Q & A

We recently sat down with Gloria M. Ware to find out more about her passions, her calling, and generally dive in deeper to get to know her.

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Add What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your work over the last few years?

I think it’s just the knowledge that the systems that are in place are not helping us [people of color]. That tears away your confidence. I wish there was trauma-informed financing when I was younger, because it would have given me a sense of support and understanding to approach things from.

When I was younger, a young tech entrepreneur, I would go into these spaces pitching my business, and primarily I would use it as an opportunity to sharpen my communication skills and build my confidence. But doing that was almost counterintuitive, because the questions that people were asking me were based on their own projections, their own internal biases that they wouldn't have had for other people who didn’t look like me. It was disheartening. It felt like I was hitting a brick wall, because I knew, even as I was entering those rooms, that those people were not going to work with me, they were not on my side.

I think that is the hardest thing to face, knowing that as a person of color, you already have so much working against you. It can be really disheartening, demoralizing, and that can eat away at you, even when you really believe in yourself and your idea.

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Developing alternative business models to the startup status quo has become a central moral challenge of our time. These alternatives want to balance profit and purpose and put a premium on sharing power and resources.

Why is getting investments in this alternative model crucial for those who seek it?

When you have opportunities that are confidence-building, those get you further as an entrepreneur. That’s what we [people of color] need. We have the ability to innovate, we have ideas, we can get traction on those things within our own communities. But too often, we lack the knowledge to grow or the resources to enfranchise our businesses. We don't have the resources to just throw darts at the wall.

I’ve heard people use phrases like having an “opportunity to fail” when it comes to first-time or young entrepreneurs, because we know the risks involved in getting started. That’s a nice idea, but it’s not true for everyone. If you're a woman, especially a woman of color, those investors–usually not women of color, usually white men–are looking at you when you're pitching and asking themselves why they should invest. But when you’re a white man or a white person pitching, that same group of investors says, “Oh, I see myself in that person, I should give them a chance.”

And that’s what it becomes: For those in the majority, for the privileged majority, success isn’t even the goal. Failure is a learning experience. Investors will give you money to set up a business and see it fail just so that you can figure out how to be successful. But if you are working with zero dollars, like so many entrepreneurs of color are, you don't get the chance to try and fail and learn what works. Your opportunities are so few and far between. And what we have is this group that is just ignored, ideas that are overlooked, because they don’t even have a chance to test their ideas.

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How do we shift the narrative about the role of capital in BIPOC communities and reframe the perceptions of the risk involved?

I think the answer is accessibility. For example: Let’s consider how we think about investing in one another. If a little cousin or niece comes to me and says, “I want to start this thing,” my first instinct could be, “Oh my God, that's such a risk by going to do that.” But if instead I can shift and say, “Okay, let’s do one piece of this at a time, let’s subtract something and then add it back slowly,” the risk becomes much smaller.

On the other hand, it’s really common for investors to look at Black women as high risk. So I adjusted to that. When I am in spaces where I am pitching to skeptical white men, my goal is to keep the door open for people who look like me. Even if I do want to say something crazy, I resolve that I am not going to say it, because I don't want to close the door for somebody else. So, as a person of color, I consider what I need to say that would be the most beneficial for them, what I can say so that even if they are not going to invest or support me, they at least gain value from my presence.

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What are the top three pieces of advice you would give to BIPOC entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to both purpose and profit, as they are starting or scaling their business?

Follow your inspiration. Period. That's why I'm here today. We all have a body, a mind and experience in life. All of those things are designed specifically for us, so get in tune with that and follow your intuition.

Second, save money, but don’t be afraid to take a risk with it at the same time. I put myself in a really good position financially with my credit, and II thought I had enough money to support myself and invest in my business, but I didn't realize that I didn't have enough money to fail and have to pay for the consequences of that reality.

Finally: Build your confidence, whatever that means to you. For me, when I was younger, whenever I went to a networking event, they would ask, “Does anybody want to give a pitch for one minute?” And I would give my elevator pitch. However you can do it, build your confidence, because confidence is premium. Confidence is a premium, and when you have it, the premium that your investors will pay is investing in you. The premium that your customers will pay will be them buying into your products. The premium that your team will pay is them putting in that sweat equity working with you. Your confidence is your foundation.

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What is the call to action for investors who seek to promote social justice through investment solutions?

Do your homework. As a Black woman, I always say: “I'm not solving your problems, I'm not going to save you.” Investors need to do their own homework. Do not just try to come into our communities and ask us, “What do you need?” Because I will ask you right back: “Do you know what we can do?”

Somebody asked me that one time, a really cool woman I used to work with. “What can we do to just support?” And I just was like, “Well, look at your life. Look at all the things you love about your life, the trust that your parents build for you. The fact that your parents own their home and you were able to get into homeownership for yourself and your early twenties. Imagine not having those things. Look at those things. Those are the things that you can work on to help support people.”

But do your homework, understand the systems that are in place and that disproportionately impact people of color and follow your inspiration from there. It’s not a catch. It’s been 400-plus years in the making.