Jeffery:
All right, Jerome. Welcome. Welcome to OPN Supporters Fund Ask an Angel. Super excited to have you here today. We’ve had some great conversations and really looking forward to diving into learning a lot more about yourself, the organization and how you guys work with early stage companies. But to start, why don’t you give us a little bit of a background on yourself, where you come from, the things that you’ve been up to and then kind of what you’re doing now and then one thing about you that nobody will know

Jerome:
Absolutely so, first of all, Jeffrey, thank you so much for this opportunity. Certainly happy and grateful to get an opportunity to speak and add value as much as I possibly can to network. And to those who may be watching, my background is interesting. I actually started out in financial services a number of years ago. Got my series six and 63. I’ve had an opportunity to work as a corporate trainer, um, as well as in the financial services market, um, working with financial clients. So I’ve had an opportunity to speak for Fortune 500 companies, uh, and helping them to grow and maintain business. So I had an opportunity to do that, which is, uh, certainly been fun. Uh, and now I’m, uh, entering into this venture capital and start up space, which has been so exciting, so happy to be here. One thing, that one thing that people may not know about me. One thing right off the bat is that I love doing missionary work. So I get an opportunity to do, uh, had an opportunity to do missionary work in Haiti, right? Uh, right after the earthquake, that was back in 2011, Um, in some of the best times I’ve ever had. So I really have a heart for missionary work. So that’s something that I’m passionate about.

Jeffery:
Oh, that’s amazing. And that’s a good thing, that’s awesome. Giving back and, uh, working with startups giving back. So it sounds like an overall it’s a nice mix.

Jerome:
It is. It is. It certainly is

Jeffery:
Awesome. Well, there was a couple of things that really interested me when I was diving into your background and things that you work on and I was hoping you could share a little bit more about, um, the series six, the designations, and kind of talk a bit about that, because I think from a financial standpoint, financial literacy is very common. It’s very tough for a lot of people that really understand this, especially when you start your own company. And I think you’ve got a lot of background and understanding in this. But I would love to share a little bit more about what that is. What does that look like? What does that designation do? And how is that kind of morphed into what you’re doing today? I’m sure it’s going to be really valuable.

Jerome:
Sure. So, uh, I held my series six and 63 some — maybe about 5 to 6 years ago. And with that designation, what that allows you to be able to do it regulates you to be able to offer securities mainly At that time, I was working with mutual funds, hoping clients with their understanding, their financial education as far as their investment strategy, uh, their retirement a lot of times a lot of people don’t understand is that many folks don’t have retirement. So especially now it’s challenging. People just didn’t have a sound retirement strategy in place. So I specialized in helping families to, uh, identify a great investment strategy, a great risk strategy for their family and helping them to see how to be affordable and helping them to see the importance of being able to have that in place. And so that really kind of that really kind of got me interested in the markets. I’ve always kind of been a market junkie. I mean, I’ve always kind of got in the books of, you know how to beat the market, uh, studying options, studying e minis. So I’ve always kind of been a student of, uh, of the market. And so, you know, having my series six and 63 really kind of lit my fire when it came to understanding how markets and how capital works. Well, uh, naturally, that kind of gave me this, uh, this edge And this, uh, this hunger to really understand more about risk. And that’s what kind of got me into this venture capital space. What really ended up happening? I really saw a few years ago, I had this concept of how I could be able to help founders that may not have had the, uh, the same opportunities or may not have had the same access to information or had access to networks. I wanted to find a way to help them to bridge the gap by having this understanding of how the markets work. So that’s something. That’s kind of how I got into this space. That’s kind of how I got into this is really that that hunger for, uh, financial literacy and which kind of turned into this area in which I can help founders raise capital?

Jeffery:
No, that’s awesome and exciting. And it is this designation, because it’s kind of like an accounting financial background. Uh, and all of these really are huge. How do you go about getting this series six and 63? Is it, um, you have to go through programs. Is it? It sounds like it’s quite, we don’t have this in Canada, and you are based in, um, Atlanta. So for me, I’m really Atlanta. Right? I wanna make sure I got that right. Yeah. So for me, this is like a total different things, so I’m kind of curious as the U. S has so many different ways to learn things and what pocket this fits into. So it’s really good information to learn how this works. And then where that carries you,

Jerome:
Well, you need a you need a pint of blood and a couple of drinks. How about that?

Jeffery:
Uh, I like it.

Jerome:
no, no, no, no, seriously, But the It’s an examination process, an extensive examination process, and, uh, mhm. By going through this examination process, it really takes you through the regulations of how the United States works and how they view, uh, investments, how they view investments, and how they view the regulations, the laws, the things to do, the things not to do what you say. There’s a lot of different things inside of securities world that people are just not aware of. So what happens is you have to have an, uh, you know that Series six and 63 really gives you an opportunity to understand what you’re doing when it comes to offering securities to someone, and that’s a little bit that’s a little bit different. Uh, you know, in the in the venture capital space, it’s a little bit. It’s a little bit different depending upon what area of the country are in. But we have certain regulations in place when it comes to offering securities, offering investment advice, offering strategies. So it’s always so important to be aware and abreast of those laws. Uh, and having that Series six and Series 63 gives you the kind of the legal right to be able to do that along with some other, uh, licenses that allow you to kind of go even further in those offerings.

Jeffery:
Awesome. So how much of this background? And I’m really a big fan of people’s background and then why they move into the startup space. So you take this market securities, which is huge because, really, then today, if you’re going to work with early stage companies, which you guys focus on precedes seating up to series A. If you’re gonna work with these companies your one day hoping that they’re going to go to the markets, they’re going to be a, um uh, I p owing or whatever the vertical is that they jump into at that point. But there’s going to be some sort of liquidation. So you’re kind of preparing them. You’re gonna learn you’re going to be sharing. So how much of this have you found? Is transported into what you’re doing today?

Jerome:
A lot, actually. In one of the key areas that really helps in being able to — that came from my background is understanding risk mitigation. Uh, investors want to know, how do you mitigate risk? And everybody wants to know that when you went in and that’s one of the things that that license gave me an opportunity to look at, how do you mitigate risk? And as a startup, you’re thinking, you know, you’ve got this great idea. You’ve got this great concept that’s going to change the world. However, if you want to obtain investment capital, you have to be able to understand what does this investor see when they look at my project? How are they looking at the risk? And if the risk is too high for their investment, then more than likely they’re not going to invest. And that’s simply what it is, what it comes down to. Sometimes it comes down to one. Uh, do I trust this person enough and to how much risk am I willing to take with this investment. So being able to understand how mutual funds work, how how stocks work, how, how being able to understand how to put together an investment strategy, Uh, all of these things helps me to be able to relate to founders the importance of their risk mitigation strategy. And then that’s something that I’d be happy to go into later on, or or and dive into as well.

Jeffery:
I love it, and I will say, if all the interviews that I’ve had the I guess honor to speak with so many smart people like yourself, the cool thing that’s come out of it is that everybody brings a little unique element to it. And the one thing that you’re bringing that we have not touched on whatsoever and we’ve talked to accountants and everybody else is risk. And that’s why I love what you took and you bring it forward because nobody understands mitigating risk for some odd reason. And in this space, it’s all about risk. You are in the highest risk categor