HORIZON INVESTMENT SUMMIT | Women Investors | Sharufa Walker on Blockchain, land, and real estate

Summary

Shua Rashid Walker, CEO and co-founder of Welcome Home, introduces a fractional real estate solution aimed at empowering marginalized communities in Africa to own assets through blockchain technology. The company focuses on land acquisition, community development, and sustainability, utilizing digital deeds, smart contracts, and real estate-backed NFTs. Walker's journey into investment began unconventionally during the pandemic, leading to the creation of a blockchain node on the Avalanche protocol. The venture seeks to disrupt barriers and secure investments using emerging technologies, addressing community distrust and championing opportunities for investments, despite funding disparities faced by black women in tech.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Shua Rashid Walker is the CEO and co-founder of Welcome Home, a company that focuses on fractional real estate solutions in Africa.
• 🌍 The company's mission is to empower marginalized communities to own real-world assets, particularly through land acquisition and community development.
• 💡 Welcome Home leverages blockchain technology to simplify and verify real estate exchanges, using digital deeds, smart contracts, and real estate-backed NFTs.
• 🚀 Shua's journey into investment started unconventionally during the pandemic, with a deep dive into crypto, blockchain, and web 3 technologies.
• 🌱 Shua and a friend created a node on the Avalanche blockchain protocol to disrupt barriers to entry and start a savings plan for their community.
• 🔍 An opportunity in Africa led Shua to realize the potential for community and cultural impact beyond just personal investment.
• 🔗 Shua combined her experience with web 3 and blockchain to explore how emerging technologies can fuel and secure investments.
• 🔒 There is a focus on using technology to address distrust within communities and ensure the authenticity of exchanges.
• 👩‍💼 As a woman in tech and a second-time founder, Shua has faced disparities in being automatically counted out and held to different expectations compared to white male counterparts.
• 💼 Shua previously built a company with angel investment and is now navigating the venture funding landscape, recognizing disparities from a funding perspective.
• 💡 The script highlights the broader challenges and opportunities in the tech and investment space, especially for underrepresented groups.

Q & A

Who is Shua Rashid Walker and what is her role at Welcome Home?

Shua Rashid Walker is the CEO and co-founder of Welcome Home, a fractional real estate solution that empowers marginalized communities to own real-world assets on the African continent.

What does Welcome Home focus on in terms of real estate?

Welcome Home focuses on land acquisition, community development, and sustainability, powered by blockchain technology.

How does Welcome Home leverage blockchain technology in its operations?

Welcome Home leverages blockchain technology by fractionalizing, simplifying, and verifying real estate exchanges on-chain, using digital deeds, smart contracts, regenerative finance principles, and real estate-backed NFTs.

What was Shua's unconventional and non-traditional journey into investment?

Shua's journey into investment began during the pandemic when she pivoted and started learning about crypto, blockchain, and web 3, eventually creating a node on the Avalanche blockchain protocol.

How did Shua's initial investment opportunity in Africa evolve?

Shua initially saw the opportunity as a personal investment for her family and close network, but she discovered it was about the community and culture, leading her to bring the investment to a larger audience.

What is Shua's perspective on using emerging technologies for investments?

Shua believes in using emerging technologies to fuel investments and secure them, with a particular interest in providing authenticity and security in exchanges to address distrust within communities.

What challenges does Shua face as a woman building in the tech space?

As a woman, Shua faces disparities in being automatically counted out when entering a room as a black woman and the expectation to be further along in her journey compared to a white male counterpart.

How does Shua perceive the funding landscape for startups in the tech space?

Shua has observed that during the funding bubble around 2021-2022, many companies were funded based on the founder's profile rather than traction or a well-thought-out plan.

What is Shua's background in entrepreneurship before Welcome Home?

Shua is a second-time founder and had previously built a company with an angel investment before venturing into the technical space with Welcome Home.

How does Shua's experience with Welcome Home reflect her commitment to community and culture?

Shua's experience shows her commitment to community and culture by transforming an initial personal investment opportunity into a larger initiative to empower marginalized communities through blockchain-based real estate solutions.

What is Shua's view on the importance of authenticity in real estate exchanges?

Shua believes that leveraging emerging technologies to ensure the authenticity of real estate exchanges is crucial for building trust and security within communities.

Outlines

00:00

🏢 Introduction to Welcome Home and Blockchain Real Estate Solutions

Shua Rashid Walker, CEO and co-founder of Welcome Home, introduces the company as a fractional real estate solution aimed at empowering marginalized communities in Africa to own real-world assets. The focus is on land acquisition, community development, and sustainability, all powered by blockchain technology. The company simplifies and verifies real estate exchanges on-chain using digital deeds, smart contracts, regenerative finance principles, and real estate-backed NFTs. Walker's journey into investment started unconventionally during the pandemic, leading to the creation of a node on the Avalanche blockchain protocol to disrupt barriers to entry for their community in savings plans. This eventually connected Walker with an opportunity in Africa, which expanded beyond personal investment to a broader community and cultural impact.

Keywords

💡Fractional Real Estate

Fractional real estate refers to the concept of owning a share or fraction of a real estate property rather than the entire property. In the context of the video, it is a solution that enables marginalized communities to invest in real estate assets on the African continent by owning a part of the property. The speaker mentions that their company, Welcome Home, empowers such communities by fractionalizing the real estate exchange process.

💡Blockchain

Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital ledger technology that records transactions across multiple computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks. The speaker discusses how Welcome Home uses blockchain to power land acquisition and community development, ensuring transparency and security in real estate transactions.

💡Digital Deeds

Digital deeds represent the electronic version of property ownership documents, which can be stored and transferred on a blockchain. In the video, the CEO mentions leveraging digital deeds to simplify and verify real estate exchanges, making the process more accessible and secure.

💡Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code. They automatically execute transactions when predefined conditions are met. The speaker explains that Welcome Home uses smart contracts to facilitate real estate transactions on the blockchain, ensuring trust and efficiency.

💡Regenerative Finance

Regenerative finance is an approach to economic systems that aims to create conditions for the continuous renewal of ecosystems and community wealth. The CEO of Welcome Home mentions using regenerative finance principles to power their community development projects, suggesting a focus on sustainable and community-driven growth.

💡NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens)

NFTs are unique digital assets that represent ownership of a specific item or piece of content on the blockchain. In the script, the speaker discusses using real estate-backed NFTs as part of their solution to fractionalize real estate ownership, allowing for more accessible investment opportunities.

💡Web 3.0

Web 3.0, often referred to as the decentralized web, is the next generation of internet services that emphasizes user ownership of data, AI, and the integration of blockchain technologies. The speaker's journey into investment started with a deep dive into understanding Web 3.0, which includes blockchain and crypto, and how it can be applied to real estate investment.

💡Avalanche

Avalanche is a blockchain protocol designed for creating decentralized applications and custom blockchain networks. The speaker mentions creating a node on the Avalanche protocol to disrupt barriers to entry for their community, indicating its use in facilitating savings plans and investment opportunities.

💡Investment Banking

Investment banking refers to the division of a bank that helps individuals, corporations, and governments in raising capital by underwriting or acting as the client's agent in the issuance of securities. The speaker's background in investment banking likely informs their approach to real estate investment and the structuring of financial products.

💡Venture Capital

Venture capital is a type of private equity financing that is provided to early-stage, high-potential, growth companies in exchange for equity. The speaker discusses their experience seeking venture capital for their company, Welcome Home, and the challenges faced as a black woman in the tech space.

💡Funding Disparities

Funding disparities refer to the unequal access to financial resources or investment capital among different groups, often based on factors such as race or gender. The speaker highlights the disparities they have experienced as a black woman in tech, noting that they are often automatically counted out or held to different expectations compared to their white male counterparts.

Highlights

Introduction of Shua Rashid Walker, CEO and co-founder of Welcome Home.

Welcome Home's mission to empower marginalized communities through fractional real estate solutions on the African continent.

Focus on land acquisition, community development, and sustainability powered by blockchain technology.

Fractionalizing, simplifying, and verifying real estate exchange on-chain.

Utilization of digital deeds, smart contracts, regenerative finance principles, and real estate-backed NFTs.

Shua's unconventional entry into investment during the pandemic and exploration of crypto and blockchain.

Creation of a node on the Avalanche blockchain protocol to disrupt barriers to entry for the community.

Introduction to an opportunity on the African continent by co-founder Mamadu in Sagol.

Realization of the bigger impact of the land opportunity on community and culture.

Shua's journey to couple her experience in Web 3 and blockchain to fuel investments.

Discussion on leveraging emerging technologies to provide secure and authentic real estate exchanges.

Addressing distrust within communities and the importance of authenticity in exchanges.

Shua's experience as a black woman founder in the tech space and the disparities faced.

Observation of funding disparities based on founder profiles rather than traction or thought.

Championing investment opportunities despite the challenges faced in the funding landscape.

Shua's transition from a non-technical founder to building in the technical space with venture funding.

Closing remarks expressing happiness to be part of the discussion and coming from investment banking.

Transcripts

okay good morning everyone my name is

shua Rashid Walker I am the CEO and

co-founder of welcome home we are a

fractional realy solution that empowers

marginalized communities to own real

world assets on the African continent

and so we focus on land acquisition

Community uh development and

sustainability powered by the blockchain

and so essentially we are

fractionalizing simplifying and

verifying the real estate exchange on

change on on chain excuse me um

leveraging digital Deeds um smart

contracts regenerative Finance

principles and also real estate back

nfts um so my journey into investment

has been fairly new um I started my

journey um in a very unconventional

non-traditional way uh out of the

pandemic during a pivot uh learning

about

crypto um and doing a deep dive like

going really deep into the rabbit hold

of what crypto was what blockchain is um

and ultimately what web 3 is and so

starting golf with one of my girlfriends

we created a node on a blockchain uh

protocol called Avalanche and it was

essentially to be able to um disrupt

barriers to entry for our community to

be able to start a savings plan and from

there I um was introduced to an

opportunity on the continent through my

co-founder uh mamadu in sagol and I went

there to be able to explore an

opportunity pertaining to the land and

when I got there I realized that this

opportunity was bigger than me you know

I just went there thinking that oh okay

I could purchase something and make this

investment for my family for my close

Network for my friends but ultimately

what I discovered was that this was

about the community this was about the

culture this was bigger than me because

I had the opportunity to be able to

bring this um investment to a larger

audience and so you know through that

lens through that Journey that I was on

I was able to you know really couple my

journey through web 3 and through

blockchain and you know marry the two um

where now we're really thinking about

like how do we fuel Investments um

utilizing emerging Technologies and how

do we secure them right one of the

things that we talked about well that

was discussed on the last panel was

about distrust within our community and

so leveraging emerging Technologies to

be able to provide that secure authentic

authenticity um of your uh exchange is

something that I'm deeply um um

interested in invested in um and so

forth on and so on the other side and

thinking about like as a woman um

building in a tech space I'm a second

time founder first time in the technical

space um non-technical myself and

previously I built my company um with an

angel investment and so now going after

Venture I recognize the disparities when

it comes down to being automatically

counted out when you enter into a room

uh as a black woman and then also the

expectation that you're supposed to be

further along in your journey in

comparison to a white male

counterpart um it's interesting to see

like through the big bubble that was

happening around 2021 2022 a lot of

companies were being funded just off of

Google docs you know like they there was

no traction there was no thought it was

just a doc and it was really based off

of the founder profile and who that

person was um and so I've been

experiencing this world as I've been

building and recognizing the disparities

from a funding perspective and then also

you know still kind of championing the

the the opportunities for the

Investments so I'm happy to be here

thank you thank you India you come from

investment banking