The Making of Hustle House @ SXSW
It often takes failure to succeed
Too often the stories of how something is built by and for Black and/or Latinx communities are not captured. Sometimes, we are so busy trying to create the changes we need, that finding the time and energy to write and share our experiences feels like a luxury. I believe that our work deserves to be documented so that others can add to it.
Last week, Black & Brown Founders presented Hustle House @ SXSW, with the support of Backstage Capital, Azlo, and others. We gathered hundreds of Black and Brown tech workers, with 48 of them presenting on our stage. We look forward to sharing more of the Hustle House experience through a special podcast soon.
In the meantime, I will share the story of how Hustle House @ SXSW came to be, because it often takes failure to succeed, and I want to document an example of failure that made way for success.
For Hustle House to be successful, the Black & Brown Founders team needed to make many calls and send many emails. We knew that we would hear “NO” more than once. But we also knew that in the end, we only needed a few to say “Yes”.
Please feel free to use this narrative as a tool to meet your needs, whatever they may be.
Our beginnings were inspired by many of you.
It all started with people who told me stories about how they experienced SXSW in 2017.
The catalyst was hearing how a well-known leader in our community was treated at a private party. After being invited to an exclusive event as a VIP, she was not only asked to prove her invitation, but shortly after, without merit, she was “asked” to leave. She was singled out because she didn’t look like she belonged among her white male peers.
This story was followed by others from my circle. People were asked to prove that they were invited to a party, were sexually harassed, or felt unseen and marginalized during the conference. Thank you for sharing your story with me. You experienced all of that after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to participate in the tech culture conversation.
This led me to ask some questions.
What underestimated talent would be at SXSW 2018?
Who would want to create a space for people of color to celebrate our tech talent?
Who else deserves to be part of the SXSW experience that is usually on the outside looking in?
I asked these questions to a group of tech leaders with whom I have created fellowship and friendship, a group of women that have been creating opportunities for themselves and others within tech. Thank you Francesca Escoto, Andrea Guendelman, Laura Donnelly, Sara Inés Calderón, Ramona Ortega, Lisa Hellebo Morales, and last but not least, Aniyia Williams. This group became a combination of thought partners, editors, connectors, and an informal advisory board.
We had several calls to try to figure out what we could do at SXSW 2018, and how we could do it without any resources besides our own sweat equity.
Our initial ideas ranged from a pub crawl to dancing at Gloria’s. Something simple and easy to coordinate. Let’s just get some folks together and see what happens. I just had three non-negotiables:
- We had to work with institutions and leaders in Austin who are leading the charge in making sure their city’s innovation economy is being built equitably.
- We had to be inclusive by reaching out to as many leaders working with underrepresented folks in tech as time would allow.
- No panels or talks would be specifically focused on Diversity and Inclusion. We already know we belong. Community and opportunity sharing was going to be the focus of this work.
I started calling other folks in my network to ask them what they thought:
“Do you want to be part of a coalition of partners to connect, engage, and learn from each other at SXSW?”
Most of them said YES. A resounding YES, at that.
Then, despite the positive reception, I started to doubt myself. The enthusiasm of folks posed a series of challenges for me: What did I start? Could I really pull it off?
I didn’t have an event name, I had no organization or company, no staff, and no funding.
But, people showed up.
I was stuck until one day Sara Inés stepped in and volunteered to add to my ideation documents. Then, Francesca, who was my partner for the Latina Startup Tour, took a stab at it. I deeply admire both of them, but felt like they must have better things to do than look at my half-finished sentences. I was embarrassed.
I had the pleasure of working with Aniyia when she was a Code2040 Entrepreneur in Residence. She started Black & Brown Founders during her residency as a response to her experiences of fundraising for her fashion hardware company, Tinsel.
When I was struggling to come up with a name, Aniyia suggested “Hustle House”.
I still didn’t know if it would come together, but I had a name. Check!
Next, we needed a venue we could afford (i.e. free or as close to $0 as possible).
Sara Inés made calls and introduced me to folks who were interested. I vacillated as I became overwhelmed again.
I then reached out to Michael Henderson. So far all the conversations were happening with folks who had known me for years. I had only met Michael recently, and had somehow convinced myself that if he thought what I proposed was ridiculous, I would stop.
Instead, he gave his support and suggested that Huston-Tillotson University and its’ president, Dr. Pierce Burnette, might be the right partner. As an HBCU with a Computer Science degree program, they are preparing underrepresented folks for the innovation economy.
So Michael played matchmaker, and I put together a quick proposal. In it, I suggested that by working together we could tap into Austin and national talent.
Our program goals proposed were:
- A one-day program hosted and sponsored in-kind by Huston-Tillotson
- Teach Black and Latinx entrepreneurs best practices and cutting-edge techniques to build modern, profitable businesses
- Teach current and aspiring knowledge workers of color how to get and maintain employment in the innovation economy
- Introduce new tech opportunities to people of color
- Highlight the stories and work of inspiring Black and Latinx tech entrepreneurs to the community
- Create an active community of founders of color to support each other, and exchange information and key lessons
I’ll never forget that in the three-page proposal, I misspelled Huston-Tillotson’s name. Ugh. Once again, I felt like I had egg on my face. But on our first call, despite my mistake, Dr. Pierce Burnette was gracious, engaging, and said YES. She understood what was possible from our partnership from the get-go. She and the staff at Huston-Tillotson University remained courteous, generous, and committed throughout the entire process.
Local partner and venue. Check!
I then turned back to Aniyia and shared with her that I was overwhelmed. Since I had been acting as an advisor for Black & Brown Founders, would she be my main partner?
She didn’t hesitate to say YES. And with that came the talents of Liane Dutton, Thom Webster, and Kevin Williams. We make a solid team, complete with complementary talents that strengthen my ideas.
Team. Check!
Now we had to fundraise. In December, we had a core group of five community partner organizations that wanted to be involved. As of today, we have twenty-four. The organizations vary in geography and scope. They are pre-accelerators, co-working spaces, tech startups, community builders, for-profits, nonprofits, but most of all, they are led by solid and smart people.
Our ask of them was simple: help us get the word out within their communities, show up and engage, and make connections with potential funders.
Community. Check!
We launched a call for entries three weeks later than planned. At that point Aniyia and I were working on this on our own, and we had some family emergencies. But folks kept on reaching out: What was the programming going to be like? Who was going to speak? How could they get involved?
From the beginning, I wanted to do a call for entries for Hustle House because I wanted to make relationships with folks beyond our own networks. Too often, the narrative about underestimated tech talent is that we don’t exist or are few and far between. Not true. The 75 folks who applied proved us right.
I want to thank the impressive people who presented and applied to speak at Hustle House @ SXSW. From cryptocurrency, to self-care, to engineering, design and creating connections with twenty-first-century tools… the topics were relevant and the expertise, thought leadership, and talent were evident in all of the applications.
We had more talent than we could shake a stick at.
It was hard making decisions, knowing that for one yes we had four no’s. As a result, we have made a commitment to find ways to share all of these folks with you in the future.
Now, show me the money.
We had calls with potential funders of all types: small, large, renowned and largely unknown. Everyone loved the vision of Hustle House and its quickly evolving execution. The scope the event got bigger… and I got nervous. Would we be able to make this real? Could we afford to take on a larger event?
We needed support from those who understood that solely showing appreciation for our work is not enough. We don’t need compliments and praise. We know we do good work. Cut us a check.
We honestly didn’t have time for folks who asked us to prove that we could be successful. If our track records were not enough proof of our ability to execute, we simply had no time to engage. If you wanted access to what we were building, but couldn’t offer something to remunerate us, we had no need for your hollow offer.
Those who trusted our past successes stepped up.
Our main funders are Black and/or Latinx women.
Our first to say “Yes” was Dr. Pierce Burnette in her role as President of Huston-Tillotson University. She committed her entire institution, her staff, and its’ community to host Hustle House.
We originally asked Arlan Hamilton in her role as Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital to be a community partner. But we were thrilled when she stepped up and said she wanted to sponsor. I was honored, flattered, and relieved. This was a huge vote of confidence, and it meant that we could afford to have a solid evening program, if nothing else. Later, she even brought in the world-class singer-songwriter, Janine, for the event. Backstage Capital became our first sponsor.
Ramona Ortega has been pivotal to our thinking on how to build this opportunity from the beginning. Her contributions to this whole process have been instrumental. She approached Azlo on our behalf in her role as Entrepreneur in Residence. And thanks to her, we got a sponsorship from a bank that’s changing the narrative around financial services for founders of color. She also committed her own company, My Money My Future, to sponsor as well.
Arlan then helped us connect with the Annenberg Foundation to be our last main sponsor. They showed up to invest in our work. Within twenty-four hours they said YES.
Other folks showed up, too.
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was the second organization to say YES to Hustle House. Though they are new to the sector as an institution, their staff is intentional on how they are building a network.
BeVisible led by Andrea Guendelman also contributed. And then a week later she doubled her commitment.
Microsoft got the vision right away and didn’t equivocate. They contributed.
Throughout the years, The Kapor Center For Social Impact has always been supportive of our work. They have supported Black & Brown Founders from the very beginning. They, too, said YES.
Oh yeah, we also made a big and potentially costly mistake.
When we started to put together the first version of the website we looked for urls. For ease of use and availability, we bought SXSWhustlehouse.com
It seemed harmless as the time, but turned out to be a big problem. Like most brands, SXSW is protective of their intellectual property. If you want to use their name, you must be a partner. I had looked into being an official partner when we started. I quickly decided that the cost was money we’d rather spend on the catering budget. With no commitments from sponsors at the time, I decided that we won’t be official. Besides, we would be such a small event, they wouldn’t even notice we existed.
Well, I was wrong.
With the vitality and interest of this event, word got back to SXSW. And once again, our partners stepped up. Michael Henderson’s ability to make relationships and deals saved us. We’re super grateful to have him be one of our padrinos. He connected us with Hugh Forrest, the SXSW Chief Programming Officer, who gave us grace and value by granting us a license instead of their calling lawyers. Thank you, Hugh! We look forward to building a relationship with him and his team.
So we can officially say, Welcome to Hustle House @ SXSW.
We created Hustle House as THE destination for Black and/or Latinx innovators, visionaries, and changemakers at SXSW 2018. Our deepest gratitude to our Sponsors, Community Partners, Speakers, Huston-Tillotson University, and everyone who came out to our event.
We loved getting to know each of you, your aspirations, and how you have failed and succeeded. It is these experiences that allow us to imagine, create, and build what our community needs.
We know that when this community shows up for each other, magical things happen. Our mutual love and respect of our unique cultures is what will unlock the future for Black and/or Brown folks.
Only we can uplift ourselves.
Deldelp Medina is Director of Strategy and Research at Black & Brown Founders, and self-appointed leader in the movement to diversify technology founders and workers to represent America’s changing demographics.
Learn more about Hustle House @ SXSW at atxhustlehouse.com and Black & Brown Founders at blackandbrownfounders.com. Join our community on Facebook to connect with other founders of color.
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