);

Month: November 2020

EMPOWERING RENTERS WITH FINANCIAL ARMOR

Posted on by foundersunfound

 

Listen in from yourfavorite podcast spots or read the full transcript here.

OUR SPONSORS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Founders Live, the global venue for entrepreneurs to experience events, content, and community.
Check out founderslive.com to join and to find a live event streaming from your city.

 

CAN PAYING RENT =
A BETTER CREDIT SCORE?

 

Abbey Wemimo believes emphatically: yes!

Abbey is the Co-founder and Co-CEO of Esusu, a revolutionary fintech platform transforming the connection between data, tenants, and property. Esusu empowers renters around the most important financial identity: the credit score. 

Abbey was born in Nigeria, and as he puts it, “raised in the slums” of Lagos. His mother sacrificed over half her salary to make sure Abbey was able to reach beyond and attend the best schools. He studied alongside the children of the country’s elites, taking him to the US, with stops and degrees from the University of Minnesota and NYU. His early career covered politics, finance, and international development. And his first entrepreneurial endeavor led him to provide clean water for over a quarter of a million people in developing regions.

Abbey and his co-founder Samir started Esusu with a major innovation at its core: using rent payments to enhance credit score. By tracking and using data, Esusu can transform the credit prospects for the 70 million Americans who have little or no credit history. Meanwhile, Esusu provides property managers with insights, analytics, and tenants who are motivated towards timely payments.

The company is now in half a million rental units, across 40 US states. Abbey and Samir have raised over $4 Million in funding from investors like Impact America Fund, Zeal Capital, and Global Good Fund.

Esusu is a word with origins in Nigeria. It essentially means a form of societal cooperation where groups of individuals together contribute for their mutual benefit. But if ask Abbey he will tell you a much simpler version:

“If you want to go fast, you go alone. But if you want to go far, you fundamentally go together”

Make sure to listen in to his wonderful story.

 

“We are now at half a million rental units in 40 States in the country.”
~ Abbey Wemimo

In this episode Abbey and Dan discussed:

  • Growing up in the slums of Lagos Nigeria
  • Key philosophies: fall forward + you are enough
  • The transition from balmy Nigeria to frigid Minnesota
  • his first startup which gave access to water for quarter-million people
  • Pitching 300+ investors

 

Episode Shout Outs:

Samir Goel (Co-founder)
Beth Noveck
Acumen
Global Good Fund
Sinai Ventures
Zeal Capital Partners
Impact America Fund

 

“ I walk into every situation knowing I can see the other side and be successful.”
~ Abbey Wemimo

MORE on ABBEY AND ESUSU

ABBEY:

linkedin.com/in/wemimo-abbey-62382a2a/

ESUSU:

esusurent.com
esusurentrelief.com
linkedin.com/company/esusu/
twitter.com/getesusu

 

“Relationships matter. Invest in them.”
~ Abbey Wemimo

 

REVOLUTIONIZING HOW CONTENT FINDS ITS THEME MUSIC

Posted on by foundersunfound

 

Listen in from yourfavorite podcast spots or read the full transcript here.

OUR SPONSORS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Black Women Talk Tech, a collective of black women tech founders that exists to identify, support, and encourage black women to build billion-dollar businesses. BWTT is hosting the Face of a Founder Summit on November 17th, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, and partners for an exciting gathering. Registration is free, but spots are limited.

You don’t want to miss it! Sign up here!

 

A Marketplace to find and

license the perfect song

 

Kirt Debique is the Co-Founder and CEO of SyncFloor, a company revolutionizing discovery and acquisition of music for productions of all types – from advertising to podcasting, filmmaking to fitness, TV to eSports.

Kirt is an entrepreneur and a renaissance man. A native of Trinidad, Kirt started college at sixteen. He passed on grad school at Stanford to work at Microsoft. His career there paralleled some of that company’s major milestones, But after a successful 20-year stint at the tech giant, Kirt decided to take his career in a different direction. He founded Brick Lane Records, an Indie music label. He started Brick Lane with a set of principles that made the artist the priority – a key opportunity he recognized hanging out in the local Seattle music scene. Oh, and by the way, Kirt is also an artist on his label.

Today Kirt leads his own tech startup, SyncFloor, which is an amazing fusion of his expertise: music and technology. Listen in to hear more about Kirt startup journey.

 

“If I’m going to go do something, I go super deep on it so that I have a lot of empathy for the people involved.”
~ Kirt Debique

In this episode Kirt and Dan discussed:

  • Growing up in Trinidad
  • Coming to the US to study computer science in college at 16
  • What gives him empathy for the indie music creator
  • His spin on creating a music label
  • How music fits in the creator economy
  • His approach to the chicken-and-egg of building a marketplace

 

Episode Shout Outs:

Kirby Winfield – Ascend VC
Brick Lane Records
Steven Wolfe Pereira

5-star reviewer: Jessica, sySTEMic flow

 

“I never told Stanford I wasn’t coming. So there’s somebody, waiting for their TA to show up still!”
~ Kirt Debique

MORE on KIRT AND SYNCFLOOR

KIRT:

linkedin.com/in/kirtdebique/
twitter.com/katewayo
twitter.com/BrickLaneRecs
instagram.com/katewayo/

 

SYNCFLOOR:

 

songsforpodcasters.com
syncfloor.com
linkedin.com/company/syncfloor/
twitter.com/SyncFloor
instagram.com/syncfloor/

 

“We’ll start an independent music label.”
~ Kirt Debique