"As a board member, you need to spend time in the business. It’s a blunt instrument, but how much time directors spend engaging with the business and its stakeholders is a powerful indicator."

"I was a kid who was writing scripts in elementary school and always trying to do plays."

"I met Sandra I stalked her for the summer and I knew that she was going to be my ticket."

"I had to hire offshore resources on a shoestring budget."

"I was always really interested in film and TV."

"I think the opportunities that streaming has created are really because of the audience."

"If they want them and there is a demand, then it will naturally have value."

"So many people and opportunities have influenced my leadership style."

"When you’re in a situation like we are in the business where you’re really trying to diversify your slate and make sure you have something for everyone."

"What’s been really great is to see how the culture of entrepreneurship has changed so much over the years. When I first started out, it was hard to find the right support or to meet with other like-minded entrepreneurs"

"I found myself managing hundreds of servers and also having to provide tech support all while running an organization for some time."

"Unfortunately there are stereotypes. If, as women, we keep it really fact-based and calm, it will lead to people reacting to us positively… You want to encourage somebody to want to be with you and on your side. Not to be accusatorial.”"

"I started there on my first day of college and that’s really what put me on the path."

"I am very fortunate that I’ve been able to trust my instincts and not be too worried about the outcome."

"If there’s something that really connects with me emotionally and feels like it’s honest, I follow that feeling, and so far, it’s been working."

"It was disheartening that my partner and I despite being two successful black women in tech could not raise the money we needed to scale our MVP."

"This led me to launch Guapcoin, which I felt could eventually open up more capital and more options for people like me."

"The secret is there is no secret."

"If we’re going to fail, then let’s fail big."

"We want to be a reflection of the culture as we see it, but also move culture."

"You want to feel like what you’re doing is making an impact."

"My journey as a Black women in Hollywood begins my senior year of high school."

"This was my second startup, it was during my first startup, a company called 'Safe2meet', a P2P verification platform, that I discovered that Black women get less than 1% of VC or capital funding for their companies."

"After all crypto Guapcoin is essentially money, and as the days go by, it becomes closer and closer to becoming accepted as legal tender everywhere."

"This really feels like an opportunity to do something that’s going to be lasting and meaningful."

"The thing I realized on my time off is that I’m an innately curious person."

"I have a lot of hobbies."

"I am the CTO of Black Wall Street, a cryptocurrency wallet and community aimed at empowering investors of color."

"The biggest challenge I faced was one of the exact adversaries I was attempting to solve."

"I might go hard for a few months, and then I’ll have a week where you can’t find me. I’m in the wind."

"I was taking banjo lessons a few years ago."

"My final challenge was finding blockchain talent and resources to support our project."

"For me, and for a lot of people, the world changed with Trayvon Martin."

"I really want to go back to the banjo."

"I met a woman named Sandra Dorsey Rice who worked for the Emma L. Bowen Foundation, which placed kids who are interested in media in careers."

"It is the access to funding for founders of colors."

"I’m kind of all or nothing."

"Fast forward to two weeks later and her husband came to deliver vegetables to me and I asked him where she was and he just started crying. He told me that she had passed away and that is when I decided that let me get into this business, if not for myself but for her because she believed in her business so much. It’s sad that I can’t share what’s happened since then with her but that’s how Zwide Veggies was born"

"I’m not going to lie and say Covid-19 has had a bad impact on the business. We have been the busiest during the lockdown. I think it is what has made me open a physical shop. The orders were now overwhelming and I needed a place where I could store the vegetables, a place where people can come and order without doing so online. At some point our site crushed. God would have to punish me if I said that Covid-19 affected me badly because it is what led to the opening of the physical shop"

"My experience would lead me to doubt that Negro businesses can grow to large magnitude in the South without feeling something of restraint, as well as a certain sense of insecurity."

"I am a founder, blockchain engineer, technologist, and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience."

"In 2016 I had applied to every company that you can think of and I did not get any job. So, that is when I decided that let me be my own boss and do the employing. Everyone was expecting to go into the beauty industry but I met this lady who used to deliver vegetables to my house and so I asked her how she did it. She told me that the first thing that I needed to separate me from the rest of the field was to get a car so I could do deliveries"

"My advice to people to come into the same line of business as myself is that there is no off day. Vegetables and fruits are perishables and you need to have a plan on how to push your sales. If you don’t, you will end up running a loss"

"Charity begins at home. That is the reason why I chose to start with Pumula East before going to other townships. I want to give back to my home first before I expand to other suburbs"

"I was heart-broken when one of the grannies cried saying some of the food items (that were donated) were now like luxury. We as a community should try as much as we can to help our fellow brothers and sisters"

"You will get produce and not sell it and it goes bad pretty fast. That was my problem in the beginning. You need to have a strong presence online. Most of our sales come from the online store. You need to slay your brand. You need to breath, sleep and eat your brand. You need to know what to do when things go to the left…this industry needs 100 percent from the owner. You need to be the one leading from the front. A lot of work goes into the business. It is draining and that is something that I won’t lie about"