SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR SHARES HER JOURNEY

Sevetri Wilson is a serial entrepreneur who has founded two companies, Solid Ground Innovations and Resilia. She is a featured guest on the Claima Stories Podcast and shares her journey running two companies. PHOTO PROVIDED BY SEVETRI WILSON.
Sevetri Wilson is a serial entrepreneur who has founded two companies, Solid Ground Innovations and Resilia. She is a featured guest on the Claima Stories Podcast and shares her journey running two companies. PHOTO PROVIDED BY SEVETRI WILSON.

Serial entrepreneur shares her journey

BY TIA CAROL JONES

Sevetri Wilson considers herself a serial entrepreneur. In college, Wilson started an online newspaper and convinced her friends to write for it. She started her first company, Solid Ground Innovations in 2009. Then, in 2016, she started Resilia.

Solid Ground Innovations was a communications and management agency that helped non-profit organizations with their day-to-day, and helped large funders with technical assistance to their grantees. Solid Ground Innovations also worked with large corporations.

Resilia spun out of Solid Ground Innovations because she wanted to productize the services Solid Ground Innovations was offering to the large funders, corporations and government entities. Wilson also thought about the potential to productize the services it was giving to the non-profits. It is a two-sided software as a service (SAAS) Platform that
supports non-profits and funders to help them manage where their money goes, helping funders to scale their impact.

Wilson transitioned from a bootstrap company in Solid Ground Innovations to raising $15 million for Resilia. It was also a transition into the tech space, and Wilson had to find a technical team to help her deal with Resilia. The biggest part of it was building a tech team for the venture.

Wilson was asked to be a guest for Claima Stories, a podcast from Claima, a professional development brand, co-founded by Bimma Williams. Claima, which comes from Claim a Seat at the Table, has an aim to have creatives talk about their journeys. Williams and Wilson attended Louisiana State University.

“Where we were at 18 and where we are at 35/36, is crazy, with the amount of growth and the amount of opportunities we’ve had. And, the achievements that we’ve accomplished. It truly like a full circle moment,” Wilson said. “

Wilson believes that what Williams is doing to bring the untold stories of people of color and Black people to the forefront is very significant. She said it is important because people are listening and the way Williams tells the stories on the platform is necessary. Also, the stories show there is not a straight line to success and there are ups and downs along the way.

Wilson wants to encourage young Black entrepreneurs to find advisors, mentors and the right people who can help them think through their ideas so they can begin to execute their ideas. She added, put one foot in front of the other. The time, commitment and work ensures longevity and sustainability.

“Don’t be dismayed, get the right people around you, right advisors around you, people who have done it before, they’re not just going to tell you what you want to hear. They’re going to give you actionable advise of what to do next, and what their successes or failures were like,” she said.

As for the best advise Wilson received, it came from her mother: Don’t let your highs get too high that you can’t touch the ground. Or, your lows so low you can’t see the heavens.

For more information about Resilia, visit www.resilia.com. For more information about Claima Stories Podcast, visit www. claimastories.com.

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