Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / America at 250: Mary Ellen Pleasant - America's First Black Venture Capitalist

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America at 250: Mary Ellen Pleasant - America's First Black Venture Capitalist · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Three, two, one, zero.
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  Ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Have you subscribed to the small biz chat podcast?
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  Well, it's time.
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  Every Wednesday, we offer listeners bite sized actionable tips to start and grow a successful
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  small business.
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  In just twenty minutes or so a week, you can get a ton of insight and resources to propel
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  your business forward.
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  Be sure to subscribe to the Small Bitch Chat podcast today.
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  Hi everybody and welcome to another installment of America at 02:50, my series where we talk
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  about entrepreneurs who built America.
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  Today, I want to tell you the story about a woman whose work really helped redefine what
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  entrepreneurship even was.
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  Her name was Mary Ellen Pleasant, and she's one of the most fascinating and underappreciated
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  entrepreneurs in American history.
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  In the mid nineteenth century, she was one of the wealthiest black women in America.
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  But what makes her story especially compelling is that she did not build her wealth through a
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  single company.
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  She built it through strategic investments, partnerships, real estate, and really an
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  extraordinary understanding of how money works.
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  Much of Mary Ellen Pleasant's early life remains somewhat mysterious and historians
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  actually disagree about her exact details.
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  But what is commonly known was that she was born in the early 1800s when most black people
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  were enslaved.
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  And somehow in the late eighteen forties, she made her way to California.
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  And during California's gold rush, she understood a principle that many entrepreneurs
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  still miss today.
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  The real money is often made serving people chasing an opportunity.
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  Now, while thousands of people rushed out west seeking gold, she built businesses that served
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  them, the miners, the merchants, the investors, and the travelers.
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  Many of the businesses she built were things like boarding houses, restaurants, catering
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  operations, laundry services, and what we might call today as hospitality businesses.
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  She was the saloon owner and the brothel owner too, but she had real estate investments.
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  She also did stock and other kinds of investments.
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  You know, today we often see things like that.
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  Think about it like this.
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  The accessory company can make as much money as the people who created cell phones or laptops
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  or iPads and things like that.
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  So it's all about having the right marketing strategy and looking for creating a business
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  that adds something potentially to another business to make it easier for people to use
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  it.
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  Right now we're in the AI revolution.
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  Now, everybody is going to build a groundbreaking AI app, but there's tremendous
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  opportunities for businesses that help organizations implement AI or improve
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  cybersecurity or create industry specific AI solutions.
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  Now, historians have actually described Mary Ellen Pleasant as America's first black venture
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  capitalist.
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  Now, the label didn't exactly exist in her time, it captures the way she approached
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  wealth.
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  Mary Ellen understood that true financial power wasn't just about owning one successful
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  business.
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  She reinvested her profits, purchased property, made other investments.
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  She even acquired interest in transportation and utility ventures.
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  And these things created multiple streams of income for her long before this was a term that
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  even existed.
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  She often invested behind the scenes.
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  Sometimes she had to partner with wealthy businessmen who had access to opportunities
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  that Black Americans were simply denied, but rather than seeking any public recognition, she
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  allowed others to become the visible owners while she shared in the profits on the back
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  end.
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  Over time, she accumulated a fortune estimated in the millions of dollars, if you look at
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  today's dollars.
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  Now her success also came with challenges.
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  As her wealth and influence grew, she became the subject of rumors, legal disputes, public
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  criticism.
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  And some of these attacks were rooted in racism and sexism, obviously, but others came from
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  people who just simply could not accept that a Black woman had accumulated extraordinary
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  wealth.
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  Now, despite these obstacles, Pleasant continued to build businesses and her story
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  really makes me think about visibility and how sometimes visibility can actually bring
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  scrutiny.
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  Success doesn't eliminate criticism, but the important thing to think about here is, is if
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  you remain focused on your mission and protect the quality of your work, then your work will
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  speak for itself.
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  Sometimes today's entrepreneurs often focus exclusively on raising capital.
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  But the thing that Pleasant reminds us is that social capital can be just as valuable.
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  Strong relationships can open doors to customers, to partners, to investors, and
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  opportunities that money alone cannot buy.
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  And her success created long term value for everyone involved.
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  And that had to have been the reason why at a time when people were still enslaved, she was
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  able to thrive because her secret power was that she knew how to create great
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  relationships.
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  She was also an active supporter of abolition efforts.
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  Before the civil war, she reportedly helped fund anti slavery activities and assisted
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  freedom seekers escaping slavery.
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  And after the war, she used her financial resources to challenge discrimination.
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  One of her most important victories came in a lawsuit involving racial discrimination on San
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  Francisco streetcars.
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  Her legal efforts helped establish civil rights protections in California, which allowed
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  everyone to use the streetcars.
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  Although Mary Ellen Pleasance accumulated considerable wealth, she showed that business
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  success and social impact are not competing goals.
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  More than one hundred and fifty years later, her example still challenges us to think
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  differently about what it means to build wealth.
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  Is wealth simply about personal comfort or is it about creating opportunities for future
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  generations and strengthening communities?
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  When I think about the lessons that Mary Ellen Pleasant's story can really leave with those of
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  us today, I think first and foremost, lesson number one is wealth creates options.
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  Mary Ellen understood that financial independence creates an ability to influence
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  society.
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  She built businesses first and then used the resulting wealth to support causes that she
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  believed in.
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  Number two, multiple streams of revenue matter.
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  She did not rely on one business.
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  She built an ecosystem of income producing assets.
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  This made her more resilient during economic challenges.
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  Lesson three, invest, don't just earn.
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  Mary Ellen moved beyond operating businesses and became an investor.
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  Many entrepreneurs focus exclusively on the income in their one business.
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  The greatest wealth is often built through becoming an investor in other people's dreams.
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  And lastly, she used her success to impact change.
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  Mary Ellen Pleasant viewed wealth as a tool.
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  She leveraged her resources to advance civil rights for blacks in America and created
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  opportunities for others.
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  She is a perfect example of an entrepreneur who expanded the American dream.
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  This concludes my series America at two fifty.
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  And I am so excited to have had shared this opportunity with you guys to learn more about
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  these early Americans, because just like today, entrepreneurs built America.
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  Everybody, I'm Melinda Emerson, the Small Biz Lady.
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  It is my honor and privilege to be the host of the Small Biz Chat podcast.
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  I leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
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  more fantastic information and interviews.
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  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website, succeedasyourownboss.com.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.