Kendrick shares with us his story from breaking into tech as a former Uber driver, how he climbed the corporate ladder, helped others do the same, and then turned that into a DEI hiring platform with an entire community involved in assisting underrepresented folks to break into tech.
Kendrick shares with us his story from breaking into tech as a former Uber driver, how he climbed the corporate ladder, helped others do the same, and then turned that into a DEI hiring platform with an entire community involved in assisting underrepresented folks to break into tech.
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Hatchet Ventures website: www.hatchetventures.com
Hatchet Ventures LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/hatchet-ventures/
Chet Lovegren’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/chetlovegren/
Kendrick Trotter’s LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kendrick-trotter-326a9062/
Listen on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/36ub3fpy
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Listen on Google Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdee8y9h
Narrator: 1, 2, 3, 4. Are you a founder, co-founder, aspiring entrepreneur, or just someone who loves to hear about how companies are built? Then join us as we talk with founders and CEOs who have been there and done that. Welcome to the Founder's Formula Podcast. Sponsored by Hatchet Ventures. And now your host Chet Lovegren.
Chet: Welcome one and welcome all to the Founder's Formula Podcast. The show designed to bring you the latest and greatest stories and insights from founders worldwide who have been there and done that. I'm really excited for my guest today, who is a tenured tech sales professional turned founder and CEO of his DEI hiring platform, Us In Technology, which is committed to helping underrepresented folks break into tech.
Please welcome to the show, founder and CEO of Us In Tech, Kendrick Trotter. Kendrick, what's going on?
Kendrick: Nothing, man. It's a privilege to be on this show today. Love the kind of pre-video that we posted before we're brought on. So I'm hyped man, and I'm excited to contribute. However I can.
Chet: Yeah, I'm excited too. Kendrick, this is our second rodeo. So we had you on the Sales RX Podcast a few months ago and it was one of our highest-ranking episodes. And I know folks got a lot of value out of that. So if it's even if today is half as good as that day, it'll be one of the best episodes we have. So I'm stoked, man.
So I definitely want to jump into the story of Us In Tech and ask you some questions about the company and your experience as a founder. But where I wanna start is especially considering your headline on LinkedIn says former Uber driver now CEO, and that's so badass. Like I love that. I know the audience is gonna have a ton of questions. I would really love to hear about you and your story up to the point of founding Us In Tech. So before we jump into Us In tech, tell us about Kendrick Trotter, man, give us the story.
Kendrick: Yeah. Yeah. So I think the, in, in order to understand a person as an adult, it's important to understand how they were raised and some of the things that influenced the values that they have as an adult.
So for me personally I grew up in the bay area raised by a single mom. And although we were just 15 minutes away from Silicon Valley, had no idea about, the opportunities in tech. And always, aspired to wanting a better lifestyle for myself, but naturally we kind of generalize those into three different options from a career perspective. Which was playing sports, being in the entertainment industry, or unfortunately being in the streets.
For me, I was fortunate enough to play division one football at the University of Idaho. And my first year we won four games last year, we only lost four games. We're Idaho Potato Bowl champions. I was voted as a captain by the players and the coaches. And so it was a really good honor to be a part of that journey.
But after completing my college football, I returned home and I was right back in the area that I had tried so long to get out of. And as a positive way to keep money in my pocket, I actually started Ubering. And as an Uber rider I talked a lot. I took a lot of breaks and I spent a lot of money on food.
So I wasn't the most efficient Uber driver, but I was interviewing with Gallo Wine and Mercedes-Benz of Oakland, two opportunities that were actually at the career fair at my university. Everyone who got in my car, I presented them with the two opportunities and I asked them their opinions of who I should work for.
And the conservatives people said, Hey, Kendrick, go to Gallo Wine. Everyone else said, if you can sell a car, a Benz. Then I met a gentleman who I was taking to purchase a nice house in San Ramon. And he told me about the opportunities in tech. And I naturally disqualified myself right away and I said, Hey, I can't
be in the tech industry. I don't know anything about products and he laughed and he said, Kendrick, if you can study a playbook for football that changes every week, you can study product knowledge. And I said I have this ambitious goal that I wanna make six figures by the time I'm 25. And he laughed at me and he said, Kendrick, you don't understand, kids make this in entry level positions.
So I pulled over my car, I popped my trunk. I gave him this resume, which was horribly formatted. It was all dirty and he laughed at me. He told me about this weird website called a LinkedIn. He helped me to create a profile and just a couple weeks later, he actually helped me get my first job. So that individual is Josh Berezin. Who's a VP of Sales now at AWS. And that was really my transition in, into the tech industry.
Chet: That's awesome. I love how you made that connection and also, you had this thing where you're like, oh, I can make a lot of money selling Benzes. That would be a good opportunity. But then you turned down that known certainty for an unknown that did end up faring you well.
What did that experience look like once you jumped into tech? What were you doing? What were you up to? Where were you working? What kind of experience did you accumulate up to the point of founding Us In Tech?
Kendrick: Yeah, that's a great question. I started my career off as a sales development rep. I was actually working in San Jose and I was commuting from Richmond, the east bay. So it was taking me an hour and a half to get to work. And probably about three hours to get home because they were doing construction at the time. So I would leave so early in the morning to try to avoid traffic that I would actually like sleep in my car for 30 or 45 minutes in the garage before I actually went into office at six thirty. And then when I got off of work, I usually would try to take a quick nap in my car before I commuted back home. My first three months being in a sales development rep was very, very challenging for me. It was challenging because when I would ask my woman or female manager for assistance on how to communicate with prospects, she would say, Kendrick talk like you're talking to your friends and I'm like, oh, you don't know my friends.
I, I come from the east bay. I come from a football locker room. I don't think that would be appropriate. And she said Kendrick talk like you're talking to your dad at the dinner table. And I'm like I didn't grow up with my biological father at the dinner table. And so what I learned is I was actually mostly struggling with imposter syndrome. Being in an office where no one looked similar to me, no one talked similar to me.
Naturally, I was trying to mimic all those around me, but all those around me were so different than who I was naturally. It just made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I even should have been fired based off my results early on. I had very, very high inputs. I was coming in very early, leaving very late, and I was always naturally curious, asking people for guidance and, attracting really good mentors.
And eventually I rose up the ranks pretty quickly. As I found my identity as a as a sales rep and what worked best for me. And I went from an SDR to an Account Executive within a year and a half. Then I went from an account executive to a major account rep for a public cyber security company, managing accounts like eBay, Salesforce, Workday, Twitter within I believe three to three and a half years of being in a space.
So there were so many things that I learned at each part of my journey that I think have positioned me in being a good founder today or what I think as a good founder today. And some of those things are as like, tenacity and my journey was,it was very difficult before I got I guess very rewarding.
And so now, even on my journey of entrepreneurship, this sense of uncomfortability, isn't something that's new to me. It's actually something I'm familiar with. The same with sacrificing as well. And then for me in my journey as a sales individual, I always valued learnings over earnings. And what I mean by that is I went to the opportunities where I had great management and great leaders that would develop me in becoming a better salesperson versus the opportunities that paid me a lot right away.
Chet: Yeah. When you when you learn, you earn, I think that's that's a Jim Rohn thing too. He talked about that your, your wealth is not in what you make, but what you become. I always loved that.
I, and I feel that way too. That's why a lot of people leave jobs cuz they don't feel like they're learning anything else. We know the industry standards, we know what people pay. Like I don't feel like I'm being developed as an account executive. I'm gonna go work somewhere else, cause I'll make the same amount of money. It feels like you've got some experience in your tech sales background that kind of led to you creating Us InTech. From what I know about us in tech and my interaction as a former customer, when I was leveraging you all or partner, I should say. Tell us about Us In Tech. So like, how did this come about more importantly also like for people that don't know what is Us In Tech? Who do you help? Who do you serve? What problem are you solving? And then how did the company start? How did you create this great platform that you've launched?
Kendrick: Yeah, those are all really good questions. Through my experience, as I earned a fast track to being a major account rep, at such an early age, I was making really good money. And I was spending a lot of money and I was having a lot of really cool experiences. And so naturally in sharing those experiences on my social medias, a lot of people started reaching out to me and they're like, Hey, what do you do? What do you do? I want to get involved. And Us In Technology started with me, just volunteering my time as a way to help my friends make more money. So one of my best friends, former college football player at the University of Ohio, he came home from playing college football and he was actually a chip runner and he was working at Five Guys as well.
And I said, Hey, why don't you come down and let me mentor you and help you get into this this industry. And so what I learned was there's a lot of characteristics that we as underrepresented people have that are naturally attractive to a lot of recruiters which are coachability, drive, integrity and intelligence.
What I also learned is that we all tend to feel more comfortable with people who look similar to ourselves. And it's very rare that we, as underrepresented people have the chance to interview with people who are also underrepresented. So I say that to say is what I realize is it's really important for us to understand the individual that we're interviewing with.
And some of the ways that they may perceive some of our responses to some of these questions that people are generally asking in interviews. So after I helped London get his job, which was the first mentee, it really just went from one, to five, to seven people. And I was just volunteering my time here and there.
And I was trying to monetize it, but every time I tried to monetize it, corporations were kicking me out of the deal. And they were like, oh you're not a business. You're not a corporation. But if you don't want us to hire this individual, no worries will find someone else. So it was really selfish.
But it was a learning opportunity. And then finally through a warm connection that I had on LinkedIn, Dalton van Hatcher actually reached out to me because he was looking to hire some SDR reps for his organization. And in that first interaction, he's like look, I can either hire a few people from Us In Technology, or I can help you build a business.
And he asked me, he said, is this what you love to do? And I was like, yeah, I love to do this. And he is why don't you do it full time? I was like, I can't do this full time. And he's like, why not? Like, why not you? Why not now? And I think that was the first time I ever thought about that.
Like, why not me? Why not now, again, overcoming that imposter syndrome piece. And then from there he helped me in actually incorporating it as a business and creating some more, strategic marketing materials and collateral. And really the program that I originally built, which was focused specifically on entry level sales reps, customer success reps, and recruiters was mostly based off of my individual experience. Which is recognizing most of us don't have LinkedIns.
Most of us are unaware of some of the social behaviors that are important when interviewing. And then also some of the key things that I learned that contributed to my success early on, which were a few trainings on how to do the job.
Chet: Yeah. And I think when we first spoke, you actually gave me create insight into one of those most common questions, which is sales leaders asking, Hey, would you rather be hated by everyone on your team, but wildly successful?
Or would you rather be a medium performer and loved by everyone? And you told me you're like, think about someone that comes from, a, a, a low income neighborhood where it's like, Hey, if I'm very successful, I'm probably gonna be hated by everyone in my neighborhood. And that means I'm doing anything to get to where I wanted me to be successful and I might end up dead.
Yeah. So like I answered that question differently than what sales leaders are looking for, because like you said, that background, you said to that, that, that leader, right? I grew up a, in a, I was raised by a single mother. I don't know how I would talk at the dinner table that way to my dad.
Same thing. I love that you took that experience and were able to apply it to other people and add value there, because I think that's so important. And even when you told me that question, I was like, yeah, you're totally right. People come from different backgrounds, they're gonna answer things a certain way.
We know what the person's looking for, but that's just not me because I was not raised that way. That's not my experience.
Kendrick: Yeah. It is different. You can train people, you can encourage people to be honest, or you can train people how to say what the answer should be. And that's the part that kind of bothers me. And I usually challenge our clients to think about that in their interviewing Hey, if you want me to train these individuals on how to pass an assessment test, I can do that. Yeah. But if you want these people to be authentic, I want you to know they're not gonna pass an assessment test.
It's a difference. And so I, like I said, it's hard because when you, diversity means variety. And when an individual comes from a diverse background, they tend to be a little more open minded to different things. Whereas if your experiences aren't as diverse, it may be hard for you to see some of those key characteristics of a potential strong candidate, whatnot.
Chet: Yeah. And then, so as I understand it so Us In Tech is a, it's a two-way offering, right? You have the people that are joining Us In Tech that are looking to break in tech and get a career in technology, whether it's sales, or customer success, solutions. So you're offering that service to them.
But then on the flip side, you have these partners that then you're offering this service of placement of talented individuals who are trained up, skilled up, and ready to go. So what's interesting is it's almost like a membership economy, essentially. Yeah. So what I'm really curious to hear is cuz we get a lot of people that talk about building out the tech, and building the product.
And so not having to manage a product per se so much, but really being in the business of people. Tried and true. What are some experiences you have in that, that you find are interesting as opposed to when you were working in tech sales and it was about product and this and that? What are some of those differences as a founder, not managing a product, but really managing people in a service that are different than managing a product?
Kendrick: Wow. A lot of different opinions on that question. So the first thing I'll say is for us, at Us In Technology, we're a marketplace. We're a marketplace that connects underrepresented people to hiring tech companies. We're a marketplace that gives organizations access to a very scarce group of talent.
We're a marketplace that gives community to people who are traditionally underserved in this industry. And in that community, we deliver different services, which are continuous education, mentorship, in-person and virtual events. Which is really important because with the DEI metrics being so low in this space, the few people who are in this space, they wanna see other people look like themselves.
They wanna be able to have those unfiltered conversations about topics and experiences that maybe only they experience. So that's really important. When you talk about a people-based business versus a service, a software-based business. It's very difficult because most people conceptually, they only understand a technical product.
A lot of people are fearful and intimidated of people based businesses because people generally sound like services, right? so a lot of times, if I say people are the most important part, most people will respond to that by saying, oh, that's a services business because you keep saying people. But what people forget is when they hear the word SaaS, the last word of that letter is service.
So a lot of people build a software, but they forget that it's actually supposed to deliver a service. So for us, what we focused on in our journey was like, let's focus on delivering the service first. And then if you can prove validation through providing the service, you can actually work backwards into creating a software.
So for us, what we were able to learn in the last year and a half, two years is like, what were the most important things that our clients liked about us? What were some of the things that they wanted to see improvements with? Which, for them, it was like, We love us in technology, but we wanna hire more people.
We wanna hire people in more positions, more senior level positions and different areas, just not limited to sales and customer success. And on the people side, what we found is like they really appreciate having a safe space where they can be their authentic selves without being judged. They really appreciated the networking event and the opportunity to create friendships.
So for us now that we know what needs to be created we created our minimal viable product that actually just launched in beta this week. Which is intended to enhance the experience first and foremost of the people and secondarily to our companies. And I say primarily to the people, because in this business, if you don't have a lot of people, you'll never have companies.
And if you have a lot of people, you'll always have a lot of companies because companies traditionally have struggled, for a lot of different reasons, to get access to those individuals. So what we are is like we're truly that marketplace in the middle that connects these companies to underrepresented people and connecting underrepresented people to companies, and allowing them an opportunity different from a traditional job board.
To interact and get value from us in technology 365 days out the year. Versus just if and when they get a job. And I think that's where there's a similarity. Like the membership piece that you talked about.
Chet: Yeah. And I like how you put that reminder in front of everybody while your software might be a product. The last letter is service. People do forget that they do it's supposed to be offering a service via a product is the vehicle, the action is still service, right? So you, you brought up an interesting segue into the companies that you work with. I'm curious to hear, and I know the stat we've looked at it before together.
But what is the return for a company that puts a focus on DEI that your partners are seeing? And do you, how do you feel that return is impacting the drive of adoption for DEI focused initiatives in other companies? Like somebody sees what one of your partners is getting in terms, cause at the end of the day, we're all capitalists too.
We still gotta speak to the capitalists at the core of these businesses. What are the, like somebody sees Chorus.ai, and the success they're having like is how is that helping drive that impact in your world?
Kendrick: I think I think the best testament to what you're building is validation from the people who are consuming it. And for us the two consumers are customers and it's the, the the people. And to be transparent with you our consumers are our best marketers of Us In Technology based on their experience. They're the primary driver of us being able to get an abundance of applications and funnel of people. people They are also the reason why we tend to attract a lot of other companies that reach out to us based on the posts and the sharings that they do voluntarily on their own personal social medias.
And then on the organization side, we have 40 active contracts and I would say all 40 of our active contracts are all respectfully like leaders in their space. If you think about some of the top cyber security companies being like Zscaler is a, is a name that everyone's familiar with.
Zscaler is a partner and customer of Us In Technology they've seen value. When we think about this steel space, we have obviously, Felux when we think about the growing virtual community space we have Pavilion and obviously Pavilion had a really strong. And then we have, HR companies like Ethena.
We have other companies like AgentSync, and AuditBoard, and High Touch, and Highspot, and Reprise. And I think that we actually have been able to validate the research that has been shared with us in the last couple years, that teams that are more diverse produce 30% more than teams, that lack diversity.
And so I think generally when we tend to hear the word diversity. Sometimes our guard goes up a little bit and we tend to limit that to the idea of just being black and brown, but diversity is actually defined as variety, and I think that it's very hard to deny the value of having variety in a room versus limited to just, one mindset or one type type of identification of an individual.
Chet: Yeah. Now, moving on to the next question about those returns, right? Those returns are really important to a certain thing that we, you all are going through as founders, which is raising money, right? We need money to continue running the business, expanding this beta platform offering that we have for, like you said, primarily our people, but also it'll help our partners as well.
I know that you're going through a pre-seed round of funding right now. And I would love to hear your insights on what you find most challenging about that. And also what kind of advice you would give a founder that's going through the same thing, trying to raise their first pre-seed round of funding.
Kendrick: Yeah. This is a topic that I look forward to talking more about as I mature in my experience as a founder. So it's interesting because generally in order to get capital, you need product. And in order to get product, you need capital. So if you're a person like myself, who traditionally, I don't come from a lot of capital having having the ability to create product, to go get money is actually a really big barrier.
Which is why in my first year year and a half of the business, we really focused on that services side. And being able to pay some of our bills and obviously being able to show more proof of concept and being able to raise money off of that proof of concept. concept What I learned is like in a pre-seed round is generally referred to as a family and friends round. round If you don't have family and friends that you can go and send a text message to that, have the ability to write a $25,000 check, the ability to raise a solid family and friends round is gonna be very difficult. Because your access to those conversations are limited. So for me, in my experience, and I'm so happy it happened the way it did, but when I originally wanted to raise and I tried to talk to VCs, and I was like, Hey, this is what I'm doing.
This is the money we're making. And everyone was like, this is great, but it's not really a scalable business. I don't see the product. It's not a scalable business. It's a services business. So it hurt my feelings a little bit. And then I went I spoke with angel investors and I realized similar to a lot of the VCs is a lot of the questions they were asking me was more like trying to get me to establish more credibility. In a sense of, I seen a meme the other day on Instagram and it says something with a lot of times angels could see a underrepresented founder or the opportunity to invest in an underrepresented founder as a donation versus an investment opportunity.
And so for me, when I got in those conversations, I felt like I was battling so much trying trying to illustrate my abilities of who I was as an individual. So then I considered going through an accelerator and I actually got two executive coaches instead of going through an accelerator who were a lot more intimate with me.
And one of my executive coaches Kishau Rodgers, she said, Kendrick, I think you should try focus on raising money with people who look similar to you. She said at this point of the fundraise, people are investing in the founder and they're not investing in the product, because the product is gonna change.
The revenue is gonna change year over year. And naturally we all feel comfortable with people who look similar to ourself. And so I took that feedback and I started reaching out to angels that I had in my network. The few that I knew, mostly from the cybersecurity space that I sold to. And I would ask them for introductions into other angels.
So I had the opportunity to secure Corinne Drummond, who was on the legal team at Google and at Pinterest. And she also assisted in building out some of the DEI strategies at Pinterest and Google. And Karen was able to introduce me to someone else. And after she invested that other person invested, and then I actually pitched to my first tech founder that I ever had CEO and founder, which was Pat Peterson, my former founder at Agari a email security company.
He was actually extremely interested. And he came in pretty aggressively and more importantly than like him coming in aggressively. He's now my executive coach and he is also introduced me to four or five other people who have now invested because of that introduction. And so what I learned is a lot of times people put a specific time in which they want to close their round.
And for me, I can't necessarily judge my strength of my fundraising based on a time period, because I don't have access to those contacts. So what I had to do creatively was use people in my networks, not only to invest, but for them to introduce me to other investors. And ideally my conversion rate is really high, but my access to those conversations have definitely been difficult.
So what I would say, particularly to someone who's an underrepresented founder, It's really important that you get proof of concept. Because if you don't have proof of concept, it's gonna be even more difficult for you to raise funding. And I would try to get proof of concept obviously by getting a few customers and a few people who see value in your services first, and then after you get that proof of concept, use that as leverage to attract and speak with potential angels who identify similar to yourself. I think that will put you in a position to then go ahead and move forward with the seed opportunity.
Chet: That's great. Yeah. And it's part of the reason I'm not a founder myself is I feel the same way you do. If I went, I don't have a lot of family and friends I could go to, I could ask $25,000 for it. They'd probably be like, Chet, get outta here you knucklehead. I'm not giving a dime come on.
Kendrick: BUt you are a founder. You founded this podcast.
Chet: There you go. Yeah. Thanks. It's but that's, that's great that you leverage your network. There's a reoccurring theme that we're hearing on the podcast is it's all about community. I think that's why it's so valuable to have Hatchet Ventures as a sponsor, because it is it's based on community.
It's based on putting people around you that can help you be successful, and help you give you those insights that you need in the leg up that you need. Because yes, a as you've highlighted, like it can be harder as an underrepresented founder as well, because there's bias that you're facing.
Like you said, sometimes I feel like people are thinking of it more as a donation than a business investment, and that's not the case. Like I have this incredible platform I built surrounded by an incredible group of partners in an incredible community. And we're seeing results.
But obviously like you said, you need more capital to get more product out. And so it's great to see the traction that you all are having. It's great to see the success that you all are having. Cuz I'm a really heavy believer in Us In Tech, especially as someone who's leveraged y'all in the past, like some of shout out to Jahleane, one of the best SDRs I've ever gotten the opportunity to lead.
And now she's an account executive kickin ass., it's, it's great to see that great testament for Us In Tech, and what they do for their members and their partners. Kendrick as we wrap up the episode, if anybody wants to connect with you or connected with Us InTech, obviously we'll have some contact information in the show notes, but tell us, how can we get in touch with you or us in tech if we're interested in partnering?
Kendrick: Yeah. So if you're interested in partnering we just relaunched our website, usintechnology.com. It will give you the opportunity to either partner with us as a potential customer or partner with us in a capacity of being a mentor or someone who's looking to join the community as a whole. Regardless if you're an active job seeker or not would definitely ask that you follow us on Twitter or trying to get our Twitter clout up.
It's at Us In Technology. And then our Instagram as well is usually where we're the most active, which is at Us In tech.
Chet: Awesome. And in addition, if you're interested in engaging further with the Founder's Formula Podcast or Hatchet Ventures, or you're a founder that would love to be showcased on the podcast, or even get in touch with Hatchet Ventures and understand how we can partner with you, we will have access to all the information you'll need in the show notes below.
That's all we have for today's episode, Kendrick. Thank you so much for the time. Thank you for stopping by and we'll see everybody on the next one.