Her Story
About Natalie
I've been an entrepreneur for 29 to 30 years, starting in 1999. My father started our first restaurant in the 80s, and I took on ownership in the early 2000s. In 2015, I bought a food distribution company, scaled it, and sold it, exiting for multiple six figures. Since 2020, I've been in tech as the founder and CEO of Airtight (H-E-I-R-T-I-G-H-T), a secured virtual vault that stores all of your life, legal, and business documents. The company was born out of need when my uncle died suddenly in the early 2000s and we couldn't find any of his documents. We ended up having two funerals in one week because we first had a celebration of life and planned to cremate him, but then found his will, life insurance policy, and burial policy showing he didn't want to be cremated and had already paid for a burial plot. I designed and built Airtight to be the solution for families facing similar situations. I still have another company that is more of a traditional brick-and-mortar business, so I categorize my time between my tech company and my other business. I also have two teenagers, one who just graduated from high school heading to college, and one going into his senior year. I've been nominated Who's Who Black Atlanta and received a Miller Coors Influential Young Entrepreneurs Award. I'm ranked as one of the top 1% business owners in the United States and am a member of the Bow Collective, which recognizes the top 1% of African American women entrepreneurs.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Natalie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my father, who passed away in 2018. He started our first restaurant in 1989, and this was his business, his vision and his dream when he came out of corporate America after being laid off. In the 80s, both of my parents made six figures, which was huge, big in the 80s. But watching him build from his dreams has always been what had me in awe, and how he handled himself, and how he taught me how to conduct myself in business. There's things that I put into my children now that I can remember my father saying when I was younger, like always do right by people, and there's two things that you keep out of your business, and that's politics and favoritism. My grandfather, my mother's father, was also an influence even though I never met him. He was an inventor and invented the world's first earth-moving machine. My mom tells me all the time that I am definitely the blood of my grandfather because I have patents and inventions and things that go through my mind, and he invented many things that we use today.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received came from my father. He taught me to always do right by people, and there's two things that you keep out of your business, and that's politics and favoritism. These are things that I remember him saying when I was younger, and I put these principles into practice with my own children now.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
As a CEO, especially when you're financially front-loading it, that can be a challenge because you want to make sure that your baby is successful, but at the same time, you still have to make sure that you can still provide for your family. Being a CEO brings a whole other level of strength and grit that you just have to have, but then you also have to still find that balance for your mental health, clarity, physical health, and financial health. Part of being a CEO is being able to lead a ship through the good terrain and the bad terrain. You have to make sure that the company itself stays healthy and stays relevant. When you have a small team, you have to touch so many parts, so you have to wear so many hats in the company, and it's making sure that you're educating yourself enough to stay on top of those hats in the company until someone brings in so you can replace yourself.
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