Adam Torres and Keenan Beasley discuss Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship.
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Show Notes:
How do you align a business with a Mission? In this episode, Adam Torres and Keenan Beasley, Founder & Chairman of Venture Noire, explore the Venture Noire story, mission and Keenan’s vision for its future.
About Keenan Beasley
Keenan Beasley is marketing executive and serial entrepreneur with more than a decade of consumer marketing experience. He is currently the CEO of Supply Factory Brands, a venture studio, Venture Noire, a nonprofit & Walton Family Foundation grant recipient as well as Infinite Looks, the makers of leading athleisure haircare brand Sunday II Sunday.
Prior to launching Supply Factory, Keenan launched BLKBOX, a creative agency in NYC with clients ranging from Samsung to Diageo.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Keenan is a contributor to Forbes & CNBC, an advisor to a number of start-up companies and a regular lecturer at the USC Marshall School of Business. Keenan received a Bachelor of Science degree in Law and Systems Engineering from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
About Venture Noire
Venture Noire is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving black quality of life through economic development. Additionally, Venture Noire is a 510c3 accredited non-profit diversity, equity and inclusion partner. Venture Noire was formed to improve Black quality of life through workforce creation and economic development. Through its programming, Venture Noire is on a mission to accelerate communities of color by catalyzing the success of minority-owned businesses in the digital economy. Venture Noire’s ecosystem includes dozens of minority-owned start-ups that are on the cutting edge of technology, innovation and creativity.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, today I have Kenan Beasley on the line, and he’s a founder and chairman over at Venture Noir.
Kenan, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you for having me. All right, Keenan. So we got, we got a lot to talk about today. Definitely want to get more into Venture Noir and also some of what you’re doing to align your business goals with social and environment in your environmental mission. But before we get into all that.
We’ll start this episode the way that we start them all with what we like to call our mission matters minute So keenan our mission at mission matters is to amplify stories for business owners entrepreneurs Executives entertainers people that we feel, you know need to be heard and have a strong mission and want to get it out there that’s what we do keenan.
What mission matters to you? You know, for me, there’s, two, right? One is, you know, how do we reimagine the middle class? You know, I feel one of the biggest threats to society right now is that the middle class is shrinking. And so that’s something I’ve, dedicated my life to. But, you know, the second is, you know, it was always shocking to me that the people with the most influence have the least amount of wealth.
And I think it’s time to change that. So those are the two missions that really matter to me. when did you kind of know that you were going to be going on this path? Like, how did that come about? I didn’t know the exact path, right? And I think any entrepreneur would, be a liar if they said that.
You know, I think what we, we gravitate to are certain aspects of ourselves mine has always been, I’ve been a service related guy. You know, I went to West Point, which is all about serving our country. I’ve also been a marketer, which is all about serving consumers. I was also a football player, which is about serving the greater good of the team, especially as a D lineman and outside linebacker like I was most of the days I’m making piles.
So, you know, my life has been dedicated to serving others. And I feel that’s been part of my purpose on this planet is to make the world better in some way, shape or form. You know, in that in my quest for that, what I started to see and understand is that. There are a lot of problems to solve. as you get more mature in your entrepreneurial endeavors, you try to solve larger and larger problems.
I think, like I said, the biggest problem that we’re seeing right now is the decline of the middle class in America. And we’ve now gotten to a spot where it’s the haves and the have nots. And that’s not good for anybody, right? It’s, it’s, you know, it’s not good for people with extreme amounts of wealth.
It becomes a security risk for them and, and things that they worry about on a daily basis. And it’s certainly not good for people that don’t have. Right. And their inability to support their families, right. And their quality of life. So, you know, that now is, is the articulation of what I’m focused on, but my root has always been just serving the needs of others.
Talk to me more about Venture Noir and what you do. Yeah, Venture Noir, it started off as a, a bit of therapy for me. I’ll be honest, right. I was selling my last company felt very isolated. You know, I had a business partner and a team and, you know, all of a sudden you. It’s gone. Right. You’ve sold it and you’re kind of sitting at home wondering, what do I do?
Right. So, you know, in that time period, you know, I was in, Brooklyn New York at the time. And the entrepreneurial ecosystem was very fragmented. So it’s very, you know, you’re, you’re isolated. And I thought to myself, man, I wish we had. An ecosystem or a community similar to Silicon Valley, right?
Are some of these more entrepreneurial spirited towns. And so I started off with just a, you know, Instagram post. Hey, if you’re an entrepreneur in Brooklyn, come to my apartment, bring your favorite drink. I’m cooking. 75 people showed up, right? 75 people are at my apartment. We’re having a good time talking about entrepreneurs.
So what they did was, you know, right in the, in the nerdy entrepreneur way. That was proof of concept, right? There was a need, right? Other people felt as isolated as I did, right? And they wanted a sense of community. and in talking to folks, what I realized was there was this, especially in diverse entrepreneurs, a lack of confidence, right?
They had all these skills, all these gifts, all this access and network, but because they hadn’t seen. plethora of examples of success in folks that have looked like them in the journeys they’re in. And there was this, confidence gap. And I said, ah, you know, we want to build confidence in underserved entrepreneurs, right?
So that, that was the initial thought as I got deeper into it and started looking at the theory of change. What I realized was the root of this was there’s a quality of life gap in this country there and quality of life usually means do you feel valuable? Right? The quality of your life is really predicated on the value that you bring, right?
We actually are geared as individuals to want to work hard, right? To achieve things. So that is, work ethic is something that we actually value in ourselves. That’s why there’s a rush when you work out. So as I was going through this, I said, man, we have to close the quality of life gap. And that ended up becoming the mission of Internal Arm, was how do we close the quality of life gap in America?
How do we reimagine the middle class? Right? Everyone feels valuable. And that’s the work that we do. And we do that through a couple of things. 1, it’s through research. Right? So how do we research the problems as we go around the country? Right? Because the middle class of L. A. is very different than the middle class of Huntsville, Alabama.
True. The types of jobs that are needed. So there’s a city by city specific approach. So research is needed for that from there. Then we want to incubate those ideas and help develop that could look like accelerators, workshops, right? Et cetera. And then we want to accelerate that. idea to implementation?
So, that’s kind of our process and in a 3 step form, and that is now called initiative called city of entrepreneurs. Right, so how do we go city by city and reimagine, right, the middle class and the entrepreneurial landscape, I want to stick to those early days a little bit longer here. So, especially when you know, you do this 1st post, you put this I mean, either proof of concept, which I agree with you, or you just are a great cook.
1 of the 2. I don’t know, like, 1 of those, but you got, you know, dinner in Brooklyn. Okay, fine. I’ll give you that. But, okay. Like you, now you have this concept, you’re starting to have the, and, you know, you, like you said, you, I think you just exited another company, another business, you’re figuring out what’s next.
And I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs when they may be, you know, they’re looking at what’s next, or maybe they’re displaced. I mean, we just got done with COVID, all of that. And they’re looking for kind of what’s next. Like, how did you know that this was something that you wanted to continue to pursue and it wasn’t just a great, like, you know, a great idea that didn’t have long term legs, like, how did you know?
I didn’t write is the real answer. I didn’t know my journey and in all of my companies and I’ve now started 15 companies successful. So I’m not it’s through trying. I just, I have a bias to action, so I just do stuff and sometimes it sticks. Sometimes it doesn’t right. But I don’t like to sit in idea stage long.
I put it to work. So I had a thought and a hypothesis. And I put together a very easy event that cost me very little, right? The cost of food, right? In an Instagram it opened the doors to my apartment. to see if if it had legs. And, and I quickly realized it did. Right? And so that, at that point, I knew it had legs.
Right? At that point, I knew it was something to do. But that’s all my companies. You know, so, so when I was sitting and I had, you know, exited my last company, there were a couple things that mattered to me. One was culture. I really wanted to drive culture forward because I was, I was bothered by the fact that people with all this influence didn’t have the wealth.
Right. And that was deeply upsetting to me. Right. I looked at people that were, you know, shifting culture, not just in America, but, but globally. And yet they’re on the bottom of, income. that was wild. So I knew I wanted to impact that. I knew I wanted to impact the middle class. I knew I wanted to continue as an entrepreneur and, and be amongst like minded, crazy entrepreneurs.
So, so those are better. A little bit of a glutton for punishment, a little bit of punishment there. those are my folks, right? Those are the men and women that I like to interact with. Mine too, and it hurts. That’s why I can say that. It hurts. But, you know, it’s our folks. But those are our people, right?
So, you know, that’s what I knew I wanted to be within. then I really had to allow. The universe to use me, right? I’m a big fan of, of Rick Rubin’s book, you know, as he talks about the creative process, you know, where the individual is just a medium in which the universe is pushing that, that creativity through.
And a lot of times I pray for that, right, so that I can be a medium, right, to bring that idea out. And so as things come and they flow through me, then I just do and I act. I think for me, it’s very easy for me to kill an idea as well. Right? I don’t have a lot of ego in it. And that’s why I tell people I am a service based person.
What that means is my ego is not in it because I’m looking to serve someone else’s needs. So if I’m cooking for you and you don’t like the meal, well, I need to make a different meal. Right? It doesn’t matter that I like it. You’re, you’re eating. Right? So when you do things for others, it helps take your, your ego out of it.
And it’s a, it’s an action I call painstorming. So I believe in painstorming instead of brainstorming. Brainstorming is just ideas that you feel are there. Right? And it’s very much your ego in it. Painstorming, you’re looking to solve someone else’s needs. Right. So always puts the success metric on the customer, the client, right?
Who you’re serving. And, and that’s that’s helped me tremendously in my career. Painstorming. I like it. I’m don’t worry. I’m going to, I’m going to quote you on it as many times as I can remember, but Adam made up painstorm. No, I didn’t. Kenan did, but I’m going to use it and I’ll attribute it as many times as I can remember Kenan.
All good. I’m sure I saw it somewhere. Right. You know, I don’t know. This stuff is out in the universe. So we’re just, we’re just bringing it out, man. All good. I got to take a detour on Rick Rubin cause I like him too. And I remember I caught that interview that he did. I don’t know if you’ve seen this interview, if you didn’t, that’s absolutely my audience.
I’m telling more so than yourself, but if you, if you like Rick Rubin too, then then I saw this interview with him and, Andre 3000, like years ago, and they’re talking and they’re going through that creativity side of things that you’re talking about. And I’m telling you, I wish. If I had my cousin calling right now, he would he could attest to this, but I said it like two and a half years ago, maybe more than that.
I was like, watch Andre 3000 is going to come out with an album with that flute. He’s been playing with for a while. Watch watch everybody thought I was crazy. Everybody thought, not because I had any insight, it was their conversation. Like it was so obvious in that conversation that that’s where Andre 3000 was at.
If you want to look it up you just literally in YouTube put Rick Rubin Andre 3000. It’s going to come right up And that was the predictor that was like, oh he’s going to come out with that album because that’s what’s on his heart I’m a fan of both of theirs, so I will definitely look that up. That one’s worth your time, I promise.
It’s only, it’s not too long. Unfortunately, it’s only an hour. Like, those two guys going back and forth talking about creativity, it’s only 52 minutes, unfortunately. I’m like, man, I wish they’d release the rest of it, because I know they were going. Like, those two, I’m like, that was a day for sure. They were probably there for two days.
But, know, I love about how Rick Rubin and a lot of these, these, you know, super successful creators, how they talk about the creative process. To me, they give credit to the fact that all of us are creatives, and I love that, right? Like, Rick Rubin is very big on every day we make creative decisions.
Like, we bring something to life, whether that is what we put on and where, right? How we approach, you know, the food that we eat. There’s creative decisions that take place, and I like that. You know, he sees us all as creatives, and it really is about your upbringing that shapes whether or not you acknowledge that.
And I’m a big believer that we’re all creatives. Amazing. Yeah. How does that, how does that play in the business for you and your, in your process? Because as you mentioned, 15 companies, like, that’s no, that’s no small feat. Like, that’s, that’s a, it’s a lot of things to juggle. Like, how does that play into your process?
Creativity? Yeah, I, I think, you know, a lot of those 15, right? Some were just experiments that didn’t work, right? And a couple that did hit, you know, I was fortunate, but, you know, where I’ll shape it now in terms of, you know, my overall thesis, again, there are lots of creatives out there, right? There are lots of influences out there.
What is the gap for them to make wealth, right, or to create wealth? It typically is infrastructure. So my mission right now is how do I put infrastructure around influence? And in doing that, that creates obviously a holding company that can birth several companies. Because there are several areas of creative expression or influence that require a certain type of infrastructure, building brands, right?
And CPG products requires a set infrastructure from product development and manufacturing to supply chain, right? Et cetera. So I have a company that does that. Media requires that, right? When we look at storytelling, when you look at economic development and real estate, right? You can keep going, right? So this thesis could take me in infinite, you know, ways, but it’s under the guise of how do we put infrastructure around influence?
And I think Venture Noir, as my nonprofit, what it seeks to do is service and help people think through that as they’re developing their idea. How do they move from idea to first dollar quickly? Because again, right, when we’re talking about the middle class and we’re talking about the underserved being an entrepreneur is great, but but it’s also easy.
The goal is not to be an entrepreneur. The goal is to build success and wealth and a quality of life. For your family and your community. Yeah. So I need to get you out of the idea and quickly into monetization, right? Get you into the black, right? Which was the name of our accelerator. So that now you’re contributing both to your family yourself, but also your broader society.
So that’s the work that we’re doing, which is to help shape and guide people along that journey. So Venture Noir, you’re, you know, over five years in let’s, let’s dream for a moment and let’s, dream Keenan, you know, in 10 years, 10 years, where, what do you see? Like, where do you want to be in 10 years with Venture Noir?
You know, in 10 years, I would, I would really love to take this to what I call almost a blue sky school, right? So I’m a dreamer. So thank you for asking that question, Adam. You know, for, for me, it is, how do we take this? And we have, you know, what I call blue sky thinking. All right, when you the higher the ceilings, right, the more creative, the more you can expand what happens with a lot of people, depending on the environment there.
You’re thinking is limited to the confines of your environment, right? It becomes a scarcity or poverty mindset. What you have to do is remove people from that environment so that they can think bigger, right? You think and think more creatively. Why are kids so creative? Well, it’s because they run outside all day.
Right. So there’s no feeling for them. Right. That’s, that’s why you see the imagination with kids. If you put them in a house too long, you’ll notice kids get antsy. They can’t, they can’t handle it. You got to let them run outside. Yeah. Yeah. Same with us as adults. Right? We forget that. We forget that we need to share and we need to explore outside.
So for me, yeah, my, my big dream would be that we can have a blue sky school for entrepreneurs to remove them from their environment, remove them from the stress of their day to day lives. Of what I call survival so that they can think with an abundance mindset freely to bring that work and those ideas to life.
So I would love to have our version of the university. I’d love to teach my way of entrepreneurship that we can see what, coming out there because the world will benefit from it. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think that’s a, it’s a great idea and I think like these, this concept of like echo chambers is that kind of relates to what you said is that if you’re in that same echo chamber, if you’re seeing the same thing, the same people, if you’re getting that same, like if you’re in that same, Mode of thought, like there’s only so far you can think or ideate or dream or anything else.
So getting out of that environment and, you know, and getting access to new ideas. That’s why, I mean, I’m a big fan of going to conferences or like obviously trips and the fun stuff too. Like everything that, that introduces new experiences into your psyche so that you can, you know, grow, right. Absolutely.
And you can come up with your big idea. And once you go back, now we bring you in right now, I need to shrink. I need to lower the ceiling so that you can execute. Right. But, but a lot of times what you start to see and. You know, I, I get pitched a lot of ideas, right? Hundreds and hundreds a year, right? If not thousands, that probably hit my inbox and a lot of them are very small.
Right? So, when you think about, okay, is this even investible? Is it worth time? You’re like, even if that’s successful, it’s very small. Yeah, and still the chances of success and entrepreneurship are, very, you know, limited, so if you’re going to swing like that, swing big, right?
Don’t swing the ball, right? you know, if I’m going to fail, I’m going to fail big. It’s okay. And I think that’s 1 of the things that. You know, we, have to help people do. So that is like, Hey, you have a desire to be an entrepreneur. I want you to dream big. I want to ask you a question that you just asked me, Keena, let’s dream 10 years.
What is it? Right? What’s that thing? And I just told you, I want to build Harvard for entrepreneurs. Right? you gave me a chance to dream big. Everyone doesn’t get that chance. Right? Because a lot of times you’re thinking about, I have to pay rent. Right? I gotta buy food. I have to pay my cell phone bill.
Right? You’re, you’re All valid points. All valid points. Right? People do have to do that. Not negating that for anybody listening. He’s not saying No. Don’t do that. It’s real life. Yeah. It’s, it’s real life. Right? And, and dreaming sometimes as an adult is a privilege. Mm hmm. So, if I can help give that privilege to folks, amazing.
Right? I, I would love nothing more. I want people to dream crazy. And I remember I did a kind of a company flop experience with Google earlier in my career, and I just got to walk the halls of Google and see how they approached initiatives. And they had this wall in the office where developers, employees, right, they could just write a crazy idea down on the wall, and it was, recorded.
And they would launch thousands of initiatives a year, right? At this time, I was at Procter Gamble, and we would launch, you know. Ooh, that Google R& D budget, baby. Come on, go ahead. Oh, oh. It’s an R& D company, right? But at Procter Gamble, right, think it was totally opposite, right? I’m, I’m working on Tide at the time, and we would launch two initiatives a year.
Right. Take that to a company that was launching thousands. Let’s get to that. right? Let’s, dream, let’s create, let’s do and then let’s figure out how we can support each other, right? And bring those to life. Great. I think that’s a great way to end it, Keenan.
If somebody is listening to this or watching this and they want to learn more about venture noir or any of your content what’s the best way for them to do that? You can reach me at Keenan Beasley on, on all channels. I’m super responsive. Other than that, you know, at VentureNoir. org you can find out more about VentureNoir and latest events, et cetera, right, and reach out to the team.
So we’re here to support, we’re here to help, and we want to be a part of people’s dreams. Amazing. And to the audience and everybody tuning in, if this is your first time with us and you haven’t hit the subscribe button yet, I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but if you need an individualized invitation from me, here it is, hit the subscribe button to my long term listeners, if you’ve man, if you still haven’t left me a review yet, you better go ahead and leave that review.
It’s only going to take you a couple of minutes. sure do appreciate you tuning in today and Keenan really appreciate you making time for us. And man, I’m, I’m all in for this dream, big dream, bigger man. You got me. Fire it up over here. Thank you so much for coming on. No, thank you for having me, brother.
See you.
