Gary Stewart, Founder and CEO of FounderTribes, on how he got into entrepreneurship

When Gary Stewart was a student at Yale, the university invited Charles Murray to speak. 

“He wrote a book called ‘The Bell Curve,’ which essentially argued for the genetic inferiority of black people,” Stewart said. 

Offended, to say the least, Stewart took his concerns to the administration.

“Their answer was underwhelming and was along the lines of ‘Murray is an academic and, like everyone, is entitled to freedom of thought’.  But I couldn’t stop thinking that if that was the case, then it shouldn’t just be one side or one group who has access to these conversations.”

Not long after, Stewart started the Yale Black Political Forum which brought in speakers from Lani Guinier, Desmond Tutu and Jesse Jackson to Sister Souljah and members of the Black Panther Party. “These are people who had never been invited to speak at Yale” said Gary.

“I didn’t realise at the time that I was being entrepreneurial.  It was only later when people would ask me ‘how did you discover you were an entrepreneur’ that I started to think that there had always been a part of me that when I saw something I didn’t like, I would think ‘I can fix that’.  I wanted to do something about it and then convince other people to join me in this effort.”  

Following Yale Law School, Stewart entered what appeared to be a traditional law career, before circumstances led him to Barcelona, and eventually the realisation that the corporate world and working for others was not for him.

As he worked to build the network that would support his own entrepreneurial pursuits, Stewart had an epiphany similar to the one that followed Charles Murray’s visit to Yale.

“Me as a black gay immigrant from the Bronx, I'm in a system that's basically only benefiting a very small portion of the population,” he said. “I'm usually the only person in the room from any of those sorts of backgrounds.” 

“I started to question this, asking ‘how can we make sure that more people like me have the opportunity and that we feel comfortable there and don't feel like the only one in the room, like the outlier?’” 

That was the seed that grew into FounderTribes.

FounderTribes, which Gary founded and leads, connects emerging entrepreneurs with an international network of mentors, financers and other resources needed to scale their ideas to market. The company’s mission is to provide those assets to all start-up founders, not just those who for decades have enjoyed privileged access.

As a result of his efforts and persistent drive, Stewart has been welcomed onto the boards of several investment and start-up supporting organizations.

People are uncomfortable with being uncomfortable

He likened the effort that goes into steering companies toward a more inclusive culture to that of freeing the Ever Given, the container ship that became stuck in the Suez Canal last March. “Companies know that they need to turn around, they hire firms like McKinsey to come and tell them how to turn around.  But, the reality is that it is really difficult and so they keep going in the same direction” said Gary.

“It's not necessarily that people are racist or any of these things. It's just that there's an inertia and, ‘It's always been done this way,’” he said. “People are just comfortable with the status quo and they're uncomfortable being uncomfortable. So, when I go onto these boards, a key question that I ask is always ‘Have you thought about this from another perspective?’”

The importance of networks

Inertia and the status quo don’t just exert their influence from the top down. Ask any successful founder and they will tell you there were many points along the grind where they needed to ask for help. Would-be entrepreneurs of color or from the LGBTQ community might find that difficult to do, having been taught by experience that help is not forthcoming.

Indeed, asking for help can be difficult for anyone. Stewart related a more recent story from Yale, where he is a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship.

He noticed something interesting happening when he invited guest speakers to his classes.

“At the end of class, I would say, ‘Let's open it up for questions.’ And none of the students would raise their hands. And then I would ask the guest speakers, ‘Is it okay if the students add you on LinkedIn?’ But the students wouldn't add them on LinkedIn,” he said. 

Finally, he asked his class what was going on.

“It turned out the students feared ‘looking stupid’ and/or had a really pejorative view of networking” said Gary.

He explained to his students that networking is about building a long-term relationship with someone. “It's about how we can help each other” he said. “And I think sometimes people think, ‘Oh, that person is so established, there's nothing I can do to help them’.” 

Most people want to help people on their way up, and “The Strength of Weak Ties,” a theory from sociologist Mark Granovetter, is about the power of any commonality to form a bond that can lead to a networking tie. “So find that commonality –  perhaps it is the university you went to, your gender, race or profession and so forth - and then exploit that because hundreds of thousands of people will share that one commonality with you” said Gary.

“Ultimately, I think the key to networking is finding connectivity and empathy with the other person,” Gary said, “and then making sure they don't think of it as a quid pro quo, but as a relationship that both people can value over time.” 

Thank you Gary for a fascinating discussion.

Gary Stewart is on the Board of Advisers at the Common Mission Project and joined us for a Fireside Chat in February 2022.  Our Fireside Chat series features speakers from industry, academia, and ‘Hacking 4’ alumni to explore topics complementary to and inspired by our Hacking for courses.  To find out more or to sign up, visit our website.