Mighty Dream Day 2: Finding and seizing opportunities

The second day of Pharrell Williams‘ Mighty Dream Forum in Norfolk included poetry, news about Williams’ Something in the Water music festival and advice for entrepreneurs.

Just as Mighty Dream’s first day was focused around a central theme of diversity and equity, the second day was largely dedicated to inspiring entrepreneurs to find and create business opportunities.

The day kicked off with spoken-word poetry from Teens with a Purpose, a Hampton Roads nonprofit youth development organization. Later in the morning, Williams participated in a panel discussion about financial equity and what big businesses are doing to increase access to capital to marginalized communities. The other panelists were: Jennifer Parker, CEO of Treasury Services for The Bank of New York Mellon Corp.; Jim Reynolds, founder, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based Loop Capital Markets LLC; and Donald Franklin with New York-based United Entertainment Group. 

He encouraged big corporations, especially fintech companies, to create programs within their organizations to reach out to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and to educate people on the next steps they need to build their own businesses or to work for a business like theirs.

In another conversation about entrepreneurship during the forum Wednesday,  Michael Anders, founder of wealth management firm Iconiq Capital, and Charles Phillips, co-founder and managing partner of Recognize, a technology growth equity firm, discussed how entrepreneurship can happen anywhere, including on university campuses, especially with so people now working remotely.

“We need to get the nucleus in place so people can see other people who look like them building businesses,” Phillips said. 

Later, Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ longtime business partner and CEO of SpringHill Co., an entertainment and development brand, spoke with Ryan Shadrick Wilson, founder and CEO of Boardwalk Collective and a member of Williams’ Yellow education foundation, about the importance of building partnerships.

Another panel, “Igniting the Dream,” focused on the importance of mentorship and sponsorship. Panelists included Williams; Ayana Green, a vice president with United Parcel Service of America Inc. (UPS); Nataki Williams, senior vice president of finance with The Guardian; Danny Robinson, chief creative officer with The Martin Agency; Shelley Stewart III, a senior partner with McKinsey & Co.; and Felecia Hatcher, CEO of Black Ambition. Panelists talked about “sharing the code” for success and creating opportunities for Black and brown people — and others in marginalized communities — to pay it forward. They stressed the importance of networking, as well as surrounding themselves with good people who “will lift you up, not pull you down.”

Williams said some business leaders in Hampton Roads have been examples of what not to do.

“That’s the problem here in the 757,” he said. “There are a couple people … I would say a small group of people who have businesses and sectors that have been controlled and families that have controlled them for decades … and they’re cool with that. But then they want to complain when things don’t work out for marginalized communities. We are called marginalized for a reason. It’s because they don’t want to let us in. But the door has been cracked … and we’re going to have one arm in the door and one leg out. We are holding the door open.”

The forum concludes on Thursday.