Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha
Morgan DeBaun, Your Startup Survival Kit for VC Funding and Leadership | Entrepreneurship | YAPClassic
Fri, 01 Nov 2024
When Michael Brown was killed in his home state of Missouri in 2014, Morgan DeBaun was dismayed by the poor media coverage of the story. Realizing there was a gap in authentic, real-time coverage of Black issues, she set out in search of venture capital to build a platform for Black voices. To her disappointment, everyone she approached said no. But she found her way to social impact investors who provided the first round of funding she needed to build Blavity, a leading digital media company for Black culture and millennials. In this episode, she shares how she built an influential media empire and offers practical advice on navigating the toughest challenges of founding and leading a company. In this episode, Hala and Morgan will discuss: - Why hard work is not enough - Being an outsider in Silicon Valley - Bootstrapping vs. raising venture capital - Finding social impact investors to fund Blavity - Rallying her investors to raise more capital - How diversity can boost your bottom line - Celebrating wins to attract and keep the best talent - Using anonymous feedback to build a stronger team - Learning to lead 200 employees - Balancing entrepreneurship with personal life - And other topics… Morgan DeBaun is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Blavity Inc., a company that builds product solutions and media for Black consumers and the enterprises that want to reach them. She launched Blavity in 2014 to address the lack of media representation for Black audiences and has grown it into a multimedia empire that includes brands like Blavity News, AfroTech, Travel Noire, and Shadow & Act. Under her leadership, Blavity reaches over 100 million readers monthly and hosts AfroTech, the largest Black tech conference. Morgan advises top brands on diversity strategies and shares her insights through her podcast The Journey and The Journey Newsletter. Her work and thought leadership have earned her recognition on Forbes' 30 Under 30, America's Top 50 Women in Tech, and The Root 100. Connect with Morgan: Morgan’s Website: https://www.morgandebaun.com/ Resources Mentioned: Blavity Website: https://blavity.com/ Morgan’s Podcast, The Journey: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-journey-with-morgan-debaun/id1687058364 LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Career, Success, Entrepreneurship, Productivity, Careers, Startup, Entrepreneurs, Business Ideas, Growth Hacks, Career Development, Money Management, Opportunities, Professionals, Workplace, Career podcast, Entrepreneurship podcast
Chapter 1: What inspired Morgan DeBaun to start Blavity?
So I found myself having friction on the how to get things done and feeling like I was explaining myself and educating them, these people who make 10x what I make, who are the big bosses in the room. And I made a decision at that point, after a few years of learning the game, oh, this could be the rest of my life. I could stay in corporate and be the girl who's explaining all the things.
But is that going to be the fastest way, one, for change? Because I would only be at that company if I was doing it. And two, is that how I want to spend my time? Is that the impact? that I want to make. And that was the friction between loving my work, loving the ecosystem, identifying, you know what, we're not quite there yet. And then trying to figure out, well, what is my role in this space?
Yeah. And then I know around that time, you started to really see like an opportunity in the marketplace, especially when it came to brown and black people. What was it that you saw? What gaps did you see?
Yeah, so about two and a half, three years in, Michael Brown was killed in St. Louis. So I was having a moment where I would go into my cubicle in downtown San Francisco and I would be heartbroken, just screaming internally at the computer, on my phone. And meanwhile, the world's just like operating like nothing is wrong. We know how it feels. I know how it feels. I'm going through it right now.
You know, everybody's just bumping it along. And you're like, hello, what is going on? You know, and how can I be helpful? How can I leverage my platform? How can I use my skills, my unique set of skills to make an impact? And I didn't have a platform at the time, right? I mean, I'm 24 years old, right? But I did have skills. And I did have the ability to say, you know what?
I now have some network. Let me figure out how I can create a unique brand and company that is an advocate for this group of people that's often overlooked, and more importantly, doesn't have the information distribution systems that we needed to get information from place to place in an accurate way.
It's crazy that I'm saying this right now because it's like the exact same problem is happening in a lot of different communities. And it's terrible. It's a terrible problem when you are the underrepresented group trying to get information to one another that is accurate, that is in real time, And that you're trying to get resources to the people on the ground, which in our case was back in St.
Louis, like bail bonds. You know, people were going to jail. We needed to get them out of jail. People were then driving to different cities where all these uprisings were happening. We need to get them money. It's an entire cluster. And without media and information sharing and platforms, you wind up just perpetuating the cycle over and over again. So that was the problem.
And that's when I said, I'm going to take this leap and really commit to over the next three to four months, figuring out how to quit my job and be full-time working on Blavity.
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Chapter 2: How did Morgan navigate being an outsider in Silicon Valley?
Got it. And so this also is good for you because it helps you retain your employees.
Is that right? Absolutely. I definitely know when people start exercising their shares, I'm always like, hold up. Are you happy? Are you about to leave? Are you okay? What's going on? But generally, we see people exercise their shares. You know, if they've transitioned, we see that take place after the fact.
People don't generally exercise during the time that they're at the company because there's really no reason to. But in the event that we sell the company, that means that everybody who has shares gets a check, even if you were part of our vision and mission four years ago. And I think that's beautiful.
That is awesome. I want to look into that. It sounds really cool. So talk to us about how Blavity has evolved over the years, because it started as a newsletter and I went on your website and I was like, wow, this is like, there's a lot going on here. So what are the types of things that you do today? What's your business model?
Yeah, so Blavity today, we have about 200 employees. We're fully remote all over the country. We have two divisions, so really two separate groups of leaders. One is our Blavity Media Group. Blavity Media Group is the original mission of Blavity. We create brands and media brands that speak to our communities, and then we work with advertisers who want to authentically reach those communities.
We have big clients, Walmart, MasterCard, Toyota, et cetera, that advertise with us. And we have online content and all the good things.
We also have a publisher network where we work with multicultural publishers that are independent or smaller than us, who don't have the same sales team or ad infrastructure, who want to work with the McDonald's or Toyota or other really incredible partners and run their ad operations and monetization for them.
Amazing. Sounds like we're doing really some similar stuff.
We are. And then our second business, which is called AfroTech and Talent Infusion, is really focused on talent acquisition and diversity in the tech space. And it's separate from media because ultimately what we're trying to do is increase the speed in which people of color are able to get jobs. And increase the pipeline of talent that stays in tech and stays at these big companies.
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Chapter 8: How did Morgan balance entrepreneurship with personal life?
I mean, I don't think that's really the reality for these kids these days, but like just a little bit more innocent than the things going on in New York and LA. You see a lot in these spaces and it wasn't easy. People thought I was nuts when I left LA. I mean, it's like, how can you be so successful and have all these things and all these employees and stuff, but you live in like Tennessee.
It's making sense. But it does make sense to me. And it's worked out.
Yeah. And nowadays, as an entrepreneur, you can be just online crushing it. You don't need to be in physical spaces, at least all the time anymore. So you have a book coming out. Tell us about this book. What is it called? What is it going to be about? When does it come out? Yeah. So I'm finishing writing it now.
The book comes out next year, next fall. And it's all about helping other ambitious people define life and their success for themselves. And even if you're good, if you're like, I'm good, but I'm not great. I want to get to the point where I'm living every week in my purpose.
And that might mean I'm a stay-at-home mom and I'm doing pickup and drop-off and I'm investing in my hobbies and I'm living a beautiful life. That's great. It could mean I'm starting a media company and I'm growing this thing and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate all these choices I need to make.
But the real person that it is for is somebody who aspires to have a vision of the life that they want to live. And then they're willing to make some tough temporary choices like you and I have to get there and basically showing them how.
Well, awesome. I can't wait to have you back on to talk about that book. So we'll have you back on in six months or so when you're done and the book is coming out. Thank you so much. I end my show with two questions that I ask everyone. So the first one, what is one actionable thing our young and profiters can do today to become more profitable tomorrow?
invest in yourself, whether that's books, Audible, whether that is investing in the stock market so you have some safety net, whatever it may be, invest in yourself. You're going to get paid so much more dividends if you invest in yourself before material things.
I totally agree. Getting as many skills as possible is so key, especially in 2023 and beyond. And what is your secret to profiting in life? And this can go beyond business, beyond financial, beyond the topic of today's episode.
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