(light music)
-: I'd like to start by discussing your role
as the president of the Capital One Insights Center.
What's the mission of the center?
-: I think it's an interesting way that Capital One
has expanded its philanthropic contribution.
It's born out of a recognition that the things
that we can provide to advance change in communities.
Yes, we have grants.
We have community investments,
but also research could be that kind of investment
that also can equip change makers
in communities with the kind of resources
they need to drive change in those communities.
-: When you reached out to us,
you had this question around,
How do we think about the relationship
between wealth generation and entrepreneurship?
And does business beget wealth,
or does wealth beget business? was our big question
that we were trying to explore.
-: If you go all the years back
from the start of American entrepreneurship,
the idea that starting a business
is wealth returning is gospel.
I mean, you know what I mean?
And so to be able to ask a research question
about that to say,
we're gonna invest money into answering a question
that everybody thinks they know the answer to,
but might be wrong.
I knew that you and your team knew that landscape,
knew the research better
than anybody else out in the field.
We had to all step back and go,
"We're missing a big critical piece of evidence here
that links small business ownership to wealth creation."
I felt like there was a lot at stake
for even doing that kind of exploration
and being willing to do it so publicly and know
that we were gonna publish whatever came out.
It meant we went in it with like really trying
to make sure we were precise in what we were doing,
getting the right instrument.
And your team was excellent
in all of those things, so it was great.
-: Why did you all find it was important to focus
on Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs specifically
in this research?
-: We study the things that are limitations
for Black and Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Those who we know have been least able
to participate in these systems,
then we can really understand the challenges
in the systems, which opens up
that opportunity for anyone to thrive.
So our intent there is to create opportunity for all,
and we wanna study those
who have been most disadvantaged as the way
to find what the real solution could be.
-: What gives you hope
that we can build a more inclusive economy?
-: I think people are starting
to become much more aware of the distance
that we have between different communities,
and then really striving to find solutions to that.
Having this kind of research,
or particularly public-facing research
of this nature creates an opportunity
and enables other actors to be able
to make a response that is inclusive
of those research findings for them.
And that includes others
in the field who have philanthropy,
also their products and services,
and also through policy.
So we are one actor in that,
and then we use this as an opportunity
to have others be part of that.
I am not naive.
I don't think it's going to happen overnight,
but I feel like there's still enough commitment
to be on that journey,
even though it's gonna be a long one
because we know what we have to do
to just respect the humanity and the dignity
of everyone who is a part of this country.