Real Talk with Founders
A casual, honest conversation with Pittsburgh-based founders, Jim Gibbs and Ingrid Cook.
As an entrepreneur, surrounding yourself with individuals who will be candid and tell you the truth is crucial. To help early-stage entrepreneurs understand the realities of founding a startup, we recently launched Real Talk with Founders as part of our free Community Education Series. Real Talk is a lively, virtual conversation that allows participants to connect with small business owners and discuss pressing questions that entrepreneurs are facing right now.
For our first Real Talk, we invited Jim Gibbs, Co-Founder & CEO at Meter Feeder, and Ingrid Cook, Founder of SHzoom, to tell it like it is. No sugar coating! Our conversation with these two experienced founders covered a wide variety of topics — believing in yourself, being a Black business owner in Pittsburgh, tokenism, fixing disparities in the tech industry, responding to COVID-19, learning from customers, and finding the right investors for your company. No stones would have been left unturned if we weren’t limited to only one hour.
Here are some of our favorite quotes from Real Talk:
- “The less they [investors] have to imagine, the more likely they are to invest.” — Jim
- “If I didn’t get anything, it’s because I didn’t ask. And [as a founder], you can never grow weary of asking. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to help you.” — Ingrid
- “Learn how to present what it is that you do . . . succinctly.” — Jim
- “Knowing what you do is one thing, but knowing why you do it is another thing!” — Ingrid
- “My goal is to help people understand my vision of the future and why I’m going to be successful.” — Jim
- “Until you convince yourself that you’re capable, no one else will believe you” — Ingrid
- “When I got my minority-owned certification, they were like, ‘What truck do you have . . . You’re a black man, clearly you’re in construction.’ No, I’m not in construction, I’m a software developer. Until we normalize us being entrepreneurs, being in tech, being CEOs, then, of course, we are going to be continuously underestimated.” — Jim
- “When you reach a roadblock, you do what you have to do to get over it. That’s a sign of a good founder. But you have to know that you know that you bring value.” — Ingrid
Watch the full conversation with Jim and Ingrid below.
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