Straight Talk on Black Entrepreneurship
Alums Kevin Curry and Mandy Price trade stories about what it takes start your own business.
Kevin Curry, BBA ’04 Business Honors, and Mandy Price, BBA ’03 Business Honors, have known one another since their childhood days growing up in the Dallas area. As adults, both have become successful entrepreneurs who have broken racial and gender barriers.
Curry is a nationally acclaimed influencer, recipe creator, and blogger in the women-dominated online food community, amassing over 2 million followers on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms. He founded Dallas-based FitMenCook in 2012.
Price is co-founder and CEO of Dallas-based Kanarys, a technology platform that fosters collaboration between companies and employees to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. Price and co-founder, Star Carter, are in an elite class of fewer than 50 Black women who have raised more than $1 million in venture capital funding in the U.S. Launched in 2018, Kanarys now has several Fortune 500 customers across the country.
In a virtual Texas McCombs Presents event on Nov. 12, the two interviewed one another about why each made the jump from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, and the challenges of founding and running a company.
Curry: You had this amazing career as an attorney, you were a partner at your firm. Why would you leave?
Price: “Like most entrepreneurs, I’m driven by my passion,” Price says. Her journey started at The University of Texas at Austin, where she became involved in several student groups that worked on various issues regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion. She was appointed by then-UT President, William Faulkner, to a university-wide committee to address racial respect and fairness. Later as a lawyer representing private equity clients, she joined her firm’s task forces dealing with diversity, hiring, and women’s issues. She got a firsthand look at how companies, including hers, were handling such issues and concluded that “although well-intentioned,” their efforts weren’t having much impact. She decided to develop a data-driven approach to resolving those issues through Kanarys with the ultimate mission to create a workplace where everyone belongs.
Price: How did you get your start?
Curry: “FitMenCook didn’t start out what it is today. It started as a side hustle,” Curry says. He was looking to eat healthier and get in shape, but couldn’t afford a personal trainer at the time. He had been through a bout of depression, he says, eating and coping through food and alcohol. He saw a therapist and got “a great job at Dell.” He bought second-hand books on fitness and nutrition, but also looked to social media. He asked himself, “What if you can post everything you eat and get feedback?” As the passion for the blog took over, he found himself answering blog questions for FitMenCook as he attended online Dell meetings. When his boss told Kevin that he had “lost that spark (for Dell),” Curry replied, “Here’s what it is. I don’t see myself connected to the value I’m creating in the world. I’m doing all this stuff and I don’t see the benefit.”
Curry and Price exchanged stories about the challenges Black entrepreneurs often face.
Price: One of those challenges is raising money in a venture capitalist system in which women receive just 2 percent of venture capital funding and women of color, far less, .06 percent. Additionally, “Women are asked different questions” that are prevention- or risk-based questions. By contrast, men are asked “more promotion-based questions,” about market opportunities and growth of their businesses. She added that Black women are the fastest-growing group in entrepreneurship. They are pursuing their passion, but another top reason is that they don’t see “a place for themselves in corporate America.”
Curry: “The food space is not very diverse. . . I’m male and I’m Black,” in a community dominated by white people and particularly, white women. How influencers are paid is based on a person’s social media following and experience. Yet, “I’ve seen throughout the years where another blogger (who is white) with just a fraction of my following and reach is paid the exact same.”
To advance representation, Curry said his team, working behind the scenes, often asks companies seeking to market their brands with him about their commitment in having people of color on their platforms.
They both stressed the importance of mental wellness in the high-pressure environment of entrepreneurs.
Curry: Entrepreneurs typically take the approach, “We’re going to grind all day,” and “sleep when we’re dead. All we are doing is creating a bank of health and wellness issues down the road.” Curry advises entrepreneurs to stop looking at their health and wellness as icing on the cake, and instead, see them in the batter.
Price: “The entrepreneur journey can often be lonely… If you’re not an entrepreneur, you may not know what it’s like.” She encouraged Black entrepreneurs to be part of a community with other entrepreneurs. For example, Kanary was was accepted into the Google accelerator for Black founders, which, she says helped Black entrepreneurs support one another, and discuss challenges and ways to support their employees.
What advice would each tell their younger selves?
Price: Enjoy their journey a little bit more, while keeping their same drive and intensity.
Curry: “Don’t sweat the small stuff. And be better at distinguishing what the small stuff is.”
— Story by Alberta Phillips
