From Rocket Scientist to EdTech Startup Founder, with STEMedia's Dr. Nehemiah Mabry
Dr. Nehemiah Mabry: It can kind of get tough when your desire is to help as many people as possible. If you're doing something that was high ticket, I'm only gonna work with executives. You know, you may be able to like really bring some pretty high revenue in, but that's not necessarily a broad strategy. We need to create a solution where we can deliver content for multiple clients, multiple customers that doesn't require us to show up on set and to film it for every single time we get a sale.
Trevor Schmidt: Today’s guest is Dr. Nehemiah Mabry, structural engineer, educator, entrepreneur, and literal rocket scientist. He’s the founder of STEMedia, a media company that provides educational creative content for the science, technology, engineering, and math (aka STEM) community.
And for Dr. Nee, STEM has been a natural interest for him, even though that’s not always the coolest thing to admit in grade school …
Nee: So I, I fell into the trap saying I didn't like it because everybody else said they didn't. Like, you know, people were like, man, I can't stand math. I was like, yeah, yeah. And, and the truth of the matter is that I didn't really have any beef with math and I didn't really like have any issue with it. I can't say that I loved it, but I did do pretty well in it. And it was later on when I started to like get a little bit more confidence. So I said, you know what? I guess I am pretty good at this. I don't have to hate it because everybody else did. And so that's when opened, opened my heart to the STEM disciplines.
Trevor: Dr. Nee had some mentors that helped cultivate his passion for STEM, including his dad. And then one day he applied to the NASA summer high school researcher apprentice program, also known as SHARP
Nee: I got in. I loved it. And you couldn't tell me I wasn't a rocket scientist on day one, I was a rocket scientist. Like I had my badge and everything. Truth of the matter, they had me doing like some website updates. I dunno.
Trevor: It doesn't even matter, man. Come on, you're a rocket scientist! Yeah.
Nee: I mean, listen, when people say it's not rocket science, in my case, actually was rocket science. Thank you, so that was the beginning of my experience. I enjoyed, it was a high school program, but when I became a senior in high school, transitioned to college, there wasn't another program. I couldn't still apply.
So I just volunteered. I got a bunch of emails and I just hit everybody up that I had contacted out there and said, Hey, can I come in over the summer and just work in your lab? And I remember working that summer, I had a lot more hands-on responsibility that summer, even though it wasn't a formal internship and I wasn't getting paid anything.
And so that was really what for me and allowed to say, Hey, this is, this is me. Right? And got in college, applied from some other, well, also, what was another college internship, until I met Dr. Curtis Banks, who I mentioned not that long ago, and he created an opportunity for me to come on board and sort of work outside of like this form, this internship program to basically be a part-time worker.
I think I did about 30 hours a week from undergrad all the way through graduate school, and I was able to do a number of different jobs that we could get into. But yeah, I did a number of different things. I wasn't just updating websites the whole time. I did get into some actual rocket science, here and there.
Trevor: That's amazing. So like what, as you look back, what was one of the favorite projects that you worked on while you were there?
Nee: I'll give you two. One, I was involved in modeling combustion properties, right? Where you, you know, they did a lot of, their, their engines were fueled by mixing, in some cases, liquid, nitrogen, liquid oxygen. They were basically mixing at certain ratios that have to be calibrated that would give a certain level of combustion thrust. Man, that was, that was the rocket science idea, right? Being able to just kind of model, if I tweak this, if I change this, how did this property change? And I had an incredible, mentor at the time, Joe Lehi, shout out to him, who was also helping me with that.
So that was one of the things I really enjoyed. The other thing I liked was, which led to a dissertation for me was structural health monitoring. And that was the process of embedding sensors into structures, right? So that they have a nervous system in the sense, that you can identify when there was damage or whenever there was any type of, degradation throughout the life cycle of the space vehicle.
And, I was able to parlay that again into a research topic for my dissertation. But that would say, and that was my favorite, or my two favorite projects.
Trevor: Very cool. Now, talk to me a little bit. I, I just kind of wonder as well, kind of as you were coming up through NASA and, and through some of these other work opportunities that you had, can you talk a little bit of, kind of a representation about other kind of minority individuals in the field that you were working with and, and, and did you have, you, you mentioned your mentor and kind of the influence that he had on you, but kind of how important is representation in these fields and kind of in engineering, especially since that's the field you're in?
Nee: Yep. Hands down. Hands down. I like to say you have to see it before you see it. Know it before you know it happened, before you happen. And one way that you see it is obviously by have representation. when I say one way, intentionally now. I was coming up in Alabama.
Alabama is the south. There are a lot of African Americans in Alabama, but nevertheless, in the fields that I was in, the spaces I was in, as it relates to stem, not so much. I had the benefit though, of starting at a HBCU historically Black university, Oakwood University, and being in those places, you don't have a second thought as to whether or not you belong in college because everybody's in.
And then the reality of it is some people may wonder the value of it. That's not how the world is. But it's nice that there was a place, at least where I was able to be affirmed, developed, confidence was strengthened, right? In so many ways that I had something to offer in my pursuits from the field of my pursuits as, as an African American, because as I went on to the University of Alabama Huntsville, or I went on to work at NASA, it, it wasn't that many, right?
And so it really started out with that validation that I receive from seeing other people that look like me do things that I, I aspire towards. but furthermore, it's important to be able to see it up here, right? And so when you see it with people, that's one of the ways you can picture it.
And that is incredible because it gets tough. It just gets hard. It gets hard being the only, the loneliness of it. And it just gets hard because this is a hard path, period. Like those classes aren't always easy, and so you gotta dig deep. You gotta find some sort of, like for me, I would escape to my imagination and literally picture myself walking across the stage or picture myself doing an interview on Founder Shares, right? Talking about my experience.
Those are the things that allowed me to see it before I saw it, to know it before I knew it, and to have it before I actually had it. And representation is in a very effective way of aspiring, or empowering, rather, and activating so much of our underutilized potential on this earth that lies into, you know, the Black and brown communities.
Trevor: Yeah, a hundred percent agree with that, cause I think it's easy to understand, you know, that these fields are super challenging. It's gonna be hard. They're gonna be days, anybody, everybody's gonna question can I take that next step? Can I take, you know, can I get through this exam? Can I get through this thesis? Whatever it's gonna be.
But then to have kind of that added challenge, like you said, of being one of the, the few or the only, and, and not having a support group or, or, you know, not having that same type of encouragement. So I, I think it is super important and needs to be a continued part of the conversation just going forward. How do we encourage all populations to kind of get out and, and have those experiences and, and really tap into their potential.
Nee: Absolutely.
Trevor: So maybe that is a good segue or transition to STEMedia. So tell us what STEMedia is, what, what is it you're doing, what you hope to accomplish.
Nee: Yeah. So STEMedia is an EdTech and media company that focuses on providing education and empowerment to underrepresented, predominantly underrepresented individuals in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. We provide content, community and career opportunities for aspiring students and young professionals.
And we do it through a number of ways, whether it be digital media, on or offline events, as well as connecting with employers in higher education institutions that have opportunities available for this demographic. So, I took a while before I was able to articulate it in that way, or even try to understand what it was because what I knew early on is that I wanted to inspire people and I knew that with me as an individual, I can inspire a number of people, right?
But there is also some additional leveraging that can come from building a platform. One that cannot only just highlight my journey and my story, but can connect with others and their areas of expertise. Cause that was a, I'm a civil structural engineer. I'm not a biologist. I'm not even a physicist. I'm not a chemist. Right? But creating a platform where we can elevate other people who are aligned in those fields, I felt could bring about even greater impact. And so that's what STEMedia was, an organic passion and desire to do that. That started, over 10 years ago now.
Trevor: Wow. 10 years into it. How are you feeling about it right now?
Nee: Oh, I, Hey, I feel better than ever. I, I'm, I'm betting heavy on it. I'm all in, so, yeah. Good.
Trevor: That's good. So when it, when it started out, you know, was it kind of just an idea to kind of give back? Or did you from the outset say, this is gonna, this is gonna be a business and this is, you know, not only going to be beneficial to other people, but this is something that I, you know, I can make a career or a business out of?
Nee: Yeah, I didn't know it would be a business. And, and that's part of, again, even with, with representation. I didn't know a whole lot of entrepreneurs. I didn't know the process of, of starting a business. I knew how to start an initiative. I knew how to do extracurricular activities. And so I remember, you know, like it was yesterday there was this, Stay With It for engineering, right?
This engineering Stay With It campaign launched by Intel, MTV, Facebook, I believe, was a part. And I was a newly, grad student, PhD student at NC State University, and they were calling for the students to produce content, more specifically a video, to encourage other students to stay with engineering.
And so for me, being a creative person that I always felt I was. I had a background in improv storytelling, things of that nature, but also pursuing this field of engineering. I said, it's time to create something to do this. This is right in my alley. They might as well said, Nehemiah, can you do something for us?
Because I responded to it with such, veracity and, got a friend of mine. We recorded this video and long story short; it won the National Grand Prize from Intel. Won like a laptop. Yeah, it was featured on MTV. it was, it was really dope. Right. And.
Trevor: That's cool.
Nee: Yeah, that was sort of the validation of the idea, Trevor. That was, that was the idea. But after that, people start saying, and I'll credit Dean Louis Martin Vega the Dean at NC State College of Engineering was saying, oh man, I, I'm glad your business is doing this. And he would tell people, Hey, he has a business. And, and that used to kind of scare me a little bit.
Cause I was like, I don't have a business. I just, I'm just making videos, you know what I mean? and so that's really what prompt me into like, okay, how do I make this a business? How do I actually incorporate it? How do I set up some sort of like business model so I can get paid and sustain this long term? So that was the process that took place after the idea was validated.
Trevor: Yeah, well that, that's a great question cuz I think, you know, for a lot of our listeners to the Founder Shares podcast, these are the people that are listening: you know, I, I wanna start a business. I got an idea, but I'm not a business person. You know, I'm, I'm a teacher, I'm a programmer, I'm a stay-at-home parent, whatever it is.
But it's like, alright, so now what's that first step? So I'm gonna ask you that question. So once you realized, okay, I got an idea, it's been validated, I need to start a business, you know, day one, what's, what's your first step to kind of get started?
Nee: Yeah. Well first of all, I, I would like to just increase someone's confidence by saying, Hey, you, the core operations of a business, like the, the delivering of value. If you've already done something for someone that they've thanked you for, that they read, man, you really helped me solve this problem.
If you've ever provided value in a way, a person was like, man, I, I'll give you some money right now. Whatever, like you already can run a business. You just need structure around it, right? And as a structural engineer, you know, we, we may be thinking about your columns and your beams and things like that.
Well, you just need to build that, your foundation, and those things are the legal processes. So make sure you're solving a problem, right? Sure. You're actually doing something that people want or need done. And more than just one person, something that a group of people, an entire market as we call it, of people, need done. So just make sure you can validate that. But then from there, it's a matter of incorporating, going to the Secretary of State, filling out a form, paying the nominal fee.
What are you gonna name it? Let's make sure that name isn't taken by somebody else. I recommend getting with someone that's either an accountant or involved in law that can help you apply for an EIN number, which is like a social security number. And I don't know, this may have been shared several times.
Trevor: No, I mean, you, I, I should hire you to go out and talk to our clients cuz you're preaching, you know, you're telling 'em all the good stuff, so I
Nee: that's what it's, you get a social security number, aka an EIN number for your business. you take that, you take your, your registration and you take that number and you go get to a bank. So that it isn't getting mixed up. The money that you spend on business is clearly in the business account and not with your personal stuff. You know, they're probably a few other things, but that's pretty much the main things in terms of like, again, structure, business, foundation, all that.
Now you have to just systematize your marketing, systematize your delivery of the services or the product that you started your business around, and it's really simple. It's really simple, but when you haven't done it before and you don't know anyone else that has done it, it can feel very intimidating.
Trevor: Yeah, I think it really is. I think there's just this, so much the sense of the unknown. You know, what am I missing? What have I forgotten? Whether they'd not even know to ask. And so I think it is always important to just, one step at a time, ask a lot of questions, surround yourself with good support people, and, and, you know, you just take it and do the steps that you need to do to get started.
But don't let that fear of what's out there to keep you from taking that first step.
Nee: absolutely
Trevor: yeah, so tell me a little bit, so like, you know, with a kind of a content heavy business, it feels intimidating in some respects cuz you've gotta constantly be generating kind of new content. So, I guess talk to a little bit about that and how you've kind of surrounded yourself with, with folks to help you build out that content.
Cause like you said, you're an engineer, you might not be able to do the, the biology or the chemistry or how, how do you kind of find the people to support your, your vision?
Nee: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I, I, I guess I'll say this too, in the last year or two, and I can come back to it, we have begun to pivot to more of an EdTech model, which allows us to scale what we're doing a little bit more and not just always taste production projects. But to your point, I've always said I was the most, you may see me in a lot of STEMedia content, particularly the early content, because I was the most accessible subject matter expert, right?
But again, there's a lot of areas that are not covered and a lot of areas that I don't cover as sufficiently. So building a presence online, this is where building a brand, building a network, hosting a podcast, doing interviews networking, at the end of the day building relationships really comes in handy because then you get to know kind of mentally individuals that are strong in areas where your strengths are really nonexistent. And so reaching out to those people who are, and for me it's been important to find people who are not only technically intelligent, but also have the, create the creativity, right. To be able to present in a way that's engaging. It's not, I'm not gonna put you to sleep. Right?
So that being said, I've been privileged to be able to build this network for the past 10 years in STEMedia through interviews, through going to events, through all the content we put out, outside of for clients, that now we have a very, very healthy network of people and all types of STEM fields that can be called on to do voiceover work, to present, a message, do a course, to even edit STEM video. So that's how it's been done.
Trevor: So talk to me a little bit because it seems to me that there's a certain amount of challenge. in creating a business around kind of education and kind of mentoring and encouraging people. Cuz you know, especially in these days with the internet, there's just so much information that's out there that people potentially can get for free. How do you go about making a business around promoting STEM education?
Nee: Yeah, no, you're right. So much information is for free, and there are a couple of things that are value adds to starting a content-based business. One is, we talked about this, the cultural resonance to be able to create information and package it in a way that connects with who someone is as an individual.
Because at the end of the day, yeah, you may be able to learn Python in several places, but there's a certain teacher that when they're teaching Python, For some reason, it just seem to know exactly where you're coming from, right? Maybe you look at them and you're like, man, the references they're using, the analogies they're using, the, the cadence of their talking, or just their sense of humor.
Like it resonates with me in a different way so that I'm more engaged, I'm more attentive and, and the lessons seems little bit easier than if I just kinda read an article or something of that nature. So that's not the one of the things, right? I think that's a value that people are probably starting to realize, the contextualization of that information.
Other thing is, and this is still contextualization, but the organization right. of that information. Yeah you could probably find every single thing I learned in my engineering program online for free, but the university had it a way to where you take these classes, they take these, and within these classes, here's the syllabus where you start here and by the end of semester you would've learned this, this, this, this, this. Right?
So someone taking the initiative to take the organ, the information and organize it in a succinct, progressive way for you to, by the end of it, have clearly understood a majority of a given topic is a value add no matter where you can find the information. And so those are two things I would say.
The third thing I would say really quick is just the community around it. We talked about it a little earlier, but a large part of succeeding in something is not just it being made available, but to also be on a journey or to feel like you're on a journey with several other people heading in the same direction.
That, that's huge because you can go out and eventually you just feel like, you know, I'm, I'm by myself and oh, well, but there's inherent accountability, there's inherent inspiration, there's inherent, just affirmation when you need it. That comes from doing things in a community versus doing it alone.
And so these are some of the things that I believe STEMedia provides in addition to just whatever you might find on YouTube.
Trevor: So how did you go about kind, because I think the community is a huge aspect of it. How do you go out and kind of attract that community? What were some of the steps you took either from marketing or from just kind of word of mouth to, to get that community in place so it can continue to kind of have that almost a snowball effect.
Nee: Yeah. Yeah. Well, some of strategic and some of it's just by nature of being active. Right. And I'll start there like, just putting yourself out there. Like I, I, a lot of people know me, know that like for some reason I don't get embarrassed by like, If I say, Hey, what's up? I try to start a conversation with somebody and they don't wanna have a conversation with me and I'm like, alright, cool.
I'll just keep it moving, right? That, that doesn't like diminish. So I am one who I like, put myself out there quite a bit and after doing it for so long, no matter what the conversion rate of people who actually wanna talk to you or actually be your friends, You're gonna build up a, a significant sizable community from that.
Right? So that's one thing, like just put yourself out there. Okay, what if they laugh? Alright, well you don't put anything out there. If you don't put yourself out there, they'll, you'll never know. Right? So putting yourself out there over time, and then I would say more strategically I think what you're doing right now is part of it.
I started in 2018, I wanna say something called STEMedia Live. This was on Instagram where I literally just reached out to people who were who I said got it. Like in my mind, I'm looking at their content, looking at how they present themselves, like, oh, they get it. And I would just invite them to have a chat with me every Sunday night on Instagram live.
And over time I would just meet more and more of the who's who throughout the STEM community. not just the who's who, but those who were, again, technically intelligent, but also creatively aligned. And over time you start seeing people, they know this person, and you just continue to just know people and.
Hey man, we're, we're getting to know each other now, building each other's network just from this conversation. And I think that, you know, that's a very good strategic way to build a community.
Trevor: Hundred percent. And I also have to give a shout out to your Instagram feed cuz I just was like in prep for this kind of flipping through it. And it's a, it's a fun follow. So it's a, it's a to go checkout more about the company.
Nee: Thank you. Thanks
Trevor: So I, I wanted to ask to kind of, what, what would you consider your first sale? Is that, is that conceptually something that makes sense to you? What, what, what was your first sale?
Nee: There was this robotics program downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, and it was called The Capital City, I don't know if this organization still exists, the Capital City Intergenerational Program. So their whole premise was getting young people to interact with seniors and things like that, and they had a robotics program and they just wanted a marketing video. And so I remember getting asked, Hey, you have a company? I heard about you, just after I won the contest, how much you charge me? And I didn't know what to charge. I didn't know what to charge. I didn't even know how to like, make the deal happen. I, you know, it is just your first time. But I ended up charging it very little.
And afterwards the lady pulled me aside. She paid me. She did it. Everything was good. But she was like, all right, first of all, you should have asked me
Uh, second of all, how, like, how do you know that I wasn't gonna change? You know, like she kind of gave me some tips after that. I was like, oh, okay.
Trevor: Yeah. That's so cool though. But I also think it's important cuz I do think. each sale, each interaction you can, there's something you can learn from it. So, you know, for your point half, most of the time when your first sale, whatever, you gonna, it's gonna be so low and you're gonna, but you're gonna learn from it.
You're gonna say, okay, the next time I'm gonna do this, or next time I'm gonna do that. And sometimes I see it with our clients too, you know, they, they have a bad situation. They didn't have a contract in place, and so they didn't get a deposit. And so they lose out on some money that, that's bad for the business in general.
But that's also a learning opportunity, you know, next time. All right, next time I gotta have this in place. I gotta have some agreements in place. I gotta have expectations set up front about what's being provided. So I, I just think there's an opportunity, even through mistakes, to kind of learn how to shape your business going forward.
Nee: I couldn't agree more, Trevor. And I think you gotta have the confidence that, because sometimes knowing that there are things you don't know can still make you afraid. Like, you know, I don't wanna lose out my money. It's like, well, that's almost like the tuition itself. Like what the amount, the amount that I should have charged that I didn't charge was my tuition for learning the lessons I got after that project? So just go ahead and, yeah, do
Trevor: I, I love that mindset. Just, it's the tuition. I just paid my tuition right there.
Nee: My tuition.
Trevor: That, that's great. So I, I understand, so STEMedia started up in 2012.
Nee: Mm-hmm.
Trevor: Tell me a little bit about kind of how, did the pandemic interfere much or did it kind of, I mean, as an online presence, did it kind of present opportunities for you?
Nee: I'll say opportunity. The pandemic really pushed and accelerated direction we're headed now as an EdTech and that's really what it came down to. At the beginning of 2020, there were a number of clients lined up, you know, There were some projects like, oh man, this is gonna look good. This is off to a good start.
But when things shut down, you know, you just start seeing those things evaporate. I would say though, I was still a nine to five engineer and a lot of my work was still, you know, nights and weekends. but it was really during the pandemic: A, did I begin to, so far as a civil engineer, I don't know if you noticed, but like construction work and a lot of stuff in our bridges and our roads increased. Like it was like, oh, no one's on the road. Let's, let's get this stuff done,
Trevor: This is our chance
Nee: man. I'm telling you like, while people were like bored. I was kind of envious of people who were bored at home. I was like, I went home and worked way more hours than I worked off in office. It was crazy. And so that was sort of like, that was kind of an adjacent of like coming to a head was like, man, like the, the room to be able to operate a business on the side feels like it's getting smaller and smaller.
And I had an incredible company. I was happy with my job, but it's just, I started working a whole lot of overtime and that was just kind of like tough from a, like a balancing standpoint. But also given the fact that online educations online education, the way that we educate and engage our audience is increasingly digital now, by necessity, it was already headed that direction prior to the pandemic, but this like went on over, you know, hyper speed at that point, really pushed me to the point of saying, all right, now we really need to start that, that platform, we really need to become tech enabled.
We need to create a solution where we can deliver content for multiple clients, multiple customers that doesn't require us to show up on set and to film it for every single time we get a sale. You know what I mean? And so, it pushed that, that's when the, the STEMedia Network, it's our app right now. Right now we have an MVP available on Google Play, Apples App Store, also Roku. So check that out Roku channel.
But that's when that was born. And that model that we're still pouring into and looking to expand. I don't wanna say, it came as a result of the pandemic, but it was definitely, it was activated in the pandemic.
Trevor: but, and I know you still, I, I believe you do anyway, that you still have kind of like in-person summits as well.
Nee: Yeah. We'll do all that.
Trevor: Yeah. Is that an important piece of that? How do, how do you see those two as interrelational?
Nee: Yeah. So there's sort of a two-sided marketplace, so we, Ultimately I got inspired, the whole why behind this is for the individual student, aspiring young professional. And so everything we do is ultimately to try to elevate and empower the individuals that's watching our content, that's consuming our edutainment, right?
The things that we put on. So we do this through workshops. We have an annual summit called the STEM Success Summit. This year we did the fourth year. First year, first three years were like totally virtual. This past year was hybrid. We were in Atlanta. That's how like more and more people of like mind who can stand to benefit from that community.
Not just the content, but the community and the opportunities that come through it. That's where that's built right through these type of, offline and even online. We have a thing called the stem Poetry Slam. We annually bring people together. We do poetry, spoken word, all around like scientific and technical topics.
These events, we put out content on a regular basis, still interviewing people. all that is still what we do because that's how, that's the top of funnel, right? That's the top of funnel for our network and our community. Now, when it comes to the scalable side of our business, and I, I don't believe that will ever leave, at least not from who I am as a person, but to build a business who's selling or, or let's just say like potential, financial potential is solely based on solely individual.
it can kind of get tough when your desire is to help as many people as possible. Like if you were doing something that was like, and this is, this is my perspective on it. If you're doing something that was high ticket, I'm only gonna work with executives. You know, you may be able to like really bring some pretty high revenue in, but that's not necessarily a broad strategy.
You know what I mean? When it comes to like a whole bunch of people. So I, I actually do want the, the underrepresented to be able to be exposed to our content that may live in rural parts that don't necessarily have a budget. So I set up by that to say our business model is now really looking to continue to, monetize more of the B2B side of things, the institutions as well as the corporations that also see value in this audience.
We don't want barrier to be so high for the audience to become a part of the community, but we want to instead increase our revenue by being able to say, here's some people you can recruit. Here's some people you can advertise to. Here are things you can sponsor, so that now you don't have to worry about trying to develop your own community.
We have one here that stands to benefit, and so there's, there's kind of a, a win-win there that we're trying to create.
Trevor: I think that makes a lot of sense and creates kind of new opportunities, again, just once to, to expand that message and reach more people. Now, am I correct in understanding that you're kind of out there right now looking for, for additional funding?
Nee: Yeah, yeah. Predominantly for the platform, right? It's a tech enabled platform. So right now our platform, as I said, it's an mvp. It gets the content. It can be viewed; it can be accessed. As we continue to serve the B2B side of our business, the corporations, there are more things that we need to develop to make it more usable, it's usable, but to make it a, a better experience for those customers and that, that requires development, that requires funding, that requires some additional hires, that requires some more time of my time and others being devoted to the customer discovery, the business development, which revenue is coming in through content production.
We don't want that to stop, but we also need to be able to get ahead of the curve over here. So, yeah, that's why we're trying to raise.
Trevor: How have you found the fundraising process? Because it's, it's a whole different animal to the, to running the business in some ways.
Nee: Oh man, this I feel like that can be a whole nother episode
Trevor: Version two. Let's go
Nee: I'm saying, man, it's a whole nother ringer. I'm gonna be honest with you. It's, it's another type of sales process. And it's another type of, presentation of value. you could say, Hey, we're doing this summit, you gonna get these type of workshops. That's cool for the individual, but the investor, it's like, okay, how am I gonna make more money?
Trevor: Yep.
Nee: Right. You wanna talk about that. So yeah, it is, it's been a learning process. It's been edifying in a number of ways too, because it has allowed me to be, get better and better at articulating what we are as a, as a business.
Trevor: Yeah, I mean I think especially for kind of new entrepreneurs or kind of people kind of just getting into this, I don't think it's often realized what you just said. You know, that the actual act of, of fundraising, it is a sales process and sometimes it is a full-time job in addition to your other full-time job, to have to go out and build those relationships, not just with your customer base, but with the folks that you're looking to, to put some money into your company and help you to get to that next level.
So I, I did wanna go back and ask one question though. Cause you talked about kind of working still kind of as an, as an engineer and having this as a side gig. At what point in time were you like, you know, I can, I can make that transition. I think this, this is where I wanna put my time and energy and I think it's got enough legs to kind of go for it.
Nee: Yeah. Halfway through the pandemic, right halfway through, you know, the whole shutdowns and relates to covid, when for me, like I have a mentor who said, who answered the question, you know, you can't do it no more when you can't do it no more.
No more like, like it is literally physical, physically impossible to do both now. And I feel like again, with the overtime and all this like increased demand on that side, I was like, you know, something's gotta give. For me it was a very spiritual process as well. I'm a man of faith. I believe in like, you know, seeking God on these type of decisions, so talk to my wife, all those things, right?
You wanna make sure that if you, if you are, married or whatever, like in partnership with someone, you don't wanna catch them off guard either. You wanna make sure that there's some sort of agreement there too. So that's, that's very practical. Let me say that. I don't care how passionate you are, like if you wanna stay in that partnership, at least you wanna make sure that there's some understanding there. So I had to make sure I did all those check boxes right.
Trevor: Again, you know, just pearl's wisdom there because I think, I don't know that everybody appreciates that, you know, the, the role of entrepreneurship, you know, you've gotta have some buy-in and support from the family around you or whoever it is that you're in relationship with, because, you know, it's not a nine to five job, it's not a, you know, it can be all consuming. So you need some support and you know, a backing from those around you.
Nee: Yes, because they're gonna be sacrificing too for you, too.
Trevor: hundred percent. Yep. So tell me this, you know, if, if we came back five years from now, do a kind of follow up episode on this, what do you hope we would be talking about?
Nee: Oh, we'll be talking about annual recurring revenue, our SaaS, B2B SaaS platform, and how we've been able to launch a number of, courses and shows and modules and experiences that are even furthermore impacting a, multiple size, bigger audience than what we currently impact. That's what we'll be talking about.
Trevor: I think that sounds great. I look forward to that conversation too. So what do you think is gonna be the steps to kind of get you from, from here to there?
Nee: Building a bigger team, that's gonna be part of it. And that team is gonna have roles of investors, strategic partners, employees, right? So that's one of the steps. Building a bigger team. I think another step is getting better at the sales process.
Trevor: Mm-hmm.
Nee: Like, cause that doesn't necessarily turn off right? And, and even though we're in the same industry, the things that we're gonna be selling maybe change, our pitch will be modified. So honing in that sales pitch become better at converting know of us, but have not necessarily transitioned with us through our new model. So that's another step.
I would say that me becoming a better leader, period, is gonna be a step too. Just being a, just become a better leader. I, I could talk about times where, in hindsight I feel like my leadership is what stopped something from reaching a goal.
Trevor: Hmm.
Nee: like I was doing something bad or unethical, I just didn't have that, those skills yet of being able to manage what I was trying to accomplish at that time. So if I want to get there, I have to grow as an individual, as a leader to be able to, manage and, and lead this vision. And I'm, I'm, I'm pointing towards as well. So those are a few, I believe, practical steps that need to be taken.
Trevor: So, do you have an example? I, I, I think that's interesting to me and that, you know, I think
Nee: Oh, you wanna know?
Trevor: great awareness of like, but where was it that you're just like, ah, I feel like my leadership wasn't what it needed to be right here.
Nee: I've had times where, I'll kind of speak in generalities, but these definitely are based on specific moments, but this is a recurring moment where I've had a number of talented people who are like, Hey, I want to help you achieve this goal. Like, what do you want me to do? And I've just been like, Hold on.
I don't know yet. Let me, let me figure this out. Right. And so like, I sort of like didn't steward the incredible gifted, talented group of individuals that I had, that eventually not on some personal stuff, but eventually they're just like, oh, okay, all right. I'm gonna go ahead and go over here and help this other cause. Right? Because you didn't really know what to do with me. Right.
And I think that's a leadership quality not just inspire people, cause I may have done that, that's why they came the first place, but to be able to identify where their strengths can fit in so that all these individuals can ultimately contribute to the same outcome, even though their strengths and the personalities, the angles at which they attack something may be a little bit different.
And I think that's a leadership skill to be able to see that and make calls and, and move things around in that regard. And I didn't, I didn't have that ability at the time.
Trevor: Well, I appreciate that and I appreciate the transparency cuz I just think it's important as well. I feel like sometimes that that role of founder, that role of CEO can be very isolating and there can be that pressure to feel like I've got to be good at everything and I'm always gonna be perfect and I'm always gotta have this down.
Even if I don't, I can't project that to my company or can't project that to other people. But the reality is, is it's a learning process, just like the founding of the business. And you're gonna make mistakes and you're gonna learn from those and, and hopefully do better next time.
Nee: Give yourself grace. I think that's, that's the key too. Cause if I look back on those, those times and I just got down on myself, that could really hurt me. But I'm like, Hey, I'm still learning. I'm still growing as a leader; I might not get it right now. Right. But you gotta be able to keep going. So give yourself grace.
Trevor: A hundred percent. Bind to that. Everybody needs grace, and sometimes that starts with giving yourself some grace.
Nee: A hundred percent.
Trevor: So we are the Founder Shares podcast, and so I always like to ask our guests if, you know, if you had one piece of advice that you wanted to share with somebody who was thinking about starting a company, what would that advice be?
Nee: Stay with it. You're not going to win the entire season at one time. like, you know, it's a long journey. It's a lot of different steps along the way. There're wins and losses. There's ups and downs. But you gotta stay with it. And I know that there are a number of people who are way more gifted, who are currently way more gift. but one thing that I have that has been a key to my success so far, and I know will be a key to my success in the future is the ability to stay with it. So that's what I would say. Stay with it.
Trevor: I like it, stay with it. It's so important and it just, I don't know. It's, it sounds it's short, concise, and it sounds easy to do, but sometimes that's the hardest thing to do is just take that next step and get back into it.
Nee: Yeah.
Trevor: So, I understand you've got a podcast. So if our, if our listeners here wanna check you out on your podcast, you know what? What's that? What's that all about?
Nee: Well, we, we got a lot going on, man. STEMedia is something, you can just Google. One word with one m. S t e m e d i a. we've been producing a podcast for the last year, interviewing some of the most inspirational creative people in the STEM community. but in addition to that, we have a YouTube channel, which I like to point people to.
youtube.com/STEMedia. we are on Instagram under the same name, Twitter, under the same name or handle, and we're always putting out things, whether it be for us or people that we are partnering with, that you can come and get a different perspective right on what it means to be a scientist, an engineer, a person in tech, mathematician, right?
Someone who's in these technical fields, but yet you still got, got a little attractive swag to you. So come check us.