Sevetri Wilson is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of two companies, Solid Ground Innovations (SGI) and, most recently, Resilia, a New Orleans-based technology startup. Wilson bootstrapped her first company, SGI, to seven figures with zero capital, and she raised over $3M for her second company, Resilia, which launched to the public in 2016. She is the first Black woman in New Orleans to raise over $1M in venture capital. In 2010, she was honored with the Nobel Prize for public service, the Jefferson Award, and was featured in the Senate report to the White House on volunteerism in America during the Obama administration. Wilson has been featured in Forbes, Black Enterprise, Essence, Inc., Entrepreneur, USA Today, CNN, and other news outlets for her work in business and technology.

Introduction 1

1 Coming From Where I’m From 3

Triple Threat 6

2 The Difference 16

Focus 25

3 Bootstrapping versus Raising Capital 28

Professional Services to Startup 28

On the Bootstrapping Process 31

Repeatable and Predictable Revenue, Regardless 38

Money Can’t Be the Only Motivation 39

4 Idea to Product: Building a Startup 42

Starting With Funding 42

Starting Without Funding 43

What Not to Do When Starting a Company 44

You’ll Never Get Going Unless 45

5 Building a Team 49

Hiring and Finding Freelancers and Others 49

Out of the Gate 57

Contingency versus Retained Recruiters 59

Get Out of the Way 62

6 I Hear You, But I Need Capital 67

Financing Terminology 68

Preparing to Raise 70

What Legal Documents Should I Use? 71

7 Raising a Pre-Seed $400,000 79

Pre-Seed, Better Known as a Friends-and-Family Round 79

The Pitch 85

8 Accelerators and Pitch Competitions? Bang or Bust 89

9 Raising My Seed Round 98

10 Product Market Fit 103

Sales: Remember Predictable, Repeatable Revenue? 103

11 Raising a Series A 107

12 Holy Crap—A Pandemic! 113

Prioritizing Mental Well-Being 116

13 The Murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and BLM 119

The Talk I Had With My Team 123

The Role of Philanthropy in Creating Equity 125

Systemic Issues Facing Black-Led Technology Companies 126

14 My Hopes, and Losing an Icon 129

The Role Technology Plays 129

On Building Generational Wealth 132

Appendix 137

Glossary 139

Rate Sheet 145

Online Resources 149

About the Author 151

Index 153

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