Raising $3M Seed Capital as a WOC Founder (and She’s Just Getting Started)
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Representation of women in the fintech industry is scarce. So scarce that women make up less than 10 percent of fintech founders or executive board members, according to a recent paper from the International Monetary Fund. But Sofiat Abdulrazaaq is changing the game for women of color in fintech.
Abdulrazaaq is the co-founder of Goodfynd, a platform that began as a way to help consumers find nearby food vendors/trucks and facilitate ordering and delivery where available.
Goodfynd also has a B2B application. Abdulrazaaq identified the need for all mobile vendors — food or otherwise — to have an accessible and affordable one-stop shop to run their business. This “business in a box” model is meant to reach the under-served community of first generation and immigrant mobile vendors, allowing them to include what they need from the Goodfynd platform — without extra bells and whistles. What started off as an organic quest to find food trucks before the pandemic morphed into B2C and a scalable B2B model.
Pivoting from a stint in privacy law (she got her JD then decided to become an entrepreneur), Abdulrazaaq shows resilience in the face of hardship as a woman of color in a male-dominated world.
Listen to Abdulrazaaq discuss raising capital and launching Goodfynd, on this episode of SheVentures.
1:45 Abdulrazaaq discusses her career pivots.
4:20 How did the idea for Goodfynd emerge?
10:15 Abdulrazaaq reflects how a grant from Lighthouse Labs helped her and her co-founders create a proof of concept.
19:05 Will Goodfynd expand its business model to all mobile businesses?
22:12 What does being an “impact-first executive” mean to Abdulrazaaq?
25:22 Abdulrazaaq shares her experience as a woman of color raising capital.
33:55 What are her three tips for women pursuing entrepreneurship?
38:06 Where can listeners learn more about Goodfynd?
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