Laila Arain & Melanie Akwule | How'd You Do It & Why Should I Care?

Laila Arain: 0:00

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the next episode of the Bay Street Capital Holdings podcast titled, How'd You Do It& Why Should I Care? This series aims to highlight women doing amazing work in various industries. So today, we are so lucky to be joined by Melanie Akwule, who is founder and CEO of MINWO. Hi, Melanie, lovely to have you on the show.

Melanie Akwule: 0:18

Hi, thanks so much for having me. How are you?

Laila Arain: 0:20

I'm well, thank you. So let's dive straight into the questions and start off perhaps with an introduction about yourself and an answer to the main question of the podcast, which is how'd you do it & why should I care?

Melanie Akwule: 0:28

Yeah. So Melanie, Founder CEO, at MINWO, where we are centralizing Black Business Development. How do I do it? Essentially, we are creating an ecosystem of products and services that are aimed to help build gross scale black owned businesses. And why should you care? For me, it was a personal story in that most of Silicon Valley, most of the startup ecosystem consists of white men, roughly 72%. And so I'm building the platform and the company that I wish existed when I first started my journey.

Laila Arain: 1:02

Awesome. So I guess that kind of inspired you to kind of meet start your own company. But Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur? Or was it kind of something you fell into?

Melanie Akwule: 1:12

No, I always say I tripped and fell into it. I was working at a company where I thought I was going to you know, continue to progress. My goal at the time was to be a chief data officer. I love data and analytics. I still get to do that today. But entrepreneurship really just hit me in the face. Back in about 2015 2016, when Black Lives Matter, really was taking grip across the country. And so I just wanted to use my talents to serve a greater purpose. That's awesome.

Laila Arain: 1:41

So since you didn't really know you wanted to be an entrepreneur, what were the best resources that helped you along the way to start your own company? Yeah,

Melanie Akwule: 1:48

I did a lot of fact finding. So just talking to other people, whether they were in entrepreneurship or not, it was really just socializing my idea, trying to see if there was any merit to it if there was any real need for it. And then when I really started diving in, Google was my best friend originally. And then, you know, I started finding the like the entrepreneurs circuit. So conferences and workshops and things like that, that really helped take things to the next level.

Laila Arain: 2:15

Definitely. And what are some lessons then that you wish you would have known before starting in the entrepreneurship industry? I'm sure you did a lot of research yourself. As you mentioned, you went on Google. But is there anything that you know you didn't find out? Or that you kind of put along on the way?

Melanie Akwule: 2:29

Yeah, for sure. I think that that comes to just me and my own personal development. I wish I would have known that everything I needed to build this business I had inside of me, because I feel like I spent a lot of my early days, you know, look, seeking, seeking validation, and just trying to make things. Democracy. When honestly, I had the vision, and I just needed to trust my gut that I could execute that vision.

Laila Arain: 2:54

Definitely. I'm thinking over the span of your career, what would you say was your biggest failure? And what did you learn from it?

Melanie Akwule: 3:01

biggest failure? That's a good question. Um, I don't know, I look at everything as a learning opportunity. I think for me, just going back to trusting my myself, there was one team member specifically, I remember bringing on board, literally, he was on the team for a day. And it was one of those moments where I just thought that I needed someone with his skill sets. And even you know, as he was leaving that same day, he shared, you know, thoughts around, you know, I won't be able to do it without him and things like that. And so I think just going back to just trusting my gut and realizing that not everyone is right, for this journey. Not everyone's going to get it or understand it. And that's okay.

Laila Arain: 3:42

No, that's great that you learned that and very early on in your career, so you can kind of use it later. And following on from that, what would be one piece of advice that you would be wanting to give somebody who is pursuing a career similar to yours? Yeah.

Melanie Akwule: 3:57

Expect the unexpected. As cliche as that sounds, there's a lot of things that I never would have guessed what happened along the journey, but also, you know, things just take time, right. And no matter how much you try and force it, no matter how hard you work, some things just unravel at the time that they should unravel, and, you know, come to fruition in that way. So I would just say, you know, take the time that it's required to go through the steps, because if you skip steps, you don't you don't build the muscle or you don't build the strength that you need to be able to, to excel at those new levels. So each day, each moment, each action each opportunity is necessary on the journey. Definitely.

Laila Arain: 4:39

And I feel like you know, entrepreneurship, the whole industry is a very up and coming area and people don't really know much about it. So one one common myth that you would like to debunk about entrepreneurship.

Melanie Akwule: 4:49

Yeah, that you I would say that you are you become rich overnight. I don't know too many people. That's happened for I know those are the populist was to share. But it's really you know, the the five year the 10 year overnight success story, a lot of these companies that we, we look at and admire today, we're working hard day in and day out for years before they became, you know, nationally globally recognized. So, yeah, it's not an overnight kind of situation.

Laila Arain: 5:20

We'll see. And I'm sure you're really busy at the moment, obviously, since you're founder and CEO, but what have you read or listened to recently in your free time that's really inspired you?

Melanie Akwule: 5:29

Ah, I've actually been trying to clear my mind. I've been, you know, reading romance novels, because those are my favorite thing to do when I just want to, like, get away and escape. And I think that's important, right? Because we consume so much information throughout the day, you're talking to team members, investors, bunches of people. And so for me, I tried to use those opportunities to really just give my mind a break.

Laila Arain: 5:57

That's pretty nice. And who are three people in your life who have been the most influential to you?

Melanie Akwule: 6:02

Yeah, I would say first and foremost, my brother, he has autism and literally is just a bouncing ball of energy. And so I look at him he's, he's non communicative. So he he's, you know, speaks in a different way. And but nothing brings him down. And so for me, he's kind of like a driving force of, with all my gifts with all my abilities, with all the things that I'm blessed with, how can I, you know, stay in a negative mental place when he's just constantly positive. So he's definitely one for sure. My mother would be a second one. I know, that's also cliche, but she just, you know, constantly powers through she went to law school with four kids and with essentially did that, you know, mostly on her own. And so when I went through grad school, and it was just me by myself, that was difficult. I cannot imagine having four kids and powering through that. So definitely, one and two. And then I don't know, I think the third position kind of just goes to my friends and the rest of my family, they keep me lifted. The constantly supporting retweeting, sharing everything. Never one time, they made me feel like I'm wasting time or energy on this journey, which is pretty rare. You know, people that aren't in startup or entrepreneurship may not get it, but they always support. They've been my biggest cheerleader, so I shout them out constantly.

Laila Arain: 7:20

Well, semanas radio surrounded by such supportive people. Yeah, thank you. And finally, to round up our conversation, what is one piece of advice that you wish you gave yourself at any point in your life?

Melanie Akwule: 7:31

Yeah, um, live in the moment. Enjoy the moment I think I've always been such a go getter that I'm always thinking about, okay, you know, what's next? And you know, I've had amazing things happen to me this past year, I got into Tech Stars and accelerator program and, and many other things, press and things like that. And, you know, it kind of just, I chop it down and I'm on to the next. So if I could go back and tell my younger self, even like my elementary school self, just enjoy the day, right? Because the that day has so many things to offer you the next day will come and the next goal and milestone will come but make sure you bask in you know, the now

Laila Arain: 8:10

also. So that wraps up our conversation for today. So thank you so much, Melanie, for taking the time to speak with me.

Melanie Akwule: 8:16

No problem was great talking to you later. I'll talk to you soon.

Laila Arain: 8:18

Thank you. Bye bye.