Entrepreneurial Appetite
Entrepreneurial Appetite is a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses. This podcast will feature edited versions of Entrepreneurial Appetite’s Black book discussions, including live conversations between a virtual audience, authors, and Black entrepreneurs. In this community, we do not limit what it means to be an intellectual or entrepreneur. We recognize that the sisters and brothers who own and work in beauty salons or barbershops are intellectuals just as much as sisters and brothers who teach and research at universities. This podcast is unique because, as part of this community, you have the opportunity to participate in our monthly book discussion, suggest the book to be discussed, or even lead the conversation between the author and our community of intellectuals and entrepreneurs. For more information about participating in our monthly discussions, please follow Entrepreneurial_ Appetite on Instagram and Twitter. Please consider supporting the show as one of our Founding 55 patrons. For five dollars a month, you can access our live monthly conversations. See the link below:https://www.patreon.com/EA_BookClub
Entrepreneurial Appetite
Transforming Campus Life: Anastasia Jackson's Journey from Howard University Student to Tech CEO
Ever been frustrated by the systemic issues and operational inefficiencies that disrupt your day-to-day life on campus? Our guest today, Anastasia Jackson, shares her journey from a shocked Howard University student to the proactive founder and CEO of WeNite Inc., a groundbreaking React Native and blockchain-based platform. She turned her frustration into a solution aimed at streamlining operations and communication within the HBCU ecosystem based on personal experiences, like facing an unjustified $16,000 hold. Join us as we traverse Anastasia's inspiring journey, how she turned adversity into opportunities, and the wisdom and support she received from her alma mater during challenging times.
As we navigate this enlightening discussion, you'll get a glimpse of Anastasia's ambitious vision for WeNite, one that stretches beyond HBCUs into other universities, large corporations, and even the healthcare system. She aims to bring resources to people proactively, transforming more than just the HBCU experience. We also delve into the important role alumni can play in backing students interested in entrepreneurship and investing in transformative initiatives like WeNight. Listen in to be inspired by Anastasia's journey and envision a future where technology and determination can redefine your experience. Tune in, take note, and let's reimagine the shape of HBCUs together.
Listen y'all. I know I typically give the generic in this episode of entrepreneurial appetite blah, blah, blah, blah blah. But I'm not going to do that this time because we have a very special bonus episode featuring Anastasia Jackson, and this young woman deserves more than just the generic introduction. She is the founder and CEO of we Night Inc. A company that uses artificial intelligence to improve the experiences of HBCU faculty staff and students. And for those of you who have gone to HBCUs, you know we love our institutions, but at the same time, we have complaints about systems and processes that are at times, inefficient, and this woman decided that she wasn't going to be a complainer, that she was going to go do something about the issues that she saw in her own HBCU experience and decided to found a company that would provide a solution. So, anastasia, just tell us a little bit about who you are, what you're doing, but also tell us the story of the worst day of your life.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So I'm Anastasia Jackson. I was born Oakland, california, so you can imagine when I went to Howard University it was definitely a culture shock for me, coming from the suburbs to the city. And, yeah, the worst day of my life was actually my first day on Howard's campus. When I got there, I had a $16,000 hold Don't know how that's possible. My housing had been given to somebody else and also my classes on my schedule just magically disappeared.
Speaker 2:So I really spent that first semester just trying to figure out how do I solve these problems and, to my surprise, everybody's response was pretty much the same. It was like oh yeah, I've had that similar issue, or yeah, yeah, that happened to me too. That's common. And it wasn't just students, current students, it would be like alumni that I was talking to. That went back in 1980s and they had the same exact problems and so just a little more transparency. That made me very, very depressed because I'm like this is something I'm supposed to just accept. This is like the common trauma bond between not only HBCUs but there's PWIs that experience this too, and I was like you know what? No, no, no, I can't accept this. There has to be some solution. We just haven't created it yet, and now we have with we Night.
Speaker 1:I just have to say, when I listen to your three minute pitch about your story of getting there and having all of this chaos, you come from the other side of the country, your first time away from home, what's supposed to be an extended period of time for many, many students. And you're right, it's a common experience among a lot of HBCU current students and alum going all the way back. Everybody knows, right, you made me think about so many things. And it's like we normalize that. Yeah, it's going to be like this, but I still love my HBCU. We normalize the thing that's bad about our experience and we just accept it and we use that as almost like fuel for our unconditional love for our institutions. I don't think that the love is wrong, but the acceptance of the processes and systems that don't necessarily allow us to have the best experiences is something that we shouldn't accept, and I'm just impressed by the fact that you decided to come up with a solution. So talk a little bit about what we Night is and what it actually does.
Speaker 2:So we Night is an AI center technology. We use React Native, so things that you see with Instagram, youtube, they use React AI, and then we also use blockchain so that information is secure, but you also have ownership of your data and the content that you create, and really we just focus on streamlining the operations and the communication aspect of the HBCU, the entire HBCU ecosystem. So for our first feature, we have the class scheduling. The class scheduling feature where, whether you want to graduate in three years and you're part of five different orgs, with all these time constraints AI can quickly, within seconds, make you a class schedule to fit your needs and then go further to actually book that appointment with your advisor, so you don't have to go back and forth and emails with that advisor and like that's just one feature. So just imagine all the other operations and communications that you need to just attend and matriculate at your HBCU.
Speaker 1:When did you graduate from Howard?
Speaker 2:I'm class of 2021.
Speaker 1:So you're fresh, right, yeah, and my my, you were work. Were you working on we night while you were a student?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, that that traumatizing event like that was that semester. I decided, like no, I am going to create the solution, if not for me, then for the person right behind me.
Speaker 1:And so it's interesting you did this after having come to Howard, had that experience, but then you were building this during COVID times. Oh yeah, even more significant, can you talk a little bit about how Howard supported you, or where did you get your support to build and come up with a solution? On campus? Were there any mentors, people who were sponsoring you? How did that occur?
Speaker 2:So, honestly, that's one thing I do love about Howard and all HBCUs is that that networking is really strong. So I talked to a lot of people about we night when I was a student. They weren't really able to help me as far as like supporting me with the team or anything material, because I didn't even know I didn't have all that structure capital ready and like how I wanted it to be, but they did give me a lot of wisdom and a lot of support. They always made sure that they told me that this is something that we do need. So please keep going like, figure it out. By any means, we need this. But I will want to say that Howard is our pilot school, so they did later come back and partner with us. We have now access to all 50,000 students, faculty and staff on their platform, so I mean in their school, so they do support us and all these features were doing it with them first.
Speaker 1:That's good, so Howard allowed you to test on their campus.
Speaker 2:Correct, we're doing it now, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, okay, so I'm going to be 39 on Friday and so thank you, thank you. So I'll be 39 on Friday. So I'm not old, but I'm older, like I'm thoroughly in my adulthood, right, and so you know, you know how old black people are. I was like man, I'm so proud of this young lady right here. You know what I'm saying. They gas up a little bit, so like I feel like I'm old enough to do that to you, like now I understand how like the elders felt like when I was in grad school, getting my master's in PhD, and they just like, and I think it's just normal stuff. But the way that they feel like that's how I feel about you right now, that common bond where we just my advisor didn't show up to the meeting today, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:But your advisor at a black college a lot of people don't know this is oftentimes sometimes also your professor, right? Yeah, literally yeah. Your professor has classes. They have other hundreds, 80, 90 students that they also have to advise, and so finding a tech solution to make those things easier, I think is a brilliant idea and maybe it'll help us not lose that, because I know so. I work at a large Hispanic serving institution now that in some ways functions like a PWY, and so what I mean by that is that the students, their advisor is an advisor and their faculty member professors are professors, so there's no overlap, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What the students miss at this minority serving institution, the HSI, is that they don't have the same relationship with me that I have with my advisor, who was also my professor. So it was mandatory for that professor to sit down with me at least 10 to 15 minutes extra every semester to figure out where I was going, and the conversations that happened because of that are the reason why I was able to go to graduate school, and so I think what you're doing is a solution for things that maybe are built into the culture of the HBCU, but making those things sustain in a more modern type of way.
Speaker 2:So you're right. There's another HBCU that we're working with and literally there is for all of the international students. There is one person, only one, who is in charge of all of that, and they use paper. So one of the faculty said, like when they go into this, this person's room per desk is full of paper so high that you can't even see her face. So just imagine the technology.
Speaker 2:All those papers go away. You got more time to connect and do what the networking that we love, the family relationships that we have with your community.
Speaker 1:So I got connected to you by Asha Farrah and I think both of you have somewhat of a common story, right, and we think about the HBCU journey as being one where we are incubated. It is meant to be a space where maybe you don't feel the microaggressions and all of those things that you would experience outside of the walls of Howard University or whatever HBCU. But Howard has also provided you all with this other opportunity, as alum, to build and grow your businesses, right? So talk about the program that you were in with Asha to help facilitate the growth and put you in a position to picture, idea, grow your idea and all of those things.
Speaker 2:Yes. So it was a accelerator program called PitchHU, directed by Terry Adams as well as a G, and it was really, really great. It was like they give that hands-on experience of actually breaking down your business model. Who is your target audience? Because for me, I'd say the whole HBCU ecosystem. But really if you had to choose one, who is it? The student, and so taking that time, one-on-one, to really have us question the way that we're strategizing, the way that we're executing on our businesses, really helps open up our minds. It's growing pains. So I will say that it's growing pains, but it helps.
Speaker 2:And that's not the only opportunity that Howard Gibbs. They just recently launched their Entrepreneurship Center that's partnered with PNC the biggest donation a bank has ever given an HBCU I think it was 16.1 million to do this, and it's not just Howard. So there's Howard, there's Buoy, there's Morgan, there's multiple HBCUs and they want to go to all of them and even that, that initiative to okay. No, look, we want to grow the black economy. We spend like what was it? 1.6 trillion? The black community is the number one spender out of all of the communities. So like to be able to really like, curate and have these not so transparent resources available for all of us entrepreneurs. I really I just love that they're focused on it and making it a priority.
Speaker 1:I know that you mentioned Prudential's investment in historically black colleges. Can you talk a little bit about how historically black colleges can foster this sense of entrepreneurship among their students while they're underrads, even if they don't have funding from Prudential?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'll touch on that. So, honestly, networking, hosting spaces, having that space to where the entrepreneurs on the campus can just come and talk with each other. There's this I love this quote from who is at least Issa Rae, and she's like you need to network across, not network up or down. Like across from you and really just hearing other other entrepreneurs who are in your same shoes, their stories and how they're overcoming their challenges, you will be so surprised on how fast you guys will overcome it together. There's this other quote that goes if you want to collapse time, collaborate. And it's so true, like it's so true. So, just if HBCUs would just take the time to like, hey, let's have a networking event. Hey, let's do like a quick conference where those who aren't in the business school but there's a lot of other business owners, like, let's just give them the space to learn together, to grow together.
Speaker 1:I'm nervous, my breath is taken away by you, and I'm also like because, listen, listen, it's kind of weird by the time this podcast comes out, I may have accepted a job at North Carolina A&T, which is where I went to undergrad. If I don't get it, I'm just going to edit this part out. But I think one of the things that we all want to do as alum is go back and contribute to the betterment of our HBCUs, right, and so that's something that I've chosen to do. And some other folks in my circle of folks who have gone to get their PhDs are like plotting to do it at A&T, like how do we work our way in there to give back to, to grow the legacy? And so that came to you a lot earlier than it came from me, and so I look at you as someone who was accelerated beyond your years in ways that maybe you don't even understand. What you're doing is. It's crazy. It's crazy transformative. Because in my mind I see I know you have to have this, this narrow focus. Your focus is on the students. That's primary and it's necessary, but scaling to smaller, private HBCUs, the public HBCUs.
Speaker 1:I think about my time as a school teacher in K through 12 schools. I was a PE teacher for the elementary school in a K through 8, in a K through 8 school, so I wasn't the first grade classroom teacher, ms Jackson. Okay, ms Jackson had 15 to 21st graders in her class, so those students with disabilities had an IEP or a 504 plan. She maybe had like one tenth of the students in her class, so maybe two that had an IEP, maybe three at the most. But because I taught all the students in the school, I get there the first day and there's a stack of papers that's above my head, like the lady you described, that has to deal with international students, and I don't know how to sort through the applications for WeNight. I think for me, long term, throughout the educational ecosystem, it's tremendous, and so I'm just. I'm glad I got to interview you early. I hope I'm the first person to ever interview on a podcast, because I'm gonna say I knew her, I got her first.
Speaker 2:So I want to say I resonate with that. I, before I went full time we night. I too was a PE teacher for middle school. So I. I get over 500 students. I get it Really.
Speaker 1:What was your major?
Speaker 2:Sports Medicine.
Speaker 1:Stop playing. So you, you were basically like a kinesiology major, right, were you? Okay, okay, okay. So I, I teach in a kinesiology department now at the university that I work at, and you know like PE is kinesi and education. So, okay, here's, here's my for those students and for those, let's start with the students. For those students who are encountering an issue at their HBCU, it could be something, a systemic problem that exists, like the housing issues and things like that, just navigating the information and the data getting messed up, or it could be something as simple, as I don't like my roommate, that happens everywhere. What advice would you give them to orient? To orient themselves to being the solution and not the complainer?
Speaker 2:I love that. So I always love to say self advocacy right. So you take ownership of your life and you have this, you have this thought of how you want your life to go. So, your roommate, this is not how you. You imagine this next year that you're about to spend your space Like this isn't the safe, the safe space that you want it for you. So, like, advocate for that and no matter how many knows you get, just internalize it as not yet, like this is not the person that I need to talk to yet I need to talk to somebody else. This isn't the person, because there's always a solution. There's always a solution. You just have to discover it. I mean, you have to let it come to you.
Speaker 1:And so what about? What conversations do you have, would you have with alumni? Here's the question. Okay, Howard has a lot of prestigious alumni.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Lots Okay. What is your? What is your pitch to the wealthy alumni? To support students who are interested in entrepreneurship on HBCU campuses.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I would say my pitch to alumni would be those were once your shoes. So to really remember the help that you needed or the help that you gained, the mentorship, that countless knowledge that you got from your alumni, and really just give it back Like it's a pipeline. And so in order for a pipeline to work, it has to be free-flowing both ways. There's plenty of students, hungry, ambitious, ready to get into those prestigious roles, like like alumni are, alumni are now, and so to really just pour into them, pour into those entrepreneurs that are already on their way, already doing those great things.
Speaker 1:And what's your elevator pitch for someone? Would they be alumni or any anyone to support WeNight and invest in the work that you're doing?
Speaker 2:I would say to the alumni HBCUs have continued to support the black community since, I would say, 1837. And so it's only right for us to start supporting our HBCUs. And in doing that that means actually supporting our infrastructure in our systems so that HBCUs will not crumble in time. So supporting WeNight is supporting HBCUs.
Speaker 1:And our last question before we log off is what do you envision WeNight being in the future? What's your biggest wildest dreams for what WeNight is able to accomplish and do?
Speaker 2:We're starting at HBCUs, but we're not ending there. We actually also plan to go to other universities, large universities or large corporations, and especially the healthcare system. Imagining a world where you actually get to be proactive about your health like be able to go to the hospital, to go for yoga classes or taking a cooking class, versus going because you're sick or emergency room level and using a system like this will be able to bring those resources to people.
Speaker 1:Anastasia Jackson, thank you for joining us. I appreciate you. If I get this job at A&T, you're going to be my fuel for the first semester for how I want to pour into students and mentor students. I'm like y'all need to go look at Anastasia Jackson so y'all can be like her. So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you for having me For sure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining this edition of entrepreneurial appetite. If you liked the episode, you can support the show by becoming one of our founding 55 patrons, which gives you access to our live discussions and bonus materials, or you can subscribe to the show. Get us five stars and leave a comment.