank yet. I got to go get the money in the bank, so let me get the money in the bank [00:45:00] first. And no, don't email me once every week for the next three months until that happens. Please.
Kt: Like, love how you are upfront and again, direct and clear with founders. You, you don't wanna waste a founder's time and I'm with you. Like the very first thing when we are not. capital is like a founder's like, Hey, I'd like to meet with you. We're getting ready to raise. I'm like, seems interesting.
You sound great. We're not writing checks right now. I don't wanna waste your time. That's a finite resource. And but also, please, please don't, please don't bug Khadijah. She's got enough in her inbox, like, when, when the money is in the bank, she knows where to find you. So I'll, I'll, I'll advocate on your behalf.
Like not now means not. Now and not necessarily asking again next week. If you had a magic wand and could tell them exactly the data, which to reach back, you would, that's the other question I get a lot [00:46:00] is like, oh, okay, so when will you be? I'm like, I cannot give you a day and time. I wish I could thank you for thinking I have that level of control over the external world, but we're
Khadijah Robinson: But I think a lot of it's just founders, unfortunately, don't know a lot about the way that venture capital really actually works. Um, which also then makes me think a lot of the founders shouldn't even be raising venture capital until they really have a better understanding of how it actually works.
Kt: That I wish I would've understood it more deeply before I raised. I've said it before. I think we raised too early now I know that hindsight, I didn't know what I didn't know then. to what you were saying, like part of part of the job and I think part of just like who you are as a person is, is helping people not make those preventable mistakes.
Khadijah Robinson: Trying.
Kt: [00:47:00] I love every time I get to like share space with you, you are just such a. Force in a beautiful way, and I'm grateful to know you. I'm grateful for you sharing more of your story here. Where can people learn more about fictive the pit lift, all of the things that you do and connect with your purpose,
Khadijah Robinson: Definitely follow me on LinkedIn. I keep it very spicy there, as everybody can attest, who does follow me. Um, but then for fictive, check out our website Fictive Ventures. We are really trying to democratize venture capital and change the. That perception of what an investor in venture looks like. So if that is something that interests you, go check us out.
Um, and also send founders to our website to fill out our application so that we can have them in our pipeline when we are ready to [00:48:00] start taking founder meetings. And, um, for the pit at, we're at the pit atlanta.com and we are very Atlanta focused. We do monthly meetups. We do an investor coffee chat, um, every third Monday at Atlanta of a Thousand Hills Coffee Shop on Spring Street.
And we also do, uh, monthly coworking days, typically at A TDC. You can find all that information on our website. We are, uh, really trying to get very purposeful and tactical about how we support black founders to more revenue, more investments, and more m and a activity in Atlanta, and then hopefully, eventually beyond.
So that, and then for the LIFT program, check out the Center for Black Entrepreneurship. It's a partnership between Spelman, Morehouse and the Black Econ Economic Alliance. It. Uh, this website is [00:49:00] cbe center.org and, uh, the center's really pushing out a lot of very interesting programming, but that has a, uh, research academic focus, a student focus in terms of cultivating student entrepreneurship and between Spelman and Morehouse, but then also community focused and where my program lies.
With startups in the Atlanta entrepreneurial ecosystem and how we help bring them to investor readiness so that when they do go to raise, they do know a little bit more about how venture capital actually works, and they're really ready to actually take on those investors and bring those checks in and operationalize them.
So yeah, find me in those places.
Kt: we will put all of those, all of those links in the show notes. Make it easy for people to click. Learn, get involved. Support founders. You'll know where to go. Fictive writes checks. Early, like early, early, you can learn more about what's the right fit for the pit, what's the right fit for Lyft, [00:50:00] learning more about how you can plug into the Center for Black Entrepreneurship. And I would also just just say, not just follow Khadijah on LinkedIn for the spicy takes, she shares as she goes. So if you're like, I don't get vc, I don't think it's for me, feel silly asking this question. One, you're not and two Khadijah's Got you. And you and I just thank you. Thank you for making something that feels like it's a gated, exclusive access only granted field opener, more kind, more purposeful, and actually doing action and not just doing the talk.
Like it's, it's, we need more of it in the world. And thank you for being a lot of it.
Khadijah Robinson: Thank you.
[00:51:00]