The Black Entrepreneur Trying to End Startup Racism Is Almost Out of Cash

[NZA]

admirable cause, no doubt, but i assume this will most definitely die off. i get the impression this cat didnt put serious thought into how crowd funding works in general, and specifically on how black people have to allocate our money.

i have given to a couple video game related kickstarters, but in general i hate the business model. if i am an investor, i want to own a part of the business, if i am a consumer, i want to buy a finished product and not have to fund the risk of the product's development. kickstarter is a last resort for me where there is something so niche yet so wanted by me that i have to do it, or the people involved have a ton of clout already.

in spite of all this rah-rah talk about the spending power of black people, in general we are some of the least employed, under payed, and over charged people in the country. our relative spending power is not great thanks to the simple mathematics of our earning power, especially when it comes at the expense of building wealth. black people tend to be spending limited resources on things that provide benefits that are more visceral than helping some dude make an epic amount of potato salad. either these ideas have to offer things black folks already want/need, or they have to be associated with houses of worship which black people are already tithing to or would tithe to if they had heard of that church or charismatic pastor.

the idea to do a business that highlights black people on kickstarter is a decent idea. a blog that piggybacks off kickstarter by being a place where black folks in need of funding can go to further explain and publicize themselves and this blog gets some cash off ads and maybe some corporate sponsorship might work. a kickstarter for churches would probably be the most ambitious idea that could actually work since black folks love throwing money at the church.

 

[Blackking]

admirable cause, no doubt, but i assume this will most definitely die off. i get the impression this cat didnt put serious thought into how crowd funding works in general, and specifically on how black people have to allocate our money.

i have given to a couple video game related kickstarters, but in general i hate the business model. if i am an investor, i want to own a part of the business, if i am a consumer, i want to buy a finished product and not have to fund the risk of the product's development. kickstarter is a last resort for me where there is something so niche yet so wanted by me that i have to do it, or the people involved have a ton of clout already.

in spite of all this rah-rah talk about the spending power of black people, in general we are some of the least employed, under payed, and over charged people in the country. our relative spending power is not great thanks to the simple mathematics of our earning power, especially when it comes at the expense of building wealth. black people tend to be spending limited resources on things that provide benefits that are more visceral than helping some dude make an epic amount of potato salad. either these ideas have to offer things black folks already want/need, or they have to be associated with houses of worship which black people are already tithing to.

the idea to do a business that highlights black people on kickstarter is a decent idea. a blog that piggybacks off kickstarter by being a place where black folks in need of funding can go to further explain and publicize themselves and this blog gets some cash off ads and maybe some corporate sponsorship might work. a kickstarter for churches would probably be the most ambitious idea that could actually work since black folks love throwing money at the church.

i agree 100..

but we don't even need stuff like this.

We do have power... even though we really need to control and internalize our spending.

I know a dude who sold a product' for 20, he only invested 1K and he sold 600 of the product. The product was beneficial too... took 9 k of it... leased a store front.. did some other shyt.. took other 1k and has some furniture sales shyt outta magazines.. that delivers to peoples homes. Hes hood rich. new audi, house killing mine... and I have advanced degrees from top schools n shyt...


ijs... we have enough hustle if we pull resources. Everyone just throwing money at random businesses is some white people shyt. Sure , Tariq and others have gotten doe but that's because black people only throw money at knowledge... real or fake. Religion, metaphysical, self help,etc... That's the only shyt we invest in other than ... you know ... commercial shyt we don't need.

imo.

 

[NZA]

i agree 100..

but we don't even need stuff like this.

We do have power... even though we really need to control and internalize our spending.

I know a dude who sold a product' for 20, he only invested 1K and he sold 600 of the product. The product was beneficial too... took 9 k of it... leased a store front.. did some other shyt.. took other 1k and has some furniture sales shyt outta magazines.. that delivers to peoples homes. Hes hood rich. new audi, house killing mine... and I have advanced degrees from top schools n shyt...


ijs... we have enough hustle if we pull resources. Everyone just throwing money at random businesses is some white people shyt. Sure , Tariq and others have gotten doe but that's because black people only throw money at knowledge... real or fake. Religion, metaphysical, self help,etc... That's the only shyt we invest in other than ... you know ... commercial shyt we don't need.

imo.

this dude seems like he is just trying to do black versions of stuff, thinking that he can just make a parallel universe. the type of black people likely to use kickstarter will just use kickstarter unless there is some unique feature he has that i dont know about. when you are smaller, you have to be more creative to compete.

most black business people know you often have to have several stages to a business in order to bootstrap yourself until you get to a point where you can interact with the broader economy on a somewhat equal footing. even the biggest indian silicon valley investor admitted that he used to hire white dudes to get funding for his businesses until he became a big name himself. you have to know what you are up against.

 

[theworldismine13]

i got the coli crowdfunding thread going http://www.thecoli.com/threads/the-coli-higher-learning-crowdfunding-thread.135380/page-4

 

[Majestyx]

this dude seems like he is just trying to do black versions of stuff, thinking that he can just make a parallel universe. the type of black people likely to use kickstarter will just use kickstarter unless there is some unique feature he has that i dont know about. when you are smaller, you have to be more creative to compete.

most black business people know you often have to have several stages to a business in order to bootstrap yourself until you get to a point where you can interact with the broader economy on a somewhat equal footing. even the biggest indian silicon valley investor admitted that he used to hire white dudes to get funding for his businesses until he became a big name himself. you have to know what you are up against.

people do this shyt a lot and its always corny, but in a weird way i understand why they do it, they just wanna be like white folks

 

[wheywhey]

i have given to a couple video game related kickstarters, but in general i hate the business model. if i am an investor, i want to own a part of the business, if i am a consumer, i want to buy a finished product and not have to fund the risk of the product's development. kickstarter is a last resort for me where there is something so niche yet so wanted by me that i have to do it, or the people involved have a ton of clout already.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that flaw. There is no "business" in the model. These are just charity sites that sometimes offer you a "free gift" in exchange for your donation.

this dude seems like he is just trying to do black versions of stuff, thinking that he can just make a parallel universe. the type of black people likely to use kickstarter will just use kickstarter unless there is some unique feature he has that i dont know about. when you are smaller, you have to be more creative to compete.

most black business people know you often have to have several stages to a business in order to bootstrap yourself until you get to a point where you can interact with the broader economy on a somewhat equal footing. even the biggest indian silicon valley investor admitted that he used to hire white dudes to get funding for his businesses until he became a big name himself. you have to know what you are up against.

If you identify your business as black, you essentially cut off 87% of the US market. Dexter King's now-wife tried to start a black dating site and that went nowhere fast. Many of the black female Youtubers who do hair and makeup are frustrated because they can't get their channels to grow. One, the genre is too crowded. Two, white and Asian women aren't going to watch black women do their hair and makeup.

 

[zerozero]

this dude seems like he is just trying to do black versions of stuff, thinking that he can just make a parallel universe.

perfect summation... you can't just take something that succeeded and clone it ... it's like trying to remake a hit movie just with different races in the cast... you can't catch the magic in a bottle without doing the hard original work of developing your product for the target market

 

[L&HH]

I've personally given to almost a dozen Kickstarters. One of the ones I'm most proud of was about a guy who went into African villages and found records of music where only one or two records exist in the world. If those were to be lost, the music would be gone forever. He wanted to go in with the necessary gear and transfer all the music to a digital format. You should have seen some of those peoples faces when they heard that this random dude wanted to preserve their music. It was great.

I've also campaigned 2 kickstarters of my own. And they both failed miserably. Once I did just to test the waters. The next time, I sat with a social media consultant for over an hour to plan it. And she ended the session with, 'All of your ideas are great, you're not going to make any money because your campaign video doesn't have any white people in it.' I disagreed with her and said that I wanted money off the merit of my idea, not because of white people, and I went about my business. I didn't see a dime. My girlfriend donated out of pity for me. Which I didn't see that either because Kickstarter is all or nothing. Ha.

I once saw a Kickstarter get over 10 grand and all it featured was 2 white girls in tube tops jumping up and down on a bed. There was no description in the video. And the page was vague and poorly written. After that I knew Kickstarter was a joke.

If you think that's bad. Here's a kickstarter where all a guy does is talk into a mic about how he's going to make a course teaching ppl how to make apps. Seriously can't make this shyt up. At least the potato salad one was a joke. These people really submitted money for this shyt seriously.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/taylorbeck/learn-iphone-app-development

Read these idiots comments trying to get refunds they're hilarious. Dudes best bet is to flip that money and if he feels so inclined refund it a year from now

David Korff about 9 hours ago
Refund me already. I asked you privately enough times already. $99 todavidkorff@aol.com

Why would someone donate 100 dollars for this, they could have taken a udemy course that was a finished product for much less

This is/was his website and they really thought he of all ppl could teach them how to make apps:

http://www.taylorbeck.me/

 

[L&HH]

perfect summation... you can't just take something that succeeded and clone it ... it's like trying to remake a hit movie just with different races in the cast... you can't catch the magic in a bottle without doing the hard original work of developing your product for the target market

Lol, you're absolutely right but there are examples of it working.

This was a remake of

This:

 

[theworldismine13]

If you think that's bad. Here's a kickstarter where all a guy does is talk into a mic about how he's going to make a course teaching ppl how to make apps. Seriously can't make this shyt up. At least the potato salad one was a joke. These people really submitted money for this shyt seriously.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/taylorbeck/learn-iphone-app-development

Read these idiots comments trying to get refunds they're hilarious. Dudes best bet is to flip that money and if he feels so inclined refund it a year from now



Why would someone donate 100 dollars for this, they could have taken a udemy course that was a finished product for much less

This is/was his website and they really thought he of all ppl could teach them how to make apps:

http://www.taylorbeck.me/

that looks somewhat legit though, its nothing like the potato salad one and udemy courses can cost hundreds of dollars

 

[L&HH]

I thought I was the only one who noticed that flaw. There is no "business" in the model. These are just charity sites that sometimes offer you a "free gift" in exchange for your donation.




If you identify your business as black, you essentially cut off 87% of the US market. Dexter King's now-wife tried to start a black dating site and that went nowhere fast. Many of the black female Youtubers who do hair and makeup are frustrated because they can't get their channels to grow. One, the genre is too crowded. Two, white and Asian women aren't going to watch black women do their hair and makeup.

Yeah, I know a bunch of chicks with hair/makeup youtubes. I respect that they're trying to get their hustles on but yeah it's very saturated.

even the biggest indian silicon valley investor admitted that he used to hire white dudes to get funding for his businesses until he became a big name himself. you have to know what you are up against.

I literally just had a discussion with a friend of mine about how I wanted to sell. Theme party clothes on my campus. But I told my friend I straight up wouldn't do it unless I could get a white person to be the "face" of it. That was going to be my target audience and I knew I wouldn't pull it off. What's even funnier is I used to have halfheartedly but lowkey seriously tell my friends that it would be a success because I had a jewish partner on board. They would laugh at me for saying it, but they're just naive as to how shyt works so I understood why they thought it was ridiculous.

 

[L&HH]

that looks somewhat legit though, its nothing like the potato salad one and udemy courses can cost hundreds of dollars

Yes the potato salad one was ridiculous but it was intended to be ridiculous and the whole thing was a joke. I followed it along in the early stages when it only had a few backers [Im in a kicstarter facebook group]. The guy was surprised it even got approved by kickstarter in the first place. Idk how this Taylor Beck one could look legit, dude doesn't even show anything. at least have a chapter done, an app you've done previously, or something to verify that you know what you're doing but he didn't have any of that.

 

[NZA]

http://www.8asians.com/2012/02/28/vivek-wadhwa-on-race-gender-and-meritocracy-in-silicon-valley/

here is that indian dude i mentioned who used to hire white people as the face of the companies. also goes into how asians are heavily employed but rarely promoted within non-asian companies.

 

[Yapdatfool]

I've personally given to almost a dozen Kickstarters. One of the ones I'm most proud of was about a guy who went into African villages and found records of music where only one or two records exist in the world. If those were to be lost, the music would be gone forever. He wanted to go in with the necessary gear and transfer all the music to a digital format. You should have seen some of those peoples faces when they heard that this random dude wanted to preserve their music. It was great.

I've also campaigned 2 kickstarters of my own. And they both failed miserably. Once I did just to test the waters. The next time, I sat with a social media consultant for over an hour to plan it. And she ended the session with, 'All of your ideas are great, you're not going to make any money because your campaign video doesn't have any white people in it.' I disagreed with her and said that I wanted money off the merit of my idea, not because of white people, and I went about my business. I didn't see a dime. My girlfriend donated out of pity for me. Which I didn't see that either because Kickstarter is all or nothing. Ha.

I once saw a Kickstarter get over 10 grand and all it featured was 2 white girls in tube tops jumping up and down on a bed. There was no description in the video. And the page was vague and poorly written. After that I knew Kickstarter was a joke.

Kacstarter

 

[theworldismine13]

Yes the potato salad one was ridiculous but it was intended to be ridiculous and the whole thing was a joke. I followed it along in the early stages when it only had a few backers [Im in a kicstarter facebook group]. The guy was surprised it even got approved by kickstarter in the first place. Idk how this Taylor Beck one could look legit, dude doesn't even show anything. at least have a chapter done, an app you've done previously, or something to verify that you know what you're doing but he didn't have any of that.

Yeah the potato salad was ridiculous, teaching an iphone class isn't ridiculous, I'm not saying it was legit I'm saying its legit to pay for an iphone class, it's not legit to pay for potato salad

Of course people should do their due diligence but on the surface there is nothing weird or strange about a guy promising to teach programming, if people got suckered that's on them but on the surface I'm not sure what is wrong with it

Doing a kick starter page to trick people is one thing, doing a ridiculous page about potato salad is another thing

The iphone page looks like fraud, I'm not sure if I would call the potato salad page fraud since there is no deceiving going on, so it's two different issues