HOW WOULD YOU ELUCIDATE THE VALUE BETWEEN RENTING AND OWNING YOUR WORK?

Aisha: Great question… For me the value of owning my work is rewarding because I have the power to change an outcome in a community that I cared about. As a minority female I had the opportunity to invest in the black community, create camps, educate people for free and impart our skills and knowledge in a way my people would benefit from. The only person I had to compete with was myself, that’s one of the things that’s important to pay attention to. Whenever you empower diverse entrepreneurs you’re not just creating a business, you’re creating a revenue stream. When I empower others I’m also creating an individual that can donate to a political campaign, purchase and become homeowners and vote on the community.

All of these things are derivative of my ownership and what the company has empowered me to be able to do. Now, because I own 100% of the company, with no outside investment, the company is profitable and has been sustainable. I don’t have to compete with a board who will say “Aisha you can’t do that because that’s too feminine or that’s too black or can’t do that because you’re too young.” Aisha does what Aisha thinks is for the best of the company and community I come from and for the individuals I want to serve.

HOW DO STARTUPS BUILD A TEAM WITHOUT GIVING UP OWNERSHIP?

Aisha: Because I was an engineer I had to learn how I could get people to pay me to be an engineer. We begin taking minimal contracts in both the education and engineering side. I didn’t just leave NASA and tell myself I’m going to start a business. That’s a lot of people’s number one mistake; when you need a lot capital to get started your’re left with having to pay people to help you build in the absence of other revenue. It was a gradual transition into my first year, I told myself I would work at NASA, get up earlier and stay up later. I told myself I’m going to work on my company for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening and that’s how we built it. I put in place an outside work agreement so that nothing I did had any legal ramifications. I feel that is the best way to start a small business because you have the security of your day job, but you also have the future of your new venture. You can do it in a way where you’re not putting your life totally at risk.

After two years, it was two other people who I paid to do engineering and myself. We’d say, okay, we can start to evolve then can afford now hire a 3rd person. It wasn’t until the 4th year when I started bringing in multi-year contracts because I went out and sought mentorship. And that’s another thing for you guys, go-to people at these big companies, like Johnny for example and say, hey can you put me or will Google buy my product? If you build something, people will partner with you, and it can without a doubt happen. So myself and team went out and found an engineering company that had about 500 people. They had a female founder who had a similar story, and she was able to put us on the contract. Then I had the opportunity to hire more people, and that’s how I was able to build and continue to expand this without investment. I started thinking of how I could make money to cover those who want to work for me instead of giving equity to anyone. Now I understand not every business can do that, but regardless of your product, business or service, in business, it’s good to have both. Meaning many companies don’t have product or service revenue and can find a combination of both, you will better as a business for the long term.