While tech startups are winning the headlines and press attention, it’s the everyday small business that continues to drive our economy.  Today, we sit with Carolyn Rodz (Founder, Hello Alice), who has built a platform to support the growth of these small businesses.   Carolyn shares her journey from investment banker to successful entrepreneur.  More importantly, she shares her experience and learning lessons from launching 2 failed business.  In just a few short years, Carolyn when from high earning banker to $25/hr contract work.  It’s clear that she has returned to her status as a rockstar, but we are fortunate that she was very willing to share a very candid recount of the journey.   Founder’s Bio: An investment banker turned three-time award winning Latina entrepreneur from Bolivia, Carolyn Rodz serves as the Founder and CEO of Hello Alice. A free multi-channel platform powered by AI technology, Hello Alice guides business owners by providing access to funding, networks and services. Through a network of nearly half a million companies in all 50 states and across the globe.   During her time at Hello Alice, Carolyn was recognized as a “17 Women to Watch,” by Inc. Magazine, in 2020 was named Hispanic CEO of the year by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has testified before the U.S. Congressional House Small Business Committee, and was featured in a U.S. Senate report by Senator Shaheen titled, “Tackling the Gender Gap: What Women Entrepreneurs Need to Thrive.” She was selected by Mayor Turner of Houston to co-chair the Women and Minority Small Business Task Force in 2019.   Prior to Hello Alice, Carolyn launched the world’s first completely virtual accelerator, supporting over 300 women from across the United States and internationally and helped them raise over $76 million in investments. Fast Company highlighted the accelerator as the “most innovative and fastest growing for women.”   Timestamps: 3:13 Growing up as a Bolivian-American | Raised in Houston, TX 4:46  Early career as an investment banker in JPMorgan’s M&A group 6:45  Leaving banking at 25 to “jump blindly” into launching a business in retail 11:00  A humble recovery from a public failure as a first first-time entrepreneur 17:27  Launching and exiting a digital marketing company 22:18  Introducing Hello Alice | A community that helps 600K small businesses succeed 25:40  How entrepreneurs can tap into grants to launch and/or grow their small business 28:54  Landing Dell as an corporate partner as a very early stage startup 34:51  Creating an trustworthy and effective marketplace revenue model 40:13  Hello Alice’s funding journey from grants to venture capital 44:00  From Seed to Series B | Key metrics investors focus on with marketplaces 48:44  The benefit of moving from in-office (Houston & San Francisco) to fully-remote 52:00  Check out Hello Alice at helloalice.com for free