Social Entrepreneurship: Spotlight on Esther Ladipo and the Revolutionary Platform Ranowo

Are you ready to meet an innovator of social entrepreneurship? That's right - we're talking about Esther Ladipo, the Nigerian-American co-founder of Ranowo. With her determination, Esther transformed her interest in Black World Studies and marketing into a platform that revolutionizes how we donate. Ranowo not only increases transparency in philanthropy but also enables individuals to see exactly where their donations go and what tangible items are required by nonprofits.

With Esther, we navigate the demanding journey of founding a startup. She recounts how she secured a technical co-founder and how they have been managing a team diverse in ideas, backgrounds, and skills. Tuning in, you’ll get an insider's view of how Esther balances her full-time job with the responsibilities of her startup. She shares her secret weapons: self-care, strategic networking, and time-blocking.

As we step into the vibrant city of Austin, Esther guides us through her personal experiences of building and navigating community spaces. She passionately discusses Black Austin's unique culture and her connections with the Notley Fellowship. We delve into the future of Ranowo, shedding light on Esther's aspiration to move away from the "trauma porn" associated with philanthropy. Instead, she envisions a model that matches donors with causes they genuinely care about.

Transcript

Langston : 0:10

What's good, everyone. I'm Langston Clark, founder and organizer of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting black businesses. Welcome to the Entrepreneurial Appetite special series about black social entrepreneurs. In this series, we highlight black entrepreneurs who are leveraging entrepreneurship for the betterment of their communities. In this edition of Entrepreneurial Appetite, we bring you a conversation with Esther Ladipo, co-founder of Ranowo, a crowdfunding platform where nonprofits receive donations in the form of supplies purchased to support their mission.

Langston : 0:43

Today, I have the honor and the opportunity to introduce you to Esther Ladipo. Did I say it correctly? You did, that's right. Listen, if you have a podcast, the most important thing that you want to do is say people's last names correctly and their first names. So I am just elated that I said Ladipo correctly, and she is a native of Columbus, Ohio, living in Austin, Texas. She's the co-founder of Ranawe, a donation platform that helps people easily find and donate items online for underrepresented communities in need. As we begin, Esther, I'm just hoping you could tell us a little bit about your story, how you got to be in the founder seat, in the CEO seat.

Esther: 1:24

Yes, well, first off, thank you so much for the invitation to be on this podcast. I'm a huge fan, so really excited to have this conversation with you today and talk a bit about me and what I'm doing. But to that same point, a bit about my background. As you mentioned, I'm born and raised Columbus, Ohio, a proud Nigerian American. I am of the Yoruba tribe. So, yes, shout out to us, we all know us. Nigerians can be a muck, but shout out to us and shout out to my parents for instilling such strong Nigerian values in me, which I think really is a huge part of what I am and what drives me and influences a lot of pieces of my life, including the company that I founded, Ranowo, which comes from a Yoruba word, Rano Wo. But before getting to down the Ranowo side, I'll share a bit more about my background and how I got interested in philanthropy and building things for community.

Esther: 2:20

So I went to Miami University of Ohio, not Florida, in Oxford, ohio, and I studied Black World Studies, social entrepreneurship and marketing. So I was always very interested in understanding how I could build something to support communities of color, but also building something that truly was revolutionary, new to the community great tech, like I just didn't want to start a nonprofit just to start a nonprofit. I really wanted to build something that I feel can provide a technical solution to support communities of color. So I didn't really know what that would look like, but I knew what I was very interested in studying, which was Black people, social entrepreneurship and how to market out these ideas, which is where my marketing degree came into place and at the end of my college career my senior capstone I decided to pursue my social entrepreneurship capstone and from that capstone I was able to essentially build my own business. That was the capstone build your business during this year, pitch it at the end of the year.

Esther: 3:24

And I convinced my professors to let me go on a three week trip around the US to interview different nonprofit executive directors, because at that time the Flint water crisis had made national news in Ohio. Won't say the Flint water crisis started. It has been going on for decades, but this was winter 2017, and it was all over. The news right, and I really wanted to go and support. Flint is not that far away from Ohio, but I was a student like I didn't really have the time to be able to, you know, drive up and drop off the water bottles, the water filters, et cetera, and a lot of organizations that were saying, hey, donate to us. They were all super large organizations like the Red Cross, and I was convinced that there were grassroots on the ground nonprofits that were doing the work. They just didn't really have the brand presence online for my fellow peers and I to be able to find them. So at that time I'm like man. I'd love for there to be some type of platform or place where folks can find vetted nonprofits that are doing the works and communities of color. But before I go off and build this thing, let me talk to nonprofits executive directors to see if this is something that they think the community needs.

Esther: 4:41

So I went around and probably interviewed over 20 nonprofit executive directors in Chicago, new York, dc, la, cincinnati and the first question, one of the questions I would ask them, is hey, like what do you all need?

Esther: 4:55

What do you need within your nonprofit? What's a really like big blocker for you? And, as you could imagine, they all said we need money. Yeah, we need money. That's, that's what we need to steer pure born play. We need money, we need donors, we need active donors, and I'm like, okay, you need money to do what?

Esther: 5:11

And they're like, well, we have bills that we need to pay. Yes, there are like overhead, like people don't try to shy away from it, and the nonprofit side. But yes, your dollars do go to keep the lights on, because they have to keep the lights on, they have to pay staff, you know, and there's all tangible items that they need for a lot of their programming. If it's a soup kitchen, they need to purchase soup, they need to purchase the carrots, they need to purchase the ladles that they use for the soups and things like that. So what I was hearing from a lot of these executive directors was that they needed money to purchase things, money to put on programs, money to pay for people's salaries, but they weren't doing the great job of sharing that story and making it super transparent for donors to understand where their money was going. So at that time, that's when I decided I wanted to build something that would help share that story and increase that transparency, and that's where, like Renault started to form.

Langston : 6:05

So the college professor and me is really interested in this curriculum for your, for your undergrad studies. Can you talk a little bit more about that? So say, the name of it was like black global experiences, something like that marketing and social entrepreneurship. How did those three things come together? What were your classes like?

Esther: 6:25

Yeah, so these are three separate things, so this is not one degree. So I might agree. In marketing, which was in the business school, my concentration was in social entrepreneurship, which sat under our like entrepreneurship department in the business school. So from the day I started at Miami in the farmer school of business, I knew I wanted to study entrepreneurship, but I knew I couldn't have that be the only thing that I studied and I started taking some black world studies classes, simply honestly because I enjoyed them and I kept it up. I had enough to graduate it with it in my major.

Esther: 6:58

I just ended up selecting it as my minor. Y'all know how those credits be and when it came time to my capstone like, I designed it essentially as like I want a way to fuse all three of these together. And if you're an entrepreneurship minor, there is a capstone where essentially it's like a build your business capstone and the first semester you spend going to like an incubator type of program is called the the brandery in Cincinnati. I don't want to mess it up, but there's an entire like incubator that's typically available for like startup business owners Like. It's not typically available for students, but Miami created that relationship so we would have to go once a week learn from other startup founders, pitch them our ideas. And then the second piece of it was, which is what I did, which was to create a business.

Langston : 7:49

That's pretty amazing. So one of the things that I'm really interested in right now is negotiation, and, like I've never, I never took a class on negotiation. I think every high school student needs to take a class on negotiating, and when you talk about convincing the faculty members to allow you to do the capstone the way that you did it, I imagine that is you having to pitch them and negotiate with them to give you the freedom to do that. So talk about.

Esther: 8:16

How did you do that?

Langston : 8:17

How did you convince people to allow you to really start your entrepreneurship journey? Your data collection for your entrepreneurship journey as a college student.

Esther: 8:27

Absolutely, I think. First off, they knew who I was right Like. They knew my brand, they knew the way that I carried myself and they knew that I wasn't just going to go off for three weeks and not do anything, because I was a high performing student within the Entrepreneurship Department. I TA'd several classes, so part of it is like I was able to walk the walk because I have I've talked to talk. They've known the type of student that I was and I also was able to secure a couple thousand dollars from our Blackboard Studies Department, also just leaning on the relationships that I built within that department.

Esther: 9:00

So I think showing up and doing the work is key, but also establishing very strong relationships with your professors, and not even just your direct professors, but the other faculty, the people that run the department as well, because there were several folks that I never took a single class with, but I had relationships with them. So when it came time to them have to, you know, sign that out of line to approve this unique capstone they were very aware of who I was and what I sit for, so that made the ask pretty clear. And, secondly, I made it easy for them to say yes because I wrote it all down. I told them what I was going to be doing, where I was going to be going. So I always try to encourage folks, make it easy for them to say yes, try to answer all of the questions ahead of time. So I think preparation and documentation also helped.

Langston : 9:49

That's good. I think your autobiography really leads into the biography part where you're talking about the story behind Ranowo. Woh Can you talk about? How did you found it, where did you found it and what really conceptualized or maybe idea become concrete for you to execute?

Esther: 10:06

Absolutely so. I think, after that three week trip that I went on, it was very clear that there was a gap. There was something that these nonprofits needed. They were looking for some type of solution. I no longer was just building something that I, Esther, believed should exist, but this has been affirmed by other people in the market that had been in this field for decades, also saying that they would like something that would help them with storytelling and increase transparency.

Esther: 10:34

So, from there, I had a technical co-founder. We had to have a technical co-founder help us build this business. You weren't allowed to just build it by yourself. You had to have someone technical, so you had to pitch it in class. The non-technical person had to pitch it in class, and I pitched it and my co-founder till this very day, nick, loved the idea and came on board and since 2017, we've been rocking with each other. So I think it's important for you to not only be able to have the vision, but be able to sell that vision right, like it's not just an idea being able to pitch it to people within a room. These are students that I did not know, like I did not know Nick at all, like, and I just had to pitch my idea and he sold, it sold to him.

Esther: 11:18

So I feel like that was a very pivotal moment in the Ranowo journey of just like day one pitching this idea to someone technical. Being able to convince them was very critical. But after, as I mentioned, that three week journey securing that technical co-founder, I did a lot of interviews on campus. I sent out surveys to students because essentially, originally, what I was envisioning was a dual side marketplace marketplace that included an offer for donors so donors being able to donate to nonprofits and an offer also for nonprofits to be able to share their stories about the donations that they are receiving. So after conducting that survey, I learned that a lot of folks wanted to know more about where their money was going. Shocker, people want to know where their money is going. And as I was doing more research, I actually saw that there really wasn't a marketplace or a platform where you could see exactly where your money went. There was Amazon wish list, where nonprofits can make their own wish list and you could purchase individual items, but there wasn't anything that was necessarily within like the donor side or within like the nonprofits hands like. And Amazon wish list is Amazon wish list. That only lives on Amazon. It's only Amazon products like it's very, you know, limiting in a way. So from there I thought of okay, a marketplace will be amazing, but I was intimidated to build a marketplace. I was like that will be so much a dual side marketplace, not a singular marketplace.

Esther: 12:47

So then I decided to focus on the area of storytelling. I'm like, let me try to help nonprofits with that issue that they have, and the technical solution that we came up with was creating automated impact reports because, as we learned, donors wanted to know where their money was going and nonprofits are struggling with telling their story. They don't have staff that they can hire to, you know, make these beautiful impact reports, send the emails, make the Instagram. They don't have time, they don't have money for that. So I'm like, let's build a solution that makes it very simple and easy for them to be able to put that together. So that's what I ended creating with.

Esther: 13:23

My capstone was like an automated impact report that nonprofits could use. They type in the a dollar amount that they received and what they used for that money, and it would auto generate like photos of the items that they would type in. So they would type in socks. We would have a nice photo of socks and in a beautifully outlined document which I think did fulfill a need for a nonprofit. But after I graduated, I still the marketplace was just still in my heart. I was like I still want to build that marketplace. And then, starting in 2019 is when I started building that dual side marketplace.

Langston : 13:59

I'm interested in this the technical founder and the non-technical founder. Can you talk a little bit more about what that is?

Esther: 14:06

Yes. So a technical founder is someone that can code. Essentially, someone that can either code your website or code aspects of your website, can code your app. If you're building an app and in my case, I knew we were not going to start out with an app we were either going to start out with like a web application that would eventually be an app, or simply just like a platform, a website, that would host all of our information. So we moved forward with just building the website.

Esther: 14:34

So my co-founder he builds websites for a living. That's his full-time job as well and that's what he studied in undergrad. He studied computer science and web design. So that's what a technical founder is. A non-technical founder which is me as someone that doesn't have a background in computer science, someone that may not necessarily know how to code but has the vision is all in on working on the company it can support in a variety of other areas, which is what I do. I'm the marketing person, I was the supply chains logistics person, I was the comms person and it was just about everything, and Nick supported me in a lot of those areas as well, but he tends to mainly focus on the technical side.

Langston : 15:15

Yeah, talk about how you are able to manage the relationship between the technical and the non-technical founder, because y'all didn't know each other before. Right, that's a. To me that's a scary thing. Right now I got a business with my homeboy who I went to grad school with from my other podcast and we're like we basically do the same thing and they always say you don't want to find one, somebody who does the same thing you do, but I'm comfortable with him because I know him. That's my homeboy, you know what I mean like. So how are you managing and really cultivating that relationship with your, with your technical co-founder, who you really didn't know before?

Esther: 15:50

Yeah, for sure. I think it takes a lot of intentionality because I will say we are very, very different. I'm a Nigerian-American black woman. He is a white male from California. Like we didn't have any mutual friends. He was in a fraternity, I was not in a sorority at Miami, like just honestly, very different worlds, but we shared mutual passion which is building something that can support communities, building something that we believe can change the world.

Esther: 16:17

So from the very first day that I pitched it, he loved how big the vision was, and a lot of folks in my class were intimidated by how big the vision was or they thought, oh, that's all changing the world really. They just weren't bought in. And he was bought in very, very first day. And so till this day we're still very different. We still don't have a lot of a ton of similar interest outside of what we're building. But I love the diversity that we're able to bring and, of course, the range of experiences that we're also able to bring in as well, because I'm building the platform for all people to be able to support communities of color. Being able to have that diversity of experiences and backgrounds really supports building a platform that is designed for all folks to be able to use you know it's interesting.

Langston : 17:04

You made a really good point because I'm guilty of this. For me, I'd be like I will almost be black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black. Right, okay, but you have to think about. Think about the product that you're making or the entity that you're creating. Right, and you said you want to build a platform so that all people can contribute to. You know, black nonprofits with black social entrepreneurs, folks are doing everywhere, right, and so if you want everyone to do that, then you're going to need, as the verse of perspective as you can in the leadership or the folks who are working with you to build that platform. So it makes sense that Nick white guy, california frat, is on your team, because I imagine that he could even add some perspective to to that from someone who was not a person of color.

Esther: 17:54

So that that was a, I think, a great point that you made certainly, I think, fooboo for us by us, but also you can have people that are not us helping you build right and that doesn't take away from what you're trying to build the mission, the impact that it may create and, honestly, in some cases, can add to it yeah.

Langston : 18:15

So there's an interesting. I had a had a former episode, a few, maybe a year ago now, about this book called black faces in high places and in their, in their framework, they say that the people who get the furthest are the ones with the most diverse election of mentors. And so one of the brothers is a is a provost at one of the campuses, one of the rockers campuses, and he was saying listen, you think there's a lot of black guys who are provost. It's like there's not a lot of us. So I have to find a mentor who's not a black guy. You know what I mean, or else I'm going to be limited.

Langston : 18:49

And so again, I just want to emphasize that, as we are building our companies, as we're building our nonprofits, that it's important for us to think strategically about having a diversity of people who are working for us. Can you talk about I don't know if Nick is or isn't your friend right now Can you talk about why being friends with the people you're building with isn't the most important thing? Because I think we all see comfort in the community of people that we're working, we're building with, but that may not necessarily be the type of relationship that you need with your co-founder, with the people that you're working with, who are on the same mission as you are.

Esther: 19:27

Absolutely. I think you have to look for competence, you have to look for skill in that area that you specifically needed. I probably could have done a lot of searching and a lot of digging to find someone that looked like me. Obviously it was a requirement for my class. I think it was the only black person in the class, let alone a black woman, and everyone else was a white person. So I had to pick from that class. Yeah, I essentially was forced to have to pick within that group, but for folks right now I would certainly seek out to have other people outside of your friends, because sometimes you just need someone to call you out professionally once they set your goals and to have a friend do that, or a sibling or a cousin.

Esther: 20:13

You might not take it as seriously because you're like, okay, they'll be fine, it's okay, we could be a couple of days late on this, they'll understand, they'll understand. You don't play that. When you have a further team member that's relying on you to deliver a deliverable, I feel like I take I don't want to say I wouldn't take my friend's feedback as seriously, but I certainly don't really give I don't try to cut down anything any feedback that he gives me the way that I know I would ignore some feedback, that I might get family friends.

Langston : 20:45

To be honest, I want to get into some conceptual thing about how do you view social entrepreneurship, how do you view yourself as a social entrepreneur?

Esther: 20:54

It's an evolving space.

Esther: 20:56

What I'd say right now there's social entrepreneurship and there's also social impact, which I know they're two different things, but they're both things that are very near and dear to my heart, as I'm a social impact manager at DoorDash and I am building a social entrepreneurial company, and essentially, with social entrepreneurship, I view that as a space where people are able to build things that are supporting the community, the broader community.

Esther: 21:24

In the simplest definition possible, I think it's about using creativity, using your strengths, using your passions to be able to build something that can make a larger impact. And you'll see a ton of different definitions out there and I'm sure all of them are just this right, but what it means to me specifically is about building something that I think will outlive me and building it for communities that I care about, and when it comes to Ranowo, that came down to building a donation platform for people to be able to give to nonprofit, supporting communities of color, and why that falls under social entrepreneurship. It's a brand new service. It's a brand new marketplace. I have yet to find something that looks just like it and it's something that it is social in nature, as it being a dual side marketplace and of course, it's entrepreneurial because I built the business.

Langston : 22:20

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Esther: 22:46

But social impact in itself is a little bit different. It's a little bit more corporate. It's building programs that are supporting whatever audience that your specific company is looking to support. At DoorDash, we look to support women, people of color and immigrants. That's what all of our programs and our social impact programs are designed to support. So social impact is going to look different, but so will social entrepreneurship look different to different entrepreneurs as well.

Langston : 23:13

Since you mentioned DoorDash and your work there, can you talk about how you are navigating your nine to five while also being this founder?

Esther: 23:23

Absolutely. It's a bit challenging sometimes. I'm not going to lie, I had to take all of 2022 off from Ranowo because then I used that to be a little bit more heads down with DoorDash. I joined DoorDash, I left Meta it was that Meta for four years in sales and moved over to DoorDash April of 2021 and really wanted to like really go in the weeds in April in 2022 and I just didn't feel like I could do both to the level that I felt comfortable at in 2022. So I took a pause on Ranowo at that time and I also wanted to re-envision a new future for Ranowo which I can talk about later as we are currently getting ready to launch that.

Esther: 24:05

But I think now that I'm back to working on Ranowo for my five to nine, my PM to nine PM, it just really comes down to time blocking. Like everyone on my team knows, if it's 501, Esther is not replying, I am not responding. I take my self-care really, really seriously. I try to start my day either with meditation or some type of exercises, whether it's breathing or physical, because I know my days are going to be long. I know it's going to include many DoorDash meetings. I know it's going to include work that I'm going to have to do for Ranowo, so starting the day well, and I think having intentional time throughout the day for breath, work and solitude is important, because I'm getting requests all day from folks, so carving out time where I can be by myself, even if it's just my lunch or walking my dog, I think helps with the mindset, and I hired a personal assistant.

Esther: 25:03

I had a personal assistant in 2021 and a part of 2022, which was fantastic. So I'm a big, big, big proponent on hiring personal assistants, even if you're not an entrepreneur. Thank you, sir. We should all be millionaires. I can. The author's name is just a black woman and she talks about how hiring a personal assistant it's. It's great for everyone, whether you're an entrepreneur or not, because you're able to be so much more efficient with your time.

Langston : 25:29

I was going to dive in strategies for success, but I think you've mentioned a few right and so one is self care. The other one is knowing when to hit the pause button. So you got this new job with DoorDash, moving from Meta, and you needed to establish yourself there the first, the first year or so. I mean. I read this book called the first 90 days talks about the first 90 days at a new job. You really need to make an impact. And then you also talked about this. You said personal assistant or virtual assistant, or is it the same thing?

Esther: 25:58

I guess my personal assistant was virtual. So, yeah, I was a virtual assistant that was. That was great because it just freed up a lot of the admin that I would need to do that. Honestly, as an entrepreneur that can suffer with self sabotage sometimes, I will no longer have the excuse of hey, I'm having an email issue, my VA can handle that, so I'm not spending all my time on that. I'm really working on establishing the vision and working with me on, you know, unblocking things that really need to get done.

Langston : 26:30

And the virtual assistant is like another key strategy for success. What are maybe some other things that you would suggest to people who are founders or interested in working specifically in social entrepreneurship that would help make them more successful?

Esther: 26:46

I would reach out to folks that are within your space that are doing things similarly to you. That has been a game changer for me just connecting with other social entrepreneurs, other folks that are building tools to support communities, to support nonprofits, and you will find that social entrepreneurs in general, if they don't get keep, they are not trying to stay within their own bubble, not wanting to have quote unquote competition. They've always been open. Every single time I've reached out to someone, like cold message on LinkedIn, they've always been extremely receptive from and I'm not just saying entrepreneurs, I'm saying like directors of philanthropy at large organizations. They know the game, they know what it is.

Esther: 27:27

A big part of working in social entrepreneurship and social impact is having to rely on other folks. Where there's asking for donations, ask for folks that can you know are specialists within the specific area. So I would certainly shoot your shot at every opportunity that you have and look into organizations that can really help you hone some of those skills. I joined the ACCP forum, which is a forum of like social impact professionals, but also social entrepreneurs I've seen join it as well. So just do research on like who are the folks that are actually trying to build up this community and I will say there's not a ton of black women that I would say are visible, but we are out there, we are out here.

Langston : 28:11

We talked about navigating the nine to five while you're founding your startup. I want to talk about navigating your city, because I lived in Austin for four and a half years while I was there in graduate school, and Austin is a unique place for black folks. I call Austin White Lanter because it's white people's Atlanta, which means there's actually a lot of things to do there. There's actually a lot of cool things to do in Austin.

Langston : 28:34

So, talk about, like how you've been able to navigate I'm going to call it white Lanter how you've been able to navigate white Lanter and get things done and make connections to do what it is that you need to do to be successful in your career, but then also in your startup.

Esther: 28:47

I think I just had to put myself out there. I go to meet up events. I literally would search people on LinkedIn like social impact, black, black woman, and you can change your location to Austin, like I would actively look for posts, especially when I first moved out here in 2017, and I would ask people that I knew had been here for a while hey, like, who do you think I should connect with if I'm building this? And they would say, hey, you should go talk to Preston, you should do that. And what I find is, like a lot of those people, they're super, super glued into what's happening in the city. So once you meet with one of them, it's kind of like you're meeting with all of them, because they all know each other. They will proactively like tap on your shoulder, send you notes, and these are people that you may not see every other month, but they'll still reach out to you. You'll see them, see them at events. They'll send you, you know, different events and different opportunities that they think will be a good fit for you. So I think being proactive is a very city where you have to come to and be proactive to find connections. But once you do, you're in and it's also important to show up show up for your community as well.

Esther: 29:55

I think that's a problem that Black Austin has. We are here but people don't always show up. They may not always show up to go to the event. They may not show up or if they do, they may not show up consistently. So our community sometimes just feels a little bit inauthentic because you're not seeing the same people and we don't have a ton of third spaces. There are third places in spaces. I know that's a big topic that folks are talking about right now, but there's people that are actively trying to change that. In the city, origin Studio House, they're opening up a coffee shop in East Austin which was historically black. So I'm really, really excited about the future of Black Austin.

Esther: 30:35

But I do think it can be a bit challenging navigating the city, especially if you come from a place like Atlanta or like New York or like a Chicago, where there's just already you already know where people are going to after church on Sundays. You already know what the spot is on a Wednesday night. It's going to be different In Austin. It's just not always going to be the same spots. But I love it. I really do, and I'm excited to build here. I recently joined a board, a nonprofit board, called Carry for Kids. It's a school that's, or a nonprofit that's, disrupting the school to prison pipeline here in central Texas. They have mental health advisors in middle schools and high school, supporting predominantly black and Hispanic youth. And these are the youth that have been expelled, that are constantly in detention, that, like, have been written off by many of their teachers, and they're really giving them a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth chance to stay within school and give them additional opportunities to advance. So there's great, great work that's happening in the city specifically to support communities of color.

Langston : 31:37

I'm thinking about last time I was in Austin. It was at Capitol Factory and Preston was there and it was February and it was a black history month thing. You know, all the blacks have happened in February, but it's Capitol Factory's black event and I left there thinking to myself you know what? No, last time I was in Austin was South by Southwest. I take that back and I went to a few black things there as well and I can't even realization that Austin is getting a black.

Langston : 31:58

What I mean by that is is like growing up. I grew up mostly in New Jersey, so black people in Philadelphia had a certain like you can look at them because their style accent oh you from Philly, if you're from New York style accent, oh you from New York, if you're from Cali style accent. Oh, we know, you're from Cali. I don't have a concrete sense of what it is. It's kind of ambiguous right now, but when I go to Austin it's like, oh, it's obvious to me that they are Austin black and I don't see that necessarily that same type of black, that nuance black.

Langston : 32:34

I don't see that. Other places where I go where I see black folks, I don't want to black.

Esther: 32:38

I would definitely say that defines a lot of black people in Austin, like everyone's doing more than one thing, and everyone has a creative outlet. Most people have some type of creative outlet that they're doing within the city or just for themselves that they're extremely passionate about and vocal about, which is just what I love about the people that I meet here. That's so interesting, though, langston, that you mentioned that. Now I want to know what are the characteristics? What does it look like to an outsider?

Langston : 33:08

I don't know yet. That's the thing. I know. I see it. I just I don't have the, I don't have the full, I don't have the words for it, and there's not like, oh, you wearing that type of hat, you tie your sneakers that way. I don't have all of that yet, but I know, when I'm in Austin and I see the black folks there, that I'm experiencing a type of black awesome, and maybe it's because Austin has pulled people from different places and I was in a.

Langston : 33:32

I was in a space where people who were trying to be founders right, everybody's like people trying to be tech founders or social entrepreneurs through tech, somehow, some way, and there's a certain, there's a certain language that happens in those spaces, yeah Right, and there's a certain cadence that you use when you're pitching, when you're talking to groups.

Langston : 33:48

But you know, black folks have a way of massaging it culturally and I think that's what's beginning to happen in Austin. I think there's a massaging around the way that you present yourself as a founder. That is happening here. That may not be happening necessarily in other places Because, like, you can go to New York and you could be a founder, but New York has a type of black that exists already outside of being a founder, but I think, because of what's happened in Austin, with people being pushed out what was once like a palatable blackness in Austin and I'm not trying to dismiss black folks who've been there for generations and things like that that's. That's not my attempt, but it's transforming into something that is rooted in what is becoming black Austin now. So it's really interesting to see, as someone who's an outsider, yeah, I'm so glad you shared that with me.

Esther: 34:38

I'm going to be pondering that after this podcast and thinking about it. But I'm really excited about the future of black Austin. If you would have told me I've been in Austin six years this July, if you would have told me four years ago that I'd still be here, I would tell you or you were lying, I was like I'll be here for two years and then I'm going to go get my MBA somewhere and I'll see you Like I'll probably go to Chicago or New York, but the city it's a city of builders. I will say, like black Austin people, black people that stay in Austin for longer than two years, are all building something, every single one of them, right. People that are transplanted to Austin and you've stayed longer than two years, you're building something Right, that energy you don't always find in other cities. You can go to an LA in New York. They're not, and they're vibing, they're vibing. They're not building, they're not building.

Esther: 35:29

So that's what I love about two plus year black Austin people? Yeah, and that's why I'm so bullish about our future, because the people that are staying here are building amazing things. Yeah, I think that's it.

Langston : 35:43

I think Austin is black, austin is building and I think that's probably what I see there that I didn't necessarily have the words for, so I'm glad you added that that was good and as we talk about like what's happening in black communities in Austin and everyone is building. We met through this fellowship called Notley, and I think you're the only black person from the Austin Fellowship.

Esther: 36:03

Are you the only black person?

Langston : 36:04

Austin, I don't want to forget the other black person. If there's another one, I know, I don't want to forget either.

Esther: 36:09

So I'm actively thinking, but you're one.

Langston : 36:13

If you're not the only one, you're one of maybe two from the Austin side of the fellowship yeah yeah, from our 2023 cohort, right, right From that specific cohort, and so I'm wondering how? The way I view the Notley Fellowship was a tremendous opportunity to build social capital and network and build community. And so how have you built social capital in community in the city that you're in and what are some specific strategies that you've seen for that? Or maybe even talk about your experience with Notley?

Esther: 36:41

For sure. So I think I first heard about Notley when I was at Facebook and a fellow co-worker said hey, there's this organization that wants to give a presentation to nonprofit marketing workers about Facebook. They want someone to speak about creative on Facebook. What's the best type of post to make and specific for nonprofits? And I thought that was amazing. Even though I was in sales and I didn't necessarily work with nonprofits, I still wanted the opportunity to be able to talk through some strategies that I think will just universally work for nonprofits. So that was in, I think, 2018, because I did some digging to pull it up, it was either early 2018 or early 2019, but they had just opened their huge space on Springdale and that was one of the first events that they hosted within that space. So she's like, wow, this organization is having this free webinar for nonprofits. This is amazing.

Esther: 37:32

I connected with a number of the nonprofits that came to that event and stayed connected with the organization just via social media. And then another one of my coworkers reached out to me months later saying like, hey, you should meet with one of my friends. He owns like this, like social impact company that invests in businesses that are looking to support the community Little, I had no idea, but it happened to be Dan. So my friend introduced me to Dan Graham, who owns Notley along with his wife, Lisa Graham, and I met with him in person. I talked to him about Ranowo. I showed him this is probably V1 of what our website looked like and he was like yeah, this is really cool. I think if I his biggest point of feedback at that time was like I would like to share a direct link to whether it's a nonprofit or to the specific item that they are trying to get more of, I would love just to post that on my Facebook.

Esther: 38:25

Back in the day, when we were all on Facebook like that, I thought that was really good feedback. But it affirmed the desire for social impact practitioners and social impact leaders of wanting that transparency. And this was before people were coming at Black Lives Matter and coming at all of these large organizations for not being transparent with their funds. It was the first time that I had met with a leader and was, yeah, what's your building? This makes sense, this is good.

Esther: 38:50

So that's how I got tied in with the Notley's fellowship and every year after that I would see them post a fellowship and I was like I don't know if I should apply. I don't think Ranowo was there yet. I just always again self sabotage, which is something I've been working on, and when I saw it become available for 2023, as a ester, you have to do it. You can use this as a point of accountability. You'll be amongst all of these other folks that are passionate about social entrepreneurship, passionate about social impact.

Esther: 39:18

We're coming out of me not really connecting with a ton of folks in person due to the pandemic. This will put me back out there physically. So I jumped at the opportunity to be part of this fellowship and that's what I really am looking forward to honestly, meeting with folks that are like-minded and folks that aren't like-minded as well but really care about social impacting can provide me feedback, can be other thought partners as I build this and how I can support them as well, because I realized I wouldn't be here where I am today without the support of others. So I would love to be able to give back to folks in our community as well.

Langston : 39:56

So we're getting close to time. I know you did a little teaser about what's coming next with Ranowo, so can you talk about what you have coming up? What do you see in the future for your startup?

Esther: 40:08

Absolutely so. As Ranowo looks like today is a dual-side marketplace where nonprofits have campaigns that donors can purchase specific items that the nonprofits needs, and we've been running it for a couple years. You've gotten several thousands of dollars worth of donations. However, it's an extremely manual process running marketplaces, especially dual-side marketplaces. During the pandemic, we would post a campaign that included crayons and paper products and things like that, and the pricing would fluctuate like crazy day-to-day. So sometimes we'd be losing money on the denunciation that people were making. And as we live in this world where prices are continuing to fluctuate, the price of goods are continuing to go up. It's just been a bit challenging to have the main service be tied down to specific products. And another thing that I examined during my year of solitude is what I call it in 2022, was that a lot of philanthropy and asking for goods feels a bit like and I hate using this term, I wish there was a better term but trauma porn, and it's everywhere Like, whether from small organizations, medium organizations, large organizations. We try to avoid it at all costs on our platform, but it still feels a little iffy when you're putting up a picture of a student or putting up even a picture of their school. I really try to avoid posting people at all, but it just still feels wrong. So, as I really examined that, I was just like man. I wish there was a way I want people to be able to give back to their community.

Esther: 41:45

Clearly, people want to give back to their community. Let's make it easy for them to do that and match them to causes that they care about via surveys. So, instead of you having to go on our platform right now and click into individual campaigns and purchase individual items, add things to your cart it's a fun experience, it feels like an e-commerce platform let's give you a survey. Tell us what causes that you are interested in supporting, what areas in the world you're interested in supporting. Tell us what you're willing to commit $25 a month, $50 a month, $10 a month what's your limit and let's make that recurring. So let's turn passive folks that really care about giving back to their community. Let's make it easy for you to give back consistently. Instead of giving off one individual items here and there. Let you set your own goals and set your goal of hey, I want to give $500 this year to these causes that I know like that I care about, and I'm going to let Ranowo to handle it, but I know by the end of this year I want to give $500.

Esther: 42:51

Ranowo, moving forward, we're going to be able to help people track the donations that they're giving based off of their survey data, and will also be utilizing AI to help us with the matching of the nonprofits. So that's what I'm calling Ranowo 2.0. There will still be marketplace aspects. Folks will still be able to purchase individual items for certain nonprofits, but how I envision us scaling is allowing folks to tell us what they're interested in. We connect them to the nonprofits. They set up recurring giveings and we tell them hey, based off your $25 donation that you gave us, this is what we were able to do. But this is for the folks that don't want to do the individual picking. They just want to give you your money and they trust that we will give it to nonprofits that are supporting communities of color.

Langston : 43:42

And for our final question, Esther, just tell us what you're reading right now. What's inspiring you, what's keeping you going, whether it be in your personal life or in your business? What do you have to suggest for us?

Esther: 43:53

So I'm currently reading the Mountain is you by Brianna Weist. Her last name is WIEST and the subtitle for this book is Transforming Self-Sabotage into Self-Mastery, and that's one of my main goals this year is to self-sabotage myself less and focus on the things that I can control, because often as a self-sabotager, you can focus so much on the things that you'd have no control over and that just sucks up your time and it makes you feel like you can't achieve what you actually want to achieve. So this book has been great for changing my mindset, and I think mindset is everything in entrepreneurship. So I would highly, highly, highly recommend it to folks that may struggle with self-sabotage and are like looking to overcome that.

Langston : 44:45

Thank, you, Esther, again for coming. We appreciate you. Tell us where we can find out about Ranowo. Where did we go to find more information now?

Esther: 44:53

Yes, well, you can support us on Ranowo. org and you can follow us on Instagram at Ranowo community.

Langston : 45:03

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. Give us five stars and leave a comment.