>> Only a small fraction of venture capital funding goes to companies founded by women and people of color Which is why three aspiring tech entrepreneurs underrepresented in their field set out on a cross country journey to talk to the trail blazers who came before them.

They hit the road in search of wisdom and guidance to see what it actually takes to turn your idea into a business that impacts the world.

This is Roadtrip Nation: Venture Forward [MUSIC] We're in Montana.

It's beautiful, the trees look great.

The yellow grass is swaying, and it's just wonderful, and the sun is gorgeous.

>> Rolling hills, and just the sky, and all the space.

>> The sky isn't bigger anywhere, technically, but it was way more open.

It was crazy.

So it's almost the end of the trip.

We traveled the country, and we interviewed people, and we learned lessons from those interviews.

>> Navigating tech entreprenuership is very confusing and you need people there, definitely, to guide you through the whole process >> I've been ruminating about my career path and I'm still really anxious about that.

Cuz I feel like throughout college, I've just become more and more jaded about my ability to make any type of change But we interview Erica Mackey, who takes on such big problems.

>> So I went and worked in Tanzania, and in East Africa, 80% of people are not connected to the grid.

Which one kerosene lantern, if you're around it for a couple hours studying is the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes.

So that was when I started really aligning with things that I felt are injustices in the world and get clean energy into the hands of the people who need it most.

And then from there, it has been a really interesting journey.

I had my first daughter.

And one of my colleagues said It was very irresponsible of me to get pregnant.

That was, to this injustice, fire in me.

And so that was a big motivator.

I ended up switching into trying to figure out how do you change the whole ecosystem for working mothers to be able to know that they could be a great mom while still knocking out at the park at their jobs.

>> How would you recommend for someone like I don't know what problem I wanna solve yet?

What would you recommend for me to find the problem that I'm meant to solve?

>> For an entrepreneur, following your gut intuition, where if something feels like you are being uniquely useful and motivated and passionate, lean into it with courage.

Separate fear and intuition, and then follow your intuition.

>> Listening to Erica, if she was upset with what she had, she would just do something different.

And I'm like, why didn't I think of that?

[LAUGH] She just had no fear about changing things.

After interviewing Erica, we went to Yellowstone National Park.

>> Yellowstone was great, it was crazy, dude.

There were these big deer, elk, they're huge.

>>Yeah, Yellowstone was gorgeous, I've never been to a national park before, I have such a hard time describing nature.

[LAUGH] But yeah, it was just a lot different from what I'm usually exposed to in the city, and New Jersey, and everything.

I really needed this.

[LAUGH] I'm still am an introverted person.

But I think if there's anything I'm gonna take away from this it's gonna be like I need to get out of my structured routine more, even if it's one day a week just to get into a new place.

[MUSIC] This is the last drive to San Francisco.

[MUSIC] San Francisco, right now, it's the tech capital of the world.

And now that I'm actually here in person, it's just great to be around this ecosystem.

We pretty much just had a smooth ride, continuing our interview path.

Today, we're gonna interview Kimberly Bryant of Black Girls Code, TJ Lim of Talking Points, and Barbara Furlow-Smiles at Facebook.

I think one of the issues I and many other professionals of color had with diversity and inclusion was that, in the earlier days, it just felt like someone just wanted me to work for them to fill their quota.

But I think that Facebook employing Barbara, where they're not just thinking about bringing people in, but changing the environments so that they can feel more comfortable.

>> I am currently the Global Inclusion Program Manager for Diversity Engagement Team.

I, literally, am hired to make sure people have a sense of belonging here.

We have 2.5 billion people in our platform all over the world.

That's why diversity is so critical.

We do have an issue with diversity and inclusion in the tech industry.

>> What would you say to all the naysayers who say representation doesn't matter like diversity and inclusion, it's like it's not a big deal?

>> Well, I think the data tells a different story.

So there's tons of data that shows that diverse teens are more successful in those voices and different perspectives will always lead to a better solution.

This concept of safe space is that you create this environment, this community, where folks are able to be everything that they are and all of the marginalized Identities are free to exist fully.

Really, our job and our mission is to make sure there's diversity of thought, to make sure the people here represent the folks that are on our platform.

I tell folks, when you are in these seats, when you get to your seats, do your work and pay it forward?

It's not gonna be easy.

>> I try my best to control the things I can control.

But at the end of the day, you don't know where life is gonna lead you.

>> Does that make you anxious, or nervous, or scared at all?

>> It does, in big things like, what am I going to do in ten years' time?

>> It's a leap of faith.

There is absolutely no one that knows what they're doing.

We don't know what we're doing, but we figure it out.

>> I think part of being an entrepreneur is really about kind of setting your own destiny and building your own journey.

>> I think the method is really a journey of failing and then learning from that, and then trying something different.

[MUSIC] >> Wow, did you see that?

It's almost the end of the trip.

I'm a little sad, actually.

So we are about to interview Paola Santana, she's the founder of Social Glass and Matternet.

I feel like a futurist is the wrong word.

But she's probably a revolutionist.

>> This is our last interview, guys.

Our last interview as the tech entrepreneurship roadtrip team.

>> [LAUGH] >> The moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed, there are so many problems to solve.

But sometimes we have a lot of motion and not action.

Action is, when you do the one thing a day that you know you need to do.

It's just one, but you're gonna do anything else.

You're gonna workout, answer 14 million emails, you're gonna be so busy the whole day, but you know, you and I know,- >> Yeah.

>> That's there just one thing you should have done.

[MUSIC] >> I'm Alisia, and I'm on this road trip because I'm trying to combine tech and social justice to try to uplift my community, and I'm not really sure how to do that, but you seem to have tackled really big problems.

>> And I didn't know how to do any of the things I'm doing now, so total accidental entrepreneur.

I started being an entrepreneur without knowing the word entrepreneurship.

>> So can you take us back eight years when you just became an entrepreneur, and what were you doing?

>> Yeah, let's go all the way back.

I'm from the Dominican Republic.

When you are born into a poor environment, a poor country, you grow up very aware of the differences.

I was born into a street, but two blocks behind that street there was a slum, and I could have been born in that slum.

So I was never comfortable with the asymmetry.

I don't like anything that should be one way, and it isn't, because of laziness, because of corruption, because of someone made a poor decision.

I don't like it for me and I don't like for anybody.

So I was thinking maybe I should be a politician, and I decided to do law school.

I won a full ride scholarship after graduating, and I went to Washington DC to study politics and law, and what I discovered in DC is politicians, they had more expensive suits, the buildings were more majestic, but it was the same conversation.

It was the same conversation I was hearing in the Dominican Republic, and since I was born until now, nothing has changed in my country dramatically.

I was totally discouraged.

So it's 2011, and I'm thinking, if politics is not the system to create change which system is, that was when the breakthrough came in.

I remember going back to the Dominican Republic, and seeing more and more fruit vendors with the latest cell phones, and I was like, what's happening here?

They are supposed to not have money to afford anything else, but they have cell phones and they have Internet packages?

So I realize that technology is changing the world at a pace that we've never experienced before, and you don't need to run for office to run a technology company, but the people leading these tech companies that are running the world, they probably don't have the incentives that I have to expand social wellness.

>> Can you talk about your journey from that realization to your first tech company?

>> Yeah, so I did my first company that is drone delivery company.

MatterNet means Internet of matter.

What we were trying to solve were lack of infrastructure problems.

This is a problem that 1 billion people in the world have.

They're disconnected.

That means that if you're a pregnant woman you're not going to get vaccines.

If you are a farmer, you're not going to be able to put your small production into the nearest local market.

That means that you cannot create a sustainable way out of poverty.

It is how MatterNet got started.

It was the early days of drone delivery.

So, talking about drone delivery was like, what are you guys talking, and why are you talking about it?

If you're from the Dominican Republic, and you are naive, and you're a lawyer, and you know nothing about tech, so why don't you just go back home, and leave us, the big guys, to know what drone technology can do?

That was the feeling I got.

That's where the whole imposter syndrome comes in.

>> How did you deal with imposter syndrome during that time, and how did you know you're in the right spot?

>> The thing within imposter syndrome is that it doesn't allow you to embrace who you are.

I felt that I didn't deserve to be talking about a technology that I didn't know how it worked, but the rest of the world didn't know how it worked neither.

Because that's what pioneers do.

You create something for the first something for the first time, you create path, nobody has done it before.

It requires guts, and it's important to remember why we're doing the things we're doing.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Evey year was another milestone.

Little by little, sell one pilot project, go to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Yucatan, Papa New Guinea, work with Doctors Without Borders, and then a couple of months ago we got invested by Boeing.

So with MatterNet, I was doing what I was hoping that politics would do, and suddenly what they are thinking about doing, what they are discussing in Congress, I was able to build a system, and I went and did it.

It's like, you thought you were doing drones, with your first company, but with your first company, you were not doing drones, you were doing politics.

>> So you seem to be really in love with Matternet, but you're now working on Social Glass, so just can you take us through that transition?

>> So the elections happened.

And then I believe, as an immigrant, that the American values that brought me here were challenged, so I felt the urgency.

So what Social Glass is doing is creating a software ecosystem, to basically try to transform governments, and help them run efficiently.

So that's what I'm doing now.

>> I don't really have a question, I just have something to say.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Like is that all right?

>> Yeah.

>> [CROSSTALK] >> Girl, go for it.

>> I wanted to thank you for just clarifying your intersection with technology and government, because that's something that I've been thinking about.

I don't respect what technology companies are doing.

They have come to control us in ways that I don't care for, and that's why I was like, maybe I need to move to the government [LAUGH].

>> That's where I was, it's just that I started in the opposite side.

The only difference is that technology has an advantage over politics.

It's like politics was the system of the past, and technology is the system of today, and the question is who's leading these technology companies, because these technology companies today are the ones running the world.

So I learned that I didn't have to ask for permission to create the change that I wanted to see in the world, which, great breakthrough, but it comes with responsibility that the future that I wanna see in the world, it's up to me if I created.

We need more people like you, like us to lead amazing technology companies.

So we have different point of views, so we can balance each other out.

I cannot afford to have someone like you to dismiss the system of today.

You need to not lean in, you need to jump in.

If you see an opportunity, you lead it.

If you see a problem, you go and fix it.

It's looking at the problem and saying, I'm not just gonna contribute, I'm gonna lead this thing in technology, because that's the system of change of today.

Thank you.

[LAUGH] >> Commit.

Commit to something.

Commit to something today, this year.

And then let's talk in 10 years.

And tell me after this road trip you committed to something.

And then tell me, look Paula 10 years later, can you believe it?

We we're just talking in your living room with no shoes.

[LAUGH] And I committed with this thing, and look what we got.

Look how many lives we've changed.

Look who I have become.

That would be powerful.

Commit.

[MUSIC] >> I feel like she's just like the definition of genius.

And I've never sat in front of someone that I was just like, I felt my mind being blown with every word that she said.

[MUSIC] >> I really related to Paula and her story, just because when she realized she didn't care about what she was studying, she became a tech entrepreneur.

But she was able to circumvent all of the government red tape using tech.

I mean that was awesome.

That gives me hope.

[MUSIC] It's so hard to believe that I can help people and still make a living off of it.

But I know that I could get there because Paula did it.

[LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> We're gonna go through the Redwood forest and we're gonna see the big trees and I might huge ones.

[MUSIC] >> It's like a beard.

>> [LAUGH] It's like a tree beard, it really is.

>> The entire thing overall has been amazing.

I feel like I really needed this trip because it got me out of my comfort zone.

There is so much I have learned on so many different levels.

How do yo get people to take you seriously?

>> Yeah.

You realize if you don't fit the mold, you're probably gonna be underestimated.

But it became that I sort of enjoyed the underestimation, and the surprise when I showed up and killed them with confidence.

>> More than anything, an entrepreneur has to be able to disproportionately deal with rejection.

And so being underestimated is such a gift, and people spend so much time trying to talk themselves out of it.

Put all that push back all those no's, just put it in a little pocket, let it grow.

[MUSIC] >> It's all about just building up confidence, showing up and having competence.

It'll grow from there.

[MUSIC] >> Interviewing underrepresented tech entrepreneurs gave me some more perspectives.

Before going into the road trip, I was like, If you do CS you have to be a software engineer.

That was just clear.

And if you wanna be a software engineer, then you need to do it at one of the big companies.

But, I mean the road trip, it just made me remember again why I really loved computer science.

I was a creator and I could create anything that I wanted.

I had my laptop.

Nobody could stop me.

It was just so empowering.

I really related to the leaders that we interview and the mission of helping people using tech.

I mean that was just like awesome.

>> I love that you're doing Asian-American Studies.

It's so powerful.

Digital and tech and engineering or any of this stuff is for justice, for education, for health, for people.

>> Somewhere along the journey, I forgot that I had this power to really To change things.

[MUSIC] >> We're all leaving tomorrow.

>> It's the end of the trip.

>> It doesn't really feel real yet.

[MUSIC] >> Before, I'd become disillusioned to the point where I didn't think that I was gonna make social change.

I figured out I'm just gonna make a profit, and then money would help me make social change.

And I think that many of the interviews that we had have turned that on its head.

>> We started with nothing.

A lot of people think that you need grants and big-time money and everything to do.

We had none of that.

It just was simply starting and picking up a broom.

It's doable, but you gotta put time and you gotta stay focused.

>> I had two jobs.

I went to work all day.

I worked at nights and weekends.

But there's something about when you're running with purpose, you have the energy, you find it.

>> The leaders really emphasize dreaming these great, gigantic, big dreams that almost seem unaccomplishable and then actualizing them through difficulty, through strife.

>> You're gonna get it wrong many times before you get it right, and it's okay.

Fail fast.

Fail often.

Get into the next thing.

>> The leaders, they kind of helped me to see the light.

Entrepreneurship, you can make profits and you can make change at the same time.

[MUSIC] >> I have collected water from all of the states so that I could have a water tasting when I get back [LAUGH] with my friends.

We have Minneapolis, Twin Falls, Idaho.

This is Chicago.

My next step, I'm probably going to try to get some research funds to do field work in Vietnam.

I think I could do research into the dark web to track sex trafficking of Vietnamese women.

Or I could build a Girls Who Code in Vietnam.

I feel like I can do what I want and I will get where I want now.

[MUSIC] This type of opportunity only comes once in a lifetime, and it's just awesome that I had the chance to experience this.

>> I think going for it, this will be one those inflection points where it's like, he changed here.

Right here, he changed.

And I think what I had lost was willingness, to I guess dream.

[MUSIC] >> You have the opportunity to be the one who walks through doors first.

Your generation is going to Mars.

[MUSIC] There's stuff that's happening that's so exciting right now in the human race.

>> You guys are the future.

There's not enough women in tech.

There's not enough people of color.

Historically, we've been taken out of every major movement, and you can't let yourself be left out of this movement.

It's a revolution you gotta be a part of it.

>> So we all come with different histories.

Those histories are culture add.

There's this weird idea that silicon valley had of culture fit is very destructive.

I don't want you to fit, I want you to add.

>> If you get through that door and keep it open, other people can run through it behind you.

We can go make something together.

Let's go make history.

[MUSIC] >> And so, what you guys are doing together is you're helping show that everybody belongs in entrepreneurship.

Gives you great hope.

>> To learn more about how to get involved or to watch interviews from the road, visit roadtripnation.com.