The Secret, the Significant, the Successful: Profiles of Women-led Businesses, Vol. 11

Yes, we're here again, still moving forward without our historical concept of days of the week. Those of us who choose innovation and growth continue to travel down the windy path of this journey with grace. I appreciate all of you for following this world that I've created. 

Edition Contents

• The Secret - I know what I need, but it doesn't include what you think.
• The Significant - Advice for Small Business and Startups in the COVID Environment
• The Successful - Sri Ramaswamy: Out With The Old, In With The Artificial Intelligence

Other Newsletter Editions

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1. The Secret

I know what I need, but it doesn't include what you think

By: Roshawnna Novellus ? Newsletter: The Secret, the Significant, the Successful: Profiles of Women-led Businesses 

Me: I know exactly what I need right now. But, I don't know how others will feel.

Founder 2: Why does how others feel matter?

Me: Well I don't want people to assume I'm not fully engaged.

Founder 2: Does how others feel impact your engagement?

Me: No. My work ethic has been the same since I was really young.

Fonder 2: Exactly

After this conversation, I decided to take time to focus on raising levels of consciousness, embracing power vs force, and the law of attraction fully. My new favorite activity is listening to youtube videos created by both students and gurus on what they learned by going through these processes. I'm experiencing so much joy from being flexible about my understanding of life.

Right now I'm listening to "Study Notes on How to Be Your Own Best Friend by Mildred Newman & Bernard Berkowitz" created by Joseph Rodriguez. It ends with the following quotes:

"I feel that I have learned many secrets from you and heard many wise words. I hope I can remember them.' - from How to Be Your Own Best Friend by Mildred Newman & Bernard Berkowitz

and,

" Of course you'll remember them; you knew them all the time." - Joseph Rodriguez

I hope you look inward and continue to focus on your level of understanding.

2. The Significant

Advice for Small Business and Startups in the COVID Environment

By: Jessica Li  ? Newsletter: The Secret, the Significant, the Successful: Profiles of Women-led Businesses | Originally Published at Elpha.com

I spoke with Roshawnna, founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial technology platform helping women secure funding to grow their ventures. Their network has engaged over 23,000 people through their online community and in-person events. EnrichHER provides a wide range of financial resources to help women-led businesses grow, including small business loans, training, debt and credit cards, and affiliates and partnerships. EnrichHER has helped women-led businesses access over $3 million in financing and is growing that figure to $57 million this year.

Roshawnna and I discussed EnrichHER’s founding story, advice for female-founded and led startups and small businesses in taking advantage of the recent government stimulus, and establishing and growing vibrant online communities.

Roshawnna grew up in San Diego, where her parents were teachers. She loved school, but in school, she had her first exposure to bias. Even though she had enjoyed and excelled in math, a teacher told her she would not like or be great at math simply because of her gender and ethnicity. This formative experience became part of his inspiration for founding EnrichHER.

Her mother was involved with the school’s investment club and brought Roshawnna to some of the meetings, where she learned more about business and investing and the financial empowerment that can come with these pursuits. Roshawnna continued pursuing her interests in these areas, and at the age of 15, she successfully found a way to pay for her college degree and PhD degree through $600K she had raised from writing to numerous individuals and organizations around the country.

She received her doctorate degree in Computer Engineering and Finance from the George Washington University while working full time at Johns Hopkins University, and stayed in DC following graduation to work in terrorism prevention. Throughout her 7 years in The District, she started helped coworkers with their 401K, and purchasing their homes, and saw that many of them were completely afraid and uncertain about managing their finances and financial futures. Inspired by the challenges she had seen her coworkers and many others go through, she decided to shift her professional focus away from policy and instead toward finance, specifically helping people better understand finance in their personal lives as well as their businesses.

Roshawnna realized that many people seek to start their own businesses and take control of their financial futures, but all too often, women are told explicitly or implicitly, that they are not able to. With EnrichHER, she dedicated herself fully to changing this by providing financing and support for a network of women-led businesses that can, in turn, help each other over time as well.

Regarding advice for creating online communities, Roshawnna recommends crafting strategies optimized for uniqueness and relevance. For example, in the current COVID-19 environment, Zoom conferences have rapidly become commonplace, so standard online webinars may no longer provide differentiated value add, and community managers and businesses may consider alternative means to connect and educate their audiences and customers. More broadly, you should always provide value so members continue to be excited about returning to your platform.

For long term viability, empower your members to provide their own content. Encourage and provide incentives for members to post. For example, by sharing more about their business or circumstance, members can connect with potential partners or receive advice from potential mentors. Encourage members to respond to and help each other, promoting a culture of symbiotic value add and win-win mentalities. Tag specific people who may have relevant input for each post. Launch pitch contests to further incentivize actionable and topic-specific sharing.

On advice for founders and business owners to make the most of the recent government stimulus, Roshawnna recommends applying for every option that may be available to you. It is always better to err on the side of too many options than too few. Even if you are approved of a particular loan, you do not need to accept it.

Additionally, apply as soon as possible. For example, the 10K advanced loan was first come first serve, and by the afternoon of the same day it was announced, over 250K companies had applied. It is understandable to want to read everything and think through every little detail before applying, but given the first come first serve nature of many of these opportunities, it is crucial to move more quickly, even without full information. In general, these programs are beneficial to businesses, providing additional runway without taking equity.

Each program has different requirements of supplementary information to include with your application, so make sure you have all of your financial documents finalized and ready to send, such as P&L statements, balance sheets, and payroll figures.

Lastly, breathe! This is an incredibly challenging time for companies, but do not view your revenue metrics as a reflection of you. Let go of anxieties and focus on best supporting your business.

Regarding general financial advice for business owners, Roshawnna recommends knowing your core metrics and staying on top of your finances at all times. Many people make the mistake of not prioritizing this constant tracking and wait for tax season to get organized, which creates more room for error and stress later on. Even during challenging times, it is important to track KPIs (even if doing so feels painful).

Cash flow is the #1 reason why businesses fail, so be sure to always track and plan around cash flow. Even with macro challenges abound, companies can pivot to stay in business as long as they have cash flow.

On advice for aspiring female leaders and for her younger self, Roshawnna recommends seeking out mentors and advisers but balancing this with trusting your own gut because only you understand your true why and passion. It is understandable to feel self-doubt when what your advisers or mentors recommend is different from your initial plan, but ultimately, you are the one executing and implementing with the most nuanced understanding of your organization. Early on, advisers told Roshawnna that being a LinkedIn influencer would be a detriment to her business and brand since people would not take her seriously, so she ceased her involvement in this capacity. But looking back, even if well-intentioned, this advice was ultimately not prudent. Had she remained a LinkedIn influencer, Roshawnna would now be better able to leverage her voice to support EnrichHER and their founders.

3. The Successful

Sri Ramaswamy: Out With The Old, In With The Artificial Intelligence

By: Roshawnna Novellus ? Newsletter: The secret, the significant, the successful: profiles of women entrepreneurs | Originally on EnrichHER.com

Whether it’s car, life, homeowners or health insurance, as a consumer, you find that having insurance is one of the necessities of life. There is no getting around being insured, so you go from company to company looking for the lowest premium and best monthly price point. What you may not be aware of from a buyer's standpoint is that many insurance companies have outdated infrastructures and primitive technology, which causes slower processing times and higher premiums. Kelly Anderson has worked in the insurance industry for 15 years and has seen many customer complaints firsthand. Kelly stated, “It is hard for our examiners to process claims quickly due to regulations and outdated software. An end result is our customers pay higher rates to be insured and we receive many complaints about the slow collection when claims are filed.” Insurance companies that look for innovative or technologically advanced software and processes are key in moving the insurance industry forward.

Many companies arise with innovative ideas to update the processes as well as software used by insurance companies. Infinilytics is one of these, renewing how the insurance business operates. EnrichHER was graced with an opportunity to speak with Sri Ramaswamy, the CEO and Founder of Infinilytics, a technology-based startup in Silicon Valley that provides Artificial Intelligence and machine learning-based SaaS Solutions for the insurance industry.

EnrichHER: Tell us about your background and what prompted you to start Infinilytics.

After starting two companies in India and Australia, I created sales strategies to solve common problems, such as branding for small businesses. My first business endeavor on my path was selling microwaves, and at the time it was new and exciting to help everyday people enjoy warm food after a long day of work. From there, I helped small mom-and-pop restaurants with brand awareness and marketing. As my profits started to increase greatly, I was able to enroll in Business School in Australia and get my MS in Information Technology.

Big data began calling my name, which ignited my passion to solve everyday problems in order to enhance our human experience. I took advantage of a huge opportunity in banking using technology to redesign disconnected CRM systems while making backend data more efficient. After getting six years of banking under my belt, my next destination where I could transfer my skill sets and better serve humans through data was in the insurance industry. This caused me to start using artificial intelligence as a way to innovate the claims process while reducing costs for carriers so that overall premiums could be reduced.

EnrichHER: What fuels your passion, and how have you applied it to your business?

Infinilytics: After 17 years, it was time to put everything I learned to use and start my own company using artificial intelligence to improve the insurance industry. I found that insurance companies used outdated technology that slowed the claims process down exponentially. The saddest part is everyday people get ripped off due to overcharging caused by inefficient claim processes. Being in IT and working in insurance allowed me to see what needed to be done and how to do it! There is no getting around it; insurance is necessary, but we need it done right. Technology allows us to process claims faster and smarter.

EnrichHER: What is your unique perspective on being a business owner? What three lessons did you have to learn to be able to thrive in your industry?

Infinilytics: The insurance industry is full of barriers due to regulations, outdated technology, and most importantly, slow-to-change policies. Being a woman in tech, I’ve been told horrendous advice from investors including “ You should hire a white male to run your company.” As a result, I’ve become more confident in my approach to business. Developing a thicker skin to deal with these adversities has helped me to overcome obstacles. There are always roadblocks on the path that leads to success, but I’m breaking through them all daily and solidifying my company with each triumph.

EnrichHER: Why does Infinilytics need working capital, and how do you plan to grow and scale?

Infinilytics: Updating our technology due to regulations in the insurance industry along with building a solid team to keep improving our product is extremely important. Working capital will put me in a position to close the gaps as well as close bigger deals. With proper funding, we will be allowed to expand our company brand and achieve and/or surpass our margins.

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About the Author

Dr. Roshawnna Novellus is the founder and CEO of EnrichHER, a financial platform that connects female entrepreneurs with lenders who want to earn a return on their investment while fueling the growth of women-led businesses. Dr. Novellus is a gender equality advocate who believes in economic empowerment and inclusive economic growth. Dr. Novellus holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering, with a Minor in Finance, a Masters of Science in Information Technology emphasizing Information System Engineering, a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management Economics, and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering – achieving Summa Cum Laude in each. Roshawnna served on the Commission on Women for the City of Atlanta and was honored as one of the Women Who Means Business by the Atlanta Business Chronicle, one of the 40 Under 40 by Georgia Trend, one of the Top 25 Disruptors and Innovators in Tech, one of the 27 Black Founders and Investors to watch by PItchBook, and LinkedIn Top Voice #5 in Technology.