Continuing the conversation from last week’s episode with Diego Mariscal about the lack of funding going to disabled entrepreneurs, Marcia is joined by the inspiring Keely Cat-Wells to explore her own experiences in the world of entrepreneurship. Keely shares her personal journey of resilience and determination, from her dreams of becoming a professional dancer to starting a talent agency exclusively for representing disabled individuals. The episode dives into Keely's mission to provide equitable opportunities for disabled talent in the entertainment industry and her recent venture into creating a scalable solution to bridge the gap between underrepresented talent and meaningful employment. Keely recounts her unexpected path to entrepreneurship, propelled by her own firsthand experiences with ableism and discrimination. From being dismissed by the medical system to facing exclusion in the workplace, Keely's determination to champion disabled talent fueled her journey. The episode showcases her groundbreaking work with C Talent, the talent agency she founded, and the subsequent acquisition that led her to venture into the tech space with Making Space. As disabled individuals face barriers to traditional employment opportunities, Keely's venture, Making Space, empowers companies to access pre-qualified, underrepresented talent, while simultaneously addressing issues of recruitment, retention, and turnover. By leveraging technology and creating a Trojan horse effect, Keely is determined to ensure that diverse candidates, including disabled individuals from low-income communities, can secure and thrive in meaningful employment. Be prepared to be inspired and educated as Keely shares her experiences, triumphs, and powerful vision for a more accessible and equitable future.
Continuing the conversation from last week’s episode with Diego Mariscal about the lack of funding going to disabled entrepreneurs, Marcia is joined by the inspiring Keely Cat-Wells to explore her own experiences in the world of entrepreneurship. Keely shares her personal journey of resilience and determination, from her dreams of becoming a professional dancer to starting a talent agency exclusively for representing disabled individuals. The episode dives into Keely's mission to provide equitable opportunities for disabled talent in the entertainment industry and her recent venture into creating a scalable solution to bridge the gap between underrepresented talent and meaningful employment.
Keely recounts her unexpected path to entrepreneurship, propelled by her own firsthand experiences with ableism and discrimination. From being dismissed by the medical system to facing exclusion in the workplace, Keely's determination to champion disabled talent fueled her journey. The episode showcases her groundbreaking work with C Talent, the talent agency she founded, and the subsequent acquisition that led her to venture into the tech space with Making Space.
As disabled individuals face barriers to traditional employment opportunities, Keely's venture, Making Space, empowers companies to access pre-qualified, underrepresented talent, while simultaneously addressing issues of recruitment, retention, and turnover. By leveraging technology and creating a Trojan horse effect, Keely is determined to ensure that diverse candidates, including disabled individuals from low-income communities, can secure and thrive in meaningful employment.
Be prepared to be inspired and educated as Keely shares her experiences, triumphs, and powerful vision for a more accessible and equitable future.
To get the latest from Keely Cat-Wells, you can follow her below!
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/keelycatwells/
Keely's website - https://keelycatwells.com/
Making Space Media - https://makingspacemedia.com/
C-Talent - https://www.whalar.com/c-talent
Diego Mariscal's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-mariscal-6363787a/
Watch Diego's GMA segment - https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/GMA3/video/organization-support-disabled-people-mentorship-101872639
Sign up for Marcia's newsletter to receive tips and the latest on Angel Investing!
Website: www.marciadawood.com
And don't forget to follow us wherever you are!
Apple Podcasts: https://pod.link/1586445642.apple
Spotify: https://pod.link/1586445642.spotify
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angel-next-door-podcast/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theangelnextdoorpodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marciadawood
Marcia Dawood:
Well, I am really excited to be talking to you today and learn more about what you're doing to help disabled folks be able to get more access to funding. Last week on the podcast, we had Diego Mariscal come on and tell us all about the work that he's doing, how he was on Good Morning America in July at celebrating Disability Pride Month. And so I really love that we're getting more awareness to the 1 billion people that have a disability, and there are so many things that are happening in entrepreneurship related to getting funding to these folks. So I'm really excited to talk to you. So please start off just by telling us a little bit about your background.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, absolutely. And I love Diego. I have to quickly mention I was lucky enough to be part of one of his accelerators, ended up winning the pitch competition that he held, and he ever since has been an incredible support and loving everything that he's doing. Great. Yeah, he's amazing. So a bit about me and my background, so transparently. This was never the plan. I never thought that I would go into entrepreneurship. I actually wanted to be a professional dancer, but I became very unwell during my first couple of weeks into college and I ended up going to the doctors. I got told that it was just stress and an eating disorder, was continually dismissed by the medical system like so many other people and ended up the pain just got worse and worse and then, cut a long story short, was hospitalized for the majority of the next four years. So my life completely changed in an instant. And realizing that I was never going to be a professional dancer was definitely difficult. I ended up getting many surgeries that changed and also saved my life and relieved some of the symptoms. So I was able to eat again, which was one of the main issues. And when I came out of hospital, realized that the world around me was no longer built with me in mind. So, for instance, when I need a seat on the bus, continually told that I don't look disabled when I use the disabled bathroom. Constantly accused of taking advantage of the system. And I moved to the US. With the hope of getting a fresh start and I got a job within the entertainment industry, but after disclosing my disability, I got told that I could no longer have that job. So that was a light bulb moment for me, both that I am now disabled and B, that this is happening to so many other people. So that's really when I kind of kick started entrepreneurship. I started helping some of my disabled friends get jobs within the entertainment industry. And within about a year, that kind of turned into a fully fledged talent agency, which we were able to grow pretty quickly. And that's called see talent.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow. And you actually started it while you were still in the right?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So when I was in hospital in the UK, I just really needed to take the attention off me and I needed to just do something that would get my brain out of just being depressed and frustrated with where I was. So I helped some of my dance friends get jobs within the industry and I didn't realize at the time that that's what a talent agent does, so I just continually started doing that. I actually got an internship at a talent agency. I was in and out of hospital at that point, so I couldn't hold down that job. They wouldn't allow me to work remotely. So I ended up just kind of starting my own thing. I didn't really have a name or I didn't really know that it was going to turn into a business, but that was kind of the start of Sea talent.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow, that is great. And then you ended up being able to reach like over 50 million people.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, I'm so lucky. The talent that we got to represent were just they are phenomenal, both phenomenal people and just human beings in general, but so talented. I can't even begin to explain the talent that lives within the disabled community. And one of the things that we were really adamant about when we started this company was we're not a charity, we want to make money. We want to place disabled talent on the biggest platforms possible. And we ended up being able to work on big projects like HBO's, the Last of US, placing Keevon Woodward, who is the first deaf black young actor to be on a major streaming platform. And he's also nominated for an Emmy. He's actually making history as the youngest person to ever be nominated for an Emmy within his category. We worked on projects like Avatar and with major brands and it was just such an amazing experience to be able to break down barriers and get these really talented people who deserve equitable opportunities to both be on these platforms but also get the paychecks that they deserve.
Marcia Dawood:
Amazing. And that company was acquired in 2022. Tell us all about that process.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, so again, it wasn't the plan. Had no idea what I was doing. And I think something that I would love people to learn and understand is I think naivety has actually been a blessing in disguise for me as I've been on this entrepreneurship journey, because I never went to business school, I never finished high school, I really don't know what I'm doing. But I got to learn from so many amazing mentors. And I think not knowing what could go wrong is often a blessing in disguise because you kind of take risks that you don't even know are risks and oftentimes they pay off. So with the acquisition, there was a phenomenal company. They're called whaler. They were born out of the idea of influencers and content creators are really changing the landscape of advertising. And they were born with diversity at the root of everything that they do. And we were working with them on a pretty regular basis. And then one day they approached us with the opportunity of an acquisition. And it wasn't something that I was considering at the time, but kind of going back to why I started this company was to get disabled people on the biggest platforms possible. And it just seemed like an amazing opportunity for our team, for our mission, for our goals. And then, selfishly, for me as an entrepreneur, I knew that I wanted to go on to build a company within the tech space and to really build a scalable solution as well. Because as much as C, talent was kind of growing and it's an amazing company, but it was a bootstrapped company, a service business, and I knew that there was something next for me. So it seemed like a really amazing opportunity.
Marcia Dawood:
That's great. And so that was more of a service business. You didn't take investors, right? With CTown?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, we were fully bootstrapped.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow. And so then you sell that company and you go to work on making space. So tell us all about how that came about.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, absolutely. So CTA talent was amazingly successful, but something I did learn very quickly was that whenever we do anything or have any initiatives that are very disability specific or diversity specific, unfortunately within corporations, you're the first thing to be deprioritized when budgets get cut and times get hard. So I wanted to create a solution, a scalable solution that kind of acted as a Trojan horse that really helped companies save money on their biggest yearly losses being recruitment, retention and turnover. And also the Trojan horse aspect of getting more talent who are underrepresented from low income communities and disabled talent into long term meaningful employment opportunities. So that was kind of the essence of making space. And we've built this talent acquisition and learning experience platform for companies to access pre qualified underrepresented talent. And we're growing pretty quickly. We've got our first couple of enterprise customers and I'm really excited to see what we can do with it.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow. And you just started to take in some outside funding, is that right?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yes, correct. Yes. So I did take 115 meetings.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow. 115 meetings?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, 115 meetings over the course of three months. And we managed to find the most incredible partners and venture capitalists to invest in us. And I'm so happy that we landed with the people that we did. It was definitely worth the 115 meetings. But my goodness, it is such a journey and I'm sure Diego touched on this as well, is just being a disabled entrepreneur, you often do go in with that disadvantage because companies and venture capitalists and investors, they don't often track the metrics when it comes to disability. They often track women led companies or BIPOC led companies, which is amazing and so needed. And I'm sure many aren't doing that enough as it is. But with disability, disability is so oftentimes just not even on the diversity agenda. And it needs to be.
Marcia Dawood:
It absolutely does. So tell us a little bit more about you secured a first look deal with Reese Witherspoon's, Hello Sunshine. Tell us about that.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, so Making Space also has a brand under our umbrella, under the umbrella company Making Space, called Making Space Media, which I co founded with an incredible disability advocate and presenter and just all around incredible human being, Sophie Morgan. And we have created making Space media because we really believe that to make systemic global change and to get more disabled people into employment and beyond, we need to shift the narrative around disability and we have to tell the untold stories of disabled people and we have to create new platforms for disabled people to exist in and be leaders of. So Making Space Media is a media company, and we partnered with Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon's company, and they've done an amazing job of shifting the narrative when it comes to women. And we just align with them so much. So we've been developing our first project with them, which is going to be announced soon, which is very exciting all around accessible transportation. And we are excited to continue kind of highlighting new stories that are yet to be told. And it's exciting for the tech side of the business, too, because we've kind of created this really awesome flywheel effect. So any productions that we're working on, for instance, we will use our talent acquisition platform to staff those projects. Companies that we're working with, like Netflix on the talent acquisition side, we're also going to be working with on the media side. So it's a really nice way to kind of create this ecosystem of opportunity.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah. Tell us a little more about how you're going to be working with Netflix.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, so, so thrilled to have closed a deal with Netflix and to be working with their creative studio and contingent talent teams. We're primarily focusing on upskilling and training graphic designers to get a more inclusive talent pipeline for Netflix, for their graphic designers, but also just help Netflix create a more streamlined and optimized system when it comes to recruiting. So we're creating a course with their lead graphic designer at Netflix that will be on our platform. Our platform and our technology also makes all video content accessible beyond compliance. So that includes compatibility with all assistive technologies. We have sign language interpretation for all of the content. And our goal really is to get new talent who may not have had the opportunities that other people have had to get into employment, and also for talent who have had the opportunity of going to college and of really bridging that education and employment gap.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow. All right, so you've taken in some funding, and I will say I'm super proud that MindShift Capital, where I'm a venture partner, has invested in making space, so I'm super excited about that. So you've taken in some funding, and now you kind of paused fundraising for a little while because you're part of Techstars, right?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, absolutely. And could not be happier to have MindShift, as I mentioned earlier. I think it's that you've really, when you're fundraising, got to find the right people. It's like you're going into a marriage, and we are so happy with the people that we've been able to partner with.
Marcia Dawood:
I tell people all the time about the marriage thing. It really is like a marriage because you are going to be in this for the long haul. You have to be able to weather the ups and downs. It's like for good or for bad, for richer, for poor, all those things.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Absolutely. And it's like, I really want to make our investors proud too, because I'm so proud to be partnered with you all and with the people that we're partnered with. And it's so motivating to have such great people on your team. You consistently want to just do better because you also believe in what they're doing and want to support their mission, if that makes sense. It's a big driving force for us, for sure.
Marcia Dawood:
Great. Okay, Techstars, tell us all about it.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, Techstars. I'm so thrilled to be part of it. So the specific Techstars program that I'm a part of is the Economic Mobility Program, which is the first time that they're doing a focus on economic mobility, led by Keith Kami I think that's how you say his last name, who is amazing managing Director. And this is actually our first week at Techstars. And it's really awesome to learn about all of the companies who are a part of this program who are doing amazing work that is truly impacting the world in a positive way, and they're making money at the same time, which is a huge gap in the market that I think needs to be filled more and more. But I personally don't have a technical background, and I'm just excited to learn as much as I can from going through this process, engage with more investors, and just be in this new kind of universe that I not necessarily I haven't really been in this world before, so this is new to me. But, yeah, I can't wait to just be a sponge and continue to learn.
Marcia Dawood:
And how many people work for Making Space right now?
Keely Cat-Wells:
So currently we have four amazing engineers and developers, and then we've just hired our full time VP of Engineering, and we are currently hiring for a Chief of Staff and Operations Director, Manager, and also a Director of Sales. And I will preface with the sales role. I will continue to do founder led sales, which I think is incredibly important as an early stage company. But we're looking for those two roles currently. So officially we are a team of six, I would say, but growing quickly.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah, it seems like it. And so then what's the goal? Let's say it's two years from now. What does making space look like?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Oh, great question. I envision because I think we're kind of unique in the sense that we are building this really fabulous community of underrepresented talent, kind of on the B to C side. Education will always be free and accessible for that talent, and our primary customers are on the enterprise side. And I do want us to be able to, within the next couple of years, expand beyond the media and entertainment world because I believe our solution can absolutely impact companies outside of this space and really in any industry. So I want to see us really going kind of disrupting the industry that we're in right now and then going beyond that, and also to have this community of vibrant talent who are in these long term employment opportunities and see an increase in wages for them. We're really passionate about tracking impact metrics, and that's also something that we've been developing at Techstars, is how do we track these metrics and how do we successfully use that data to also help us moving forward, setting our milestones and everything. So for us, in two years, I would love to see some really hard data on the wages that we've been able to increase for people. I'd love to see hundreds of thousands of talent impacted from our platform. And then on the company side, our kind of long term vision is getting 85% of Fortune 1000 companies using our platform.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow, 85%. That's fantastic. Yeah. The one we really just don't have is data. We don't have a lot of data in the early stage company world to begin with and let alone anything that has to do with underrepresented founders, women, people of color, people with disabilities. So I think what you're trying to do is just so important. I'm really excited to see what comes out of your data initiative with all this.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Thank you. I think. Yeah, absolutely. Data in general is so important. And for disability, there is such a lack of it. I mean, even when we talk about how many disabled people there are in the world, currently, the World Health Organization says that there is 15% of the population, but that data was collected years ago. And then if we look at people who have contracted long COVID, people who have mental illness, anything from clinical depression to anxiety, if we look at people with invisible disabilities like diabetes, Crohn's colitis, I mean, there is so many conditions and so many people just don't even identify as disabled because of the stigmas and the stereotypes that are attached. And a lot of people don't even know that they're disabled again because of the lack of representation and knowledge around what disability is. So there is a huge need for us to collect data and I hope that within our company, we can be a part of that movement and at the forefront of that.
Marcia Dawood:
Yeah, the awareness piece is so important and what you're doing is just amazing. I'm really happy that you're working on it, diego's working on things. I mean, the more people that learn about it and know about it, it will bring so much more unity and we'll have so many more inventions and ways to bring accessibility to the people who really need it.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, absolutely. I think people forget that disability is a natural part of the human experience and everyone at some stage in their lives will become disabled, whether that be permanently or temporarily. And if we make this world more accessible, it doesn't just make it more accessible for disabled people, it makes it more accessible for everyone. And as soon as we can start to have that mind shift, to use mind shift, then we can see that accessibility is not just this problem that needs to be solved, but it's really an opportunity to have innovation. And I'm excited for that narrative to be more and more prominent in society.
Marcia Dawood:
Yes. So one last question. When you were fundraising and you had 115 meetings in three months, which I don't even know how you were able to sleep, because that's so many, what was something surprising that you learned in those meetings? And what's, like a takeaway that you'd like other investors to know that maybe could help them make better decisions in the future?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Yeah, great question. I personally went into my first few meetings very unprepared. I wish I had done Tech stars prior to raising, but I think for investors, I actually really benefited from their genuine feedback and care. I think in the early meetings, we got a lot of advice on our product from venture capitalists, and I know that that's not their primary job and it's not their obligation to, but we really benefited from the kind of strategic advice that we got in those meetings. I think when investors are sending out the emails that say, no, we don't want to invest, if they can just add a couple of lines of feedback, it is so helpful. We really thrived and benefited from a lot of the feedback that we got and we implemented a lot of it. And that was really instrumental, I think, to us being able to then eventually close.
Marcia Dawood:
Wow, that's great. And I'm really excited that you're doing all this, that you have gotten some funding so that you know that while you're at Techstars, you're going to not have to worry so much or quite as much. And then once you have your demo day, all bets are off. Who knows what will happen, right?
Keely Cat-Wells:
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I hope so.
Marcia Dawood:
Yes. Well, Keely, thank you so much for coming on the episode today. I really appreciate it and we will look forward to seeing what happens over the next couple of months with Making Space.
Keely Cat-Wells:
Thank you so much and for all of your support and investment.