Ewane “E” Masango

Introduction, Roots and Living Life to the Highest Degree

Taryell Simmons: Welcome, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Rise Urban Nation. I've got my brother from another mother in the building today. Y'all may know him as E, but I'm going to call him Ewane: Ewane “E” Masango. We just found out some good information about both of us. Let's start with your name. What does Ewane mean, and where does it come from?

Ewane “E” Masango: It originates from the roots. It's a name that resonates across Africa, because I've met people all across Africa with it. My parents are from Cameroon specifically. A lot of people share the same names in different places, because it's about what the name means. Ewane means a warrior, well-born, of noble birth.

Taryell Simmons: The reason we got into that is my dad is Nigerian and my mom is from New York, and my Nigerian given name is Adekunle, which means wealth is around you. Big up to my people from Cameroon, Nigeria, and all my Africans out there. We bring the spirit wherever we go, and my brother has the spirit today.

Taryell Simmons: So, for those who don't know, who is E?

Ewane “E” Masango: It's really simple: one of many. We are all connected. We're one. I'm seeking to get to the deepest, purest part of my own expression. I'm a lover of everyone. Maybe it's the rootedness, but I don't get caught up in the separation. Everybody has a unique perspective, and I go off the perspective that everyone's doing the best they can.

Taryell Simmons: I see your slogan is "life to the highest degree." Where did that come from, and what does it mean to you?

Ewane “E” Masango: They say people simplify things as they get wiser, so now it's just "life to the highest." But it was our motto back around 2009, when a group of us, a kind of consortium of local influencers around the South, came together to get our projects off the ground. We were watching a little too much Godfather. Life to the highest degree meant only the best, the finer things, especially when it came to love, loyalty and supporting one another's dreams. That was the community mentality.

Taryell Simmons: When we started chatting on LinkedIn, I saw your bio: CEO, inventor, mastermind creator, public speaker, storyteller, coin carrier. You're doing it all. What's a coin carrier?

Ewane “E” Masango: It's a community group I'm part of. They tell you to put that on there as a signifier for other people in the organization. It sounds like secret society stuff, but it's not secret. It's got websites. But you see where it sits on my list. I'm keeping things in perspective.

The Society and Using Tech to Transform Health

Taryell Simmons: One project close to your heart is The Society, where you're CEO and president, and you're aiming to transform one million lives using tech in 2023. What is The Society?

Ewane “E” Masango: I've had this office since 2008. About a decade ago I was sleeping in here, trying to do the Elon Musk thing, until a billionaire told me that story wasn't even true. My boys would ask where I was, and I'd say, "I'm at the office, trying to figure out life." I was trying to understand how these guys were doing what they did, because I wasn't seeing the same results. After some mistakes and failed businesses, I got shipped off to Silicon Valley. I spent some years there, got mentored, and learned about all the technologies coming in the future.

Ewane “E” Masango: The simplified version: we take the most advanced technologies, put them together harmoniously using the rhythm we have, and allow someone to upgrade their lifestyle holistically, like you upgrade an iPhone. That starts with health. This is a healthcare building right here. You need the data sets from someone's medical profile to get a baseline, then you give recommendations toward a better life. We're creating telemedicine software and more, all focused on people being able to govern themselves, their data and who they share it with, especially their biological data.

Taryell Simmons: You could get into anything in tech. Why tech, and why health, to elevate our community?

Ewane “E” Masango: This one goes deep, because you used the C word: community. In high school I was trying to be the cool dude on the sports teams and also be in AP calculus. I loved math and was really good at it, but the people I wanted to be cool with weren't in those classrooms. Right after high school, I jumped straight into entrepreneurship, and I haven't looked back. At first, my paradigm was limited to brick and mortar. Then, as I studied the giants, I realized that even a basket-weaving company doing serious sales has a serious tech division. I wanted to solve bigger problems and needed to balance two identities I hadn't seen examples of. So I decided to put things together in a way that appealed to both.

Ewane “E” Masango: Sports led me into healthcare, because I cared so much about being better, and most of my family, shout out to Africans, was in healthcare. Everybody had a solution like "take this pill for the rest of your life." I was already starting healthcare businesses, and I realized tech is the only way to scale and go to the root of what I want to do: help heal people. Health is holistic. Mental, emotional, physical and spiritual all feed into each other. And when people talk about side effects, they're really direct effects. You took something to make one thing go away and gained something else. The model is broken, and tech and innovation are where the dreamers dream about fixing what's broken.

Taryell Simmons: I always say health is wealth. If we go back to our roots, holistic practices look at the whole person, while Western medicine treats the ailment and gives you prescriptions with a list of side effects. I'm excited to jump on this journey with you. And with immigrant culture, there's the push to be a lawyer, doctor or engineer, because those are the safe bets.

Ewane “E” Masango: Exactly. Like Denzel said, it's not a color thing, it's a culture thing. The social pressure comes from the whole community: "Which school are you going to?" They love the arts; they just don't see it as something that makes money.

From eBay Flips to Business and Silicon Valley

Taryell Simmons: A lot of young people think success has to start with a master's degree and a good job, but everybody's journey is different. What was your first job?

Ewane “E” Masango: In high school I started hustling a little on eBay, watching auctions where nobody had bid, getting in a bid thirty seconds before the end at ninety-five percent off, and flipping it or keeping it because it was cool. I also volunteered at college football games, where high schoolers could help like an EMT and learn to put people on a stretcher. My first week of college, I still had hoop dreams. I was at the athletic center when my mom called twice. When I called back, she told me she had quit her job and was talking with someone about starting a business. I was seventeen or eighteen, and I said, "Let's run with it."

Ewane “E” Masango: Two weeks before, at freshman orientation, they talked to all the Black students about which colleges they could go into. My mom said, "We're going to biology." I said, "No, I'm going to business," right there in front of everybody. Two weeks later, we started this business. Having that kind of freedom brought a lot of mistakes, because you have to learn to discipline yourself to expand instead of a company telling you how. I kept choosing to go to the awkward conferences.

Taryell Simmons: Your story has a lot of pivots, and business is about pivots. What were the key steps that got you to where you are?

Ewane “E” Masango: More than anything, family and friends. I was always involved and trying to do the most when I was young, but it had to be supported by a whole village of people who were there for all the moments I fell down, because I have dared greatly and continue to. When I went to Silicon Valley preaching a decentralized social network, I didn't realize most people there had invested in Facebook and weren't going to entertain something that could harm that investment. But the value has been loyalty, friends and family. That creates sustainability. Doing anything new is like a baby trying to walk for the first time. It needs a lot of energy around it saying, "You can do it." That is actually Silicon Valley culture for the people who are seen in those spaces. They'll put twenty million into seeing if cars can fly, because venture capitalists have a pool of investments and don't expect ninety percent of them to work.

We Are One: Lessons From Around the World

Taryell Simmons: What's one good lesson life has taught you?

Ewane “E” Masango: That we are one. I've been to Thailand, Norway and other places that looked completely different, but once you go deeper, people have the same problems. Everybody has a mama and a daddy they're navigating, siblings they're trying to make things work with, decisions about whether to have children. That's empowering, because it means I have the same infinite potential as anyone else, and I can encourage others with that truth. People come up with things every day. A human figured out how to fly. What matters is whether people feel encouraged at the beginning, like that baby learning to walk. When someone first has an idea and people say, "How are you going to do that?", they're killing something in its infancy. We should be protecting it like a warrior.

Advice for Founders and the Future of Tech

Taryell Simmons: Your journey didn't go through a nine-to-five and a corporation first. If someone just out of college, or stuck in a dead-end job, is inspired by your story, what advice would you give?

Ewane “E” Masango: First, find your purpose. People get there in different ways, writing, traveling, music, talking to a friend or family member, but it comes down to intention. Then use an engineering mindset: project out the best possible scenario, life to the highest degree, and reverse engineer back to the present. That makes the next step easier to see, and the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I'm definitely an advocate for making the leap before you feel ready. Saying you're not ready means you think you're not good enough to start something, but everybody was good enough to be born. You're good enough to take the first step, even if it's reading a few pages of a book or talking to your auntie who works in that field.

Taryell Simmons: For people who look like us and are interested in tech, what does the future hold?

Ewane “E” Masango: As different as we dance, that's how different our tech should feel. Silicon Valley is dissolving, and tech hubs are popping up all over the world, so why wouldn't we bring our flavor? And the future of tech is every industry. Every company anyone wants to dedicate their life to will be a tech company, and you need a deep understanding of how the system works and how it scales. Tech lets you make money while you're asleep. Amazon works 24/7. The point of entrepreneurship is more free time and a freer mind, not building yourself a job. That feels like self-induced torture, and we see it so much in the African community. Find what you're naturally gifted at, what you can do with your eyes closed, and make ends meet so you have the freedom to innovate. Nobody had to force Lil Wayne into the studio or LeBron James to play basketball. Their communities kept telling them, "You're good at this."

Taryell Simmons: I told a consulting client today: do what you do best, and automate or outsource the rest. So are mom-and-pop shops and African businesses doing themselves a disservice if they don't adopt tech? And is Silicon Valley dying off?

Ewane “E” Masango: On the first, yes. They'll get destroyed by companies adopting new technology, and they'll burn themselves out at the same time. It's as obvious as Netflix and Blockbuster. If something better comes along, people don't have that kind of loyalty. On Silicon Valley, yes, it had to change. Companies are moving operations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha are less focused on college, and tech hubs are popping up across Africa, Europe, the Philippines and Singapore. That's the natural effect of decentralization, blockchain and crypto. People realize they can do anything from where they're at. You could run a tech company from Nashville, Tennessee. And most people don't want to uproot. Society builds itself on community.

Taryell Simmons: I was in Austin earlier this year and thought I was in Silicon Valley, with Google Fiber over here and more over there.

Ewane “E” Masango: I've been calling it the Silicon South. You heard it here first: Austin and Miami especially, and places like Dallas. I grew up in the South and never knew those places as tech hubs. When the pandemic hit, a lot of people moved from California to Florida or Texas, and Elon moving to Texas was huge.

Where to Find E and Closing Wisdom

Taryell Simmons: I know we could talk forever, so let's wrap up. What projects are you working on, and where can people find you?

Ewane “E” Masango: Stay tuned. I'll release most things on my social media. We also have a private Telegram group, a Slack channel and a few other things people can join if they're really interested. Just hit me up. All my social media is the same: E-W-A-N-E-M-A-S-A-N-G-O. Now you know where to go.

Taryell Simmons: E, I appreciate you blessing us with your story, knowledge and insights. Any last words of wisdom before we sign off?

Ewane “E” Masango: A mentor recently told me that intelligence is hitting a target no one else can hit, and genius is hitting a target no one else can see. At the beginning, people won't understand what you're envisioning. But as long as you treat it like an infant child, it will flourish and have the growth spurts everybody's accustomed to.

Taryell Simmons: I don't even know how to follow that. If you need to hear it again, rewind it and replay it. I appreciate you, brother. We'll catch you next time. Peace.