- The speaker, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, is the founder and CEO of Promise, a company focused on reducing the jail population.
- She shares her personal background of growing up poor and the impact it had on her perception of wealth and opportunity.
- Phaedra discusses her experience working in the labor movement and witnessing the lack of opportunities for working families.
- She also talks about meeting her co-founder, Diana Frappier, who helped change her perspective on people who have committed crimes.
- Phaedra highlights the importance of providing opportunities and support for individuals who have had challenging lives.
- She also mentions her involvement with musician Prince and their successful effort to regain his master recordings.
- Phaedra emphasizes the significance of belief and support in inspiring boldness and creating positive change.

- The speaker learned about the negative impact of technology on artists of color and working people, which led to their interest in making technology work better for these groups.
- They worked at a company called Honor, where they realized they lacked the communication skills of those with business degrees and felt like they needed to learn how to communicate in a way consistent with their values.
- They also discovered that many people in the tech industry were looking for a greater purpose beyond just building technology.
- After the death of Prince, the speaker felt a shift and wanted to do something meaningful in the world.
- They decided to start their own company called Promise, which focuses on criminal justice reform, particularly the issue of people being held in jail while awaiting trial, even if they have not been convicted of a crime.

- The speaker discusses the problem of keeping people in jail because they cannot afford bail.
- They explain the negative consequences that occur when individuals are unable to pay bail, such as losing their job, housing, and potentially their children.
- The speaker mentions the litigation in San Francisco and legislation in California that aim to eliminate bail.
- They describe starting a company to address this issue and their experience in the Y Combinator (YC) program.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of believing in oneself and the value of feedback.
- They discuss raising money for their company and the lessons they learned.
- The speaker explains their long-term goal of bringing evidence-based decision making to criminal justice and correcting biases.
- They highlight the need to believe in oneself and hire the right people, even if one does not have technical expertise.
- The speaker mentions the growth and success of their company and their mission to create opportunities for women and build generational wealth.

- The speaker shares their experience of starting a company and not feeling pressured to have a technical co-founder
- Selling to the government as a startup is difficult, but relationship-based sales and understanding government processes can help
- The speaker discusses how being a woman and person of color influenced their ability to secure funding, emphasizing the importance of confidence and building relationships
- The panelists discuss their companies and how they knew their products were something people wanted
- Vanta automates security compliance for internet businesses and knew people wanted their product when they received requests from strangers
- Remix works with cities to plan transportation futures and realized people wanted their product when they received emails from planners around the world after a prototype was tweeted about

- Gemnote, a gift-giving company, initially started as a handwritten card service but pivoted to focus on gift-giving after receiving feedback from customers.
- Vanta, a software company, started with manual processes before automating their product.
- B2G, a government-focused company, realized the importance of face-to-face interactions and invested in trade shows to meet potential clients.
- Airbnb placed a large order with Gemnote, who at the time only had a small team, but they successfully fulfilled the order and proved their resilience as founders.
- Instead of looking at metrics, Vanta relied on communication and customer feedback to determine if people loved their product.
- Both Vanta and Gemnote experienced challenges and had to overcome them to succeed.

- The video discusses the importance of measuring customer satisfaction and love for a product.
- One company measures success through a metric called "wins" and sets goals for their customer success team based on these wins.
- Another company focuses on providing premium products and measures success through metrics such as lifetime value of customers, percent of repeat business, and net promoter score.
- The video also discusses the challenges of dealing with difficult customers and the importance of knowing when to fire a customer.
- Lastly, the video mentions the need for fast iteration in product development during the early stages.

- In the early days of product development, it is important to iterate quickly and gather feedback from users.
- Remix, a company in the GovTech industry, had customers signed during their time in YC, which helped them raise funds easily.
- They made sure to have regular touchpoints with their customers to gather feedback and address any issues.
- They asked specific questions to get deep feedback from users, rather than just asking for general opinions.
- One founder of the company focused on emails during the day and coding in the evenings and weekends, dividing tasks into smaller engineering tasks and bigger projects.
- They emphasized the importance of talking to users and incorporating their feedback into the product development process.
- The company had engineers on a one-week cycle and had regular meetings to ensure execution and alignment with the business case.
- The founders discussed the factors that made their companies attractive to YC, such as having non-paying customers who referred others, being in a unique space, and showing growth and customer acquisition.
- The process of transitioning from an idea to a product can be challenging and may involve having many conversations, conducting interviews, and refining the concept over time.
- It is important to be kind to oneself during this process and to keep learning and iterating based on feedback.

- Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, founder and CEO of Promise, discusses her personal background and experiences in the labor movement.
- She emphasizes the importance of providing opportunities and support for individuals who have had challenging lives.
- Phaedra explains the focus of Promise on criminal justice reform, particularly the issue of people being held in jail while awaiting trial.
- The negative consequences of not being able to pay bail are highlighted, along with efforts to eliminate bail in San Francisco and California.
- The speaker shares their experience in the Y Combinator program and the lessons they learned in raising money for their company.
- The long-term goal of bringing evidence-based decision making to criminal justice and correcting biases is discussed.
- The panelists discuss their companies and how they knew their products were wanted.
- The importance of measuring customer satisfaction and love for a product is emphasized.
- Challenges with difficult customers and the need for fast iteration in product development are mentioned.
- The process of transitioning from an idea to a product and the importance of learning and iterating based on feedback are discussed.

- The speaker had conversations with two people who gave them ideas, which they researched and found that similar start-ups were already founded in 2014.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of continuing to learn and innovate, rather than stopping early and working on something that already exists.
- One of the speakers shares their best decision in the first year, which was focusing on building a strong brand and website for their company.
- Another speaker discusses their criteria for starting a new venture, which includes working on a focused problem that helps society and working with friends.
- The importance of not building anything too soon and waiting to understand customer needs is highlighted.
- The next speaker, Alexandra, is introduced as the co-founder and CMO of a sleep technology company called 8.
- Alexandra shares the story of how her company was founded and the challenges they faced during the launch of their product.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of perseverance and hard work in building a successful company.

- The founders conducted extensive customer discovery to understand what people wanted in their product
- They launched a crowdfunding campaign and reached their goal of $1 million in preorders within 45 days
- They faced challenges in manufacturing and attracting investment, but eventually got accepted into Y Combinator
- YC helped them rediscover their approach to solving challenges and pushed them to get beta units into the field
- They learned to measure growth weekly and tailored their marketing messaging based on customer insights
- They had a successful Demo Day and began meeting with investors.

- The founders of a company participated in a demo day to prove traction and meet with investors.
- They had some unsuccessful investor meetings where they struggled to answer questions and convey their vision.
- Eventually, they found investors who believed in their vision and specialized in hardware.
- They shipped their first units, facing challenges such as higher costs, managing customer expectations, and dealing with regulations.
- The company grew and now has a team of 30 people focused on creating products to help people sleep better.
- Lessons learned include conducting customer research, hiring passionate team members, focusing on what matters most, and finding a supportive network.
- The company aims to use technology to improve sleep and become the largest sleep lab in the world.

- The speaker's company is collecting a large amount of sleep data to develop solutions for customers and aims to become the largest sleep lab in the world.
- The speaker emphasizes the importance of maintaining a work-life balance and taking care of oneself through exercise and healthy eating.
- The speaker discusses the challenges of working with co-founders and the importance of shared vision and intentions in maintaining a successful partnership.
- The speaker shares her unconventional path to becoming CEO of Polyvore and the importance of maximizing learning and growth in career decisions.
- The speaker highlights the constant need for adaptation and growth as a CEO and the challenges of scaling a company.

- The speaker reflects on the challenges of being a CEO and the constant pressure to grow and scale.
- They discuss the difficulties of dealing with people issues, such as employees leaving and hiring mistakes.
- The speaker shares their pride in receiving positive feedback from users and being recognized as a great place to work.
- The process of selling the company was stressful and required secrecy, but the team celebrated when the acquisition was announced.
- Integration into the acquiring company was challenging, as the speaker lost control over certain aspects of the business.
- The speaker found support and advice from other founders, particularly female founder friends.
- They decided to go into venture capital to help the next generation of founders and address the funding challenges faced by women.
- The speaker advises founders to pitch the big vision and dream during fundraising, as venture capitalists are looking for upside potential.
- They also emphasize the importance of selling the financial potential of the business, even with conservative assumptions.

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of being authentic and realistic when pitching a business idea.
- They reflect on their own experience as a founder and admit that they did not sell the big dream enough.
- The speaker mentions their focus on consumer and female-targeted companies, as well as autonomous vehicles.
- Grit and tenacity are highlighted as important qualities in founders.
- The speaker discusses the lack of cohesion among women in the VC industry and the need for more diversity.
- They introduce All Rays, a nonprofit aiming to create a more diverse tech ecosystem.
- The goals of All Rays include doubling the percentage of senior women in venture capital and increasing funding for female founders.
- The speaker advises non-technical founders to quantify the market size and emphasize the potential of their ideas.

- The text features a series of speakers discussing their experiences as founders of start-up companies.
- One speaker emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and innovation, rather than working on something that already exists.
- Another speaker shares their best decision in the first year, which was building a strong brand and website.
- The importance of understanding customer needs and conducting extensive research is highlighted.
- A company called 8, focused on sleep technology, is discussed, including challenges faced during product launch and manufacturing.
- The company eventually achieved success through crowdfunding, Y Combinator, and tailoring marketing based on customer insights.
- The founders faced challenges in investor meetings but eventually found support and specialized investors.
- The company grew and now aims to become the largest sleep lab in the world.
- The speaker emphasizes work-life balance and the challenges of working with co-founders.
- The speaker shares their unconventional path to becoming a CEO and the challenges of scaling a company.
- The process of selling the company and integration into the acquiring company is discussed.
- The speaker went into venture capital to support the next generation of founders and address funding challenges for women.
- The importance of pitching the big vision and financial potential is emphasized.
- The speaker discusses their focus on consumer and female-targeted companies, as well as the need for more diversity in the VC industry.
- All Rays, a nonprofit aiming to create a more diverse tech ecosystem, is introduced.
- Non-technical founders are advised to quantify the market size and emphasize the potential of their ideas.

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of testing ideas quickly through methods like fake door testing
- A question is asked about increasing diversity and inclusion in the augmented and virtual reality space
- The speaker discusses the importance of creating an inclusive and meritocratic culture within a company
- Tips are given on promoting equality, such as being clear about social events and promoting accountability
- The speaker encourages female leaders to be authentic and hire to complement their weaknesses
- The speaker shares their personal journey and the challenges they faced in finding their own path to success.

- The speaker reflects on questioning whether one is doing what they are supposed to be doing in life and not letting life happen to them.
- The speaker quit their job and returned to school, leading them to the Bay Area and exposure to technology.
- In 2006, the web had evolved with the emergence of Web 2.0 and platforms like YouTube.
- The speaker and their co-founders decided to start a company but faced difficulties in raising money.
- They realized they needed to go where the users were and shifted their focus to Facebook.
- They built fan communities for TV shows and sports teams, growing their user base to over 60 million registered users.
- The financial crisis in 2008 impacted their ad-supported business, causing them to reassess their strategy.
- They identified the success of Facebook games and their expertise in building Facebook apps.
- They decided to create their own game, Kingdoms of Camelot, using accessible and public domain content.
- They tested the game with friends and family, receiving honest feedback and making improvements.

- The speaker discusses their experience with launching a strategy-based game and the challenges they faced during user testing.
- They emphasize the importance of not waiting to launch a product, as it allows for quicker feedback and the opportunity to fix issues that arise.
- The speaker mentions how their game was successful in creating new connections between players and how it became the top grossing app in 2012.
- They discuss the decision to expand past Facebook due to changes in the platform's policies and the success they found in mobile gaming.
- The speaker shares their personal journey as a founder and encourages others to believe in themselves and their vision.
- They highlight the importance of failure in achieving success and express optimism for the future.

- The speaker discusses her experience as a woman in the gaming industry and challenges the stereotype of what a "gamer" is
- She believes that the gaming industry needs more diversity in game making and hopes for a future with more types of games made by different types of people
- She reflects on missed opportunities and the internal struggle of feeling like she didn't belong in the industry
- The speaker then transitions to discussing her startup, PadPiper, an online housing marketplace for interns
- They have had success with word-of-mouth marketing and are now focusing on a B2B program called PadPiper for Employers
- The speaker discusses the market size and potential for growth in the internship housing market
- They differentiate themselves from corporate housing by offering a more authentic experience for interns and a more efficient system for employers
- The speaker explains the challenges of fitting interns into existing corporate housing and the inefficiencies of the current system
- They mention the possibility of expanding beyond interns in the future and the need to address the specific needs of interns in the housing market.

- The company, Pad Piper, matches interns with housing options based on their preferences and needs.
- The housing options are owned by individual landlords and are not designed by Pad Piper.
- The company currently has 250 beds available in San Francisco and the market for interns year-round is estimated to be 12 million in the US.
- The biggest obstacle for Pad Piper is getting landlords on board with their service.
- The company relies on word of mouth and student referrals to find housing options.
- The supply side of landlords is a challenge, but there is a high demand from interns.
- The company could potentially partner with real estate lawyers to attract more landlords.
- Pad Piper is focused on the Bay Area but could expand to other locations in the future.
- The company's Chrome extension, Nifty, helps software engineers and their teams organize data across productivity apps.

- The founders are creating a Chrome extension tool called Nifty that will scrape data from Slack and present it in a customizable sidebar.
- The tool aims to save engineers time by reducing the need to switch between tabs and providing real-time updates and alerts.
- The founders believe that engineers waste around 15-20% of their time on non-coding tasks, which Nifty aims to solve.
- The challenge for the founders is effectively messaging and marketing the tool.
- The tool will be launching in two weeks and people can sign up for the beta on getnifty.io.

- The speaker emphasizes the importance of testing ideas quickly through methods like fake door testing
- The importance of creating an inclusive and meritocratic culture within a company is discussed
- Tips are given on promoting equality, such as being clear about social events and promoting accountability
- The speaker encourages female leaders to be authentic and hire to complement their weaknesses
- The speaker shares their personal journey and challenges faced in finding their own path to success
- The speaker discusses their experience with launching a strategy-based game and the importance of not waiting to launch a product
- The speaker reflects on their experience as a woman in the gaming industry and the need for more diversity in game making
- The speaker discusses their startup, PadPiper, an online housing marketplace for interns, and the challenges and potential for growth in the internship housing market
- The company, Pad Piper, matches interns with housing options based on their preferences and needs
- The biggest obstacle for Pad Piper is getting landlords on board with their service
- The company is creating a Chrome extension tool called Nifty that aims to save engineers time by reducing the need to switch between tabs and providing real-time updates and alerts

Female Founders Conference, Mountain View, CA

All right, now that you all know each other, I'd like to introduce our first speaker.

Okay, I would like to welcome our first speaker, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, who's the founder and CEO of Promise.

Now, Promise went through the winter 2018 batch of YC and is working on a solution to reduce the jail population.

Prior to founding Promise, Phaedra ran revenue and operations at Honor, a company that offers in-home care to senior citizens.

And before Honor, Phaedra worked with the musician Prince.

She's a labor and community organizer by trade who's committed to making measurable change in the world.

First, how exciting is it to be in a room full of phenomenal women who have started companies or are starting companies?

I just feel like I wanna walk around and just like rub everyone and say, oh, it's so exciting, just the energy in the air.

My name is Phaedra Ellis-Lambkins and I am the co-founder and CEO of a company called Promise and just incredibly thrilled to be here today.

So I thought I would start out and talk a little bit about myself and why we ended up starting a company.

So this is my mom, Gail Amkins, and My mom, when I was growing up, was a waitress.

My mom worked at Dave's Restaurant in San Francisco.

If you've ever had a great burger, you've probably been there.

And growing up as the mom, you have a mom who's a waitress, you really rely on tips.

And so there was a very kind of physical feeling, like you know you're broke when you're a kid as you get older.

And I knew things like when I went shopping and my mom used food stamps, people treated us differently.

I knew that we ate, I remember the first time I saw people eating meat in sandwiches and I was like, wait, you don't eat cheese and pickle sandwiches?

And it wasn't until I was older that I realized, oh, that's because we didn't have meat money, as we called it.

And so I spent a lot of time just really understanding kind of what happens I think when you're just broke.

And then something changed, which is when I was 12 years old my mom went back to school and she got a degree and she got a job with accounting.

And I just, you know you have moments that you remember as a child.

And I remember the moment she got the call and it was like $10 an hour.

And I remember my mom saying, what are we gonna do with all that money?

And I just knew like our life had shifted.

And the thing that became very clear to me is that when you have a little bit more money, as I think about, I went from free lunch to reduced lunch at school, which meant I was in a different line, you just feel differently.

And so what I knew was that there was this feeling and what was transformative for me, so as I grew older, I just said, I want that for all kids.

I want all kids to feel like no shame when they go to the grocery store, not different because they have free lunch or they get free peanut butter, but really, how do we create a feeling for all kids where they get to feel equal and they get to feel proud?

So I spent the first kind of 15 years of my professional life working in the labor movement, working with janitors on behalf of janitors, teamsters, teachers, and really trying to understand how did we create opportunity for working families and how did we create dignity in work?

And then I started to run a labor federation in Silicon Valley.

And all of a sudden, the way that people went to work changed.

It used to be that people had 1 employer, they stayed at a company for a long time, but increasingly, work began to be contracted out.

And what was most striking to me is that some of those jobs got worse, not better.

So we would see these covers of these people who were a receptionist at Google, and all of a sudden they had a Ferrari on the cover of Newsweek.

But in my world, I represented janitors who were working 2 jobs, living in Stockton, driving in, and kind of cleaning the wastebaskets of some of these folks.

So, in fact, technology had not yet transformed the lives of a lot of working people that I knew.

So I was really in this moment, I spent a lot of time doing that, and then I just, all of a sudden, this man, Barack Obama, ran for president.

And as a woman of color, I was like, I can't not be in that moment.

And so I went to go do some stuff to really think about how his economy grew, how did working people actually get opportunity.

And while doing that, I met Diana Frappier.

You might think because I've started a company, I'd have some really thoughtful photos.

Instead, I have a photo from her 40th birthday.

And when I met Diana, she was very different than myself.

So I thought all people that committed crimes were horrific, right?

You are in neighborhoods where we had drug dealings, good.

And then I met Diana, and Diana was a criminal defense lawyer by trade.

And we'd be walking down the street in Oakland and I'd kind of be a little bit like okay and then some dude will come running up to us and be like die die and I'd be like hey okay and I'd say like who's that and she'd be like oh yeah I represented him he's a pimp and I'd say like oh okay but he's a good pimp Phaedra and I'd say oh okay cool cool die let's just keep going and then I we'd be walking down the street more, hey, and I, oh, who's that?

I was like, oh, cool, cool, This is great.

We once went somewhere and I saw someone and I was like, oh my gosh, that poor woman, she's probably abused.

And I had this whole dialogue in my head.

But what I learned really being with Diana for a decent amount of time is that I had always thought of people as the crimes they committed, not the humans that had become in an experience that led up to that.

And what I learned with Diana watching the people that she represented is that many people had grown up just like me, but hadn't had the opportunities that I had had.

Right, I'd been lucky, I had a mom who looked out for me, I'd done an internship that got me in the labor movement, and, but there were a lot of folks who didn't have those opportunities.

I began to realize that, in fact, foster youth were the population most likely to end up incarcerated, that when we looked at these things that in fact people had had these incredibly challenging lives without a lot of opportunity and had ended up in some awful situations.

So Diana and I worked together at Green for All, and then we met through a friend named Van Jones.

If you ever watch CNN, you can see him on TV.

And Van then introduced me to the musician Prince.

I was pregnant, and so I was like, I'm on maternity leave, and Van does like all good friends do and say, I'm sure you have too much time on your hands while you're pregnant.

And I go to meet Prince, And I have to say, as a kid I hadn't been a fan because I'd watch that movie Purple Rain, and he hit a woman in it, right?

And so when you watch those movies as a kid, and because my dad was violent, I was like, I just, like, oh, I'm just not, you know, like, he hit a woman.

And then I met him and he quickly became my people.

And the first thing that we did is we worked on getting his master's back.

And we got his master's back relatively quickly.

And the way we got his master's back is because I didn't mind asking questions that everyone else thought was stupid.

So I started out and I said, okay, well why can't you have your master's?

Okay, well because there's, they own it, They don't want to give it to him.

Well, then I asked questions and I learned that there was 2 sides of folks who own music.

There was 1 side, which the record company owns, which is 50%, and there's 1 side that the publisher or the writer owns.

So let's just not let them make any money with it.

And what we discovered is, by asking stupid questions, we just stopped.

We said, you just can't make money off of it.

We're going to stop it, because he owns all of the publishing, because he's written every song, and he owns part of the recordings.

And so he'd been in this 30-year battle and we got his master's back in 90 days.

And then I had a baby and I was like, okay, cool, going back to social change.

And he was like, no, no, that's not how this works.

And so I spent the next 2 years really working with him, with Diana and I working with him.

And it was incredibly important because we learned a couple of things.

1 is I never met a human who sacrificed everything for his belief in truth, for his belief in stewardship of his own resources.

And he made me bold in a way that no 1 ever had before.

Because there's something unique when you know that someone believes you.

So he was just like, I remember someone was like, Fade, you're so mean.

And he was like, well, then you can't come here.

And I just had never had just that type of commitment and that sense of just justice and just like we were a team.

And so we spent 2 and a half more years together.

And I learned something really important, which is I watched how technology was changing the way that artists of color especially were being paid.

What happened is artists used to own their music, then they would make money off radio, but increasingly what was happening is technology was devaluing the cost of music and what they would actually make.

Because what would happen is like Spotify was also owned part and part by a record label.

That record label then determined what the, who got paid what.

So what we decided is to do this deal called Tidal.

And Tidal was really about artists owning their own music.

But what I learned most importantly is technology wasn't working out great for the folks in the labor movement and for working people.

It wasn't working out great for artists of color.

And so I became really interested in how do you make technology work well for working people and people who own their own stuff?

And so then I went to work at a company called Honor.

And the reason I went there is because I couldn't afford business school, let me be clear.

It's funny, it's like if you are in technology, it's the first place I hear people talk about where people went to college when they're adults.

When I get into tech, people are like, oh, HBS, Stanford Business School.

And I was like, oh, my gosh, aren't we 30 or 40 years old?

Clearly this world works different than any place I've been in before.

I have a girlfriend who's at Apple and we were like, are they talking about like college football?

She's like no, that's how they talk about themselves.

It's like that's how they talk about themselves.

That's right, Cal State Northridge for all of you that don't know.

And Honor was a company funded by Mark Andreessen.

He put 15 of the 20 million in for seed funding.

And it was funny, because when I went there, People were like, oh, she's a labor organizer.

I'm sure she's just going to organize all the workers and screw your company.

And I started there, we started running operations, amazing technology company.

And then I noticed the sales team wasn't producing quickly enough.

So I was like, look, let's just go do sales.

So we started to do sales, and then the operations team was generating more sales than the sales team.

And so I then became the head of sales and operations.

So I ran revenue and operations at Honor.

This is us setting up a store at Walmart in Texas, here in the South.

We were in San Francisco in the East Bay, but this is it.

But what I learned at Honor was really important.

First, I learned as a woman of color, I did not know how to communicate in a way that people who'd worked at McKenzie and went to Stanford Business School did.

And more importantly, I learned that I felt like an idiot because of it.

And so, and I watched a lot of people of color and women and working people be in that environment and just say, like I was like, okay, I remember 1 day we were talking about churn.

And I was like, yeah, churn is when people leave.

And they were like, no, churn is not when people leave, it's when people leave for negative reasons.

And I think it was 1 of those experiences where I was like, I'm so smart in my regular life, but I don't feel like I have the tools and resources, even as a high-performing exec, to communicate in a way that's consistent with my value.

So I was like, okay, I want to learn that.

And it was clear to me, because we'd have these conversations and we'd be talking about stuff and I would know I knew what I knew.

And the reason I raised that, because as I thought about going to raise money, I knew it was a problem I had to solve for.

The second thing that I learned at Honor was that people who were working in tech were desperate to feel connected and committed to a purpose greater than the technology they were building.

That I thought originally, like when I'd been in the labor movement and when I had been in music I was like oh it's these like 18 year olds who don't care what they're doing, who don't care about anything, and then what I realized is there was a lot of really good humans who were trying to make the world better and we're just trying to figure out how to do it well.

The last thing I learned is I was as smart as anyone who built a company.

And that I had only thought before about kind of working somewhere because I'd never grown up in a world where people said start a company.

I grew up in a world where people said don't leave the job with benefits, right?

Like when I left my first job that was a union job, my mom and my grandmother were like, I don't know what's going to happen to you.

When I left Prince, my mom was like, oh my gosh, this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

You're going to work for some random company that started 2 years ago.

And so I thought it was really, really important.

And when Prince died, I was his power of attorney and the officer for his corporations because when people love you, they don't let you go.

And something really shifted in me when he died.

And I spent some time in Minneapolis where he lived and there were things that really struck me.

1 is I knew I couldn't go back to just making money again.

When you lose someone you love deeply, it impacts you.

And I knew that I wanted to feel good in a way that I didn't feel naturally because I just felt sad.

And so I was like, I got to figure out how to do right in the world again.

The second thing that happened, which was incredibly empowering, is people got mad at me.

Like random people who didn't know me were like, oh, you got fired by Prince, something must have happened.

And I was like, of course I didn't get fired, I've never been fired in my life.

But being in a very public environment, having reporters come to honor, made me realize that I kind of always not been my fullest self.

As soon as people started to attack me who didn't know me, who were random people, I felt like I had to defend myself even though I knew that I had done well.

And so it just made me realize that I was like, I'm going to be fiercer than I've ever been before.

I'm going to build a company because if these dudes can do it, I for sure can.

I love the folks at Honor, of course, but it just made me realize I could do it.

So, this is my daughter and this is Diana's daughter.

And part of what I think is important is as women, like we have to build companies differently, not pretend to be men.

And it doesn't mean if your behavior is whatever, it should be what it is, but like we want to create a sustainable company that actually creates the opportunity for women to use their best selves.

So when I do that, I bring my kids with me.

And Diana and I had spent the last probably 10 years killing ourselves, right?

We had that mentality where it's like If you don't answer the phone at 3 a.m., you're not down enough, brown enough, cool enough, you're not good.

And, like, you know, we'd be like, oh, they're not cool.

And so part of what shifted is we said, can we build a company that actually meets us where we are.

And we think about it as an adult company, right?

Because part of what being in technology taught me is I was like, these people look like they're 17 years old.

And I was like, Can we build a company and not be like 17?

I just saw Gustav, who's our partner in the back.

So Promise really was Diana's turn as I think about it.

I'd been like, we're at Greenfraw, we're going to work for Prince, we're going to work at Honor.

So really the premise of Promise was how did we really work on the issues that Diana had always known were right?

And so that was really about criminal justice reform.

74% of people in jail are awaiting trial.

That means most people in jail have not been convicted of a crime, the crime that they were arrested for.

Because when I drove by jails, I imagined it was people who'd been convicted of crimes.

I didn't know that it was people who just got arrested.

And not just arrested but people who were arrested and couldn't afford to get out.

We are working in the Midwest right now in a state that I will not name where 85 to 90 percent of those folks, most of who have bails under $500.

And so what that told us is, wow, governments are spending a lot of money keeping people in jail who just got arrested and didn't do anything incredibly wrong.

Two-thirds of those folks are non-violent offenders.

These are folks we're keeping in jail until they get the money to get out.

What's unique too is that counties mostly pay for jails and so they see the consequences.

So if for example, if you're a woman who has a kid, first you lose your job.

3 days is the thing that is awful about being in jail.

Then, after you lose your job, you lose your housing because you can't pay rent.

Then after you lose housing, you potentially lose your children or at least temporarily.

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Female Founders Conference - Mountain View