Samir Goel, Co-CEO and Co-Founder @ Esusu
Samir Goel is the Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Esusu, a fast-growing social enterprise that bridges the racial wealth gap and increases financial access for low-to-middle income consumers. Esusu recently raised funding led by Acumen and Jeff Weiner’s Next Play Ventures.
In this episode, we spoke with Samir about:
Challenges raising money as a person of color
How his parents felt about leaving a stable tech job for entrepreneurship
Why growing up in New York has shaped his own perspective on his Indian-American identity
… and so much more!
You can listen to him below or wherever else you get to your podcasts.
The challenges of raising money as a person of color
“We definitely ran into some challenges fundraising. You hear the narrative where some white dude in a hoodie drops out of college and raises millions of dollars working on a “stealth idea”. That is the polar opposite of our experience. It's not enough to be average for black or brown entrepreneurs. We have to be freaking exceptional to have the same opportunities.
There were a few issues that surfaced from our fundraising on this point. One is that VCs operate on what they call “mental models”; which are patterns of success that they have seen before. VCs hadn't seen founders who look like us solving the type of problems that we were trying to solve before.
These VCs had a lack of proximity to the problem we were solving. We would have VCs ask us who cares if someone’s credit score goes up 50 or 60 points; did that actually matter? I had to tell them that for many, that was the difference between getting an apartment or not getting an apartment. That's the difference between being a homeowner, refinancing student loans, or getting a job. But they’ve never experienced those things. They don't have those problems. It's hard to get people on board with a problem set that they may or may not understand given their background. That's not a dig on them. That's just the reality, right? We're more acutely aware of the problems that we faced or experienced.
Abby and I talked to hundreds of VCs on our first round of financing. Not a lot of people wanted to take a bet on us. That being said, you also asked about the benefits of being a person of color and fundraising. I think the benefit was that eventually through all those nos, we found the right investors - people that were honored to be on this journey with us. It is more meaningful than those people who have taken a bet on us because of how many people didn't.”
On the changing perceptions of Indian-Americans post 9/11
“My parents came from India and didn't grow up in America. Because of that, they didn't have expectations to fit in or belong. They were just willing to put their heads down and work. They came from a generation where that stuff didn't really matter.
But for me, growing up in New York, I had a different set of expectations. This was home. I should feel like I belong in the place I grew up in. I remember as a child, that after 9/11 my mom and dad had certain negative experiences which they just brushed off.
Although, I do remember vividly seeing my dad cry. I think it was the only time in my life I witnessed that. He later got a job working in the State Department working on Anti Terrorism initiatives; which I was really proud of.
Little things changed for me after 9/11. I remember when I was 14 I could grow a beard, and my mom would freak out. She would tell me to always shave my beard. ‘They’re going to think you’re a terrorist, she would tell me. I didn’t really understand how problematic this was at the time, but now looking back, I know that was significant for me, and must have been for others.”
How moving from suburban New York to Manhattan opened a world of opportunities
“I will always say New York City is the best city in the world. There's just so much cultural identity there. There are many kinds of ethnicities and cultural groups that I share a lot of similarities and shared experiences with.
The biggest thing New York and Manhattan taught me was how big the world was, and how great the opportunities were. I'll give you an example. I came to New York because I was going to school at NYU. I spent my summers working as a landscaper. On my first day of college, I met this girl named Emma. She asked me what I did the summer before. I told her ‘you know, I landscaped, listened to the radio, and watched some Mets games.’ That's really all I did.
She told me she got a grant to study climate change on Mount Kilimanjaro. And I was like, what? Is that even possible? New York just exposed the playing field to me. Where I grew up I didn't really have those same levels of possibilities. That was really empowering.”
Putting his parents in “BCC”
“I'm very grateful that my parents didn't pay for most of my education because that made me feel like I was not depending on someone else for my success. Because of this, I didn’t have to follow their wishes or desires.
It's going to sound a little bad, but I kind of treated my parents like a BCC in an email. I’d tell them hey, I’m moving to Ireland, or hey, I’m quitting LinkedIn to go build a startup; see you at Christmas. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do, but I think I needed to create my own sense of self during that process. I also didn’t want to have that dialogue with my parents every time I made a new decision.
I think that is working well. My parents and I have redefined our relationship. We’re more like peers now, which I really value. My parents have adapted a lot over time too. When I was growing up, my parents were so new to the country; they really were immigrants. But now they’ve assimilated. They understand American culture and society, and I think they respect the path I’ve taken because of that.”
Why he left his corporate job to build his own startup
“I was doing really well at LinkedIn. I got to the point where I was helping build sales strategy and operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Although, I think I got to this point where I realized I could continue on this path of promotions. But that didn't really mean anything to me. What really excited me was the opportunity to build something for me to give back to communities. Like the one that I came from.
When it came down to it, I got to the stage where my LinkedIn work, and what I was building with Esusu, both became too big to do them at the same time.
If I tried to do both, they would both fail. To me, it really just came down to regrets. I was like, look if I try to do this and it fails, that'll suck, but it'll be okay. But if I never try, I know I'm going to regret that for the rest of my life. That'll be the thing at 80 years old that I'll look back on and be like, I wish I had done that.”
Like reading about Samir? Want to get notified of any new episodes of the podcast? Subscribe to our newsletter here.
Until next time,
Angie and Jay