Episode 5: Desiree Younge - NBC- “Nobody’s Coming!”
In this extended episode, Desiree shares her experiences and perspectives on many things including entrepreneurship, funding and much more. She also shares her experience working in venture philanthropy and impact investing. Navigating her way as a "prospector expert" has taken her from the Robin Hood Foundation in New York to spearheading philanthropy on the continent, specifically Nigeria with the Tony Elumelu Foundation where philanthropic intent drives progress without any of the tax incentives commonly associated with foundations in the West, and then recently creating a legacy program at the Tory Burch Foundation working on cross-generational and sectoral female entrepreneurship and leadership development. Based on her own experience growing up and running her grandmother's bakery in Sierra Leone, Desiree honed an interest and passion for entrepreneurship early on and talked about the disparity of investment between East and West Africa regionally and how East African countries have been able to galvanize investment and finance due to the relative political stability and security in the region. Desiree discussed working with TEF and its focus on using entrepreneurship as a building block to international development and creating opportunity with a focus on startups but also discussed the double-edged sword of microfinance and the sector's lack of emphasis on planned growth. Desiree shared the challenges of developing the building blocks to investor confidence which include financials, taxes, business governance, and transparency within the over 40 million SMEs in Nigeria and stressed the need for SMEs to develop clarity around purpose and how finance would be used to grow and scale. Understanding investor focus and vetting SMEs is crucial in finding alignment. With only 3% of women entrepreneurs getting investment capital, understanding why there is a lack of growth capital, and the opportunities and barriers of debt financing, grants, and other forms of "patient capital" is vital research that all entrepreneurs should master. Desiree reflected on Covid-related necessity being the mother of entrepreneurial invention and that many people are looking to start a business at this time and address needs and previous blind spots in a post-Covid-19 world such as comprehensive child care provision as an untapped opportunity. With 90% of enterprises failing in the first 3 years and only 2% of women-led businesses in the US generating a million dollars in revenue, long term success has much more to with creating need-driven value-added products and services with a large funnel of customers. As businesses try to adapt, Desirees' adage of “NBC” - Nobody's Coming is wise advice to make entrepreneurs focus on sales and profit rather than loans and emergency stimulus assistance. Desiree has coached women on leading with data and numbers rather than personal anecdotes but also being clear on knowing the source of impact investment funds and gauging real interest in your business will help save precious time and manage expectations. Resources shared during the episode include: Research Crowdfunding platforms Spanks Elevating Women Initiative Grant Station Shea Moisture New Voice Fund Verizon Fund through LISC Desiree can be found on LinkedIn and Instagram