NORFOLK, Va. — Pharrell Williams invited a swath of industry leaders to take part in the Mighty Dream Forum for business development in Norfolk this week.
From Tuesday through Thursday, you can attend panels on all kinds of topics in the business world.
Innovators are getting together to talk about how business will be done in the future, health equity, Black entrepreneurship, the power of education, diversity and implicit bias, innovation -- everything.
Digital reporter Sam Schaffer got ahold of some panelists and asked them to boil down their advice for people starting out with dreams of their own. Here's what they said.
Rachelle Olden
Senior product marketing manager, lead of Tech Equity Collective at Google
Schaffer: What's a typical day of work for you, what does that mean?
Olden: Busy. A typical day of work for me is, I have the opportunity to work alongside an amazing team of other marketers and other program managers, and I'm either talking to external partners, outside of Google, usually Black and tech-focused organizations about opportunities for partnership, or to be up-to-date about what they're doing.
I also work with a lot of other internal Google teams that are focused on racial equity or economic empowerment, so we're in conversations, I'm planning an opportunity to come to Mighty Dream, or I'm thinking about programming, or reviewing copy for our website, or thinking about our social media assets. There's a lot of different things.
Schaffer: What are two or three pieces of advice that you have for entrepreneurs in Hampton Roads?
Olden: Always understand that they create their own possibilities. So don't stop, be incredibly resilient, and don't be afraid to challenge the status quo.
Another piece of advice is: build a community. Build a community of other people who are doing similar work, because you can exchange ideas, you can exchange resources, you can give each other candid feedback, you can also build a network bigger than yourselves. It really does come down to having the relationships in the industry.
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Melissa Bradley
General partner of 1863 Ventures
Schaffer: What's a typical day of work for you?
Bradley: Talking to over 100 entrepreneurs, reading a lot of business plans, having a lot of committee meetings to decide who we're going to invest in.
Schaffer: What are two pieces of advice for locals in the 757 who are starting their business
Bradley: One thing is to know your numbers, because if you want to make money, you've gotta make sure you can track the money. And the second thing is, make sure you have a team of people who know exactly what business you're in or sect you're in, and they can actually help you get customers because that's the most important thing.
Byna Elliott
Head of Advancing Black Pathways for JPMorgan Chase
Schaffer: What is a typical day of work like?
Elliott: I look at data around how we're making progress against our $30 billion racial equity commitment. I also look at information around how we're making progress from lending and investment, and ways that we engage our Black community, and think about strategies and approaches -- whether it's new products, services or tools that we can use to help make progress around the racial wealth gap.
Schaffer: What is some advice for local entrepreneurs in the 757?
Elliott: There's a lot of great information that's being shared at this conference around access to capital and tools that you can use, business entrepreneurship training -- take advantage of it. That's where you start to really engage and get into the community around the ecosystem for building your business. Whether you're looking for a venture capital fund, or direct just traditional lending for your small business, this is the tool where you can start that trajectory.
Schaffer: Okay, for someone who's not at the event, what's a good starting point?
Elliott: I would say doing some internet searches, whether it's the Small Business Development Technical Center, or even just Googling "access to capital" or "how do I get funded for my business" and you'll find great programs, and then you can do your own investigation into what's the right one for your company
