971 Elizabeth Gore:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP971 – Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Elizabeth Gore, Co-founder of Hello Alice

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Elizabeth Gore:

I’m very proud that we do about 60 million in grants, small business grants. The average small business grant we’ve deployed is $10,000. That is a direct benefit to great fast growing small businesses. We also have a lending center with 92 equitable lenders with a single application that I think speeds up time and lowers the rate of hearing no. And then we both provide secured and unsecured credit programs which we are very proud of again with equitable rates. 

Elizabeth Gore:

The next piece is your financial fitness. We have what’s called the business health score, which is a free tool to input a certain amount of data, and we’ll spit back to you your financial fitness level between 0 and 100 and then we will help you through improving that score over time. And then we just love community. We have in person events all over the country right now. So, community, access to capital and education, those are our three pillars.

Melinda Wittstock:

Women are unstoppable when we help lift each other up, and Elizabeth Gore has created a fast-growing business ensuring women entrepreneurs and small business owners get access to the capital, community and learning they need to succeed. Elizabeth is the co-founder of the technology platform Hello Alice, and today she shares the blueprint for success—plus why, if you’re not already, it’s time to leverage AI.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m your host Melinda Wittstock and before we get going with this episode of Wings of Inspired Business, just a gentle reminder to make sure you’re taking time for yourself, to find some inner peace amid all the negative bombarding us at an ever-quickening pace. You feel it right? It’s chaos, uncertainty, fear, and elegant balance is finding a way to stay informed so you can make vital decisions while not getting overwhelmed. So, take a walk in the woods or the beach, ground yourself in nature, music and joyful hobbies. Be in community and service to others, and remember all that you have for which to be grateful. Ok now to the show, and if you’re new here, this is the place where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. If you’ve been listening to any of the past 969 episodes, please help us get the word out about the show. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Tell your friends and colleagues, share the episode and leave a quick 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We really appreciate it. Thank you! 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who has helped support more than 1.6 million entrepreneurs. Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and President of Hello Alice, is transforming the landscape for women business owners—with access to capital such as direct grants and lending programs, as well as education and community resources. Her latest mission is the bring AI to Main Street, with a live tour around the U.S. helping business owners figure out how best to take advantage of AI in their businesses. We talk about how women are leading the charge in ethical and inclusive tech, the ongoing advocacy needed to ensure small businesses have a real voice in government policy, and what it really takes for women entrepreneurs to break through persistent barriers.

Melinda Wittstock:

You may recognize Elizabeth as the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore. I did try at times to lure her into a political conversation; this interview being recorded on the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s second inauguration back on January 20. She wasn’t having it, but she did share her journey from humanitarian work with the UN and Peace Corps to her own experiences as an athlete who once climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and why resilience, relationships, and learning from failure are foundational to entrepreneurial success.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Elizabeth Gore.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Elizabeth, welcome to Wings.

Elizabeth Gore:

Thank you. Howdy. It’s great to be with you.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve been following Hello Alice for a long time, and hats off to helping so many female founders at various stages. I think it’s like 1.5 million entrepreneurs so far.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah, we actually just hit 1.6. And in my wildest dreams, I’m just so proud of being a part of this community and, you know, ensuring the fabric of America keeps going.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well. Yes, I have a feeling that women are going to be a really big part of the solution to all the mayhem that works.

Elizabeth Gore:

Heck yeah. Absolutely. They are. They are the solution. So, I agree with that completely.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, on this podcast we talk a lot about how women and the businesses that women entrepreneurs create, create, essentially create the future. But the businesses that are invested in really like the investors in those businesses are creating the future. So, what type of businesses do we as women want to create and how to get those funded better?

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah, I mean, listen, I like the businesses that solve problems. An investor of mine said, are you building a pain pill or a vitamin? And you know, a vitamin is when you can afford it and when you’re focused because, you know, it’s something that’s nice to have a pain pill. You need it, right? It’s extreme. And I think women owned businesses; they do such a great job seeing a purpose, seeing a need and going after that. And I, I just really resonate with that.

Elizabeth Gore:

And also, we’re, we’re big in the services industry, which never goes away. I mean, we care taking, health care, childcare, elder care, I think those are rising industries. Anything that is tech enabled is critical. And then to your question of how to get funded, it is so critically important that you are utilizing AI and the functionality of your business, no matter what it is. So that, that’s the way I think about it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Let’s start back to front there. AI. Do you remember when there was, you know, new businesses in the dot com era and it was like, oh, it’s a web-based business. Like that was. And now all businesses obviously have. Yes, yes, that’s happening with AI, but much faster. And I don’t point how you could even operate a business without utilizing it.

Elizabeth Gore:

You can’t. And nor should you. And I even, you know, folks, that I have a friend here in town who has a bakery. It’s historical. Three generations. And I was pushing him on how are you using AI for your bakery? And he was like, well, we’re not tech, we’re not this and I said, you know, it will give you time back, it will increase functionality, it will lower your need for subcontractors and services. It, you know, you just really have to, it’s hard to take time, I will acknowledge to, to learn a new skill or learn a new software in a business when you’re, you know, like, like him increasing bread sales every single day. But it is critical.

Elizabeth Gore:

Now you could be an AI agentic business that’s specific to a software or you can literally be in any other business and utilize it for the functionalities of your teams.

Melinda Wittstock:

I see a lot of women in the health tech space now adding a vital safety layer to AI layer with a much more human aligned approach, much more ethical, focusing on really making sure that the AI is included, inclusive, doesn’t have biases in it, that kind of thing and adding that kind of trust and safety layer.

Elizabeth Gore:

Absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

A lot of the move fast, break things kind of crowd. Yeah, right.

Elizabeth Gore:

That is so true.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Elizabeth Gore:

I pull cyber security into that. I pull your data security; I mean your financial security. You should be looking at all of that. And it’s, it’s very important with AI, you know, like any software to the use of the beholder. Right. I mean how do you use that in a way that’s ethical, smart and secures your data?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, no, that’s absolutely critical. Also, without introducing biases. I started to innovate in AI in about 2010, 2011. And so much of what it does and what it’s pulling from in all the large language models or LLMs is all historic data. So, there’s a lot of sure. Historic data. So, make absolutely sure that it doesn’t swing around and discriminate against women or people of color or minorities of any kind. I mean is this, is this turning into a women’s job to fix this or…

Elizabeth Gore:

Well, it should be everyone’s job.

Melinda Wittstock:

It should be.

Elizabeth Gore:

However, like a lot of things that fall to women, I think we, we actually take that extra step of how would this impact my children, my family, my parents. And so, I do think there is a little bit more of a thoughtful process put into this however, you know, whether it’s policymakers doing a better job regulating or it not over regulating but staying focused and, or it’s protecting consumer data. We all have to do it.

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s really true. So, tell me about the types of businesses and the types of women that find hello Alice and come into it and how are they using it mostly, is it mostly education or are you actually really genuinely connecting them to sources of capital?

Elizabeth Gore:

Or is it. Oh, it’s both. So, I’m very proud that we do about 60 million in grants, small business grants. The average small business grant we’ve deployed is $10,000. That is a direct benefit to great fast growing small businesses. We also have a lending center with 92 equitable lenders with a single application that I think speeds up time and lowers the rate of hearing no. And then we both provide secured and unsecured credit programs which we are very proud of again with equitable rates. So that’s our funding side.

Elizabeth Gore:

The next piece is your financial fitness. We are very focused on before you ever look for any capital is how is your business planning, how is your cash flow, how’s your P&L? So, we have what’s called the business health score, which is a free tool to input a certain amount of data, and we’ll spit back to you your financial fitness level between 0 and 100 and then we will help you through improving that score over time. So that is a really important feature that we have. And then finally, you know, I’ve talked about access to capital, education and then we just love community. We, we have in person events all over the country right now. We have our Main Street Rising tour where we’re bringing AI to Main street and we’re headed to LA and Houston, Miami, New York, D.C. and so we’re excited to connect with people there. We have virtual events.

Elizabeth Gore:

So, we’re real believers in peer-to-peer learning. So, community, access to capital and education, those are our three pillars.

Melinda Wittstock:

This is so important because traditionally women haven’t had the type of access to capital. I mean, I suppose where I play is a little bit more on the venture side, right? The women-founded businesses that need significant capital because they’re potentially building something that could be a billion-dollar business, right.

Elizabeth Gore:

And we, we personally are venture backed. So, we’re a Series C backed company which was Woo. That was hard. But that’s, we fit. Our own company fits in that category.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, tell me about that journey of what it was like getting funding. I mean, was that really hard for you? You were coming out of, you know, Dell, where you were working as an entrepreneur in residence at Dell. I imagine that helped a little bit. But what was it like in your venture funding journey for Hello Alice?

Elizabeth Gore:

Well, it started brutal. I mean we had over 200 no’s. Even though we felt we had a great business plan. And you know, Carolyn, myself, I was a first-time entrepreneur. She’s an awesome third time Latina entrepreneur. And we just didn’t have those same Silicon Valley type connections. And so, it took a while, it was rough. And then as you know, we got to our series A and a little bit more traction.

Elizabeth Gore:

It was still brutal, but we got there. And then I’m very proud to say our series B and then C A were oversubscribed. You can’t argue with success I guess at that point. But you know, raising capital is tough for men and women, but particularly with women getting less than 2% of venture capital. You know, it’s really, we’re doing two to three times the meetings with two to three times the proof points. I will say the fact it was hard to raise capital; we raised less than we probably would have otherwise, which I’m really happy about. We did not over dilute ourselves. We didn’t raise more than what we needed.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying asset value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts.

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Hello Alice.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Elizabeth Gore:

We’re incredibly frugal. I’m excited to say we’re profitable now and Carol and I still own quite a bit of the company. So ironically, it being so hard has served us later. You know, here we are 10 years later.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, it’s interesting, this challenge has actually set up the conditions where women are more capital efficient. There are some stats that, that we have that you know, I’m also a venture partner in a, in a fund, a new fund that supports early-stage female founded businesses and women are returning on average between $0.60 to $0.72 on. Oh yeah, let’s just celebrate that invested. Right. More than, more than male founded teams like because maybe it’s just because we’re, we’re, we’re wired that way or it’s just that that’s the only way that we’ve experienced. So, we’ve better and more capital efficient and more nimble.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah, I mean I think it’s a both, and right. It’s hard but we have, you know, gotten through it and particularly stayed focused. But I don’t want it to be hard for my daughter. You know, I, I would like, you know, business is hard already. Being a founder is hard. We don’t need to put, you know, layer bias and bullshit on top of it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, here’s, here’s the thing that had the difference between men and women when it comes to investing. I take my son who’s 19, he’s got this really cool app that he’s developing. It’s like a hyperlocal social thing for dog lovers to, to each other and people and places and experiences and such and not. But like five minutes after meeting the chiropractor, the chiropractor says, how can I get in on the ground floor? I’m like, okay…like, that has never happened to me, okay?

Elizabeth Gore:

It’s so true.

Melinda Wittstock:

At no time.

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh, Lord Jesus. Yes. That is so funny.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so I, you know, I, in my wildest dreams, I would really like to see women doing a lot more investing that they’re doing.

Elizabeth Gore:

Like, I, I, I do think that, you know, we focus so much on receiving capital, but as many women as we could get on the decision making side, whether they’re LPs or their partners or fund managers, you know, I love the different programs that have been out there, like all raise and others really pushing on the fund management side. I think that would be a game changer.

Melinda Wittstock:

It is. But you know, I found in my fundraising journey when I tried, like whether it was in the 2000s or beyond, I would meet really high net worth women who had, you know, it wasn’t just generational wealth. I mean, they built this wealth, wealth themselves, right? Either Wall street or law or like however they had done it. But they were very good at writing checks, massive checks to charity. Literally they would say things like, oh well, investment, my husband does that.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right, right.

Melinda Wittstock:

What?

Elizabeth Gore:

You’re like, come on, what did it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Take to change that? What is that about? What, why? What do you think the underlying reason for that?

Elizabeth Gore:

I think it’s pattern recognition and a comfort level of we know what we know, we don’t know. What we don’t know. I think is, but you know, I’m hoping that’s changing. You know, there’s a fund I’m in called Portfolia with an A that, you know, lets women in on the ground floor, that educates them on how to be an LP, you know. So, I think there are different programs out there that we need to continue to support. Goldenseeds is another one. But again, I think, you know, what is that comfort level? What do you have control of? What are you comfortable with? It is different for different folks.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, it really is. I think part of it too right now and what’s really dried up a lot of the venture money is just the lack of exits. So, you know, how to get founders thinking about exits maybe a little bit earlier or is growing the actual underlying asset value of their business. And I find that very few really think about it.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah. And look, I mean, the, the other thing is, how do we do? Should we be raising capital? You know, I, I push back a lot on different businesses and say, are, Is that, are you sure that’s the right decision for you? I think gone are the days with really high valuations and big, big checks, which is a good thing. So do you. Is it really worth it to raise capital? Sometimes it is, for sure. But now with AI and the ability to build technology without high engineering costs, I mean, things are really changing.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s true. Yeah. Like the time it takes to build. Gosh. I mean, I just even, like, you know, if you’re building an app and you can be all up in Figma with a little bit of Claude Code prototype in a couple of hours, I mean, like, I mean, it takes a little bit of time just to learn how to. But it’s not that hard.

Elizabeth Gore:

I mean, it’s wild. When Carolyn started this 13 years ago, I mean, engineering was so expensive and especially machine learning, it just. Oh, my gosh. So, it’s, it’s just a different world right now.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, so the capital costs are quite a bit lower. But then that presupposes that you really have to be very differentiated. So, when you’re advising all these folks that are going through all your different educational programs, you know, you were talking about, you know, antibiotics versus a vitamin versus a vitamin, any of them really understand how to be truly differentiated.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

And stand out? Because that’s critical. Like, too many founders are, are like…oh, this is for everybody, you know?

Elizabeth Gore:

Absolutely. Yeah, and, and even applying, you know, with our small business owners, should I be applying for a loan versus using operational credit versus a line of credit? You know, everyone should explore all those options. And even then, if I decide, hey, I do want a small business loan, you know, I want them to be going to at least three banks and negotiating that, understanding the terms just as you would to multiple investors.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right. So, what was the inspiration for you to decide? Okay, you know what? I’m going to create this company and with Carolyn, you know, I’m going to create this company that really changes the game for women. What was it in your experience, I guess, as an entrepreneur that led you to this place?

Elizabeth Gore:

You know, I had very different than Carolyn. I had a full career as a humanitarian. And so, I was with the Peace Corps, and I was with the UN, and I always kept seeing how critical owning a what. What would be considered probably a micro business here in the States. But whether I was in South America or on the continent of Africa, in different countries, women being able to own, have generate their own income was such a game changer to pay for their school fees, for their children, their healthcare, their safety. And it just something I was really passionate about in the developing world. And when I got home, I was so surprised how hard it was for a woman to start a business here in the greatest country in the world.

Elizabeth Gore:

And so, I had the great opportunity when I was leaving the UN to move over to Dell Technologies and work with Michael Dell. And he and his team have a huge passion for supporting small business and with their tech. I got to really see from the private sector lens also the benefits. And I met Carolyn in that process and both of us, she had just sold her second company, and her first company had failed. And she really felt like it was the lack of resources and networked activities. She had the same brain, same person, but. And so, she had a real passion of how do we build, use this new ability to network, and build a software that connects women to capital and opportunities. I was coming at it from a more social good angle of we’ve got to make this easier in this country and give women the right to live the American dream.

Elizabeth Gore:

So, I am not technical though, and Carolyn is. So, she really was the visionary behind at the time, our machine learning and years later, AI connecting a business owner to the right resources based on their stage of growth, physical location and industry. My job was figure out how to make money and keep our mission focused. So, so that was, that was, the rest is history.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s a great combination in a founding, a founding team, right? Like you’re united on mission, but you bring completely different, different skills.

Elizabeth Gore:

We are still together too, right? I mean, it’s like a marriage. You go through thick and thin, highs and lows, babies, deaths, hurricanes. Covid. 

Melinda Wittstock:

A lot, a lot. It’s interesting though, your humanitarian background, because in the development. I want you to talk about this a little bit because in, in the developing world, I mean, there, there is a lot of research, you know, totally. That shows that when women are empowered, the economies do so much better. So yeah, this would be true in a developed country like the United States, you would think as well.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right, but we haven’t got to test that theory yet, have we?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, well, I mean, I, I, you know, it’s interesting because we’re, we’re talking here. It’s January 20th, you know, a year of the new administration and there’s all chaos in the world and instability and tariffs and all kinds of issues around not getting a Nobel Peace Prize and, and kind of like I’m just going to say it crazy, a lot of crazy stuff that, that really threatens to destabilize the economy. And yet a lot of business owners don’t necessarily follow it because they put it in the bucket of, “that’s politics. I don’t have time for that.” But all have a very real impact. How can they build their business? Is their business going to be okay if the suddenly if the US Dollar falls or they’re hit by tariffs or all these different things.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so how with Hello Alice, are you addressing that in any way with the kind of education around that so, business owners are a little more savvy about understanding the situation that they’re operating in, especially seeing as it’s so different now.

Elizabeth Gore:

You know, we do, we, we really, we, we are nonpolitical or bipartisan, however you want to say that. However, we really try to be a voice for and then back to small business owners and I’ll give you a. And we stay in our lane of small business. You know what the ability for businesses to grow in this country. And a strong example is we very much had a big opinion on tariffs. I mean it just between inflation and still supply and chain issues and the cost of capital and then you slap on an unpredictable rise in costs that was in some instances almost 100%. No business can, no small business can survive that period.

Melinda Wittstock:

Also, the on again, off again nature of it. Right. Where you have…

Elizabeth Gore:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

…Uncertainty and instability. It’s very difficult to make a decision, right?

Elizabeth Gore:

So those are the types of issues that we definitely make sure, you know, are we’re listening to small business, are we correct on the assumed opinion of those businesses? We make sure that’s the vast majority of them. And we try to communicate with the House and Senate subcommittees on small business with the White House, with the SBA and then really represent them. And so that’s, you know, critically important, we think, to our small businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, Elizabeth, that’s God’s work because I remember up on Capitol Hill running Capitol News Connection, it was this news serving all these different radio and television stations and newspapers and digital properties across the country with like the, the local impacts of decisions made in Congress. And one of the things that we noticed is that the big businesses had the ear of the Senators and Representatives, but the small businesses didn’t really. And especially not entrepreneurs. So often when Representatives and Senators were talking about small business, their definition, of all business was awfully large.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah, I mean, that, that’s another thing. Now, one thing I’ll, I’ll tell you, and you’ll see this in the 2020, in the midterms, is all politicians and public servants want to lift up small business. It’s one of those last bastions of bipartisan where both sides will go to the mat saying, we want to help small business. Now, us taking the time to educate, what does that mean? You know, how small is small? What is the definition of that? What are, what issues are impacting them? I mean, that’s where we got to do a lot of work there, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. It’s interesting. You know, my current company in California, if you hire people in California right now, say you’re, you’re a startup that’s like a technology startup. Back in the day when Apple, Google and launched, they were able to pay their early team members in equity. That’s now against the law, right?

Elizabeth Gore:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like literally wage theft, like you can, you can be convicted of a felony. And so, the sort of things that used to make that kind of engine possible, where your early team, you are all investing in the business, that’s hard to do in some states. And do you think lawmakers have an appreciation of those things? That the rules have to be a little bit different depending on the stage of your business?

Elizabeth Gore:

Well, I mean, some do, some don’t. Let’s just be honest. Also, small business functionality is changing so fast because of AI and hiring. I mean, it’s. If you, for example, hire now that we’re all mostly remote, if you have employees in 16 states, you’ve got to track lot 16, different laws. Right. So, so it’s, it’s, it’s hard. Right.

Elizabeth Gore:

And we, we have not, in some cases, we’ve dropped down to the state level on issues, but rarely just because we’re not a huge company. But state levels, state laws, all the way down to county permitting laws matter. Right. And we lean on local chambers and other groups like US Hispanic chambers and others to, you know, really focus on that. But it, it does, it matters.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, no, it really does actually, that, that maybe it’s a good idea for you. Maybe your AI can create a database, right?

Elizabeth Gore:

I’m always thinking about, oh my God, handy. It would. Agreed. Someone needs to do that. Who’s had more sleep than me?

Melinda Wittstock:

Definitely do that because. Yeah, no, it’s, it’s tricky and, and the laws change and you don’t really know and, you know, these sorts of things. Things. But, but, but having that access to capital and just the resources and the networking. I mean, one of the things that you mentioned when you were first raising for Hello, Alice. I didn’t have the relationships in Silicon Valley and such. Right, right, right.

Melinda Wittstock:

That continues to be an issue. Like if you’re not part of the club, like you’re not in the PayPal mafia or you’re not in the whatever. Right. And you, you just don’t know the people. So, what’s your advice to women who, who are on that fundraising path in terms of building those, building those relationships? Because it’s the relationship first before the ask for sure.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah. I mean, listen, for folks younger than I, you know, getting out there and developing those relationships before you need them, I mean, that’s, that’s hard to say, but it’s so important. Going to meetups, going to networking groups, but also just reaching out to would be funders getting on the phone with them. Look, if you have small children like we did that, it’s not easy to go to networking events all the time. So, if you can even reach out to someone at a 16 and say, I’m not raising now, but I’d like to meet you and tell you about my company, like actually spending, let’s just say two half hour blocks a week, reaching out, developing relationships is really going to be important. The other is your peers. Oh, my gosh. I mean, there’s no better way than other portfolio companies asking them who funded them, are they good? Can you introduce me? That’s another way to really think about that.

Elizabeth Gore:

And then industry groups, I’m a big fan of. So, if you’re in the restaurant business, the healthcare business, whatever that is. I think that is another great resource.

Melinda Wittstock:

Now this is the funny thing. Over 970 episodes of this podcast. Now, one of the things that women are naturally good at is that relationship, but it’s one of the things that we tend to neglect. Everybody’s got their head busy, being competent, pulling, you know, doing it right at all.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right, right.

Melinda Wittstock:

That the relationship part often gets neglected because after all the pressures of like this idea that we have to be all things to all people or do it all, that makes it really difficult because the relationship, like you mentioned, having small kids, like the first thing that you don’t have as much time for your friends. So how do you have for the networking and.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

All the things.

Elizabeth Gore:

I think maybe, I know this sounds wild, but actually treating it as a functionality of Your job and actually putting time on the calendar to do it is helpful. Almost like I have to do my taxes, I have to do payroll. How do we think about the ability to focus on networking and building my network as part of my job? And again, it’ll be unique to you on, on your own capabilities of how you do that but actually treating as a core part of your to do list before you need it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Yeah. No, you really have to think. You have to think about all of these things. And now, I mean we started the conversation talking a lot about AI but with AI there’s no excuse for not having the knowledge literally go into Gemini, ChatGPT, anywhere and just say what are all the things that I really need do to.

Elizabeth Gore:

To know. Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

To just start my business or whatever.

Elizabeth Gore:

That’s so true. So true. Oh my gosh, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean I just, I watch my son and just all the even deep-down persona research and…

Elizabeth Gore:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

…Prompting it to show your, show your work, show your resources. Where did you get this from? What about this assumption being able to pull from all across to see just even what your cost of user acquisition would be or you’re this or you’re that. I mean it’s so much easier now. Like its mind boggling.

Elizabeth Gore:

I agree. And that again, I’m obsessed with agentic AI because it is going to help. It is going to help in everything you do figure out how to use it. I mean if you’re very specific to. I’m, I’m series A, I’m in healthcare. I want to look at these three states of investors, these types of companies. They funded at this check size 10 years ago. That would have taken me about 75 phone calls.

Elizabeth Gore:

Now you can put that in and get that back in a minute. Right. So, use it 100%.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, I can’t not talk about the fact that you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh my goodness, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Just tell me about that. What made you do it? What was it like?

Elizabeth Gore:

Well, I so proud that I worked for the UN and in support of the UN for over a decade and was also an athlete. I was really proud to be asked by a group called Summit on the Summit to join them and of all things, MTV television and a bunch of gaggle celebrities to raise awareness for the UN and specifically worldwide clean water. So it was, it was such a fun campaign. It was a yearlong of different training, different trips, awareness. I took the group to Ethiopia and a couple other countries to really learn about the issues. And then we did the, the crazy climb during one of the most historic blizzards they’ve ever had. And I really dislike cold weather. But we, but it was awesome.

Elizabeth Gore:

It was a great experience.

Melinda Wittstock:

I like that you just sort of mentioned that you were an athlete without saying that you were a world champion.

Elizabeth Gore:

It’s so funny. I actually have like a heated thing around my neck right now and I don’t feel like a world champion. It’s funny, after competitive riding all these years, I’m like, oh, my neck, my back. But yeah, it was awesome. And it definitely installs a hell of a work ethic. Right. And to anything I build. So it was, I love hiring athletes or post military or post service folks because it’s, you know, it, like I said, it really puts in a hardcore competitive spirit to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. You have a discipline. Like there, there is other research on this and I’ve noticed this too, that women in particular who’ve been athletes, whether you know, you know, team sports or individual sports, to do better in entrepreneur, just, just in life generally, because you have absolutely discipline that you get and also you understand how to recover from failure. Like, failure is part of the process.

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh, it’s over and over and over. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, the resumes that go to the top of page for me are US veterans or military spouses, Peace Corps volunteers who finish their service and college or professional athletes, for sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

You know, I, I, I came to understand this because, you know, I grew up as a competitive figure skater and so I just…

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh, wow, how cool.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, yeah. I fell on hard ice hundreds of times a day. It sort of reminded me when you were saying, oh, my neck or my, you know. Yeah, right. The chiropractor is very, very, very helpful. But, but you’d learn to just pick up and go on, and you’d learn about mindset and you’d learn about visualization. Like I remember visualizing. I, I couldn’t do a double axel jump until I could actually visualize it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, like literally feel what that was like. And then I could, then I went out and I could do that jump. Right, right. So much of that has served me in entrepreneurship.

Elizabeth Gore:

Absolutely. I love that. And to your point, the ability to under, to utilize a coach effectively and improvements and failure and sticking to something when it’s hard. I mean, you’re, you’re absolutely right.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. We have to embrace failure. As you know, I’ve heard people say it like, you know, failure is feedback or failing forward, but like advertising it because like a scientist in the lab. I mean, you’re just trying things until you, until you get it right and you’re learning. It’s an opportunity, actually.

Elizabeth Gore:

Right, absolutely. And, and if you can’t handle it, man, you got to jump out of entrepreneurship. I have a show on Yahoo! Finance called the Big Idea and we promote small businesses and learnings, and we have a section on the show is my favorite every time, called the Dirty Unicorn. Instead of becoming a billion-dollar unicorn, it’s the one, it’s the failure. It’s the big fat failure you had and how did you learn from it? And I love that part of the show.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh God. I could, I could, I could talk to you for hours about that. A lot of successes, but a lot of failures too. But if I look back, honestly, I’ve learned more from the failures.

Elizabeth Gore:

Absolutely. 100%. 100% every time.

Melinda Wittstock:

Because the failures have set up the successes actually. And it just takes a while. Like maybe it’s just you have to be old enough, enough to have that 2020 hindsight to be able to. Right.

Elizabeth Gore:

Let’s go. I’m a proud Gen Xer, so let’s go.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, yeah, me too. So, okay, so yeah, we’re of the same thing. So, tell me, okay, the big vision now for Hello Alice. You’ve hit so many amazing milestones. Where, where do you see it, how do you see it growing and where is it going, you know, in the next five to 10 years?

Elizabeth Gore:

Absolutely. So, our, our core objective is still equitable access to capital and growth resources. We, we. That means something different every two to three years, frankly. During COVID it meant PPP and EIDL and grants. You know, now it was a cautious capital and then hopefully soon it’ll be growth capital and then, you know, the technical resources to grow. We are obsessed with AI and ensuring small business and Main street are effectively using AI tools. And thus far we’re seeing pretty low adoption.

Elizabeth Gore:

Only about 8% of effective use of AI on small business. So that is a real focus of ours in the next 24 months. We think it’s going to be a game changer for small business accessibility.

Melinda Wittstock:

It really will be. And it’s just getting around people’s fear because I think it’s happened so fast, and it’s gotten with some of it’s got. Because it’s a sort of a, sort of the same people in a way as some of the big tech social media companies sort of confused maybe in people’s minds between some of the toxicity of social media, I don’t know, but there’s a, there’s a bit of a backlash towards it, but it’s, it’s not necessarily an educated one towards AI specifically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Elizabeth Gore:

I mean, look, it’s just like any new technology, there’s, there’s misunderstandings, there’s good use, there’s bad use. I met with someone the other day who thinks it’s the Terminator, you know, the Schwarzenegger version back in the day. And so, yeah, we have a lot of educating to do, which is fair. It’s moved so fast and I mean, who, who. No one heard of ChatGPT two years ago. So, we need to work hard to help small business owners adopt, utilize and understand it. And that’s fair. Just like I remember digital dexterity and digital revolution back in the day and then it was Internet service providers and, and you know, Web3.

Elizabeth Gore:

And now this is the new tool and then there will be another one in, in two years from now.

Melinda Wittstock:

All the time. Yes. Quantum computing is just gonna speed it all up even.

Elizabeth Gore:

Yep, absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, what interesting and exciting times we live in. I thank you so much for the contribution you’re making to women. I think…

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh, my pleasure.

Melinda Wittstock:

…we have to invest and support each other. It’s why I started this podcast. The same, same thing. I think there’s a number of us working different angles of the same thing and as much as we can help each other, all the better. So, Elizabeth, tell me the best place people just go to Helloalice.com and get…

Elizabeth Gore:

Yeah, listen, hello.com or any of our social medias, join us on this tour. You can apply right now to be nominated to join and be accepted to come to these events. There are pitch competitions, there’s grants, and then I am Elizabeth Gore, USA. Come say hi to me anytime. Watch our show on the Big Idea on Yahoo Finance. But most of all, take care of yourselves. 

Elizabeth Gore:

We’re, we’re, we’re the toughest bosses we’ve ever had. So, you know, take a deep breath, take time for yourself. I know you’re working hard, and we can’t wait to do this beside you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Elizabeth Gore:

Oh, such a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Please take a moment to rate and review the podcast on Apple and Spotify—it helps more entrepreneurs like you find the secret sauce to support and grow their businesses. We really appreciate it!

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.