Dr. Frances Arlene (3:36)

Congratulations. Talk about starting Eatokra. What was that aha moment? You knew it was going to be successful and how did you even start?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (3:47)

So to start Eat Okra it was really a passion. It was really a passion project. It was a project I was working full time, my wife was working full time. We moved to Brooklyn. Well she moved to Brooklyn, I was living in the Queens and we spend the night, we would hang out but it was just like where do, where are all the black owned restaurants? This is a new neighborhood coming from the Bronx, don't really know like where all the spots are. Right. Naturally we just don't know. Everyone always mentions the main spots but it was just like how do we find the spot around the corner? If I'm traveling, where do I find a black owned Reddit restaurant? Where are those familiar foods that I grew up with that I want that I kind of want back in my life? Maybe not from my mom, but from someone else, you know, from my culture. So that wasn't really a thing. Back in 2016 my wife made suggestion, why don't you create an app for us to find and support black owned restaurants. Prior to that I'm a military. I was did six years active duty in the army aviation maintenance, repair. So I was in the electronics space, computer science space. I went to school at Fordham University after I got my computer science degree and from there I really started getting into making websites. I got my first job as a full stack engineer and worked for about ultimately seven years. But that was like my real start into building platforms, understanding like architectural structures and creating classes and the whole technology side of me. Right like really in my end. But I always had this entrepreneurial side too. Even as a kid I'd always be making like hacking at different websites and stuff like that for my mom and her many businesses for friends. I would help them out creating websites and so ultimately knew I wanted to build something. I didn't know what it was going to be but it was that seed that my wife planted and why don't you just make this app for us to find black Owned restaurants kind of had. There's similar apps already out there at the time. So the motto was there. It was just really about creating something that was truly special for the black community.

Dr. Frances Arlene (5:38)

And thank you for serving and protecting. How did you come up with the name Eat okra?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (5:45)

Yeah, so the name comes from really that slice, you know, slice to the okra and you're really seeing like the season outside. But really it was spawned. We wanted to give a nod back to our culture and heritage. And that was. And that okra really was a full embodiment of that okra coming over as a seed during the slave trade. Settling in the south gave nod to kind of our heritage as well. My family roots are in the south, so is my wife's. My roots are in Louisiana and my wife's roots are in Sumter, South Carolina, Gullah, Geechee, family and roots and things like that. Okra was cooked in gumbos and stews and soups and really that, like that thickening agent. So it just felt like really great to kind of say black without saying black in a way, certainly. But it was also that stickiness of like, figuratively of the okra that kind of like allows us to play with like how we communicate and tell stories through the merging of ingredients and foods and making that stickiness and just connecting communities together really through the food.

Dr. Frances Arlene (6:45)

When you talk about community, connecting and family food and building community of what you're actually doing and culture, what is something that you've seen as you connect with these black owned restaurants, Anthony, that we as consumers don't know, that we should know?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (7:08)

Yeah, I think it's hard work. It is no small feat to start a business, to start a restaurant where you're giving, being vulnerable and really putting yourself out there as an owner, as a chef. Sometimes they're both, and that's a lot. People are really opinionated on the service, the taste. And you know, every day you're. You're trying, trying to become better and no one wants to put out a bad product or, you know, have a bad moment or whatever that is a bad review. But, you know, so sometimes, you know, I think folks don't realize the difficulty it does to feed people and what goes into that, that love that goes into it. And sometimes I think we take it for granted by giving a bad review, by not having grace for whatever the moment is. It might just not be related to them and just related to that. The waiter, waitress, you know, or something like that. Things outside of their control. But ultimately as a leader or as the owner of business, like everything falls back to you, even things that are not within your means. And then, you know, I've also learned that restaurants are so creative in their approach to building their businesses. Money has been a common theme across most businesses, especially our community. It's hard to like get that money. So they've had to get creative in how they bring their investments or their money together, how they collect from other folks. It's just really tough on the, on the operator side of the house. And I just wish people would kind of think a little bit more before they write that bad review, I guess.

Dr. Frances Arlene (8:30)

Speaking of raising capital, how did you raise capital to build Eatokra?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (8:36)

Yeah, so we had a few kind of rounds of fundraising. We did a friends and family round. We worked with Fun Brack founders, Fun Black founders with Renee. And she was really the first person to kind of educate us on what that process was like to raise funds through community, through our friends and family, like literally. And it was a non equity round. And so we raised about $27,000 I think. And that was because during COVID and George Floyd, really. George Floyd, Covid, we had about 200,000 people download the app almost overnight. That caused a lot of like great problems to have, but problems we didn't see coming. Right. Because up to that point we probably had maybe about 40,000 people download the app over three, three or four years. At that point we were growing. The way we wanted to grow was a part time project, hobby I was doing at the time. Hobby turned passion project, turned like business at some point in like June of 2020, 20 I believe. But really once like we really started to trend really quickly, we realized right away that, that the demand was too much for my wife and I to handle. So we really had to like start to hire people to kind of help us out really on the data side of the house, to help us add more restaurants to the platform, buying more resources to service the app and make it performant and quick and fast. And so very quickly we ran out of server sides and service speed and things like that. So we had to just upgrade everything and the $27,000 really helped at that moment. Later on we did another round equity round on WE Funder, which is an equity crowdfunding round. So we had a long campaign for that and we raised a good amount of money to help us as well.

Dr. Frances Arlene (10:20)

That is awesome and congratulations on that. What is something that we should know about app development that we don't know?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (10:30)

I would say it's very hard. There's so many devices now like you think you're only building for maybe your mobile phone like and that might be an Apple device, but there's 20 versions of that. Then you have Android, there's 20 versions of different Androids. Then you have tablets, 20 versions of those iOS tablets, Apple devices. Then you have the browser. So there's and then you have like monitor. So there's so many different screens you have to think about. When you're building an app there's so many different variables like it's technology is always changes. So even when you think you put out a product and it's done, Apple might do an update and break your device. So you always have to continue to pay for that maintenance of the app or product that you're building. So it's never really over. Do you think there's a stopping point? There isn't. And so like you always continue to add new features or have to just maintain it, pay to maintain the product. So I don't think a lot of folks think about the maintenance or the variability of what you're building for and how you need to present it to your consumer.

Dr. Frances Arlene (11:28)

If you lost everything and you had to rebuild in 30 days, what industry and why?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (11:35)

I would definitely stay on the technology industry and building like products that kind of service people or solve a problem. For me it's just that's my comfort zone. I know how to do it, done it a few times and I feel like I have a good eye for it and I'm also a developer so that saves so much money. Like engineering fees, technology fees are your biggest cost as a startup and that was how Edoker got so far is because I wasn't the developer. I was working a full time job while building it. But I would work in the evenings, work from, I don't know, get off at work at 5, start working on the app at 7, go to bed at midnight, wake up again at 5, develop until 7, get ready, go to work, come home and like do it all over again. On the weekends I'm working on eight hours on Fridays I'm working at through the night to continue to build the platform. I was super excited about it. Those kind of hours of working on a product are hard to come by now as I have a six year old daughter. Yeah, I think just having the skill set to build is something I would definitely continue to leverage, you know in new if I had to start all over again.

Dr. Frances Arlene (12:43)

Talk about marriage and entrepreneurial ship.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (12:46)

Yeah, I think it can quickly become too much. I think you really have to have really strong communication and understand each other's like not pain points, but thresholds of where they're at, maybe in their day, in their week. And what season are they in? Is it a season of really wanting to participate and hear everything about the business? Or maybe I'm in a season of just. I want to cut it off at 5 and not think about nothing. And so for me, having my wife as a co founder, you know, I was always wanting to talk about some facet of the business and for her it was just like, all right, let's cut it off. I think it took a while for us to find a happy path through that. For me, I just had to like respectfully ask, can I talk to you about this? And just really present it to her at the right time when she was ready to take in the information. Because you know, she works a full day job so she wants to come home and just chill too. So I think when working with your spouse, it's really about understanding, like is she an entrepreneur, spirit person or is she just helping you do it? Is she a nine to fiver or is she really the entrepreneur that wants to. Or he, he or she, you know, either or can. Are they wanting to build 24 hours a day, 18 hours a day, you know, or just spend a little bit of micro time and all of it is fine. You just got to know where that threshold is for that, for your, that person. So I think that was really one of our biggest hurdles, was just finding balance and not taking the work home, even though we were working from home. But like, how do I not leave this cubicle that I built and be dad or husband or friend over there.

Dr. Frances Arlene (14:27)

I want you to have a monologue. I want you to name this person, living or not. And they've impacted your life so much. Anthony, who. Who is that person and what are you saying to that person?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (14:37)

It's my dad, my stepdad. He shows up, he's there every day. He goes to work in two feet of snow. He never takes a day off. I respect that grind. And not to provide for your children, your kids, your stepchildren. And I really respect that. And respect what? The building and the process through that and just being theirs. I really respect my stepdad. And then, you know, with my mom, I respect everything that she's building too, like the hard work, the hustle, the never giving up, the fighting, through trials and tribulations, addiction. So I pull from like both my parents, I think, and even my real dad. I wasn't with him growing up, I respect, like, he had a restaurant in California. I got to see him, like, build that. So I'm really motivated by people and using their hands, showing up and just working every day to get it and honoring your parents.

Dr. Frances Arlene (15:34)

Why don't you say their names?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (15:36)

Tamara Taylor. Dwayne Taylor.

Dr. Frances Arlene (15:39)

Thank you for that. Talk about your top two mentors or influencers and what lessons did they teach you?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (15:48)

I'll go with influencer. So a guy by the name of Jeff, Jeff Lindor. I learned about him through another friend who was, like, working on their website. And through learning about them, I learned about this guy named Jeff who started a men's group, professional men's group, called the Gentleman's Factory. And it's in Brooklyn, New York. And it's a group of professional men of all from 75 to 21 year olds and everyone in between. But it was a space for us to kind of come together and build. Really, like to come out of isolation and build together. And so through him, he kind of told me, he's like, Because I didn't know eat Okra could be investable. I didn't know anything about that kind of world. And he was like, yeah, bro, people invest in toilet paper. Why would they not invest in your business? And that was just like such an aha moment for me. Like, okay, maybe I do have something. Being a part of that community. I met my mentor. I met a bunch of other fine gentlemen that we ended up partnering and doing things together over the years, built great relationships with him and through other folks. But it was really about just being in that space, being around men that were trying to figure it out. Some have figured it out and willing to educate the others. It was about understanding and learning from each other's, like, trials and experiences and sharing those experiences. Ultimately, I did figure out how to do the mentorship, raising money, how to build and market a product. You know, so there's so many. Through that relationship with Jeff, I was. He kind of set me up and shaped my mindset a bit.

Dr. Frances Arlene (17:21)

Different advice you wish you had followed?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (17:26)

I think learn to budget earlier or like, I budgeted, but I don't know if I budgeted the right way. So maybe bringing in help sooner just to understand finances, I think a bit more.

Dr. Frances Arlene (17:37)

Talk to a younger Anthony. What would you say to a younger Anthony?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (17:43)

To a younger Anthony, I would say, I don't know. I feel like if I did it all again, I wouldn't change much about the path that I've done. I think all the trials and tribulations were needed to set me up for where I'm at now. Like I said, even with budgeting, I did it wrong. But I think I learned, I had to learn through those moments. I've always been a person. I kind of listened to folks and kind of did my own thing too. But I don't think right now, I think I would say enjoy the journey a bit more. I would say acknowledge the accomplishments more, reflect on those and slow down a little bit to let that actually sink. Because I've won awards that not many people in the world get and I still don't have. Not sat in it, I think for a long time or haven't even still

Dr. Frances Arlene (18:31)

to this day over the last 30 days. What was your biggest win?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (18:36)

I think my biggest win was I recently started working as a. So on top of being founder of Eatokra, I also am CTO of another company called iMedview and I'm the CTO there. And so a big win is really hiring, really starting from scratch and building a full engineering team. In the last 30 days, we've hired four engineers and we're building a software product. So being able to take all those skills that I've learned with my experience with Eatokra has put me in the right position to now lead 10 engineers and IT professionals.

Dr. Frances Arlene (19:13)

And how did you celebrate that Wind?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (19:16)

Maybe went to dinner.

Dr. Frances Arlene (19:19)

What can we do right now to support Eatokra?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (19:24)

Right now? I would say download the app, share with a friend, join our subscription, our email list and telling us what you like about it, what you want to see, where can we improve. So feedback is so important to the continued development of the product and we do listen in here and build out things. So I would say yeah, just tell a friend, download the app. We're always looking for more partnerships and ways to get into new communities. And so if you, you have an idea, a partnership or organization we should reach out to or work with, that's what we love to do.

Dr. Frances Arlene (19:57)

Okay, taking a note there. Thank you for that. And I want you right now to share with us who is the ideal client for Eat Okra for?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (20:10)

The ideal client has to want to be part of community, want to support it, want to celebrate it ideally. And it's we're always food. So whatever we do, it's got to be around food. We always want to bring a restaurant or a food, black owned food founder with us. It's really about making sure that we're celebrating them, we're bringing them, bringing the community a new experience. It's got to be feel honest and good about the work and we just. It's got to be fresh and new.

Dr. Frances Arlene (20:40)

What's trending right now is artificial intelligence. Talk about that.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (20:47)

Yeah, I use it every day. AI, ChatGPT, Claude, Plot, Nano, Banana. There's so many tools out there. Only three of like 300. But yeah, I use it for a lot of coding these days. Right now I'm able to spin up a new feature in hours. That would have taken me two weeks or a week. So in a weekend I can knock out a lot of work. You do have to be careful with it, but it is a bit of a game changer and an equalizer for a lot of startups. So I hope there's a lot of folks getting in on the ground now before the pricing model changes or things like that. But it really is a tool to get you to MVP very quickly.

Dr. Frances Arlene (21:30)

And what is your zone of genius?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (21:35)

I think I'm curious. Ask the questions. I. Curious and creative, I would say. I feel like I do have a bit of that it that just gets it in a way. I don't know if that's the right word to say, but I feel like I get it and I feel like I create things that people want and I'm not afraid to try. I'm a person that I'm not a like a trial and error. I'm not a tutorial person. When I build something, I just go straight for it and build. I don't like teeter, totter or spend too much time thinking about it or when I think I know what I want, I build it right away. I don't take too much time to test.

Dr. Frances Arlene (22:15)

Okay, and Anthony, what do you need right now that you don't have to move the needle forward?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (22:23)

I think right now what I don't have is a sales mentality. So while we want to make money, my natural gift is not in sales. It's not in storytelling to get the sale. It's not cold calling those kind of things, those things that you probably do need to have some of or somebody on your team to. To do those things. And right now I think that's where I lack.

Dr. Frances Arlene (22:49)

Okay, and are you looking for someone to do that for you or are you looking to level up to do it yourself?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (22:57)

Someone to do it for me right now if I. In this moment right now. But it is a skill. I think I still need to develop that skill over time, you know, so either in this role or the next, if I build out another company 10 years or so I still want to have that sales skill. So it's something I do have as an agenda item that I want to have. Continuous learning, right?

Dr. Frances Arlene (23:17)

Absolutely. And we all have that because we sell every day and you have it. You just want to perfect it.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (23:25)

So going, going back to your question about what would I tell my younger self, it would have been to take like a sales job going door to door doing things, you know, I did those things like as a kid, but more on a serious level of either being on a call center and taking calls and doing like calls, like cold calls that way, or going door to door, some kind of sales role where I really would want to. I wouldn't want to build that skill if I were to tell my younger self something, actually.

Dr. Frances Arlene (23:50)

Absolutely. Thank you for that. What problem exists in the world today that you'd like to solve?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (23:57)

So a problem that exists today that I would like to solve is for me it's memory. When I say memory, it's following up with my contacts. So remembering people where I met them. I think it is a common problem with just remembering to call your grandmother, calling a friend. Because we get so boggled down. I think that we can use help to remember to contact somebody or in a working space. I want to build something. Know who I've met at previous conferences, like what do we talk about? I want to build a product that kind of solves that for me. And a lot of people I'm sure too. We go to a conference, we meet 20 people, we write it down on all kinds of crazy notes. That's unorganized and you never really. You might follow with one person or two two weeks later. I want to build something where I can instantly remember all 10 of those people. It has a memory. It knows when you last met this person, where you were at, what you talked about. And it'll send me email reminders to contact this person and say, hey, you met John Snow and you promised him a follow up. Why don't you, you're going to be in California. Why don't you meet him for a coffee? So really set like the context about. I want to bring that context to my contacts.

Dr. Frances Arlene (25:11)

And I agree with you on that because a lot of times when we go to conferences and they have the app right now that where you tap my phone or I can, I don't do the tapping the phone, but that it will give you my information. Do you know one of the applications?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (25:31)

Yeah, there's, there's dot. I think there's babble. Might be one. There's quite a few of them and they're great. But it's just a new contact that in my phone that I not remember.

Dr. Frances Arlene (25:43)

Right. And that's. And I wanted to say absolutely. And what I found with those apps, the challenge is it's something that you're working on is that when, like, because in my phone, I have 24,000 contacts, let's say I met John Doe. But if I do not, even though that information came through that app, it's just going in there, I will never remember John Doe at that moment. So that's a feature in that. That when they had the idea, it was great. But you're not going to remember because you don't remember who that person was at that moment. So that is very, very key that you're doing that.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (26:26)

Yeah. Are they a frat brother? Did they go to school at my school? What school they go to, where do they live, what job, profession are they in? What. What role or title do they have, like, store all that kind of information? Because at some point, maybe I want to search specifically by that in whatever city I'm traveling and I wanted to have coffee with somebody. So having that kind of contacts, are they an investor? Are they angel or Series A, you know, where. Where are they? You know, so different levels of context that I wanted to have at the ready.

Dr. Frances Arlene (26:55)

Right. And one of the things I told my son, I said, if anything ever happens to your mom, destroy her phone first. Because I do. When I list the contact, I will actually say how we met. And so when I put, like, even if I go to the gym and I meet someone, I'll put in my calendar that day that I met Bob Willie at which gym? Because I have three gym memberships if he's a neighborhood person. And so in my phone, it will actually say, like, they're a marketer or they own a business or something like that. So that's incredible. Anthony, thank you for the work that you're doing as a small business owner. It is so incredible the work you're doing. You have many stories. Can you share a story with us or two regarding someone, whether it's a restaurant owner or a user. And they had this amazing experience with the app Eat Okra.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (28:00)

Yeah, my wife and I laugh about this one. We got a video one day, there was a bunch of people just dancing in a restaurant. Come to find out, this couple, they do kind of couples dates. Two pair, they get together and they go eat at a restaurant. Well, they learned about Eat Okra. They found out about a restaurant that's on Eat Okra through a campaign that we did for a restaurant in Philly. And they drove I believe all the way from D.C. to Philly to visit this restaurant. And the owner sent us a video of everyone inside like dancing, having a great time. And they were saying, eat Okra. Eat Okra. That was a really cool moment. A couple years ago we got our Apple developer award from Tim Cook himself. So that was pretty cool. That was virtual during COVID but for him to show up and have us all unbox our gifts at the same time, that was pretty special. We've had people email us and say, hey, my daughter and I are going on a trip together. We're going to San Francisco and we're going to use the app the entire weekend. So we planned our whole entire itinerary around the apps that we can use on Etoka. So we're going to have breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert all on the app. So we like those kind of stories are like what drives us and keeps us going. So we get those kind of often read our reviews and things like that, how people are using it. So it's exciting to see the creative ways people have used it. Another mom for example said that her, she used it for her team's travel, the travel soccer team, whenever they visit a new town or away games, things like that, they're using the app to find local black owned restaurants to eat at. Post game, post the game.

Dr. Frances Arlene (29:32)

Love that there's a lot of challenges in entrepreneurial ship, but it's a lot of rewards and a lot of risk. Talk about a early wound that you had in starting and growing the app and what was the win that came out of it? What was the opportunity? What did you learn from that?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (29:55)

I think even like from the early days of building Eat Okra it was a lot of it was one. It was. I built it from scratch, like completely from scratch. So I didn't know what I was doing. Is my first attempt at creating an app. I ran into a lot of roadblocks along the way that I think just made me stronger. Ultimately I had to really figure out problems that I just couldn't find on the Internet. This was like pre AI, like pre. Things like that. So I had to like read books. I had to understand what I was doing and get really get into like the infrastructure, the guts, getting into the laying the foundation and figuring out like what's under the hood in the engine to find my problems by doing that kind of like deep research, really getting into repositories and reading other folks code, I was able to kind of solve problems. Early on, I built the app on a. Built the app twice, actually. So first time I built it in a framework called Ionic, which was kind of older. It was still kind of popular, but it was a beta version. And people told me like, don't build on beta versions because they could change and it would break your app. It happened. They changed the app. It completely broke. I had to build it again. So technically I guess it was three times. But in doing that, I learned a lot. In doing that, I learned a lot as well. I think there's just a lot of early trials and tribulation that really tested me. Like, do you really want to do this? Are you going to fight through the pain of developing a platform? So I think there's a lot to say in those moments because sometimes I would spend two weeks on a problem. I don't think I've set timelines. Like I would spend maybe a day or a couple hours on a problem. I've had problems that took a month, two weeks, like everything in between for four years before anyone was using the platform. So I was really in the weeds trying to get this thing out the door. And so that kind of just kind of shows what kind of grit strength you're willing to go through for anything really. You're going to have the fight, continue to fight. Everything's always a fight. It doesn't come easy. Even to get it on App Store is like, oh, we don't approve it because of this, so we don't prove it because of that. So you have to go back and figure those things out. Change a lot. But I think all those things really just like truly build character and people ultimately appreciated the product.

Dr. Frances Arlene (32:06)

There are so many brands or businesses. Talk about a brand or a business that's not dominating Anthony that you admire and why?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (32:17)

I just have a lot of brands that I can name a couple of brands that I really admire. Brooklyn Tea is a prime example. They're kind of a local mom and pop husband and wife duo that sell, sell tea, you know, for purchase or you know, they have a couple storefronts, but we've kind of like grown up together a bit. We've gotten. I've got to see them do so many amazing things from the restaurant to recently they open, they launch the first, I believe, black owned space. Black owned, you know, majority ownership space inside jfk. To me that's crushing it. Like they're killing it. Like not many people get that opportunity and they've built such a solid brand through the community and with trust and just being honorable, respectful, great humans that, you know, those are the kind of people I want to be around, people I want to learn from. Friend of mine named Jason Wallace, who has been really instrumental and really a mentor as well to us. He's, he's been on our team for many years as our resident restaurant scientist and right now he's opening, gosh, like three restaurants in New Jersey and Newark. His love for the business, love for people. I truly admire the way he shows up for us. Shows up for me has been a listening ear for me, has the way he works with other restaurants and helps their businesses as a consultant in this space. But just seeing him, like he told me about all the restaurants he's done, but now I get to really see him behind the kitchen and doing his thing again. And the food is amazing. Yeah, he's just, he's an awesome dude and someone I really look up to as well.

Dr. Frances Arlene (33:50)

Thank you for that. Our listening audience, those that's listening to this podcast, Anthony, what is the takeaway? What do you want them to leave with from this interview?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (34:01)

I want people to know that you can do it. Right now is the right time. Don't wait. Sometimes it might be not in your comfort zone, but I believe everyone can, through hard work can get over any hurdle. You're not knowledgeable about X topic or. But you can get there. You can bring the right people with you along the ride for you that do have that kind of skill set. So I encourage everyone to try be a part of something. And if you're an engineer, you should 100% be building along with somebody else to build a product. So if you're in that space, you're a creator. Everyone should have a side project that they're working on outside of their main thing. Unless you're a full time entrepreneur, then you should just do that. But if you're working for corporate brand or something like that and you have the time, you should be spending an extra amount of hours a week developing your craft on somebody else's business or your own.

Dr. Frances Arlene (34:51)

Anthony, if you conducted this interview, what is the one question you would have asked yourself? I want you to ask the question and answer it.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (35:01)

Did you dream big enough when you started this? And I would say no. When I thought about this, it was very small, small minded, it was very local, but it didn't have that dream of partnership, of collaboration, of working with other people. It was always about the people. But there wasn't much of a, a business mindset behind it. I think in going through my journey the way we've done it because you know, kind of did it from the way most people don't create businesses and think. I had to learn a lot along the way that I appreciate now. But you know, now it's helped me to think bigger, dream bigger and just know that it can be possible that there are, you know, bigger dreams are possible and they can be accomplished.

Dr. Frances Arlene (35:48)

Anthony, you are a tech company. What is a tech tool that has helped you to be extremely successful?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (35:57)

A tool that really helped us be successful was one that really it's important to talk to people at the right time and with the right message. Right. So one tool that I've used was actually a program was part of called Raises Tech for an equitable future program. And so that program allowed us to use kind of like enterprise software at a price that a mom and pop or a business like mine could afford. But basically it's a four year program and they give you all the tools you need, they give you a coach, they give you a customer success rep. And I've been working with them for about a while. And so we've been able to send about 3 million emails a month at a price of fraction of the price of what it normal normally would cost to do that. And for us that's really important because we need to always let people know about new restaurants in the area. We want to send them newsletters, a weekly digest. We want to send them pop ups about experiences that are happening on the app. We want to send push notifications. Gosh. We want to make, create campaigns so that we don't lose a lead, things like that and retarget folks. So Braze has so many tools, they're using a lot of AI as well now. But this program allowed us to go from sending maybe 300 emails a month to over four years now, sending in the millions. And that kind of access I don't have. We don't have that kind of money to afford. And so the program that those guys over there have put together been really instrumental and just been great partners overall in supporting the work that we do and other black founders and founders of color as well.

Dr. Frances Arlene (37:30)

Wow, that's awesome. And if someone's interested in the program, how should they connect with them?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (37:35)

They should go to braze.com and search for their programming.

Dr. Frances Arlene (37:39)

Thank you for that. We've come to the part of our interview, it's called Rapid round of fun and I'm going to ask you a series of questions and I'd like you to give me very quick answers. If there's something you desire not to answer, feel free to say pass. Are you ready for the rapid round of fun?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (37:58)

Sure.

Dr. Frances Arlene (37:59)

What is your favorite comfort food?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:02)

I'm a pizza person. Pizza and burgers.

Dr. Frances Arlene (38:06)

The last movie you saw?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:08)

I've been watching. I don't know if it's a movie. It's not a movie, it's a TV series. And I'm watching the new Game of Thrones series, the Kings. Seven Kings, something. Seven Kings.

Dr. Frances Arlene (38:18)

Okay. You relax. Doing what?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:21)

I relax actually going on walks. I don't do it enough. But I really do relax and clear my head on long walks or on a treadmill or something like that. So I wish I did it more, but it does relax me.

Dr. Frances Arlene (38:33)

Your favorite singer or rapper?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:36)

Michael Jackson. All time. But rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Dr. Frances Arlene (38:40)

Right now your favorite dance song.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:43)

Dance song would have to be maybe a Billie Jean. Michael Jackson. Smooth Criminal. Pretty Young thing. Yeah.

Dr. Frances Arlene (38:53)

What food you eat every week? No matter what?

Anthony Edwards Jr. (38:57)

Bread. Something with bread in it. Recently though, I've been on a diet and I'm bread free, so bread and grain free. I've been on a diet for about like two months now, so that's not really my everyday. So right now I don't have anything every day that I eat, but it's always a go to of something with bread.

Dr. Frances Arlene (39:13)

Work out or hit the couch workout. Anthony Edwards Jr. Thank you so much for joining us on Black Entrepreneur Experience podcast. Before we let you go, share with our audience the best way for them to connect with you and do business with you. And feel free to leave all your social media handles and let us know how we can continue to support Eatokra.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (39:36)

Yes, please find me on www.eatocra.com. look us up in the app store. Eatokra the app. One word. Please download Share on social media. You can find us on Eatokra, the app on all social media channels as well.

Dr. Frances Arlene (39:52)

Thank you, Anthony. That's a wrap.

Dr. Frances Arlene (39:54)

Thank you for listening and subscribing to black Entrepreneur Experience. We would love for you to leave a review and rating on itunes and share with your friends. For show notes and more episodes go to www.beepodcast.com. join us next Wednesday. And remember, green is the new black so keep your bank accounts and your business in the black.

Shopify Advertiser (40:18)

What would you do if your online store converted 36% more shoppers? You could take 36% more vacation.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (40:24)

Another pina colada.

Shopify Advertiser (40:25)

Yes, please open a new retail location with 36% more square feet.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (40:29)

Fantastic.

Shopify Advertiser (40:30)

Hire 36% more help.

Anthony Edwards Jr. (40:32)

You're hired, and you're hired.

Shopify Advertiser (40:34)

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