661: Insider Secrets No One Ever Tells You About Startups from Cheryl Contee, Author of 'Mechanical Bull' and CEO of Do Big Things

Traditional startup advice doesn’t always apply to female or minority founders. Nontraditional founders don’t always have the same resources as other entrepreneurs -- but investors, business books, and blogs assume you do. They won’t know you’re the first person to go to college in your family. They won’t know you don’t have access to a “friends and family” funding round. In her new book, Mechanical Bull, serial entrepreneur Cheryl Contee identifies and helps you prepare for those speed bumps.

Cheryl Contee is an award-winning CEO and her latest entrepreneurial venture, Do Big Things, brings together a diverse team that uses new narrative and new tech like blockchain, AI, bots and machine learning to make the world a better place for everyone. Previously, Cheryl was the co-founder and CEO of Fission Strategy, which helped the world’s leading non-profits, foundations and social enterprises design digital ecosystems that create change globally. She is also the co-founder of groundbreaking social marketing software Attentive.ly at Blackbaud, the first tech startup with a black female founder on board in history to be acquired by a NASDAQ-traded company.

Cheryl not only has receipt, she has unique insight into what it takes, and what women experience, when raising capital for a startup you believe in despite what sometimes clueless, sometimes insensitive investors think. And on this episode of the Support is Sexy podcast, Cheryl shares her journey building her startups and being in the room to pitch her ideas, why pivoting is inevitable and authentic relationships are crucial, and how mechanical bulls tell us a lot about gender inequities.

Learn more at supportissexy.com!

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