Goldman Sachs’ “One Million Black Women” initiative is aimed at helping “the dual disproportionate gender and racial biases that Black women have faced for generations.” Goldman Sachs is committing $10 billion in direct capital investment in philanthropic support. Asahi Pompey, Goldman Sachs Global Head of Corporate Engagement, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the program and the capital commitment from Goldman Sachs.
Pompey explains what the program offers: “What we decided to do is develop a program where we could turbocharge the solo-preneurs, because these are very small businesses, it’s usually the single, that woman, with a maybe part-time employee so, really solo-preneurs, and walk alongside her and provide best-in-class education… tell me about your financials, going through them in a really rigorous way, to really understand the P&L. Talk about the operations related to your business. Crack open that module on customers and customer focus. And that’s what the program delivers”
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Video Transcript
– Well, Goldman Sachs taking action to make business ownership more accessible. The One Million Black Woman initiative at Goldman Sachs is directly investing to address continuing gender and racial biases for Black women in business. Here with us to talk more about One million Black Women is Asahi Pompey, Goldman Sachs’ global head of corporate engagement. Thanks so much for being here. Really appreciate it.
ASAHI POMPEY: It’s awesome to be with you.
– So you guys yesterday just graduated another class of women who participated in this program. What do they do in the program? What does it do for them at a time where small business in the US– it’s a tough time, especially with interest rates where they’ve been?
ASAHI POMPEY: You’re exactly right, it is a tough time. Here’s what we were seeing. We were seeing that Black women are starting businesses faster than any other demographic in the United States. However, three years after she started that business, 97% of those businesses had failed.
And in fact, she was in a worse position than before she started her business. She maxed out her credit card. She borrowed from friends and families to the extent that she had a 401(k). She had liquidated that 401(k). And so if there’s anything Goldman Sachs knows, we know a good investment when we see it. And we knew that these women could be a good investment.
So what we decided to do is develop a program where we could turbocharge these solopreneurs– because these are very small businesses. It’s usually the single– that woman with maybe a part-m time employee. So really solopreneurs– and walk alongside her and provide best-in-class education, Julie. So tell me about your financials, going through them in a really rigorous way to really understand the P&L, talk about the operations related to your business, crack open that module on customers and customer focus. And that’s what the program delivers.
And so you’re exactly right. We’ve had 600 women graduate the program thus far. Yesterday, the building was electric. David Solomon was not the only CEO in the building. We had 145 Black women CEOs of their businesses that were in the building as well graduating from the program.
– And so these graduates, what are some– are there certain themes or trends, the kinds of businesses they’re in, sectors, industries?
ASAHI POMPEY: Sure. Here’s the beauty of it. They span across sector. The number one sectors are retail, as you would expect. We also have manufacturing. We have professional services. We have health care. These women span 40 states across the United States.
So you really see Atlanta. You see New York City. You see Detroit. You see Philadelphia. You have Dallas. And so they are really a great representative sample of small business owners across the country that are really putting in the grit, putting in the hard work. But they need the tools to be able to make those businesses successful.
– And so what are– you know, there’s the cohort that just graduated. But what about the folks who have done it before? What kind of changes have you been seeing in their businesses?
ASAHI POMPEY: Sure.
– You mentioned that 97% failure rate.
ASAHI POMPEY: Right.
– I imagine– I would hope it’s a little better than that.
ASAHI POMPEY: Unequivocally. And so we have, Julie, some early data from those cohorts that have just graduated. So two stats I want to share with you– 61% of them report six months after graduation having increased their revenue. And 61% report six months also after graduation that they’re operating with a profit. 24% report that they’re creating jobs in their community. And this is all six months post graduation.
Now, if you benchmark that to the average, it’s around 33%. And we’re seeing 61%. So the data is really showing that the education is really working.
Source: finance.yahoo.com
