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
Black Tech Founders, From Student Loan Debt to Student Loan Solution: Asha Farrah Co-Founder of Reducify
Picture this: You graduate with the weight of student loan debt on your shoulders, only to become an ex-pat looking for a debt-free life. That's the story of our guest today, Asha Farrah, the co-founder of Reducify. A fintech app that's designed to alleviate the burden of student loans. Asha's journey is not solitary but beautifully intertwined with her spouse's support and shared goal to achieve a debt-free life in three years.
Asha candidly shares her journey as a first-generation college graduate, being open about her financial situation and the inspiration behind Reducify. Together with her spouse, they transformed their financial struggles into a platform for helping others. Asha also emphasizes the importance of networking and forming strategic partnerships to support those in similar situations. She highlights the pivotal role of partnering with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to help student loan borrowers get ahead of their debt and prepare for a better financial future post-college.
With grit and resilience learned from her time at Howard University and the GrowHU Accelerator program, Asha honed her entrepreneurial skills to transform Reducify into a revenue-driven business. With tales of her expatriate journey and experiences at HBCUs, Asha opens up about the importance of education and fortitude in achieving success. This episode is a testament to her journey of overcoming student loan debt, setting clear financial goals, and creating a platform to help others. So, tune in for an episode filled with valuable insights, personal experiences, and the power of grit in the face of financial struggle.
What's good everyone. I'm Langston Clark, founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Abitite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism and supporting black businesses. In this episode of Entrepreneurial Abitite, we feature a conversation with Asha Farrah, a financially savvy expat who is co-founder of Reducify, a fintech application and accountability platform for reducing student loan debt. Today we have a very special guest. Her name is Asha Farrah, one of the co-founders of Reducify, a fintech application and accountability platform designed to help reduce student loan debt. And, as always before you know, we get into the story of Reducify and her experience. Asha, just tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got to the point where you became this founder.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. First of all, langston, I want to say thank you so much for having me today. It's a pleasure to be a part of this platform. A little bit about myself. As you mentioned, my name is Asha Farrah and I am the co-founder of the fintech app Reducify, which is an accountability platform to reduce student loan debt.
Speaker 1:But before Reducify was birth, I found myself, like many people, just among the 44 million student loan borrowers and I felt like I had graduated with so much student loan debt.
Speaker 1:So I was in a place of uncertainty. I was in a place of fear. I was in a place of how do I really start my life and build my life the way I want to, while still tackling this student loan debt? So for me, it all started because I knew that at some point, I wanted to live abroad and that being an expat would be part of my journey, but I knew that I did not want to take debt on my expat journey. I knew that that was not something that I wanted to carry, because I wanted it to be a new journey for me. So I think for me, it was just a moment of enlightenment. In 2018, I had traveled to Singapore with my spouse and we were having a conversation just a regular conversation about what we as a people can do more of and working together came up and it's something that we talk about often like it's not a new concept.
Speaker 1:Oh, we should work together, we should work together. But for some reason, that conversation built a light bulb for me, like then, and it was like wait, we can work together as accountability partners to pay off our student loan debt. I don't know why it hit me like that, but that's how it hit me. So as soon as I got back from Singapore, I rewrote the issue up to my spouse and I said we really need to do this If we want to become expats, if we want this to become part of our journey, start over, we really need to tackle our student loan debt. So really, that conversation in Singapore it birth reduce the five. So that really was the start of the journey for me becoming an expat as well, but also for me coming up with reduce the five. So that's a little bit about me going into this journey.
Speaker 2:So it's a love story. It's like your founder's journey is part of a broader love story. I think that's amazing. Shout out to all the supportive spouses.
Speaker 2:In my own personal journey with paying off my student loans, one of the things that made me more attracted to my wife when we met on Bumble was that she was living at home with her folks to pay off her student loan debt, and this was literally I think I swiped right on her, maybe like a year or a year and a half after I had finished paying off my student loans. And so to be in a relationship with someone who had a similar experience even though we didn't go through it together that there was a mutual understanding that we had. That, I think, even stays with us today as we work through our budget and our finance. Whereas it's a stress point for other people, it's actually quality time for us. So I certainly appreciate the story behind you being a founder. Tell us a little bit about what reduce the five is. How did the trip to Singapore part the idea that became the tech business and what is the actual tech business product that is reduced the five?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. That's a good question. As I mentioned at the beginning in 2018, I was hit with this idea because I wanted to complete this other life journey for me, which was becoming an expat.
Speaker 1:But of course, we all get these bright ideas and it's really about the discipline that you have to have to carry out these ideas. We all want to do these really great things, but again, it really stems from the discipline. So as soon as we got back, I really started calculating all the debt we had, because, frankly, all we had was student loan debt. So that's what I tried to tell myself. You know, it's just one type of debt and if you can get over this hurdle, you can do anything.
Speaker 1:So I realized that having another person involved in your life that has similar goals as you or is willing to set the same type of goals that you want to set. It's really an advantage If you really think about it, similar to weight loss. You know when you want to lose your pounds it's really about do I have the motivation? But then when you call your girlfriend up and it's like, let's try to lose 10 pounds by summertime, they are going to be your accountability partner. So when you're texting them and saying like I want to go to Chipotle, it's like no girl, don't do it.
Speaker 1:That is the same thing that I felt we could use, or before each other in terms of the student loan debt, because really it's not just a feeling, it's research tells us that you really have a 95% chance of achieving a goal when you work with someone to achieve a goal and you set a specific timeline for the goal, and that last part is key. So that's what we did. I literally said what is our goal? We want to be debt free in three years, so at this point, we're thinking 2018 to 2021.
Speaker 1:This before we knew of this deadly word called COVID and how that would impact everything, but that was the time frame, so it was like we can do this, we can set these goals together. We can pay this amount. This means that I'm not the only one paying towards my goals. You are as well, so it felt like we were in this together. So that's how the journey started and I'm not going to lie to you, langston. It was difficult at first because when it comes to money, especially when you become an adult, you're used to being in charge of your money. Right, it's like I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it with my money. So someone else being like did you pay your student loan debt today? Did you make those two payments this month? Did you make sure that you paid extra on the principal? These are the type of check-ins that we were having. That's why I say I kind of compare it to the weight loss, like did you eat your vegetables today?
Speaker 1:Did you not eat chips today? We were really having those check-ins and I feel like it motivated me, because once you see that balance going down, you feel like OK.
Speaker 2:OK, we're on the right track.
Speaker 1:So essentially what happened was a COVID hit, and so we both started working from home and I was living in Washington DC, so certain costs that I was having, like the metro eating out for lunch, they reduced significantly and once I realized that I saw my spouse wait. I think we can get out of this quicker Because we can make additional payments, because we're not spending the amount of money that we were spending living the lifestyle of the Washington DC person, going to happy hour, doing these things. And even though we had reduced that, I still saw the opportunity to make additional changes. So, fortunately for us, we were able to pay about $130,000 in two and a half years. That for me was like huge.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, and so thank you so much. So what really birth reducifies an app? I'm sharing this information with friends. I'm like yo, we all need to get out of debt. Like, let's be the cool, prudest out of debt. That's really something different. And people kept saying I would love to do something like this, but I don't have anyone to do it with, I don't have a spouse to do it with, I don't have a friend to do it with. I'm like wait, that's it. People need someone to be motivated together to get out of debt. No one, not even these student loan companies. They're not setting these goals for you because, ideally for them, the longer it takes for you to pay it back, that's the win for them.
Speaker 1:And a lot of people don't realize that on average, it takes 20 years on the low end and 40 years on the high end to pay back student loan debt. And I know when I tell people this people are like no, but think about when you graduated and think about where you are today, what year it is. You're probably closer to that 20-year mark. So I started realizing all of these facts and I realized this is what people need. So we decided to make a fintech app and we said you know what? It'll be similar to a dating app. So you're finding that compatibility partner or that accountability partner and there will actually be ways that we match you. So there'll be compatibility factors that we match you through.
Speaker 1:So maybe age, it may be your student loan goals, your profession, your alma mater. So I thought to myself imagine I, as a Howard University graduate, get matched with another Howard University graduate and we start sharing our goals together and motivating each other to the finish line. I thought that was so unique. I thought that was so forward thinking and I see that there's nothing out there like it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's an absolutely amazing idea. Thank you so much. There's an emotional concept that I'm thinking about that I think is related to both being a founder, to being someone who can commit to paying off your student loans, and to being someone who can commit to paying off your student loans in relationship with somebody else, and that's vulnerability. Right, there's a certain level of vulnerability you have to have when you look at your student loan balance.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's an internal thing, like you've got to be able to do it.
Speaker 1:It humbles you. Link it humbles you.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Fushows. Yeah, it is definitely a humbling experience. Can you talk about the parallels of the vulnerability it took to pay your student loans off? To do it with a partner, with your spouse, or it could be anybody else, but then also the vulnerability that you needed to actually start and found reduce a five.
Speaker 1:That's a great question. So let me start off by saying this I'm a first generation college graduate. I'm the product of a single mom. I went to Howard University, as I mentioned. So for me I'm originally from Harlem, so for me there was so much pride in believing that I was doing the right thing and I still believe I did the right thing. But what I mean by that is achieving the college dream. My mother didn't go to college, my grandmother didn't go to college, my aunt didn't go to college, so it felt.
Speaker 1:I felt so much pride in not only going to college but going to an HBCU that felt like, oh my gosh, I've done it.
Speaker 1:So it was almost a wake up call when I graduated it was like, wait, I did the right thing, and why does this number say this? Why is this balance saying this to me? That in and of itself was humbling because it brought up a lot of questions to me, Like that's vulnerability in and of itself, like believing you did the right thing and then it was the right thing, but seeing that I also possibly made a huge financial mistake. And the reason why I say that is because I think a lot of people don't know Langston. A lot of the top HBCUs are private universities, and the reason why that is so key and important in relation to student loan debt is that those who attend private universities borrowers, student loan borrowers. They take out three times as much as borrowers who attend public universities, and so this is about to answer your question you just asked. My spouse attended a public university, so they took out $30,000 of student loan debt which is not bad.
Speaker 1:I took out three times as much as $90,000. Pre-interest. So you talk about humbling and being vulnerable. When you have to have that conversation, when you have three times as much debt as your spouse, it's like you almost feel embarrassed by it, because it's just like you're having this conversation and you want to do the right thing, but it's like I have more debt than you. I'm bringing this amount of money into a relationship, into this partnership.
Speaker 1:And that's difficult. So that was very humbling and I had to be very vulnerable. I had to be very honest with myself. I had to remove the layers when I went to the website and say not only how much do I owe Langston, but what was the interest rate I signed up for. See, that's another element to student loan debt that people really don't jump into. We just talk about how much do you owe when we ask each other oh, I owe $60,000. That's not what you're going to pay back. And that's why going to that 20 to 40 year average payback time is so real, because $60,000 can triple, $60,000 can double with interest. So you're absolutely right. The vulnerability was real on both sides. And thinking that AI had achieved this American dream, and now that I'm this adult in the real world, feeling like, ok, what do I do to get past this and how do I open up about this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you've mentioned your spouse, the vulnerability that you were able to share with them as far as your student loans not only the amount but the interest rate, and I know that you also have a co-founder, so talk about, as a co-founder, of Reducify the type of humility another thing that you talked about and vulnerability necessary when co-founding a startup. Do you think it's easier? What are the benefits to having a co-founder Like? What is that relationship like for you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so actually my co-founder is my spouse. We came up with this idea and there are many highs and lows, Obviously. You may know working together with a spouse. But I felt like we've both been in it from the beginning and I feel like one advantage is we've both been the user and founder Right.
Speaker 2:So I feel like that's something that sets Reducify apart.
Speaker 1:It's not something that we came up with overnight like oh, I know this great sock brand where you can do this, that and a third. This is something that we legitimately face and we felt the same fears that our users feel you know where especially, if we're being honest, langston. There was a Supreme Court decision that came down maybe less than two weeks ago that ended President Biden's plan for forgiveness. So there are many people out there student loan borrowers feeling like I was counting on that. I don't know what I'm going to do. Payments are resuming. I have not planned for a student loan payment in the last three years. You know times have gotten tougher. There was a recession, there's so many things that have affected people's money and so, yeah, certainly, I feel like that's why reduceify really stands out even more. But, yes, both my spouse and I are the co-founders of this app. My co-founders role is the strategic partnerships, so the founder of strategic partnerships because I felt like the biggest thing with a starting of FinTech app, or any app, is networking.
Speaker 1:Your network is really your network, and I feel like that's been the biggest angle of how we've tried to get ahead.
Speaker 2:That's good. I want to talk a little bit more about founding and family. Yeah, we'll come back to that later, because something interesting that you brought up.
Speaker 2:So I think, that there's three types of people who relate to their student loans. I'm going to pay it off, I'm going hard. That buy is you and your spouse. We got 130. We going hard, we paying this off, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we talked about that other group of people man, it's going to take you 30 years. I'm just going to let it rock. I'm going to die with this. It's the avoiders, right. And then you have the people who are hopefuls and they hope that the government is going to save them. And me personally, I never thought the government was going to come through with any of that. Neither did I. The bank is always going to get their money. They're going to get their money. And so talk about, if you're pitching Reducify not to an angel investor, not to a venture capital firm, but to a user, how do you convince someone or make someone unaware of the benefits of Reducify so that they get out of the mindset of either being like the hopeful, for the government is going to save them, or they're just like listen, I'm going to die with this. How do we get them in a category one where they're like I'm going hard to pay off my student loans? What's your pitch to the audience, those who are listening to sign up.
Speaker 1:I think what I would say is focus on facts. The accountability partnerships that Reducify uses as a strategy have a 95% success rate in reducing your student loan debt. For me, langston, if anybody tells me anything has a 95% success rate. I don't know about you but it's like sign me up. People sign up for something with a less of a success rate. I think also something that's important is our strategy initially eliminates nearly one year's worth of the average student loan interest.
Speaker 2:Come on, Say that one more time. Come on say it again.
Speaker 1:This strategy initially eliminates nearly one year's worth of the average student loan interest For participants in our program in the first 90 days. Now let me jump on why that to me is like keep, because the student loan interest is what keeps the life of the loan going. It's not the principal, it's not what you originally took out 18 years ago. Let's forget that part. It's the daily interest that accumulates. And yes, interest accumulates daily, and so that's a lot of the reason you're not seeing your student loan balance go down, for those of you who are making that minimum monthly payment. So for the person Langston who just described said you know what? I'm going to make a payment and listen, I'll pay out the life of the loan. Whatever happens, I'll just do my $200.
Speaker 2:You're just stretching it out.
Speaker 1:And why would you want to give someone $200 into your 60? So I feel like, again, eliminating nearly one year's worth of the average student loan interest is key. And for us, when you join the program, when you boost that monthly payment, you're able to reduce the amount of years it takes to pay down the debt. Now, again, why is that key? Because at the beginning I said that the average student loan payback time is 20 to 40 years. To me, let's be honest, langston that is a jail sentence.
Speaker 2:That's a jail sentence. That's a life sentence. That's a life sentence.
Speaker 1:That is a life sentence and I don't want to be associated with anything that's a life sentence. I just don't so.
Speaker 2:I think that's huge.
Speaker 1:And then the largest one here is listen. When you pay up your student loans, you can free up your money and open yourself up to other financial opportunities. That's important. That's important particularly for Black people. We want to give ourselves the opportunity to do other things with our money, whether it's invest, save, become homeowners, start a family. Langston student loan debt has really hurt people so much that they're not even starting families.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, thank you again for your support of entrepreneurial appetite. Beginning this season, we are inviting our listeners to support the show through our Patreon website. The founding 55 patrons will get live access to our monthly discussions for only $5 a month. Your support will help us hire an intern or freelancer to help with the production of the show. Of course, you can also support us by giving us five stars, leaving a positive comment or sharing the show with a few friends. Thank you for your continued support.
Speaker 1:Because they know they're so behind on the financial curve it's no longer worth it. They're not becoming homeowners, they're not fulfilling the financial dreams they believe they could after they graduated college. So, if anything, you want to give yourself a chance out there to achieve your financial dreams.
Speaker 2:I have another question.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Just some background for the audience. So Leroy Addis, the homeboy founded the BuddyPass, interviewed Asha. I think y'all working on something together because y'all world travelers, all that stuff. This is the power of having friends. So Leroy hits me up. Clearly they had a conversation about you being at HU. He's like oh, my boy Langston, north Carolina A&T grad, I am on mine. That's kind of like how the conversation went, all right.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Asha hits me up, I think Leroy hit me up on LinkedIn. You shot me an email and so you're like I have this product that would be valuable to students at A&T and I know you went to Howard, so we just talked about the pitch to the individual, right? Yeah? What's the pitch to the institutions? What's the pitch in HBC? What's imagine if I got a job at A&T? Yeah, and I'm going there. What do I tell the chancellor at A&T, the provost at A&T or whoever's working in student loans helping students figure this out? What do I tell them about Reducify?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think that's a really great question because for Reducify right now we're really looking to partner with HBCUs, and the reason why we're looking to partner with HBCUs is because we want to help students get ahead of the curve.
Speaker 1:We don't want to see them in this 20 to 40 year payback and we believe that. Well, rather, we know that African-Americans and women are disproportionately impacted the most by student loans. So that's why we want to start directly at HBCUs, and we know that universities prepare students to have a successful life. That's why we attend universities a scholastic life, academic life, even social life. Why are we not preparing our students to have the best financial life moving forward? So we think that Reducify can partner with HBCUs by helping student loan borrowers at HBCUs get ahead of the curve.
Speaker 2:And what?
Speaker 1:do we mean when we say get ahead of the curve.
Speaker 1:Well, we know that a lot of the students graduate with jobs ahead of time. Maybe a month or two you get a job ahead of time. We want to use that six month grace period that students receive before your student loan payment begins after graduation to start paying on the student loans. This gives you a window to kind of attack not even kind of attack the student loans and start reducing the interest immediately, because during the grace period, interest is frozen. So why not take advantage?
Speaker 1:of that time, so you reduce the number of years that your students are paying back student loans. This allows your students to have better financial success going forward. So that's why we believe that Reducify and HBCUs are an excellent partnership.
Speaker 2:That's brilliant.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, brilliant.
Speaker 2:You know it's crazy. I think back to when I had my student loan and I know the grace period was there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you didn't think about it strategically.
Speaker 2:Not at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not at all. Same. Same, and I had a job. That's the funny thing. Like I was fortunate to get a job like two months after graduation, and what did I do with that money? You know what I mean. So I don't want these students of today, facing the same issues that we're facing, relying on government support that may or may not come. Yeah, I feel like it's HBCUs we can step up for our students and give them a platform to get ahead of this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and the need is there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2:The need is there for sure. I want to go back and talk a little bit about founding within your family. Yeah, you want to start up, as with someone who you live with, who you do life with, yeah, so it's interesting that you started Reduce-a-Fi during the pandemic with your spouse. People were getting divorced during the pandemic. They were. People were ruining their financial situation by getting divorced during the pandemic. So talk to us about, because I know that there are people out there trying to do business with a brother, a sister, a cousin, a spouse, whomever. What are some of the strategies or the things that you've learned in your journey as a founder in family? What's the advice that you can give for people who are founding with a spouse or a loved one?
Speaker 1:So you bring up a very, very good point about things that were happening during the pandemic. But during the pandemic I was able to go within, spend time with myself and, due to research, I learned that some of the most successful businesses are actually founded during the worst time. So, whether that's a recession, we haven't faced many pandemics in the last 10 years, but things of that nature and I started reading about companies like SoFi, other student loan companies, and realized that they were formed during the last recession and I started saying to myself, wow, that was almost 10 years ago and look at where they are now. I believe the Super Bowl was held at SoFi Stadium.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So I really took that to heart and said wait, is this the best time to start or the worst time? This is actually the best time for me because it gave me an opportunity to think. I was not inundated with outside distraction and a lot of times. Why I feel like it's hard to start a business is because there's so much going on in the world. There's always going to be stuff going on in the world because the world is busy right now. But I mean calling you, you know. So people are like let's go outside.
Speaker 1:You know everybody's outside, but that was like the one time where we couldn't go outside. So it gave me the opportunity to actually be inside and be insular and do some research on successful companies and realize, no, this is the opportunity Now. Take this opportunity. And then to answer the second part of your question, like what advice? If you want to start with a sibling or you want to start with a spouse, I would make sure that those people have the same mindset at you.
Speaker 1:Mindset is so important in forming any type of business because there are going to be so many highs and lows in the business and you need to be able to sustain your mind throughout. So if you apply for a grant and you don't get it, if you apply for an accelerator and you don't get it, how do you sustain? Is that it? Do you give up or we fail, or you're saying, no, this is just the beginning? So I personally had looked for someone with a similar mindset and a discipline, and the reason why I say discipline, because discipline is doing something to me when you don't want to do it.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:And that is really the toughest, when you don't want to do something and you still open that computer. You're still doing research, you're still building your app, you're still doing all the tough things. That somebody who, to me, has the right mindset to work with you long term. And then the last piece I would say is someone who is forward thinking, someone who is innovative. That's something that my partner has. We're able to think about the future. If you're looking for something to pop tomorrow in the tech industry, you really have to be planning for the future and being OK with not popping tomorrow or even next year or the year after. You have to be willing to play the long game.
Speaker 2:So it's interesting that you brought up mindset, and I say that because I don't want people to confuse mindset and skill set. You may not need someone with the same skill set they actually may not be in advantage to have someone with the same skill set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with a different skill set for sure, Right?
Speaker 2:but that mindset, the way of thinking, the orientation towards the business, the orientation towards life needs to be consistent. So thank you for sharing that. Yes, we talked about targeting HBCUs and students at HBCUs for this product, and I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it meant for you and what it means for you to be a graduate of an HBCU Howard University and how maybe that has prompted you on your journey, other than the fact that you had to pay so many student loans.
Speaker 2:What are some of the other things that have come about your journey as an HU grad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I'm super proud to be a graduate of Howard University. It was one of my best experiences that I had and it taught me everything Mindset when you go to an HBCU, your mindset better be tough for many reasons, because things might not go as you plan in every element.
Speaker 1:whether it's at the administration office, whether it's maybe trying to join a sorority or fraternity, if it's trying to sign up for a class that's full, you really have to have grit to go to an HBCU, and I think that that's something that I learned from Howard is that ability to never give up. Even when that person says no, it's like thank you, you said no. I'm moving on to the next person that's about to say yes.
Speaker 1:That was an experience that I had and it prepared me for the real world and it prepared me for this moment. I believe I'm able to meet the moment, based on the grit and determination that was given to me at Howard University.
Speaker 2:And you know, I think what a lot of people don't realize is that the benefits of being an HBCU graduate is the graduate part when you're an alumnus or alumna alumni alumni alone. I find that, as someone who went to A&T people who went to A&T not from the four years I was there I know who went. They may have overlapped with me, but I didn't know who they were.
Speaker 2:Or people who were like three years behind me, like, I didn't know who was a freshman when I was a senior. I wasn't thinking about them. There's tremendous benefits as a graduate and I'm wondering can you talk about your experience with the GrowHU Accelerator there at Howard University? Did it intentionally target HU grads or was it just a mix of different folks, people in proximity to Howard University? What was that experience like and what does it mean to be an accelerator?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's really a great question. So last year at the beginning I think it was 2021, remember mine said I saw something come out on social from Howard University that said they were looking for participants in an accelerator. So accelerator, they shared, just meant someone with a business idea, someone with a business that was maybe already doing numbers, that was looking to strengthen their business, so maybe that was looking to get a business advice, looking to have a coach, looking to basically grow the business, really get professional advice. So I think Shark Tank, but in a six week to nine week program and at the end you have to pitch your business in front of investors for a financial price. So I saw this and they were calling for Howard alums, people in proximity with Howard University, relationships to Howard University, so just somewhere related to Howard University, maybe living DC. So I applied, thought nothing of it after, and then I heard back like a month later that I was accepted and I was like, oh my goodness, you know this is real, like this is moving, reduce the fight up the level.
Speaker 1:And so I participated in the program. It was very intense. There were maybe 15 people who participated in the program all excellent people, excellent people, different people, different ideas, not all apps. Someone had a brick and mortar, I mean it was just. It was exciting to be around other smart black minds who are looking to make a change in the world through their idea. And I felt really good about that because I think when I attended Howard University I think being an entrepreneur, that wasn't something I really thought about at the time. It really felt like go out there and get that corporate job, make that money. So it felt good for it to all come back full circle and for Howard University to be promoting entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:So I participated in the program, got tons of advice, was able to perfect my pitch for reduce the fight, which is very important. If you want to be a business owner, you have to have a pitch and it has to be sharp and you need to be able to present it to any audience in under 60 seconds sometimes three minutes it depends on who's asking. And after those maybe eight to 12 weeks I participated in the competition Shark Tank style and I'm fortunate, I won second place. Okay, so right. I was very happy about that and I think because I won second place and they saw the drive that I had, they invited me to be in the elevated version of the program Grow HU that you and I discussed. Langston and the difference between grow and pitch HU is grow HU. We're already looking for businesses who are scaled or looking to scale, so revenue driven businesses.
Speaker 1:So right now participating in grow HU. They're trying to take reduce the fight to the next level of becoming a revenue driven business. So that's why we're currently speaking to HBC, use and other financial companies that make sense in our line with the vision of reduce the fight.
Speaker 2:Man, listen, I've been trying to figure out what, what's the difference between an accelerator and an incubator and what's what's the long curriculum between the place for the brand new business and what's the next step for the business that's trying to grow. And you did a great job of breaking that down for me, because I've been trying to figure that out. I like the fact that Howard has pitch and then grow right.
Speaker 2:Whoa yep yes yes, yes, yes, You've. You've gone through grow, HU yeah, and Reducify has just it's popped right. You're in all 100-sum-odd HBCUs or whatever, and, you know, expanded to other minority serving institutions, and all this and you know you're doing a billion dollars in revenue, or whatever it is, and you've either sold the company or you IPO. You just you're rich. Now You're filthy rich right now. Right Now that, now that you're filthy rich, what do you do? What's your next step once Reducify has just done all of these amazing things?
Speaker 1:In terms of business or personal.
Speaker 2:In terms of business, in terms of personal. Look, I was going to tell you I can see one day you could be an board of directors of Howard University.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say so the obvious answer is, obviously I would love to be on a board of directors, not only for Howard University but HBCUs. I really would like to usher in a financial movement. I believe there are two universities Morgan State and one other university who have introduced an on-campus financial innovation building. I think that's necessary on every campus and I actually would love to see Reducify on campus. I would love to see conversations about Reducify from freshman year on, because each year that you sign those loans, remember you're not just signing those loans.
Speaker 1:Senior year, you're starting at 18. In some cases, 17. I was 17 when I arrived at Howard, soon to be 18. So a 17-year on making decisions about language and jargon that you just don't understand and not realizing that's a lifelong promissory note. Yeah, I definitely think that there should be Reducify offices on campus, and I would love to see other fintech not only offices but organizations speak and work with HBCUs. So that would be something that I want to usher in, because I feel like if we're getting to the point where we're educating people who look like us, we're making sure that they have the education to go out and secure the best jobs and work in these spaces. Why are we not caring what they do with their money once they secure that. That's something that we need to have those conversations very, very early on.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing that. I also have another appreciation for who you are. You are a woman who travels, and you've mentioned that you had this dream of living abroad, being an expat. Talk about what it means for you to be someone who lives globally. What has that experience been like for you and what has that business been like for you? What has it been like for you to be in these two businesses at the same time? How are you navigating that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really invigorating. I love to travel. I'm fortunate where I've really been able to travel all over the world. I consider myself a global citizen, so becoming an expat just was the next step in my life. I use my experience to help people who look like me navigate that process, because I think a lot of people when they think about the expat experience, they think about the social media expat experience, which is you see people on beaches, you see people packing up and they live in their best life. But there are logistical steps in place necessary to move abroad. So that's my day to day job as well. My company, mexpat Dreamers, where I do help people looking to relocate to Mexico. So people who are aspiring expats looking to relocate to Mexico, I help them with the logistical steps to relocate successfully and thrive here, intentionally and so it's just amazing to me, the through line of your story and the through line of your businesses.
Speaker 2:So you wanted to pay off your student loans so that you could live the expat life that you're living now, and then even turning that lifestyle into a business is something that's truly amazing. You're like a renaissance woman when it comes to this. You know what I mean. Like you have all of these things that you're juggling. I think this is another thing that I think our elders it's been a way of life for them Focus on one thing and do that one thing really well.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that there's that, that that is necessary. Right, you do need to have a determined yes, that's necessary in some regards, but if your life is integrated in a strategic way, it makes your life to me, your business to me, seem like they're streamlined in a way that aligns with who you are in your lifestyle. It makes sense. And so I would just say for the people listening, if you're living your life the way that you've been called to live your life, and it makes sense for you to start more than one business, because they just flow with who you are, I think that you're an example of someone who's done that and is doing that very well.
Speaker 1:So I appreciate that and I'll say to your audience you know, like you said, there has to be a theme, there has to be a thread where it makes sense. For me, financial freedom was the thread in both businesses, or is the thread in both businesses, because for me, I knew that the only way that I could successfully live abroad was to be financially free and that allowed me to build, reduce the fight.
Speaker 2:So it is possible, as Langston said, we are also a book club and so once a month, we have a conversation with an author and entrepreneur and I was wondering, as you were on your journey as a founder, or just just your passions, maybe exploring the world what are some of the resources? It could be a magazine, it could be literature, it could be a book. What are some of the things that you've read or have consumed that have helped you on your journey? You?
Speaker 1:know when I thought about that, since you asked that question, and one book did come up to me, come back to me that I actually read was called Fearless Finances, and I think the reason why I was attracted to this book in particular. I try to live my life fearlessly and I think that when a lot of people think about their finances whether a student loan, debt, credit debt, any type of debt, or just actually paying your bills there is a fear associated with money. There is a fear about how money controls us, and I don't think it has to be that way. I think we can take the control back. I think I represent something like that being debt free, moving abroad, building the fintech business. It's possible to move fearlessly around money. So I'll say that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think that that exemplifies your life and who you are as a business woman and as someone who has paid off $130,000 of student loans in two and a half years. Thank you so much Thank you for being on and I appreciate you taking this time, because I know that being a founder is busy work and so I appreciate sharing with us today.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you for joining this edition of entrepreneurial appetite. If you like 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.