Q & A

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

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

We are challenging a financial system that is designed to extract and create a sense of scarcity. A really big challenge is how to shift that conversation to embrace the abundance of resources that are available. It’s hard to know, how much should we push given the urgency? How much do we move at the speed of trust and pull people along? The racial reckoning within the United States these past few years overlays the challenge. A lot of our partners are afraid that within a year or two, people are not going to be worried about racial equity. It’s hard to live in the mindset of abundance if you are constantly worried that what you are working on is going to be a flash in the pan.

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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?

We have to ask our investors to really rethink what it means to invest in their community. Instead of prioritizing the financial return they would like to receive from the investment, we ask that they think about, and prioritize, the impact the people being invested in have on the community and how this investment serves the community above all else. Providing alternative investment models that prioritize impact is crucial because it allows people the opportunity to access capital affordably, and with the opportunity to try, to test, and even, at times, to fail. We are really trying to shift the investor mindset to think about how to invest in a way that’s patient and flexible.

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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?

We are constantly putting forth the questions: What is the risk of you not investing in our communities? What is the risk of not investing in this BIPOC entrepreneur, community or person? How can we build towards equity if we’re continuing to think about and frame everything in these risk and reward frameworks? When we move away from risk aversion to community benefit, we can start imagining all the possibilities of what it means to invest in somebody and support them to make their idea a reality.

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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?

• Have a partner or mentor, anyone you can turn to who you really trust and be there to support you and really think through a lot of the challenges that you’re going to face.

• See your work within a larger ecosystem, seek out those who you can connect with and give you energy, and help you navigate your goals.

• Have an abundance mindset. There is a lot of money out there and it can be really hard to reinforce this scarcity mindset. Lean into that abundance mindset: there is enough funding, resources, people and talent.

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

Disrupt the status quo. Seek out those opportunities to really shift power and capital within a community and then advocate to your financial advisors to invest in those opportunities. Continue to use your power to allocate capital towards community centered investments.